which video to answer 3 questions

Sociology202A Work and Stress

New Managerial Paradigms

In search of new managerial paradigms

• Scientific Management and Human Relations approach – dominant until 40 years ago

• But…there is a search for a better way to manage organizations • New managerial paradigm = better way to manage organizations

• Critique of bureauracy • New way way to manage people

New Management Paradigm

1. Decentralization of authority 1. Adhocracy – organizational form with a fluid and

decentralized operating structure 2. Flattening of organizational structures

1. Removal of layers of bureaucracy 2. No longer a highly hierarchical vertical structure

3. Flexibility 1. Ability to adopt quickly to changing economic and

social environments 4. Emphasis on customers or clients

1. Customer satisfaction, quality and team excellent 5. Empowerment of workers

1. Not just managers

6. Embracing of change 1. By corporate leaders and managers

New Management Paradigm • Google – innovative organization

What makes Google unique, though, is less its Web--centric business model than its brink--of--chaos management model. Key components include a wafer--thin hierarchy, a dense network of lateral communication, a policy of giving outsized rewards to people who come up with outsized ideas, a team--focused approach to product development, and a corporate credo that challenges every employee to put the user first. Hamel in Krahn et al., 2015

• Google may be an “outlier” rather than a trend towardpost--bureaucratic organizations

• Strengths and advantages of these new managerial paradigms (ways of managing employees)

New Management Paradigms

Japanese Management

Swedish Work Reforms

North American Quality--of Working Life Programs

Total Quality Management

Learning Organizations

High Performance Workplaces

Japanese Management – 4 elements in major corporations 1. Highly evolved internal labour markets

1. Features such as lifetime employment, seniority based wages & promotions 2. Division of labour built around workgroups rather than extensive

training 1. Feature that is basis of well--know qualitycircles 2. Harnesses the skills and talents of workers

3. Consensual, participative style of decision making involving all organizational levels

4. High levels of employee commitment 1. Employees are loyal to the company

The Japanese approach in North America • Just in Time (JIT) system of parts delivery

• Reduces inventory overhead costs • Forges stronger alliance between firm and its suppliers

• Quality circles • Responsibility for monitoring quality and troubleshooting problemson

production workers • Does not increase workers’ authority or rewards

The Japanese approach in North America

• Japanese transplants (local firms owned and operated by Japanese firms)

• NUMMI plant in California joint ventures by GM andToyota • Worked in teams and contribute ideas but daily management style– American

• Honda and Toyota plans in Ontario – hybrid system • Toyota’s Cambridge Ontario plant successes and drawbacks

• Successes – good pay, job security, decision--making teamwork, free uniforms, job flexibility

• Drawbacks – regular required overtime, open office for managers, no replacement workers when workers absent, health problems, and only selective implements of employee suggestions

• nonunion

Swedish work reforms

1. Redistribute power relationships within workorganizations

2. Reduce bureaucratic hierarchies • Based on sociotechnical work • Small work teams • Assembly lines eliminated • Decision making autonomy

1. Volvo Kalmar plant 2. Volvo’s Uddevalla

factory 3. Saab’s auto plant in

Trollhattan “control and ownership”

North American Quality-of- Working –Life Programs

• Umbrella term • Underlying goal improve employee

satisfaction, motivation and commitment

• Belief that both employers and employees will benefit

• Do not go as far towards sharing power as Swedish work reforms

Quality of working life programs

• Quality of working life programs (QWL) Techniques 1. Job enlargement

1. Expand a job horizontally – add related task 2. Job enrichment

1. Create a more complex and unified job 3. Job rotation

1. Move through a series of work stations 4. Autonomous work team

1. Decides on work methods, scheduling, inventory and quality control 5. Quality circles

1. Workers monitor and correct defects in products orservices

Quality of working life programs • Shell’s chemical plant in Sarnia, Ontario • Union and management collaborated on

sociotechnical planning and design • 6 teams of 20 workers ran the plant 365 days24

hours/day • Organization structure was flat

• Only 3 authority levels • Pay based on knowledge and skills

QWL Critiques • Shell experience – atypical

• Now history…new management = more traditional work organization and management systems

• failures • Declining work performance • Undermine union bargaining power • Employee dissatisfaction • Increase in occupational injuries and illnesses • Workers did not influence decisions on larger workplacechanges

• Successes • Higher earnings • Improved labour relations • Sometimes productivity gain

• ***greatest potential for significantly reallocating decision making power

Total Quality Management

• Follows the QWL movement • Focus customer--basedemphasis on

quality • External customers • Citizens (public sector)

• Continuous improvement • Involves employees

identifying, resolving or anticipating future problems

• No unifying model • Organizational learning and

creativity • Performance measures • Improved communications and

feedback • Problem--solving work teams • Trust and cooperation

• Adopted by companies in service industries, retail and hospitality

• Ex: Four Seasons resorts

Assessing the Total Quality Management Approach • “Win-Win” situation??? • Quality--improvement strategy = high--performance work practices

• Ex: Xerox Corporation • Employee training and use teams but no measurable improvements

• Health care sector – hospital patients treated ascustomers • But…counterproductive

• Increased workloads, reduced competence, doing more with less • Downsizing of organization

• Resistance at various levels • Middle management – do not want to empower employees • Employees and unions --resist – way to avoid unions

• Only superficial changes – not improved working conditions

Managing via Organizational Culture

• Culture – system of shared meanings about how organizational life ought to be conducted • Dominant culture – employees identify with goals of

corporation • Counterculture – dissenting norms and values (try to

keep this from gaining strength)

• Brand organizations • Toyota – commitment to quality • Body Shop – social responsibility • Benetton – cultural diversity and environmental

protection

• Collaborative communities • Single unitary corporate culture • Oversimplistic

• ***combination of dominant and counterculture

Learning Organizations • Learning is a valued and rewarded process • Learning comes before earning (or productivity) • 5 learning disciplines

• Expand your personal abilities and enable others to do so

• Break out of old ways of thinking • Develop a shared view of the future • Team learning • Holistic or systems thinking

• Ex. firms Harley--Davidson Motorcycles --intellectual curiosity – Harley University

• Remains an ideal opposite to Taylorism and Fordism

High-- Performance Workplaces

1. Employee involvement in decision making 2. Team organization 3. Flexible work design 4. Extensive training and learning opportunities 5. Open information sharing and communication 6. Profit sharing (and risk sharing) 7. Support for family responsibilities 8. Emphasize healthy non--stressful work environment 9. Work environment that improves health andreduces

stress 10. but…employment security can no longer be

guaranteed

High--Performance Workplaces

• May cost an employer more but increases employee productivity • Higher job satisfaction

• No single high--performance workplace (HPW) model • Focus on a couple of the characteristics

• 2005 --28% of Canadian businesses implemented 1 or more employee involvement systems

High--Performance Workplaces – Assessing

• More of a desirable future than a description of current practice • Work organizations only adopted some of corefeatures • Productivity gains when a number of HPW practices introduced • Risks

• employment security cannot be guaranteed • Profit sharing is only a benefit if company makinga profit

• Benefits elite highly skilled autonomous workers not lower--tier service industries

Officeland

• Please watch the documentary Office land • What are the benefits and disadvantages ofopen concept office spaces? • What are some approaches in the documentary that would be effective in

motivating younger workers.