“SUPERVISING” CULTURE – SHOULD PSYCHOLOGISTS HELP RESCUE THE PMSA’s BOARDROOM?
WHAT THE AUSTRALIAN SECURITIES AND INVESTMENTS COMMISSION IS PROPOSING IN ORDER TO COMBAT ‘GROUP THINK’ AND DOMINEERING BEHAVIOUR IN BOARDROOMS - AND WHY WE THINK IT IS NEEDED AT THE PMSA
You may be interested to know that the Australian Securities and Investment Commission (ASIC) has just come out with a “seemingly” novel, but in fact very relevant and valuable approach to improving decision-making by Boards. A series of national newspaper articles have been recently published on the topic. It is a revealing and VERY interesting read that we think is entirely relevant to the continuing problems arising due to the tin ear of the PMSA.
ASIC THINKS THAT PSYCHOLOGISTS CAN IMPROVE BOARD CULTURE AND DECISIONS – (WE THINK ONE ALSO NEEDS TO BE “EMPOWERED” IN THAT CAPACITY ON THE PMSA BOARD)
ASIC is moving to have an organisational psychologist observe the inner workings of 21 major Australian companies, which may include QANTAS and others. (For those of you who are interested, you can access an informative article from the Australian Financial review on 19 June 2019 entitled “ASIC shrink says corporate culture is broken” here: https://www.afr.com/leadership/management/asic-shrink-says-corporate-culture-is-broken-20190619-p51z7r ).
The approach to inserting a psychologist in these institutions is voluntary, but ASIC’s approach is coming on the back of the Banking Royal Commission. (The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority adopted a similar approach last year in a prudential inquiry into governance, culture and accountability at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia).
Some commentators have argued that the appointment of psychologists should not be mandated by ASIC (on the basis that it could potentially dilute the effectiveness of the regulator by running the risk of it becoming “too” connected to critical decision making by Boards) – and that does not appear to be the current intention. However, in the case of the PMSA, for example, would the voluntary appointment of an INDEPENDENT organisational psychologist to it’s Board (in that SPECIFIC capacity and for the SPECIFIC task of examining and improving Board culture and decision making) be such a bad idea? We think it would be a very positive improvement – for reasons which should be obvious to all after 2 years of continuing community pain.
Appointing qualified experts and advisers to Boards is nothing new. But in most cases, the experts are there to fill quite narrowly defined decision-making skill-sets which Boards determine will meet their equally narrow view of the strategic and commercial objectives of the organisation. These combined skill-sets therefore often lack the broader perspective which is necessary to align decisions with the cultural values expected by the stakeholders, customers or communities with which the organisation engages. Without that clear alignment of shared culture and values, an organisation is less likely to succeed.
And even if Boards DO have members with professional qualifications in psychology, their role and function on the Board is invariably NOT predominantly focused on critically examining how Board members interact at the Board level or with management. To be effective, they should be tasked with improving Board culture, and they should be EMPOWERED in that role.
SIMPLY SAYING “WE ARE GOING TO IMPROVE OUR CULTURE” DOESN’T CUT IT
We think that adopting an inward-facing approach to Board composition with this functionality is critically important to improving the quality of commercial and strategic outcomes. For organisations like the PMSA which operate in the charitable and not-for-profit sector, there is heightened community focus on there being an ethical and trustworthy delivery of the organisation’s “mission”. Being successful in the MANNER in which you deliver the mission is directly linked to perceptions of the health of an organisation’s culture and the trust placed within it.
Poor culture doesn’t get fixed simply by saying “we are going to improve our culture”. The PMSA have tried that lazy approach, but just look at the continuing debacle that is evidenced by the PMSA Board’s desperate and VICE-LIKE control over the entire PMSA Group structure below it. We are NOT seeing an authentic devolution of operational control to our Schools like we were promised.
No - the PMSA has every expectation of being the recipients of unwavering and unquestioning trust from everyone below them in Toowong Towers, but they do NOT offer the same trust and respect to the community that they serve. It’s a ONE WAY STREET – and the preliminary results of our “Volunteering Culture Survey” are proving, in a more dramatic fashion than even we expected, that nothing has changed on that front despite the PMSA’s rhetoric ! The peasants are not happy – and there are a LOT of them who have had a LOT to say!! (More details of those results will follow soon).
The PMSA has many continuing and serious structural deficiencies in its current governance framework. Adopting this measure at Board level without removing Letters Patent will NOT solve all of those serious problems, but having an organisational psychologist appointed to the PMSA Board could actually assist the PMSA to monitor and improve its corporate culture and to better manage both financial and non-financial risks (including the development and implementation of child safety response mechanisms).
Yes, we are aware that the PMSA has at least one current member with qualifications in psychology (now retired from that profession) – but we say that is by coincidence rather than by design. Why? Well there is NO elevated or DELIBERATE VALUE that has been attributed to that skillset as part of the Board’s functioning, and the PMSA’s current Board Skills Matrix does NOT include these skills as part of its targeted requirements. These skills are obviously not a priority for it - now or going forward. It is a glaring gap – which is surprising given the very clear challenges that the PMSA Board faces in this area. If its good enough for ASIC, APRA and the big end of town – then it ought to be a no brainer for a School Board which is struggling to recover after being badly broken by its own poor culture.
RELIANCE ON LEGALLY-ORIENTED CONDUCT FRAMEWORKS DOESN’T HELP BUILD TRUST
In the Australian Financial review article on 19 June 2019 (referred to above) there was a revealing quote from the ASIC appointed organisational psychologist Elizabeth Arzadon. She stated that: “There are some companies in Australia with shareholders who might be wondering whether more visibility into risk culture would have altered their investment decisions.” She then went on to state that “It is a problematic symbol when you see senior level resistance to very public feedback regarding the appropriateness of an institution’s behaviour.” She also stated that: “Such a cultural norm doesn’t bode well for managing the gap that can arise when public expectations fall out of step with legally oriented conduct frameworks”.
These are very simple and continuing messages that have been put forward by Beyond PMSA and many in the community, and which are continuing to fall on PMSA ears deafened by pride.
RESISTANCE TO PUBLIC CRITICISM IS A SIGN OF BAD CULTURE
In another AFR article on 20 June 2019 entitled “Board whisperer says culture is broken”, Ms Arzadon also warned that RESISTANCE by Boards to public criticism IS A MARK OF BAD CULTURE, staff surveys are not enough and that leaders are dragging their feet on culture. “How many company CEOs know the difference between culture and climate, versus those that can differentiate between depreciation and amortization?” Ms Arzadon stated. How many on the PMSA Board (or within the Churches that influence their culture and decision making) can honestly say that they do?
In the case of PMSA Schools, we still have a governing body that is resisting (and denying) a VERY STRONG MAJORITY of public feedback concerning its behaviour and its continued lack of accountability over past actions. And more importantly, we still have a governing body that focuses on living by “legally-oriented conduct frameworks” instead of just doing the right thing. The Christian thing ! Everyone knows that the PMSA’s broader reputation in Queensland has been defined by this approach for decades – and not in a good way !
THE PMSA HAS WAGED A WAR OF ATTRITION AGAINST THE ENTIRE COMMUNITY – BECAUSE IT IS NOT IN ITS NATURE TO “HEAL”
The PMSA will not test community sentiment properly because it is beholden to belligerent and dysfunctional influences. It will not test community sentiment properly because doing so will mean admitting that the they never authentically engaged with their community in the first place.
There has not been a single concession on governance issues of material concern to the broader community in over 24 months. Any small gains have been hard fought for, insufficiently transformative in effect, and begrudgingly delivered (at a glacial pace). And if the PMSA actually believe that they have delivered material concessions or made great strides ahead on governance reform, then they are deluded. The continuing on-ground experience of the majority in the community and of volunteer groups that we are hearing from (with regard to the PMSA and its influencers) tells a different story. A story that does NOT have at its heart feelings of “genuine collaborative spirit” or “mutual trust and respect”. The feeling is awkward, at times antagonistic, and decidedly “corporate”. Is this the future of the culture in our schools? Is this the cultural foundation upon which the PMSA intends to base a successful delivery of its strategic vision to 2023?
EVERYTHING has always been on the PMSA’s own terms and they (and their masters) have disguised their WAR OF ATTRITION against the community (and against genuine governance reform) under a cloak of shiny but transparent “spin”. Spin that is designed to fool an unsuspecting community into believing that they are being gifted real change, when in fact the PMSA is now delivering on its intended pathway of completing an expensive, Deloitte-styled centralisation of power and control (under a blown-out “big governance” model). This has never been a healing process for them. It has been a farcical sales job to us all that they must be “bigger” to be “better”.
GET THE HELP YOU NEED
So this is why the PMSA need professional help on their Board.
The PMSA are in a bubble of ignorance to broader community opinion and have absolutely no interest in legitimately testing community sentiment on the reform pathway that they have imposed upon us all. They will not do so, because the small group surrounding them is telling them how wonderful they are, and how horribly unreasonable and unforgiving everyone else is being to them. And that minority of comforting back-slappers and “Group-Thinkers” is enough to help the 2017 Councillors (in particular) sleep at night? The PMSA really needs to get out more and talk to community members outside of the controlled environment of repressed representative groups that it usually fronts in safety if it wants to get a handle on this. It is hearing what it wants to hear – not what it needs to hear. A highly trained independent organisational psychologist will help them understand that.
A full recovery of our schools won’t be achieved under Letters Patent, and we doubt that the PMSA will adopt such a wise and forward thinking approach to the health of its own Boardroom by adopting the lead taken by ASIC and APRA. That is why –
We are not going away.
Thank you for your support.
Beyond PMSA
SURVEY REMINDER
PLEASE take the time to fill out our Survey and provide feedback on your experiences and what you think the role and responsibilities of volunteering groups, including our P&Fs, should be. You can access it here:
The Survey will only take a couple of minutes to complete. Your participation is TOTALLY confidential - so you can have confidence that NO personal details will be collected or disclosed. Please SHARE the Survey WIDELY with other members of the PMSA Schools community and take the time to complete and provide useful feedback that we can translate into some real DATA DRIVEN INSIGHTS. It is important that we gather as many opinions and experiences as possible.
