That's the weird part. It works beautifully. Workers become sophisticated in marketing, and trade, and economics. They have recognized that overseas investment is absolutely necessary. So DB, BMW invest in the US. They learned from VW's experience. VW resisted far too long in investing overseas, came to the US too late and left too soon largely because of the resistance of the workers to the move.
German economic success has had enormous influence in Europe, and many other countries have added workers to the board, and nearly everyone has Works Councils to coordinate the employment policy and practice of the firm.
In the US, participation is the magic word. In some cases, like Saturn, the workers run almost everything and are union members too. They fight continually with GM mgmt -- which still resists the idea that workers can manage themselves. Buick has almost no supervisors left. GM has learned an enrormous amount from its joint venture with Toyota in California.
A couple of years ago I got a call from a worker at the local bus company. The workers who provided information were losing their supervisor. They wanted to manage themselves, so I told their boss to split the supervisor's pay into bonuses that depended on carefully calculated metrics of performance. Today, they make more than before, ther company saves money, and performance has never been more satisfactory.
Among management gurus, participation and performance based pay are the magic words. |
