14 DAY TRIAL // Even if most companies wish for engaged co-workers that are willing to contribute to the company's well-being, most do not know how to put to good use their personnel's engagement and ideas, says Richard Berglund from the Department of Work Science, University of Gothenburg, in his doctoral thesis “Commitment wanted: How three manufacturing companies seek their workers’ contribution when implementing lean production.”
The main idea of the paper is that in order to have a high degree of employee engagement, an environment of mutual trust must be established and managers need to maintain a very consistent leadership strategy.
For his thesis, Berglund followed, over a four-year period, three manufacturing companies that have implemented the lean concept, a concept that insists on respect for human beings and engaged co-workers, and whose managements have expressed the will to encourage staff participation.
This study analyzed ten essential factors for workers to be willing to engage and commit, of which trust, responsibility, authority and Top management's active participation.
Berglund says that “engagement relies on trust, and trust takes a long time to build but can be crushed in a moment” so “it’s a matter of how you view and think of fellow human beings.”
He also adds that some decisions taken by a manager can discourage employee engagement whereas the ways of delegating authority and planning resources to try new ideas can be very stimulating, and, as most things are successful, occasional mistakes are not really an issue.
Another very important thing is the constant implication of Top management as “employee involvement does not mean that the management is out of work, might as well throw in the towel,” says Berglund.
“What’s difficult is to coordinate all the ideas coming from the bottom with effective management from the top [as] this task calls for active presence, communication and understanding.”
Berglund spent more than 25 years at Swerea IVF, the research institute for the Swedish manufacturing industry and thus had the opportunity of having insights into almost 1,000 Swedish companies and their production environments.
He says that if management listens carefully, they will discover lots of skills and competences in every company, as most employees part of the production have constructive ideas that wait to be shared.
This is the way to having engaged workers that will usually do more than they are asked to, the problem is that in most companies you don't see much of this.
Berglund's study analyzed the impact of the lean management on workers in the manufacturing industry and the importance of “a clear line of action to follow in the midst of the constant change all companies have to manage,” as what really matters is what is actually done in a company.