Organizational processes communicate

Organizational processes communicate the organization’s views of its employees and their roles, and employees will respond to trust relations communicated by the organization. Good treatment by the organization creates an obligation in employees that they should treat the organization well in return (Tan & Tan, 2000.)

So what does this all mean? Isn´t it always the employees duty to treat their job organization well in return for their wages? I believe, just as the scientists do, that an organization that wants to get the most out of their people, need to look at their processes. All processes have a design that is based on the values of the people who designed it. When the assembly line was first designed, the spirit of the times was that people could be managed to do their jobs in a mashine-like manner. Actually the whole world was more or less considered a mashine, where parts that were “broken” could be exchanged. Some of the parts could be people who didn´t perform the way they were supposed to. The approach was that those people could be exchanged with other people without any difference for the group. The group should just go on working as if nothing had happened. I don´t say people were not treated good in those days but the processes used in organizations said to people that they were considered less competent and should stay in their place and do what they were told.

Today we have another approach … or do we? Do we still have processes in the organizations that tell people to keep quite, do what they are told and don´t bother to be creative and take responsibility outside of their task? The staff is often what costs most in organizations and still many organizations fail to use processes that support people to work at their full potential. It is often not even costly to change the processes. Changing meeting processes in all meetings in the organization is fairly easy, costs nothing more than knowledge and creates a whole new attitude. Instead of meetings where people are only voting for solutions already decided on, the meetings could be a creative cocktail where all participants could use their whole knowledge to come up with totally new solutions, anchored in the future and ready to implement the moment they leave the meeting. How about that? I would say it is utilizing the recourses of the organization really wisely.

The people who build this house high up in the mountains of Norway in late 1700s were not working at an assembly line but had to create what they needed to make their own living. The house was used to make cheese and bread, utilizing the resources from the farm and the knowledge of the people in the best possible way.