Case Study: Workplace Changes And Effects On Workers In A Trucking Company

The Current Situation

Discuss about the Case Study of a Trucking Company.

Considering a case study of a trucking company, the following reports attempts to analyze how workplace changes have affected the workers. The report targets to scrutinize how workplace changes effect the operations of the company which in turn effect the lives of workers. It also helps in understanding why the blue color unions barely see changes when compared to the other class of workers. It also is an attempt to explain how changes in a workplace effect the morale of workers in general

Manger is the connection between the front line workers and the senior management (Rees, 2012). It is through the manager that the organization communicates to its workers (Alfes, 2013). Hence a manager has a crucial role in any organization and particularly in one that deals with blue union employees, given that the occupational hazards and physical labor of these labors is high in comparison to white collar jobs. Most often the organizations fail to recognize the same causing a negative impact on the employees. It is the role of the manager to ensure that the right communication is made at the right time to both ends and are hence in sync. Here, the manager’s participation as a communicator is important. In case of the current case study, the workers at Old Wollongong yard had a George Psaros, as their union delegate who is very competent. But, they did not have a manager who understood their concerns (Northouse, 2015). The then manager had weak communications skills which caused various issues. The new manager has succeeded in dealing with the same.

Being an excellent communicator, the new manager emphasized to understand the kind of changes and improvements required in the workplace through the employees themselves. Obviously in any working environment it is the employees that are aware of the issues in the workplace and they would be able to help identify the core of issues (Lounsbury, 2016). Also, the manager spoke to George to understand the status in general. Instead of simply believing one single person, he thus invested in the entire union (Salaria, 2015).

The new manager was different in is approach. Instead of blaming the drivers when an issue raised, he analyzed and tried to understand if it was a technical issue or an operational issue. He tried to understand if there was an information gap that would have caused the issue. Instead of playing a blame game, the manager tried to find the crux of the problem and a solution for the same. At the same time, the manager was intolerant to the drivers who were causing issues intentionally. Hence, instead of blindly believing and blaming the manager made an attempt to understand where the problem is and dealt with them.

New Workplace Practice

Instead of being an autocrat, the manager chose to be a democrat even when he was given authority (Williams, 2013). He did not dominant and order around rather he made had delegated the power with the help of George. Before making a decision he contacted George thereby ensuring he understood the opinion of the man, who has been with the union for quite sometime. He also made sure that the employees are valued by providing them training with respect to health hazards and customer relations, thereby decreasing the number of issue.

The manager has also believed in two way communication. Whenever there was an issue with the work, he informed the worker and gave him a chance to work on it. If there was an operational issues, he made sure that the workers concern was informed to the management. At the same time, the managerial failures, successes and pressure points where informed to the employees to help them understand. Thus the new manager was the perfect communicator between the management and the blue collar worker (Daft, 2016).

The major risk with changing a workplace with respect to one person is that once the person leaves the changes may not sustain. Every manager have their own way of working, some command and demand, some communicate while some don’t care. Given that the earlier manager was autocratic adopting to the new manger was relatively easy for the employees. The new manager along with the union delegate George were able to provide trainings to the workers with respect to occupational hazards, changed uniforms and helped them incorporate the changes there by boosting the employees for good. Both of them were interested in helping the organization grow considering the wellbeing of employees.

Change management can be a very challenging task (Hayes, 2014). Transitions that employees don’t agree with can be extremely tough. Even with the new manager in our case, the workers resisted changes initially. It was the benefits of the change see post implementation that the employees become more flexible. After a certain period within a workplace, it happens that the employees get used to the situations and become rigid to change (Hwang, 2012). In some cases the employees may directly not accept the change and in other cases the change is accepted with great reluctance. Hence the attitude of the replacement, communication and the need for a trustworthy person is required to lead the workers in to change (Nastase, 2012).

If George or the Manager Changes

When the new manager is positive and makes an effort to bring in positive change the predecessors mistakes can be easily overridden. At the same time, gaining the trust of the employees is important and this takes significant time and patience. Forcing authority may often back fire. The other major issue with brining in change is that the workers tend to compare before and after effects and hence it is quite an effort for the new manager to live up to these changes. In case post this manager, the next manager is different, then the entire cycle would repeat. As of now the workers have been facilitated with trainings, new fleet, uniforms and so on. More importantly they have understood the need of communication. Their problems are being enquired and resolved. This has motivated the workers and formed a bond. In case a negative manager comes next, the chances of strikes would become higher. A demand to get the old manager back. In case the new manager is dominating, the employees lose their morale and would not be motivated to work (Kruse, 2013). Also, the every mistake of the replacement would be magnified.

Even a change of George would have very similar issues. If the new union delegate is not very concerned about the employees’ issues would obvious raise. Also the communication between the manager and the union delegate should work. If this is not the case, all the initial issues would pop up again.

Resisting change and not engaging in the same is an assumed characteristic of blue collar workers. However, it is often the other way round. They are the one that need the changes the most. They are responsible for rigorous physical labor and they jobs effect the running of an organization (McCann, 2013). Most of the time, the efforts of blue collar workers are not even recognized and hence they do not expect change. They often tend to think that organizations do not see them as a potential and hence tend to bring up issues only after they have become extreme. This is emphasis the need for unions for these workers. 

Any worker would prefer a positive change in the work place. Communication, fair wages, fair timings, enough number of workers, proper amenities, health and safety measures etc are the common demands of most of the strikes carried on by these workers. The recent quarantine workers strike in Australia is an example of the same. However, these changes are barely seen (Okechukwu, 2013). Companies such as BHP Billiton often stress on the need to work for the welfare of these workers. They take it up in their values and also as a part of CSR. However, there are very few companies that do this.

Blue Collar Workers and Workplace Changes

Blue collars have a very predictable life style (Du, 2013). The jobs are predefined as laborious, long hours, harsh mangers, strong unions and no new technology. Hence, their expectations are set and they don’t expect change. To make changes possible it is necessary to help the workers change their point of view (Van, 2012).

Blue collar workers expect the bare minimum. A simple glace through their life can prove the same. Most of the strikes around world by blue collar workers, demand basic necessities which are required by every human. The demands of these workers help us understand that they are anticipating positive changes in the workspace

Conclusion

Implementing work places changes can get difficult when a proper plan is not set in place. Communication plays a key role in the same and the attitude of the manager is important. A perfect synchronization between the employee needs and thr organizational wants have to be managed by the manager. A two way communication in passing orders and listening to issues is required. A manager should be able to establish friendly bonds so that issues can be easily bought up and resolved. Only then he can gain the trust of employees and to bring in modifications that would enable an employee friendly workarea.

References

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