The illusion of broken systems in organisations

Imagine you are a consultant in the organisational behaviour space and you have been hired by a corporate to fix what has been described to you as a “broken HR system”. The firm has been struggling with a high staff turnover with many employees barely lasting two years.

An audit of the departing employees shows that they were making lateral moves. Internal retention panels and taskforces had come up with what was believed to be innovative incentives to retain employees but even with these, the needle barely moved.

The CEO and HR honcho concluded that maybe the involvement of an impartial, detached outsider would not only help diagnose but also fix the malaise.

Pre-engagement review of documents from the client suggests that everyone is taking this problem seriously. Management has initiated talent retention bonuses for star performers. There is an elaborate coaching and career guidance programme in place. The organisation has a powerful mission to solve societal problems, something that should appeal to young, ambitious employees. So why are employees not staying?

This is so puzzling that you decide to consult an old colleague, a veteran who also teaches at a local university. You send a brief of your understanding of the problem to help her appreciate the challenge.

After a while, she calls back with what turns out to be a stunning response. “I am surprised you think that the HR system at that place is broken. There is no such thing as dysfunction in any organisation, each is aligned to achieve the results it currently gets.” 

“This is the myth that drives many change initiatives to the ground; that an organisation needs change because it is broken. No way. Any social system is the way it is because some people in the system want it that way, irrespective of what they may say. What you see as broken works for someone or some people in the system…your job is not to fix a broken system but to identify who the system is working for and who it is not,” she said.