Involving employees in standard setting is something that not all managers are willing to take on. The majority are those who speak of giving employees participation, but the minority are those who put action to the words.
As in politics, democracy in the workplace has value when people are knowledgeable and not when they are ignorant. So the more knowledge employees have, the more democracy they will demand. This leads to smaller and more segmental circles and groups in companies, but at the same time more qualified.
WL Gore Associates, a waterproof material manufacturer, operates 44 plants around the world. The company does not have job categories or hierarchies or other conventional structures, but works through associates who want to improve themselves. Lines of communication are direct, there is no fixed or assigned authority, natural leaders are defined by their peers, goals are set by those who enforce them, and functions are organized through commitment.
Managements must understand that it is healthy to give room to employees when they want to intervene in any aspect, it is synonymous with what they know and have to give. Innovation comes from the debates on behalf of the company. Many organizations would hesitate to take an employee who says everything yes and that does not expose his ideas and improvements for a product or service.
It is common that in organizations shaped like an arrowhead, an opinion cannot be expressed without going through the logical chains of middle management imposed by the policies and procedures manual. At least the idea is beginning to be raised that employees are the ones who have direct contact with the customer and they are the ones who see the defects in the manufacture of one car or another, who guarantee that the customer remains captive. Some visionary managers have started practicing this for a long time and have a horizontal and open dialogue with each of their employees. Otherwise ask David Packard, General Motors Jack Welch, IBM Thomas Watson.
La competencia voraz que exige el mercado pone en tela de juicio los verticalismos anteriores e invita a reflexionar sobre la manera de en que se interrelacionan «ellos» con «aquellos», porque ellos saben que las ganancias provienen de lo que generan aquellos. Jhon griber, se desempeña como gerente de planta en un laboratorio internacional, según él, «en mi tarjeta dice gerente, pero en la acción los gerentes son ellos, ellos son los que eligen la forma de trabajar, el hecho de ser el jefe no garantiza de que mis decisiones sean puestas en práctica».
The participation, commitment and involvement of all employees for results is the trigger for innovation. Innovation is an essential requirement to compete in the market, since market niches are getting smaller and smaller and the ideas that generate added value for the client arise from people who are close to the client. Therefore, it is essential to free employees so that knowledge and ideas flow in all directions.
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