As I spend more time settling into the corporate sector, I get amazed by a number of happenings which seem so unnatural when transposed into the otherwise stable ecosystem of life. For instance there are many favours and expectations between a manager and a reportee which may be unarticulated in the conversations with other knobs of the organisational system. Often it is an unspoken contract, of favours bestowed and favours received, which may or may not necessarily be in line with existing policies.
I have always believed that it is foolhardy to expect words on a page to effectively drive human conduct. Human nature will invariably devise methods of thwarting the written guidelines, and the mechanisms of enforcing such dictates is often time and resource consuming. A much more effective way of guiding behaviour is through culture, by setting examples, and sharing stories. The tragedy of such a system is that it is most effective with a stable group, when members are familiar with each other and have personal stakes in belonging to the group.
One might argue that yes indeed, the organisation is indeed such a group, where people are bound by a common objective. Thus the unwritten rules are applicable and depict a workable method of enforcing behaviour. The clinch is this – with too much mobility, comes the heavy price of not belonging to any one group or organisation for any medium term period. When the stakes to belong are so low, unwritten rules simply go for a toss.
I am sure that there are umpteen tales where the reportee has slogged day and night and yet the organisation has never really reciprocated through timely promotions or handsome hikes. In few cases, the employee might be pushed to his tolerance and simply move on, or she may bite the bullet and continue. But there are an equal number of unspoken tales, where the manager may have stretched beyond his limit to secure a favour for an employee. It may be a transfer that he or she was looking for, an extended period of leave to mitigate a crisis, approvals and sponsorships into meaty roles and trainings. And yet, no sooner is the favour bestowed that the employee chooses to move on to another company! There is little that the manager can do, be it legally, be it through company policy to redeem his misplaced efforts.
If work was merely a mercenary contract between the organisation and the employee, then the feelings of hurt, betrayal and anger at such a situation would be displaced. But alas, we humans may try all we might, but never really shake off our human need to connect with others, to be of use, to help and be helped. In today world of short term memory this incident may be quickly forgotten, or washed away with subsequent movements of the manager and his team. But I have seen that such incidents do leave a deep dent in people’s minds, where the unwritten word met the written code and lost. It is a fine balancing act, all my dear fellow colleagues and one which has the power to make or break one’s sense of justice and communion.
I have always believed that it is foolhardy to expect words on a page to effectively drive human conduct. Human nature will invariably devise methods of thwarting the written guidelines, and the mechanisms of enforcing such dictates is often time and resource consuming. A much more effective way of guiding behaviour is through culture, by setting examples, and sharing stories. The tragedy of such a system is that it is most effective with a stable group, when members are familiar with each other and have personal stakes in belonging to the group.
One might argue that yes indeed, the organisation is indeed such a group, where people are bound by a common objective. Thus the unwritten rules are applicable and depict a workable method of enforcing behaviour. The clinch is this – with too much mobility, comes the heavy price of not belonging to any one group or organisation for any medium term period. When the stakes to belong are so low, unwritten rules simply go for a toss.
I am sure that there are umpteen tales where the reportee has slogged day and night and yet the organisation has never really reciprocated through timely promotions or handsome hikes. In few cases, the employee might be pushed to his tolerance and simply move on, or she may bite the bullet and continue. But there are an equal number of unspoken tales, where the manager may have stretched beyond his limit to secure a favour for an employee. It may be a transfer that he or she was looking for, an extended period of leave to mitigate a crisis, approvals and sponsorships into meaty roles and trainings. And yet, no sooner is the favour bestowed that the employee chooses to move on to another company! There is little that the manager can do, be it legally, be it through company policy to redeem his misplaced efforts.
If work was merely a mercenary contract between the organisation and the employee, then the feelings of hurt, betrayal and anger at such a situation would be displaced. But alas, we humans may try all we might, but never really shake off our human need to connect with others, to be of use, to help and be helped. In today world of short term memory this incident may be quickly forgotten, or washed away with subsequent movements of the manager and his team. But I have seen that such incidents do leave a deep dent in people’s minds, where the unwritten word met the written code and lost. It is a fine balancing act, all my dear fellow colleagues and one which has the power to make or break one’s sense of justice and communion.
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