Mabila Mathebula
The name Abraham Maslow is synonymous with the stratification of human needs. Maslow also zeroed-in on the sense of belonging as a basic human need because no man or woman enjoys to be hermitically sealed from other human beings.
Every professional person needs to belong to a professional home. I also belong to the Association of Researchers in Construction Safety, Health and Well-Being (ARCOSH) as well as the Association of Construction Health and Safety Management (ACHASM). It is also rare for a professional association to invite a speaker from another association and discipline to speak at their conference.
Maslow once said that: “If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as nail.” Most professional organisations are averse to using different tools when faced with a challenge. Last week I was privileged with an honour to present a paper at the Employee Assistance Professional Association of South Africa (EAPA-SA) during their Annual Eduweek. I was received with matchless courtesy.
The EAPA-SA Board displayed their Spiritual intelligence when they thought it prudent to invite me to their conference. By spiritual intelligence (SQ) I refer to the intelligence with which we address and solve problems of meaning and value. There are very few associations that embrace holism. Simply put, associations that are able to see connections between diverse things are like a rare commodity.
The EAPA-SA Board saw the synergy between the chief aims of my profession and their profession. What serves as a binding force between my associations and their association are people’s issues. This brings me to Confusion’s words: “If your plan is for one year, plant rice. If your plan is for 10 years, plant trees. If your plan is for hundred years, educate children or the nation [Italics mine]”.
People who are unemployed are depressed by their state of hopelessness since they find it increasingly difficult to enter the job market. On the other side of the coin, those who are employed are compelled to endure the oppressive heat in the crucible of the infernal corporate world. Those who are employed, the sun of employment flames down as hot as furnace, and neckscarfs, veils, and umbrellas seem hardly any protection.
The world of work is mistakenly considered by university students as a paradise like Damascus. When Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was a simple camel driver he looked down upon Damascus for the first time, and then made a certain remark. He said man could enter one paradise; he preferred to go to the one above. A workplace will never be a anything but paradise.
My paper was titled: “How to manage professional jealousy in the workplace.” I define professional jealousy as the fear that your current position or social status may be taken away from you by a person whom you perceive as threat to your fiefdom. The sole traction for professional jealousy is external power. This kind of power is ephemeral or transitory, it can be acquired or lost, as in the stock market or in an election.
It can be bought or stolen, transferred or inherited. Succession battles in traditional authorities, faith-based organisations and political organisations are the results of external power. The inverse of external power is authentic power. According to Gary Zukav authentic power is “a power that loves life in every form that it appears, a power that does not judge what it encounters, a power that perceives meaningfulness and purpose in a smallest details upon the earth… Authentic power cannot be bought or hoarded.”
The classic case of professional jealousy was the relationship between King Saul and David. The trigger for professional jealousy was when women loaded David in their singing. As they danced, they sang: “Saul has slain his thousands, and David his ten thousands.” 1 Samuel 18:7. Initially, Saul liked David and made him his armour-bearer. However, Saul’s attitude towards him changed due to the following factors:
Jealousy: He became jealous of David’s military successes and the masses’ admiration;
Fear: Saul feared that David would overthrow him as king; and
Insecurity: He felt threatened by David’s close relationship with his son, Jonathan and his daughter, Michal.
The above three cardinal factors of professional jealousy have not changed in the workplace. Professor Chris Barnard was also a victim of international professional jealous when he performed his first heart transplant on Louis Washkansky, he was struck by the level of ridicule in the medical profession before the concept of heart transplant was universally accepted.
Since the dawn of democracy in South Africa the government has tried doubly hard to level the playing field by rolling the marginalised groups uphill by introducing progressions legislations such as Affirmative Action, Employment Equity as well as addressing the gender agenda in the workplace.
These pieces of legislations have been paved with good intentions however, professional jealousy has destroyed many people’s careers, some people have died of depression, some were murdered and some have migrated to other countries. Leaders who harbour professional jealousy use a coercive leadership style to mismanage, control and frustrate their victims. Their chief aim is to subject their victims to servitude in tranquillity.
According to Daniel Goleman this leadership style has a corrosive long-term impact on the company culture, leading to high turnover and a disillusioned, disengaged workforce. The organisation would need a strong culture activation programme to restore the organisation to its former glory.
The chief aim of this style of leadership is to frustrate and to destroy the victim. A manager who is fearful, jealousy and insecure perceives his subordinate as an inherent risk and wants to get rid of the risk by terminating the risk forthwith. Our municipalities are in a derelict state because competent people have been shown the door by managers who embrace professional jealousy as their guiding star.
What does professional jealousy do to both individuals and the country? Professional jealousy is gender and colour blind. It is impervious of the government developmental agenda. First, it damages people’s self-esteem, competent people feel depleted and mentally debased or drained. Self-esteem is the experience of being competent to cope with the basic challenges of life and being worthy of happiness.
Second, it damages their careers, a number of excellent executives can no longer be employed because they are the victims of professional jealousy. Third, it damages people’s reputations. No one wants to associate with a person with a doubtful reputation. Professional jealousy is also a major drawback to the country’s developmental agenda.
First, it creates brain drain where people leave the country prematurely to settle in other countries. Second, it impacts negatively on the fiscus because the country spends a lot of money in education and training but there is little or no return on investment. Third, it catapults incompetent people into influential positions who are then an impediment to service delivery.
Fourth, it promotes conformance management (where an employee follows the leader blindly) as opposed to performance management; it promotes mediocrity and renders the organisation a laughing stock. Firth, it encourages the public sector to employ management consultants who charge exorbitant fees. Sixth, it compromises quality, health, safety and the environment. Lastly, it compromises the legislative mandate of state organs.
The following are the behavioural indicators of an organisation that is managed by a professional jealousy leader:
Under informed employees;
Lack of urgency and initiative;
Limited new ideas and innovations;
Excessive absenteeism and accidents;
Lack of employee commitment and goodwill;
Angry, alienated customers or clients;
Underperforming technologies;
Excessive health and disability costs; and
Tampering and sabotage.
Our managers need authentic empowerment because an authentic empowered person is incapable of making anyone or anything a victim.
Author and life coach Mathebula has a PhD in Construction Management