The gift or token of appreciation
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Our best wishes for 2011, joy and health to all our members and readers!
Let’s hope that all the contradictory opinions due to a bad management will die down and that we’ll regain our trust in the public and private organizations.
The Sound Management is just a statement of the main principles. This year we intend to demystify this concept in our blogs and articles so the term becomes part of the vocabulary of as many people as possible.
Sound Management is the very core of a leader’s or a manager’s day-to-day life. So, we’re going to present some cases of management and some suggestions of answers thanks to the Sound Management INSTITUTE.
Today, we’re going to engage in an ethical-managerial discussion on the concept of “gift”.
CONCEPT OF GIFT
Both the giving and the receiving imply a great pleasure. To offer a gift is an art. According to Jacques Gandouin’s “Guide du protocole”, it’s more important how we offer a gift than what it represents. There are many occasions to offer gifts: between friends, colleagues, for family reunions, childbirths, baptisms, marriage, anniversaries, Christmas, and New Year’s Eve.
More or less valuable, gifts contribute to friendship, a vital condition for the business relationship. The affinity, the pleasure of working together on common projects, and the natural complicity are essential qualities to succeed. François Hertel emphasized the idea as it follows:
“It’s both art and hard work. The activity of a human being is distorted as soon as it’s isolated from the human being.” (2)
First of all, Sound Management is a person-oriented concept for leaders or managers, private or public sector. Manage, lead, and decide are acts taken as part of the human activity.
Nowadays, we are confronted to an immeasurable lost of trust and the cynicism continues to feed the quite useless witch hunt, the only ones taking advantage of it being those who are still trying to cloud the issue. Jealous antagonists or just the narcissistic ones only want to put a spoke in people’s wheel to recreate the atmosphere of the Tower of Babel. Blathering, berating, reviling, this will be soon our national sport!
Fishing our hunting trips, or, even more, private luxury yachts, gargantuan meals, orgies organized by Vincent Lacroix, some bottles of wine and donuts – yes, you didn’t misread, donuts from Mrs. Donuts, – all these have something in common. First of all, they are all gifts. Do the media identify the slight difference?
The biggest risk the management takes is to spread doubt. It is very difficult to govern without trusting the principle mandataries or the shareholders, especially if this is a long-term situation.
Regarding the Sound Management concept, we believe that each organization should establish or revise, together with the board of directors, the administrative policy or policies concerning the gifts received or offered by the managers or the employees.
Taking into consideration your mode of operation during this mission and the risk related to the loss of trust in the managers of your organization, we suggest you should take a look at the vocabulary and basic rules established by the OAAQ in the compendium of the GASMP:
Definition
“Gifts”: A gift is what a donor grants or deeds a recipient without asking for compensation in return. The term “gift” may refer, among other things, to: assets, objects, trips, money and negotiable cash, benefits and privileges.
Gifts and courtesies can be offered on the occasion of business meetings to maintain good commercial relationships.
According to the abnegation principle, gifts and courtesies can be accepted if the following criteria are satisfied:
a) gifts or courtesies are disclosed internally according to the company or organization’s policies;
b) the public disclosure of gifts or courtesies wouldn’t embarrass either the donor and the company or the recipient;
c) gifts and courtesies are frugal. They are frugal if they don’t have an important impact on the donor’s financial transaction and on the recipient’s personal income;
d) gifts and courtesies aren’t offered to a political figure, government employees, or military personnel;
e) gifts and courtesies do not consist in amount of money or other negotiable values;
f) gifts and courtesies are in conformity with the existing law in the recipient’s country.
This is how the Sound Management framework (SMF) of the ISM can contribute to reduce the risks in management in this field.
In respect of the Sound Management, the obligation implies, first of all, the implementation of an administrative policy regarding the gifts. This policy must be in conformity with the rules suggested in the previous article.
Then, the leader and the manager have to make sure of being in conformity with these rules, according to this policy, and then of implementing a mechanism to be respected by the members of the organization.
Finally, the Board of directors has to make sure that this policy, the same as all the other policies approved by the Board, is submitted to a process of control and internal audit.
We hope that this information may be useful to you for your New Year’s resolutions
Bernard Brault F.Adm.A F.CMC.
(1) GANDOUIN, Jacques, Guide du protocole et des usages, Stocks 1991
(2) HERTEL François, Pour un ordre personnaliste, Montréal, Édition de l’arbre, 1942, p. 172.
3 comments
Pauvre Monsieur Brault, vous perdez votre temps car plus personne ne s’intéresse aux cadeaux! Les gens cherchent au contraire à éviter les cadeux car les enveloppes brunes sont bien plus discrètes!
Réjean
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