Dear Editor,
It is difficult for the interested ‘sugar’ observer not to detect the communication (wiki) gaps in an organisation bereft of motivation and so patently lacking in team spirit. The time is more than opportune for its managers to have an audible voice.
As an old timer of ‘sugar’ I was randomly going through some related papers when I came across documents all dated 1980. It turned out that there were four of several contributions on topics that would have been discussed at GuySuCo’s Personnel Management and Industrial Relations Conference, convened from 4-6 July, 1980 – just over one year after nationalisation of the industry. The carefully typed submissions were respectively titled:
a) Problems of Manpower Resourcing in the Factory and Recommendations for Improvement
b) Problems of Personnel Management in the other Crops Division and Proposals for Improvement
c) Assess the Effectiveness of the Personnel Department (Head Office and Estate) in the attainment of its objectives
d) A Critical Review of Education and Training Policies in GuySuCo in relation to Practices with a view to making them more dynamic.
It is less important perhaps that one or two of the titles could have been better formulated, than that the substantive topics were explicitly addressed, by managers well below the level of Board Directors.
It is worth recording that the event, like those of other functional units, was a hardy tradition in the sugar industry and continued to be, certainly into the end of the nineties.
Some may argue that the topics are irrelevant of the current day experience. So it is substantially more than from a nostalgic perspective that one ponders the type and content of what now takes place as dialogue amongst managers in this 21st century organisation; and on the form and formality of the communication structure, which should allow professional managers to discuss with, and appropriately advise the executive supervisors within their respective areas of expertise.
Certainly one would feel comforted to know that there is still provision for such dialogue; rather than just observe the high-flown utterances which are publicised to inform the citizenry at the same time as the managers themselves, who in turn must interpret the imprecision of ‘policies’ and implement inadequately coordinated methodologies.
Yours faithfully,
E B John
