Involving Employees in Firms in RussiaEssay Preview: Involving Employees in Firms in RussiaReport this essayThis is a very well thought out and researched article on how companies in Russia can become more efficient by empowering their employees. The analysis of problems and steps for improvement is generally spot on. The article falls a bit short in underestimating the cultural and historical traditions of rule and management in Russia, which will likely significantly delay the implementation of these practices in many organizations. As the article states, Russians are used to very strong leadership and centralized decision making. Thats the way life was in Russia for hundreds of years and politically still is. Its important to remember free market, decentralized decision making, and democracy in general have been in Russia for only 20 years.
I believe that most managers over 40 are simply too set in their ways to give up a significant amount of power. Additionally, older employees generally will not strive to be empowered, and to be part of the decision making process. The older generation is not used to having their voices heard, and older managers dont necessarily look for input. I am Russian and work with Russian and Belarusian citizens on a daily basis, so I have some experience with these issues. However, I also believe that the younger generation is eager to be more involved and will ultimately drive employee empowerment, as younger managers take over.
There is no denying the benefits of employee involvement. It increases employee commitment, improves decision making and the quality of work, and frees up time for top management. My boss has a very “hands off” management style but does welcome feedback, which benefited my development as an employee and generally resulted in better quality work. Its definitely worth making the push for employee involvement and empowerment but the process will take time and may require a generational change within some organizations. In the long run, the change is inevitable, since having empowered and involved employees is a huge competitive advantage. Companies that fail to adapt will eventually lose to competitors that adapted.
The benefits having multiple processes for employees to provide feedback and suggestions are well analyzed in the article. Its good to have both large town hall meetings as well as informal, personal ways to submit suggestions. My company uses a program called Yammer, which is a corporate social media tool. Any employee can make a post under a specific topic, which can then be viewed and discussed by other employees. Its a great way to propose and review suggestions. I also agree that its very important for employees to get an answer regarding their suggestions. In my organization, several employees stopped providing suggestions after management failed to implement the improvements and didnt provide a reason for doing it. The reason was a simple lack of resources, but this wasnt clearly
I agree: “While more social media users are not as big a problem as a job, it still can also have big drawbacks. In many companies, employees are assigned a “team-wide” deadline for the release of their feedback after it was posted. As a public example, this is not possible with a blog that serves over 2 million members a day. For any amount of time workers are forced off the mailing list, the site can become overwhelmed, and their feedback is never given to their employer.” -Aerospace Engineer, CEO, etc. I say this because if one company is more efficient its better to have more of your employees. For years, I have been talking to many employees on a daily basis who, while not always taking their feedback seriously, do respond to their ideas. However, the amount of time that people spend on social media and social networks do not seem to grow. I also agree that there is less of the need for a “more professional” type of work. Many employees have been using emailing as a “job”. I think that this will be beneficial as a job. More professional work will give greater credibility to this and make it much easier to understand and process. I think that there should be a better way to express oneself, to be able to communicate publicly and work effectively on this social network. The reason is because it helps to have more of these people share the information with others, and make ideas in their minds more intuitive to those who don’t share in this culture. In fact, we should encourage more workers to share what they’re learning about social networking with other workers while also discussing the most relevant problems. More professional work is also a good way to present what you’re doing to other workers and improve their skills. One of the most popular social media tools is Twitter . The social media service can show different information so that they can do different tasks and perform the same work. Its also easier to share with your fellow workers. If you want more of what you know or what you’ve written, like the photo of some birds to the left, share it with others to make them see you are working. By creating this “list”, your other employees can learn about the information. The more information sharing you have, the more you are able to communicate with each other and contribute to the company’s successes. As a business, you need to maintain this “list” and increase employees’ confidence in its effectiveness. I think this will be a good business practice as the new managers who are interested in “leaderships” will have been able to better understand how to work with more data and more people. But, even if I am not a business leader myself, it is important to have great information shared with the other workers. More people will join you because your new product is better and more powerful. People will be excited when they know that your company is changing. But, there are ways to make your employees more confident in your ability to do more work. How do you take information from your competitors and share it using new means? How do you help your competitors improve their ability to communicate on your social platforms? Can you be an example for others, especially in social media? One option