At a recent meeting with Mr Liikanen, the Commission member responsible for Personnel and Administration, I was particularly struck by his comments on the problems faced by the Commission, both internally and vis-à-vis the outside world, as a result of management failings. These management failures affect all aspects of the Commission’s resources. They cause, in particular, unacceptable delays in the examination, handling and carrying-forward of dossiers. This situation is incompatible with a modern and efficient public service, and severely compromises the proper operation of the Commission’s departments, as well as generating a very damaging atmosphere within those departments.

Research management is not exempt from these failings. Whilst the overall situation is worrying as a whole, it is in respect of human resources management that it seems to me, as a staff representative and Political Secretary of the FFPE to be of fundamental importance. If the quality of those who are in charge of personnel management as such is generally high, this cannot be said of all those in the various Directorates and Units whose job is, on a day-to-day basis, to implement staff policy. Here the situation is very mixed, and it is here that the real "management" failings appear. The "research" sector is made up primarily of "scientists", women and men who are often at the leading edge in their respective fields, but whose basic training and subsequent careers, and despite their natural human qualities, mean that they are all-too-often ill-prepared for the responsibility of providing effective team Leadership. In any group of women and men, efficiency is usually the result of essential harmony between them. In striving to attain such harmony it is necessary to earn and then keep the respect of the individuals concerned and to be even-handed, whilst at the same time encouraging others to take responsibility for their own and others’ actions, all this in a spirit of healthy competition, and on the basis of intelligent application of well-earned authority that is, as a result, easily accepted. A good Leader must be able, in all sorts of circumstances, to make objective judgements of what can reasonably be expected from her/his colleagues. As and when required, she/he must ensure that these judgements are correctly reflected in the periodic assessments of staff in the various bodies in which decisions on career development and the assumption of management responsibilities are taken. In questions of day-to-day staff management, the good manager must be able to recognise merit. independently of hierarchical position, grade or category She or he will have to arbitrate with the same sense of equity in any conflict that may arise, in such a way that she/he is recognised as the natural recourse for those who come under her/his authority and who consider themselves to have been unjustly treated. No "boss" should shun their responsibility in a vain attempt to avoid problems, nor should they ignore some whilst favouring others, because the end result is discontentment, frustration, demotivation, which bring in their wake absenteeism and inevitable psychological problems. Anything that harms the proper running of a service, of whatever size, harms the Commission as a whole, as Commissioner Liikanen so rightly pointed out.

There is one aspect of this situation that I have to stress: those who pay the greatest price for management failures are usually those in subordinate positions, and in particular our ‘C’ colleagues, as well as those whose contractual Links are the most tenuous (auxiliary staff, ’temps’, etc...), with whom "bosses" feel most entitled to be "bossy".

Given their extraordinarily high Level of qualifications and competence, there can be no doubt that our secretaries have better things to do than to be "asked" to make or serve coffee. There are cafeterias open in all our buildings, and it is in no way degrading to go there and have a coffee. It could even be an opportunity to further the sense of mutual confidence, respect and team spirit in agreeable surroundings...

People sometimes become "bosses" as a result of hard work, and of Legitimate ambition; sometimes because they are in the right place at the right time, or because they are of the right nationality; rarely however, does this happen as a Logical consequence of demonstrating the requisite qualities... Thus, when the "chance" is given, it is still necessary to prove that one is really worthy of this new responsibility.

The Commission must make it one of its priorities to institute a genuine and well-constructed training policy covering all. aspects of staff management, which should be obligatory for all those who assume management functions: not on a one-off basis, but as part of an on-going process of In-service training. This is the price the Commission must pay if It is to become more efficient, and be at the service of the citizens of Europe. The responsible Commission member seems well aware of this, and we thus encourage him to do all in his power to ensure that such measures are taken rapidly.

The modernisation he seeks to bring about must start with modern management.