feature CULTURE, VISION & VALUES
CULTURE, VISION & VALUES
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Something odd is happening in politics and it should be ringing alarm bells in the corporate world. As we watch, whatever your political views, there is an increasing degree of disconnect between the projects pursued by our elected leaders and representatives and the electorate’s view of those projects. Clearly too, there are some important lessons to be learnt from the turmoil that is being whipped up across the political and geographical spectrum.
ARTICLE BY DAN PEYTON, EMPLOYMENT LAWYER AND MANAGING PARTNER - MCGUIREWOODS LONDON LLP
There are so many issues that it's difficult to know where to start. The Conservatives contrived to exclude from its leadership contest the candidate widely expected to be the most popular amongst its membership. The parliamentary Labour Party appears to be at odds with its membership. And then of course we have experienced the referendum on membership of the EU, where the majority of the political establishment were clear in their desire to remain in the EU, but a small yet significant majority of the British population voted to leave. Amongst the countries at the core of the European project there appears to be a similar difference between political leadership’s support for membership of the EU and public support. A Pew Research Centre survey, conducted in April and May 2016, showed that in Germany opinion about the EU was virtually split down the middle
20 thehrdirector SEPTEMBER 2016
and in France around 60 percent of people had a negative view of the EU. The clear impression in many member states of the EU, leaving aside contentious arguments about remaining or leaving, is that political leaders are advancing a project that at best divides opinion amongst their own electorate, and at worst is not supported. This raises an issue which extends beyond the political world. In the context of business, leadership involves articulating a vision, a direction for the enterprise and plans setting out the details of how to achieve that vision. This sometimes necessitates making difficult decisions which may not always be universally popular. However, our recent political experiences demonstrate the risks of assuming that people will follow their leaders and participate in projects without devoting sufficient time and resource in persuading them of the
merits of the project. In the workplace, as in politics, without proper levels of engagement there is a risk employees will, in the end, choose not to follow or, worse still, sabotage the project itself. This danger is an acute one for businesses in a global age, managing great geographical, legal, cultural and moral diversity together with the generational challenges of a workforce that is increasingly of the view that loyalty needs to be earned and maintained and not just bought. Therefore, one of the challenges for businesses in a global age is not only to generate a vision and a message but ensure that it is one in which a diverse workforce can and wants to buy into. Advances in modern technology, in particular the breathtaking array of computing power each of us has in our smart phones and tablets, along with the explosion in social media, creates substantial marketing opportunities as well as
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