Juliet Bourke on Flexibility
Evaluation of strategic threats and opportunities is important for an organisation in execution of strategic plans and decision making when managing labour during economic downturn. Company’s success and productivity depend on organisation of the human resource management, and how the same relate to flexibility.
Reflectively, labour as a factor of production, determines the gross output, performance, and goal achievement at optimal resource use. In implementing flexibility policy, it is important to consider budget constraint.
As opined by Juliet, this is no longer the case. For instance, following the short term need for restructuring and remaining solvent, companies have over relied on these short term counteractive strategies in managing labour, and are often characterized by overwork since the numbers of employees are reduced.
Secondly, the modern human resource management has remained fairly irresponsive to sudden swings and very sensitive to changes in work condition. Due to the shift in flexibility, employees have suffered heavily, since the communication system for implementing changes seems to target interests of the company.
In the end, the limited flexibility may give way to redundancy, lack of performance evaluation processes, poor employee testing, and unhealthy work culture. Flexibility is often compromised in companies facing uncertainty. In real sense, there should be a balancing system that is critical in improving leadership skills, evaluation skills, promoting creativity, and rewarding outstanding achievements.
Therefore, the basis for flexibility implementation should function on a comprehensive analysis of how employers facilitate work-life balance during an economic downturn. Therefore, the concept should remain relevant even during economic downturn.
Sharing the same sentiments with Juliet, it is apparent that human resource may end up seriously underdeveloped despite the fact that labour determines total output. Despite the fact that economic downturn is short term, fresh initiatives for correcting previous mistakes put in structures by management are not enough.
In agreement with Juliet, the modern flexibility practices have not adopted an inclusive career development plan. Instead, it works on assumptions that the labour force is fully developed and well trained. Besides, the modern flexibility system lacks aspect of innovation, skills, and motivation evaluation as part of work-life balance.
Magnitude of change is quantum because changes involving culture, structure and strategy of the company are required. This form of change is necessary in the cases of companies attempting to restructure their human resource component during the economic downturn.
However, sharing same sentiments with Juliet, modern flexibility plans lack leadership responsibility, performance efficiency, and continuous motivational policies which facilitate responsive management.
Implications of Excessive Working Hours on Employees and Managers
In any organisation, there is always a laid down structure formulated in order to keep its staff in healthy and stable mind in their duty of serving company’s interest. A stable mind performs optimally with little or no supervision. In nearly all formal and informal organisation(s), there always exists work related stress. If not streamlined, its effects can be catastrophic both to the organisation and the staff.
In addition, unhealthy workforce in the medium and long term is inversely proportional to goal achievement. Therefore, excessive working hours might reduce the effectiveness and sustainability of counter strategies implemented throughout various company departments or structures aimed at noticing and influencing right behavior at all levels; a key factor in addressing redundancy and healthcare issues.
Since all the working class adults in most organisations spend most of their waking hours at the work place, employers are given a unique opportunity to establish and monitor a desirable culture to improve and maintain a healthy workforce.
These may be in form of psychological trainings, sharing common experience, value and beliefs, attitudes, and group interests. However, excessive working hours alter these and may have a negative result on ways of interaction, commitment at work and confidence of the employees.
Excessive working hours make the work environment less holistic and socially friendly to management and other staff. Besides, it limits structural goals developed in the norms, expectations of specific behavior display, and appropriate guideline controlling interaction with one another.
In addition, excessive working hours reduce response to stimulus as it is aligned to negative organisational values characterized by inconsistent operations, emotional imbalance, and poor health.
Moreover, excessive working hours break the informal rule of engagement, expected behavior, and repercussions for misconduct as little time is allocated for personal development. Consequently, when people feel overworked, they will naturally give their least towards achieving goals of such an organisation.
Organisations apply human relation management system alongside stressing on rationality and autonomy of staff that perform at optimal levels when constantly motivated. For any outstanding achievement, one is given a reward, and/or promotion as a way of earning their loyalty.
As human nature dictates, an enticement that is offered from time to time may lead to a deep attachment with the object over which such a motivation is given. Motivation can be expressed in the form of salary review and increment, recognition for a well performed duty, equality, and fair treatment.
Whenever there is a strong professional relationship nurtured in the values of appreciation and respect, hidden talents are easily displayable and are needed for organisational sustainability. However, excessive working hours may hinder the display of these special talents among the staff members.
Workplace stress is a depression resulting from an interaction of a person with his/her work environment leading to an inability to balance work with other aspects of life. Thus, it attracts systematic buildup of negative emotional response in the person.
Causes of stress, thus referred to as stressors, are elements or circumstances leading a person to anticipate a feeling of exceeding psychological and physical demands on the ability to comfortably cope up with a situation.
Though difficult to explain a definite cause, stressors mostly are associated with long working hours and poor balance between work and rest.
As the bucket model theory asserts, stress matures up upon complete drainage of a person’s bank of personal resilience as a result of work conflicts, unfavorable working conditions, and emotionally straining assignments outweighing supportive relationships, interesting works, rest and good health. Unfortunately, excessive working hours is a primary contributor to the above ailments.
Ways of facilitating Work-Life Balance during Economic Downturn
To handle effectively work place related disorders, as a result of imbalance between ‘Life and Work’, it is vital for an employer to concentrate on establishing a good work place ethics as a security strategy for confidential sharing of work related hiccups with the employer or a trusted staff mate. Through this, the company will be in a position to draw a practical and satisfactory flexibility plan for its staff.
In addition, especially during economic downturn, an employer should concentrate on preventive policy of creating informal inter-group meetings where the staff is given an opportunity to share experiences and encourage each other, while owning the option of accepting or rejecting extensive working hours beyond the regular ones.
Besides, it is vital to create an interesting, peaceful, and comfortable working environment where employees will be motivated to be part of the seriously needed restructuring.
The employer should create a short-term and properly structure appraisal procedure which encompasses and reflects the actual performance by the staff members. Therefore, actual performance of the department during crisis should not be appropriate for making comparison with the forecasts.
The best way to motivate employees is to give them responsibilities for achieving something. Through this approach, employees will be empowered and they will feel trusted and valued by the management personnel.
Naturally, employees will be motivated by mutual consent and internalized empowerment and appreciation. Empowerment unleashes plenty of energy and motivation.
Reflectively, the motivational and energy aspects of appreciation function simultaneously at micro and macro levels to facilitate optimal functionality or productivity even during the crisis. In real sense, there should be a balancing system that is critical in improving leadership skills, evaluation skills, promoting creativity, and rewarding outstanding achievements.
Conclusively, participatory integration of alterations within the workforce is vital in executing flexibility exercises especially during economic downturn. As noted in the Company ‘Virgin Blue’, which has been struggling with a human resource management problem, is as a result of financial constraints during economic meltdown.
Irrespective of the consequences of a change element, the dynamic essence of change proponent would not facilitate any state of quagmire as the unnecessary pressure associated with change would be integrated within the flexibility matrix.