How Industrialisation Has Changed Working Structures in Organisations - Essay Example

TITLE by Name of author Name of class Name of Professor Name of school Location of school Date How Industrialisation Has Changed Working Structures in Organisations With every passing era that organisations go through, there is expected some level of strain in organizational structure which will, to some extent, include advances in technology and the need to exploit the same – industrialization – at that moment in time (Hopkins 2013). Human organizations had to learn to cope with technological possibilities that were to become realities if they were to achieve the ‘organizations of the future’ tags. This would enable them to catch up to the tumultuous and uncertain demands of industrialization in the society (Braun 2005). As such organizations as well as organizational fields are faced with constant transformations of various sorts such as less hierarchy and more team work, new kinds of collaborations, work practices, increased dependence on network structures, innovative practices, and process improvement. All these have warranted the need to understand the change process and its implications on organisations. It is important to note that structural organizational change is usually longitudinal, multifaceted and takes a more dynamic, disintegrative and localized nature (Hopkins 2013). Before the era of industrialization, work was viewed as a political subject rather than a social one. Only men were allowed to work and women reserved to their homes to fulfill their ‘natural duty’ – take care of their husbands and children (Braun 2005). This was because women were seen as not being capable of performing physical tasks since work in pre-industrial era required physical engagement and as such, it was left to men. This can be supported by the fact that men in the society were referred to by the kind of work they did while reference to omen was based on their marital status. Another feature of work in preindustrial period was that it was for the majority population in the rural society whose purpose was intimate to a person’s social life and in general, the organisation of the society (Braun 2005). Farmers and artisans organized their work with freedom. In the middle 19th century, with the emergence of industrialization, structure of the society changed drastically as well as the nature of work. Work stopped being intrinsic value and for most people it became just a way of earning a living (Hopkins 2013). It has been argued that industrialization led to the differentiation of work and home as the role of women in the home was curtailed. This is because numerous openings came to be and women were taken from the home to the work places as industrialization eased and improved working conditions. The organisational structure of the work place began to take a new shape as more women began applying for employment (Braun 2005). Men had to cope with teaming up and collaborating more with women as they became part and parcel of the new organizational structure. This is still the case today as more and more women, through affirmative action, are becoming more career driven. As industrialization found its way deep into the society, manufacturing plants were formed with the famous ones being potteries, textile factories and milling factories. This was accompanied by specialisation which witnessed gender separation in the factories. For instance, in the potteries, women were tasked with decoration of the moulds and men were tasked with the moulding itself (Lorenzi and Riley 2004). Although the end products in these factories were achieved through team work, gender separation during the process took centre stage. This notwithstanding, women continued to look for employment although the conditions were unusually relatively tough as they spent longer hours in the factories than their male counterparts and their wages were systematic. This was a way to reduce the influx of women into factories (Hopkins 2013). There were even campaigns that intended to drive women with families to drop from industrial employment thereby increasingly marginalizing them within the work force. Women retaliation was not expected and when they did, both sexes ganged up against each other in what is described to as a cold war within factories. Team work suffered so as in time production and quality. Presently, employers are still faced with challenges of rapidly changing technological advancements that demand rapid adaptation in their products and services. Technology has also demanded that employers and employees come up with ways they can narrow their links to enable fast and immediate interactions (Lorenzi and Riley 2004).. The traditional way of holding meetings face to face has today become archaic and teams today can hold conferences via video conferencing platforms without actually being present physically. To some extent, this beats the purpose for the proposition of creating closer links between employers and employees. The social structure of organisations and work in general has been affected as employers and employees continue to lessen their physical interactions. As mechanization took centre stage during the industrial revolution, the workplace began to become increasingly more mechanized and so did the need for better working conditions. Safety issues concerning the operations of machines were raised and this led to the formation of unions by workers in most industries (Braun 2005). One such union was the Berryessa fruit Growers that was formed in 1920 that advocated for safer and better working conditions and called for a limit in the number of working hours. Advocacies for better treatment of female workers were also echoed by these unions regarding the minimal wages that women received compared to their male counterparts. Most of these campaigns by groups unions achieved their objectives as employees began to provide safety materials to their workers as well as making sure that the conditions in factories were conducive for working (Braun 2005). Traditionally, in the workplace, people with different skills were put together to work toward a specific goal. With changing times, complexities develop with regard to organizational objectives. As organizations continue to grow and go global, it is evident that teams within the organization will comprise of people from different working cultures and nationalities with specialized skills for finding solutions to the organizations global tasks (Lorenzi and Riley 2004).. With technological changes, organisation teams and groups today do not take part in team work per-se, rather they take part actively in what can be referred to as workplace collaboration. Breakthroughs in telegraph and the telephone service during the industrial period changed all this (Hislop 2008). Communication could be made immediately and effectively as new opportunities for competition presented themselves. Emails, video conferencing and most recently instant messaging has enabled teams to collaborate across borders with transitional teams becoming the norm for most multinational organisations (Coovert and Thompson 2013). Times and places where teams and groups have to carry out organisations tasks have also been affected by industrialization. The 8am-5pm that was the norm in conventional work is no longer the case today (Lorenzi and Riley 2004).. The spatial distinction between work and home has continued to disappear and as such, time divisions are currently eroding. Despite the presence of physical offices and cubicles people still carry on with office duties in the subways, coffee houses and even in the parks (Coovert and Thompson 2013). This is because the walls of the office have been blurred to an extent where teams can hold groups brainstorming sessions from almost anywhere. How Group and Team Work have responded to Industrialization Teams within the organisation have responded positively and have designed ways to cope as industrialization and technological advancements become imminent with each passing day in order to adapt to these rapid and unforgiving changes (Coovert and Thompson 2013). Humanizing the workplace has been the major form of coping with the present demands. Teams have been allowed a greater level of participation in the day to day management of the organisations to keep them engaged in the organisation (Coovert and Thompson 2013). Programs such as Quality of Working Life have been developed for the sole purpose of satisfying the desire by workers to enjoy greater autonomy, creativity and conviviality in whatever they do within the organisation’s structure. These programs have proved effective through job rotation, job enlargement and promotion of autonomous work teams and groups. Workers have taken it upon themselves to build relationships as virtual and transitional teams become the norm in most organizations today (Coovert and Thompson 2013). This has helped increase the trust levels within these teams, beyond the typical benevolent trust that is typical in traditional physical office settings. With virtual teams, workers or team members have to build trust by ensuring consistency and reliability (Lorenzi and Riley 2004).. Basically, ability based trust is what teams have learnt to sharpen. Responding to emails promptly, demonstrating positive work ethic and fulfilling promises helps build on this trust. It is a well known fact that technology in the office has brought with it certain levels of isolation which workers have to cope with. Feelings that the senior managers in the organisations may have forgotten them start to creep in (Billet 2006). Most teams have gone on to create company blogs and support platforms that have enabled them interact frequently with senior managers and other workers thereby breaking the isolation wall. Teams have also ensured that these platforms are not restricted to work related discussions but also to loosen up during free periods such as lunch hours and tea breaks (Hislop 2008). By doing this, teams and groups have retained their human nature and perceptions of isolations have been reduced greatly. Effective, constant and consistent communication is thus what teams and groups have employed to stay relevant in the dynamic 21st century organisation. Technology, although bearing several advantages to the organisations comes with other negativities which workers may be rightly cautious about. The possibilities of certain jobs becoming obsolete are ever becoming a reality in organisations today. Reduction in need for low ranking specialized jobs, clerical jobs and large number of workers in manufacturing companies has been exercabated with increased mechanization (Lorenzi and Riley 2004).. New technologies have made it possible to get rid of numerous repetitive manual jobs that are dangerous. This has paved way for the creation new jobs focused more on the managing, supervising and maintaining the new automated equipment that need more mental skills and less physical skills. Prone teams and workers have thus taken it upon themselves to get further training with these developments in mind to add to their skills so that they do not become irrelevant if one of their skills becomes irrelevant or obsolete to warrant job loss (Billet 2006). Job mobility increased in post-industrialization era after mid 19th century as a result of industrialization (Hislop 2008). This was noticed majorly among the youth and those who did not have enough skills to enable them retain their jobs in the more mechanized factories. This increased mobility was a way of ensuring that the affected individuals still found a way to earn wages with the few skills they had, moving from one manual job to the next (Coovert and Thompson 2013). Today, job mobility is not that common as people have the basic technological skills to enable them perform basic technological tasks such as composing and sending emails and just the simple task of instant messaging. Despite this, the demands of today’s social life have gone to dictate the possibilities of one remaining in his or her current position with minimal technological skills or leaving in search for less technologically tasking positions (Coovert and Thompson 2013). An example of such a case is in sea ports where most of the activities require the need o operate advanced cranes and other automated equipment (Lorenzi and Riley 2004). Most workers at sea ports in most countries across the world have, over the past few decades, lost their jobs as automated cranes have taken over operations with most ports cutting down on labour force drastically. References Braun, R. (2005). Industrialisation and Everyday life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Hopkins, E. (2013). Industrialisation and Society: A Social History, 1830-1951. London: Routledge Billet, S. (E.d). (2006). Work, Change and Workers. New York: Springer Lorenzi, M., and Riley, R. (2004). Managing Technological Change: Organisational Aspects of Health Informatics. New York: Springer Hislop, D. (2008). Mobility and Technology in the Workplace. Abingdon: Taylor and Francis. Coovert, M, and Thompson, L. (E.d.). (2013). The Psychology of the Workplace Technology. London: Routledge. Read More