'Bapak' culture must be abandoned

'Bapak' culture must be abandoned

Patrick Guntensperger, Jakarta

Just as Indonesia's widespread corruption can be accounted for
by historical forces (Corruption in Indonesia: Culturally
dictated?, The Jakarta Post, July 23, 2004), some of the
identifiably Indonesian ways of doing business are attributable
to similar influences.

The historically entrenched inclination to an autocratic and
rigidly stratified structure is apparent, not only in Indonesian
social and political spheres; it is a fundamental aspect of the
business world as well. The so-called bapak culture exerts its
influence in the day to day workings of Indonesian businesses as
well as Indonesian run branches of foreign companies. While there
may be some benefits to this traditional way of interacting, on
the whole it is not a positive thing.

Even among western-educated business owners in Indonesia there
continues to persist a belief that their positions entail
considerably more than being the employer of their staffs. All
too often deference, entirely out of proportion to their real
abilities, is demanded of employees. For those of wealth and
privilege, a lifetime of obsequiousness on the part of servants
and other employees has encouraged a belief that they are
entitled to a level of respect that borders on reverence. It is
disconcerting to business people from other countries to see the
despotic way in which businesses in Indonesia are often managed.

It is not uncommon in Indonesia for a manager to let
salespeople, with or without appointments, cool their heels in a
business's lobby for hours, sometimes an entire day. The manager
in question will stroll in and out, have tea sent in, greet
friends and completely disregard the sales rep sitting in the
waiting room with a professional smile surgically attached to his
face. This is a way of establishing status. In this fashion, the
manager ensures that the sales rep is aware of his importance.
This is behavior that would be completely intolerable in a
country that didn't need to overcome a thousand years of
tyrannical rule.

The habits of millennia are indeed hard to abandon. It is hard
for the manager described above to learn that the world of
business runs on a principle of exchange of goods and services,
not on a nobility and supplicant relationship. Having been given
the position he holds, the manager is not likely to give up
willingly any of the perks that come with the job; that includes
the right to dominate and subjugate those beneath him. He is
unwilling to face the reality that the sales rep is as important
to his business as anyone else; that the product he represents
might be necessary. The manager is more concerned with the
personal status and ego gratification provided by his position
than he is with the efficient running of the firm.

This inclination to high-handedness is evident in employee
relations, too. All too many managers believe that their position
automatically guarantees the validity of their views. The boss is
right because he or she is the boss, goes the tradition. There is
a particularly poignant irony in this attitude being prevalent in
a business culture in which the boss's position was probably not
earned by demonstrated ability or experience. In a business
environment that is anything but a meritocracy, it is
particularly galling to see the truly talented to have to defer
to the inept.

In Indonesia, many senior positions were acquired by nepotism,
cronyism or other forms of corruption. More benignly, a great
number of senior positions were created for oneself by buying a
company with married or inherited wealth. This is widely known
and accepted. Unfortunately it has created a level of distrust
among those who would otherwise do business in Indonesia. Those
people and companies have no reason to assume that the upper
management has any level of skill, experience or integrity. The
likelihood is that their positions were not deserved, since
higher level positions in the Indonesian business culture are not
granted on the basis of merit.

Since the occupiers of senior positions brook no dissent from
their employees, they are unlikely to be aware of any of their
own flaws and sublimely ignorant of their mistakes in business.
For the traditional Indonesian manager, it would be inconceivable
to accept criticism of his or her management methods from an
underling. It would also be completely alien to the Indonesian
tradition for a lower level employee to offer advice to a
"superior" even if it was intelligent, well thought out, politely
offered and ultimately correct. The bapak culture, as it persists
in business, contributes to stagnation and stifles the
possibility of self-appraisal by a company's owner or manager.

Indonesian culture is a thing of beauty and can quite possibly
be joy forever, but some of the negative aspects have to be
reappraised at this stage in Indonesian history. As Indonesia
moves forward along the treacherous path to maturity as a
democratic nation, many unworkable or outdated notions must be
abandoned. Among them is the concept that businesses ought to be
run on the basis of social or economic class rather than on
talent and experience. That outmoded way of thinking will have to
disappear along with entrenched corruption before Indonesia will
take her rightful place among the developed nations of the world.

The writer, social and political commentator, can be reached
at ttpguntensperger@hotmail.com