Currently I am managing the production work activities of a largish team of people in the horticulture industry. It has been an eye-opening experience to say the least.
What is increasingly concerning me is the waning work ethic many people are displaying. In other industries, in the past, I used to be concerned about franchisees resisting the adoption of new tools/ resources/ practices that were designed to give them comparative advantages in their highly competitive market space.
Now I’m concerned simply about many people’s tendency to “choose” when they want to show-up for work or not. It seems that not even monetary incentive is sufficient to entice these people to commit to consistently attend work. I heard recently that one orchard operation has introduced a monetary incentive over and above the applicable wage rate, to essentially “bribe” employees to turn-up for work each day. This “reward for attendance” is paid at the end of the harvest season, and only where the given employee has consistently attended work throughout the season.
I have come to believe that generally the will to work and apply oneself to the task at hand thoroughly is waning. Leaders cannot encourage the participation/ involvement of those who they are responsible for leading if the stakeholders they are to lead have little/ no will to do as per what the leader guides.
Implications ? Directors of organisations need to think long and hard about the nature of the performance objectives that they set for most importantly senior managers (CEO’s/ GM’s), for if an objective is set along the lines of (for example) “Introduce measures that will increase the revenue achievement of the organisation by 5 % during the ensuing Financial Year”, such objectives may prove to be unrealistic and unobtainable for the CEO/ GM, simply due to the fact that the stakeholders who they are leading are largely resistant to change and/ or adopting new practices/ tools/ resources; and/ or they have low levels of will to be led irrespective of the merits of the practices/ tools/ resources/ education being made available to them to enhance their performance/ achievement.
Interesting times lie ahead that’s for sure. Increasingly I am understanding the change of orientation of a growing number of employers away from human based labour inputs to instead rely more on robotics and other AI. Sad to see – yes, yet understandable nonetheless.