To:
All
Operations Committee Meeting Members
PRODUCTIVITY
- A LOOK: BACKWARD AND FORWARD
The subject
of productivity was last
reviewed nearly II months ago
- in Policy Review Committee meeting dated March 18, 1980.
In that
meeting I had traced the history of the
Productivity movement at Powai,' beginning
with the appointment
of a Committee in 1975 with MR. G. Ramakrishna as the
Convener. The Committee submitted its report in November 1976 and its recommendations were
discussed with the GMs and the Corporate
Management. Most of
the recommendations were accepted by the Management but there has been no subsequent formal audit (to the
best of my knowledge) with regard to
their implementation.
After signing
a four year agreement
with the Union
in January 1979, a
formal dialogue with the
union on the subject
of raising our Productivity level
was initiated around September
1979. A three-tier
structure of Productivity
Committee was devised and regular
meetings are being held at Powai level and the Unit/Shop levels.
Almost the entire emphasis during the past
18 months has been on "Communication". In dozens of meetings (involving Managers, Union Office-bearers, Shop
representatives. Shop Supervisors and
in some cases
ordinary workmen),
graphs/charts/tabulations have been projected to give all concerned an idea of the ups and downs of
shop wise labour efficiency.
All that can
be said for this
intense effort is that now at least there is an awareness of how Productivity is measured and where each shop stands.
By and
large, however, there is no evidence
of motivation -an urge (individual or collective) to do something
to raise the Productivity level.
Although we have
succeeded in breaking the
"communication barrier"
(there is considerable openness and honesty
- of -purpose in various meetings), we have, so far, not made any dent in the
"motivation - barrier".
This, I
consider, to be Phase II of our battle.
And why are
employees holding back, from getting
emotionally involved in the Productivity
drive? Is it that
individuals interests are conflicting with the
organisational interest?
Is there a "what-is-in-it-for-me"
attitude? Is it that what an employee
expects from
his job is different from what the organisation is prepared to offer him?
Answers to
some of these questions
are apparent in the minutes of the last Powai level Committee
meeting.
To find out more,
a "brain-storm"
meeting was arranged. Some six
Union Office-bearers and
four Managers participated. The meeting came
out with
some
200 suggestions on how to go about improving Productivity.
Of course, some were
similar/identical, as is
usual with brain-storm
meetings. The list does, however, provide some clues to what would
"actuate" people.
The one
recurring theme is "worker participation and involvement".
There just
does not seem
any other way
of motivating
employees. What apparently works at
the senior Manager level also seems to work at the
blue-collar worker level.
The
rate at which the wage-levels have risen
in the last three/four years
and the rate at
which these could
be expected to rise in the near
future (under the
existing CPI linked D.A. system), material rewards have perhaps already ceased to be motivating factor.
If
blue-collar 'wages cannot be held down, but
can be safely assumed to overtake those
of the Managers in not too distant
future, the only sensible thing to attempt is to
raise the "responsibility
consciousness - level" of the
workmen to that
of the Managers!
And, no person
feels more "responsible" than when he
is taking a "decision"
- or participating in
"decision-making" process. He becomes
actually conscious of the "social consequences" of the
decision and the repurcussion it
can have on his own image and social prestige.
In L&T, for all
its years of existence, we have
practiced a traditional
hierarchical type of
organisation with the decision-making responsibility and
authority rising with each level of hierarchy - not unlike situations in thousands of
organisations around the world.
But
rapidly changing technology over the last 30
years has also made decision-making process quite complex.
With increasing
complexity of business environment,
each level of hierarchy
finds itself presented with
new and difficult challenges
every passing day.
Society's own expectations of
Corporate bodies are for ever increasing.
If we have to have any time to deal with "tomorrow", we can only do so
by delegating some of our "today's" decisions to our
subordinates - right down the line up
to the shop-floor workmen. .
Let us this
morning debate whether
greater delegation
will lead to
greater employee-participation/involvement
will lead to
greater "responsibility consciousness level"
will lead to
greater individual motivation
will lead to
greater all-round productivity
And, if the answer is "YES", where and
how do we begin a change in our
own attitudes?
