Al-Watan newspaper

SOME readers may not agree with the title of this article for holding an ordinary employee responsible for the excesses of his top management. Each person will have good and bad qualities but its ratio differs from one person to another.

In social and official circles people use their influence either to show their goodness and trustworthiness or make personal gains and realize their vested interests. The latter also use their capabilities to establish dominance over others.

Such individuals may be a manager, an ordinary employee or a security guard. They gain this influence over the years as a result of their long-standing association with the company or institution, its senior officials and top management.

You will see many employees in the lowest grade to have great influence on the top managers who will take decisions considering the opinion of such workers. They will use the influence for good or bad purposes depending on the values they hold.

In many occasions, corrupt individuals would have a negative effect on other employees as the manager would be taking decisions under the influence of corrupt employees. Such individuals will do anything to maintain their close relationship with the manager.

This group of people will show dedication and loyalty but will have no self-esteem and will be ready to do anything demanded from them, be it good or bad, as long as it supports their efforts to come close to officials in the highest echelons.

Some people make use of this group to achieve their goals, even though they don’t like those practices. They spy on the top management, get information about what is going on in the company and the difference of opinion about administrative decisions. They collect this information secretly and most employees would not suspect them because of their low position in the institution.

There are some employees who spy on the activities of the top management without being asked by anybody. These employees will be known for their intellectual and administrative corruption and use their influence to make money and realize their vested interests.

These people get various benefits for their activities. As a result we can rightly say they are corrupt employees under fair managers. If the manager takes any action against his staff members on the basis of the spy work conducted by this corrupt employee it means the manager is not capable of doing his work properly as his decision emanates from his wrong concept of responsibility. It also shows the manager’s lack of self-confidence and his disability to identify and solve the weak points under his administration without the advice of other employees.

Some managers consider themselves as leaders and controllers of their administration and employees. They believe that they have the authority to question and punish employees. Undoubtedly they have the powers to do such things as long as they consider certain factors.

The manager should understand the mistake done by the employee before imposing punishment and he should not do that under the influence of other employees. Even if the employee has done something wrong the punishment should be balanced and should be carried out in a fair manner.

He should uphold the values of equality and justice while providing incentives and imposing punishment. He should not usurp the right of a person and give it to another without any genuine reason. We should follow the modern management system to fight all forms of corruption.

Corrupt employees can be considered dangerous viruses that can destroy our institutions and companies if effective actions were not taken to neutralize them. We expect from the agency for combating corruption to conduct a study on the negative influence of corrupt officials and employees to understand the damage they have been doing to the management and institutions.