During the Eastern Han Dynasty (around 25-220 AD), China experienced a time of unrest known as the 3 Kingdoms period. Everyone wanted to be ruler, and hundreds of petty warlords bankrupted their territories as they devoted all their resources to destroying their neighbor.
Nowadays we are much more sophisticated. Some China-based businesses have department heads fighting for dominance within our companies instead of peasant armies killing one another in the countryside.
How can you tell if this is a problem in your operation?
It’s really a 2-part question. Is there tension between your department heads? Is that a problem? A smart manager can use tensions between department heads to his advantage.
Good news and Bad news.
We love the idea of our company as a big happy family united in fellowship and working towards a common goal, but the truth is that business is not about brotherhood. While it may be pleasant showing up at an office where everyone genuinely likes one another, there can be a downside to this. Business is about competition and problem-solving. If your team is all focused on defeating a top competitor and growing sales, then that is great. But if everyone is too relaxed and friendly, then you may not be getting all that you can out of your staff.
People tend to be the most relaxed about their jobs when they feel they don’t have a personal stake in the outcome of any decisions. China has a tradition of consensus and harmony – but that often translates into a “lowest common denominator” approach to problem solving. Managers agree readily when they feel that have that their opinion has no impact on the ultimate decision or they don’t really care about the future of the enterprise. I’ve seen more than a few private businesses where relationships among staff were a little too cozy.
Common Enemy
Your people should be fired up and united by a common goal. Good managers unify their team and promote “goal congruence”, or a single, unifying goal system that everyone in the organization recognizes and understands. This might be to best a major competitor, raise sales or hit a specific target. Or it could be to thwart your efforts. Many international managers are in fact uniting their teams in the most counterproductive way imaginable – they are becoming the common enemy.
Make sure that your team has a more positive unifying principle. The best unifying goals can be easily understood, visualized and charted. Raising sales to a specific point is a good one. Gaining market share. Out-competing a specific rival. It works even better when you can pay a company-wide bonus or incentive when certain milestones are hit.
Some conflicts that are less positive:
Everyone vs. You. Is your staff defining success by your failures? In Shanghai, it’s normal for your staff to speak Shanghaiese and cover for one another, so hold that paranoia in check. But if you get the feeling that your team isn’t really supporting your efforts – you may actually be right. The bad news is that once this happens, it’s hard to reverse. The good news is that you can count on most of these people quitting within a few months. Advice: Review your company’s orientation training program and take a larger role in the hiring process. Make sure you can count on your personal assistant and the ranking financial person.
Sales vs. Marketing. If they are separate departments, be on the lookout for trouble. Is marketing in China, or overseas? Are your sales people using the marketing material? Does Marketing have an orderly way of getting information from Sales? These guys should be cooperating. If not, your marketing budget is going out the window. If your sales people are blaming marketing for lack of leads, you have a problem.
HR vs. Everyone. This is the typical Line vs. Staff conflict, but in China you have to pay more attention to the HR relationship. Line managers often feel HR doesn’t know what’s going on. HR feels that Line managers are Neanderthals. Look at your turnover rates. If you are losing key people on a regular basis or you can’t fill key positions, you may have to step in and deal with it. Another key indicator of trouble is if performance appraisals, job descriptions and other HR tools aren’t being supported by Line managers. If HR isn’t running your recruiting process, you have a serious problem.
HR vs. Sales. Who makes the hiring decisions? If Sales is going around HR to hire, you have a problem. If Sales managers aren’t supporting HR on training and coaching issues, you have a problem. Sales people are notorious for being independent and performance driven. HR has a bad reputation for being overly bureaucratic. If you have a problem with you HR management, it will show up here first.
Finance vs. Marketing: Finance saves, Marketing spends. It’s normal to have a little tension here. As a matter of fact, it is probably positive as long as it doesn’t get personal or threaten operations. Make sure that Marketing is sticking to the budget – which includes paperwork and reporting, not just spending.
Sales & Marketing vs. Operations: Sales/Marketing and Ops are natural enemies so there should be some tension here as well. In general, salesmen like quick changes and big promises. Operations like budgets, schedules and stability. This is another area where too much compromise and cooperation can be a warning sign. If your marketing department is letting the operations people take charge of new product development, you may be giving up too much ground to the competition.
Finance vs. Everyone. Are expenses getting paid? Are bills getting paid so slowly that your operations people are negotiating at a disadvantage? Are your salaries below the industry average? Does it take too long to approve credit applications or correct billing errors? It’s normal for finance people to count the fen, but if they are considered unfair or dishonorable by your staff then you probably have a similar problem within the industry. Accountants should be sticklers for details, but they shouldn’t make up their own rules. Be very sensitive to staffers who feel the accounting people are draconian or difficult to deal with – it may mean your suppliers feel the same way. On the other hand, you don’t want your accounting staff to be too cozy with other department heads – particularly sales. Ideally, your head finance people should be viewed as tough but fair and just a little bit scary.