All of us are quite familiar with this rather famous (infamous) incident that rocked the International cricket world. Lets us do a small synopsis of the case and analyze what you and me and the companies/organizations that employed us or would be employing us would do in a scenario.
It all started with Darrel Hair accusing the Pakistani team of ball tampering. The team protested and didn’t field itself and the match was subsequently forfeited to England. Soon the mighty players- ICC, country cricket boards like BCCI, CAB and the media world jumped to aggravate the fiasco. Then came the special letter from Hair to ICC.
Having worked with a MNC for more than 24 months and been through the initial phase of boom till the Lehman brothers collapse and then the following meltdown, I have seen a bit of the two sides of the coin.
Pre Lehman brothers collapse-The economy was on a roll. As growth forecasts and demand equations were outplaying each other, companies were expanding at an astronomical rate and then were recruiting more and more people every day. The demand for employees and resources was more than the available supply and so the sword of power was with the employees. Many of them had more than 1 offer. Hence they were making hay while the sun shone- demanding salary hikes, better profiles, onsite opportunities and other benefits. Clearly the employee was the king.
Aftermath of the meltdown-The growth juggernaut applied sudden brakes. Organization and companies started getting less and less orders and business started to suffer. They had no choice but to resort to cost cutting measures- freeze or almost no hike in pay, pay cuts including abolishment of variable pay, forced leave, sabbaticals, deferred salaries payment and even job cuts. Now the employees had absolutely nothing to say and they had to meekly accept the treatment mooted. The balance of power shifted to the employer or organization hands and so the bargaining power and they were the new kings.
Hair being a well known umpire and respected in the cricketing circles did enjoy some clout. Moreover he was in the elite panel of umpires. And hence he used the power of his position to come out with the letter.
Let’s analyze the following points with respect to real life scenario-
Would you be able to make similar non-negotiable offer to your employer in any point of time in your career?
It all depends on my position and relative worth. It depends on the experience level, my capabilities and competencies. If I am a so called critical resource or in other words my team and my organization would find it difficult to find a substitute for me, then the sword of the bargaining power rests with me. I can define the rules of the game to certain extent. Also if I have other assured avenues or opportunities like offers from other organizations, I can dictate terms to certain extent. I am stressing on certain extent because I believe most of the times, a single employee cannot make the elephant (organization) dance to his/her tune for long. Organizations because of their size and clout will find a replacement and curtail the individual’s flight. Let me remind you that even Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple was driven out by his own company.
Employer or organizational perspective
Again it all depends upon the relative value of the concerned individual to my organization. I would never want to lose a qualified, competent and valuable resource. As the employer , I would like to analyze the terms put forth and based on the criticality of the resource and the substitutability and then take the call. It also depends on what kind of organization I have, what’s its value and the economic scenario prevailing.
Thank you
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