Holistic Approach to Productivity

Abstract

Higher productivity is an important aspect of progress and growth at organizational as well as national level. At the organizational level, productivity is essential to profits and ultimately to the survival of the company. At the national level, productivity is the major source of improvement in the standard of living of the people. If the same efforts as before produce more things than it did earlier, it generates less starvation, more education, less disease and more leisure time among many other benefits. In a nutshell higher productivity means prosperity and peace for the people.

Many organizations have paid due attention to the sphere of productivity improvement and its related constructs, the emphasis being largely on optimizing resources like raw materials, technology, waste reduction, and minimizing rework, and reward schemes. Most organizations have developed ways and means to improve and measure productivity i.e. the efficiency and effectiveness with which a process converts inputs into outputs. Yet, organizations have failed to tap the productivity to its fullest possible extent. This shows that improvement in the external factors alone cannot enhance productivity unless and until shouldered by the most important aspect of productivity i.e. the human element. ‘All business operations can be reduced to three words: People, Product and Profits. People come first. Unless you've got a good team, you can't do much with the other two.’ --- Lee Lacocca (Waite 2009).

It has been studied that some sort of relationship does exist between an employee’s performance and his mind-set i.e. his attitudinal and personality characteristics. The level of performance of a worker on a job is a direct outcome of his motivation to perform the job efficiently. In order to give a boost to productivity, most organizations do everything except changing the way of their employees work. It is important to understand that the measures to improve productivity are not the beginning point of productivity but the end result of one's productive attitude. Rather, productivity ends in optimization of optimization of resources and minimization of wastes, but it begins from within. Productivity lies, not so much in the outward things people do, but in what they inwardly are. Truly speaking, productivity is not an outer aspect of one's job but a true reflection of one's inner world. ‘The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings, by changing their attitudes, can change the outer aspects of their lives.’ --- William James (Kalra 2010) Management must, therefore, run the company with the integrating force of a social organization, whereby every employee plays a participative and significant role in enhancing productivity. Productivity is not only a part of the job description of workers but it is something that must flow downwards from the upper and the middle management. If management is looking for an increase in the productivity, then it has to become a part of process itself. A mere directive or instructive will not produce the desired results.

Excellent companies treat ‘human investment’ – and not ‘capital investment’ – as the fundamental source of productivity improvement. Good management sees and treats every employee as a treasure chest of ideas, rather than just a tool of production in a pair of hands. Management must develop some means so as to lessen the feeling of ‘low value job’ among workers in order to boost their morale and consequently to raise their productivity. Periodical communication meetings and group discussions make an employee feel that he is performing an important task for the organization and ultimately for the nation.

Key words: Synergic-effect, Emotional-distress, Total Productivity, Empathizing