2007.07.27: July 27, 2007: Headlines: Congress: Legislation: Speaking Out: PCOL Exclusive: 07. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: A Culture of Listening to Volunteers
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2007.07.27: July 27, 2007: Headlines: Congress: Legislation: Speaking Out: PCOL Exclusive: 07. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: A Culture of Listening to Volunteers
07. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: A Culture of Listening to Volunteers
The Peace Corps managers may argue that such reviews will undermine their authority to discipline the Volunteers. They may remark, "This is like putting the inmates in charge of the asylum," or "What do these young people know about management?" Further arguments might be that the system would reduce management to a popularity contest or prevent them from recruiting good managers. Finally, they might complain that it's inconsistent with the culture of host country nationals to be openly criticized.
07. Testimony of Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff on S. 732: The Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act: A Culture of Listening to Volunteers
A Culture of Listening to Volunteers
As Peace Corps Volunteers, we often think in terms of culture—the values, customs, and behaviors of a people. The Peace Corps, too, has a culture—one that should be a living example of the values, customs and behaviors as they express participatory democracy and service. Our values, customs and behavior should model what our country stands for in the countries we serve across the globe. The Peace Corps needs to embrace a culture where bureaucratic imperatives are minimized and where everyone shares the goal of hearing, respecting and supporting Volunteers in the field.
Enactment of the legislation is a crucial step towards this goal. We've heard from reliable sources that the Peace Corps will implement some of the individual reforms in the legislation in order to head off enactment of the overall legislation, a common legislative tactic. Implementation of any of the reforms is, of course, welcome. However, the legislation should also be enacted to ensure that these reforms are not jettisoned when the "coast is clear."
To emphasize again, the most relevant provisions of the legislation for restoring the Peace Corps culture are those mandating Volunteer engagement in senior staff and program reviews, Sections 201(a) and (b). Unfortunately, this reform is the one that the Peace Corps is least likely to implement, or implement least enthusiastically, and the one that it's most likely to jettison at the first opportunity.
Some Peace Corps staff will welcome the reviews. A former Country Director in West Africa emailed me to say: "Reviews of staff (360 reviews) are standard in the private sector, why not the public sector?" But his positive response may be atypical.
The Peace Corps managers may argue that such reviews will undermine their authority to discipline the Volunteers. They may remark, "This is like putting the inmates in charge of the asylum," or "What do these young people know about management?" Further arguments might be that the system would reduce management to a popularity contest or prevent them from recruiting good managers. Finally, they might complain that it's inconsistent with the culture of host country nationals to be openly criticized.
Similar defenses have been raised about RateMyTeachers.com, but it has responded persuasively. 14 No one in authority likes to be held accountable. Those in authority want to be free to exercise power. Naturally, they want the minimum of uncertainty about their job tenure. So it's understandable that they will resist Volunteer input in their personnel reviews.
Peace Corps Volunteers have certain common characteristics that will ensure that this technology is well applied to rate their supervisors—they are persistent, resourceful, computer/web literate, and kind. The flat world is coming, like it or not. It's time to take the initiative and set up an upward feedback system to increase management effectiveness.
Special cross-cultural issues may arise regarding Volunteer ratings of host country nationals who work for the Peace Corps. In many cultures confrontation and personal criticism are commonly avoided and saving face is a high value. For example, in one case a host country trainer responded poorly to the routine evaluations that Volunteers submitted at the close of training. The trainer, new to the Peace Corps, highlighted in red the negative points on the evaluation, approached the students with it, tore it up, and quit the job. In implementing the Volunteer evaluations we need to realize that Americans are among the bluntest and most direct people in the world. We consider this to be a form of honesty and a mechanism for holding people and institutions accountable. Compared to other peoples, Americans have a high tolerance for confrontation and personal revelation. Most host country nationals who work with the Peace Corps come to understand and appreciate this cultural style. Explaining the Volunteer evaluations to host country nationals should become part of the recruitment process or at least the initial orientation. Since most overseas Peace Corps staff are host country nationals, excluding them from the Volunteer evaluation process would exclude many of the staff whose work directly impacts Volunteer effectiveness.
The key to an effective upward feedback system work is to communicate the results to each rated senior staff member. Effective upward feedback, like all evaluation feedback, must focus on reinforcing existing strengths and developing areas rated as needing improvement. Communicating personal development needs always takes tact and sensitivity, and probably cross-cultural skills, a Peace Corps specialty.
The legislation does not dictate the design of the reviews, except for one question: Should the staffer's contract be extended? Other questions can focus on the staffer's specific effectiveness, e.g., in training, selecting and preparing sites, and providing technical and emotional support. Another question that should be asked is how the Peace Corps staff being reviewed can better support the Volunteers.
All of the reviews will be filled out online. Procedures need to be established to preserve the confidentiality of the reviews, as dictated by the legislation, because Peace Corps staff have power over Volunteers, including the power to terminate their service. To ensure that reviews of staff are honest, the confidentiality of Volunteer reviewers must be maintained. Confidentiality is more important to younger Volunteers who tend to feel more vulnerable than experienced Volunteers, bring less confidence to their work, and have less experience in the work world upon which to base their reviews. This makes them less likely, absent confidentiality, to express their views to management.
Volunteers in consultation with the Country Director should draft the review form and procedures. For the Country Director to dictate the form to be used would be inconsistent with the thrust of the legislation. This is the Volunteers' opportunity to provide input on the support they are given by the Peace Corps, so they should determine how to provide that input. They know best what questions will reveal how managers support or do not support them and how to increase that support. It may be helpful for Peace Corps Washington to supply the Volunteers with sample review forms that can be modified so that Volunteers in each country don't have to draft the review forms entirely from scratch.
The Peace Corps culture must focus on continual review and reform, constantly guarding against bureaucratic responses, condescension, and dictatorial behavior. Only Volunteer participation in these reviews will yield such a process.
This is one section from the testimony read into the record on the Peace Corps Volunteer Empowerment Act by Chuck Ludlam and Paula Hirschoff, two RPCVs who are now serving their second tour in Senegal. The rest of the sections can be found by following this link. Their entire report in MS Word format can be downloaded by following this link.
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Headlines: July, 2007; Congress; Legislation; Speaking Out; Peace Corps Library; Peace Corps Countries of Service; Peace Corps History; Peace Corps Message Board; Recent Peace Corps News
When this story was posted in July 2007, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: PCOL Exclusive
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