A mysterious news headline that captured the world’s attention in March 2014 is the story of Malaysia Airline MH370 from Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing that vanished from the radar and to date (May 2014) debris has not been found. There are many theories and conspiracy theories suggesting many possible occasions that can happen to the plane, whether it has landed somewhere, was it electrical error, or plane could be shot and explode without trace, could it be pilot suicide, or as we were told in the news that the plane ended its journey in the Indian Ocean. Where is MH370?
April 2014 news headline catches the world’s attention again with the South Korean Sewol Ferry heading to Jeju Island sank into the ice cold water killing mostly students who were on their field trip but never made it. Captain and majority of the crew members were the first to escape leaving passengers in their cabin. The crew instructed all passengers to stay put! Whose Responsibility is it?
In chaotic situations, the group would need to pick a leader to instruct a clear command and be responsible for the task assigned. In case of MH370, the leader for search and rescue mission was the Malaysian Official (MH is Malaysia National Airline). Then came the Australian Official since the identified search area falls closest to Australia. With international collaborations and team work, many Nations lend helping hands to Malaysia, the family of passengers and crew of the missing plane, and all those involved. However, the family and relatives of the victims are not satisfied with the handling of information claiming there is no transparency on information dissemination. I believe what relatives of the victims need is “to know the real and raw information”.
Management lessons learned from these sad incidents are:
1) Leader should not panic in time of chaos;
2) Leader must give a clear command and be responsible for the situation;
3) no name calling, no blaming, no finger pointing, unless you see or have the evidence to prove your information was right;
4) good leader does not abandon company in time of crisis but to help solve its problem unless he or she finds someone else who is more competent to lead the firm;
5) Leader must be conscious and be alert at all time;
6) Real time information is essential to dealing with stakeholders of the company. Mis-handling of information could stir anger to everyone involved;
7) Respect individuality and privacy of each company. You cannot expect your rival company to open their closet and let you see their dirt or their deep dark secret, isn’t it?
In the case of MH370, the pilot or the commander of the aircraft is not present to explain his side of the story, not even one passenger to tell us what went wrong. The way to learn the whereabout of what happened to the missing aircraft is from the radar, the communication exchange between ground and plane, and the “black box” that would tell us what really happened in the cockpit. I felt it is not fair to keep blaming Malaysian officials for the incident, there might be other factors to consider, perhaps the raw information or findings whether it is the leads or not, can be given privately to the relatives. I believe this would ease the tension for the family members who are waiting for their loved ones to return. Clearly for the Sewol ferry case, responsibility falls on the Captain who abandoned the ship leaving hundreds trapped dead in the sunken ferry. The leader was very irresponsible and must be punished by law.
These two cases glued me to the development of the search and rescue news. Can you imagine a work place without Leader? An office without a Boss? The plane without pilot and ferry without captain? That must be very scary and stressful! No direction, no driver, and therefore, lead to errors and accidents.
According to Prof. Alison R. Fragale, associate professor of organizational behavior at the University of North Carolina Kenan-Flagler Business School, “Managers and leaders often ask how do they create efficient work groups that get tasks done. The best results will come from appointing a leader at the onset because that gives the group some form of hierarchy and avoids ambiguity about who is in charge. Without a leader, a lot of time is wasted with mutual deference but eventually a hierarchy will form…While self-managed teams are fairly popular these days and hierarchies are getting flatter, it doesn’t mean it has to squish to zero. All the leader has to have is the authority to break a tie. We make hierarchies a lot taller than they need to be”.
Inspired by Winston Churchill, “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm”. I prayed for all survivors and lives lost in both incidents. May the plane be discovered soon and all bodies from the ship be recovered.
