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It used to be that after leaving school or college people thought
that the highest attainment they could make would be to get a secure
job in a solid company which would last them through their working
life. The more than $10 trillion in worldwide pension schemes attest
to this. But this was a pre-“Baby Boomer” view adopted by many
of the Boomer generation (the “Boomer generation” covers those
people born between about 1945, post Second World War, and 1964).
Mutual loyalty between employer and employee was fostered under this
scenario, by long-term dependencies—a bit like marriage really.
But no longer is this the case, “Generation
Y” (those born between 1980 and 2000) now entering the workforce
internationally in large numbers—as many as the Baby Boomers in
fact, do not believe that long term employer-employee relationships
are an essential part of life. They constantly keep their eyes open
for the next good opportunity and will jump when the chance comes
along to move elsewhere. Usually somewhere where they can get more
leisure time, the boss is prepared to continually interact with
them, and there is a work culture of team work and sharing (and
where they get lots of “strokes” for doing things well). Instant
gratification is needed. They want their questions answered but they
don’t really listen, and experience is seen as of very little
value. At least this is what all the research says, but of course
this is mainly Wester-focused and carried out in the US or Europe.
In the Philippines the above does not
necessarily hold true. There are different drivers. The job market
is not such as to allow people to easily transfer from one job to
another when they feel like it. Work and retaining the continuity of
opportunity to earn a living is crucially important here. In an
Asian (Confucian) cultural background, age equates to wisdom and
thereby confers seniority, commanding respect. Experience should
therefore be valued more highly than it is in the Western
world—young people should be expected to listen and to take note
of what they are told by their elders. Leisure time is much valued
it seems to me by the Filipino, but this is not a generational
change, this is a national characteristic—a Pacific Island
syndrome—“No point climbing that tree since the coconut is going
to fall down anyway. I’ll just sit and wait for it.” In a
conventional Filipino (or Asian) work environment interaction with
the boss is not always available to the level at which the Western
research would say it needs to be. It is accepted that the boss is
the boss and that questions would often be not well received.
The problem potentially arises here where
Western research (generally respected in a Filipino setting) is
taken to be indicative of how things are here and that conclusions
from it are then applied. It doesn’t work, unless of course the
staff sees a need to be so agreeable to management’s intentions
that they allow the results of the Western based research to be
implemented and let the management believe that in fact it has
worked and has been successful! Another Filipino characteristic.
I used to work for a large multinational that
suddenly decided to redesign its organizational structure to suit
Generation Y research findings. No doubt this was appreciated by the
inexperienced Generation Y members of the staff in its Western
operations, but was a total disaster so far as non-Generation Y
staff were concerned. It alienated them and there was a massive
drain of experience from the organization which it is managing to
weather only because of its financial strength (and external
influences).
The moral of this short piece is that again
“one size does not fit all” and that results of Western based
research whilst seen to be fashionable here in the Philippines are
often likely to be inappropriate when applied literally in a
Filipino setting. And if you doubt that just look at some of the
advertised English that you see on the side of the road, and ask
yourself how appropriate is that!!
Mike can be contacted at mawootton@gmail.com.
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