Stay put and try to understand your job mobility factors

Stay put in your present role, and try to understand those factors that influence your potential move to a new role. PHOTO | BD GRAPHIC 

By DR FRANK NJENGA

I was really hoping to have the opportunity to move into a new role. I didn’t get it. How best can I ask my boss to let me know what I can do to have a better chance of achieving that role in the future

Yours is one of those questions that pose a major challenge to us, in part because the question lacks sufficient detail to enable one focus more clearly on what it is that you would like to know. A few examples will illustrate this point.

Are you a gardener in a home, who aspires to the job of a cook or are you, like Chume in Wole Soyinka’s “Trials of brother Jero, an aspirant to the high office of chief messenger, with a desk and a telephone. The federal member of parliament aspired to be a minister and was promised the Ministry for War by prophet Jero in the same play.

You could on the other hand be a nurse in a hospital who thought she should be matron or principal secretary in the ministry of this or that, who believes time is right to be a full Cabinet Secretary.

A Judge of the High Court might be looking at the Court of Appeal while the Judge of Appeal knows about the vacancies now available in the Supreme Court.

In all these examples, at least two things are clear.

The first, as in your case, there is your perception that you are fit and ready for the position that you now aspire to occupy.
The second is that there is the reality that occupation of the next (higher) office requires that certain qualifications be in place.

The gardener who now wishes to move the office of the cook must demonstrate skills in that area of cooking while the person who wants to be a chief messenger must show that he can manage others by for example, assigning to them duties fairly and effectively.

An additional requirement which you may need to take account of is the availability of a vacancy. Just because the principal secretary has demonstrated the skills required to move up to Cabinet Secretary does not mean that he will be appointed.

In Kenya, this matter becomes even more complex, particularly in the public sector. Two factors come into play in the allocation of jobs.

The first is the gender rule, which has recently caused those in charge of the police force an interesting challenge. Some have argued that no person of the female gender has the skills required to occupy the office of Deputy to the Police Inspector General. Others have argued that the Constitution is supreme and must be obeyed by all at all times.

Wise men

As you can see, very clear provisions such as the Constitution might sometimes call for interpretation by “wise men” so as to allow for stability to remain.

In your case, there is the possibility that your company has not been doing as well as you might think and that the board has decided to freeze “movement into new roles.” It might also be possible that market forces beyond your knowledge, have forced a change of strategy by the company.

If for example you are in the oil industry, the current glut in the supply of oil might be the reason your employer has decided to “watch things for a while”in the belief that a barrel of oil at US $30 cannot be sustained for more than a few months.