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Title: Employee Relations and Motivation


1
Employee Relations and Motivation
  • The Machine Metaphor of Organization Scientific
    Management and Bureaucracy

2
Employee Relations and Motivation
  • Integrative Framework I Two Models of
    Organization and their Implications for Theory
    and Practice

3
The Machine Metaphor of Organization
  • Efficient organizations operate like clockwork
  • Pervasive Philosophy
  • Routinized, efficient, reliable machines
  • Humans must be made to fit the machine
  • Characterised by 2 main types of organization
  • Bureaucracies
  • Organizations based on Taylors Scientific
    Management (often but not always manufacturing
    industry)

4
The Machine Metaphor of Organization
  • Dominant View of Human Nature Theory X
    (McGregor, 1960) Ordinary people are inherently
  • Lazy, self-centred, lacking in ambition/willingnes
    s to take responsibility, passive and conformist,
    resistant to change, gullible and not very
    bright, motivated by sticks and carrots
  • Managers must therefore
  • Organize, direct, persuade, punish, reward and
    control workers to meet the needs of the
    organization
  • Consequence or cause of industrial practices???

5
Some History
  • Nothing new?
  • Use of machines to make labour easier ancient
    Egyptians, Roman engineers
  • Organizing large workforces ditto Egyptians,
    ancient Chinese, Stonehenge!
  • Bureaucracies Romans armies and civil
    administration, Medieval Church
  • Factories/Mass Production Romans again eg
    pottery works
  • But...
  • Before Industrial Revolution most manufacturing
    activity was Home based, involved family groups,
    often self-employed, small scale, highly skilled,
    often part-time/intermittent

6
Industrial Revolution
  • Large expensive machinery and plant Return on
    investment
  • Water/Steam power/mass production methods
    concentrated work in factories, required large
    labour force close to plant
  • Work involved long hours, repetitive jobs,
    division of labour (much use women and children)
  • But...
  • Before 20th Century many jobs were still highly
    skilled and craftsmen worked at own pace
  • Problems for employers how was labour to be
    organized and controlled?
  • All change Taylorism and Scientific Management
    (time and motion studies) Fordism (moving
    assembly line)

7
Bureaucracy
  • Original idea philanthropic means to regulate
    arbitrary power of owners over the workforce
  • Weber Definition
  • A form of organization which emphasizes
    precision, speed, clarity, regularity,
    reliability efficiency achieved through the
    creation of a fixed division of tasks,
    hierarchical supervision and detailed rules and
    regulations
  • Hallmarks
  • rational and quasi-legal system
  • people derive authority from fixed roles in
    hierarchy
  • roles and procedures clear what to do and how
  • regulations curbed arbitrary exercise of power

8
Bureaucracy
  • Weber Criticisms
  • Bureaucracy had the potential to routinize and
    mechanize every aspect of human life, eroding
    human spirit, capacity for creativity,
    flexibility and human action
  • Leads to alienation and not my jobs worth
    attitudes
  • Still a major problem! Public services
    accountability, bean counting, paperwork
    police spending 50 of time form filling!
  • Does it stifle creativity and innovation?

9
Principles of Classical Management Theory (from
Morgan)
  • Unity of command orders from 1 superior only
  • Scalar chain line of authority from top to
    bottom, channel for communication and decision
    making
  • Span of control not too large to hinder
    communication etc
  • Staff line staff can advise but not violate
    line authority
  • Initiative encouraged at all levels
  • Division of work specialization to achieve goals
    efficiently
  • Authority and responsibility power to give
    orders exact obedience
  • Centralization (of authority) top-down varies
  • Discipline obedience, application etc adherence
    to rules
  • Subordination of individual to general interest
  • Equity fair treatment
  • Stability of tenure of personnel
  • Esprit de corps harmony as basis of strength

10
Scientific Management
  • Grew out of Classical Management Theory (dating
    back to Frederick the Greats Prussian army)
  • Still permeates management practices eg
    Management by Objectives has strong element of
    mechanistic management
  • Top Management controls organization by setting
    goals those lower down achieve performance
    targets
  • (Depends on degree of control at each tier of the
    hierarchy and discretion to achieve goals)
  • Compare eg. targets in NHS, national literacy
    standards, participation in HE control begets
    more!
  • Stipulating goals but not means US Space
    programme

11
Taylors Five Principles of Scientific Management
  • 1. Shift all responsibility for the organization
    of work from the worker to the manager managers
    should do all the thinking relating to the
    planning and design of work, leaving workers with
    the task of implementation
  • 2. Use scientific methods to determine the most
    efficient way of doing work design the workers
    task accordingly specify the precise way in
    which work is to be done
  • 3. Select the best person to do work thus
    designed
  • 4. Train worker to do it efficiently
  • 5. Monitor worker performance to ensure
    procedures are followed and targets are met

12
Time and Motion Studies
  • Standardize work activities to achieve maximum
    efficiency, effort and time
  • Eg. Schmidt (pig iron handler) see video
  • Production increased 280 (12.5 to 47.5 tons per
    day)
  • Time and motion observing analysing tasks
    into simplest components and working out most
    efficient way to perform them
  • So worker forced to behave like a machine in very
    precise and regular ways
  • Tasks split to simplest components become
    deskilled, routinized and monotonous
  • People thought to be motivated by extrinsic
    rewards pay and fear of sack

13
Fordism Completed Mass Production Revolution
  • Henry Ford huge boost by invention of moving
    assembly line
  • Complete control of organization and pace of work
  • Control over workforce achieved by
  • Management setting speed of line
  • Stick and carrot motivators no Trades Unions
    so threat of job loss high wages perks eg buy
    your own car schemes Easy to replace unskilled
    workers
  • Huge increase in productivity achieved at human
    cost
  • But.. Created affluent Western consumer
    societies great increases in standards of living
  • See video On the Line

14
Resistance to Extinction (Taylor, 1998 Wall
Martin, 1994 Wright Lund, 1996)
  • Strengths reliable consistent products at low
    cost high productivity and profitability
  • Despite worker empowerment, smarter automation
    and autonomous work groups principles remain
    (increasingly overseas)
  • Wright Lund (1996) Computerised Taylorism)
    introduction of new engineering standard systems
  • Adler colleagues (1993, 1998) Democratic
    Taylorism worker participation in job analysis
    for new systems of performance measurement
  • More subtle control hearts and minds of HRM
    but also coercive control eg call centres fast
    food
  • Warhurst Thompson (1998) Mabey et al (1998)
    Herriot (2001) for references

15
Management Strategies Based on Machine Metaphor
  • Motivators salary and perks the privilege of
    having a job performance related pay
    reinforcement theories but extrinsic reward
    systems often backfire because they reward the
    wrong things and punish the right things
  • See Kerr (1974) The folly of rewarding A whilst
    hoping for B Komaki et al in Steers, Porter
    Bigley (1996)
  • Leadership Style Transactional (traditional
    management
  • Dealing with the given planning, organizing,
    staffing, budgeting, problem solving, creating
    procedures and systems for maintaining order and
    predictability Doing things right (Guest 1996)

16
Management Strategies Based on Machine Metaphor
  • Alimo-Metcalfe (1997) Transactional Leadership
    limited to managers ability to provide a quid
    pro quo reward or negative feedback to a follower
    who responds to his or her instructions or agreed
    objectives
  • Design of Work machine minders (increasing
    automation) deskilling (eg. call centres)
    increasing use of shiftwork Total Quality
    Management targets, audits, governance
  • All strategies have at their core
  • People can be shaped to become part of the
    machinery of the organization
  • Is this a bad thing???

17
Employee Relations and Motivation
  • The Organic Metaphor of Organization Open
    Systems Theory

18
The Organic Metaphor of Organization
  • Origins Von Bertalanffy (1950) a biologist
  • Living organisms are seen as a collection of
    parts interacting and functioning as a harmonious
    whole in a continuous process of exchange and
    interaction with the environment
  • Living organisms are thus complex open systems
  • Ideas explicitly applied to organizations by Katz
    Khan (1978)
  • But ideas had been developing throughout 1950s,
    60s 70s

19
The Organic Metaphor of Organization
  • Organizations as Complex Open Systems
  • Organizations can be thought of as being complex
    systems like
  • biological organisms such as the human body,
    made up of
  • thousands of interacting parts which take
    inputs from the
  • environment, transform them in some way and
    produce outputs
  • back into the environment. Since the parts are
    interdependent,
  • changes in one part can have profound and
    unpredictable effects
  • on the other parts of the network.The system
    must adapt to the
  • demands of its external environment but at the
    same time it must
  • preserve its internal stability whilst engaging
    in constant change.
  • Complex systems can be analysed at many levels
    from the total
  • organism within its environment to the workings
    of an individual
  • cell. Similarly, understanding a work
    organization and peoples
  • behaviour within it can range from the analysis
    of the historical,
  • political, economic and cultural environment in
    which it operates,
  • through the social interactions within work
    groups to the goals,
  • aspirations and abilities of individual workers.

20
Dominant Philosophy of Human Nature
  • Theory Y (McGregor, 1960)
  • People are not by nature passive, lazy etc but
    they become so because of experience of
    organizational life
  • People naturally want
  • Challenge, development, achievement and
    recognition and will work hard to get these in
    the right conditions
  • People can learn to want
  • Responsibility self direction commitment to
    organizational goals
  • People are
  • Naturally motivated to work for goals that they
    value (including organizational goals)
    intelligent and capable of imagination and
    innovation in solving organizational problems
  • Management must align individual and
    organizational goals

21
Sources of Organizational Complexity (Schein,
1988)
  • Boundaries
  • Where does a large company end and its community
    begin?
  • What is the relevant environment Society in
    general, all companies in the same market,
    economic and political system, global economy???
  • Need to specify environmental origin of forces
    which act on organizations
  • Stakeholders suppliers, customers, publics,
    shareholders

22
Sources of Organizational Complexity (Schein,
1988)
  • Multiple Purposes and Functions
  • Primary product or service for profit public
    service
  • Secondary eg security and meaning for a
    community via jobs consumers for local
    businesses
  • Equals conflicting demands Eg. HE manifest
    functions such as teaching and research vs latent
    functions eg. sorting talent for society,
    promoting social cohesion and inclusiveness,
    providing local employment, contributing to local
    national economy, what else???

23
Sources of Organizational Complexity (Schein,
1988)
  • Representatives of External Environment
  • Employees are members of society, community,
    other groups eg. professional bodies, unions,
    consumer, religious and family groups
  • Multiple roles
  • Bring demands, expectations, cultural norms etc
    that can conflict with organizational norms
  • Partial involvement of workforce
  • Coalitions, factions, interest groups,
    sub-cultures within organizations

24
Sources of Organizational Complexity (Schein,
1988)
  • Rapid Environmental Change
  • Technology
  • Economic sector
  • Socio-political
  • Cultural values
  • Turbulent
  • Requires different capacity to respond need to
    be proactive not reactive
  • Result mechanistic organization ordered
    hierarchy of roles etc seen as too simplistic
  • More complex theories of organization needed to
    explain what researchers and practitioners
    actually find in organizations

25
Characteristics of Open Systems (Katz Khan,
1978)
  • Importation of energy, throughput and output
    (often involves knowledge in contemporary work)
  • Negative entropy constant change to avoid
  • Negative feedback correcting for errors
  • Dynamic equilibrium adaptation and stability
  • Differentiation enough internal complexity to
    cope with external complexity
  • Integration and Co-ordination harmoniously
    functioning whole
  • Equifinality no-one can predict the final
    outcome(s)

26
Open Systems Theory Applied to Work
Organizations History
  • Von Betalanffy (1950)
  • Homans (1950) organizations exist in a 3 part
    mutually dependent environment
  • Physical
  • Cultural
  • Technological
  • Environment specifies activities interactions
    that engender feelings and sentiments. Changes
    in any one of these produces changes in the other
    two
  • New sentiments, norms and activities, not
    necessarily specified by external environment,
    leads to development of an informal system within
    the official, formal system

27
Open Systems Theory Applied to Work
Organizations History
  • Talcott Parsons (1960s)
  • Social systems have 4 basic needs
  • Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration, Pattern
    Maintenance
  • Khan et al (1964)
  • Organizations composed of overlapping role sets
  • Role overload, role ambiguity, role conflict
    related to stress and job dissatisfaction
  • Cyert March (1963)
  • Organizations composed of coalitions
    organizational life a process of negotiation,
    bargaining power play between shifting
    coalitions in accordance with environmental
    demands

28
Open Systems Theory Applied to Work
Organizations History
  • Scott (1987)
  • Defines an open system organization as
  • a coalition of shifting interest groups which
    develop goals through negotiation. The structure
    of coalitions, their activities and outcomes are
    strongly influenced by environmental factors
  • Openness is not an absolute value but is
    determined by the extent of its transactions with
    the environment

29
Open Systems Theory Applied to Work
Organizations History
30
Open Systems Theory Applied to Work
Organizations History
  • Tavistock Institute (Rice, 1963 Trist, 1963)
  • Socio-technical systems
  • All organizations are composed of a social system
    the people and a technical system machines
    etc
  • These 2 systems need to be in harmony and the
    technical system must meet the needs of people
  • Important ideas
  • system imports information from the environment
  • Partial involvement of the workforce emphasized
  • Led to shop floor democracy autonomous work
    groups

31
Management Strategies Based on Organic Metaphor
  • Motivators
  • social factors, needs satisfaction, self
    actualization
  • Work as its own reward
  • People want challenge, autonomy, interest
    recognition in their work
  • Leadership Style Transformational Leadership
  • Creating the conditions for adaptive change to
    meet the demands of an uncertain and turbulent
    environment doing the right things (Guest,
    1996)
  • Manager as female??? Connectedness, co-operation,
    teamwork, mutual support Manager as facilitator
    and servant!

32
Management Strategies Based on Organic Metaphor
  • Design of Work Job enrichment, autonomy and
    responsibility, Self-directed (autonomous teams),
    worker participation and control, socio-technical
    systems harmony
  • Dominant Theme
  • People work best when their physical,
    psychological and social needs are met work and
    work organizations must be designed to fit people
    rather than vice versa

33
But...
  • Have these 2 traditions merged? Do employers
    want it all compliant, obedient workforces
    plus intelligent, innovative, committed,
    self-starters?
  • Hard HRM treats the workforce like the plant
    and machinery commodities to be deployed
    efficiently
  • Soft HRM employees deserve respect, care and
    development
  • What about hearts and minds so workers control
    themselves? (Thought police attempts to
    control attitudes as well as behaviour?)
  • Does rhetoric of empowerment job satisfaction
    really mean more work, more responsibility and
    more stress for no more reward?
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