It has been a privilege working and living in Houston, Texas, over the last few months. I really have developed a fondness for this state, however it is unique in it's outlook on so many aspects - socially, morally and in business. I heard a comedian the other night talking about Texas having the death penalty and being the state most active in its use as a punishment for the most serious of crimes. He outlined how that, in irrefutable cases (3 credible eye-witnesses or more), Texas was moving to execute prisoners within 1 year, as opposed to the normal 15 years that a prisoner will remain on death row. The gag centered around the fact that other states are moving away from the capital punishment, whilst Texas is putting in an "express lane!" Undoubtedly morbid, the joke highlights the interesting quirk in the fabric of Texan society.

This is a Republican state and a state where religion (and by that I mean 'extreme' Christianity) rules, yet these deeply conservative people have loads of interesting contradictions, like the one listed in the joke above. I was exposed to a particularly interesting one today from a business context. As part of our placement, Jim and I have had to deal with several people and communication issues. Today, we met with the new HR professional within the firm to go through our findings and learnings from the last 6 weeks. I am a strong believer that effective human resource management is where HR decisions are made to optimise the commercial success of a business, rather than to default to policy positions. It was to my surprise (but perhaps I was wrong to be surprised given what I know of Texas)  that HR professionals really are seen as a burden on staff: a person that laborious tasks can be shuffled on to. I delved more into why this was true and was amazed to find that basically, employees have zero rights and that all employment law in Texas is built to favour the employer.  This is in stark contrast to California, New York or the UK where employment law is built to protect the employee. It sounds great from the manager's perspective - 'I don't really fancy your tie today so I can sack you at will". People in the UK always gripe about the difficult structure involved with removing someone from a position. However. consider the employee, who knows at any time he or she can be dispensed with without warning or reason. How motivated to work in that environment would you be? Add to that the subsequent deference that exists between staff and management, then you have a environment which is in no way healthy.

I don't have any "eureka" conclusions to this story, only to highlight something which I think we all must consider as leaders - how best to work with HR professionals in a way that commercially adds value to our businesses. For Texas, it again throws up an interesting juxtaposition for this "Christian State" - perhaps it's a throwback to the Confederate days - where people were dispensable and told what to do...'nuff said? Doesn't sound very Christian to me.