It is imperative as the new millennium evolves that we understand why people work, what they set forth to derive from their work, how they behave as an expression of their level of satisfaction obtained at work, and the accountabilities of managerial (and parliamentarian) leadership, in creating conditions within the workplace that set forth to satisfy fundamental and evolving human need. These critical considerations are more relevant today, as the current century unfolds than they have ever been since the industrialization of developed societies began.
The shifting demography in developed countries brings with it extraordinary challenges and the effectiveness of developed and developing economies within a global society will draw our attention back to the significance of effective work organizations as the focal point for overcoming the challenges of this century. An aging population will burden the social welfare systems that are supported through granted income. Optimizing productivity and the creation of wealth by capitalistic corporations will be prerequisites to the satisfaction of social need among whole societies. We will be faced with obstacles that will only be overcome with full recognition of the problems and the societal systems that will assist in their identification and resolution. Following are some predictions for the next fifty years:
1) “Bad†employers will meet their demise as employees will have a plethora of options and these employers will not succeed at attracting employees into their organizations. The role of the trade unionists will either shift, or disappear, as well.
2) There will be incredible pulls for increased productivity, simply because there will be a shortage of skilled labour and increased productivity will be essential to satisfying global demand with supply.
3) Consistent with the above concern we are apt to see increases in the market prices for many commodities recognizing that it will be difficult to meet supply. The inflationary influences associated with a scarcity of skilled labour will need to be understood.
4) We will see a significant increase in the influx of immigrants into developed countries. This will not necessarily be an unfavourable outcome in terms of levelling the field in respect of global poverty and improving the standard of living for a majority of the global population but it will create some unique problems in concert with the movement of people around the globe; their education, health care, infrastructure, etc.
5) Unless the concept of felt fair pay is universally understood and applied labour will continue to be traded as a market commodity, reflecting current remuneration practices. Employers who in the past have been quite satisfied to substitute a market commodity approach with all sorts of dysfunctional output based incentive schemes will be gob smacked when this approach slaps them in the face.
6) Individuals will derive a higher level of satisfaction from their work. The days of the oppressed workforce will drift into the past.
The influence of “modern†management has embarked upon defining a disjointed and ineffective prescription for improving organizations that has failed to create the conditions that are essential and reproducible in order to ensure that organizations are effective, productive, and fulfilling. Employers do not adequately understand the psychology of human beings at work, nor do they appreciate the underlying implied nature of the employment contract. We are falsely led to believe that employers who succeed at providing competitive wages and benefits should be rewarded with a reciprocal exchange of maximum effort provided by each employee. The implied nature of the employment contract will be, is now, and always has been providing the opportunity for each individual employed to realize his or her full potential capability at work. In exchange for this opportunity, employees can be counted on to provide their best effort.
People work to satisfy far more than physiological need. With reference to the evolving hierarchy of needs as defined by Abraham Maslow, until each individual experiences the sense of self-actualization at work, organizations can expect to met by the behaviors that are manifested within work environments fraught with dissatisfaction and deficit. Jaques’ Stratified Systems Theory and requisite managerial practices assist in the establishment of social systems at work that ensure that human need are satisfied and that productive human behavior is provided a reasonable opportunity for existence.
We are compelled to fully understand the interrelationships among human capability, human need, satisfied or salient, and human behavior expressed as a correlate of a functional managerial system and the satisfaction of evolving human need. The success of a global society is dependent upon the ability of work organizations to establish conditions that will support the social needs of that society’s constituents. Granted the effectiveness of government will also be a predominant consideration however it will be the effectiveness of those organizations who earn income, and not those who grant income that will define the conditions for humanity within the global community.