Thanks Jane,
Thank you for your wonderful views. The whole problem lies in my attitude. I have first hand experience about how the textile industry, to which I originally belonged works. I also have first hand knowledge about a number of consultant friends are encouraging the top management to circumvent the requirements of the standards like ISO 9001:2000 QMS, ISO 14001:2004, SA 8000 etc. In fact they openly suggest to the top management and help them in maintaining two sets of documentation -one for the external auditor and one for actual operations.
Besides them, most of the people who ever happened to work as Management Representative in a company have started their consultancy and they neither have the right background, not the commitment.
To accentuate this problem, the certification agencies are also not following a strict code of practice and do not go deep into the documented procedures and the actual working of the company.
To highlight this, I would like to quote what one participant had asked me during one of my training programs - how many companies have been decertified or refused certification because they are not following the regulatory requirements? I had to admit that to my knowledge not a single company had been refused certification or decertified for not following regulatory requirements, except in one case where the certifying agency had to suspend the certificate of a company because some NGO wrote to SAI with actual proof of how the company circumvents the regulatory requirements and why it should not have got the SA 8000 certificate in the first place.
I refuse to accept or be a part of such unethical practices. Therefore, I always try to give due value for what I am charging to my clients; and when I find some resistence I give more time even at my expense and try to convince the concerned persons. However, if even despite this I fail, I get frustrated. And yes, I have never walked out of an assignment on these grounds, though I give my suggestions about how the company can improve its results by taking care of certain activities and leave the matter at that.
Now, before accepting an assignment, I first ask how serious the client is in implementing the requirements of the standard, the way the standard requires. If I find the client not genuinely interested in that I thank him for the time and walk out instead of compromising on my belief.
But, Jane you are right, we can't always be altruistic, and have to be realistic and do not have to get frustrated because our views are not accepted. We must try to devise a method to involve the reluctant middle management level to achieve our aim, which is actually going to help them. May be we have to put our views as actual suggestions coming from the middle management. This may remove the insecurity they may be feeling and also project them in a good light and we may get their cooperation.
Thanks once again Jane for giving me this opportunity to reflect on my attitude and find the solution.
And Yes, I also agree with Marc and you, we may start a new thread on how to involve the reluctant middle management in our plan of action.
Thanks everybody who contributed to the thread. It was very enlightening.
Surendro