Feeling of satisfaction with one’s place in an organization. This dimension is composed of the worker’s internal feeling of accomplishment and external recognition of the worker having attained a position in an organization.

 

Improvement Action: Build leadership at all levels of the organization (opportunities for workers to serve on councils or committees)

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977

  • GWT Analysts Summary: At Volvo's plants they rely on Works Councils which are comprised of employee-elected representatives from the all levels of the organization. These Councils are the backbone of Volvo's relationship to its workers. The Councils have a significant voice in decision making, and are present at the corporate level as well as at the operational level within a plant.
  • Excerpt from text: “Although the company’s first employee representative body or “works council” was established as early as 1946, this kind of group grew more important in the seventies. Volvo began to develop a works council structure paralleling the corporate organization. Works councils are today the backbone of the company’s relationship with its employees. The network of employee-elected groups now stretches from the board level Corporate Works Council to smaller councils for specific departments inside a single plant. Joint project groups or consultation groups are the links between the corporate and works-council structures at every level.” p 53

 

Improvement Action: Make all attempts to prevent laying off tenured workers

Source:

Semler, Ricardo. (1989). Managing without managers. Harvard Business Review. Sept-Oct 1989, pp. 76-84.

  • GWT Analysts Summary:  Semco's policies are aimed at giving job security to those who have served for longer periods of time or are older employees. Procedures for layoffs of tenured employees or those over age 50 are designed to be intentionally difficult.
  • Excerpt from text: “We try hard to provide job security, and for people over 50 or who’ve been with the company for more than three years, dismissal procedures are extra complicated.” p 80

 

Improvement Action: Build the status of workers through job titles

Source:

P.G. Gyllenhammar, People at Work, Reading, Mass., Addison-Wesley Pub. Co., 1977

  • GWT Analysts Summary:  Creating status for workers can sometimes be accomplished by using job titles that reflect the importance of the job to the company's success. At Volvo's Torslanda plant, assembly workers' job titles were changed to "car builders". It was part of a larger drive to build the status of those who contributed their muscle to the company's success.
  • Excerpt from text: “With improved motivation and involvement, people at Torslanda are no longer “assemblers.” In recruiting, we at Volvo now use the term “car builders.” This is part of an overall drive to achieve higher status for the people who have already begun to contribute more than mere muscle power. Changing the term may help change the image, but it cannot be a gimmick; this kind of approach only works when it represents a real change in the work itself as well as in attitudes.” p. 86