The gruesome violence at Maruti
Manesar plant has left the entire Business and specifically HR fraternity in
shock. To analyze the root cause of this outburst it is important to first understand
the conditions, environment, employee views at Manesar plant.
Brief about Manesar
Plant:
·
Manesar plant started by Suzuki to create a model plant to show
low cost and high production.
·
Better Systems & Best Technology at Manesar Plant.
·
Younger worker and supervisor population to achieve low cost.
·
High work pressure as all hot selling models got shifted to Manesar
plant.
·
High percentage of contract employees.
Feelings and views about
people at various levels of organization.
·
Japanese Management
o
Emotional quotient needs to be improved.
o
Working style not aligned to Indian sensitivities.
o
More flexibility required in their approach towards work and
people.
·
Indian Management
o
Centralized power and authority.
o
Missing action and empowerment.
o
Tightened communication channel.
o
Unable to understand workforce and their issues.
·
Supervisors
o
Lack of understanding between supervisors and associates.
o
No proper action on supervisors’ feedback by Senior management.
o
No respect from associates.
·
Associates
o
Highly dissatisfied with the policies at Manesar
o
Upset with disparity
between Gurgoan and Manesar Plant salaries.
o
Under high work pressure.
o
Comparison with Honda plant in Manesar.
o
Unhappy with housing and medical policies.
o
Desperately wants a separate workmen union in the plant.
Well it is clear from the
above data points that Top Japanese management moved
focus from relationship orientation to task orientation as Maruti India became
a large profit center for them. There was too much of micro management
by Japanese in order to achieve targets and profits. Above all they completely
ignored the cultural sensitivities which is why they created a wide cultural gap. In a cross cultural environment
it is very important to collaborate with the other’s culture very maturely in
order to create a best of both working culture. Secondly in this Maruti
incident it is very important to understand the importance of achieving
efficiency without hampering the effectiveness of the system. In Manesar,
Maruti had best of machinery and techniques but they completely ignored the
human part of it. They hired a young population as associates to attain low
cost. The age of all these associates lies between 21-25 and to add on that
they all were hired from same nearby villages and towns rather than a healthy
mix and match of diversity from India. This young workforce was aggressive and impulsive
in their thinking and handling matters with management.
Again in to order to achieve numbers some very
basic needs of workers were overlooked which with time created friction and
frustration. A lot of contractual labour in the plant created an environment
with fear of job insecurity and discontentment due to inequity in pay. The physiological needs of safety,
transportation, washrooms, drinking water, and other needs like work hours etc.
were also not met which added fuel to the fire.
Also, the poor management of trade unions and
MUKU led to detachment and disconnect amongst the workforce and management.
The inability of MUKU adds to the frustration of associates. Furthermore the
sense of pride and achievement of being associated with Maruti Manesar plant
was overtaken by harsh deadlines and work pressure. To add to the discontentment
of associates the handicapped Indian management also got failed to play a proactive and
balanced role of true facilitator and collaborative decision maker.
In the end I would say
the reason for this unfortunate violence was lack of trust, communication and
commitment. The success mantra for any organization is to create a secure and
trustworthy environment to work for its employees. The culture in any
organization should be more of people focused than task focused because its
people who decides the success and growth for any organization not the
machines. Therefore its important to create an environment which is transparent
and believes in the participative involvement in decision making and creation
of policies.
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