Production workers Essay Example
Production workers Essay Example

Production workers Essay Example

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  • Pages: 3 (708 words)
  • Published: October 17, 2018
  • Type: Article
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Certainly, the democratic style also has attractions, successes, and shortcomings. Since warm human relations and freedom to act are more pleasant than cold engineering calculations and rigid job structuring, the employee-centered approach is inherently attractive to many people. Without question, many organizational problems would be solved if improved human relations and participation inevitably led to increased satisfaction and higher productivity.

Unfortunately, it does not (Anderson and Wasserman, 2001). For example, a foreman may allow production workers to participate in decisions about the way work is performed. However, if they do not have active needs for challenge or esteem, they may not sense need satisfaction from the foreman’s style. They may, in fact, feel threatened. Daft and other leadership theory researchers with strong humanistic values additionally argue that satisfaction is a legitimate objective of any organization

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(Daft, 2002).Not only is satisfaction negatively related to absenteeism and turnover, but they argue that these organizations have a responsibility to provide employees with jobs that are challenging and intrinsically rewarding (Cameron and Pierce, 2002).

A team with members highly driven for productive accomplishments is a solid indication that its leader is effective. Placing premium on the contribution of the workforce in a company, Jerry Gilley and Ann Maycunich made a distinction between the part a human relations leader plays and the role a human resources leader adopts.According to them, a human relations leader would institute participation to satisfy employee needs for affiliation and esteem and hope that this need satisfaction would lead to higher levels of morale and eventually, productivity (Gilley, and Maycunich, 2000). In contrast, human resources leader would institute participation to take advantage of the innovative ideas hel

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by subordinates. This manager, in other words, sees employees as human resources that can be accessed to enhance the functioning of the organization and satisfy the needs of the individuals (Gilley and Maycunich, 2000).In the present day, leaders are going considerably further by having employees gain full control of their work.

Self-managed teams, in which workers operate largely without bosses, have become the rage of the 1990s. Leaders’ new labels nowadays are coaches, advisers, sponsors, or facilitators. In many organizations, employees have become associates or teammates. And there’s a blurring between the roles of leaders and workers.

Decision-making is being pushed down to the operating level, where workers are being given the freedom to make choices about schedules, procedures, and solving work-related problems (Rue, et al., 2004).As evidenced by Daft in Chapter 7, the principles of followership and democratic leadership are certainly intuitively appealing. And as correlated to the concepts in Chapter 8, Daft believes that by assuming good things about employees, by treating them well with enriched and challenging jobs, and by fulfilling their needs for esteem and self-actualization, managers could generate a climate in which worker satisfaction and productivity will flourish.

When the attitudes, assumptions, and subtle behaviors are perceived by some members of the organization as threatening and potentially punishing, especially to an individual member’s sense of self-respect, then the climate will be defensive (Gruenberg, 2000). Thus, leaders should be advised to replace authoritarian management with a participatory leadership style. Management that pushes its power over labor will not improve productivity. As a leader’s word, considerable job security for workers will be guaranteed.

Morale is expected to improve when group participation in the decision

is affirmed. Occasionally, a decision would disrupt morale if it were forced on the labor force without consulting them. In these situations, the team leader may create and use a committee to bring the labor force into the decision-making process (Daft, 2002). Consideration refers to behavior indicative of friendship, mutual trust, respect, and warmth in the relationship between the leaders and their staff members.Initiating structure is task-oriented and relates more to the needs of the organization.

Consideration is people-oriented and relates more to the needs of the individuals within the organization (Goleman, 2001). However, says Daft, it should be the leader’s failure when the outcomes of his actions prove detrimental not only to the group but to the public as a whole. Leadership qualities subsume moral values as well. Passing on some actions to the servant leaders shall not aim merely at boosting the group’s morale, but the morality of their decisions as well (Daft, 2002).

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