Management Style and Organizational Culture

The potential benefits of improved job design are unlikely to be realized, if attention is focused on the content of jobs alone. Equal, if not more important, is the process by which redesign is carried out. This has led to recognition of the importance of management style and, increasingly, of organization culture. Central to improving the quality of working life is a participative, open style of management involving employees in decisions that affect them, including the design or choice of the technology itself. Personnel policies, including those related to pay and benefits, should attempt to develop a relationship of trust among all members and sections of the organization, and a confident partnership approach to trade unions.

Supervision involves technical knowledge, human relations' skills and co-ordination of work activities. Effective supervision is necessary for job satisfaction and high levels of work performance. Kindly and thoughtful leader behavior is likely to generate high worker satisfaction. Supervisors who adopt a considerate manner towards workers tend to have the more highly satisfied work groups. Lack of job satisfaction and unhappiness at work, may also arise from problems connected with managers.

The increasing pace of technological and structural change has made it imperative to address the issues of managing change in ways that would ensure the best outcomes for organizations and for the people in them. An important issue is still the jobs which people are asked to perform. When change is being planned, particularly if new technology is to be introduced, a 'window of opportunity' exists to think about the work that people will do and the design of their jobs. The aim is to ensure that the quality of working life is enhanced rather than undermined.

Concern of the quality of working life has also been supported by government legislation, for example in the areas of employment protection, employee involvement, and health and safety at work. Such legislation directs management attention to the importance of the work environment and the context, in which work is carried out, which in turn can have a direct effect on job satisfaction. Improving job design needs to take account of how people perceive their present tasks and involving them in changes which affect them and their jobs. It involves the ways of thinking about people at work.