Business Organisations in the UK - Article Example

Business Organisations Business Organisations The international recession has been quite tough on the British economy as well. Business owners and managers are pessimistic as they see a myriad of organizations wind up or downsize all around them. British employees are also lacking in job satisfaction owing it to the lack of inspiring leadership. According to The Independent, this decline in morale is leading to a raging productivity crisis. The output of a typical British worker is about 30 per cent less than their European and American competitors. But this is not the end of the challenges facing British organizations. The problem is quite broad based as UK organizations refuse to broaden their vision and equip the workplaces with resources to achieve commendably big goals. According to the study quoted in the newspaper, by 2000 only 15 per cent of British employees were satisfied with their job projections, only 13 per cent workers were satisfied with their pay and a mere 24 per cent reported that they were satisfied with the work hours. (Duckworth, 2002) This dissatisfaction and distancing from work environment has led to employees becoming less dependable and faithful. More British employees are now unwilling to sacrifice their private lives for work. Work and job are no longer the first priorities in many lives and nearly 13 per cent of British workers confess that they work "only as hard as they have to". This disinterest is leading to the alarmingly quick and painful demise of many businesses. And yet the businesses and organizations themselves are to blame for it as they fail to manage their staff. UK businesses have been completely ignorant of the importance of motivating employees and encouraging them to demonstrate enterprise and responsibility. In comparison, European businesses are renowned for their people centred management, their offices being more intelligently organized to motivate and inspire the employees. (Duckworth, 2002) These mounting problems for British economy only seem worse when the stellar performance of the last decade is taken into account. Over the past nine years or so, the economic growth has been pretty consistent, unemployment rates have gone down while the working hours have steadily become longer. And yet the vast productivity gap has remained as it is. For Britain, the biggest economic problem is perhaps the under-performance. Once it has been tackled, the country will be able to recover itself from the recession better and more successfully. And it needs better people who are apt at managing through other people. But it should be understood that without managing organizations through managing people, productivity will remain below par. (Duckworth, 2002) In Britain, workplace relations are viewed as contractual and less than half of British workers can decide their own working hours while nearly one-third are still required to clock-in. It is a well-known fact the UK organizations are “over-controlled and under-led”. Already established rules and systems are strictly adhered to and any deviation is not appreciated. Employees have their “contractual” role and they are not allowed to develop or manage themselves. (Duckworth, 2002) Another major problem reported by British employees is that work doesn’t stop when they leave their offices. One-third of all employees’ check their office emails regularly and more than 60 per cent worry about work related issues at home and at weekends. British employees are working hard and all they get in return is a career that is demeaning, uninspiring and joy less. (Peacock, 2012) British companies are reluctant in giving out vacations and employees do feel guilty on extended time away from work anyways. Either use up the allotted vacation time or fight it out with the accountant to get paid for the time not used up. Many employees are seemingly treated like children, when they are required to ask permission before spending money on travel or gifts. Its time business realized that compensation and perks should be an effective reflection of the work employees do. Truth is that many British workers now work from home, gone are the strict measurements of productivity of number of products made and time spent. If there is still any doubt why organizations must put their employees first then let’s take the example of Netflix. Netflix is a streaming video and DVD- by mail service that has successfully retired the brick and mortar video rental stores in United States. Its nearly 600 employees can vacation for a long as they guaranteed their work is covered and their managers know where they are at all times. This policy has been quite successful thus far. (Pink, 2010)  “Companies need to realize that autonomy is not the opposite of accountability.” In the modern workplace, rules, regulations and policies do not lead to better productivity; in fact it is quite the opposite. These kill off radical thoughts and any innovative ideas that these thoughts may bring along. Employees should not be weighed down with the burden of accounting for their time because that is when actually no work is being done. (Pink, 2010; Conlin, 2007) Management functions when performed through the employees of an organization automatically become a manager’s tool for motivating employees. However, these functions such as allocation of work, co-ordination and decision-making are institutionalized. They are not performed via face-to-face, personal communication. Instead, large systems are used to apply these decisions to many people simultaneously. (Hales, 2001) Managing through people is important because it makes employees feel like a part of the system; once the workers become stakeholders in the success of a company, positive changes start taking place all around. Although this idea has been around in theory for as long as other management principles, it has yet to catch on as a successful management tool. The impact of an organization’s culture on the behaviour of people is regarded as the “soft-side” of management and thus dismissed. The end-results of managing through people are usually difficult to measure in concrete terms as they don’t “directly” affect the production or output. But how people are managed and made to work together in a system can greatly enhance or completely destroy a company’s dynamics. (Pfeffer, 1996)  Peter Drucker was the foremost authority on management for the better part of the last century. He writes that the future belongs to organizations that can successfully deal with people. According to Drucker, the early works on management and personality theory are being redundant. There is no “one right way” of managing businesses and people. Instead he says that “the goal is to make productive the specific strengths and knowledge of each individual.” In the next hundred years, the management will need to shift its focus on to better ways of getting people to work together and produce better results than when they work alone. This begs for better leadership skills as well management. (Drucker, 2007) If a company has done well in the long-run, rest assured that it greatly values its people. On the hand, a company that unfairly takes advantage of its people and puts too small a price on its employees, this will definitely be the one underperforming and get into trouble in the long term. Valuing workers has become a part of a company’s corporate DNA if they are to become successful and sail through the current and future economic storms. Good employees bring with them an incomparable gift, critical skills are short in supply and big in demand, therefore companies must value their gifts in order to retain them. Instead of hiring from outside, healthy organizations promote from within. Taking care of the existent talent pool adequately, means that others will also make their way over to see what the commotion is all about. Knowing the employees’ capabilities, experiences and professional desires will help out when it is time to decide whether to hire or promote. Corporate culture impacts employee behaviour which in turn, can have a huge influence on the overall business operations. Many management practices are available that give many valid ideas regarding how to go about implementing management through people. These may be good practices but firms need to set their own pace at starting the changes. From selection and recruitment to incentive-based compensation systems there is wide range of choices for managers who choose to lead. However, there are some practices that have produced significant results wherever they have been employed. These include development of worker skills and more suitable job design. For any high performance organizations, giving its employees these facilities is a must. Managers must manage through people if they want better operations. Research shows that CEO’s and managers should deal with the human resource with great care but unfortunately it remains one of the most neglected areas of management practice in organizations. (Patterson et al. 2012) Many managers argue that nothing motivates like money. That is somewhat true but in today’s economy when money is short in supply there are other ways of motivating employees to do their best. Good leadership remains consistent no matter how bad the economic weather is. It is important to lead through competence and give employees room to grow and think for them. This is all it takes to create a strong team of people that can manage trough any situation. (Zwilling, 2012) Bibliography CONLIN, M. (2007). Netflix: Flex To The Max. Businessweek. [online] 24 Sep. Available at: http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_39/b4051059.htm [Accessed: 16 March,2012]. DRUCKER, P. F. (2007). Management challenges for the 21st century. Burlington, MA, Elsevier. Duckworth, L. (2002). Morale among British workers hits all-time low. The Independent. [online] 8 April. Available at: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/morale-among-british-workers-hits-alltime-low-656772.html [Accessed: 16 March,2012]. HALES, C. (2001). Managing through organisation: the management process, forms of organisation and the work of managers. London, Business Press. PATTERSON, M. G. (1997). Impact of people management practices on business performance. London, Institute of Personnel and Development. Available at: http://www.cipd.co.uk/nr/rdonlyres/75d39fb0-061e-4983-b681-fb1e0c43cb96/0/impactofpeoplmgmntinbusperf.pdf [Accessed: 16 March,2012]. PEACOCK, L. (2012). Work fear sweeps nation as Britons dream of changing careers. The Telegraph. [online] 3 Jan. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/jobs/8989282/Work-fear-sweeps-nation-as-Britons-dream-of-changing-careers.html [Accessed: 16 March,2012]. PINK, D. (2010). Netflix lets its staff take as much holiday as they want, whenever they want – and it works. The Telegraph. [online] 14 Aug. Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/mediatechnologyandtelecoms/7945719/Netflix-lets-its-staff-take-as-much-holiday-as-they-want-whenever-they-want-and-it-works.html [Accessed: 16 March,2012]. PFEFFER, J. (1996). Competitive advantage through people: Unleashing the power of the work force. New York, Harvard Business School Press. Zwilling, M. (2012). 8 Ways Leaders Can Motivate Employees Beyond Money. Forbes. [online] 1 Oct. Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/martinzwilling/2012/01/10/8-ways-leaders-can-motivate-employees-beyond-money/ [Accessed: 16 March,2012]. Read More