Why Do Things Go Wrong? How to Fix Them?
Dear readers, I have been in business for more than 35 years. I have learned quite a lot from my experiences in different organisations. Today, I would like to share with you one experience that made an impression on me for life.
Internal or external interference in the duties of managers, whether appointed or elected, is the main reason why things go wrong in an organisation. If others intervene in duties and responsibilities of a manager, which are set very clearly, are clear, this leads to incomplete performance of the work that needs to be done and the side effects of this interference tend to cause harm to the organisation.
Often times, an appointed manager does not get to choose the people they will work with, who are usually picked by a senior authority. This also causes the organisation to fail to yield positive results. What’s worse, if people working under the appointed manager are given permission to perform tasks that are far beyond their powers, corruption tends to speed up. Practices that bypass the authority of the appointed manager, lower-level managers exceeding their powers and attempting to assume the duties of the appointed manager, and the fact that such practices are approved by the top management, inevitably result in unsanctioned activities being carried out by managers of all levels. After a while, these people would dare to defy any authority and do as they please.
This situation can and does take place not only in government organisations but also in private sector. A top management that assigns tasks arbitrarily often try to control the situation by appointing a stern manager. Ambitious managers immediately begin to undermine each other in order to be granted greater authority, leading to a detrimental process for the organisation. Usually, it is the newly appointed manager that gets defeated. Experienced managers, on the other hand, consider the use of authority as an obligation, not a right granted to them by the top management. They know that they must work to do the right thing rather than constantly competing with other “super” authorised staff reporting to them. In the process, it is crucial to inform the top management accurately and in a timely manner. Because those supposedly “super” authorised employees hardly tend to inform anyone about the problems.
Whether in public or private sector, most of the problems are caused by lower-level staff who do their jobs in an unskilled, careless, or clumsy manner despite the rules and regulations require them to do the opposite. This type of unskilled, careless, or clumsy behaviour is often camouflaged by the pretext of “urgency”. When top management finds out about the problem, the answers is almost the same: “we took care of it”. As all information is held by these “super authorised” employees, news of problems often fails to reach the top management.
Eventually, problems become so great that they can no longer be concealed and the negative consequences of actions taken by people engaged in tasks beyond their job description come to light.
In conclusion, administrative mistakes often cause organisations to face undesired problems. The best course of action would be to provide the appointed managers with the opportunity the to use their powers fully without fabricating methods to bypass them, and most importantly, choose merit over loyalty.
Accountability is meaningful only when the full and complete use of granted powers is permitted. Those who try to engage in tasks they are not authorised to perform, in other words, those who exceed their powers, should not merely be held accountable by the management alone, but submitted to a disciplinary or penal process.
It is vital that every decision is made and every action is taken in accordance with the hierarchy of authority. Otherwise, those responsible for the problems will never be properly warned or held accountable. For this reason, managerial powers and authorities must be used in a way that does not violate the rules and regulations in place and necessary precautions must be taken to avoid any recurrence of excess of authority or contravention of instructions. Top management should monitor and warn the concerned parties if necessary, rather intervening in the management of the process.
