Why British management fails

 

Even though born in the United Kingdom I cannot recall where the idea that the British are good at management came from.

Colonial managers were notoriously brutal. The 1970s industrial conflicts between managers and workers made the UK “the sick man of Europe”. The 1980s “us and them” management exploded into civil unrest.

Recently repeated and disgraceful management failures, be it in the handling of Covid-19 or the national scandal of our beloved Post Office, are being exposed daily.

Poor management and leadership is common in UK organisations. A survey by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), the UK’s leading management training organisation, showed 82% of new managers in the UK are “accidental managers”.

These are people in management roles without formal management and leadership qualifications or experience. They are not trained or equipped to manage and often have no appetite or aptitude for it.

The CMI is a charity aiming to tackle accidental managers. Its wholly-owned subsidiary is engaged in “selling student registrations on commercial terms”, according to its 2023 Annual Report. These registrations lead to certificates accredited in the UK with little additional training, assessment or engagement.

CMI has 5,000 members in Malaysia with 4,000 in 21 CMI higher education partners. Their wholly-owned sendirian berhad owed RM4.7 million (£788,000) to the UK charity last year which has been booked with a provision for bad debt.

Many members have asked whether the millions of ringgit regularly paid by Malaysians to CMI is value for money.

Data shared by CMI itself showed that one in five student members said their CMI experience was less or much less than expected and half said their learner experience at CMI merely met or was less than they expected. Imagine a restaurant where 20% of the diners were disappointed with the food and 30% said “meh!”

Nearly three out of four full members and 62% of all members said the same about their overall CMI experience.

Another survey of the CMI higher education partners in Malaysia found that 71% disagree or completely disagree that CMI delivers benefits, 53% will not renew their membership and 21% are undecided. The Net Promoter Score, the balance of those who would recommend CMI over those who would not, was hugely negative.

Training accidental managers often leads to artificial managers. These are people who have little appetite or aptitude for management and leadership but rote-learn standard approaches and “six ways to be a good manager” lists which they then apply like automata creating dysfunctional work environments.

Many artificial managers follow DOPE strategies (Deny, Obfuscate, Persecute, Evade). They deny problems and negative feedback point-blank. They obfuscate and delay with false promises that they are on the case and will get back to you. They persecute those who give feedback that they do not like and they evade responsibility and block communication to develop plausible deniability.

In contrast to management training for accidental and artificial managers, management education and thought-leadership aims to create authentic managers.

These are people with appetites, acumen and aptitude for management and leadership but who acknowledge their limitations, reflect on the possibilities and are genuine and honest in trying to do their best.

Authentic managers follow EPIC strategies (Engaging, Positive, Inclusive, and Championing). They engage with stakeholders even if the feedback is challenging.

They take all feedback as positive if it can lead to improvements. They include everyone and personalise their response even to the needs of those who are critical. They champion best practices that benefit everyone and not just themselves.

British management needs to move from accidental and artificial to authentic approaches to make an impact in Malaysia. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.