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.