Cultural differences a sacred cow?<\/p>\n
By Donna K. Woodward<\/p>\n
MEDAN (JP): Last Dec. 30 The Jakarta Post carried a report
\nfrom Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Finance and Industry
\nKwik Kian Gie about the state-run electricity firm's loss of Rp 5
\ntrillion because of poor management. In an ironic juxtaposition,
\nin the same issue there was an article by consultant James O'Hara
\ndiscussing Indonesian companies' fear of introducing management
\nchange.<\/p>\n
If foreign consultants working in Indonesia share any
\nexperience, it is probably that of having one's recommendations
\nignored if not expressly rejected by clients. As noted by O'Hara,
\nrecommended changes are sometimes avoided because business
\nexecutives believe that change is an admission of inadequacy and
\ntantamount to a loss of face.<\/p>\n
Sometimes changes are postponed out of complacency; there is
\nno perceived need for change so long as business results are
\nconsidered satisfactory.<\/p>\n
There is a third reason sometimes proffered for rejecting the
\nchanges recommended by foreign consultants. Some business
\nexecutives contend that what works in other countries simply will
\nnot work in Indonesia because of incompatible cultural values.<\/p>\n
Experts try to articulate what these cultural values and
\ndifferences are. (The term \"culture\" itself presents a problem of
\ndefinition, especially in Indonesia, where culture is actually a
\npotpourri of cultures.)<\/p>\n
Cultural variety is seductive and exhilarating. But as we also
\nsee, culture-based variations in belief and behavior can become
\nbarriers to understanding and cooperation. The management changes
\nwhich most often meet resistance from managers are those relating
\nto human resource management: to performance standards and
\nworkplace values.<\/p>\n
Because of their culture, Indonesians cannot be expected to
\nreport to work on time, to complete assignments according to
\ninstructions, to be self-reliant and use initiative to solve
\nproblems, to work industriously, to be truthful about what
\nsomething costs, to be trustworthy about financial
\nresponsibility, to meet obligations to an employer if there is a
\ncompeting family obligation.<\/p>\n
These stereotypical opinions are commonly offered as a
\nrationale for not entrusting employees with more responsibility
\nand not improving their salaries, and for permitting unacceptable
\nwork habits. And it is not necessarily foreign managers who say
\nthese things; Indonesian managers make the same comments.<\/p>\n
They turn the notion of cultural differences into a sacred
\ncow, using it to rationalize conduct that would not otherwise be
\nacceptable. Some Indonesian employees do embody such
\nshortcomings, as do their counterparts in New York or Frankfurt
\nor Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Other Indonesian workers defy these stereotypes. No, the
\nproblem is not one of immutable cultural differences. Nor is the
\nproblem the poor quality of human resources in Indonesia. The
\nbiggest handicap of Indonesian workers is the antiquated human
\nresource management styles favored by both Indonesian and
\nexpatriate-managed companies.<\/p>\n
In a cheap labor environment, companies find it easier to live
\nwith the status quo of poor performance and low productivity than
\nto introduce change.<\/p>\n
Managers decline to introduce modern management principles and
\nemployee incentives, and then in a fallacy of circular reasoning
\ncite continuing poor worker productivity to justify a refusal to
\nimplement modern human resource management methods.<\/p>\n
Employers tolerate employees' misuse of work hours, excessive
\nabsenteeism, petty corruption and misappropriation of company
\nproperty and other costly, profit-reducing practices; yet wages
\nare kept discouragingly low.<\/p>\n
Counterproductive labor laws protect workers excessively from
\ntermination for poor performance, but sanction substandard wage
\nrates. Qualified employees are denied employment because of their
\nreligion or ethnicity, while the less qualified are often given
\npreferred positions because they have the right backgrounds or
\nconnections.<\/p>\n
Progressive human resource management is an idea whose time
\nhas not yet come to Indonesia. Instead of millennium-era employee
\nrelations we see a combination of benevolent despotism and
\noutright repressiveness in the workplace, whether the workplace
\nis a factory, a fish farm, a hospital or a bank. (Government
\noffices are a little different, since to prevent mutiny the civil
\nservants and troops are given leeway for the lucrative practice
\nof corruption, collusion and nepotism, or KKN.)<\/p>\n
Are cultural differences really so deep and insurmountable
\nthat modern management principles like accountability and mutual
\nrespect cannot be translated successfully into policies and
\npractices in Indonesia?<\/p>\n
Employers who have genuinely given modern management
\nprinciples a try would say no. Outmoded human resource
\nmanagement, not culture, is the real enemy of Indonesian workers.
\nCultural differences are real, but if we should not disregard
\ntheir significance neither should we sanctify them.<\/p>\n
Let managers hold employees accountable for their performance.
\nLet companies commit themselves to modern human resource
\nmanagement methods and KKN-free standards of employee conduct.<\/p>\n
Let the government revise labor laws to mandate adequate wages
\nand working conditions, but also permit appropriate discipline
\nfor non-performing employees. Let companies not fear change for
\nthe wrong reasons. Do not let cultural differences become an
\nexcuse for avoiding management reform. Do not demean Indonesian
\nculture and handicap Indonesian workers from a misbegotten
\ntolerance.<\/p>\n
The writer, an attorney and former American diplomat at the
\nU.S. Consulate General in Medan, is president director of PT Far
\nHorizons, a management consultancy firm.<\/p>",
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