A Case Study of a Dysfunctional Culture
Nick Wallis writes a story that should be a work of science fiction. Like Jurassic Park, he takes a ridiculous premise but then plays the idea through in a totally believable way. Nobody could recreate the dinosaurs, but good fiction takes a bizarre proposition and makes the outcome plausible.
Likewise, no Chief Executive would allow her organisation to wrongfully prosecute and imprison innocent contractors and employees. Yet that is the crux of the Post Office scandal. The rest of the story is only a damning reflection of poor corporate culture and behaviour.
Business Transformation
The Post Office went through a standard business transformation programme. They automated swathes of their paper-based processes by appointing a supplier — Fujitsu — to build a new IT system. In so doing, they created efficiency improvements and process transparency. They also appointed a new Chief Executive to ensure the organisation banked these and other savings, challenging her to make the organisation profitable.
The programme was such a success that the Chief Executive received a CBE in the 2019 New Year Honours List for services to the Post Office and to charity.
Corporate Failure
In his book, Nick Wallis shares a contrasting view of the programme. He explains how the IT system produced balancing errors in the accounts of post office branches.
All new systems have bugs, yet this one created a deluge of personal tragedies. The sub-postmasters on the receiving end of the errors became embroiled in a Kafka-esque nightmare as the dysfunctional culture and bovine managers in the Post Office refused to accept the issues, perpetuating the belief that the problem was with the people, not the technology.
This denial resulted in hundreds of sub-postmasters being wrongly tried and convicted for theft, fraud, and false accounting, creating one of the most widespread miscarriages of justice the UK has ever seen.
Management Failings
Nick Wallis’s tale is understandably light on what was happening within the Post Office (the Chief Executive preferred to hide from him than answer his questions). Still, reading between the lines, it is easy to imagine a web of management weaknesses:
- A focus on profit rather than purpose. The relentless drive by executives to make the Post Office profitable undoubtedly fuelled the organisation’s push to recover “stolen” cash.
- A dogmatic belief in system infallibility. Rather than investigating data issues, staff refused to accept the system could be wrong.
- Wilful blindness. As the evidence mounted that the system was at fault, the Post Office continued to denounce its critics and paid no heed to the problems.
- Use of targets to drive performance. Post Office investigators were targeted with the value of the recoveries they made. Is it surprising they didn’t listen to the sub-postmasters they were pursuing?
The list of management failures continues, including a good news culture, corporate whitewashing, adversarial supplier management, and an RFP process weighted almost entirely toward cost.
Dysfunctional Culture
While the book explores the scandal in all its horrific detail, the part that fascinated me (and had me screaming at the stereo in the car whilst listening to it) was the way it demonstrated how insidious the cultures of large organisations can become. Employees within the Post Office and Fujitsu went about their daily business without batting an eyelid to the fate of the sub-postmasters they were persecuting.
Hundreds of staff must have known (or at least suspected) what was happening in both organisations. Yet only one whistle-blower was prepared to take a stand. That fact is a disturbing indictment of both human nature and corporate culture.
Recommended Reading
It will cost the UK government and the taxpayer over £1 billion to fix the situation. Yet similar management failings are alive and well in many large organisations. The Great Post Office Scandal is a case study of how not to manage a corporation. It should become compulsory reading at every business school. It is far more valuable (and shocking) than the usual tomes on strategic management. Nick Wallis has written a fascinating book.
If you enjoyed this post, try Managed by Morons
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