The Hindu : Bridging communication gap, Corporation Bank way

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 01, 2003

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Bridging communication gap, Corporation Bank way

By Our Special Correspondent

CHENNAI DEC. 31. Frailty, thy name is union. Or, how else can one describe the state of trade unionism in India? A fundamental avocation of yester-year, the trade unionism has become irrelevant and unionists jobless in the post-liberalisation era. The existential problem has seen members lose trust in their leaders and unions. Precisely against this backdrop, the Corporation Bank Officers' Organisation (CBOO) has chosen to look inward and do course correction.

For the first time perhaps in the annals of the Indian banking industry, the CBOO has gone in for an independent image audit. The ostensible objective of this endeavour is to discover what its members think about the organisation, its leaders and the like.

The audit was carried out by the Chennai-based consultant, Prime Point Public Relations, and covered nearly quarter of CBOO members in ten centres across the country.

The exercise has brought out couple of crucial elements that appear to have the potential to weaken the existing CBOO structure. The non-existence of second-line leadership at the central level and the almost weak leadership at regional levels have, according to the audit, widened the communication bridge with members.

Not surprisingly, many have suggested regular interactions between the leaders and the cadres. The central leadership appears to have passed the muster vis-a-vis handling collective problems.

But the management of micro grievances by the top leadership has come under flak. What has come out loud and clear through this audit is that the CBOO leadership must beef up communication by employing modern tools.

This has to be done if CBOO were to remain relevant and retain the confidence of its members.

One may argue that the CBOO could have gone in for this exercise much earlier. Nevertheless, it is better late than regretting forever.

In earlier times, the unions and their leaders had managed to run their writs with the managements and their cadres fairly easy.

Things have turned topsy-turvy post-liberalisation. The CBOO exercise is sure to make others too to sit up and relay the links with their cadres.

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