Two Types of Dysfunctional Personnel - Benign and Malignant Tumours


By Mike Teng


Similar to the human body, the corporate body has two types of dysfunctional tumours – the benign or inactive ones, which are often dormant as well as the malignant or harmful types which are very dangerous. Both types of dysfunctional cannot be left to their own devices for they can cause damage to the company.

The benign tumour group consists of the demotivated staff who are not contributing productively to the company. Some are unable to find alternative employment so they just hang on, waiting for payout during the retrenchment. Many comprise the “dead woods” in the company leftover after their better colleagues have all left for greener pastures. The situation is unhealthy and counter-productive as some of these individuals may complain excessively, spread rumours and even sabotage the operations through poor productivity. In the handling of such benign cases, one should fire them up first rather than firing them. If possible, one should try motivation and training/development to elicit peak performance. These dysfunctional personnel are like weeds. If you do not manage them, they will quickly spread. Also some of these benign tumours may have turned malignant and harmful, requiring careful monitoring.

The malignant tumour cases are the more harmful ones. Just like in the case of malignant carcinoma or cancer cells, such staff are working against the company all the time. Therefore, attempts must be made to eliminate this group as soon as possible.

An example of malignant tumour is staff with integrity problems taking bribes from suppliers, distributors or competitors. Malignant tumours are not only a physical disease, they also involve a negative state of mind. Other malignant tumour cases include staff with bad attitudes or incompetence. These staff have a negative mindset which are difficult to change and can become detrimental to the company impeding its progress.

The malignant tumours also include incompetent management staff, who perpetuate the “incompetency vicious cycle” through the recruitment of other incompetent staff. Just like cancer cells, such tumours will proliferate if they are not eliminated quickly.

Some companies are slow to take action against these malignant tumours because they believe in life-long employment. As they do not want to fire such non-performing employees, they are instead put in “SLEEP” department, which stands for Segregation for Least Effective and Efficient Personnel. In such “cold storage” or “SLEEP” departments, these staff are still kept on the payroll but they are not assigned any duties. It is hoped that these dysfunctional staff will be under pressure to resign rather than to be fired.

However, nowadays, companies cannot afford to support such non-performers. The Japanese have learnt that life-long employment does not work in the recessionary market. It is better to suffer briefly with the initial pain of removing the malignant tumour quickly than to incur lingering pain and irreversible damage by allowing the cancer to spread uncontrollably through the entire system.

http://www.corporateturnaroundexpert.com

Dr Mike Teng (DBA, MBA, BEng, FIMechE, FIEE, CEng, PEng, FCMI, FCIM, SMCS) is the author of the best-selling business book “Corporate Turnaround: Nursing a sick company back to health”, in 2002. In 2006, he authored another book entitled, “Corporate Wellness: 101 Principles in Turnaround and Transformation.” Dr Teng is widely recognized as a turnaround CEO in Asia by the news media. He has 27 years of experience in corporate responsibilities in the Asia Pacific region. Of these, he held Chief Executive Officer’s positions for 17 years in multi-national, local and publicly listed companies. He led in the successful turnaround of several troubled companies. He is currently the Managing Director of a business advisory firm, Corporate Turnaround Centre Pte Ltd, which assists companies on a fast track to financial performance. Dr Teng was the President of the Marketing Institute of Singapore (2000 – 2004), the national body representing some 5000 individual and corporate marketing professionals in Singapore


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