Tuesday 16 October 2012

IT'S TIME YOU SPEAK, MR CEO

It’s been the most brutal attack of workers’ movement against the management at Maruti’s Manesar plant where the General Manager – Human Resource, Mr. Awanish Kumar Dev, was burnt alive by the madding workers as a vengeance over the management policies. To soften the confrontation between the top management and the workers CII has stepped in to initiate a dialogue between the two parties. However, this Maruti fiasco is not a case in isolation. The ever growing confrontational tone of the employees with the CEOs and top management suggest a gradually growing angst among the employees all across! In a similar tone, the Kingfisher also saw its employees standing against the management, not once but multiple number of times. Moreover, the example of Hyundai Motors labor unrest is another one that toes the line of the previous exemplars. The production unit of Hyundai Motor’s Sriperumbudur factory was in talks to shift the base to a European country in 2009, because of regular labor unrest. And the year next to the Hyundai episode was the strike that occurred in the factory of another auto major viz. Honda Motorcycle & Scooter factory again at Manesar. The unabated series of labor unrest continues in major plants of India.

The lifestyle gap between the CEOs and the other staff are increasingly dwindling and the aspirations of the young pool of employees are ever rising, which makes it imperative for the CEOs to note the societal changes including better opportunities with revolutionary approaches to ensure the lifestyle ambitions of the employees are met. The only way to deter such uprising is transparent communication from the top management, preferably the CEO.

Take for instance, Toyota. The company has championed labour improvement and labour empowerment by promoting human resource development and healthcare – which are drivers for the workers to work with passion and enthusiasm. The labour-management relationship also focuses on respect of its employees insulating any form of discrimination. Transparent discourse from the top management has built trust and respect for both, and a unique “300,000 Communication Activities” has raised the workers’ effectiveness level too. IBM too can boast as one of the best motivated and disciplined workforce that keeps them consistently at the top of the table. IBM has effectively introduced effective communication from the top management and empowering its workforce through backward integration by encouraging debates, discussions, feedback and idea generations that thwart any kind of dissatisfaction by providing them a sense of belonging in the organization.

Effective communication has direct bearings on satisfaction of staffs. A culture of initiatives and creativity must be communicated vividly to the employees so that they are absolutely certain of the encouragement and there is no room for ambiguity. As usually said, better late than never. Instead of waiting for a fiasco to mushroom, Dear CEO, get up and get talking.

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