The log in workers� eye
Mmegi Editor | Wednesday October 7, 2015 15:51
When it became obvious that to attract the much-needed foreign investment was being hampered by poor service delivery, the leadership acted to bring about mind shift.
There was an improvement. But after taking a slight dip in 2014, lack of good work ethic once again emerged top of the list of worrisome impediments for attracting investors this year.
According to the recently released 2015-16 Global Competitiveness Report (GCR), the severity of this problem increased by 0.5% this year in relation to the previous year.
Studies carried out by the Botswana National Productivity Centre (BNPC) show that poor work ethic of the labour force manifests through poor attitude towards work as well as lack of reliability.
For a country such as Botswana, which is trying to elevate from a factor-driven economy to an efficiency- driven one, the prevailing poor work ethic comes with detrimental economic consequences.
While management training experts as well as government through the BNPC can do much to improve this situation, real and tangible results will only begin to be realised once there is a mindset change at individual level.
A few years ago, the government set up a cabinet sub-committee to try and improve productivity as well as the recent bolstering of the doing business reforms. This was a commendable effort.
We believe these efforts coupled with BNPC’s campaign to sensitise the labour force about the rewards of improving work ethic are all well intended and could be fruitful in the long term.
But until each and every worker, has a change of attitude, be it through coercion or personal conviction, very little can be achieved in the short term to curtail this ten-year old problem.
Until each and every worker starts to appreciate that it is for their and the country’s good to adopt traits of good work ethic, Botswana will continue to have low productivity levels.
And with low productivity comes the vulnerability that the country currently faces with 80 percent of our exports dominated by a single commodity.
Low productivity also results in the dearth of employment creation as well as little or no foreign direct investment.
We look forward to an upcoming conference to be held by the BNPC to review the country’s competitiveness with renewed hope that it will help usher in the much needed impetus to correct the wrongs in our workplaces.
As we navigate the current challenging economic period characterised by negative growth in real incomes and the possibility of job cuts constantly, we cannot afford to throw the baby away with the bath water. For Botswana to prosper and be competitive on the international market place, it needs workers that have dependability, honesty and integrity, accountability, punctuality and good attitudes.
Today’s thought
“Let us rather run the risk of
wearing out than rusting out.”
~ Theodore Roosevelt