Application Assignment

For this assignment, I chose to interview my husband, Steve Lawson. He and I both work for the same mining company in Northeastern Nevada. He has a B.S. in Human Resources and Marketing. I chose to interview him because his work experience perfectly aligns with theories presented in this week’s readings. He started out his career in Human Resources and has now transitioned into a role with the Business Improvement Department. He has experience working with people and also working on projects to increasing productivity and cost savings within the organization.

 

To help provide some structure, I first asked questions that incorporated Frederick Taylor’s theories, then Fayol, and lastly Weber.  

 

Interview -

(Questions about Taylor)

1.       Do you think time studies and labor studies to determine how much work can/should be accomplished in one shift can increase productivity? Why? 

(Answer)

In our industry, we do technical limit studies which are a combination of engineering and manpower or labor studies.  These studies take in to account the overall technical limits of a process and then factor in maintenance, equipment down time and human error. These types of studies do help improve the organization because they set realistic targets and objectives. You start with a “blue sky” number and figure out what you should be getting to see if you are reaching your goals or not. If you are not reaching that number, then you can do a gap analysis to determine where inefficiencies are.

2.       How do bonuses and pay structures fit into this method? 

(Answer)

Bonuses can help increase performance if you set realistic targets and know what you can theoretically achieve. Setting bonuses, not necessarily everyday pay, helps you achieve those goals. An organization can incentivize pay, and in some areas it will work to set a pay structure based on performance, but some jobs are better structured with an hourly wage with bonus incentives to meet or exceed targets.  For example, someone who works as a financial advisor receives more money if they make their client more money.  With these types of jobs or jobs in marketing and sales, the harder you work the more you can take home; you are being compensated for performance. In other jobs where you have less control over variables, where you are relying on different departments, equipment, or something else to reach your goal, it is harder to be paid for performance. If you do not have direct influence over your production or performance, then you cannot be paid for performance. For example, it would not work to have a security guard be paid for performance. Their job is better structured with an hourly rate with a bonus for meeting certain objectives.  

3.       Within your organization, do you think paying people for performance is effective?

(Answer)

It can be if you incentive people for the right reasons.  People will often do what you pay them to do. Within my organization, we do offer bonuses for meeting objectives. We offer a production bonus to certain departments if they achieve their production targets.

4.       Are there negative impacts on the health/wellbeing of employees?

(Answer)

Not always, but there can be depending on the incentive structure and what people are paid to do.  For example, from the health and safety perspective within my organization, if the company only paid for performance and essentially put production above safety, then employees will likely put their own safety aside in order to achieve their goal. We combat that with a bonus is formula that is (for example) a 60%/40% combination; 60% of the bonus is safety related and 40% is production related. The company puts more emphasis on employee safety. Only paying people for performance can also impact work/life balance.  An employee might try to work 90 hours a week because they are being paid for their performance. Another example is overtime pay,. Overtime is available for people who want to work that hard, but is not mandatory.  People in their peak earning periods will take advantage of overtime opportunities, but later in life they might decide to stay home with family instead. There are a lot of contributing factors and companies have to play with different formulas to achieve a balance that works for their company and maintains the health and wellbeing of employees.

5.       Can you give an example of where a time study led to cost savings or increased production?

(Answer)

The studies we do are not necessarily focused on time. We studying production or process flows to maximize overall (gold) ounce production. One example is a recent equipment study we did on a piece of equipment used in the underground mine. The piece of equipment was new and this was sort of a time study.  We looked at which person could most effectively operate that piece of equipment, maintenance schedules, parts delivery times, and lots of other factors. These studies (in mining) contribute to predicting/setting the annual budget and determine whether or not we’ll continue to use this piece of equipment in day-to-day operations.

6.       How does matching abilities to job requirements help?

(Answer)

One of the major things, similar for all production environments, is how you sequence process flows.  This is a major contributor to production. The organization wants to sequence things rights and provide enough manpower to lower any bottlenecks and maximize production. You then look at on the job training.  It helps to put the person with the right set of skills in the right job.  This isn’t necessarily the responsibility of the Human Resources Department, but instead someone like a shift supervisor or foreman. Part of their role is to ensure people on their crew are happy in their job and make sure your crew is maximizing production. Shift supervisors spend a lot of time with their workforce to determine who is the best where and if the person wants to try something else, then seeing if they have the potential to move into a different job. It has to still be run like a business though, you can’t be a push over and you can’t always say no either because people will quit. There are human factors (people) and technical factors (machines) that have to be balanced.

(Questions about Fayol)

7.       Do you think someone with technical expertise is automatically qualified for a management position?

(Answer)

No, absolutely not. Engineers do not necessarily make good supervisors. There have been several cases at work where someone in a technical role has been moved into a position to manage people, and they cannot do it. People are not numbers. On the other hand, you can have managers who people love, and then do not have technical skills needed for the role. Sometimes though, it is easier to teach the technical skills than managerial skills; some people just don’t like working with people and would prefer to always work with numbers.

8.       Do you think the size of the organization makes a difference?

(Answer)

The size of the organization matters in some situations. For example, it matters in an engineering firm. If you are looking at a smaller company where technical expertise can be learned without a 4 year degree, then it does not always make a difference.

9.       Do you think management theory should be taught in school? Should organizations provide managerial training for people they want to progress through the organization?

(Answer)

Yes, it should be taught in school. People need to begin to understand people and how people operate early in their career. You can learn a lot from on the job training, but there is a large part of it that can be taught early and prevent making mistakes in the work place. You can understand and learn a lot in the educational setting to prepare you for when you get into the field. Then, you are less likely to make that mistake or you don’t make it at the same level.  Companies should also provide this training because they can provide company specific training and talk specifically about their workforce. This is extremely important in mining because we work with a variety of people from engineers to mechanics. It helps to understand your target audience and any company specific information.

10.   Do you think having good managers in an organization is essential for success?

(Answer)

Are you asking if you can you have bad managers and have a successful organization? I don’t know. To have a top notch organization, you should have top notch management. There are ways to cover up bad managers in large organizations, so I guess it can depend on the size of the organization. Bad management is exposed quicker in a smaller organization. To be a good company overall, you should have good management. This might not be true if your organization does not deal with people and is extremely transactional, but there are few industries in this category. 

11.   Is a manager’s responsibility to draw up the plan of action, select personnel, determine performance, and ensure and controls the execution of all activities (Wren & Bredian 2009)?

(Answer)

Yes, that’s the by the book answer. In theory this is correct, but to follow the plan, there are a lot of obstacles that come up that you have to deal with. The general manager at a mine site should also be part of the organization.  Executing activities is difficult. For example, in mining, you can end up 30,000 ounces short because of environmental regulations or other variables. You cannot always control execution of activities because of outside factors. There are government agencies, people, regulations, lawsuits, etc.) People variables are the biggest impact on execution of the plan. Making the plan is the technical part, executing the plan is the people part.

12.   Foyal also developed a series of principles, one of the principles deals with secular chain which refers to lines of authority and creates a clear chain of command. Foyal developed “gang plank” which allows communication to cross lines of authority. It permits lateral communication through the shortest path and avoids overburdening the secular chain. Do you think this applies to the workforce and aids in productivity (Wran & Bredian, 2009)?

(Answer)

I agree with this, and open communication does increase productivity and morale. This helps with execution of the plan tremendously. When this structure is in place, there needs to be extra communication within the organization so everyone is on the same page. For example, Foreman A talks to Foreman B, but Foreman A also provides weekly updates to supervisor so everyone in Foreman A’s group knows what’s going on. This can and normally will increase production as long as you have increased communication in your department.  You have to increase communication when you go outside your department so everyone knows what’s going on. You don’t want someone to think you’re going behind their back or creating re-work if someone else in the department thinks it’s their responsibility to communicate with Foreman B. 

(Questions about Weber)

13.   Do you think formal rules, controls, and legal authority increase efficiency?

(Answer)

People knowing what their job is, specifically what their performance standards are, can increase efficiency, but you have to be careful for the other end where you have unions and people who won’t put a screw in the wall because it’s not in their job description and will call maintenance instead. (Elaborating on example) If you ask an electrician in the area to tighten a screw on something, he might not do because it’s not electrical and will call maintenance instead.  If the rules are too rigid, there is no sense of helping the company and it can slow things down. It’s good to know what your job title is, and what you should be doing, but it can prevent productivity and hinder a sense of community within the organization.  Strict rules can prevent catastrophic failures though because people are always checking with someone else before doing any task outside of their routine job description.

14.   Is there an advantage to the rules and legal authority in the workplace, such as legal protection for employees?

(Answer)

You can have bad supervisors in the workplace and need to protect employees. In the event of a bad supervisor, formal rules ensure that the employee is protected and the supervisor doesn’t do too much damage to the company with a lawsuit.  By increasing hierarchy and bureaucracy, you do minimize legal risk. With rules, you still have the human factor. Some employees are bad employees, and some supervisors are bad supervisors. If you have a rogue supervisor acting on behalf of the company without a lot of rules, they can do a lot of damage and get the company into some legal trouble. On the employee end, it’s hard to maximize the potential of the workforce with a lot of rules in place.  You have to find a balance that works for the organization.

15.   Do you think these rules or face-to face (Foyal) interactions in the workplace are more effective? (Answer)

You have to have both in the workplace because policies and rules are what allow you to make the moves that you need to make. The people and what we refer to as visible felt leadership, all how you manage people, is where you get a lot of your performance. In order to move the bad out and the good in, you have to have these rules and policies. The two go hand in hand, if you’re going to run a good company you must have clear, defined, strict rules that are enforced through face to face leadership and interactions.

16.   Can too many rules be detrimental or an organization and overuse resources?

(Answer)

Yes, you can have too many rules which can cripple an organization; too many policies can be detrimental.  We recently had a debate at work about a glove policy. Management wanted to make the glove policy stricter as a result of recent incidents. I pushed back and said that it’s not wearing gloves that’s the problem, it’s about people sticking their hands in the wrong place. We don’t need to revise the glove policy, we need to look at operational controls (machine guarding, etc.) and see why people are sticking their hands in those places.  On the other hand, not enough rules is bad. I just think that making little things, for example the glove policy, into a 10 page policy is bad.  

17.   Would you say that bureaucracy is an ideal way to organize?

(Answer)

No. You have a balance. I think ideally you want as flat of an organization as you can, but this isn’t possible with large organizations.  If you hire good people and give them autonomy to do their work, you can have a very effective organization. However, this isn’t possible in large organizations, so you have to have hierarchy, but you should still try to reduce unnecessary hierarchy.

I agree with a majority of the responses above, mainly because I work in the same industry. All of the responses above are about the mining industry and Steve’s current role in the organization. Variations of time studies can increase productivity and effectiveness in the mining industry because the industry is very production based. In industries that are not as production based or assembly line based, the studies might not be able to increase effectiveness. I also agree that effective managers are essential to the success of an organization. Technical experts are not always the best leaders of people. A mine engineer who has always worked on open-pit designs in his career will not necessarily be able to effectively manage different personality dynamics and lead a department. Lastly, I agree that some bureaucracy is essential in the workplace. However, being too specific on someone’s job descriptions defines the minimum performance and does not leave room for “other duties as assigned” which is commonly seen in job descriptions.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed all of the readings this week and felt they were relevant to the mining industry. I do not have much professional experience in another industry, so look forward to reading how others viewed and interpreted the readings.