Insights on Maruti Story_Anvesh Apale_HRLP014

Insights on Maruti Story: Anvesh Apale_HRLP014

The importance of trust of organizations has been associated with the changes in the way of thinking and functioning of organizations during the last decades of the millennium.  Trust is the basis for much of the environment you want to create in your work place. Trust is the necessary for feeling able to rely upon a person, cooperating with and experiencing teamwork with a group, taking thoughtful risks, and experiencing believable communication.

The series of unfortunate events at Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL) which were followed by the strike was a clear indication of lack of trust amongst the various employee groups of the company. From the interactions Team SOIL had with the associates at Maruti it was evident that the Associates has lost their faith in their management and were hence very furious about their state of affairs. It would not be correct to attribute one single reason for blowing things out of proportion. I believe there were several factors which led to the extreme situation at the Manesar plant of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd.

It is rightly said “ If you Fail to Plan, you Plan to Fail”. It was really strange the management of one of the largest automobile company in India failed to fulfill the hygiene needs of their workforce. For instance the washroom and canteen were located at a very far distance from the work area of the employees and surprisingly even the duration of breaks given to these workers was as less as 7.5 minutes, which obviously was not enough for a worker to go and come back on time. After the breaks, any delay in arrival of workers on time meant not only a penalty for the worker but also meant loss in terms of the quality of the units produced. Another major reason which could have made things worst was too much intervention of the Japanese counterparts in the working at Manaser plant. The Japanese focused more on processes and systems and less on the issue people were facing which indicates that the Japanese were not aligned to Indian sensitivities. Management decided to move the production of hot selling models of cars to Manesar. This led to a situation where workers were overloaded with the pressure meet the targeted volumes of production on a frequent basis. To make things worst they were not even paid the overtime wages at par with their counterparts working at Maruti Gurgaon.  Unlike Gurgaon, there was no union at Manesar plant which meant all the grievances at Manesar were to be routed to Gurgaon. These issues hence took a lot to be resolved which led to a feeling of restlessness amongst the workforce at Manesar.  The supervisors were of the age 24-28 years and there was very little difference in the age of the supervisors managing the workers and the workers themselves. Hence the supervisors did not come across as people who could handle the situation with maturity. There was a lot of communication gap between the management, supervisors and the workers. When the workers started facing issues with the supervisors, they escalated their concerns to the management. When the management gave some support, the workers felt it is alright to bypass the supervisors and hence escalated all the issues directly to the management. The supervisors felt insulted and undervalued because of the way workers behaved with them. The young workforce was ambitious and aggressive. They started comparing their wages, working hours and the working conditions of the workers in Honda plant situated at Manesar. In the entire process of comparing themselves with the workers at Honda they realized that they were getting far less than other workers who were doing the similar job for Honda. This led to a feeling of dissatisfaction amongst the workforce. As a result of this dissatisfaction workers decided to go on strike. This was the time when management at MISL realized that now things have gone out of their hands and if they want to make things better they would require an external consultant to reconcile things between them and workers. By the time SOIL was involved, most of the damage was already done.

It will be unfair to hold responsible only the agitated workforce which was involved initially in strike and later in violence.  It was in fact an inability of management to understand something that was happening right under their nose. The unfortunate event which happened on July 18th, 2012 could have been avoided if the workers would not have lost faith or trust in the management. I firmly believe the best way to maintain a trusting work environment is to keep from breaking trust in the first place. The integrity of the leadership of the organization is critical. The truthfulness and transparency of the communication with staff is also a critical factor. The presence of a strong, unifying mission and vision can also promote a trusting environment.