Why the Volkswagen Mess May Be Bad News for Us
By now nearly everyone has heard at least some of the sordid details of Volkswagen's unwinding in the emissions software scandal. It appears the VW, the biggest international car company, deliberated configured its diesel car software to yield artificially good emissions reports. And "artificially good" is used here as a synonym for "cheating." Some in the private, independent education sector may be tempted to see Volkswagen's troubles as something over there in the for-profit world, far away from anything leaders face in schools. They would be wrong.Any organization is ripe to have its own moment in the media spotlight for some sort of scandal. It is delusional to think otherwise. But what makes Volkswagen's mess particularly relevant is this take on the story in today's Financial Times, as well as this in the New York Times. The FT piece clearly places much blame on governance; in particular, a "myopic" focus on shareholders at the expense of other stakeholder groups.
"Arguably, what has been missing in the boardroom is effective stakeholder management. As well as shareholders, customers, employees, suppliers and the environment all need to be considered in board-level discussions."
We all know schools that have become case studies when stakeholder interests become the focus of the board. But, is there a happy medium? While I am not at all sure that greater stakeholder engagement with VW's board would have averted the current scandal, there may be some utility in finding ways for boards to hear the voice of those who use the organization's products and services. The trick is in finding the right way to listen.Too often in schools, board members in independent and international schools have an unfortunate tendency to (1) believe that one complaining parent or teacher represents all parents or teachers and is not just presenting an anecdote, (2) assume an advocacy stance on behalf of the parent complaint (“after all, they brought it to me, so now I have to do something about it”), and (3) be quick to jump on the bandwagon of criticizing the school, the head of school, and whatever else. None of these are helpful and each is extremely destructive.True, VW's board may have been asleep at the proverbial switch. as might Marlborough School's board (see the now famous Vanity Fair piece on them here), but somewhere between asleep and hyper-vigilant is a sweet spot we need to hit. My fear is that a raft of scandals, some inside our field, may propel practice toward a new round of overdoing the hyper part.