Etsko Schuitema, is the founder and Leading Partner of Schuitema Associates, a business transformation consultancy that is based in South Africa and Pakistan. An anthropologist by training, Etsko developed the Care and Growth Leadership Model while he was employed with the South African Chamber of Mines, which he left in 1989 to research and develop the framework further under Schuitema Associates. He is also a practicing Sufi
Background and education
Etsko Schuitema was born to Jurjen and Johanna Schuitema in Klerksdorp, a mining town in the North West province of South Africa. Both his parents were in the mining industry, and as such he had been exposed to the South African mining industry from a young age. Etsko's elder brother is Jerry Schuitema, a South African journalist, author and retired management consultant. In 1980, Schuitema completed an Honours degree in Social Anthropology from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa and in 1980 was subsequently employed by the Human Resources Laboratory of the South African Chamber of Mines as a researcher. In 1984, he led the research team to perform research on employee discontent.
Career
Period
The research was done during the peak of apartheid in South Africa. The gold mines were South Africa's biggest industry; with its workforce coming from all the ethnic tribes of the region and they reflected the problems that were plaguing South Africa during the apartheid regime.
Research
The Chamber of Mines Research Organisation commissioned Schuitema and his team to find out what was causing employee conflict in the mines at the organisation. The survey instrument looked at variables that could account for employee discontent and mistrust towards the management.
Birth of Care and Growth Model & Schuitema Associates
What emerged from the research was that the variables and managerial behaviours that accounted for minimal work conflict, willingness at work, loyalty and trust towards the management were two: Care and Growth. It was found that the employees who felt the management was genuinely interested in their welfare as individuals and professionals, trusted their immediate supervisors significantly more than the men who believed the management had no interest in this regard. From his research on conflict and trust in management, Schuitema believes that power only becomes legitimate where the leader benevolently exists to provide unconditional care, and fair and honest growth for his/her subordinates. Schuitema Associates was subsequently founded in January 1990 and the Care and Growth Leadership framework was further developed. Schuitema promotes the importance of leadership in empowering employees through genuine care and the creation of growth opportunities and empowerment. Schuitema gives lectures on the Care and Growth material on a regular basis at the Institute for Manufacturing at the University of Cambridge and the Gordon Institute of Business Science in South Africa.
Birth of Intent/Personal Excellence Model
While teaching the Care and Growth Leadership Model to business leaders and educators, Schuitema discovered that personal mastery and successful leadership of others are interlinked. Schuitema through his company Schuitema Associates also performs Personal Excellence courses. His clients for the Personal Excellence courses have included:
