With Daniel Skjeldam as boss, it will be difficult for Hurtigruten to rebuild lost trust.
This comment was first published by Northern Norwegian Debate.
The bizarre the session on the quayside in Tromsø on Thursday afternoon shows the total collapse of the Hurtigruten. After first announcing boundless honesty and inviting the press to a meeting, CEO Daniel Skjeldam disappeared into a car after three and a half minutes, without answering a single critical question. He appears to be a troubled man. Self-harm seems almost like a prayer for relief.
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The board of the company must decide for themselves what is best, but it is not to take too hard to say that Hurtigruten as an institution is losing all credibility. Many hearts along the coast that beat for Hurtigruten bleed. The collapse that unfolds before our eyes is painful for many who are fond of the bearer of tradition. And it has gradually become clear that it will not be possible to restore the lost trust with Daniel Skjeldam as boss.
The more details that become known, including the communication between the company and Tromsø municipality’s medical management and internal warnings and reports of concern from employees at Roald Amundsen, the worse the case appears.
The details is shocking. And the breaches of infection control are directly disturbing to read about.
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More and more circumstances point in the direction of active attempts to cover up an outbreak of infection – and soon the police investigation may also reveal that there are criminal offenses. What did Daniel Skjeldam really know? Did he take his responsibility as commander and ask the necessary control questions when he received the information about the Covid 19 alarm two days before the ship arrived in Tromsø on 31 July?
What is really the reason why Skjeldam still has the board’s trust? Nobody knows. But what emerges in Northern Lights and VG Thursday night is a further serious escalation, which worsens the management’s position.
Skjeldam is responsible for the entire company’s organizational culture. It is not characterized by general trust. Or that employees can freely and without retaliation notify of matters worthy of criticism. It may seem as if Hurtigruten is characterized by an extensive culture of fear.
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Covid19 situation has uncovered layer upon layer in a corporate culture that is unable to handle a critical incident. This is a management responsibility, no matter how you turn it around. Daniel Skjeldam has failed both personally in handling the incident, and he has failed when it comes to building an organization that can keep a cool head in a crisis, and preferably avoid such a situation.
The seriousness of the matter is growing because it was Hurtigruten itself that pushed hard to get started with the expedition cruises, something a report in Filter News Thursday documents. Precisely for this reason, infection control preparedness on Roald Amundsen should have been the first priority. Instead, corona-sick employees were set to serve passengers at the bar.
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One must be able to expect much more from a business that sails along the coast with multiple hundreds of millions in annual support from Norwegian taxpayers. One must also be able to expect more from modern leadership than what Skjeldam has demonstrated in the last two weeks. There is no point in pushing responsibility down the system.
Also read: Critical of Hurtigruten: – They rushed into the market like Eddie the Eagle out of the jump
Little suggests that Daniel Skjeldam has the qualities required to save the Hurtigruten from the cliff they are stuck on.
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