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| Sunday, 19 September 2004 |
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| News Business Features Editorial
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Need of the hour - Organisations following best practices By Lloyd F Yapa. Ever since Independence, Sri Lanka has been experimenting with various policy prescriptions for socio economic growth . None of these seem to have worked well enough. Perhaps we have not paid much attention to the basics of building strong institutions and organizations, on which these prescriptions have to be mounted. Take for instance our political parties ; a political party is no doubt one of the most important institutions involved in the function of governing this country, in the absence of other powerful institutions of the people. Two of the major political parties have reached the ripe old age of fifty something. Can they and the other political organizations look back and claim they have had a successful run, when the country has been moving from crisis to crisis ? Perhaps there is something wrong in the way they are organized and managed. What then are the attributes of ( or the major best practices adopted by) robust institutions or organizations capable of carrying out their functions efficiently, be it a political party, a ministry/department/ corporation, or a business enterprise? Management experts examining successful organizations list a number of them. The foremost among them is a vision coupled with a strategy to achieve it. Vision and strategy A vision is a clear idea, as to where the organization wants to be in 10-20 years time or more. In the case of a political party, invariably it will be bound up with the situation, where the country and the people ultimately want to be. Strangely enough the people, whether they be Singhalese, Tamil, Muslim or Burgher tend to entertain one vision and one goal only and that is to be able to lead a peaceful life devoid of want, ( with prosperity as a very desirable bonus). So whatever the political party, its vision should be to take the country and people to this common destination. This is easily described in qualitative terms. There is no difficulty in explaining the mission of a political party (or what it should be doing to realize the vision) either, again in qualitative terms. What all political parties( and others) fail to do in this country and in most developing countries is to spell out their goals and objectives in clear quantitative terms, indicating how and when these targets will be achieved to realize the vision, if they come to power. They merely resort to empty short term promises/platitudes garnished with ideological rhetoric, which the people are gullible enough to believe, though not spelled out in detail. So, visions are never realized; they remain dreams. Leadership The next attribute of a successful institution or organization is leadership, which is the rare capability of thinking through this entire process ( now described as strategic planning/management) in consultation with stakeholders, communicating them clearly to the followers and the people in an idiom they understand without fear or favour, picking a capable team to implement them and finally delivering results in time as planned. Local political parties (and even business organizations) have apparently not evolved methods of training leaders in strategic management, the hallmark of which is the ability to steer a strategy/sequential course of action towards a goal avoiding obstacles, while building consensus with stakeholders. No wonder therefore leaders of the calibre of Lee Quan Yew and Mahathir Mohammed never appear on the local firmament. Simple structure The third attribute of an efficient organization is a simple structure with as few layers as possible to reduce bureaucracy for its own staff as well as the public or the customers. A political party has to abide by this principle strictly, especially when it forms a government, as it is in great danger of being dumped into the dust heap of history by the people for failure to implement its own policies. The ideal is to appoint one cabinet minister to implement one strategy (if there are too many of these, they cannot be called strategies ) and the departments/ agencies under it should be vested with clear cut responsibilities. Agencies that are superfluous should be absorbed or dissolved. However, local political parties do not attach much importance to streamlining the public service, which is cluttered with a multiplicity of ministries and agencies with a maze of hierarchies and overlapping responsibilities, which have no relationship or fit with the strategies adopted at the top. Lower level officials do not know, what is expected of them and co-ordination becomes an impossible task. Efficient execution and culture The fourth notable attribute is the ability and commitment of an organization and its leaders to concentrate on the implementation of key result strategies as efficiently as possible to deliver results desired by the people on time. This involves selecting the most capable team of officials available, getting them to convert strategies to feasible action plans or programmes with a cost and time frame, assigning them to middle level and other officials and workers for implementation with the resources required and finally monitoring actual performance rigorously against planned targets. It also involves creating an appropriate culture ( the fifth attribute), where merit and hard work are recognized and rewarded. Political parties in the country do not seem to draw a line between its own members, their kith and kin and professional staff with relevant qualifications and experience to man various positions, where their party organizations are concerned. The leaders quickly lose touch with the people as no research is undertaken of the needs of the people and the most feasible means of satisfying them, candidates for elections are not screened tightly for selecting only those capable of being trained as legislators/policy makers, keeping out undesirables and performance always fall short. They make the same mistake, when they assume power ; nepotism and favouritism become the order of the day, especially where senior appointments are concerned. Government employees are therefore seething with discontent. What this discussion implies is most political parties in Sri Lanka may not be very different from the 'mom and pop' (family) enterprises, which abound in the country. Professionals and modern management practices seldom thrive in such places. This may be one of the main reasons for the failure of local political parties to deliver the peace and prosperity promised at every election. Adoption of the best practices mentioned above may therefore be the need of the hour for these political parties (as well as the larger mom and pop business enterprises). |
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