|
Workplace Trends
The Problem Of Size: Can We Remain Effective As We Grow And Change?
©GLS Consulting, Inc. 2002
As the pace of corporate expansion, acquisition, alliance-building, and merger continues, individual employees encounter ever-greater numbers of coworkers with whom they must communicate, exchange information, and collaborate. At the same time, the tasks that workers at all levels face, and the information they must process, grow more complex, and contain more ambiguity.
Effective communication and consistent collaborative effort toward common goals are increasingly important to continued success in the fast-changing global environment we all face. Thus not only rapid change, but also sheer size can become seriously problematic. Too often, one of the results of expansion is a politicized company in which problems are not durably solved, decision-making processes are sub-optimal, and implementation is unreliable. Beyond questions of effectiveness, expanding the size of the workplace can contribute to employee distancing, disconnectedness and reduction of the sense of loyalty and commitment.
One manufacturing company we know of depends a great deal on face-to-face communication and much informal contact--and sets maximum plant size at about 125 people; when a plant gets too large, a new one is planned. Some scholars agree, and consider the number 125 as a turning point between a “family” atmosphere and a bureaucracy. Various dialectical tensions created by increasing size (and other forms of change) can be documented.
People struggle with:
- Feeling connected with others v. feeling alienated
- Communicating informally and frequently v. relying on non-personal methods
- Experiencing stability and safety v. chaos in the workplace
- Experiencing their identity and importance v. experiencing identity diffusion and feeling replaceable
- Protecting immediate turf v. feeling displaced or without a place to belong
- Experiencing commitment v. only minimal loyalty (or loyalty primarily to personal or local goals)
If we assume that "stove-piping" and "local optimization" strategies tend to be bad for companies, it follows that success in a work organization requires that workers experience enough safety and connectedness to strengthen reciprocity and permit trusting, effective collaboration. What is required for this is a dependable and predictable environment in which reciprocity can flow evenly, permitting people and teams to be spontaneous and agile during times of rapid change--and to be inventive a good deal of the time.
This implies that careful attention must be paid to the reporting, communication, and even geographic structure of a growing organization. Several questions can be asked to help focus that attention.
For example:
- Can we build solid sub-communities that work well internally, and are at the same time able to collaborate across subgroup boundaries?
- What stable cross-functional teams are needed, not only to do better planning and implementation, but also to build bridges among functions and subgroups?
- Which subgroups are really interdependent, and need to be located near one another?
- What the communication needs of members? With whom do they need to interact informally and often, both inside and outside their departments?
- Are executives over-segregated from the remainder of the organization, and are their offices referred to as the “head shack” or a similar name?
The growing/changing organization should devote substantial effort to ensure that it continues to function well despite the changes. It is important to work at developing an effective and collaborative work environment that can anticipate and absorb environmental change without faltering, or burning out employees. Co-workers should be seen as contributing to each other’s personal success as well as to team and company goals. While the ideal state may not be reached quickly, the on-going effort to reach it itself facilitates durable change, and engenders confidence among employees. People assume that there is always more to learn about working together and sustaining a facilitating, open environment.
###
©GLS Consulting, Inc. 1998. May not be used without permission.
top
|
|
