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Policies hinder more than help

A survey from the National Computing Centre confirms what many of us already knew: people dodge policy rules in order to get things done faster.

By Miya Knights, 13 Feb 2009 at 14:06

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A majority of senior managers ignore policies in the name of expediency, according to a survey into technology and culture from the the National Computing Centre (NCC).

Based on a survey of 98 large and small UK organisations from both the public and private sectors, the report found 80 per cent of senior managers in the larger organisations circumvent organisational policies in the interests of local expediency.

Where policies were being circumvented, 41 per cent said they did what they felt was appropriate to get the job done. Some 27 per cent had devised their own workarounds and nice per cent admitted to frequently taking short cuts.

Despite this seeming lack of adherence to corporate policy, the survey’s respondents revealed a good understanding of the potential effects on their organisation’s brand and reputation if processes were overridden.

Seventy per cent said the potential effects would be loss of reputation and customer confidence and 42 per cent they would be liable for regulatory fines. But only 12 per cent thought circumventing internal processes would lead to a drop in share price.

It also emerged that those working for smaller organisations were more likely to consider their policies and procedures a hindrance.

Overall, just over a third thought organisations’ policies a burden to adhere to where, by contrast, only 39 per cent of smaller firms thought they gained a high degree of flexibility and interaction by adhering to organisational policies and procedures.

The survey was prepared in consultation with corporate risk body, the Corporate Executive Programme (CEP). And the report was developed in consultation with legacy migration and systems development software specialist, Erudine.

Martin Rice, Erudine chief executive, said: “Organisations all too often look externally to sources of risk, but as this survey shows, the risks from within are major. Policies have to be workable and not so cumbersome that the workforce makes arbitrary local decisions to circumvent them. They have to strike the right balance between flexibility and control to promote innovation and enable the free flow of business processes.”