There are many scholarly works giving advice on management and motivation. Theories abound. Hygiene factors vs true motivators; situational management; lean management; balanced scorecard and quality circles, to name a few. But seek some help on managing the cane cutter, the apple picker, the sweeper, the rock driller – the manual labourer, in other words – and you’ll search in vain.
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The chaos of the past few months in the mining industry has been driven by manual labourers handling some of the toughest, most unpleasant jobs in the world. Where did management go wrong? What did they not do? What could or should they have done? And make no mistake about it, management carries the blame. I know there were rabble-rousers and politicians fuelling the discontent. There will always be these negative forces at play. But just as managers must get the praise for success, so must they bear responsibility for failure. It’s called accountability.
For farmers
Perhaps as farmers we don’t have many jobs as tough as rock drilling, but cane cutting comes pretty close. It’s unpleasant, tough and dangerous work. Cane fields are burnt and laden with soot and ash, cane leaves have sharp, serrated edges that cut into exposed skin, the ground is uneven and sometimes slippery, midday temperatures can be in the mid-30s and a misjudged swing of a cane knife can slice into a leg. People who fill these and the many other demanding, boring and repetitive manual labour jobs fill me with admiration. But how must their management be handled if we’re to avoid having a Marikana situation on our farms?
Triggers
I was working on a list of factors contributing towards this massive labour unrest, when I came across an outstanding presentation by John Brand of the law firm Bowman Gilfillan entitled “Marikana and its lessons for corporate South Africa”. In it, Brand does a masterful job of identifying what he calls ‘triggers’ and ‘aggravating factors’ of any Marikana-type conflict, and pinpoints the many areas in which employers can play a positive role:
Trigger 1. Poor working conditions:
Includes lack of respect and concern, poor health and safety measures, discrimination, unfair wage differentials, and so on. All these factors are under the employer’s control. If they’re a cause of discontent the employer is at fault.
Trigger 2. Poor living conditions:
Includes bad housing, no electricity, no reliable and clean water, poor roads, lack of transport and bad health and education services. In urban areas much of this is out of the employer’s influence. In farming, however, where employees often live on farms or close to them, many of these factors are either directly in the hands of the employer or can be influenced by them.
Trigger 3. The unions:
Union officials are often remote political power seekers, who have little real interest in their members. Bargaining skills are poor and negotiations are often approached in a highly adversarial manner. While employer involvement needs to be handled with care, you can play a role. Provision of ongoing credible information to union officials is one way. Assisting in developing their negotiation skills is another. Far better to negotiate with someone who understands the issues and can argue a case logically, than dealing with ill-informed unskilled negotiators.
Trigger 4. Politicians:
Corrupt, greedy politicians only interested in self-gain played an incendiary role in the recent conflict. They’re a fact of life. However, by responding to inflammatory and dishonest rhetoric with open, honest and factual communication with employees, you can counter their disruptive influence.
Aggravating factors:
These include mistrust, unrealistic expectations, unresolved past conflicts, illiteracy, innumeracy and poor communication often caused by language barriers. Employees can’t be expected to contribute to resolving these issues. The initiative has to come from managers like you and me. When I started farming, I had received training on matters such as pests and diseases, irrigation, milk production and how to calibrate a sprayer. But I never realised that, some day, I’d have to deal with all these complex management matters. Unless we’re able to address these issues, we’ll never build profitable farms.
Contact Peter Hughes at [email protected]. Please state ‘Managing for profit’ in the subject line of your email.
This article was originally published in the 23 November 2012 issue of Farmer’s Weekly.
