Buddhist Economics

Schumacher, E.F. 1999. Small is Beautiful. Hartley & Marks Publishers Inc. Vancouver, Canada

THE BUDDHIST ECONOMICS
summarized from chapter 4

the Buddhist point of view takes the function of work to be at least threefold”
- to give a man a chance to utilize and develop his faculties
- to enable him to overcome his ego-centredness by joining with other people in a common task
- and to bring forth the goods and services needed for a becoming existence.

from the Buddhist point of view, there are therefore two types of mechanization which must be clearly distinguished:
- one that enhances a man’s skill and power
- one that turns the work of man over to a mechanical slave, leaving man in a position of having to serve the slave

it is clearm therefore, that Buddhist economics must be very different from the econmics of modern materialsm, since the Buddhist sess the essence of civilization not in a multiplication of wants but in the purification of human character. character, at the same time, is formed primarily by a man’s work. and work, properly conducted in condisiton of human dignity and freedom, blesses those who do it and equally their products.

from a Buddhist point of view, this is standing the truth on its head by considering goods as more important than people and consumption as more important than creative activity. it means shifting the emphasize from the worker to the product of work, that is, from the human to the subhuman, a surrender to the forces of evil.
the very start of Buddhist purpose of this would in fact be employment for everyone who needs an ‘outside’ job, and the large-scale employment of women in offices or factories would be considered a sign of serious economic failure.
in particular, to let mothers of young children work in factories while the children run wild would be as uneconomic in the eyes of a Buddhist economist as the employement of a skilled worker as a soldier in the eyes of a modern economist.

while the materialist is mainly interested in goods, the Buddhist is mainly interested in liberation. but Buddhism is “ the middle way” and there fore in no way antagonistic to physical well being. it is not wealth that stands in the way of liberation but the attachment to wealth; not the enjoyment of pleasurable things but the craving for them. the keynote of Buddhist economics, therefore, is simplicity and non-violence.
from an economist’s point of view, the marvel of the Buddhist way of life is the utter rationally of its pattern-amazingly small means leading to extra ordinarily satisfactorily results.

The teaching of Buddha, on the other hand, enjoins a reverent and non-violent attitude not only to all sentient beings but also, with great emphasis, to trees. every follower of the Buddha ought to plant a tress every few years and look after it until it is safely established, and the Buddhist economist can demonstrate without difficulty that universal observation of this rule would result in a high rate of genuine economic development independent of any foreign aid.
much of the economic decay of southeast Asia is undoubted due to a heedless and shameful neglect of trees.

Thai agriculture

Book:
Falvey, Lindsay. 2000. Thai Agriculture, Golden Cradle of Millennia. Kasetsart University Press. Bangkok, Thailand.


UNIQUELY AGRICULTURE

Being one of the world’s major agriculture exporters is as a result of innovative political strategies and bounteous natural resources.
Agriculture is important to Thailand and thai agriculture is important to the world. It can be briefly characterized in the following terms:
1. as the world’s largest rice exporter, and high ranking exporter of other food stuff, Thailand feeds some of four times its population; that is something around 250 million people.
2. as the world’s largest rubber producer and exporter, Thailand supports global industries particularly in more developed countries and influences rubber marketing policies.
3. as the world’s largest producer and exporter of Black tiger prawn, Thailand dominates one of the few agriculture sectors which continues too experience rising prices.
4. one thai multi-national group , charoen Pokphand, has grown to become the region’s largest agribusiness conglomerate, ranking in the world’s ten largest such firms.
5. Thailand is the region;s largest exporter of chicken meat and heavily influence the Japanese market.
6. An estimated 80% of thai person are engaged in agriculture and its industries.
7. overwhelmingly, the managers of the natural environment of Thailand are farmers and fishers.
8. the national identify has developed around symbols of agricultural bounty consumed responsibly through images of abundant rice and fish in a benign environment.
9. irrigated rice production has symbolized an approach to sustainable production.
10. Thailand has enjoyed foreign investment and relative political stability which has supported development of an infrastructure oriented to agricultural production for export.
11. over-production of fish, timber and agricultural commodities has recently degraded the natural environment in which the majority of the population live, necessitating informed adaptation of agriculture practices to meet social and environment needs.

Thailand’s top 5 trade surplus products in recent years have been:
1. natural rubber products
2. crustaceans and seafood
3. cereal particularly rice
4. garments
5. canned fish

The top 5 deficit in 1996, were:
1. mineral fuel
2. mechanical equipment
3. vehicles and parts
4. iron and steel
5. electrical equipment

Countries with which Thailand maintains large trade surplus:
1. Singapore
2. hongkong
3. Netherlands
4. USA

Countries with which Thailand maintains large trade deficit:
1. Japan
2. Germany
3. Taiwan
4. South Korea
Thailand can therefore be considered in terms of its natural environment, its modified agriculture environment, and its people and their development of an agriculture nation. The golden cradle of this civilization includes the essential ingredients of a sustainable agriculture, which have been apparently abundant natural resources of land and water and also a favorable climate.

The land of Thai
Total area 513,112 square KM. Thailand borders Lao-PDR to the north and east, Myanmar to the north and west, Cambodia to the southeast, and Malaysia to the south.

Soil
Soil categories in Thailand (page 8)
Entisol 3.3%
Vertisol 0.8%
Inceptisol 9.4%
Millisol 1.2%
Spodosols 0.1%
Alfisols 9.2%
Ultisols 42.1%
Oxisols < 0.1%
Histosols 0.1%
Unclassified 33.8%

The proportion of agricultural land suited to various crops have been suggested as (page 8) :
Upland crops 21%
Paddy rice 26%
Perennial crops 5%
Special crops with appropriate enhancement measures 16%
Unsuitable for agriculture 31%

Water resources
Surface water resources of Thailand (million cubic metres) page 10
Region River Reservoir Natural storage Rainfall volume
Northeast 26558 6231 193 236400
North 23175 48723 34 220500
Central 29720 18781 156 76700
East 3747 333 91000
South 6795 6708 53000 169700
Total 89995 80775 436 794300



Taken from: Kiravanich, Pakit.1983. National water resources management.research report, national defence college, Bangkok

Climate
Thailand’s monsoonal climate is experienced as 3 season:
- hot season = march to may
- rainy season = may to the end of October
- cool season = November to February
While, rainy season is more protracted along the southern coast of peninsula Thailand, the lowest rainfall is commonly in the western continental highland.

Intensification
Agricultural intensification has usually been associated with large scale irrigation, low levels of labor productivity, and severe population pressure.
Thailand has increased its food production through the usual means of:
• increasing the area of cultivatd land
• increasing the number of crops per year
• replacing lower yielding with higher yielding crops and varieties
• reducing post harvest losses

industrialization
in the era of policy shift away from agriculture towards industry was associated with rising agricultural impact on the environment. Thailand ranked ahead of Myanmar, Indonesia, Philippines, korea and japan in terms of; increases in cultivated area, reductions in forest area, increases in agricultural production, increases in percentage of the labor force engaged in agriculture and variability of agricultural production.

National and global responsibilities
Agriculture has created Thailand and continues to shape the Thai identity, support Thai lifestyle, and portray the kingdom to the world. The very association between food and rice in thai language, and the tenacity with which thai farmers have clung to planting at least enough rice for their own family begore engaging in cash crops, testify to the deep association of wet rice culture and the peoples who are Thai. Lapses fro this central element have been highlighted by His Majesty The King …Thailand derives income from many sources but we must remember that we survive from agriculture and therefore we must nurture each aspect of the industry including farmers of all types to continually develop in order to increase the wuality of production in a manner that does not reduce the natural resources base…”

Thailand faces options in highlighting its position in effectively subsidizing food importing countries though low agricultural prices and uncosted environmental impacts:
- continuing to subsidize the development of other nations for minimal benefit
- reducing exports, and hence income, where environmental conflicts are clear
- rationalizing inverstment; in research to ensure responsible agriculture practice, in education to ensure a widespread ability to apply improved technologies, in industry to build on national strengths in agriculture.

Current situation (2000)
5 characteristics arising from development of the past 30 years, are:
- an orientation to export markets with domestic prices, in the main being strongly influenced by international prices – some 77% of the value added in crops agriculture arises in the production of traded goods.
- Expansion of the crop sector in the past has been mainly based on conversion of forest land cultivated area –availability of such new in extremely limited and hence increases in production must arise from increases in yield.
- Rice, once the epitorne of thai agriculture, has been progressively replaced by field crops including maize, kenaf, cassava, and sugar cane-from 1961-1985 the area cultivated for field crops expanded 3.3.% per annum compared with 1.8 % area for rice.
- Governmental involvement in the agricultural sector include regulation of foreign trade, taxation, exchange rates and trade restrictions and also public resources for infrastructure and support services for agriculture.
- Institutional changes, such as the emergence of large food processing agribusiness, have affected farming, for example in the pineapple, tobacco, and some livestock and vegetables industry, biotechnology has accelerated the production of new crop varieties, and usage of fertilizer, pesticides and herbicides has increased significantly.

At the same time, FAO reported declining crop yield due to:
o Physical, chemical and biological deterioration
o Inappropriate farming systems for increasingly intensive agriculture
o Poorly defined land ownership with associated restrictions of access to fair credit
o A poorly developed farm credit sector
o Poorly developed agricultural infrastructure
o Irregular rainy seasons.

CHANGING THE PARADIGM OF FISHING SOCIETY

CHANGING THE PARADIGM OF FISHING SOCIETY IN EAST JAVA
FROM THE DEPENDENCY ON SEA PRODUCTS TO THE TOURISM BUSINESS PROSPECT TO ENHANCE THE INCOME


DESCRIPTION OF INNOVATION

Background
East Java province is lying between Java Coast and Pacific Ocean. It contains of many people living in the beach as fishermen along the seaside. Although the income from their work is not sufficient enough even for daily life, but they seems to have no other choice but fishing all the time. Sometimes, the small income has to be paid by the risk in the sea. Generally, after the tsunami disaster in 2006, the communities living in the sea sides seem to be in worse condition, since there is no other choice to earn money for living, they have to struggle against the fear of tsunami although the biggest one was years ago. Besides, the climate and season in Indonesia itself reduce the results of fishing all night. Furthermore, in the future, the fishermen can not reach the best living stage.
The facts that the fishermen are living in low level, can not be ignored. The area where they live in is rural and sometimes, the facilities such as health, transportations, schools and public facilities are unavailable. Although in some places we can find the infrastructure is provided, but most of them are lack of the infrastructure.
In the other hands, we should not ignore the beautiful scene of the sea sides in Indonesia, especially East Java, that have not been improved yet as there is almost nobody cares of it. The beauty, actually, can attract the tourists both domestic and international ones. As long as the fishermen can change their paradigm from fishing to tourism, there must be a way to enhance their own income.
The statements above are the most important reasons to do the innovation to the system of living or living structure of the fishermen society. In the future, we can develop a program, such as trainings in tourism for fishermen and helping the people there to explore the resources they have, such as, human and land resources.

Goals
To explore the hidden resources within the fishermen society by giving the other business idea.
To create a new business in sea sides and leave the fishing major behind.
To enhance the income of the fishermen, so they can live better.

Benefit
The fishermen can be trained to have another skills regarding the tourism
The fishermen can produce other products than fish, but maybe the cottages, villas, hotels, culinary, souvenirs that using the resources found around them.
The fishermen will be able to get more money to live with their families, although they do not do fishing.
The area will be improved as the tourists both domestic and international come to that area.
Further, the area will not be rural anymore, but it can be opened to visitors from other areas and cultures.

Strategies
Giving a training to explore the readiness of society to change the paradigm from fishing to tourism.
Digging the business ideas from the trainees and help them to arrange the business plans they have.
Giving the fund to create small non-fishing business in the first stages.
Supervising them to run the new business.
Adopting at least 3 areas in East Java, such as, Gresik, Lamongan, and Pasuruan.

Conceptual and Analytical Framework

Paradigm of fishing society (old paradigm)
Sea product
Tourism business products
Paradigm of fishing society (new paradigm)
Better life and better income
From the figure above, we describe the steps can be taken during the project, those are:
Investigating and knowing the old paradigm of fishing society that they depend so much on sea products (showed by the line), no matter how the climate and season affect the result they might get.
The first arrow shows the changes of paradigm that alter the focus on sea products to the tourism business products (showed by the line).
The second arrow tells about the impact from the changes of paradigm, better life and better income.












INDUSTRY CONSTRAINTS ADDRESSED

The issues of restrictions to the sea-product of Indonesia, such as fish, crab, and shrimp in other countries has made the production of fishing products declined. In addition, the perception of bad quality of fishing products from Indonesia has made the fishermen find it hard to export the products. Most of them try to market the product domestically, but, the result they gain is lower than before automatically.
Years before the issues broadly spoken, the trauma of tsunami disaster frightened some of fishermen. In addition, nowadays, the climate and seasons over Indonesia can not be strictly predicted so the fishermen are not easy to decide should they go fishing or not.
That’s the reason why the innovation of business idea should be taken. With the new business idea, the fishermen may look at the other side of living and find other way to earn money, but they do not have to fish anymore. Nevertheless, they also do not need to move to city to do other business. The idea in this proposal is just to use the things or resources around the area to build and develop new products, especially tourism. But, the products here are not just about hotels, villas, or cottages, but it can be souvenirs, culinary or others that make the fishermen stay more time in land. Sometimes they still need to fish, but not need to fish all night long, as they have another source of income.
It is not to run away from the competition in fishing products with other countries, but, it is just how to improve the level of living of the fishermen themselves. It can be a bright strategy to overcome the pressure of the issues explained above the passage. Although the fishing product is restricted aboard, but they still can live with other source of income using their resources around the area.


POTENTIAL IMPACT OF INNOVATION

The characteristic of the intervention is paradigm changing. With the changing of paradigm owned by the fishing society, it will give the impact to ‘what’ and ‘how’ the new business run, but still using the previous core resources. Impact to ‘what’ is about the changing of job type, from fishing to owning a store, a hotel, a villa, etc. The ‘how’ is showing the result of paradigm changes, not only focusing in sea-products, especially, fish, but also to the tourism products.
The benefit from this innovation will be received by fishermen and government in those areas, especially East Java province. Broadly, Indonesia as a country will get the benefit too from the tax and unemployment reduces.










INDICATORS FOR SUCCESS

The innovation proposed here can be measured by the indicators for success both qualitative and quantitative.
The qualitative indicators are:
The changing of paradigm
The new business ideas founded
The changes of way of live

The quantitative indicators are:
The increasing of income of each fisherman trained within 6 months
The number of new business built in one area.
The number of visitors (domestic or international tourists) increased within 6 months to the areas.
The sales growth of new business products.

Methods to measure the qualitative indicators:
Interpersonal interview
Personal test
Investigation

Methods to measure the quantitative indicators:
Comparing the income between before and after training.
Counting the number of new business built by the trainees in one area.
Comparing the number of visitors within 6 months after first training that visits and buy the products from new business
4. Counting the total sales achieved by the each new business within 6 months.



cantacy: evi.thesar77@gmail.com

IMPROVING THE EXPORT OF TRADITIONAL FOOD IN KEDIRI, EAST JAVA, THROUGH MODERNIZING THE TOOLS OF MARKETING AND PACKAGING


DESCRIPTION OF INNOVATION

Background
Kediri lies in about 3 hours by car from Surabaya, the capital of East Java Province. As the third big cities in east java after Surabaya and Malang, Kediri is such an improving city that a lot of improvements are doing by the local government. Kediri has a lot of traditional foods that most of Indonesian people know, Tahu Kuning, Kripik and Sate Bekicot, Pecel, and Krupuk Pasir. These four traditional foods will be bought by the visitors and they are available almost in many places from the beginning we enter the entry gate of Kediri. Unfortunately, Tahu Kuning, which looks like a tofu from Japan, but it is square and in yellow color, and Kripik and also Sate Bekicot, which are made from an animal similar to snail, are not resist food. They have to be eaten within 2 days in normal temperature. But when more than 2 days, we have to put then into trash can, because we can not eat them anymore. When we discuss about Pecel and Krupuk Pasir, we are having a hope, because these two foods are resist enough. Pecel is made from blended nut, usually spicy enough and should be mixed with water before eating it. Krupuk pasir is such a controversial food, as it is made from flour, it will be fried not in frying oil, but in cleaned river sand.
Those foods have their own characteristics, resist or not. For the resist foods we are not going to discuss deeply here, but especially for Tahu Kuning and Sate Bekicot that are not resist enough. Tahu kuning is usually packed in bamboo box that is just resist within 2 days in normal temperature. Sate Bekicot is just put in a plastic and should be eaten within 24 hours. Both products are delicious and prospectus. But because of the tools of marketing and the limited packaging technology, they are not easy to go internationally. In addition, there are so many regulations from other countries about importing food from Indonesia.
For improving the quality of Kediri’s traditional food, this paper proposes an innovation to modernizing the marketing tools and packaging. The goal is how to make these food reach other countries without any damaged during the delivery. It can be put in aluminium foil or others. When the both products can be retained more than 4 days, it can have a hope to reach the other countries and ready to eat healthy.


Goals
To create the modern marketing tools for Tahu Kuning and Sate Bekicot so they will be known broadly.
To create the idea on how to make Tahu Kuning and Sate Bekicot can be retained more than 4 days to eat.

Benefit
The producers of Tahu Kuning and Sate Bekicot in Kediri will apply the new idea and improve their product quality.
The producers can enhance their income by applying the new idea.

Strategies
Investigation in producers’ places such as, Surabaya, Gresik and Pasuruan.
Looking for the data about the servant.
Searching and looking for some data to know about the ideas.

Conceptual and Analytical Framework

Investigation in location
Data on sales after applying the method
Data on sales before applying
Searching the alternative idea to do the paper
Try to apply to the business
From the figure above, we describe the steps can be taken during the project, those are:
Investigating and knowing the old paradigm of fishing society that they depend so much on sea products (showed by the line), no matter how the climate and season affect the result they might get.
The first arrow shows the changes of paradigm that alter the focus on sea products to the tourism business products (showed by the line).
The second arrow tells about the impact from the changes of paradigm, better life and better income.
















INDUSTRY CONSTRAINTS ADDRESSED

There is no competitors for this product, it means that the products are specific in Kediri, although we can find other Tahu, such as Tahu Sumedang from West Java, but Tahu Kuning is just found in Kediri. Sate Bekicot is also specific in Kediri, that means there is no other place producing Sate Bekicot.
The constraints today must be from other countries that aware of the quality of food products. Some of Indonesian products, especially in food are restricted in specific country, such as China. Because of this reason, we are going to try that Kediri’s traditional food can go international by implementing the modern marketing tools, such as internet advertisings and modern packaging that enable the food resist more than 4 days during the delivery time.
In the time of increasing pressures on Indonesia products, Tahu Kuning and Sate Bekicot can be the alternative to export. The most important thing to do before exporting is how we can describe the benefit of those two products for health to the consumers abroad.


POTENTIAL IMPACT OF INNOVATION

The potential impact of innovation, of course, is to enhance the income of people in Kediri. Today, they just market the products to the local market because of the packaging that is not suitable for distance marketing, and also the products are known by the people who have relatives in Kediri, or they purposely visit Kediri. If they are not connected to Kediri in any ways, we are sure they will not know anything but from the media, such as newspapers and TVs.
When implementation of modern marketing tools and packaging is success, it is no wonder if the products will be able to be marketed in broader areas even foreign market, because of the packaging has made the food resist. It means that the income of people in Kediri will increase.


INDICATORS FOR SUCCESS

The innovation proposed here can be measured by the indicators for success both qualitative and quantitative.
The qualitative indicators are:
The quality of the products, that usually resist only within 2 days in normal temperature, but it can resist more than 2 days.
The more interesting packaging
The more interesting and modern marketing tools, not only WOM communication method but also internet communication.



The quantitative indicators are:
The increasing of income of people in Kediri that produce those products.
The number of domestic sales growth.
The number of international sales growth
The number of the customers know about the products.

Methods to measure the qualitative indicators:
investigation
data collection
reference studies about new marketing tools and packaging

Methods to measure the quantitative indicators:
Comparing the income between before and after implementation.
Comparing the number of visitors within 6 months after implementing the modern marketing tools and packaging.
4. Comparing the total domestic and international sales growth achieved within 6 months.




cantact: evi.thesar77@gmail.com

MEMPERTAHANKAN KARYAWAN MELALUI GAYA KEPEMIMPINAN TRANSFORMASIONAL

MEMPERTAHANKAN KARYAWAN MELALUI GAYA KEPEMIMPINAN TRANSFORMASIONAL
Evi Thelia Sari
Universitas Ciputra Surabaya


Abstrak
Salah satu tantangan terbesar dalam manajemen sumber daya manusia adalah mempertahankan karyawan yang telah direkrut dengan biaya dan waktu yang tidak sedikit. Kegagalan mempertahankan karyawan yang menyebabkan tingginya labor turn over diawali oleh ketidakpuasan dari para karyawan akan hal-hal yang bersifat material dan non material. Bersifat material, misalnya upah yang rendah, fasilitas yang minim dan sebagainya. Sedangkan yang bersifat non material, misalnya penghargaan sebagai manusia, kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi dan sebagainya (Nitisemito,1991:167-168). Sehubungan dengan hal tersebut, agar karyawan selalu konsisten dengan kepuasannya maka setidak-tidaknya perusahaan selalu memperhatikan lingkungan di mana karyawan melaksanakan tugasnya misalnya rekan kerja, pimpinan, suasana kerja dan hal-hal lain yang dapat mempengaruhi kemampuan seseorang dalam menjalankan tugasnya (Koesmono, 2005). Faktor pimpinan dalam hal ini lebih banyak berhubungan dengan gaya kepemimpinan yang dimiliki pimpinan tersebut dalam berhubungan dengan karyawan dan tugas-tugasnya. Salah satu gaya kepemimpinan yaitu gaya kepemimpinan transformational. Adapun faktor-faktor kepemimpinan transformasional menurut Bass dan Avolio (1990) adalah idealized influence charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation dan individualized Consideration. Artikel ini mendeskripsikan bagaimana gaya kepemimpinan transformasional dapat digunakan untuk usaha mempertahankan karyawan dengan cara memenuhi kepuasan karyawan, dalam hal non material, khususnya kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi, sehingga mereka merasa betah bekerja di sebuah perusahaan.

Keywords: mempertahankan karyawan, labor turn over, gaya kepemimpinan transformasional, faktor-faktor kepuasan karyawan


PENDAHULUAN

Fenomena bisnis yang ada beberapa waktu terakhir ini menunjukkan kemajuan yang pesat dalam usaha meningkatkan sumber daya manusia di dalam perusahaan. Bagaimanapun juga sebuah perusahaan tidak akan beroperasi dengan baik apabila sumber daya manusia yang dimilikinya tidak dikelola dengan baik. Pengelolaan sumber daya manusia suatu perusahaan tidak hanya meliputi bagaimana merekrut calon karyawan dan penempatannya, tetapi juga dalam hal mempertahankan mereka agar merasa betah bekerja di perusahaan tersebut. Ketidakmampuan mempertahankan karyawan akan memicu tingginya tingkat turn over karyawan. Meskipun wajar jika karyawan yang tidak betah di suatu perusahaan akan mencari peluang di tempat yang lain. Tetapi akan menjadi suatu yang tidak wajar dan merugikan bila karyawan di suatu perusahaan sering keluar-masuk. mengingat biaya untuk melakukan suatu rekrutmen sangat besar belum lagi waktu dalam proses wawancara sampai dengan penerimaan karyawan. Tidak ada perusahaan yang ingin menyia-nyiakan biaya, waktu bahkan energi yang telah dikeluarkan untuk proses rekrutmen. Belum lagi biaya untuk pelatihan karyawan yang tentunya tidak murah.
Dengan alasan seperti itulah maka suatu perusahaan perlu memikirkan cara untuk mempertahankan karyawannya, tentu saja dengan cara-cara yang tidak menimbulkan biaya besar untuk penerapannya. Setidaknya, pemimpin di perusahaan perlu mengetahui faktor-faktor apa yang membuat karyawan tidak betah atau tidak puas. Faktor-faktor ketidakpuasan dari para karyawan bisa bersifat material dan non material. Bersifat material, misalnya upah yang rendah, fasilitas yang minim dan sebagainya. Sedangkan yang bersifat non material, misalnya penghargaan sebagai manusia, kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi dan sebagainya (Nitisemito,1991:167-168).
Sehubungan dengan hal tersebut, agar karyawan selalu konsisten dengan kepuasannya maka setidak-tidaknya perusahaan selalu memperhatikan lingkungan di mana karyawan melaksanakan tugasnya misalnya rekan kerja, pimpinan, suasana kerja dan hal-hal lain yang dapat mempengaruhi kemampuan seseorang dalam menjalankan tugasnya (Koesmono, 2005). Faktor pimpinan lebih banyak berhubungan dengan gaya kepemimpinan yang dimiliki pimpinan tersebut dalam berhubungan dengan karyawan dan tugas-tugasnya. Seorang karyawan akan merasa lebih puas dan betah bekerja di suatu perusahaan apabila dihargai, dimanusiakan dan kebutuhannya untuk bersosialisasi dan mengaktualisasi dirinya bisa terpenuhi. Dalam teori Maslow, setelah terpenuhinya kebutuhan mendasarnya, karyawan akan membutuhkan kebutuhan sosial dan penghargaan serta aktualisasi diri. Karena itulah, fungsi pemimpin dalam suatu perusahaan dalam pengelolaan karyawannya adalah sangat penting bagi kemajuan perusahaan tersebut.
Dengan alasan di atas maka seorang pemimpin perlu memiliki orientasi pada manusia dalam hal ini adalah karyawannya dengan cara menjadi pimpinan yang sabar dan berempati kepada bawahannya. Beberapa pendapat menyebutkan bahwa ada sekelompok karyawan yang justru termotivasi untuk bekerja lebih giat apabila mereka dalam kondisi tidak tertekan, meskipun tidak sedikit juga yang mengatakan bahwa karyawan akan lebih terpacu untuk bekerja bila atasan mengawasi terus menerus atau jika diperlukan disiplin yang tinggi.
Ada banyak cara memimpin yang ditunjukkan oleh seorang atasan atau pimpinan yang dipengaruhi oleh gaya kepemimpinannya (leadership style). Akan tetapi dalam hal artikel ini hanya akan dibahas mengenai gaya kepemimpinan transformational (transformational leadership style) yang ditunjukkan dengan bertindak sebagai seorang guru atau pelatih yang baik serta mendorong pemecahan yang kreatif atas masalah yang ada. Hasil penelitian ini menyatakan bahwa gaya kepemimpinan ini masih cocok untuk diterapkan lingkungan kerja yang kontemporer.
Penelitian ini membahas mengenai gaya kepemimpinan transformasional berdasarkan model kepemimpinan transformasional yang dicetuskan oleh B.M. Bass (1985) seperti tertulis dalam buku Peter G. Northouse (2004:174-176) adalah idealized influence charisma, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, dan individualized consideration dan hubungannya dengan usaha mempertahankan karyawan dengan cara memenuhi kepuasan karyawan, dalam hal non material, khususnya kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi, sehingga mereka merasa betah bekerja di sebuah perusahaan.

RUMUSAN MASALAH

Rumusan masalah dalam paper ini adalah: bagaimana gaya kepemimpinan transformasional dapat digunakan untuk usaha mempertahankan karyawan dengan cara memenuhi kepuasan karyawan, dalam hal non material, khususnya kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi, sehingga mereka merasa betah bekerja di sebuah perusahaan

TUJUAN PENELITIAN
Paper ini bertujuan untuk mendeskripsikan gaya kepemimpinan transformasional dan menghubungkannya dengan usaha mempertahankan karyawan dengan cara memenuhi kepuasan karyawan, dalam hal non material, khususnya kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi, sehingga mereka merasa betah bekerja di sebuah perusahaan, sehingga dapat membantu perusahaan untuk mengurangi tingkat labor turn over-nya.

TINJAUAN PUSTAKA

Kepemimpinan

Menurut Lussier dan Achua (2004:5), kepemimpinan atau leadership adalah
“…the process of influencing leaders and followers to achieve organization objective through change.”

Dalam bukunya, Peter G. Northouse (2004:3) menyebutkan ada 4 komponen yang dapat diidentifikasi sebagai pusat fenomena kepemimpinan, yaitu:
- Kepemimpinan adalah proses, berarti bahwa kepemimpinan bukan merupakan atribut atau karakteristik yang tinggal di dalam diri pemimpin, tetapi suatu kejadian transaksional antara pemimpin dan pengikutnya.
- Kepemimpinan melibatkan pengaruh, artinya bahwa kepemimpinan sangat berhubungan dengan bagaimana pemimpin mempengaruhi pengikutnya. Tanpa pengaruh, kepimpinan tidak akan ada.
- Kepemimpinan terjadi dalam konteks kelompok, berarti kepemimpinan terjadi dalam kelompok. Pengaruh yang dimiliki bisa untuk mempengaruhi kelompok itu sendiri, atau secara individual dalam kelompok.
- Kepemimpinan harus memiliki tujuan yang hendak diraih, berarti bahwa kepemimpinan harus bisa mengarahkan kelompok pada tujuan yang hendak diraih.
Adapun atribut-atribut yang harus ada untuk menjadi pemimpin yang efektif, adalah:
Dominance
Pemimpin yang berhasil harus selalu ingin menjadi ‘manajer’ dan mau mengambil peranan.
High Energy
Pemimpin harus kerja keras untuk mencapai tujuan. Mereka punya stamina dan dapat mentoleransi stress dengan baik. Pemimpin harus antusias dan tidak boleh menyerah.
Self confidence
Dalam satu kontinum dari kuat ke yang lemah, self confidence akan mengindikasikan apakah pemimpin yakin dengan penilaian, keputusan, ide-ide dan kemampuannya.
Locus of control
Kontinum sisi eksternal dan internal menggambarkan bahwa pemimpin percaya adanya segala sesuatu yang mengontrol kehidupan mereka. Pemimpin yang memiliki kecenderungan externalized percaya bahwa mereka tidak bisa mengontrol diri mereka dan garis hidup mereka sendiri sehingga perilaku mereka menyebabkan kinerja yang kurang baik. Sedangkan pemimpin yang internalized mempercayai bahwa mereka sanggup mengontrol diri dan garis hidup mereka, sehingga dalam kinerjanya, mereka tampak lebih baik. Pemimpin juga harus bertanggung jawab atas siapa mereka, terhadap perilaku dan kinerja mereka dan organisasi. Internalized cenderung berorientasi masa depan, menyusun tujuan dan mengembangkan rencana-rencana untuk mencapai tujuan. Sedangkan externalized cenderung menolak perubahan.
Stability
Stabilitas di dalam topik ini berhubungan dengan efektivitas manajerial dan pengembangan. Pemimpin yang stabil adalah yang secara emosional mampu mengontrol diri mereka sendiri.
Integrity
Intergritas menunjukkan terhadap perilaku yang jujur dan beretika. Integritas yang tinggi dari seorang pemimpin dapat membuat orang lain atau bawahannya sangat percaya terhadapnya.
Intelligence
Biasanya pemimpin memiliki kecerdasan di atas rata. Hal ini penting untuk berpikir kritis, memecahkan masalah dan bahkan membuat keputusan.
Flexibility
Fleksibilitas menunjuk pada kemampuan untuk menyesuaikan dengan berbagai situasi. Tanpa fleksibilitas, pemimpin tidak akan berhasil, karena pemimpin tidak dapat mengandalkan situasi yang sesuai dengan gaya / style mereka sendiri.
Sensitivity to others
Sensitivitas terhadap orang lain ini menunjukkan pengertian kepada anggota kelompok sebagai individu, sesuai dengan posisi mereka dan berkomunikasi dengan mereka (anggota/karyawan) sebaik mungkin dan mempengaruhinya. Hal ini perlu empati. Dalam ekonomi global, perusahaan perlu pemimpin yang people-centered karena kesuksesan financial pada masa mendatang akan berdasarkan pada komitmen manajemen yang memperlakukan manusi sebagai aset yang berharga.

Faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi perilaku kepemimpinan

Dalam bukunya, Hani Handoko (2001:307-308), Mary Parker Follett mengembangkan hukum situasi, yaitu tiga variabel kritis yang mempengaruhi gaya pemimpin, yaitu:
1. pemimpin
2. pengikut dan bawahan
3. situasi.
Ketiga hal di atas saling berhubungan satu dengan yang lain. Selain itu Follett yang menyatakan para pemimpin seharusnya berorientasi pada kelompok dan bukan berorientasi pada kekuasaan.
Sementara itu, seorang peneliti, Edwin Ghiselli (1971) dalam penelitian ilmiahnya telah menunjukkan sifat-sifat tertentu yang tampaknya penting untuk kepemimpinan efektif. Sifat-sifat tersebut adalah sebagai berikut:
Kemampuan dalam kedudukannya sebagai pengawas (supervisory ability), terutama dalam pengarahan dan pengawasan pekerjaan orang lain.
kebutuhan akan prestasi dalam pekerjaan, mencakup pencarian tanggung jawab dan keinginan sukses.
Kecerdasan mencakup kebijakan, kreativitas dan daya pikir
Ketegasan (decisiveness) atau kemampuan untuk membuat keputusan-keputusan dan memecahkan masalah-masalah dengan tepat.
Kepercayaan diri, atau pandangan terhadap dirinya sebagai kemampuan untuk menghadapi masalah.
Inisiatif atau kemampuan untuk bertindak tidak tergantung mengembangkan serangkaian kegiatan dan menemukan cara-cara baru (inovasi)
Sedangkan Keith Davis (1972) merangkumkan empat ciri atau sifat utama yang mempunyai pengaruh terhadap kesuksesan kepemimpinan organisasi yaitu:
Kecerdasan
Kedewasaan dan keluasan hubungan sosial
Motivasi diri dan dorongan berprestasi
Sikap-sikap hubungan manusiawi.

Beberapa hal yang mempengaruhi pilihan gaya kepemimpinan menurut Robert Tannenbaum dan Warren H.Schmift (1973 :162-164), seperti dituliskan oleh Hani Handoko (2001 :309) adalah :
Kekuatan-kekuatan dalam diri manajer yang mencakup
- sistem nilai
- kepercayaan terhadap bawahan
- kecenderungan kepemimpinannya sendiri
- perasaan aman dan tidak aman
Kekuatan-kekuatan dalam diri pada bawahan, meliputi :
- kebutuhan mereka akan kebebasan
- kebutuhan mereka akan peningkatan tanggung jawab
- ketertarikan dan kemampuan dalam menangani masalah
- harapan mengenai keterlibatan dalam pembuatan keputusan
kekuatan-kekuatan dari situasi, seperti:
- tipe organisasi
- efektifitas kelompok
- desakan waktu
- sifat masalah

Gaya Kepemimpinan / leadership style

Penelitian ini akan menyoroti gaya kepemimpinan tranformasional yang dimiliki oleh wanita. Gaya kepemimpinan sendiri, menurut Lussier dan Achua (2004 :65) adalah kombinasi dari trait (atribut), skill (keahlian) dan behavior (perilaku) yang digunakan oleh pemimpin untuk berinteraksi dengan pengikut (karyawan). Meskipun gaya kepemimpinan berdasarkan pada traits dan skill, akan tetapi komponen penting adalah behavior (perilaku), karena merupakan pola kepemimpinan yang relatif konsisten.
Berikut ini beberapa jenis gaya kepemimpinan, yaitu :
1. University of IOWA Leadership Style
Pada tahun 1930 Kurl Lewin mencetuskan dua tipe gaya kepemimpinan, autocratic leadership style yang cenderung untuk memerintah bawahan untuk melakukan apa yang diinginkan pemimpin. Selain itu, tipe ini menghendaki adanya pengawasan yang ketat pada karyawan. Sedangkan tipe yang kedua democratic, yang menginginkan adanya pastisipasi dalam pengambilan keputusan, bekerja sama dengan karyawan untuk menentukan apa yang harus dilakukan dan tidak melakukan pengawasan yang ketat terhadap karyawan.
2. University of Michigan Leadership Style
Tim dari universitas Michigan menyimpulkan ada 2 tipe gaya kepemimpinan yaitu job-centered leadership style dan employee-centered leadership style.
Job-centered leadership style:
- Penekanan pada tujuan atau goal organisasi/perusahaan
- Pemimpin mengambil peran untuk menyelesaikan tugas demi mencapai tujuan
- Pemimpin selalu menekankan pada standar yang harus dicapai
- Pemimpin cenderung memerintahkan pada bawahan apa yang harus dilakukan
Employee-centered leadership style:
- Pemimpin berusaha untuk memenuhi kebutuhan karyawan
- Pemimpin cenderung untuk membangun hubungan yang baik dengan karyawan
- Pemimpin cenderung sensitive terhadap bawahan dan berkomunikasi untuk membangun kepercayaan, dukungan dan penghargaan sambil memikirkan kemakmuran mereka.
3. Gaya kepemimpinan transformasional (Transformational leadership style)
Gaya kepemimpinan transformasional dapat digunakan oleh kepemimpinan yang bertujuan untuk mempengaruhi pengikut pada tingkat sempit (one-to-one level) sampai tingkat yang sangat luas yaitu ketika pemimpin ingin mempengaruhi keseluruhan organisasi dan bahkan budayanya.
Kepemimpinan menurut James MacGregor terdiri dari dua gaya, yaitu gaya transaksional dan gaya transformasional. Gaya transaksional adalah ukuran dalam model kepemimpinan transformasional yang difokuskan pada pertukaran yang terjadi antara pemimpin dan pengikutnya. Contohnya politikus yang memenangkan pemilihan menjanjikan tidak akan ada pajak-pajak baru. Sedangkan gaya transformasional Burns (1978) dinyatakan sebagai proses ketika seorang individu terikat satu dengan yang lain dan menghasilkan hubungan yang dapat meningkatkan motivasi dan moral dalam diri pemimpin dan pengikut serta mencoba untuk membantu pengikut mencapai potensial secara maksimal.
Model kepemimpinan transformasional menurut Bass (1985) tidak dapat dipisahkan dari transaksional. Bass mengatakan kepimpinan transformasional memotivasi pengikutnya dengan cara sebagai berikut:
- meningkatkan tingkat kesadaran pengikut tentang pentingnya tujuan
- membuat pengikut untuk menyingkirkan kepentingan mereka sendiri dan berjuang untuk tujuan organisasi
- memikirkan tingkat kebutuhan pengikut yang lebih tinggi
Adapun faktor-faktor kepemimpinan transformasional menurut Bass dan Avolio (1990) adalah:
Idealized influence charisma
Pemimpin sebagai role model yang kuat bagi pengikut sehingga pengikut sangat ingin menirunya. Pemimpin biasanya memiliki standar moral dan etika yang sangat tinggi dan tampak pada apa yang benar yang dikerjakan oleh pemimpin tersebut. Pemimpin sangat menghormati bawahan dan memberikan kepercayaan kepada mereka. Bahkan pemimpin membagikan visi dan misi kepada pengikut.
Inspirational motivation
Pemimpin mengkomunikasikan harapan-harapan yang tinggi kepada pengikut, menginspirasi mereka melalui memotivasi pengikut untuk mengambil komitmen dan menjadi bagian dalam visi organisasi. Pada prakteknya, pemimpin menggunakan simbol-simbol dan emosional untuk memfokuskan pengikut pada kepentingan organisasi lebih daripada kepentingannya sendiri.
Intellectual stimulation
Pemimpin merangsang pengikut untuk menjadi lebih creative dan inovatif. Hal ini akan sangat tampak ketika pengikut sedang mencoba sesuatu yang baru dan mengembangkan cara-cara inovatif agar sesuai dengan kebutuhan organisasi. Dengan demikian akan membangkitkan pemikiran para pengikut yang mungkin berbeda dari nilai-nilai pribadi karyawan itu sendiri serta memungkinkan pengikut akan terlibat pada pemecahan masalah.
Individualized Consideration
Pemimpin mau meluangkan waktu untuk mendengarkan keluhan dan kebutuhan pribadi dari pengikut. Pemimpin bertindak sebagai pelatih dan penasihat ketika mereka mendampingi pengikut dalam mencapai aktualisasi yang penuh.
Transformasional menghasilkan pengaruh yang lebih besar daripada transaksional, karena transaksional lebih mementingkan hasil yang diharapkan, sedangkan transformasional memusatkan pada kinerja.

Labor turn over

Sampai sepuluh tahun terakhir, studi absent dan pindah kerja biasanya dikaitkan dengan cukup kuat. Secara tradisional, absent merupakan katup pengaman untuk orang yang tidak puas dengan pekerjaannya. Pindah kerja merupakan makna terakhir bila tekanan menjadi terlalu besar.
Pindah kerja (keluar-masuk/turn over) dapat dibedakan dengan dua klasifikasi, yakni secara sukarela maupun tidak sukarela. Secara sukarela dari sisi organisasi dibedakan lagi menjadi fungsional dan disfungsional. Kasus pindah kerja disfungsional terjadi bila karyawan yang ingin meninggalkan perusahaan adalah seseorang yang ingin dipertahankan.
Penelitian variabel pribadi yang berkaitan dengan pindah kerja didominasi oleh penyelidikan kepuasan kerja karyawan. Dan pada akhirnya yang paling konsisten berkaitan dengan pindah kerja adalah lamanya bekerja dan keinginan yang dinyatakan untuk tinggal dengan organisasi. Tetapi pada penelitian lain, justru pindah kerja lebih tinggi pada orang yang memiliki kinerja rendah (Keller, 1984)
Sementara itu, sistem penghargaan dari suatu organisasi adalah pengaruh secara organisasional atau situasional terhadap pindah kerja (Danuyasa, 1998:516). Variabel situasional lain yang telah diteliti dalam konteks ini termasuk gaji, kesempatan promosi dan sejauh mana kerja pada satu jabatan adalah rutin.
Nitisemito (1991 :160-166) menyebutkan tingkat perpindahan buruh/karyawan yang tinggi adalah salah satu indikasi turunnya semangat dan kegairahan kerja yang dalam jangka panjang akan menurunkan kinerja perusahaan. Keluar masuknya karyawan (labor turn over) yang meningkat terutama disebabkan karena ketidaksenangan mereka bekerja pada perusahaan tersebut, sehingga berusaha mencari pekerjaan lain yang dianggap lebih sesuai.
Ditegaskan pula oleh Nitisemito (1991:167-168), turunnya semangat dan kegairahan kerja itu karena banyak sebab, misalnya upah yang terlalu rendah, tidak cocoknya gaya kepemimpinan, lingkungan kerja yang buruk dan sebagainya. Untuk memecahkan persoalan tersebut maka perusahaan harus dapat menemukan penyebab dari turunnya semangat dan kegairahan kerja. Pada prinsipnya turunnya semangat dan kegairahan kerja disebabkan karena ketidakpuasan dari para karyawan. Sumber ketidakpuasan bisa bersifat material dan non material. Bersifat material, misalnya upah yang rendah, fasilitas yang minim dan sebagainya. Sedangkan yang bersifat non material, misalnya penghargaan sebagai manusia, kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi dan sebagainya.
Nitisemito juga menyampaikan beberapa cara untuk meningkatkan gairah dan semangat kerja (1991:168-181):
- Gaji yang cukup
- Memperhatikan kebutuhan rohani.
- Sekali-sekali perlu menciptakan suasana santai.
- Harga diri perlu mendapatkan perhatian.
- Menempatkan karyawan pada posisi yang tepat.
- Memberikan kesempatan pada karyawan untuk maju.
- Memperhatikan rasa aman menghadapi masa depan.
- Mengusahakan karyawan mempunyai loyalitas.
- Sekali-sekali mengajak karyawan berunding.
- Pemberian fasilitas yang menyenangkan.

METODE PENELITIAN
Untuk mendeskripsikan secara mendalam terhadap fenomena gaya kepemimpinan transformasional dan menghubungkannya dengan usaha karyawan dengan cara memenuhi kepuasan karyawan, dalam hal non material, khususnya kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi, sehingga mereka merasa betah bekerja di sebuah perusahaan, artikel ini menggunakan metode penelitian kualitatif, yang terdiri dari beberapa unsur sebagai berikut (Bungin,2004:187):
a. Latar penelitian
Penelitian dilakukan di instansi swasta di Surabaya yang sedang menghadapi masalah tingginya labor turn over atau keluar masuknya karyawan ke dalam instansi tersebut terutama pada bagian/departemen tertentu dalam institusi tersebut. Dengan demikian latar penelitian yang ditetapkan dalam artikel ini adalah kelompok karyawan yang bekerja pada dua departemen yang berbeda dalam satu instansi swasta di Surabaya, yang pada Januari-Juni tahun 2007 jumlah karyawan yang keluar lebih dari 3 orang dan yang nihil.
b. Teknik pengumpulan data
Metode pengumpulan data yang dilakukan adalah melakukan wawancara atau berbincang-bincang dengan karyawan pada departemen yang bersangkutan, melakukan pengamatan langsung dengan mendatangi instansi tersebut. Hasilnya berupa in depth interview yang berupa jawaban-jawaban, ucapan-ucapan ataupun perilaku yang tampak berdasarkan hubungan empati.
c. Instrumen penelitian
Instrumen yang digunakan dalam pengumpulan data berupa pertanyaan yang bersifat open-ended question. Selain itu untuk mendapatkan data, peneliti juga memberikan daftar pertanyaan kepada sekelompok karyawan untuk mengetahui pendapat mereka mengenai gaya kepemimpinan yang dimiliki oleh pimpinan atau atasan yang mencerminkan gaya transformasional.

d. Tahap-tahap penelitian
Penelitian ini memiliki dua tahap besar, yaitu:
- melakukan pengamatan dan wawancara awal pada objek penelitian
- melakukan verifikasi dan analisa hasil pengamatan dan wawancara

e. Analisis data
Dari data yang telah dikumpulkan, melalui wawancara, pengamatan dan jawaban atas pertanyaan yang diajukan kepada satu kelompok karyawan yang terdiri dari 10 orang dan bekerja di institusi yang sama, maka analisis terhadap datanya adalah sebagai berikut:
1. Variabel yang digunakan untuk menentukan apakah atasan/pimpinan memiliki gaya kepemimpinan transformasional atau tidak diambil dari faktor-faktor kepemimpinan transformasional menurut Bass dan Avolio (1990) dan dimodifikasi sedemikian rupa sehingga mempermudah penilaian, yaitu:
a. idealized influence charisma
Dalam penelitian ini, faktor idealized influence charisma diturunkan lagi menjadi variabel- variabel sebagai berikut:
- mampu menjadi contoh yang baik bagi karyawan
- memiliki standar moral dan etika yang tinggi
- menghargai bawahan/karyawan
- memberi kepercayaan penuh kepada bawahan dalam melakukan tugasnya
b. inspirational motivation
- memiliki waktu untuk berkomunikasi dengan bawahan
- mampu memotivasi karyawan untuk menjalankan tugasnya dengan baik
c. intellectual stimulation
- mampu memacu timbulnya kreasi dan inovasi dari karyawan
- melibatkan karyawan dalam memecahkan masalah dalam perusahaan
d. individualized consideration
- mampu berempati terhadap karyawan
- mampu menjadi pelatih dan guru yang baik bagi karyawan dalam proses produksi
- mau mendengar keluhan karyawan
- mementingkan kebutuhan karyawan
2. Hasilnya:
1. Enam orang dari 8 karyawan dalam departemen yang diwawancara dan dimintai pendapat menyatakan bahwa pemimpin/atasan mereka pada departemen yang angka pengunduran diri karyawannya nihil, memenuhi hampir semua item penilaian gaya kepemimpinan transformasional di atas, terutama pada variabel idealized influence charisma, intellectual stimulation dan individualized consideration,. sehingga membuat tidak ada satupun dari para karyawan tersebut yang berniat mengundurkan diri.
2. Empat orang dari 5 karyawan dalam departemen yang tingkat pengunduran dirinya tinggi menyatakan terpikir untuk mengundurkan diri. Hal ini disebabkan atasan/pimpinan mereka tidak memberikan penghargaan yang baik kepada karyawan, tidak melibatkan karyawan dalam memecahkan masalah dalam departemennya, kurang mendengarkan keluhan karyawan, serta tidak mampu memacu timbulnya kreasi dan inovasi dari karyawan. Sehingga dalam hal ini idealized influence charisma, intellectual stimulation dan individualized consideration sebagai variabel gaya kepemimpinan transformasional tidak dapat terpenuhi.

Meskipun demikian, mengingat tidak ada satupun pemimpin yang akan sempurna dalam satu gaya kepemimpinannya, akan tetapi melalui pengamatan langsung yang dilakukan penulis memperlihatkan bahwa pemimpin/atasan yang bergaya transformasional tergolong dekat dan akrab dengan bawahannya. Kebersamaan tercermin dari kegiatan makan siang bersama, hang-out bersama, dan seringkali dalam kegiatan bersama tersebut pemimpin memotivasi bawahannya dengan gaya informal melalui pembicaraan santai dan ringan serta diimbangi dengan keterbukaan bawahan mengenai ide-ide yang mereka punya dalam menyelesaikan pekerjaan. Bahkan tidak jarang bawahan juga menyampaikan keluhan-keluhan mereka dalam konteks pekerjaan. Dan berdasarkan wawancara, karyawan di departemen dengan angka pengunduran diri nihil, memperlihatkan bahwa atasan/pemimpin mampu memberikan contoh, misalnya: datang tepat waktu, menghargai orang lain, jujur dan berintegritas.
Menurut teori, gaya kepemimpinan transformasional dapat digunakan oleh kepemimpinan yang bertujuan untuk mempengaruhi pengikut pada tingkat sempit (one-to-one level) sampai tingkat yang sangat luas yaitu ketika pemimpin ingin mempengaruhi keseluruhan organisasi dan bahkan budayanya. Gaya transformasional Burns (1978) dinyatakan sebagai proses ketika seorang individu terikat satu dengan yang lain dan menghasilkan hubungan yang dapat meningkatkan motivasi dan moral dalam diri pemimpin dan pengikut serta mencoba untuk membantu pengikut mencapai potensial secara maksimal. Dengan demikian, pada departemen pertama, dengan tingkat pengunduran diri nihil, pemimpin atau atasan dapat mempengaruhi pengikut/bawahannya dan pada akhirnya seorang individu, baik pimpinan atau bawahan akan terikat satu dengan yang lain, dan secara otomatis dapat membangkitkan motivasi dan moral pada kedua belah pihak, pimpinan dan bawahan, serta pengikut termotivasi untuk mencapai potensi yang maksimal.
Sedangkan pada departemen kedua, dengan tingkat pengunduran diri cukup tinggi, berdasarkan pengamatan, memperlihatkan pemimpin tidak mampu memberikan contoh kepada karyawan, baik mengenai hal-hal yang bersangkutan dengan pekerjaan, ataupun di luar pekerjaan, misalnya penghargaan kepada orang lain, kejujuran, atau kedisiplinan dan integritas. Dari pengamatan langsung di lokasi, penulis memperhatikan bahwa pemimpin departemen ini jarang sekali terlihat bersama-sama dengan bawahannya, meskipun hanya untuk makan siang bersama-sama. Pertemuan antara pimpinan dan bawahan dilakukan pada situasi yang formal, seperti dalam rapat. Antara pimpinan dan bawahan jarang terlibat pembicaraan yang bersifat santai. Pimpinan/atasan cenderung menilai bawahan dari keberhasilan tugas yang diberikan tanpa menghargai atau memperhatikan proses pengerjaan. Sehingga bawahan harus mengulang pekerjaan yang menurut atasan salah. Atasan juga pernah mendorong bawahan untuk melakukan kreativitas tertentu, dan cenderung bekerja untuk kebaikannya sendiri. Dengan demikian pada departemen kedua ini, gaya kepemimpinan yang ditunjukkan lebih bersifat otokratik seperti yang dicetuskan pertama kali oleh Kurl Lewin pada tahun 1930, yaitu memerintah bawahan untuk melakukan apa yang diinginkan pemimpin dan menghendaki adanya pengawasan yang ketat pada karyawan.
Nitisemito (1991 :160-166) menyebutkan tingkat perpindahan buruh/karyawan yang tinggi adalah salah satu indikasi turunnya semangat dan kegairahan kerja yang dalam jangka panjang akan menurunkan kinerja perusahaan. Keluar masuknya karyawan (labor turn over) yang meningkat terutama disebabkan karena ketidaksenangan mereka bekerja pada perusahaan tersebut, sehingga berusaha mencari pekerjaan lain yang dianggap lebih sesuai. Hal ini terjadi pada departemen yang kedua, dengan tingkat pengunduran diri yang tinggi. Pada prinsipnya turunnya semangat dan kegairahan kerja disebabkan karena ketidakpuasan dari para karyawan. Sumber ketidakpuasan bisa bersifat material dan non material. Bersifat material, misalnya upah yang rendah, fasilitas yang minim dan sebagainya. Sedangkan yang bersifat non material, misalnya penghargaan sebagai manusia, kebutuhan untuk berpartisipasi dan sebagainya. Karena itu, yang terjadi pada departemen kedua adalah secara non material, kebutuhan karyawan tidak terpenuhi.


KESIMPULAN

Berdasarkan analisis data dan pengamatan di lapangan, maka penulis memberikan kesimpulan bahwa seseorang yang bekerja sebagai karyawan biasa di suatu tempat kerja bukan hanya membutuhkan gaji dan fasilitas hidup yang baik, tetapi lebih kepada bagaimana dia merasa dihargai di tempat kerja tersebut dalam hal keikutsertaan berpartisipasi dan mendapatkan dukungan untuk melakukan kreasi dan inovasi. Sebagai karyawan biasa, kedua hal tersebut sangat tergantung pada kemampuan atasan/pimpinannya untuk memfasilitasinya. Jika atasan / pimpinan tidak dapat memberikannya, maka bisa dipastikan karyawan yang paling malas sekalipun akan merasa tidak betah dan akhirnya mengundurkan diri. Beberapa cara untuk meningkatkan gairah dan semangat kerja yang pada akhirnya akan membuat karyawan betah bekerja di tempat tersebut menurut Nitisemito (1991:168-181), adalah harga diri karyawan perlu mendapatkan perhatian, memberikan kesempatan pada karyawan untuk maju, sekali-kali mengajak karyawan berunding. Dan cara-cara tersebut dapat dilakukan dengan mudah oleh seorang atasan/pimpinan yang memiliki gaya kepemimpinan transformasional.



TINJAUAN PUSTAKA
A, Danuyasa. 1998. Psikologi Industri/organisasi Modern: Psikologi Terapan untuk Memecahkan Berbagai Masalah di Tempat Kerja, Perusahaan, Industri dan Organisasi. Penerbit Arcan: Jakarta
Bass, BM and B.J Avolio. 1994. Improving Organization Effectiveness Through Transformational. California: Sage Publication, Inc
Lussier, N. Richard and Christopher F. Achua. 2004. Leadership: Theory, Application and Skill Development.2nd Edition. United States : Thomson South Western

Nitisemito, Alex .1991. Manajemen Personalia.Edisi Kedelapan. Penerbit Ghalia Indonesia: Jakarta.
Northouse, Peter G. 2004. Leadership Theory and Practise. California: Sage Publication, Inc

CONDUCTING MEETING IN START-UP BUSINESS...

CONDUCTING MEETING IN START-UP BUSINESS: IS IT AN “ENTRAPMENT” OF INTIMACY GATHERING RATHER THAN PROFESSIONAL ATMOSPHERE?
Evi Thelia Sari
Universitas Ciputra, Surabaya, Indonesia
thesar2005@yahoo.co.id, evithelia@ciputra.ac.id


Abstract
Start-up business is usually built of some people who know one another before the business starts, especially if the business runs in small scale when the owner asks for some friends, relatives or family to join. The informal attitudes, behavior even words can be found in the beginning of the business, because they think they are friends or families so they do not need to be formal. In the beginning of a business, it is usual if the board hold a meeting almost everyday. Because they need to arrange things, procedures or some other cases which follow. Start-up business needs good coordination even in early stages, so in the future they can run it well. But it should be aware of entrapment of intimacy gathering in running a meeting. This can make a meeting useless and full of jokes rather than seriously discuss to meet the meeting purposes.
This paper has a purpose to remind the start-up business owner to re-arrange and re-conduct the meeting properly as it should be done in other professional businesses. Besides, this paper uses qualitative method to analyze the collected data from open-ended questions to the meeting participants, by focus group discussion, questionnaires, or other tools in collecting data.

Keywords: meeting, start-up business, intimacy gathering, professionalism


INTRODUCTION
Meeting is one of activities that must be conducted and led by managers. Meetings can be both a useful and useless activity in term of how it’s conducted. Meeting will be useful when the result can be applied in the whole business operations. But, it will be useless if we fail to arrange and conduct the meeting properly. It won’t produce even a good decision. The failure of producing a good agreement or decision in a meeting will waste the employees’ time. The employees who attend a meeting leave their work for a while t participate in making a decision and just to appreciate the invitation. If the meeting ends without producing something useful or the problem discussed is not solved until the meeting is over, of course, the time they leave behind is wasted. Further more, if the meeting is such a routine meeting, no wonder if the employees will negatively think of it, even they try to ‘escape’ from the meeting.
The reason to write a topic of conducting meeting in start-up business is because meetings are not held in big companies only, but also, especially in start-up business, because the meeting is needed to prepare and plan activities or program ahead within organization. There’s no start-up business can run well without coordination with initial employees it has. One way to coordinate is meeting, where almost all of the employees will be invited. A small business survey (Madura 2006) described how a managers run their meetings, shows that only 35% of managers who write an agenda with time frames before meeting. The meeting participants is also 48% right invited, it means that 52% of managers invite the non-essential people to a meeting.
Conducting an effective meeting in start-up business is challenging for it must be aware of an ‘entrapment’ of intimacy gathering atmosphere that is strong in start-up business because of the factual reason, most of start up business consist of friendship among the employees, especially, when we discuss about a business in Asia that contains of countries with high-context culture. The people in high-context culture (such as Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia) are closed one another. It can give the impact to the business communication. They are usually like reunion, meeting or togetherness, as they think they live in a clan, group or society that each has relationship to other. A intimacy gathering atmosphere within organization or company is good, but when it takes in improper time, it will damage the professionalism atmosphere that should be in the every business, including start-up business.
The paper has an empirical research with 10 respondents who ever worked or are working in a start-up business in Surabaya city, Indonesia and attend meetings at least once a week. We will see how they count and value the meeting attended by answering the questionnaires and open-ended questions asked to them.

PROBLEM STATEMENT
The problem that going to be discussed in this paper is on how the owner as the leader and even a manager in start up business should aware to conduct a meeting in start-up business to avoid an ‘entrapment’ of intimacy gathering and keep the professional atmosphere.

THE PURPOSE
The purpose of the paper is to enhance the quality of business communication skill in a start-up business especially in conducting a meeting as the effective way to coordinate the things related with the business needs that surely needed in the first steps.

MEETING
Meeting has always taken a large part of the average manager’s workdays. The increased number of teams means that meetings are even more frequent because they need tight coordination. Meeting itself in terms of business communication is such a gathering of people within company with a specific purpose and selective attendees. Once a manager plans to carry out a meeting, he has to plan well and seriously. Meeting must be arranged and planned. It is not wise to plan a meeting accidentally. The essence of a meeting is purposively held, not just based on time left or spare time that the manager has. If so, meeting will be held whenever manager wants and needs, even if the invited participants are not capable to come on that time because they might have scheduled for other tasks before.
Locker and Kaczmarek (2007) identify the 6 kinds of meeting purposes, those are:
- to share information
- to brainstorm ideas
- to evaluate ideas
- to make decisions
- to create a document
- to motivate members
In each kind of purpose, the participants invited will be different composition. When the meeting has a purpose to make decisions, they are 4 different decision-making process, named:
Authoritative, when the leader makes the decision alone.
Consultative, when the leader hears group comment but then makes the decision alone.
Voting, when the majority wins.
Consensus, when the discussion continues until everyone can ‘buy into’ the decision.
After planning the purpose of meeting, the next step is arranging the agenda that indicates:
- The time and place of the meeting
- Whether each item is presented for information, for discussion or for a decision
- Who is sponsoring or introducing each item
- How much time is allotted for each item
Some meetings often become so infuriating and unproductive, generating more ‘heat’ than ‘light’, but some have the potential to be one of the richest and most creative communication channels. Blundel differed meeting based on its primary purpose into 5 types:
- Briefing: to deliver information
- Investigatory: to gather information
- Advisory : to provide information
- Consultative : to get voice opinions
- Executive: to make decisions
The successful meeting can both inform and motivate those attending, unfortunately, business meeting rarely succeed in exploiting these opportunities to the full. The reasons caused the unsuccessful meeting are:
The each attendee arrives with his or her own information, pre-convinced ideas, feelings, and prejudices.
As the meeting grinds on, the different interpretations of the material that has been discussed will occur.
The arguments come from each attendee’s pre-convinced ideas will make any debate that might be out of context.
When it starts being out context the meeting will become boring and produce something unrelated.
The main way to coordinate people within a team is the meeting. As the leader of the team, a manager/owner is required to run well-prepared and well-managed meetings. It is easy for a meeting to degenerate into a boring, meaningless waste of time. A productive meeting can build a great team relationship and achieve result (Kao & Liang 2001).
In start up business, both owner or managers and employees can turn the boring meeting in to the productive meeting, by:
- Always have a prepared agenda, which states the purpose of the meeting. So that everybody knows exactly what to expect.
- Make sure that the size of the meeting is manageable. Three to five is a good number. Seven or more may be unwieldy.
- Be sure the meeting starts and finishes on time. Half an hour is often long enough and also one hour should be the limit.
- Once the decision is made, assign the task of implementing the decision to someone and set a completion date. See that others support the person responsible.
These tips can be applied in start-up business to avoid the boredom in meeting, because of the characteristic of start-up business is having small number of employees, that meeting turns to be a time to have intimacy gathering among the employees. Although it can give a good result, that everybody within firm knows each other, but it can be an entrapment to reduce the professionalism atmosphere within organization.



START-UP BUSINESS
Based on Kao & Liang (2001), at the start up business, effectiveness is enhanced by using the team approach in working toward implementing the plan. If the team involves more than two people, it must have a coordinator who keeps track of everyone’s efforts and ensures that they remain focused on the task. In a start up business, when the number of the employees is small, an owner or manager must plan for growth, emphasizing team effort and learning to share work, decision-making, responsibility, and profits.
Start up business is such a stage of an enterprise begins with official registration or incorporation of the undertaking. Kao & Liang (2001) wrote that during the time the primary activity is offering a product or service to potential buyers. Very few of business can gain profit at this stage; many work their way from a planned loss to a break-even point. Meanwhile they are acquiring financial and human resources, establishing their place in the market and becoming operational. Management in this stage is mainly entrepreneurial and personalized. The owner may do some delegation, but he or she makes all decisions, including those on pricing.

INTIMACY GATHERING
Intimacy gathering can not be defined strictly, because the word “intimacy” has different meaning for some people to others. Because it depends on the characteristic of the country they live in. The degree of intimacy will be different between high context and low context culture. Before we further define “intimacy”, we should understand the definition of high and low context culture. Both contexts are used in many business communication guide books to explaining the attitude and the behavior of people when they communicate in workplace.
This paper wants to describe the behavior of people in workplace influenced by the culture contexts. Low context-culture tends to prefer direct verbal interaction, values individualism, relies more in logic and employs linear logic. It is usually found in North America, Western Europe. The low context-culture will be appeared in business meetings. As they seem to be action-oriented and says ‘no’ directly. The communication will be in highly structured (contexted) message, provides details, stresses literal meanings, gives authority to written information (Guffey, et.al 2005 ). They will make the time spent for a meeting effective and efficient, so they won’t waste their time and energy to discuss other topics out of the main topic discussed in a meeting.
The harder problem may come from the people from high-context culture, as shown by the people in most Asia such as Japan, China and Arab countries. Indonesia is one of the main country discussed here, has the high-context culture. The people of Indonesia tends to prefer indirect verbal interaction, values group membership and talks around points even avoids saying ‘no’. The people in high context-culture communicate in simple, ambiguous, noncontexted messages; understands visual messages readily.
People in high context-culture act so close each other. Because they value group membership, so they like to have a talk to each other closely. If they bring it into a business meeting, no wonder if they are entrapped in an ‘intimacy gathering’ rather than keeping a professionalism atmosphere. So, in this paper, intimacy gathering means a gathering that occurs when two or more people that either closed each other before or not discusses or serves as if they have known before. In a marriage term, it is such the couple talks or serves for each other. And also in spiritual activity term, it can be an intimacy between human and God. But, in business term, I define the intimacy is such a very close relationship among the employees that is able to produce a deeply talks.
By understanding more about the culture’s business practices, we also know that Americans, who are in low-context culture, tend to prefer formal business practices where employees arrive on time to a meeting, address the point of a meeting, arrive at a prompt conclusion, and depart the meeting on schedule. Americans are direct and goal oriented, finding little time to exchange pleasantries. Conversely, other cultures, such as the Japanese, who lives in high-context culture, exchange friendly stories at the beginning of a business meeting, incorporating family ties into their business world. Americans typically separate their “business life” from their “family life” (Carpenter 2005).

PROFESSIONALISM
There’s no strict definition of the word “professionalism”. But, it derives from “professional” that means professional status, methods, character, or standards. When we talk about professionalism it is such a difficult way to define it. But, originated from the noun ‘professional’ itself, the professionalism can be said as the method, the character and the standard that must be found in a professional. For example, if you are a teacher, you have to understand the method of teaching, the character you should have and the standard that you have keep when you are working. So, in this paper, what ever your position in a firm, come and attend a meeting with the method, character and standard of your profession. If you attend a meeting such as an accountant, say and act that relevant to your position.
The measurement of how professional we are depends on what the profession we have. As explained before, that professional is method, character and standard assigned to a profession, so the measurement will be easier because it will be measured by its profession. When someone says he is an accountant, his professionalism will be measured by the method, character and standard as an accountant. So will the other occupations and positions.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This paper has a qualitative-descriptive research method, which gains the data from focus group discussion to get the answer of open-ended questions, other references, and also supported by a questionnaires to help the members in focus group to answer the close-ended questions, so the answers can be strictly defined.
The framework
To guide the understanding of the idea in this paper, here is the framework:
Start- up business
Skill:
Business Communication
(Focused on meeting)

Time and energy effectiveness and goal achievement through the well-conducted meetings

Figure 1: Framework on analysis of conducting meeting in start-up business
The figure 1 above indicates that:
Start-up business has a small number of employee that comes from the close clan, family or relatives and friends.
Start-up business needs an improved skill in business communication, no matter what the cultural context. In this paper, focused on conducting meeting.
Meeting in start-up business are held to coordinate the team to run the business well.
The ability to conduct and run a meeting effectively can result a better relationship within the team and to enhance the ability to gain the expected goals.
The challenge of the owner of a start-up business is how to run the meeting and keep it professionally run although in high context culture especially, the close relationship between the employees can harm the professional atmosphere in a meeting room through their entrapped by an intimacy.
Research background
Research was done in Surabaya, Indonesia and focused in new firms. The members of focus group were selected from different company. They have a specific criterion, that must be working or ever worked before in a start-up business which started the business in the previous 1-2 years before they worked in that firm.
Collecting data techniques
The data collection method for this paper was done by interviewing ten people that ever worked or even still working in a new firm or start-up business and also gave the member the close-ended questions to guide the member in specific topic. So, the result of in-depth interview could be answers, talks or behavior that appears from the empathy relation.
Research instrument
Instrument used for data collection in this paper are open-ended questions. Besides, the writer got the data from the other questions in questionnaires which answered by the members in focus group.
Research steps
This research has two big steps, those are:
- Investigation and initial interview to the research objects.
- Verification and analysis on the result of investigation and interview.
Data analysis
The data collected from interview, investigation and answers of questionnaires that proposed to the ten members of focus group discussion, who are working and ever worked in different firms, has the result:
1. Variables used to decide whether the meeting held in start-up business conducted in professionalism atmosphere, or just ‘entrapped’ by intimacy gathering, are:
a. Start-up business
This paper has the specific definition on start-up business as the business that had just started previous 1-2 years. Based on Kao & Liang (2001), the number of the employees is small, so an owner or manager must plan for growth, emphasizing team effort and learning to share work, decision-making, responsibility, and profits because of the infant business.

b. Meeting
Meeting in this paper will focus on how to run a meeting. Agenda and other meeting preparations will not discuss further in this paper. Because we will mainly discuss on the behavior of the meeting participants in start-up business, whether they keep the professionalism, or they keep the professional atmosphere in attending a meeting.
c. Intimacy gathering
This paper has a specific definition on ”intimacy gathering” that is driven by the condition of employees in start-up business who knows each other before and the small number of employees has made the relationship among employees is very closed. This close relationship produces the situation in a meeting tends to be an informal rather than formal one. Everybody who knows each other will use the meeting room to talk about other topics with another one.
d. Professionalism
The word ‘professionalism’ here will be focused on the way of thinking, behave suitable with the position in a firm. During the meeting, it can be appeared, so the member of the focus group discussion can see how it works.
2. The result:
1. Six people of ten in the group count that the meeting they ever attended in the beginning of firm operation was:
- routine (held once a week)
- more than an hour
- met the goals
- no professional atmosphere
- Attendees were entrapped to have a chat one another out of the topic discussed in the meeting and tended to discuss private cases, such as families or else.
- Everybody who attended the meeting knew each other before they worked in the firm, such as a relative or friends.
2. Four of the members in Focus group discussion said that the firm contained of the people that didn’t know each other before. But, because of the small number of the entire employees in the firm, it made everybody seemed to be family. Because of the very close relationship and interaction everyday.
Furthermore, the four people indicated:
- The meetings were held routine (once a week).
- The meetings were run more than an hour.
- The meetings sometimes met the goals.
- The meetings tended to lose the professional atmosphere.
- Attendees were entrapped to have a chat one another out of the topic discussed in the meeting and acted as if the meeting were the only chance to share other topic, about family or other private cases.
From the short discussion with ten people in focus-group discussion, it can be seen, that in high-context culture, such as Indonesian people, the challenge in start-up business especially in business communication skill is how to conduct the meeting, and keep the professional atmosphere in meeting room. The result also indicated that start-up business usually has the employees from family, relative and friends. So it give the impact to the situation in meeting room, when a high-context culture values interpersonal relationship highly and deep intimacy with other is important to them. The value is brought in to a meeting room and in professional meeting.
The result of such meeting were not clear for the attendees as the meeting discussion was received in bias, as the attendees seemed to be busy with their own topics. For the four members, who worked in a firm, that not everybody knew each other before worked in the same firm, seemed to be better. Because the meetings held, sometimes could gain the goals and the professional atmosphere were still kept although everybody entrapped to have a chat on other topics.
Blundel (2004) mentioned that one of the reasons caused the unsuccessful meeting is that the meeting discussion become boring and produce something unrelated. It can be more harmed when the high-context culture people entrapped to discuss the private cases and the owner, manager or leader also ‘entrapped’ in the unrelated cases.
The meeting in high-context culture almost have no debates as the people seem to appreciate other when talking. It can be a positive but also negative. It is positive for preventing the meeting from the out of context debates, but will be negative if the meeting can not draw the ideas from attendees. It means that the meeting, which should be able to produce the fresh and bright ideas, especially in start up business, will end uselessly. This is the challenge for the owner, leader, manager or an entrepreneur himself, to invite the meeting participants to blow up new ideas to be used in firm operational.




Conclusion
This paper has a purpose to enhance the quality of business communication skill in a start-up business especially in conducting a meeting as the effective way to coordinate the things related with the business needs that surely needed in the first steps. For start-up business in the high-context culture, it is such a challenge.
The owner or the manager of the start-up business should aware and learn how to conduct and run the meeting, as their position as leaders of the team in start up business. If not, they will waste time, energy and even money to do the wasteful and purposeless meeting. The meeting itself is useful for coordinating and discussing the issues in business which are very important to a start-up business if they want to grow in the bigger scale of business.
Hopefully, when an entrepreneur or owner of start-up business knows how to conduct and run the meeting well, he or she can share his vision, strategies, and policy in a professional way although the general theory about start-up business contains of the employees who have close relation among each other. It should be a good inspiration for the entrepreneurs to handle the employees in meeting room. Because, no body in business wants to waste the time and energy for the unused chats.





Reference

Blundel, Richard 2004, Effective Organizational Communication: Perspective, Principles and Practices, 2nd Edition.

Carpenter, Russel Gordon 2005, ‘ Designing for A Japanese High-Context Culture: Culture’s Influence on the Technical Writer’s Visual Rhetoric, A Thesis in the College of Arts and Sciences, at The University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, Spring Term.

Guffey, Mary Ellen, Rhodes, Kathleen & Rogin, Patricia 2005, Business Communication: Process and Product 4th Edition, Thompson, Canada.

Kao, Raymond WY & Liang, Tan Wee 2001, Entrepreneurship and Enterprise development in Asia, Prentice Hall, Singapore.

Locker, Kitty O & Kaczmarek, Stephen Kyo 2007, Business Communication: Building Critical Skills 3rd Edition, McGraw Hill, New York.

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