Goodleigh
Lloyd Goodleigh, Contributor
The following is the final part of excerpts of the address made by Lloyd Goodleigh at the Grace Kennedy Foundation Leture 2002, titled "Changing With Change Workplace Dynamics Today and Tomorrow"
THE social partners must conclude all the arrangement for the establishment of a national productivity centre for the sharing of information, and the promotion and adoption of ideas and practices that promise long-term gains to organisation and employers.
Greater coordination or a merger of the ministries of health, education and labour is desirable to accomplish two major goals.
The state must start to assume the responsibility of making sure that a basic package of worker's social security rights are citizenship related instead of being primarily employment related.
This will allow for greater employer and employee flexibility in terms of workers changing jobs and the growing incidence of atypical forms of employment. The state must put in place the institutions that facilitate a more mobile workforce.
The state must ensure that all Jamaican citizens have access to quality basic and secondary education and initial training that ensures employability and portability of those skills and the capacity to absorb new technologies.
The aim must be not only to improve the technical and competitive capabilities of the individuals, but also their social and cultural capabilities. Finally, the state must redesign its own procedures and move from hierarchical authority in critical areas. It must become more concerned with results than procedures and make processes more flexible instead of standardised and routine.
Unions and employers must accept the fact that we exist in an uncompromising international economic environment, where all the social partners must, in the first instance, ensure that they undertake the reform of their own institutions, that they jointly define new tasks and actively seek new ways of cooperation.
CAPACITY OF THE WORKPLACE
Beyond their own institutions, they must cooperate to ensure that they rebuild the capacities of our workplaces.
In the mid-1980s, Quality of Work Life (QWL) or the humanisation of work, gained popularity in some organisations. The aim seemed to have been to reduce economic cost. The efforts were, by and large, unsuccessful, primarily because the programme did not deal with the basic question of the reform of work organisation.
The fact is that Jamaica's sole reliance on hierarchical and bureaucratic systems of management and organisation are unsuited to a world that demands meaningful adjustments and speed of response.
Clearly, for example, they do not lend themselves to flexible working hours or overlapping work roles, and financial participation schemes work best when employees have a close working relationship with management and are involved in the decision making process.
Jamaica, where appropriate, must put in place flexible, post-Taylorist organisations in which organisational charts are flatter, job descriptions are broader and teamwork is emphasised.
Traditional forms of payment systems, planning and administration must be adjusted and training and knowledge must be broad. Managers must become leaders, committed to the organisation and, instead of only giving orders, they must seek to remove barriers, expedite resources, conduct studies and act as consultants.
Workers will feel morally committed to the organisation because of its inclusionist policies and continuous improvements and innovation in the way that things are done.
SPECIALIST WORKERS
It is important in the future because as "new skill groups arise and demand recognition of their expertise, a self-conscious form of knowledge introversion and the desire to control the market for their skills bring professionalisation.
Soon, specialist attempt to redefine the conditions of organisational participation while hierarchical elites insist that the question of 'what should be done' remains their prerogative.
Soon, specialists insist that they are entitled to a larger role in substantive policy. Knowledge, in a word, challenges hierarchical legitimating of authority and role."
Clearly, in a society in which most managers and workers are weaned on Taylorist principles, that charge represents a great challenge.
That form of organisation had insulted the privilege of individuals with power such as owners, members of management and groups of privileged workers and staff.
We can say with assurance that organisational structure influences performance and culture. Ideally, the organisation's culture should be a reflection of the wider society's culture.
I am quite aware that in Jamaica most employers and unions regard work organisation as solely a management prerogative as reflected in management's rights in collective agreements.
If, however, Jamaica intends to deal with reconfiguring our organisations, all the stakeholders will have to take an active part.
Unions will have to move beyond those ancient beliefs and join their colleagues in Scandinavia, Australia and the USA in becoming actively involved in organisational redesign.
Labour-management relations must be seen as more than a mechanism for addressing problems of salary and working conditions but as a method for changing work attitudes and values and creating a collaborative culture.
The discussions must take place within the ambit of collective bargaining or through framework agreements.
Whatever the obstacles, we must clearly understand that the administrative regidities associated with Taylorist approaches to organising work do not do well in periods of flux.
It will be impossible to change organisational structures unless we are able to establish a "collaborative culture" within our organisations.
Again, traditionally, both unions and employers have regarded the establishment of organisational culture as the domain of organisational development (OD) specialists.
While OD specialists are necessary, it is unions and employers who must commit themselves to the process and become the agents of change.
Lloyd Goodleigh is the general secretary of the National Workers Union and general secretary of the Jamaican Confederation of Trade Unions.
