Historical influences on Indonesian business culture
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