PARTICIPATIVE MANAGEMENT

NAYANA NANU

VI SEM BBA

• Joint Management Councils

• Joint Councils

• Unit councils

Joint Management Councils

• These consists of equal representatives of management and workers, not exceeding twelve, at the plant level in selected industrial units, the units should employ at least five hundred workers, should have a well established and strong central organisation of employees unions and should have a record of good industrial relations.

Objectives

• Promoting cordial relations between management and workers

• Developing understanding and trust between them

• Augmenting productivity substantially

• Securing better welfare and other facilities for workers, and

• Training them to understand and share the responsibility of management.

Functions

• The council is to be consulted by management before introducing changes in the modes of production, production schedule, etc.

• The council is to receive information, discuss and give suggestions on general economic situations, state of market, production and marketing programmes etc.

• The council is to take up accident prevention, management of canteens, water, meals, safety issue, avoidance of waste of time and materials, absenteeism, indiscipline, training, etc.

• Wages, bonus, individual grievances, personal problems of workers are outside the scope of joint management councils.

Causes of failure of joint management councils

• Trade unions fear these councils will weaken their strength as workers come under the influence of these councils.

• Workers representatives feel dissatisfied as these councils are concerned with welfare activities only.

• Managers feel that it is very difficult to convince uneducated and inexperienced representatives of workers.

• Some managers feel afraid of furnishing adequate information to workers representatives.

• There is no representative union to help councils to work smoothly.

• Some managers feel that with works committees and collective bargaining there is no need for these councils.

Joint councils

• A joint council has to be formed at every division/regional zonal level or in a particular branch of an organisation/service if considered necessary. In every industrial establishment which employs five hundred or more workers there should be a joint council for the whole establishment.

Features

• A joint council shall function for a period of two years.

• Only such members who are actually engaged in the unit shall be members of the joint councils.

• The chief executive of the unit shall be the chairman of the joint council. There shall be a vice-chairman who will be nominated by workers-members of the council.

• The joint council shall appoint one of the members as its secretary. The joint council shall meet at least once in a quarter.

Functions

• Settlement of matters which remained unresolved by the unit councils and arranging joint meetings of two or more unit councils, for resolving inter-council problems.

• Review of the working of the unit council for improvement in the customer service and evolving methods for the best way of handling of goods, traffic, accounts and so forth.

• Unit level matters which have a bearing on other branches or on the enterprise as a whole.

• Development of skills of workmen and adequate facilities for training.

• Improvement in the general conditions of work.

• Preparation of schedule of working hours and holidays.

• Proper recognition and appreciation of useful suggestions received from the workers through a system of rewards.

• Discussion of any matter having a bearing on the improvement of performance of the organisation/ service for ensuring better customer service.

Unit councils

• A unit council was to be set up in each unit of the organisation/service employing 100 or more persons to discuss day-to-day problems and find solutions wherever necessary.

Features

• All decisions of a unit council shall be on the basis of consensus and not by a process of voting, provided that either party may refer the unsettled matters to the joint councils for consideration.

• Every decision of a unit council shall be implemented by the parties concerned within a month, unless otherwise stated in the decision itself.

• The management shall make suitable arrangement for the recording and maintenance of minutes of the meetings and designate one of its representatives as a secretary for this purpose who shall also report the actions taken on the decision at subsequent meetings of the council.

• A unit council once formed shall function for a period of 2 years. Any member nominated or elected to the council in the mid-term to fill a casual vacancy shall continue to be a member of the council for the unexpired portion of the term of the council.

• The council shall meet as frequently as is necessary but at least once in a month.

• The chairman of the council shall be a nominee of the management. The worker members of the council shall elect a vice-chairman from amongst themselves.

Functions

• To create conditions for achieving optimum efficiency, better customer services in areas where there is direct and immediate contact between the workers at the operational level, and output including elimination of wastage and idle time and optimum utilisation of manpower by joint involvement in improving the work system.

• To identify areas of chronically bad, inadequate or improving service, and to take necessary corrective steps to eliminate the contributing factors in order to improve methods of operations.

• To study absenteeism and recommend steps to reduce it.

• To maintain discipline in the unit.

• To eliminate pilferage and all forms of corruption and to institute a system of rewards for this purpose.

• To suggest improvement in physical conditions of working such as lighting, ventilation, dust, noise, cleanliness, customer service points and so on.

• To ensure proper flow of adequate two-way communication between the management and the workers.

• To recommend and improve safety, health and welfare measures for efficient running of the unit.

• To discuss any other matters which might have a bearing on the improvement of performance of the unit for ensuring better customer service.

THANK U.