Organisational Schizophrenia

More than two decades after the watershed economic reforms of 1991, customers find yawning gaps between what many companies promise to deliver as a matter of policy and what, in customers' perception, is actually delivered at the operating level. A major part of the problem stems from the fact that while a company may be keen to maximise customer satisfaction, it would also want to maximise shareholder value at the same time. This obsessive pursuit kills people's objectivity. The resulting conflict of self-interest generates wrong signals within the company, leading to organisational schizophrenia severely affecting employees' emotional engagement. Supported by sizeable empirical research from 300 interviews with almost 200 respondents, including customer-contact employees, the book explores the reasons why, in a company, behaviour becomes unpredictable, responsiveness becomes arbitrary, initiative becomes risky, operating practices drift away from policy and mission statements begin to turn into mere posters. The book shows how organisational schizophrenia and the consequent problems can be avoided through disciplined and rigorous commitment to core values, standing up to wrongdoing, and taking a stand for the customer at all levels of management.