The Culture of Resignation in Management

1.???? "We learn resignation not by our own suffering, but by the suffering of others."-- W. Somerset Maugham

2.???? "Not many dictators announce their resignation, but I did because I didn't want to stay on and overstay my welcome."-- Mahathir Mohamad

3.???? "Resigning from office is a critical ethical decision for individuals. Resignation also remains one of the basic moral resources for individuals of integrity."-- J. Patrick Dobel (1999), The Ethics of Resigning

Gareth Southgate Has Resigned

Gareth Southgate has resigned. He issued an emotional statement, confirming he is quitting as England manager.

This is the normal course of action expected from managers when they or the public feel that they have made errors of judgment in management or have failed to manage the tasks assigned to them.

This culture of resignations is common in developing countries and in other countries as well when the officials and the public figures feel they need to go either for change and reform or they feel they have made errors of judgment and no longer can manage the business effectively for the benefit of the general public.

Gareth Southgate made grievous errors of judgment two days ago as he did in 2021 when Italy beat England 3-2 in penalties to win the Euro 2020 Cup.

This is what I said in 2021:

" At last, the dream ended in a nightmare. Italy beat England 3-2 in penalties to win the trophy of the Euro 2020 football championship. England scored the first goal in less than two minutes from the start of the match—the fastest goal in the whole of the 2020 championship. Italy scored its goal in the 67th minute to level the result. The teams played two additional halves but both failed to score any goal. Then came the penalty shootouts and the tragedy started. The three black players?(Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho, and Bukayo Saka)?chosen by the English coach/ manager?Gareth Southgate?to perform the last three penalty shootouts failed to score. The racist and hysterical reaction of some British football fans resulted in riots and very ugly scenes in Wembley, London, and some other British cities. The three black players have also been subjected to racial abuse online and on social media, especially Twitter and Instagram. The snake of?Racism?has started to move and eat up all the positive atmosphere England’s team had created in Britain and elsewhere.

The three black players did not score not because of the color of their skin but because they lacked experience in doing the job under enormous pressure. The three players were aware that millions and millions of people were watching them, and millions of their fans wanted them to score. But they disappointed everybody.

Gareth Southgate made a grievous error of judgment by choosing these three black players in a very dramatic way.?Just minutes before the end of the match, he started to replace three players in the team with these three black players as substitutes in preparation for them to take part in the penalty shootouts. The moment I saw this dramatic move, I realized that the move was unfortunate as the three black players were too young to do a good job under pressure: Marcus Rashford is 23 years old, Jadon Sancho is 21, and Bukayo Saka is only 19 – he is a teenager who is psychologically unfit to endure enormous pressure. So all of them failed. The match marked England's first international finals appearance in more than five decades."

For more information and insights, read my article: "Racism and the Importance of Experience for Job Performance" (LinkedIn, July 30, 2021).

What Gareth Southgate did in 2021 was an error of judgment although he did a very good job in the tournament itself. He repeated his errors of judgment in 2024 although he also did a good job. Regrettably, his errors were too expensive for England who lost very good opportunities to win the cups in both tournaments. So he had to go.

Gareth Southgate acted as a responsible manager who has realized the importance of change and has fully understood the heavy burden of responsibility in management when things go wrong.

Gareth Southgate has resigned and this is the normal course of action expected from managers when they or the public feel that they have made errors of judgment in management or they have been a failure in managing the tasks assigned to them.

This culture of resignations is common in developing countries and in other countries as well when the officials and the public figures feel they need to go either for change and reform or they feel they should bear the responsibility of failure and no longer manage the business effectively for the benefit of the general public.

A Sharp Contrast

I still remember what Abood Al-Sawafi (former VC) and Hamed Al-Hajri (his Assistant VC) had done at A’Sharqiyah University in Oman. They completely ignored this basic requirement of experience and psychological pressure when they used to select teachers and directors for A’Sharqiyah University. They used to select very inexperienced people to do very important jobs. This was not an error of judgment but the natural reflection of ignorance, incompetence, stupidity, and bad management resulting from the fact that both of them have nothing to do with the academic world in which they are wrongly appointed as top managers.

When Abood Al-Sawafi was appointed the Vice-Chancellor of A’Sharqiyah University in 2013, he picked up Hamed Al-Hajri to be his Assistant for Administration and Finance.?The first thing they did was to conspire against our rigorous process of recruiting teachers for the Foundation Program. I narrated to them our recruitment story and I thought they would learn something from it. They did not.?They are too stupid to learn anything useful. What they did was shocking to all of us at the University. It cannot be described other than stupidity and disloyalty to the University. Instead of posting recruitment ads on Dave’s Cafe′ or other helpful and popular websites as I used to do, Hamed Al-Hajri posted an advertisement in a local Arabic newspaper inviting native English language teachers to apply to the Foundation Program! He could not get one single CV. When I told him that native English language teachers do not read a newspaper in Arabic, he replied, “Somebody will read it and tell them.” Is there stupidity more than this?

The ad posted by Hamed Al-Hajri for his stupid recruitment cost the University RO290 (290 Omani rials) which was then equal to about US$700! Look at the difference between our very effective ad on Davis’ Cafe′, which cost $100, and Hamed Al-Hajri’s very useless advertisement which cost about $700, that is, about sevenfold.

As we were running out of time, Hamed Al-Hajri started recruiting “housewives” (usually, the University teachers’ wives) to teach in the Foundation Program. He did away with all the recruitment requirements and conditions imposed by the Ministry of Higher Education thinking that the Ministry would not know about him as he always used to say. Of course, he could not get a sufficient number of “housewives” as most of the teachers would not allow their wives to work too long for too little. They also know about the inhumane style of management being followed by Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, Mohammed Al-Barashdi, and Saeed Al-Rubaii who treat their employees like slaves and robots.

A Western Toilet and an Arab Toilet

A person wanted to build a toilet in his house, so he asked a plumber to come around and have a look. The plumber asked the man, “What sort of toilet do you want? A Western toilet or an Arab toilet?” The man asked, “What’s the difference between the two?” The plumber replied, “The difference is like that between a Western official and an Arab official.” The man asked, “How?” The plumber explained, “If you want to change the Western toilet, you need to just unscrew four screws, but if you want to change the Arab toilet, you need to demolish the whole place -- almost everything!” ?It seems most Arab officials, even in higher education, have learned something from this story!

To sum up: Gareth Southgate made some errors of judgment in good faith. But the man did a great job in his management of the England team during the last few years and helped the team reach the Euro football finals in 2020 and 2024. So he deserves praise and rewards. He has resigned because he is a noble man and he has honor and self-esteem. In contrast, Abood Al-Sawafi, Hamed Al-Hajri, Mohammed Al-Barashdi, and Saeed Al-Rubaii in Oman have been ignoring all the basic principles of management and the professional performance of jobs, especially they have been working in the higher education sector which is regarded as a sector of exceptional importance to any society and country. They have been destroying higher education in Oman to an unbelievable extent without being held accountable by anyone and without resigning. They are bad managers without the slightest respect for the requirements of loyalty to their profession and to their country. Despite their very bad reputation as top managers and in spite of their wickedness and corruption, they still hold their positions and abuse their offices against all work ethics and universal human values. They have created a very unhealthy work environment in higher education because of their incompetence, unlimited stupidity, narrow-mindedness, and vulgarity.

They are bad people without honesty, without honor.

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