Both Sides of The Coin: The Story of The Central Bank of Barbados 1972-2017

Appendix 1: Recollections of Previous Governors 271 of the Board were mostly independent and knowledgeable directors who set policy and monitored performance, leaving me free to manage. With respect to accountability, the Bank’s performance has been outstanding. A statement of its balance sheet reaches the minister of finance's desk daily and its annual audited accounts are routinely forwarded to him by the end of March of the following year. Less than Bds$15,000 was written off the Bank's books in 25 years and no scandal has tainted its financial operations. For this achievement Mr. Calvin Springer, our first accountant, deserves considerable credit. He established and developed the Bank's financial controls and served as the conscience of management, even for the governor! Staff relations From early I realised that, since the majority of the staff were “knowledge workers”, staff relations would present our greatest challenge. Knowledge workers cannot be coerced into high quality production and must be induced to accept a sense of responsibility for results. Management, in turn, must share its vision and promote the fullest staff participation in the implementation of its programmes. We consciously shared the vision of the Bank with the staff through handbooks, group meetings and involvement in strategic planning. Moreover, there were generous salaries and benefits, as well as opportunities for higher education, personal development and promotion. The result was superior corporate performance, wholesome staff relations and a very low rate of staff turnover. A trade union-free environment during the first 13 years provided a welcome breathing space. While trade unions have contributed much to Barbados’s development, traditional union techniques no longer apply in the post-industrial era of knowledge organisations. I trust that our trade union leadership, which has certainly grown in sophistication since 1970, will become even more sensitive to the complexities of post-industrial organisations.