Voice and dignity: every brain in the game

Every organization, be it a company is composed of people of different gender, background and divergent opinion. Each person has a unique rational way of viewing situations. This makes running of an organization to be challenging as the different opinions has to be harmonized for such organization to be successful. However it is quite unfortunate that some organizations do not provide appropriate atmosphere where worker would feel confident to express their views without suspecting victimization afterwards. Workers feel that their voice and dignity are being suppressed by their bosses. To surmount this challenge this paper comprehensive approach that engages every brain at work place. Any business organization has the responsibility of establishing a relationship that manipulates resources and workmanship in a way to create a serene atmosphere for all workers involved. Such is the work of organizational management whose focus has to be set based on two main principles.

Welch in his book entitled winning, underscores fundamental principles to every person at place of work yarn to, have which is voice and dignity. Leaders should therefore aspire to achieve that need. According to Welch, (2005) voice is giving people opportunity to speak their minds and have their ideas, opinions, and feelings heard, regardless of their nationality, gender, age, or culture. He also defines dignity the instinctive and inherent desire by people to be respected for their work, efforts and individuality, (2005) Bosses are; therefore, expected to consciously and consistently seek to enhance these core human values. To emphasize this point a young woman in china had asked emotionally how possible it was for any business in her country could practice candor and differentiations if people only relied on the voice of their bosses alone, (2005). However, it is quite fortunate here from Welch that suppression of voice and dignity is hardly a Chinese problem. The problem squarely relies on the vast majority of people in organizations who remain silent because of lack of self esteem. They feel they can’t make any contribution as they feel empty and also that they have not been asked to so.

According to Welch, (2005) people feel secure to make their contributions when their identities are withheld. For example in a workshop organized by GE in Crotonville it was realized that majority of people who spoke did so because they felt anonymous. Welch stresses on the need to inculcate a culture among people at all levels to speak out their mind just as they did at Crotonville. The forum was aimed at encouraging bosses to create a replica of the environment back in their businesses where fear of victimization among workers would be a thing of the past. A more inclusive approach where bosses seek to get ideas from their juniors is inevitable for any business to realize its success rapidly. It is on this ground that Work-Out process was initiated.

The Work-Out process would be two or three day events to be held at GE sites around the world raging from Louisville to Kentucky, Rutland to Vermont, and Cincinnati to Crotonville. It would consist of thirty to a hundred employees. It was rolled out to create a rapport relationship between workers and bosses. The above number of employees would come together to freely discuss better ways of making their ideas heard without feeling intimidated. They would also lay a roadmap on better ways of doing away excessive red tapes and roadblocks that would be a bottleneck in their quest to have their voices heard. Facilitator that would help them put such roadmaps would come from outside just to ensure that they had free atmosphere for their discussions.

A boss would only be present at beginning of every session to lay out the rationale for the Work-Out. The other functions s of every boss in any of such sessions would be to mandatorily give an on-the-spot yes or no to 75 percent of recommendations that came out of the session, and resolve the remaining 25 percent within a period of thirty days, , (2005) The boss would then be expected to leave the session in order not to scuttle an open discussion. He or she would make a return at the end the session to affirm his or her earlier promise as far as recommendations are concerned. Several of such sessions were organized overt several years until their values became part and parcel of daily running activities of the targeted companies, , (2005) This was a milestone achievement with enormous benefits. Every person found it easy and convincing to have his or her voice heard; hence, every brain brought into the game. This made a middle-aged appliance worker at on of the workshop to wonder loudly how the company has in the past 25 years has paid for his hands while would have his brain too free of charge. This sounds ridiculous because human beings are not robots to be manipulated. They are rational beings and therefore they should be using their mind to direct them in their daily activities.

People should be given chance to give their views freely, however bad they may appear. The free atmosphere would not only make people to feel respected ands valued but also enhance production at every company. Welch conquers with the above views and illustrates that Work- Outs led to an explosion of productivity, (2005). The reason behind just simple: every person wants and needs to be heard and respected. This is surest way that a company would use top exploit enormous potentials in workers. Work-out has become part of solutions facing GE Company. It eradicated the boss-knows-all syndrome, a culture that is very detrimental to the growth of a company.

Every person in management should appreciate the fact people at work place diversified qualities. Some people have better ideas than others; others are smarter while others are more experienced. Every manager is charged with responsibility of bringing all these qualities on board for the general progress of a company. She or she should be able demystify mere complaints from real facts. The underlining factor is that every person to be heard and respected.

From the above disussion the following critical lessons are learned. The first one is that teams are more effective more than individuals. This is because teams have different amazing potentials that if well tapped bring the best ideas for a company. This why the idea of one knows it all is vehemently discouraged. Research shows that one has a higher percentage of 71 percent to succeed while working with a team rather than working just with an individual. With a team one is sure of getting a wide range of ideas and knowledge as other people in the team are multi-skilled. Teams normally have well set goals that are important to enabling individuals to achieve their personal goals. This was realized when a team of employees came together to iron out some issues that were hindrances to their voices being heard at the GE company. They were able to achieve their goal and since then each one of them feels respected and heard.

The second lesson that comes out clearly is to think out of the box. Thinking out of the box is not easy, because it needs more energy and it causes more stress than the regular thinking. When you want to think out of the box, you have to avoid the comfort zone, push yourself, seek out to new challenges, take chances, and avoid routines. Any boss should not just think that he or she enjoys monopoly of information as far the running of a company is concerned. He or should appreciate the fact that some of the juniors might be smarter and experienced and; thus, should make a desperate attempt to reach them. This might cause some adrenaline as it requires highest level of reasoning knowing very well that some workers might challenge in your own ideas.

A boss must be open-minded and must avoid any behavior that may make him or her feel inferior as will only make the boss be petty. An effective organizational management needs managers with relevant skills and experience in a specific business practice given the current competitive business environment, Medina (2006). Inferiority complex is an element that affects mainly those who lacks relevant skills hence cannot think out of the box. Such like people in many cases reach comfort zone very fast and; therefore, would do very little to get new challenges in life. For them status-quo and routine way of doing things is the order the day. This ordinary way of reasoning can impact any business negatively as it will hinder workers from being more productive and creative, no wonder one of the attendance at workshop organized by GE questioned the idea of paying his hands only while it would be possible to get his brain as well freely.

A good boss would always strive to ensure that the organization makes a booming profit. This is only possible where workers are productive. There has to be flexibility where workers feel free to change task without fear of losing their jobs. This is based on the fundamental principle that when employees perform the same duties for a long duration can lead to burn out and boredom. Exhaustion and monotony as result of doing one duty may make a productive staff to quit his or her job and a manager does not address the issue effectively. This may in turn make a firms turnover rates to decrease. This calls for the manager to design a proper structure fore the organization to ensure good coordination among the workers and their various tasks. Cieri, (2006) supports this opinion by stating that it is important to lay down an organization strategy that blends performance, resources, and people.

The manager should adopt policies that would ensure that a large number of employees perform and change their tasks with ease of command from one head. While giving command the manager should be democratic as opposed to authoritarianism that instills fear among workers. Chain of command creates a proper channel for delegation of authority from the top management to junior staffs following a given cordial line of relationship and interdependence, Cieri, (2006). Organizational structure should be able to give an opportunity to pass on authority through chain of command that defines the responsibilities and give Communication Avenue in both directions. That is from top to bottom and bottom to top to ensure proper dissemination of information.

This kind of communication would require managers to let their juniors self-manage their duties to enable them come with new ideas of handling work and breaking boredom. This will go long way in talent development and improving a cordial relationship at work which in turn enhance productivity. The method used in coming up with this kind of strategy is via a process known as quality circle through which employees analyze nature of their duties and identify avenues for correcting the problems without fear of being victimized or sacked. This is based on fundamental principles that emphasize on mutual employee-supervisor relationships, employee empowerment, and quality circles. Employees are capable of making sole but crucial decisions in relation to their work without being supervised by their managers.

Any manager should know that managerial duties are designed to include all business operations in a bid to realize the goals of a company. This can only be realized organization activities are well coordinated. This coordination calls for good inter-departmental communication channels and general communication from bottom to the top leadership. A high-quality manager is expected to be well acquainted with the organization’s goals, mission, and vision of a company. This is because these are the driving forces that propel any company to greater heights. A manager’s role involve: planning, controlling, recruitment, organizing, and providing leadership among others.

Apart from the already mentioned roles managers, modern business ethics today demands that manager should also act as personal motivator to their juniors, team player, and above all a facilitator. This is kind of formal management will ensure a friendlier and team oriented leadership that boosts morale of employees. This kind of management is also known as horizontal management. It should be highly recommended by bosses ass opposed to top-to-bottom also known as vertical management model. It normally ensures that all brains are involved in the game as earlier on stressed by Welch. Any manager should ensure that all workers are eager and ever willing to give their contributions towards the success of the organization. He or she should involve all workers without biasness emanating from gender, age or any other affiliation. The manager should always advocate that mutual relationship is maintained via team building sessions that he or she organizes with his or her employees.

The most important step by students who aspire to be managers in future is to put learned skills into action out of classroom and to practice these skills frequently in order to internalize them. The student in question should note that Managers must be equipped with basic skills that will ensure effective business operations are run comprehensively and inb a friendly manner. These skills include: interpersonal skills, technical knowledge in regard to processes, political skills, conceptualistic skills, and analytical skills. The above managerial skills can be nurtured through behavioral change and developing conceptual knowledge where one views things in a broader perspective with an open mind. Besides, a student- manager can gain managerial skills via observation of how managers carry out their duties. He or she can make an effort of visiting an organization with an aim to acquire some of these vital skills as they are being practiced.

Self initiated quizzes can also act as a vital source of developing skills as one can personalize his or her own style from the quizzes he or she forms. Even as the student aspire to get these skills the student should not forget the core values of workers as laid earlier in this paper by Welch that people expect that their voices are heard and that they are respected. In other words the student should be a good student of Welch that would practice these values in an organization to achieve the best for the company. Managerial skills are nurtured from academics to real experience to ensure that the student is fully baked before one move from lower managerial levels to the top level of management. It is imperative for students pursuing managerial posts in future to get skills out of classroom in order to get the real picture of what duties befall a successful manage. This is what will make them avoid the tendency of being skewed in their way of thinking that can drive them to suppress their juniors.

A student that aspires to be future manager should aim at encouraging team work as opposed to group work. The student must learn to note the differences between groups and teams. As earlier suggested it is better working with teams than groups. This is because groups do not have a well defined common goal like teams do. In teams members play a role in the company’s success by applying their unique expertise and skill to team objectives, that is to say teams are self driven. However, groups’ members are instructed on what to do rather than being asked the best approach to take to achieve the set goals. Groups must therefore be supervised as they lack self esteem. They feel that they incapable of making a significant contribution that would bring any positive change in an organization. These opinions held by groups only make them to be introverts. It therefore calls for a manager to convert groups into teams that would help an organization achieve its laid down goals.

The discussion above is aimed at equipping every person to begin to think out of the box. Thinking out of the box is not easy an affair at all. It requires a lot of endurance and creativity. One has to cope with criticism and critiquing from other people. It is t is hard, req2ures a lot of adrenaline as a lot of energy is spend in this kind of thinking that not just the ordinary way of thinking nothing comes in a silver platter in this life. Success requires a lot of endurance and patience. Every person has to work hard in order to achieve glory. Everything good that we see today are dreams of some people, dreams made into reality. A critical look of people who have succeeded in the world would be a clear testimony that they avoided the comfort zone. They took chances, and challenged themselves in their earlier life. This is very reason that made Welch to transform GE organization into a profit making company where all workers feel respected and valued. Out of his Welch own initiative the primitive culture of I know it all by some bosses unique was eradicated. This for every person tries to maximize his or her own but particular potential in order e to be succeeded in life. One should try to work in a more challenging environment where workers provide more demanding question and solutions for this the way to grow. It is imperative that take a self re-examination and ask critical questions touching on entire life.

Social Trends

When communication is interfered with in a work place, employees normally get intimidated, fearful and feel shy in sharing their thought. This social trend may negatively affect the performance and relation in the entire work place. It is therefore important that leadership adopt relationship that enhances free communication for harmonious coexistence in an organization.

Conclusion

From the discussions above it is clear that people want their voices felt and respected. However, some people would feel free to give their opinion when they are anonymous in fear of being victimized. Others are on the other fail to give opinion due lack of self esteem. Any manager should encourage a horizontal mode of communication to ensure that all workers are involved in making crucial decision for the prosperity of an organization. This requires that both the workers and managers should think out of the box in order to be vibrant in the way they view situations. Both should be proactive and not reactive. This is will enhance harmony in an organization as a friendly environment would be created that in turn enhance productivity.