Indonesia lacks home-grown managers

Indonesia lacks home-grown managers

By T. Sima Gunawan

JAKARTA (JP): An ideal manager is home-grown. But such
managers are rare. Many Indonesian companies import or hijack
managers from other firms to skirt this shortage of
professionals.

An inept employee recruitment system is the root of the
shortage, according to I Gusti Made Mantera, the chairman of the
Association of Indonesian Managers. Employers fail to consider
the potency of management skills when recruiting new employees.

A marketing staff member is usually promoted to marketing
manager, or a good accountant to accounting manager, regardless
of their managerial skills.

"Physicians, engineers and other professions have their
professional standards, but what about managers? We don't have
any standards," Gusti said.

The lack of management standards allows unqualified people to
fill managerial positions. The new, unskilled managers may not
receive guidance from their supervisors.

Some companies send their employees to management school
before entrusting them with the new responsibility.

The local schools teach management know-how, but fail to equip
the new managers with the necessary practical skills, Gusti said.

Mantera, a deputy president director of Bank Bali, has been
with the bank since 1991. From 1973 to 1995 he was with IBM
Indonesia and his last position was chief commissioner.

Mantera puts managers into five categories. Managers with
management know-how who can't apply it, managers who can apply
the knowledge under the guidance of their supervisors,
independent managers, managers who have the ability to transfer
their management knowledge and skills, and managers who also have
the capability of consultants.

Managers above the fourth level should be in research and
development departments or teaching at management schools, he
said. Unfortunately, there are not many Indonesian managers with
that amount of skill. The people who do have it are not
interested in the less lucrative fields of teaching and research
and development.

"Intrinsically, local managers are good, but they are not well
shaped," Mantera said.

"Other factors that make it hard for Indonesian managers to
compete with foreign managers is that they don't like to read and
don't speak English well," he added.

Mantera said finding foreign managers with the ability to
transfer their skills is rare. He said that when he was with IBM
he told its foreign managers they were expected to transfer their
skills to local staff within two or three years, although not all
did.

Bank Bali, which has its own management training institute,
employs 300 managers. Only one, a Singaporean, is a foreigner.

Most foreign managers in Indonesia are Asians because they are
good and their salaries are lower than Americans or West
Europeans. Salaries are usually based on the standard of living
in the country of origin.

All countries with relatively low standards of living do not
necessarily have poor education systems. India, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh are examples of countries which produce good managers
through excellent school systems.

Mantera said that foreign managers come to Indonesia not
because they want a high salary. What counts most is the chance
to apply their skills and knowledge because the oversupply of
managers in the West makes the job market slim.

"What they seek most is work satisfaction and respect," he
said.