The Importance of Encouraging Fraternity as Corporate Culture

I often drop by the Kuala Lumpur office premises of my former employer, an international insurance company, after my recent retirement effective Aug. 1, 2011. Many former colleagues, whom I bumped into or paid a visit, asked whether it was because I missed the company so much due to long years as its employee. My standard answer was in my following prose:

“It’s not that I miss less the company, but I miss more the company of my good friends in the company, with whom we have mutually forged a fraternity company among ourselves.” Why do I say so?

Pragmatically put, the rationale is simple.

1. My attachment to the company constituted more than half of my life hitherto, thus naturally a sense of affiliation to it would inhibit in me to some extent. I was in the news media for four years prior to that, but served the last employer for 33 years.
2. Like most other sales and service-oriented big corporations, work stress was inevitably part and parcel of the work atmosphere. However, having colleagues to fraternise with and for securing assistance in times of need made a lot of difference to my work morale – that helped to neutralise the strain that came with the routine chores. 
3. Over the years, I have fostered close fraternal relationship with quite a number of people I worked with, both in the administrative and agency (sales) force sectors not only in Kuala Lumpur, but also in other parts of the country. Whenever I pay a visit to the various places – even now, in my retired status – I will have my good friends meeting up with me for purpose of fellowship. Whenever I need help in a certain matter which any of them is familiar with, I can be assured of receiving a helping hand from my pal who responds to my call. My fraternal circles established while I was in the company are a combination of retirees, existing personnel in the company and those who have left for other pastures. So, it is a mixture of my seniors in age plus the younger friends. (In addition, I also keep in touch with a few peers of my news media days, who are still serving Malaysian newspapers in editorial positions. 
4. Friends in the company still frequently call me to join them for breakfast, tea, lunch or drinks in the evening despite the fact that I am no longer their colleagues. The sincere gestures are from both the administrative staff and agency force members. The close fraternity that we have forged together still stands unwavering.

I believe these four points should paint the clear picture in respect of the basis of my prose in the second paragraph.

Question that you may ask: How is the fraternity spirit imbued into the people in a corporation, making it a corporate culture? 

A company intrinsic culture is representative of its top management. The level of relationship links within the company is representative of its personnel in it. The two statements may appear to be separately apart. In reality, the two are intertwined. Yes, it very much depends on individuals in a company to forge their fraternity, but that would be on personal basis. On the other hand, fraternity on the macro perspective can only be attained if the top management is willing to institute it as part of the company culture. Allow me to elaborate.

A management which believes in group synergy at large will set the stage for its personnel to delve into issues and subjects jointly. It will adopt resolutions or solutions to problems that are arrived at jointly from amicable deliberations among relevant parties. As such, mutual support for one another prevails. A management which prefers to strictly institute full accountability within each department will set the stage for its personnel to self-protect themselves in whatever they do – they will refrain from offering suggestions to other related departments and officers; instead they will thwart requests for assistance from other parties and push away subjects that do not fall directly under their ambit. Which type of management will pave the ground for encouraging fraternity as part of its corporate culture? Obviously, the first type.

Healthy fraternity in a corporation leads to healthy working environment that promotes mutual support, which in turn will lead to create a greater sense of belonging of the personnel to the company. A greater sense of belonging to the company will lead to higher morale. A higher morale will ultimately lead to more vibrant all-round results. See the positive chain effect?

The corporate world today is reflective of pressured demands for performance excellence instilled into employees. Backroom administrative and processing personnel are pressed to churn out great volumes of workload. Those in the sales sector are assigned increasing quotas and targets year after year. Because of intense competition in the insurance industry, like in Malaysia, it is too common to see personnel working their hearts out for long hours as a daily routine. And it is also too common to see high turnover of manpower in many corporations in the industry. When people are overly engrossed in their jobs day in and day out, when can they find time to fraternise?

I am an avid fan of Steven Covey, the protagonist of the “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” programme. His last but not least 7^th habit is “Sharpen the Saw”. To me, the 7^th Habit encompasses the other six habits and encapsulates the overall programme as its finale. This chapter promulgates the allotment of time for “renewal”. One dimension that needs to be renewed constantly is the Social/Emotional dimension.

Steven says in his book: “Meeting new people and deepening existing relationships allow us to sharpen the saw socially. We grow in this dimension every time we encounter a new social or emotional challenge. In this way, even social experiences we might consider unpleasant can enrich us.”

Among the examples he gave for sharpening the saw are:

• Build new friendships. Be open to widening your circle of friends.
• Value the differences in others and look for opportunities to synergise.

Renewal of the Social/Emotional dimension relates to forging proactive fraternity relationships.

Yes. I inhibit a sense of affiliation to the organisation I served for 33 years. But it was the feeling of attachment to my fraternal circles while I was there that kept me on all these years. You see the difference? Question: Would I have a stronger sense of belonging to the organisation or to my fraternal circles developed during my tenure there? I believe you already know the answer.

At this juncture, I liked to mention two more elderly (than me) gentlemen who were my mentors and bosses   – Andrew Tan and SK Phe. They held key posts. Andrew was the regional chief agency officer (representing Hong Kong head office). SK was first the agency management icon of the entire north (from Perak State upwards), later appointed as the Deputy Director of Agencies, Malaysia. They set the example for his subordinates to emulate with regard to the essence of fraternity in their dealings. Officially, they acted as “uncles” to their subordinates. There were times they admonished them (including me), often provided advice to them on how to improve, but more prominently treated them as their younger friends apart from work relationship. I continue to keep in close contact with them.

Photograph taken during my most recent holiday trip with friends to Sichuan Province, China. Except for one of the two ladies, the rest of us are retirees who worked for the same company.

Here are some video clips of a recent impromptu try-out band practice in a music studio. I was playing the drums. The rest are “elderly” personnel, including three from the agency (sales) force, still with the company. We had never “jammed” together prior to this.