Wish I Had Said That
Re-reading a blog post I wrote earlier this year when GM went into bankruptcy, something Yochai Benkler said stopped me in my tracks.
“They monitor people below and incentivise people above”
To my mind, this needs to be exactly the other way around but, like turkeys voting for Christmas, why would senior teams willingly subject themselves to scrutiny? I think many would, at least many of the ones I know would.
What Set Me Off?
An item on the BBC Radio Four news this morning about the ineffectiveness of Boards of Enquiry following the failure of ageing aircraft, with associated loss of service personnel lives. The point being made was that these boards repeatedly missed systemic failure. What was also said was that the boards are subject to interference from top military personnel.
I have been thinking for a while about senior management influence on organisational culture. The testimony of Paul Moore, ex-head of Group Regulatory Risk at HBOS plc to a government select committe makes a great case study. Mr Moore says:
“I strongly believe that the real underlying cause of all the problems was simply this – a total failure of all key aspects of governance. In my view and from my personal experience at HBOS, all the other specific failures stem from this one primary cause.”
The testimony is really very detailed. Mr Moore claims in his statement that he and his team “experienced threatening behaviours by executives .. in overseeing their compliance with FSA regulations.” He reports being prevented from having some things properly minuted by the CFO. He also said:
“But sadly, no-one wanted or felt able to speak up for fear of stepping out of line with the rest of the lemmings who were busy organising themselves to run over the edge of the cliff behind the pied piper CEOs and executive teams that were being paid so much to play that tune and take them in that direction.”
It is not often we get to hear what apparently goes on in some companies. I have however seen and been on the receiving end of vile management behaviour implicitly sanctioned at the top.
I have also been thinking about agency theory and stewardship theory in influencing executive behaviour but I will leave that for another post.
I was listening to that Radio 4 broadcast too and can speak as something of an insider (in those days…). Boards of Inquiry were constantly messed about by top brass and systemic failings were largely ignored. What became very clear to me was how difficult it is, as an insider, to address these issues.
These cultures seal themselves against alternative perspectives; an extreme version of groupthink perhaps? A very strong challenge is required from outside the system to achieve any movement at all. It’s a shame that organisational learning and change has to be so difficult in these cases…
You might be interested in this post?
http://smlxtralarge.com/2009/03/28/barclays-bank-the-real-indoor-pirates/