Planning towards succession in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince?

This book in the Harry Potter series brings to fore situations experienced by leaders in organizations. Themes such as trust, deceit, envy, and hatred are reflected in the thrilling suspense-filled pages which now bear the hallmark of J.K. Rowling's creativity. More interestingly, Harry Potter appears to figure in Professor Dumbledore's succession plan because Dumbledore lets Harry into his past and transfers some of his knowledge to him through the Pensieve - that wonderful invention of J.K. Rowling....

"Going to See Mr B. V.", a short story in Shimmer Chidoya's Can We Talk and Other Stories. Review by Omowunmi Segun

The story focuses on exploitation of local workers by an Indian-owned small business. Mr B. V is the owner of a wholesales and department store which he runs with his younger brother, Mr J. V. His employees are engaged on terms which are dubious and do not offer any staff welfare packages. This is what probably prompts, one of his long-term serving employees, Mr Mahari, to send a letter of request through his son to pay his son’s school fees. Mr B. V. considers this an affront and his reaction reveals his attitude to his employee whom he demeans in the presence of Mr Mahari’s son when he calls his father a “…a good boy.”

Mr B. V. is overtly racist in his comments and humiliates his workers, insinuating that they are ‘uncivilized’. To add insult upon injury, he enjoys making his employees grovel for favours which, in a well-structured system would translate into allowances and benefits for staff. Instead, Mr B. V. announces his good deeds to anyone who cares to listen:

“… I say to you people, if any of you has a problem, come to me and I’ll help you. Didn’t I pay for your spectacles, Gideon?

Yes, you did, Baas.”

And you, Tarouna, didn’t I pay for your father’s operation last month?

You did, Baas,” Tarouma, the short young man in a suit behind George said.”

Mr B. V. not only lauds it over his employees, but also wants to show that he is boss. In chiding Mr Mahari’s son for referring to Mr J. V. as “Manager,” he says:

“Why don’t you just say ‘My father’s boss’?”

Mr B. V’s ‘managerial’ style is a reminder of an age gone by. Nonetheless, there are still vestiges of this trend among small business owners who feel employees have no rights.

Managing Change in Kazuo Ishiguro’s The Remains of the Day reviewed by Omowunmi Segun

Stevens, the central character of the novel, has been a long-serving butler at Darlington Hall. His new boss, an American, encourages him to take a motoring trip through the West Country of England while he is away. Stevens’ journey around the country take him to the past, during which he recalls the changes that have taken place in his profession,

“Recalling a time when I had had a staff of seventeen under me, and knowing how not so long ago a staff of twenty-eight had been employed here at Darlington Hall, the idea of devising a staff plan by which the same house would be run on a staff of four seemed, to say the least daunting.”

Darlington Hall is affected by changes in environment and lifestyle. Innovation and advances in technology mean that a large staff is no longer required but still it is a struggle for Stevens to adapt to the new changes. He says:

“ Now naturally, like many of us, I have a reluctance to change too much of the old ways. But there is no virtue at all in clinging as some do to tradition merely for its own sake. In the age of electricity and modern heating systems, there is no need at all to employ the sorts of numbers necessary even a generation ago.”

Fortunately, Stevens is a man who recognizes that change is inevitable and does his best to cope with the changing times. He also gets to understand, later in his career, that blind loyalty to a boss can be a disservice. Had he challenged his former boss on the unfair dismissal of two domestic staff simply because they had Jewish affiliations earlier in his career, the sequence of events at the end might have turned out differently for both him and his boss.

This novel provokes a number of questions: At what point does an employee challenge their manager, especially when it becomes obvious that the decisions being taken by the manager are contrary to the values of the organization or, even the society at large? What choices does an employee have in such a situation? These and many other issues raised in Remains of the Day make it a compelling read for anyone wanting to understand the emotional complexities of the change process.