Dr. Roland G. Baptiste

DR ROLAND G BAPTISTE BA, MA, MSC, PHD

Dr Roland Baptiste is currently an adjunct lecturer at UWI ROYTEC where he lectures in the field of Human Resource Management. Through his extensive professional career, he has developed expertise in Human Resource Management, specializing in Learning and Development, Organization Development, and Organization change. He honed and nurtured these areas of expertise through academic pursuits and extensive practice.

Dr Baptiste has had a varied and stimulating academic history. He attended Howard University (USA) where he obtained a BA (Cum Laude) and MA, both in History. On returning to Trinidad from the USA in 1975 and having obtained a job as a training officer in the Public Service, he decided to study management. Accordingly, he pursued a Post Graduate Diploma in Management at University of the West Indies (UWI), St. Augustine. A few years later, he attended the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology, UK where he obtained the MSc in Management Education and Organization Change. Finally, years later, during his stint as a senior lecturer at UWI, he read successfully for the PhD (Management Studies). In addition to these academic programmes, he attended training at the National Training Laboratories (USA), where he was trained in conducting T-Groups, and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator courses.

Dr Baptiste spent approximately half his career in the Personnel Department of the Public Service of Trinidad and Tobago. As stated before, he joined as a Training Officer in 1975. At that time, the Public Service was experiencing exponential growth because of the oil boom.

The Central Training Unit (CTU) of the Personnel Department was responsible for Public Service training and responded to the increasing training needs by first restructuring. Dr Baptiste who had entered the CTU as a Training Officer 1, rose to be Head in 1981, when the CTU was in the final stages of having all posts of Training Officer filled, and when it was ready to increase the quality and quantity of in-service training in the Public Service.,

Dr Baptiste expertly led this expansion. Under his leadership, 1981-1987, the CTU conducted courses for all levels and classes of staff at venues in Chaguaramas, Port-of-Spain, San Fernando, Sangre Grande, and Tobago. Its consultancy and departmental training arm provided training advice and bespoke training to Ministries. Hundreds of Public Officers benefitted annually.

Dr Baptiste’s contribution to training in the Public Service culminated in the part he played in designing and implementing a programme entitled “Service begins with me”. At the beginning of 1987, the Head of the Public Service tasked a team consisting of Dr Baptiste and other trainers from the state enterprise and private sectors with the job of training 10,000 public officers in customer service. The team produced an innovative programme entitled “Service begins with me”. With the assistance of a small staff Dr Baptiste implemented the programme successfully at the yet to be used Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, using several trainers from various sectors.

In October of 1987, Dr Baptiste was appointed Chief Personnel Officer and a Training Officer of the CTU was assigned to conduct “Service begins with me” under Dr Baptiste’s overall supervision. The programme continued through 1988.

Arguably Dr Baptiste presided over a period of the most intensive training in the Public Service since independence.

Dr Baptiste was appointed Chief Personnel Officer (CPO) at a challenging time. The boom of the nineteen seventies was followed by a bust in the middle nineteen eighties. All CPOs have had to face periods of serious challenges; however, the late nineteen eighties and early nineties stand out. The actions taken by the Government of the day were unprecedented and have not been repeated since. These actions were the suspension of the payment of Cost-of-Living Allowance, the implementation of a Voluntary Termination of Employment programme, the cutting of salaries, and the non-implementation of the increase awarded by the Special Tribunal of the Industrial Court. Through it all the Personnel Department under Dr Baptiste never faltered.

Notably, early in his tenure as CPO Dr Baptiste publicly articulated support for the introduction of contemporary Human Resource Management in the Public Service, an approach to the management of people in the workplace that was emerging internationally in the nineteen eighties, replacing the traditional Personnel Management.

In keeping with this he initiated discussions on the restructuring of the Personnel Department. The objective was to dispense with the many different job titles that the technical staff of the Department held and to create the job stream of Human Resource Officer. Dr Baptiste was unable to complete this before leaving. A few years after his departure, Human Resource Management Units were established throughout the Public Service with the creation of relevant posts. Simultaneously, the Personnel Department was restructured along similar lines.

Dr Baptiste served in the post of CPO until 1992 when he left to take up the post of Deputy Director at the University of the West indies/Institute of Business (now the UWI Arthur Lok Jack Global School of Business). Five years later, in 1997 he was appointed to the post of Senior Lecturer, Management Studies Department, where he worked until retirement in 2011.

During his academic career, Dr Baptiste lectured undergraduate courses on Organization Development, Human Resource Development, and Human Resource Management, At the

graduate level, he facilitated Human Resource Management courses and advised students working on MSc theses.

Dr. Baptiste published journal articles and book chapters on topics related to Organization Change, Human Resource Management, and Public Service Reform. He also prepared the Organization Behaviour text used for several years by UWI Open Campus, and edited a book entitled ‘Human Resource Management: A Reader for Students and Practitioners’ published by The University of the West Indies Open Campus (St. Augustine). He wrote the first two chapters: “What is Human Resource Management?” and “Labour Disturbances in Trinidad, 1937”. The other chapters, except one, are the abridged theses of MSc students whom Dr Baptiste supervised.

Since retiring from the University of the West Indies, Dr. Baptiste has done consulting work in the Public Service. In 2013, he served as an assessor on the Assessment Centre organized by the Public Service Commission, and from 2016 to 2020 he served as a Leadership and Management Development Consultant at the Ministry of Public Administration. In that capacity, he conducted two workshops for Permanent Secretaries, developed and implemented a Management Development programme for senior Public Officers, facilitated training for Deputy Permanent Secretaries, and developed and facilitated a Customer Experience training programme for the Public Service working through teams in various Ministries.

Finally, Dr Baptiste conducted three Webinars for senior Public Officers, delivered at the request of the Public Service Academy, Ministry of Public Administration. These were: “Problem Solving and Decision Making” (2023), “Insights from Neuroscience that help us to understand Organizational Change, Motivation in the workplace, Learning and Development, Leadership, and Performance Management” (2022), and “Change in Turbulent Times” (2021).

Dr Baptiste is married to paediatrician Dr June Webb and is the father of three and grand father of two. He grew up in Tunapuna and attended Tunapuna Boys RC. He uses any opportunity to point out that CLR James’ famous book, “Beyond a Boundary” begins with the word ‘Tunapuna’. Dr Baptiste is a proud St. Mary’s College past student, and a loyal fan of Massy Trinidad All Stars.