Case study: engineering products

Critical examination of the impact of power and control operating at engineering products from the perspective of the managers and employee

Introduction

This paper presents a critical scrutiny of the impact of power and control that exists at Engineering Products. The appraisal is viewed from two positions: from the directors and from the employees. The paper is structured with a context of the treatment, the critical scrutiny from the positions of the directors and so the employees, and so the decisions from the critical appraisal.

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Context

The instance survey focuses on the Engineering Products’ division focused on edifice automotive constituents. This division is presented in the instance as the largest of the firm’s concern countries, whose employees form c.60 % of the work force of the company. In the actions taken by the division’s workss and the enterprises being pursued within the division, an apprehension of the power and control of the directors and the employees is presented.

Impact of power and control - managers' perspective

A driver of the integrating enterprises of Engineering Products for its automotive constituents division was from the demands of the clients for standard constituents across assorted markets.

From the managers’ position, there are a figure of avenues that present itself for the directors to act upon the behavior of the employees and drive the actions of the workss of the automotive constituents division. These cardinal avenues are the undermentioned:

• Through top-down ‘think tanks’– These are the ‘manufacturing councils’ and the International College of Engineering which are designed to be ways for the division to larn new methods from other people in other workss and implement these new methods to better the public presentation of their workss and the productiveness of the division overall. The usage of think armored combat vehicles in administrations has been found to be an effectual manner to develop organizational acquisition and, if decently implemented and complemented with employee preparation, can take to considerable alteration in the productiveness and effectivity of administrations. Engineering Products is therefore on the right path in footings of using believe tank type of enterprises to drive organizational acquisition and implement the enterprises that could hold important alterations to the administration and lead to the improved public presentation of the automotive division of the house. The power and control that the directors are able to deduce from the think armored combat vehicle construct relies on the corporate thought of a successful group of directors in set uping alteration in the administration to prosecute the integrating that is required in the sector to run into customers’ demands.
• Internal advisers– Engineering Products has besides conceptualised an inaugural wherein directors with specific experience or cognition of new practises are assigned as nomadic directors who ‘roam’ from one works to another works to implement the new practises that could alter the actions and behaviors of employees, and lead to increased productiveness and efficiency for the employees and the workss. Internal advisers have found success in many administrations and have had positive impact through their actions peculiarly if they are directors who are able to “deal with anyone necessary to acquire the occupation done, change organizational construction, invite others to fall in in determination devising, portion information, and, seek to get the hang most of the managerial disciplines.” For Engineering Products, the success of the internal advisers lies in their ability to leverage the credibleness that they bring after holding developed the new practises that they are efficaciously implementing ( or “preaching” ) in the workss across the divisions. As the internal advisers see success in their enterprises, their credibleness will spread out and they will be able to exercise more power and control over the employees, and over the alterations that they implement in the workss.
• Best practise meetings– In add-on to the ‘top-down think tanks’ and the internal advisers, Engineering Products besides have directors portion on a regular basis with other directors the best practises that have been implemented in their ain workss to profit other workss, and guarantee that the overall productiveness of the automotive constituents division of Engineering Products is improved. The best practise meetings that Engineering Products has designed could be a productive enterprise. As the work force of Engineering Products is mostly international, the usage of best practise meetings and the sharing of the success and acquisitions from other parts of the concern have been identified to be an effectual manner of conveying the best out of the administration and implementing the acquisitions across the house. From the managers’ position, the usage of best practise meetings among the directors to portion acquisitions is another manner of using their power and control over employees by adding another influencing method through the usage of the best practise sharing consequences from other parts of the concern. The effectivity of the attack is dependent on the value of the best practise acquisition that is brought to the tabular array by the directors and is presented to the work force for execution in the works.
• Menace of work force decrease– Directors besides exercised power and control of the employees through the menace of work force decrease. For illustration, the recent probe of the Spanish works and the execution of its practises were expected to take to a reduced work force for the division. Thus, with this menace hanging over the caputs of the employees, the directors were able to exert power and control, and have the employees act as needed or implement the actions required by the directors. In contrast to the other power and control facets of the directors, this is a different attack as it utilises the usage of fright among the employees for the directors to demo their power and control. This is a peculiarly negative procedure and experience for the work force, and the inappropriate usage of the method can take to dissatisfied employees that become full of misgiving of the direction in a house. Thus, the usage of this method should merely be as a last resort and has to be handled decently in order to non hold a dysfunctional administration that is non runing decently as this will take to a hapless working environment, lower productiveness, and hapless fiscal and operating public presentation for the administration.

For the most portion, the power and control exercised by the directors in the automotive division of Engineering Products relies on accomplishments and cognition, and the execution of best practises across the company. These directors efficaciously rely on the success of their practises, and use their experience as a beginning of credibleness in the actions they take, and as the footing of their direction of the employees. This is positive and can be really effectual.

Among the directors, Engineering Merchandises has instituted an internal competition mechanism designed to guarantee that the directors of the workss have an inducement to move in support of the aims of the house in implementing the best practises that the division’s works have entree to, and which the directors are able to larn from the assorted avenues that have been put in topographic point by Engineering Merchandises.

The directors do hold another method in which to exert power and control of employees which is contrary to the rules that the other actions present. This is the usage of the menace of redundancy of the employees. While this could be an effectual method for certain state of affairss, it is best if this attack is minimised as the unfavorable effects of the usage of this attack can be considerable for the administration.

Impact of power and control - employees' perspective

While it would look that power and control were easy in the custodies of the directors of Engineering Products, the employees had a figure of ways in which to act upon the determinations that were being made, an the actions of the directors that would impact the employees. The cardinal ways in which the employees showed power and control were:

• Employee representation– While non existing in all workss, most workss had established employee representation through the brotherhoods which existed in the workss. Through the brotherhoods, direction in Engineering Merchandises were ‘forced’ to listen to the employees and work with the employees on assorted issues that were raised by the employees. There have been a batch of reappraisals of the corporate criterions and behavior that administrations prosecute, and the usage of employee representation has been an effectual manner for employees to guarantee that there is just intervention of the employees and besides an constitution of proper on the job criterions and conditions for the work force. Thus, one can reason that employee representation is one of the most effectual ways to guarantee that employees besides have power and control on their state of affairs in administrations. For Engineering Merchandises, this is the instance for some of the workss wherein employee representation exists. For the other markets where this is non the state of affairs, so there would look to be less power and control for those employees when compared to their opposite numbers, and surely, when compared to the power and control that the directors have presently in their disposal to pull off the employees.
• Adoption of the new and best practises from other workss– Employees besides had power and control in how the enterprises that were introduced as best practises were decently implemented in the workss. This is so because the employees finally would be the 1s that implement the new practises or the best practises that have been introduced in the workss. Therefore, employees were able to act upon the result through their direct engagement in the execution of the best practises in the workss. The extent of the usage of employees of the acceptance of best practises as a manner to exert power and control is mostly dependent on the relationship and interaction between directors and employees. For administrations which have developed and strong and positive relationships between directors and employees, the acceptance of the best practises from other workss is non questioned by employees, and is embraced easy peculiarly if these are linked to employee authorization, and preparation and development of the employees.

From the employees’ position, there seems to be much less chances to demo their power and control over the directors in the house.

Tocopherol. Decision

The demand of the clients in footings of the quality and criterions of the constituent parts drove the automotive constituents division of Engineering Products into implementing enterprises designed to better the standardization across the division including the interaction of the directors and employees. As shown, there are a figure of attacks that from the managers’ perspective the house can utilize as power and control in set uping alterations to the administration which include the usage of top down think armored combat vehicles, internal advisers, best practise meetings, and the menace of redundancy.

From the employees’ position, there is less range to demo their power and control ( and for some of the employees, even less so ) as they merely have mostly the employee representation and the acceptance of the best practises in the workss as the tools to act upon power and control. Fortunately, the cardinal attacks taken by the division’s directors seem to be positive attacks that rely on the usage of experience and capablenesss to act upon employees and non the usage of fright such as redundancy. Therefore, there surely seems to be big range for the directors and the employees to work together closely in bettering the public presentation of the division and prosecute the integrating that is envisioned by the house to run into the demands of the clients.

References

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