Worker participation in management unit 5

Concept

The concept of worker’s participation in management is considered as a

mechanism where workers have a say in the decision making process of an
enterprise.

In the view point of social thinkers like Comte and Owen, worker’s participation in
management should be encouraged for achieving social justice. They were
concerned about the status of workers in the factory organization and in order to
prevent their exploitation, they observed that workers should have as much power
as the management.

The experiments of Blake, Mayo, Lewin and Likert popularized the belief that if
workers are given opportunities to participate in the management process there
could be positive gains to the organization’s effectiveness and morale.

Workers’ participation in management is an essential ingredient of industrial

democracy. The concept of workers’ participation in management is based on
Human Relations approach to management which brought about a new set of
values to labor and management. Workers’ participation in management implies
mental and emotional involvement of workers in the management of enterprise.

Workers’ participation in management falls into several categories. These are

informative, consultative, associative, administrative and decisive participation.

 In informative participation there is sharing of information regarding

production figures, the balance sheet, economic conditions, etc.

 In consultative participation workers’ representatives are consulted on

matters relating to welfare facilities by the management.

 In associate participation the management is under the moral obligation to

accept and implement the agreed decisions of the employees.

 In administrative participation the decision is already taken and the

employees have the right to choose the method of implementing it.

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 In decisive participation which is the highest form of participation where all

matters economic, financial and administrative are brought under the scrutiny of
the employees and the decisions are taken jointly.

CHARACTERICSTICS

1. Participation implies practices which increase the scope for employees’

share of influence in decision-making process with the assumption of
responsibility.

2. Participation presupposes willing acceptance of responsibility by workers.

3. Workers participate in management not as individuals but as a group through

their representatives.

4. The participation may be at the shop level, departmental level or at the top
level.

5. Workers’ participation in management may be formal or informal. In both

the cases it is a system of communication and consultation whereby employees
express their opinions and contribute to managerial decisions.

6. Worker’s participation in management differs from collective bargaining in

the sense that while the former is based on mutual trust, information sharing and
mutual problem solving; the latter is essentially based on power play, pressure
tactics and negotiations.

7. The basic rationale to worker’s participation in management is that workers

invest their labor and their fates to their place of work. Thus, they contribute to the
outcomes of organization. Hence, they have a legitimate right to share in decision
making activities of organization.

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Determinants of Worker’s participation in management

The success of WPM is determined by two types of factors: situational and

human.

1. Situational factors:
It refers to the peculiar characteristics of each enterprise which determine its
participation potential such as: autonomy, size, organization structure as well as
technological factors.

 The autonomy of the enterprise refers to the extent to which it is free to make
managerial decisions.
 Technology refers to the nature of work done and the working conditions under
which it is done. The more complex the technology, the lesser it is possible for
workers to contribute to managerial decisions.
 The size of an enterprise impacts the span of control. Larger sized enterprise has
a lesser scope for participation of workers.
 The organizational structure is impacted by autonomy, technology, size and
legal provisions. The organizational structure in turn impacts the participation
of workers in management.

In addition to the factors mentioned the environment in which enterprise are

situated also influence the type of authority structure adopted by them which in
turn determine the workers involvement in decision making.

2. Human factors:-
By human factors means a worker’s propensity to participate and the manager’s
acceptance of the participation scheme.

It has three aspects:

a. workers’ attitude to participation, i.e. whether he has a desire to participate or

not;
b. worker’s perceived power to participate; if he sees and believes that he has
the power, then he makes efforts to participate;
c. His capacity to participate, i.e., his ability to understand the managerial
functions and the issues involved in participation and the ability to express them
clearly.
Human factors also relate to a manager’s attitude, which is dependent upon the
kind of approach he adopts for running an enterprise. This can be either:

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(i) authoritarian;
(ii) paternalistic;
(iii) constitutional; or
(iv) democratic.

Worker’s Empowerment

Workers’ empowerment means allowing workers to have input and control over
their work, and the ability to openly share suggestions and ideas about their work
and the organization as a whole.

Empowered employees are committed, loyal and conscientious. They are eager to
share ideas and can serve as strong ambassadors for their organizations.

Empowerment is the process of giving employees in the organisation the power,

authority, responsibility, resources, freedom to take decisions and solve work
related problems. In order to take such initiatives and decisions, they are given
adequate authority and resources.

This allocation of authority is not based on the concept of “delegation” based

relationship. In empowerment it is a “trust based relationship”, which is established
between management and employees. It is a continuous process.

The empowered employee becomes “self-directed” and “self-controlled”.

Empowerment focuses on employees to make use of their full potential. On the
other hand, empowerment means giving up control on employees and letting every
employee make decisions, set goals, accomplish results and receive rewards. It
means making a person able to manage by himself. It is a process for helping right
person at the right levels to makes the right decision for the right reasons.

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IMPORTANCE

 The investment in workers can improve productivity, which can reduce the
costs.

 Individual workers experience a feeling of self-esteem, self-efficiency and

self-confidence.

 Workers empowerment also helps in making workers more self-reliant.

 It allows independent decision-making by the workers.

 Empowerment of workers helps a firm to assign different projects to sharp

the competence of workers.

 More freedom given to workers can be utilized for taking judicious

decisions.

 Assigning proper authority can improve the organizational effectiveness.

 Independent decision-making can improve self-confidence among the

workers.

 It can boost up the morale of the workers.

 The overall efficiency of an organization can be multiplied due to

empowerment of the workers.

QUALITY CIRCLE

The most widely discussed and undertaken intervention of employee involvement

is the Quality circle (QC).

This technique was first started by Kaoru Ishikawa in Japan in early 1960s. It is
mentioned that it is the concept of QC that enabled Japanese firms to make high
quality products at low costs.

Quality circle is a work group of employees who meet regularly to discuss their
quality problems, investigate causes, recommend solutions and take corrective
actions.

It consists of small group of 6 to 12 employees belonging to the similar work area.

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It is a “way of capturing the creative and innovative power that lies within the
work force.

QC is formed to achieve the following objectives:

 Improvement in quality of product manufactured by the organization.

 Improvement in methods of production.

 Development of employees participating in QC.

 Promoting morale of employees.

 Respect humanity and create a happy work place worthwhile to work.

The main features of QC can be listed as follows:

 Voluntary groups: QC is a voluntary group of employees generally coming

from the same work area.

 Small size: The size of the QC is generally small consisting of six to twelve
members.

 Regular meeting: QC meetings are held on a regular basis. The members meet
during working hours usually at the end of the working day in consultation with
the manager.

 Independent agenda: Each QC has its own agenda with its own terms of
reference. Accordingly, each QC discusses its own problems and takes
corrective actions.

 Quality focused: As per the very nature and intent of QC, it focuses
exclusively on quality issues. This is because the ultimate purpose of QC is
improvement in quality of product and working life.

The major prerequisite for initiating Quality circle in any organization is the
total understanding of, as well as complete conviction and faith in the
participative philosophy, on the part of the top and senior management.

The launching of Quality Circles involves the following steps:

1. Expose middle level executives to the concept

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2. Explain the concept to the employees and invite them to volunteer as

members of Quality Circles.

3. Nominate senior officers as facilitators.

4. Form a steering committee (headed by a senior executive and includes

representatives from top management and human resource development
people).

5. Arrange training of coordinators, facilitators in basics of Quality Circle

approach, implementation, techniques and operation. Later facilitators
may provide training to Circle leaders and Circle members.

6. A meeting should be fixed preferably one hour a week for the Quality
Circle to meet.

7. Formally inaugurate the Quality Circle.

8. Arrange the necessary facilities for the Quality Circle meeting and its
operation.

Process of operation:

1. Problem identification: Identify a number of problems.

2. Problem selection: Decide the priority and select the problem to be

taken up first.

3. Problem analysis: Problem is clarified and analyzed by basic problem

solving methods.

4. Generate alternative solutions: Identify and evaluate causes and

generate number of possible alternative solutions.

5. Select the most appropriate solution: Discuss and evaluate the

alternative solutions by comparisons. This enables to select the most
appropriate solution.

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6. Prepare plan of action: Prepare plan of action for converting the

solution into reality which includes the considerations “who, what, when,
where, why and how” of solving problems.

7. Present solutions to management circle: Members present solution to

management for approval.

8. Implementation of solution: The management evaluates the

recommended solution. Then it is tested and if successful, implemented
on a full scale.

Advantages:

 Product improvement

 Customer satisfaction

 Financial savings

 Efficiency savings

 Improved company performance

 Reduced customer complaints

 Reduced wastage

 Reduced errors

 Increased accuracy

Limitations:

 The overall productivity may decrease initially.

 A large investment and time is required for a concept that is essentially

new.

 The chances of error increase initially.

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 After circle implementation a period of confusion may arise. This is

because people experiment with new ideas, new skill and new role.

Problem with Quality Circle

 Inadequate training

 Unsure of purpose

 Not truly voluntary

 Lack of management interest

 Quality circles are not really empowered to make decisions.

 PROBLEM AND PROSPECTS OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Industrial relations is the study of the interactions among industry, its employees
and the government that oversee them. It is also the study of the various
institutions and organizations that are formed as a result of these interactions, such
as labor unions and business unions. Many problems lie central to the study of
industrial relations.

 PROBLEMS

1. Achieving competitiveness: The modern globalized economy requires

more than ever that each individual achieve his maximum level of
competitiveness. The primary problem is how companies manage to
achieve the levels of innovation and flexibility required by the global
economy.

2. Employer flexibility: In order to achieve maximum potential in the

modern market, employer must adopt a greater amount of openness and
respect while dealing with their workers. The requirements of modern
business include more flexible management and work organization,

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focusing on creating a smarter and more motivated work force and

culturally sensitive management techniques.

3. Role of government and unions: Governments are faced with the task
of deciding how to best encourage foreign involvement in their
economies that will benefit their own nations but still be attractive to the
foreign companies. Labor unions are faced with the need to work more
collaboratively and less antagonistically with employers.

4. Ethical theory: The western world is steeped within the libertarian and
utilitarian view of industrial relations, while Asia, Nepal and the Middle
East are all working from the ethical institutions that are primary to their
culture. The collisions and the relationships between these different
systems of thought are very important to modern industrial relations.

5. Technology: The presence of technology in the workplace can create

ethical quandaries in industrial relations, such as loss of privacy and the
replacement of jobs by machinery. Industrial relations take on the task of
figuring out how to balance technical innovation with fairness to the
humans affected by it.

Prospects future of Industrial relation

a. For effective industrial relation it is necessary that one party recognizes the
rights and duties of the other.

b. In the absence of such recognition, industrial relations functions, such as

joint management, collective bargaining and grievance handling cannot be
effective.

c. The traditional confrontational (argumentative) mode of industrial relations

should be changed to a consensus (harmony) oriented.

d. Collective bargaining should be encouraged. It should co-exist with the

concept of a planned economy where certain specific production and social
targets have to be fulfilled.

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e. The role of the government should be to encourage and promote cooperation

and collective bargaining between workers and employers and minimize its
own intervention.

f. The Department of Labor should undertake the following tasks:

 Industrial relations policies and strategies should be refined through

tripartite consultations.

 Workers’ participation should be encouraged both at the shop and plant

level by enforcing the provisions of the labor laws.

 The inspectorate and administrative machinery of the DOL should be

strengthened to ensure enforcement of the labor laws in the industrial
units throughout the country.

 Trade unions and management should be encouraged to launch workers’

and management education programmes directed towards creating
awareness regarding the labor laws, indicating a sense of responsibilities
and developing proper attitudes.

g. Most labor problems stem from social tensions at the shop-floor. Industrial
relations at higher levels may not bear fruits unless the shop-floor is free
from such tensions.

Efforts of the employers are therefore required in the following

direction:

 Implementation of sound and effective grievance procedure.

 Establishment of effective and meaningful communication system

between workers and management so as to provide a favorable industrial
climate.

 Introduction of suggestion system and consultative machinery (workers’

participation) through which changes and work improvements could be
attained.

 Improvement in the existing system of labor and personnel

administration to enable it to perform the above tasks.
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 Recognition of the human element in every aspect of labor

administration.

h. Trade unions constitute the central focus of industrial relations. At the plant
level the role of trade union is to discuss and arrive at an agreement on the
issues of their major interests. At the national level, trade union should be
involved in the process of making rules and policies to regulate industrial
relations matters.

i. A continual and consistent educational campaign by unions directed towards

making their members more aware of their position must be conducted.

j. Sound industrial relations are not only a contributing factor to national

development but, in fact a prerequisite for it.

k. All the three actors of the system should participate in the process of
devising labor and industrial relations policies and should equally share the
responsibility for their effective implementation.

l. The DOL should not confine itself to the role of a fire-brigade only. It should
shift its emphasis from traditional functions of preparing and enforcing
legislation to a more developmental approach to industrial relations.

Kaizen

Kaizen means continuous process of improvement which engages top management

of a company, management staff and all employees.

A word of “kaizen” is a combination of two Japanese words: kai – “change” and

zen – “good”. In this translation Kaizen means a change for a good. It does not
need complicated techniques or the newest technologies. Kaizen protects from
degradation, but also slowly rises standard.

One way to approach kaizen is through the 5S approach. The 5S’s are as follows:

1. Seiri(Sort)

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2. Seiton(Striaghten/set in order)
3. Seiso(Shine)
4. Seiketsu(Standardize)
5. Shitsuke(Sustain)

1. Seiri (Sort)

The first step of 5S, Sort, involves going through all the tools, furniture, materials,
equipment, etc. in a work area to determine what needs to be present and what can
be removed.

Some questions to ask during this phase include:

 What is the purpose of this item?

 When was this item last used?
 How frequently is it used?
 Who uses it?
 Does it really need to be here?

These questions help determine the value of each item. A workspace might
be better off without unnecessary items or items used infrequently. These
things can get in the way or take up space.

When a group has determined that some items aren't necessary,

consider the following options:

o Give the items to a different department

o Recycle/throw away/sell the items

o Put items into storage (Red Tag)

2. Seiton ( set in order)

Once the extra clutter is gone, it's easier to see what's what. Now work groups can
come up with their own strategies for sorting through the remaining items.

Things to consider:

 Which people (or workstations) use which items?

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 When are items used?

 Which items are used most frequently?
 Should items be grouped by type?
 Where would it be most logical to place items?
 Would some placements be more ergonomic for workers than others?
 Would some placements cut down on unnecessary motion?
 Are more storage containers necessary to keep things organized?

During this phase, everyone should determine what arrangements are most logical.
That will require thinking through tasks, the frequency of those tasks, the paths
people take through the space, etc.

3. Seiso (shine)

The Shine stage of 5S focuses on cleaning up the work area, which means
sweeping, mopping, dusting, wiping down surfaces, putting tools and materials
away, etc.

In addition to basic cleaning, Shine also involves performing regular maintenance

on equipment and machinery.

Planning for maintenance ahead of time means businesses can catch problems and
prevent breakdowns.

That means less wasted time and no loss of profits related to work stoppages.

4. Seiketsu (Standardize)

Standardize makes 5S different from the typical spring-cleaning project.

Standardize systematizes everything that just happened and turns one-time efforts
into habits.

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Standardize assigns regular tasks, creates schedules, and posts instructions so

these activities become routines.

It makes standard operating procedures for 5S so that orderliness doesn't fall by the
wayside.

5. Shitsuke (Sustain)

Sustain refers to the process of keeping 5S running smoothly, but also of keeping
everyone in the organization involved. Managers need to participate, as do
employees out on the manufacturing floor, in the warehouse, or in the office.

Sustain is about making 5S a long-term program, not just an event or short-term

project.

Kaizen three Pillars

1. Housekeeping

2. Waste elimination

3. Standardization

1. Housekeeping

This is a process of managing the work place ,known as ‘’Gemba’’ (workplace ) in

Japanese, for improvement purposes . Gemba means ‘’real place’’, where value is
added to the products or services before passing them to next process where they
are formed.

Minimizes the need to search for tools, making the operators' jobs easier, reducing
physically active work, and freeing up space; it creates a sense of belonging and
love for the place of work for the employees.

2. Waste (muda) elimination

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Muda in Japanese means waste. The resources at each process — people and
machines — either add value or do not add value and therefore ,any non-value
adding activity is classified as muda in Japan.

In Kaizen philosophy, the aim is to eliminate the seven types of waste (7 deadly
wastes ) caused by

 overproduction,
 waiting,
 transportation,
 unnecessary stock,
 over processing,
 motion, and
 a defective part

3. standardization

Standardization involves PDCA cycle:

 Plan,
 Do,
 Check,
 Act.

Quality of Work life

Quality of work life is a concept which talks about the overall focus on employee
as a person rather than just the work done by him/her.

Quality of Work Life is becoming an increasingly popular concept in recent times.

It basically talks about the methods in which an organization can ensure the

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holistic well-being of an employee instead of just focusing on work-related

aspects.

Ways to achieve quality of work life

Quality of work life encompasses working conditions, working time, mode of

wages payment, health hazards issue, in a nutshell some of financial and non-
financial benefits and management behavior towards workers.

Work Committee

 Forum of workers
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 Introduced in 1959 under Factories Act.

 Employer having 100 or more workers.
 Equal representation of workers and employers.

Provisions for composition of the committee

 Committee should be formed in an interval of 2 years.

 Office bearers--- chairman, vice chairman, a secretary and a joint secretary.
 Size 20.

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