The Productivity of White-Collar Workers - Essay Example

The productivity of white collar workers Introduction In a white collar work setting, professionalism, skills, academic qualifications and experience often takes precedence. This ensures that the work, effort or input contributed by workers produces positive results. Further, a white collar job as defined in any setting entails working in the field that commensurate with a person’s career choice. Career choice in this sense entails taking up a course that will enable a person to get employment in the field that relates to what he or she has studied. For example, studying for marketing means that such a person will look for employment opportunity in organisations that deals in marketing strategy such as advertisement. White collar jobs emphasizes professionalism in that, a person work in the field where he or she has the knowledge, skills and experience. In a white collar work setting, it is possible for workers to work in any area they prefer, but work is dictated by a person’s training in a particular career field (Hoop and Wolzansky 64). How companies measure the productivity of white collar workers Since white collar workers do their job in an office setting, their productivity can be measured in a number of ways. First, the productivity of white collar workers can be measured by assessing worker engagement. Worker engagement refers to the interest that workers have in the various task that they are delegated in the office. Where the workers are dissatisfied with their working environment, they tend to shirk thus affecting the productivity of the company in terms of reaching the established goals. Worker involvement can be used to measure productivity in that, where workers are happy with their work environment, their involvement increases and this in turn, increases performance and productivity of the company. On the other hand, innovativeness and creativity can also be used to measure the productivity of white collar workers. An innovative pool of workers means that a company is able to improve its productivity and gain a competitive edge over similar companies with regard to the market share. However, a lack of innovativeness or creativity among workers means that the productivity of the company is also affected (Hoop and Wolzansky 68). Team work is also a tool to measure the productivity of white collar workers. This is because, in a group, it is easier to notice the input of every member in terms of contributions made by each member. This helps the team leader to assess the talent or ability of each group member in improving a company’s productivity. Employee turnover is also a way of measuring the productivity of white collar workers. Where the workers are happy in an organisation and are not willing to move to other companies, this means that they are ready to improve their performance in the organisation so as to continue receiving the incentives that result from hard work (Iravani, Hopp and Liu 23). Other than team work, skills and experience is another way of measuring the productivity of white collar workers. Since white collar jobs requires some level of education, it means that an illiterate person or an inexperienced person cannot not perform such work in a competent manner. As such, skills and experience are an important component of a white collar job. In this sense, the productivity of white collar workers depends on their skills and experience to handle various tasks. How the workers handle the change processes in an organization can also be used to measure the productivity of white collar workers (Longeneckerand and Leffakis 26). Under some circumstances, professionals like managers prefer to maintain the status quo by rejecting any change impacting on their authority in an organizational setting. As a result, the productivity of such workers may be affected; further, a change in an organization can also result in a conflict between the change agent and other staff where there is lack of consultation. This demoralizes employees and impacts negatively on their work performance in an organizational setting (Ray 35). The barriers that impacts on white collar productivity Since most of white collar jobs involve office work, there are a number of barriers that tend to impact negatively on productivity. For instance, the management in an attempt to improve performance is often engaged in numerous board meetings that in most cases, do not realize their objectives (Takala, Suwansaranyu and Phusavat 652). In addition, white collar workers have embraced technology today, and while technology has a number of benefits, there are also demerits. This includes workers being distracted by emails or hacking of organization’s information. Conversely, poor leadership also impacts negatively on white collar productivity. For instance, where the management is using autocratic methods of leading other works is detrimental in that, it reduces workers morale. In a white collar work setting, employees are often more comfortable with a democratic style of leadership. In addition to leadership methods as a factor to consider in this context, the methods of communication in an organization also impacts on white collar productivity. Communication techniques applied in an organization needs to be inclusive so as to enhance cooperation at all levels of an organization’s structure (Schwartz and Harrington 81). The methods companies are using to maximize the productivity of white collar workers There are a number of methods that a company can use to improve the productivity of white collar workers. First, productivity of white collar workers can improve by the management allowing the employees to be part of the decision making process. This allows workers to make their contributions and work hard towards meeting the company’s objectives that they also participated in implementing. Further, the productivity of white collar workers can also be maximized through training or seminars meant to improve their knowledge and skills on various tasks within an organizational setting. In addition, these workers productivity can also be improved by offering incentives in terms of improved salaries or positive feedbacks from the management, meant to boost the morale of workers (Smart 185). Good leadership by the management also acts as a measure to improve productivity. Good leadership within an organization involves giving all the employees an equal chance to make their contribution. This makes the workers to feel valued and in turn, improve their effort at work (Mckay and Dravecky 6). Conclusion The productivity of any company is influenced by the effort (input) to achieve positive results (output). In a white collar setting, the effort of the workers is important in achieving positive result. As such, companies have to employ qualified staff in various field of specialties so as to achieve positive results. Without knowledge and skills, the effort contributed by workers will not realize any positive result. This is the main reason why in a white collar work setting, educational qualification, skills and experience matter in realizing a company’s success in terms of productivity. Works Cited Hoop, Charles and Wolzansky, Joseph.Matching white-collar skills to the work. Harvard Business Review 61.6 (1983), pp. 64-68.Print. Iravani, Seyed; Hopp, Wallace and Liu, Fang. Managing White-Collar Work: An Operations-Oriented Survey. Productions & Operations Management 18.1 (2009), pp. 1-32.Print. Longeneckerand, Clinton and Leffakis, Zachary. Serious About White-Collar Productivity. Industrial Management 44.6 (2002), p. 26. Print. McKay, Noble and Dravecky, Evelyn. Realizing white collar productivity: The integration of systems and people. Business Forum 16.2 (1991), p. 6. Print. Ray, Pradip. The Measurement and Evaluation of White-collar Productivity. International Journal of Operations & Production Management 9.4 (1989), pp. 28-47. Print. Schwartz, Nelson and Harrington, Ann. Down and out in white-collar America. Fortune 147.13 (2003), pp. 78-83.Print. Smart, Brad. Maximizing Your Return on People. Harvard Business Review 85.7 (2007), pp. 184-185. Print. Takala, Josu; Suwansaranyu, Udomsak and Phusavat, Kongkiti. A proposed white-collar workforce performance measurement framework. Industrial Management & Data Systems 106.5 (2006), pp. 644-662.Print. Read More