The reassuring words of a colleague full of wisdom, as we tried to navigate our way through a colourful couple of weeks...
When I take on new teams, I like to start by agreeing expectations of each other and our commitments to each other. It's a contract of sorts and a good foundation. One of the key expectations I have of my teams is that they don't play games - if they have an issue, they bring it to me, we resolve it professionally, there's no conspiring, undermining or rumour mungering.
Little did I know what was afoot.
Over the past two weeks we've been engulfed by anonymous allegations sent to the national press and threats of an organisation-wide strike. On Sunday the allegations were published on page 2 of a national paper, albeit alongside the Executive Management Team's response. And today we were greeted by yet another anonymous email reiterating the allegations.
There's one common theme running through the allegations of racism and corruption: the recruitment process for the Executive Management Team is biased towards white internationals and disadvantages black nationals; the organisation is flooded with white internationals on short-term postings doing jobs black nationals could do; and there's a huge disparity in the remuneration of white internationals and black nationals. My arrival has just aggravated pre-existing grievances.
As misinformed as the examples cited are, the allegations are thought provoking. They touch on some pertinent and perplexing issues. Over the past five years there's been a huge change within the international partnership as longstanding national Country Directors and management teams have been replaced by internationals, often following unfavourable audit findings.
International vs. national is a recurrent issue; I've written about it before when I've confronted it in other contexts. But it's perhaps more sensitive in developing contexts like this where there's a richer resource pool to recruit from. Some of the questions this issue raises I can answer with conviction, some I still wrestle with.
What determines whether a post is opened up to international recruitment and remunerated differently to a national post? What do internationals bring that nationals don't? Is trust a factor, what lies behind this and are we willing to acknowledge this? How do international experiences build capacities? How can we create more opportunities for national staff to gain those international experiences? Do we recognise the different capacities internationals and nationals bring? How do we value these, e.g. exposure to different contexts vs. innate understanding of local cultural. Should internationals be compensated for being away from their place of origin, friends and family? How relevant or significant is it that I'd earn a lot more if I employed my qualifications and expertise in another field, based back home in London? What do we need to be alert to when writing 'person specific requirements' to ensure there isn't an underlying bias.
The list goes on...
Sadly the allegations don't appear to be driven by principles, nor shared by the overwhelming majority of staff. They have instead originated from a select few aggrieved that there are stronger international candidates for posts above them.
Handling these allegations has also been perplexing. I've encountered teams with grievances before, but never teams who took it to the press. Knowing who is behind them, but unable to prove it, leaves you feeling frustrated; you can't confront them or issue a disciplinary. But it slows you down, forces you to be more subtle. I've been taking my guidance from Sun Tzu:
- Be extremely subtle, even to the point of formlessness. Be extremely mysterious, even to the point of soundlessness. Thereby you can be the director of the opponent's fate. (Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Emptiness and Fullness)
- The best victory is when the opponent surrenders of its own accord before there are any actual hostilities...It is best to win without fighting. (Sun-tzu, The Art of War. Planning a Siege)
- The skilful employer of men will employ the wise man, the brave man, the covetous man, and the stupid man. (Sun Tzu)
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