https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/consequences-breaching-psychological-contract-brighton-m-chishimba?published=t
https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/consequences-breaching-psychological-contract-brighton-m-chishimba?published=t

IS FLEXIBALISATION A PANCEA TO THE CHALLENGE OF WORK LIFE BALANCE IN ZAMBIA

According to the latest changes in the Zambia Labour Laws-Employment (Amendment) there is an introduction of Flexibilisation. According to the Employment (Amendment) No.15 of 2015 “Flexibalisation” means an employment trend that is characterized by different aspects of human resource management, such as—

(a) pay flexibility, which is focused on performance related pay and pay bargaining;

(b) contractual flexibility, which is focused mainly on non-permanent contracts of service, sub-contracting and outsourcing;

(c) task flexibility, which allows employees to perform various activities; and

(d) working hours’ flexibility, which focuses on part-time working, job sharing and flexi -hours of work; “full-time” means employment under a contract of service that stipulates the maximum number of statutory or conventional hours prescribed for a week, month or year, but excludes overtime work.

Flexibalisation is a new human resources management practice introduced to the Zambian Labour market and its yet to be fully implemented in Institutions and the Public Service at large.

WHAT FLEXIBILISATION ENTAILS

Flexibilisation‟ comes from the word Flexicurity – flexibility for the Employer whilst providing Security for the employee hence the term FLEXIBILISATION. It aims at stopping “rigid‟ forms of employment relationship.

In a flexible labour market firms/Companies are under fewer regulations regarding the labour force and can therefore set wages (i.e. no minimum wage), and change their hours. It means that workers should have the right to request “flexible work arrangements from their employers.” Flexible work arrangements are arrangements whereby a worker deviates from a standard workforce.This deviation might include:

                       1. Decrease in working hours

                 2. Shift in hours (flexi-time)

                  3. Shift in location of work

                 4.  Compressed days

              5.Negotiated salary and wages based on agreed               performance

For example, it means that an employee could choose to alter their start and end times on given days during the week, completing required hours of work but doing it from maybe 10:00am to 18:00pm instead of the traditional 08:00am to 5:00pm Zambian time. This however, has to be agreed upon with their respective employers who may also refuse based on their business needs.

SOME BENEFITS OF FLEXIBILIZATION: FLEXI-TIME

In this demanding economy, workers are facing daily challenges with work life balance. Workers are finding it increasingly difficult to take time off or reschedule work in order to spend time with families or take care of Children, pursue studies etc. and this affects everyone especially working women, no wonder Zambian women utilizes Mothers days to accommodate all kinds of errands.

Thus, Flexibilisation particularly flexi-time, to a large extent can be a panacea to the challenge of work life balance especially the women who undergo a lot of family pressure such as preparing for school children, nursing patients, attending to family issues and many similar justifiable demands. Equally, some employees are doing self-sponsored studies, some are students who need to finish project, assignments, attend classes in the evening, thus flexible working arrangements can be benefit both employees and employers who want to meet their targets and focus on personal development. It will also reduce on stress to meet work and family demands. In the Zambian case, it can even reduce traffic on the roads due to rushing to offices at the same time for the entire Zambia. Some benefits to employers:

 1.    Increase productivity: Focus is on outcomes/results not hours spent in the         office;

2. Reduced turnover: Employees will find that employer to be the best;

3.    Healthy workforce: Reduced stress and fatigue

4.    Gives a competitive advantage;

5.    Attract and retain skilled workforce; and 

6. Greater staff moral and reduced absenteeism.

INGREDIENT TO ACTUALIZE FLEXIBILISATION.

For Institutions and Companies to actualize this, there must be a total mindset shift whereby there will be mutual understanding, mutual respect and mutual trust from employees and employers. Work deliverables should not be compromised and flexi-time should be used for real issues and not just to use this for running away from real work. Employers therefore should trust their employees while employees should show integrity and respect their employers by meeting their performance targets and even exceeding so that it is a win-win situation.

CONCLUSION:

Flexibilization is a good practice if well implemented and managed as focus by employers should be on results/outcomes not the rigid policies as in this dynamic times, it requires adaptability to the prevailing situations.

Contributions are very welcome!

                           God bless .

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/transformational-leadership-brighton-m-chishimba?trk=hp-feed-article-title-publish

ACHIEVE YOUR GOAL THROUGH ACTION

PROFESSIONALISM VS PERSONALISM AT WORK

In my several years’ practices as a Human Resources Professional, I have witnessed both professionalism and unprofessionalism which I would prefer calling “personalism” from employees and employers. Regrettably, personalism is on the rise especially in public service Institutions. So what is professionalism? What is personalism? And Which one do you choose?

Professionalism can be understood as the conduct of an individual that demonstrates honour, integrity, and civil behavior toward adversaries in their line of work or volunteering.  Professionalism applies to every single human endeavor. Human Resources Professional, Lawyers, Accountants, Procurement Professions, Engineers, Maids, Teachers Doctors, Nurses, Builders, Subcontractors, Farmers, Bankers, Businessmen, Volunteers, and even retirees either practice professionalism in their daily lives or care nothing for it.

The opposite of professionalism can be called is unprofessionalism which I would prefer calling “personalism” in this context. 

According to the Free Dictionary by Farlex: unprofessionalism is defined as “not conforming to the standards of a profession or unprofessional behavior standards of a profession or unprofessional behavior.”

According to Free Dictionary by Farlex: Personalism is the quality of being characterized by purely personal modes of expression or behavior, idiosyncrasy. Personalism is therefore, is the mind set and conduct of a person who exhibits selfishness, the desire to “win” at any cost, and treating others with contempt and/or disrespect. Unfortunately, personalism seems to be the natural human reaction when we are placed under enormous stress or when things are not “going our way.”

Consider a situation where a Medical Personnel, start disclosing medical conditions of a person he treated to unauthorized persons just because the live in the same community and had personal differences during a drinking escapade or similar circumstances. Is that professionalism or personalism?

Consider a male HR Professional start soliciting sexual favours from a female recruitee for her to be expressly put on payroll. Or a Supervisor soliciting sexual favours from a female subordinate in order to recommend her for promotion.

Consider a HR Manager, asking for bribes in order to facilitate employment for an applicant. These examples sound sensitive but they are in reality. Would you consider this as Professionalism?

I have heard situations in some academic Institutions whereby a learned Professor, subjectively awards good grades to some selected students based on personal relationships outside campus or based on some conditionalities but not the quality of the papers. Similarly, some employees are not promoted because they consider their faces not their competencies, skills and deliverables at work. Those who don’t deserve certain promotions get promoted because they have personal interest and some bribe in different forms.

Once upon a time, a man from a community I was working in some time back, approached me in my office, I asked him, how I would be of a help, he told me that he came to thank me for ensuring that her wife was now substantively confirmed to her position after working for more than 6 years because someone at work used to ask her for sexual favours before processing her confirmations. This made me think, maybe he is thinking that the wife had now yielded to the request, however, he was quick to point out that her wife was narrating how I was of help and how did my job without asking for anything, so he was motivated to come and say, “thank you.”

Think of a time at work, school or business, when you got   angry, bitter because someone objected to your views and you labeled him as an enemy. By the way, the author once did that, left that meeting room in anger but later after calming down realized that, it was not professional to behavior like that in a meeting. At that time, I took things personally because my recommendations were not been considered.

What is expected in Professionalism:

We are all human beings and sometimes our emotions can overtake us and become personal at work, however we should at all cost strive for professionalism which includes but not limited to these:

  v  Be respectful:

Respect yourself and others at all times.

  v  Be trustworthy:

Trustworthiness is about fulfilling an assigned task- not letting down expectations, it is been dependable, and reliable when called upon to deliver a service.

v  Be accountable:

To be accountable is to stand tall and be counted for what actions you have undertaken, this is the blameworthiness and responsibility for your actions and its consequences- good or bad.

v  Be courteous and respectful:

Courteousness is being friendly, polite and well-mannered with a gracious consideration towards others.

v  Be honest, open and transparent:

Honesty is a facet of moral character that connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as truthfulness, straightforwardness of conduct, loyalty, fairness, sincerity, openness in communication and generally operating in a way for others to see what actions are being performed. Honest is the best policy.

v  Be competent and improve continually:

Competence is the ability of an individual to do a job properly, it is a combination of knowledge, skills and behavior used to improve performance

v  Always be ethical:

Ethical behavior is acting within certain moral codes in accordance with the generally accepted code of conduct or rules.

v  Always be honorable and act with integrity:

Honorable action is behaving in a way that portrays “nobility of soul, magnanimity,” which is derived from virtuous conduct and personal integrity.

v  Be respectful of confidentiality;

Confidentiality is respecting the set of rules or promise that restricts you from further and unauthorized dissemination of information.

The benefits of professionalism far out-weighs personalism. In personalism, you may end up losing your integrity, respect as an Individual and organization, you may get sued for sexual harassment and get fired, you may end up hiring incompetent people and put the company at risk because of non-performers. The benefits of practicing personalism are just but momentarily as they are not sustainable.

Which one would Choose? Professionalism or Personalism?

God bless!

5 BENEFITS OF SYSTEMS THINKING

For just as the body is one and yet has many parts, and all the parts of the body, though many, form a single body. For the body does not consist of only one part, but of many. If the foot says, “Since I’m not a hand, I’m not part of the body,” that does not make it any less a part of the body, does it? And if the ear says, “Since I’m not an eye, I’m not part of the body,” that does not make it any less a part of the body, does it? If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? Now if all of it were one part, there wouldn’t be a body, would there? So there are many parts, but one body.

The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you,” or the head to the feet, “I don’t need you.” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are in fact indispensable, and the parts of the body that we think are less honorable are treated with special honor, and we make our less attractive parts more attractive. However, our attractive parts don’t need this. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is praised, every part rejoices with it.

For me, this profound illustration above from the bible, simply summaries the systems thinking which was founded by Prof Jay Forrester.

Systems thinking is a holistic approach to analysis that focuses on the way that a system's constituent parts interrelate and how systems work over time and within the context of larger systems. Systems thinking is concerned with understanding of a system by examining the linkages and interactions between the components that comprise the entirety of that defined system. Whole systems are composed of systems, the basic unit, which comprise several entities or departments (e.g. policies, processes, practices, Human Resources and Administration, Finance Department, Marketing Department, Production/Technical Department, Legal and many others according to organization setups) and may be broken down into further sub-systems.

Systems Thinking focuses on:

• The organization as a whole

• Interactions between parts, not the parts themselves

• The way systems affect other systems

• Reoccurring patterns rather than just individual events

• Change over time

• How feedback affects the parts

Systems Thinking involves both a mindset that focuses on how the parts of a whole are interrelated and a set of tools that help organizations examine complexity and looks to address problems proactively rather than reactively, relying on multi-level, multi-disciplinary teams to work together to generate solutions and create lasting improvements. It strives to develop people’s sensitivity to the interdependency of the entire system and the consequences of actions.    

         SOME BENEFITS OF SYSTEMS THINKING:

    1. There is greater collaboration which yield better results:

In a number of Organizations, there is interdepartmental rivalries e.g. Finance vs HR, Finance     Vs Audit /Production. Recently I saw some long social media chat, where a medical Doctor was saying that they don’t like Human Resources Professional because they think they are superior in the Ministry of Health.  All these try to show their superiority and this results into unhealthy working environment which doesn’t promote collaborate. John C. Maxwell said, “to collaborative team members, completing one another is more important than competing with one another.”

    2. Focus on results not just mere activities:

It is said, “Not everything that can be counted counts. Not everything that counts can    be counted.” You may be busy doing activities which are not even responding to your vision and goals. Companies want results not just activities. A system thinker will ensure that whatever they are focusing on will ultimately benefit the entire Organization not for seek of making allowances through trips, meetings which don’t yielded desired results.

   3.  Helps to priorities organization Key Success Factors:

If your roof is leaking, deciding to replace the damaged carpet and repaint the ceiling won’t lead to a lasting solution and will only drain your budget of the resources needed for the right fix. Organizations and individuals need to focus on their KPIs and ensure that they ask Key Performance Questions (KPQs).

   4.  Increase idea generation:

In system thinking, everyone is valued and this increases the sense of responsibility and ownership. Therefore, people feel more appreciated and easily open up to suggest and can also question the status quo. These new ideas can be implemented and find better and innovative ways of achieving desired results.

  5.  Generate knowledge and understanding beyond what a person already knows:

As a system thinker you will not just focus on your area of operation or your job role but you will endeavor to appreciate and understand the other Department’s work. When you’re entrenched in your own responsibilities, it’s easy to forget that other departments not only exist, but that you’re all serving one main goal: fulfilling the mission of your organization. Learning what other departments do and working with them on collaborative projects are ways to avoid losing sight of the organization’s other moving parts. Organizations with employees from different departments who work together on projects can benefit from sharing information and asking questions.

In summary systems thinking has more benefits and if well utilized can see actualization of individual and organizational goals as we are interdependent on each other. Be a system thinker!

“One is not born into the world to do everything, but to do something.” –Henry David Thoreau

“A new type of thinking is essential if mankind is to survive and move towards higher levels.”—Albert Einstein

Influence and lead yourself first