A Carol Kallendorf, Ph.D./Jack Speer Publication

Why Corporations Should Help Make National Policy
Who's That Department Down
the Hall from You?

(and Do They Scare You?)
 
How Can We Improve
Relationships Between Departments?

First in a Three-Part Series
a

* These cube figures are available at http://www.cubefigures.com/home.html When you're checking your email or voicemail, which is the department you hope you don't hear from today? We asked this question to senior BizWatch readers/advisors in a cross-section of industries from many places on the globe.  How would you answer? The answers surprised us.  It's a question that generated a firestorm among our key BizWatch readers, like a wall of flames whipped across a dry canyon by high winds. It's all about who you give your loyalty to.   According to our BizWatch senior readers/advisors, that all depends--on the department you work for, of course.  Feelings about the subject ran very deep.  People had constructive things to say and excellent insights--but they had also gotten tired of being nice. People Just Wanted to Talk First, we discovered a pent-up need to talk about the experiences people have had with other departments, and they seemed to value a place to discuss this issue which can be very explosive.  They know when you talk about other departments, you'd better talk softly because the repercussions can be quite serious.  Talking about other departments most often takes place in hushed tones, in un-official, "off-the-record" person-to-person exchanges. How Much Do Interdepartmental Skirmishes Cost Organizations? The question arises, obviously:  What are all these interdepartmental skirmishes costing us?  If you do an audit of time lost, the cost is  astronomical.  But there is a much greater cost than the obvious one of lost time.  Interdepartmental dissention and faulty alignment--along with an organization designed for the 1950s--slows momentum and makes for clumsy execution.  Creativity and innovation most often are the ongoing casualties where the organizational energy goes to turf wars. Such an organization can't maneuver the unexpected curves, hills, and route changes in the long distance race to win.  Without natural synergy between departments built on easy relationships, competition that should be directed toward our true competitors becomes internalized.  Weeks and years are lost in a business world where days and hours count. Answering the Basic Questions--First in a Three Part Series People in organizations want to see the topic of how to get departments to work together better addressed formally and informally.  In the next three issues we'll explore the insights of our BizWatch readers and advisors on this opportunity area.  We will address the following questions:   Why do departments have conflict with one another, some more than others?   Can organizations address these issues to improve working relationships? Let's begin with what members of organizations think, feel, and say (when they feel it's safe to talk). Often the reactions are raw feelings.  Here a few observations that illustrate many we received. In the comments our readers shared, nobody escaped critique, not even senior management. " [My most] unfavorable experiences have been with upper management who are clueless about the day to day affairs of individual units,"  wrote one person stressed about relations with the executive offices. Departments in general were often seen as devious and self-serving. "Often times each department, or a section in a Department, will create their own procedures to enhance what they are doing, but not share it with the rest of the organization.   "When one department feels / acts superior to another, issues are created and the focus switches to internal politics, not the external customers and competitors." Many turned with guns blazing on finance. Financial services function as enforcers of the unyielding, draconian payroll and budget process rules that take on a life of their own—having long lost their logic or original purpose. Purchasing was often seen as a mountain that loomed between other departments and their ability to function. "I would have to say Purchasing has to be the worst.  And it does not have to be that way." "Procurement is the most difficult to work with because they think that vendors in the areas that source services can be evaluated and prices compared between them just like with equipment [commodity] vendors. Sales also took its hits. "Sales – sell it and worry about making money later.  Sales organizations with incentive programs based on top line growth with no repercussions for operating losses or poor service make life difficult . "I have felt comfortable working with most of the Operations functions, but uneasy when it comes to sales/marketing.  They seen to have an arrogance of their own and proud of it." And there were bitter words toward human resources. "I found early on that we constantly battled friction between my staff and the HR department.  My staff felt like they were treated like 'step children' which made them resentful of the HR people.  At the same time my staff felt like what they were doing (building/selling a $70 million condo) was more demanding and important than the work performed by HR.  The dynamics of the relationships between departments in organizations is often not clear.  Why is it that different departments working for the same organization--whose very survival depends on their working together to produce an outcome--operate like warring nations? Departments believe that their own behavior is both rational and reasonable--and it is, at a certain level.  In organizations, however, the rationality of behaviors gets twisted like pretzels. Most employees believe they're working for the success of the organization, but they see it from their own department's point of view.  The following are some exaggerations (but not too exaggerated) of the way departments tend to think: If my department generates the revenue, I shouldn't be questioned about the way we spend money.  After all, it takes money to make money, and we make the money.  You wouldn't get a paycheck without us.   If my department is in charge of counting the money, I'm keeping the organization from bankruptcy, and you should follow our rules.    If my department determines the legality of what we do, you need to follow our dictates, if we don't want to end up in court or in jail.    If my department delivers the product, don't get in our way!    If my department is in charge of making personnel rules, in order to be fair we need rules that never vary.  Please don't ask us to make exceptions to the rules--even when exceptions might seem to make more sense than the rule. And so each department makes its argument about the centrality of its function.  We realize that no matter how central or important is the mission of a department, its operations will be influenced by the needs of others.  All departments are vital to the success of the organization, but any department can overextend itself to the point that it will bring itself down with everyone else. Next issue: How to Lead My Own Department to Relationships that Work

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