Everything in today’s society has changed in many ways compared to the way they were
done 100 years ago. Starting with the way jobs are done, and their employees. One of the few
things that remains from the past (and hopefully will continue to remain intact) is the way
organizations and their hard work is recognized. Over time, new workers start to take over, and
a lot of formal organizations started to change to be more flexible in the work environment.
For centuries, most of the formal organizations operated under conventional bureaucracy,
which is made of many levels like a pyramid. The pyramid starts out with the “top” people in the
organization, who have the highest ranking authority to tell the people under them what they
need to do. This pyramid works its way down to the people of the formal organization that have
no authority what so ever. The pyramid allows an organized structure. This makes it to where
there is always a supervisor that one must comply with. Within the pyramid, every person in it
has a responsibility to uphold. Each person in the pyramid has a specific responsibility and then
they must report to a specific person or supervisor. This means that there is no equality within
the company, and the lowest person in the chain has to do whatever those with the higher power
in the company told them to do.
Back in the early 1900’s, organizations were not efficient enough in the quantity or
quality, and even their job performances. Because of this, the managers only had a few tasks that
were required of them. The manager would look at each worker, and their performed job, and
then designate the allotted time to finish their job. After that they would try to figure out how to
get the most out of their workers time. In the end, incentives for the workplace were created in
order to show the appreciation of the organization to its employees known as Scientific
Management.
During the mid 1900’s the companies were not making the most out of their workers
especially when it came to the hiring process, or advancements in the company. Since most of
the managers in high positions were white men. Minorities and women were not allowed to
move up in the company. This is known as a “closed organization”, and caused unproductive
workers due to the lack of being able to advance in the company. Once companies realized that
they needed to be more open and allowed the minorities and women to advance in their
company, they became more profitable.
In this day and age, organizations are more flexible about their workers, and the
advancements within the company for its workers. Instead of using the previous model of top-
down pyramid, they now work together as a team with a senior manager overseeing their
responsibilities. Team members are now implemented for their creativity and ideas (if
appropriate). There is less supervision with the same expectation of work. Employees are now
encouraged to work in “teams” which is very different from a century ago. We now live in an
ever changing world that has creativity and adaptation that are vital to the business organizations
today.
In order for Micah’s company to become more profitable, it needs to be more flexible
with its employees. One of the most important things that need to change is the top-down
pyramid of hierarchy. The first change that his company needs to make is make smaller groups
that are geared towards the same goal. This would make the efficiency and production within the
company a lot better. The next change his company needs to make is the hierarchy; if they were
to create a smaller chain in command, this would not only open up more job opportunities for the
employees, but it would also make the staff less resentful. Policies and regulations would be the
next thing that needs to be changed. It is up to the employee to follow the regulations put in
place. The next step is to have a membership criterion, allowing the head of the department to
encourage their employees instead of just ordering them what to do. The fifth step that his
company needs to work on is “relationships”. Micah needs to know all the employees all the way
from the owner of the company to the lowest person on the pyramid. The sixth characteristic is
communication. Usually in a formal bureaucratic organization, there are things like; memos, and
letters that are sent to the employees and hold un-thoughtful information, and they are sent from
the person at the top of the chain, and received by all employees. It would be best if they were to
have open meetings about the notes sent out in order to get the feedback from the employees, and
also make the employees feel like they can have an open relationship with their managers. This
helps if there is ever an issue that occurs; the employee will feel more comfortable talking with
their managers. The last step that this company needs to work on is focus. Since formal
organizations are task-oriented; if they were to become more people oriented, and show how
much they care for their employees, then Micah’s company would have better results showing
enhanced efficiency between employees and will boost up the productivity, thus improving the
profit made by the company.
There are three different trends that I predict will happen in the work place and will be
likely to take place in the future. The first trend that I think is going to take place is the
companies requiring their employees to all be equally creative, not just the minimum wage
worker that never gets credit for the work they are doing. Instead of it all being left up to the
“lower” employees, this will be effective for the people in “upper” management as well. An
organization that is not only flexible but open with their employees, can better themselves by
splitting the employees into smaller, more competitive groups, thus allowing them to be
independently creative, yet reaching for the same objective. “Great supervisors come up with the
creative vision, analyze whether their ideas are good, execute their ideas, convince others of their
values, and ensure that their ideas are for the common greater good of the company.” (Sternberg,
2006). A good supervisor will actually do the job that they set out to do instead of sending
someone else to do it for them. Also, a good incentive to work harder is the Performance Pay,
which works by matching a CEO’s pay to their performance. “It can motivate, retain, and better
align the CEO with various constituencies.” (Masters, 1999)
The second trend I am going to talk about is some things that the Japanese organizations
already have done, and found them to have a very good end result, and shows the loyalty of the
workers. First, they hired the new employees in groups, and giving them the same responsibility
and salary. Then a lot of the Japanese companies hired their people with a lifelong contract.
Then, they trained all the employees in all aspects of operations. “[Fourth, although Japanese
corporate leaders took ultimate responsibility for their organization’s performance, they involved
workers in “quality circles” to discuss decisions that affect them. Fifth, Japanese companies
played a large role in the lives of workers, providing home mortgages, sponsoring recreational
activities, and scheduling social events.]” (Macionis, 2006) I think that if American companies
were to start any of the five trends listed here by the Japanese, then we could better prosper like
they have.
The third is not a trend that I think will happen, but something that has already happened
to America’s largest automotive parts maker; Delphi; who tried to change their organization, and
did some things that were radical and did not work out very well. They thought if they could get
rid of their labor contract their company would be doing better off. So, when the average person
who worked at Delphi’s wages went from $27.00/per hour to $9.00/per hour, one could only
imagine the rage that an employee here felt. The company now has to hide behind the protection
of bankruptcy, and says “We will close all our US plants unless trade unions agree to wage cuts
to rescue America's largest auto parts-maker.” (Finfacts, 2007). If our all of our formal
organizations were to do this, there would be a lot of upset, out of money, out of a job citizen
sitting in our soil. I think there would be an even bigger economic crisis then there is now.
My overall prediction of how formal organizations like Micah’s are likely to evolve in
the future is they will become better once they figure out that the changes that are listed above
will give them more profit and productivity. Once a company reduces the chain of command into
smaller groups, it will enhance and support creativity and inside competition. This gives a self
motivator to the employee, and a happy employee is a productive employee.
