Affirmative Management (1994)

Affirmative ManagementBy Peter FranksProfessor and HeadDepartment of Industrial and Organisational PsychologyUniversity of the NorthTurfloop

Paper presented to the Society for Industrial PsychologyCongress,

Centurion Conference Centre, Verwoerdburg, 24-25 October.

ã 1994

Affirmative Management Slide 1

Orientation"Our greatest need is emancipation from self-contempt, from this idea that we are really worse than all the world.


Otherwise we may in course of time become in reality what wenow imagine ourselves to be".

Achad Ha'am1891


The apparent Catch-22The apparent 'catch 22' must be confronted ifa win-win strategy concerning what is intended by "Affirmative action is to be found. The apparent contradiction between:

è the right to be treated equallyè special treatment for those 'historically disadvantaged'.


Our dilemma rests in the nobility of boththese principles.

The sentiments implied by these positions play out in the nexus of intra-organisationaldynamics where a praxis must be found which compromises neither of these contrary positions.


A STRATEGYRather than attempting to

eliminatefavouritism

we can extend our favours to all thereby

affirming the potentiality of allpeople in the organisation,


facilitating their developmentthrough on-the-job development

processes.


Sanctions?Attempts to legislate things assumes an oversocialised conception of human beingsThey forget that human beings do whatever they decide to do and act in their perceived own-best-interest. Change is a political process and fears and wishes have to be negotiated equitablyOne has to somehow harness and marry the competing interests equitably while ameliorating past disadvantages. This can


only be achieved if we correctly assess the problem and target our strategies toward positive goals rather than negative sanctions.For a process such as this you need everbody's commitment


Appropriate management

« Communicative« Consultative« Responsive« Empowering

« Developmental« Affirmative


« Disciplining


Balancing trick forpragmatists

Development has three paralleland contemporaneous missions:1. Addressing acute socio-economic disadvantage


2. Mobilising resources towards long-term development.

3. Becoming productive in all spheres.


The Wild Card

Human effort, will and ingenuity isthe wild card

in development or any otherendeavour.

The key is to nurture, facilitateand encourage

mobilization and empowerment


therebyunleashing an almost limitless

multiplier factor.Management must facilitate these

processes


Know your contextFrom investigations of these dynamics one begins to discernsome clues to an understandingof:

the past and present hindrances to development the recognition of development


to ways in which to affirm peoples potentialities


Issues endemic to SouthAfrican organisational life:

The overarching issues

² Favouritisms - Baasskap, Broerskap or "theold school tie" classism , sexism etc.

² Lack of Development (especially through concerned mentoring, and training on-the-job).


² Command style management.² Modernity ó Tradition


Issues endemic to South African organisational life (continued):

The consequent issues

è Biased and occult selection and testing (A concrete result of favouritism).

è The power of informal channels of communicationè Lack of communication, consultation, mediation, and negotiation

è Unequal opportunities


è Legacy of apartheid on Human resources development.è Non nurturing working conditionsè Corporate social irresponsibility


Historical insights1

"Assessments of the human qualities of black africans have varied with the manner in which they fit into the


plans of the white settlers,missionaries, or proconsuls

Hammond & Jablow. 1970Four Centuries of English writing about Africa



'But people are always talking of the Negro's stupidity. As for his own want of comprehension, how should the white man be conscious of it? I do not want to make the black more intellignet than he is, but his stupidity, if it exists, isonly natural, like in animal's,


whereas the white man's, as regardsthe black, has something monstrous about it, by very reason of his superiority."

Andre GideTravels in the Congo, 1925



"I was informed by a high railway official that many of the Africans were quite fit to be drivers or stokersof locomotives, though whitesentiment which tolerates


them only as navies or platelayers, made it inexpedient to place them insuch positions."

Lord James Bryce, 1897

Impressions of SouthAfrica


The root problems

1. The root (i.e. radical) problem is that affirmative action attempts to short circuit a process of extending the nurturing which takes place in organisations so that it crosses the racial, class, gender or, whatever barriers, facilitating generalised development.


2. Further, it unfortunately does this through the threat of punishment and notthe promise of reward.

3. It also taints all black success with 'affirmative action'.

Franks 1991

DEVELOPING ENVIRONMENTS


The basis of development is the facilitation and empowerment of human beings, and the creation of a climate of development and reconstruction, so as to increase the multiplier effect that human will can generate. There is no limitto this. But without it everything grinds to a halt as we have witnessed over the past years.

Franks 1992


Other possibleproblems

1. Benefits the new elites and middle class more than other more needy 'disadvantaged'.

2. Window dressing.3. Drives resistance to a covert

level.4. Productivity and efficiency


5. Burnout and/or set up for failure.6. Lowered morale7. Disempowerment and dependency.etc.,


The curse ofdependence

"Dependence. This is the distressing condition that white rule has nurtured inus. We now tend to wait for Government tothink for us and then react to its policies, march and demand. We seldom get


together to think through what we would substitute for a corrupt policy; even granted that repression has been fierce."

Es'kia Mphahlele1994


The curse ofdependence

(Contd.)"Pathetic thing about it is that when white liberals establish a project, we all rush in as clients and as supporters, eager to be there first. Yet we have some brave men and women countrywide who launch and manage creches, pre-schools, children's homes, centres for the physically and mentally


disabled and support structures for students,but receive very little if any of our patronage. This way we frustrate self-reliance among our people at its very roots, forever leaning on white folks".

Es'kia MphahleleThe curse of dependence 1From my notebookTribute, February 1994


BEWARE OF ENTITLEMENT

"Sometimes my anger was justified. But I think that there could have been more creative approaches to the problems encountered.

Right now I am charging my other colleagues and South Africans in general to rechannel their energies to more worthy causes. Insteadof pointing fingers, they have to get down towork. Fix things. Produce, produce and


produce. Get the country back on its feet. It's our destiny. Let's all work together"

Johannes Bhekumuzi "JB" Magwaza

The corporate giant roarsTribute, February 1994..


"AffirmativeManagement"

Management that affirms the value of the subordinate and the manager her/himself as a human being and facilitates human development and productivity through trust, Affirmative Management Slide 39

appreciation and consultation clearly cognisant of injusticesof the past and present, exploring innovative and productive processes for ameliorating them.

Franks, 1992


The bottom line

"You cannot get more out of truth than whatyou put into it"

Milorad Pavic


Dictionary of the Khazars1989



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Affirmative Management (1994)