A Leader’s Perspective in “Factions"

             We all have a group where we belong. Some may be in the athletes group, the winners group, losers, bookworms, gamers, nerds, and many more. It is present in all kinds of organizations. May it be a corporate organization, academic, micro-level organization, or macro-level organization, different groups are always present in it. Every organization always has this goal of unity and prevention of division. But how do we exactly remove these divisions, or so called “factions”?

            As a student leader in various organizations, it is in my belief that an organization can do more activities if it would be united. I have no problem in handling the people in my organizations. But this problem of factions was a problem that I cannot seem to find a solution.

Being a business management student privileged to study in a national University where the opportunities are endless, I was able to join seminars, forums, competitions, and talks that would involve corporate leaders, sometimes CEOs. In those talks, I would often ask on how I can be a better leader to serve my org mates and to abolish or simply minimize the factions that would separate us. I was expecting to have a lot of solutions to this problem, since I expect nothing more but the best answers from them.  But everyone gave me the same answer: It is not in the leader; it is and always will be a natural and irremovable problem.

In one of the seminars I attended with Mr Tero, he said that every organization would always have faction. Just as the leader has his inner circle in where he asks for advice for the organization, every member too has hi/her own inner circle, a set of favored friends with the same personal interest. In another seminar with Mr. Liu, the CEO of Matwood Philippines and Golden ABC (consists of Regatta Philippines, Penshoppe, and Oxygen), he said that an organization is formed because people with the same interests joined to achieve a common goal. Although everyone has a common interest and goal, it is different from PERSONAL interests. Everyone has different reasons on joining the organization. Some may join because of their friends, some because they love what the org is doing. In those reasons, there are already factions being formed. A leader is not there to remove those factions; rather a leader is there to keep the org intact. It is also the leader’s responsibility to remind everyone of his or her commitment for the organization.

True, every leader in an organization dreams of making it more united, as much as possible make it like a family. But what makes an organization different from a family is that an organization is bigger, with a much more diverse sets of thinking. These people may be under your control inside the organization, but it is never in your control in what they do outside the organization. It is just a matter of respect and control, as what the experts say. As long as your members contribute to the goal of the organization, let them do what they want with their inner circles, friends, and faction groups. Because it is only in your members’ inner circle that they can perform to their fullest with utmost confidence.