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Schizophrenic Behaviour

In the process of resolving my escalated complaints, with some of the well-intentioned and highly regarded companies, I experienced what can best be described as schizophrenic behaviour. I came face to face with two distinct facets of people’s behavior within the same organisation.

• At the operating level, I did get plenty of lip service but in terms of real action it was a usual mix of apathy, evasiveness and attempt to wriggle out of a bad situation.

• At the senior level, the executives were apologetic about what they thought was inexcusable lapse in meeting my genuine expectations. They got involved, quickly understood the issue and made sure that my complaints were resolved to my satisfaction with the utmost speed.

I saw two different cultures residing simultaneously in one organisation. I decided to explore why does this happen. Why is it that some people begin to treat the mission statements as mere posters?

As I had expected, the answers to the vexing questions did not lie in the company policy or business processes. The VOICES of 200 respondents to a targeted empirical research[1] revealed that the gaps between policy and practice show themselves in various areas of operations, more because of behavioral rather than systemic reasons.

The Way Forward

I dug deeper and found that two fundamental operating approaches were at the root of most of the ills afflicting the companies in question . To create and sustain a strong and positive customer focus the companies would do well to review these approaches and modify them as necessary.

• Customer First—In Word and in Action
  Evidence suggests that shareholders actually do better when firms put the customer first rather than focusing on maximising shareholders value in the short term.. According to the optimisation theory, a firm cannot maximise both customer value and shareholder value at the same time. You have to make a choice upfront. Any attempt to do otherwise can only result in internal conflict within the company. This perpetual conflict cascades all the way down to the front line employees and allows organisational schizophrenia and unpredictability of behaviour to creep in.
• Culture of Discipline
  A culture of discipline requires people to be self-disciplined and passionate about their responsibility. It requires people to take disciplined action religiously consistent with the company’s mission and core values. A culture of discipline is not a ruthless culture. It is a rigorous culture. To be rigorous means consistently applying exacting standards at all times and at all levels, especially in upper management.

Many companies which are convinced about the long term relevance of customer first approach would do far better if they paid serious attention to nurturing a culture of discipline that visibly acts as a strong deterrent for value violators. It must be remembered that the single biggest reason for demotivation of the employees is the stark inconsistency in management’s words and actions.