Tribalism in the workplace
can be visible or invisible, both generous, necessary, in fact desirable and
of course dangerous. However let’s not forget that tribalism is natural,
inherent and either choice or force driven as in social forces and
most “belong” and if it’s not a club
then there are affiliations, birth tribes, clans and more.
Locally tribalism is everywhere;
we cannot blame our politicians for dividing us along tribal lines because the
same vice has found its way to our workplaces. Go to government offices,
multinationals, midsized companies and the small entities to start ups you’ll
have it. In smaller companies and start ups there’s a tendency by the business
owner to first hire his immediate family members (Wife, Son, Daughter, cousin
etc) as they launch the business. If they didn’t do that the business owner
probably hired a friend or asked his/her friends to recommend a few guys for
the positions he had vacant. This is how it all begins, slowly you find all or
three quarters of your staff come from one community. Reasons vary among
different business owners, you all know those stereotypes; Wakikuyu na pesa hapana, wakamba ni wachawi, watu wa coast ni
wazembe, wameru wana hasira mingi, wajaluo ni watu wa kelele na unions etc.
For one reason or the
other you preferred to hire ‘your people’ from GEMA community, or the Lake
region. Let’s not dwell on that, if these people perform well in their tasks
and roles then they deserved the jobs.
Today we would like to
focus on the dangers of hiring along tribal lines.
1. Difficulty
in attracting talent
If 60 % of the employees
in your company are from one tribe then mostly the company is seen more like a
tribal entity. People from other tribes will not even attempt to apply for jobs
there should they feel they don’t stand a chance of getting hired. Most
graduates for example rush to multinationals for their multi cultural setting
with employees from diverse backgrounds, nations and cultures. The point we are
driving here is you need to have a balanced workforce, in as much as the
owner/directors may all come from one or two tribes ensure you hire employees
from various tribes so that the employees co-exist without looking at each
other as X from tribe Y rather work together for the greater good of the
company.
2. Kills Team Work
& Synergy
Employees from minority
tribe may feel uncomfortable fitting into a team or department which has
majority of its members from one community. Once in a while vernacular finds
its way to the meetings, jokes are shared in our mother tongue and thus a few
members of that department may feel unwanted. When people cannot work as a
team, tasks take longer to complete, work lacks flow leading to inefficiency
and thus lesser productivity. Should you find this happening already take that
team to an outdoor team bonding session to re-create team dynamics missing.
3. Leads to divisions
in the company.
And how many times have
you heard or witnessed in a meeting when someone says… What’s HR doing here? Or
perhaps in a Sales meeting when someone asks; why is Finance here? Or….That department is useless, it hasn’t done anything worthwhile, it lets us
down. That could be tribalism at play!
Once in a while managers
favour, promote, and add salaries and fringe benefits to employees from their
tribes while others are sidestepped. These do happen in our workplaces however
they could really divide workers and this will certainly lead to conflicts.
When people start identifying themselves by tribes in an organization then you
need to take corrective actions to unite them. You could rotate jobs, transfer
others, promote or organize frequent get together to unite the staff again as well as FIRE some!
4. Kills
Professionalism & Healthy Corporate Culture
Culture is the competitive
advantage. This is a call to all leaders, CEO’s, Directors and such. It’s about
you, your people, culture, leadership, core values and vision. The culture of
an entity really matters a lot to the success of the entity. The values,
morals, mission and vision of the company may not be adhered to should there be
preference to members of a certain group to another. When rules, guidelines and
regulations cannot be followed to the letter then the level of professionalism
goes down the drain. Some employees become untouchables, report to work late,
leave early, delegate all the work etc are some of the tendencies that crop up.
When this happens a few people become overworked, demotivated and dissatisfied
with their work. At this point a few disgruntled employees will protest, seek
other jobs, others will keep quiet and under perform while others will join in.
In a few months time the company’s culture is dead and the firm is reporting
losses!
5. Lowers Employee
Morale.
How does it feel when you
know that promotions aren’t awarded on merit; hard work, skills,
experience or level of education? Bad, right? When certain employees realize
there’s tribalism at play in the workplace employee morale then dies, cleverer
employees will start lobbying for support from people in control of their fate
(HR department) while others will just sit back and lose hope! Employees then
show lack of energy, enthusiasm and passion that they had before. When the
problem gets to this point then it becomes a case of “do your work I am doing
mine”. Employees don’t strive to go beyond their targets, lack drive to go the
extra mile and their performance becomes just okay, better known as
satisfactory. In a mid sized organization that is seeking to grow and venture
into new markets or regions then their expansion plans become a pipe dream.
My advice to you is to be keen on who you hire.
Don’t make your firm a tribal outfit for the good of the organization.
Did you like this post? If so please
follow the writer on Twitter @KenyanMarketer & share this post with
your friends. Thanks!
For more information you can reach him through (Muthurikinyamu@gmail.com)
No comments:
Post a Comment