Who's the Boss?

by Bruce Feustel

At a recent workshop in Cape Town, South Africa conducted by NCSL for members and staff of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament and several other South African provincial parliaments, the participants struggled with the issue of whether the member is the boss in the relationship between legislators and staff.

I began a session on member/staff relations with the American legislative perspective that the member is the boss.  We often hear legislators say that staffers should not make the mistake of thinking they are the legislators.  “We are the ones who got elected, so the staff  have to serve us, not the other way around.  We make the decisions, not them.” 

I explained that this relationship should be based on respect and understanding of each other’s roles, but that the staffer’s job is to help the members achieve their goals and objectives, not to pursue their own agenda.  Our NCSL faculty--Senators Leticia Van de Putte (Texas) and Spencer Coggs (Wisconsin) and NCSL staff Peggy Kerns and Maggie Lamborn—explained some of the legislators’ obligations in this “boss” role, including providing clear work assignments, using staff member’s talents, showing appreciation and helping them develop professionally.

In the discussion that followed, various South African staff members expressed frustrations that were familiar to an American audience on the same subject.  But then one man (photo center), the head of legal drafting, raised his hand and began a lengthy and passionate statement with: “I deeply resent your characterization that ‘the member is the boss.’  We are all equals as human beings.  I cannot serve at the beck and call of a member.  If we are not equal in power, there is no respect.  If I do not receive respect from a member, I will go toe to toe with him.” 

In response some of the South African parliamentarians complained about staffers who won’t do the work that is asked of them and can’t be relied upon.  The debate grew hot and continued for a long time.

My observation was that the basic dynamics of the member/staff relationship are still evolving in South Africa’s provincial parliaments.  The members are often frustrated when they can’t get the help they need.  Many older staff were involved in the struggles to end apartheid, and their frame of reference seems to take them back to those times, when the concept of equality was a driving and defining force.  Some of the senior staff appeared to have difficulty moving from their historical protest mode to a governing mentality.  Our suggestions that people can be equals as human beings and still have one group serve the other seemed incomprehensible to some.

As with many of these foreign workshops, we merely unearthed some simmering issues with little time to resolve anything.  Our recommendation to the staff director of the Western Cape Parliament was that further training and discussion is needed to guide staff on providing the service members need and create an atmosphere of mutual respect with members.

Comments

[Ken Levine]

Bruce - your experience was very interesting to me. We here at Sunset have been hosting numerous delegations of members and staff from other countries (we seem to have become a standard tour stop for many delegations.) I find the cultural differences to be enlightening. Not just the differences between our US and state culture to theirs, but also between countries or continents. When in Italy a couple of years ago, for example, I spent several days with members of regional parliaments. Their approach to dealing with staff seems to border on feudal. Anyway, this is an interesting subject. Thanks for blogging about it.

[Toby Dorsey]

Wow, this is fascinating! But I think I have to agree with the South Africans here ... or maybe it's just a matter of terminology. "Boss" can be a loaded term, I suppose.

If a legislator has personal staff in his or her employ, the legislator is the "boss", sure. But I would not call a legislator the "boss" of any other staff. The legislator is the "client", or the "customer", but not the "boss".

[Bruce Feustel]

Toby: You're right that "boss" can be a loaded term, certainly in South Africa, but we talked about that term during the session and subsequent conversations. I think we provided some of the nuances of the member/staff relationship depending on the type of staffer yo are. I also talked to the gentleman who made the comment and he said it wasn't the term "boss" that he was reacting to but the "power" and "equality" issues involved. The experience was fascinating and I had that frustration of feeling that we had no time to get at the "next steps." I am corresponding with one staffer who is trying to use the session as a springboard to some more staff workshops designed to clarify what staff should and shouldn't do in their work for members.