Improving Productivity through Effective Leadership and Team Spirit

Extract

[...] To respond honorably to a command placed by one of its clients, Atlantique Electronique, the company has decided to increase the yield quotas of its employees and set as productivity the cabling of eight devices per hour, whereas it was previously only three. This excerpt reports a discussion between some of the employees, namely Jacques, Denis, Steve, and Paul, during their lunch break and around a card game about this new situation they are facing. Among the three friends, Paul interprets these new obligations as exploitation: "five years ago, we were supposed to do the wiring of three devices per hour. Now, we have to do eight. They don't pay much more for it though. [...]

[...] Finally, it will be necessary to resolve all the other sources of conflict and know their true reasons. In our case, the workers feel injured because the structure asks them to increase their pace without any compensation. The expected quotas have been increased without notice, without explanation, without an increase in staff or reward. To eliminate all frustration, the board of directors must put in place a conflict management strategy: strategy that relies on collecting and evaluating relevant information and open discussions between the parties to eliminate the antecedents of the problem.' To involve its employees, the management must put in place a bonus system based on the performance of its staff. [...]

[...] Identification of the problem The main problem in this company comes from the fact that employees are reluctant to the idea of becoming more productive, as illustrated by this phrase from Jacques: absolutely do not want to do eight, it will not help any of us if we do it'5» This apparent lack of motivation could be interpreted as their desire to resist the proposed changes. The company's complicated financial situation does not seem to affect them and they simply focus on the fact that they need to increase their work pace and one of them expresses this lack of motivation to the task: 'The only thing that keeps me here is that you are such bad poker players'6 ». Their function does not provide them with a great motivation and they seem to hold on to this 'fraternal' link woven between them. [...]

[...] I absolutely don't want to do eight, it won't help any of us if we do it. As shown by the words of Jacques, the solidarity shown by these employees pushes them to deny the fact that this template increases their productivity because they think that its use can harm their uniqueness. The innovation proposed by the engineers is rejected by Jacques, who, with his false words, hopes to be able to keep his job and that of his colleagues. [...]

[...] The problem lies in the way the changes were brought about with little consideration for the human factor, inevitably translating to the weakness of leadership of its leader. 7. Inventory of possible solutions The first line of thought is based on the study by the management of the performance of its staff at the individual and collective level. As previously mentioned, the employees of the firm constitute an informal group, gathering during the lunch break to play cards and discuss internal problems and possible evolutions. [...]