Communication – I

This subject is not something new, rather, controversial and never resolved well.  Although in lots of management textbook it is emphasized that communication is effective only if it is bi-directional, it is seldom realized in organization.  The suggestion box is always empty.  Doors open in managers room is only a cosmetic, nobody dare to get in to disturb a busy professional.  Reward is given only to those create value or make some innovation to the organization.  But it is still rare; that is why the reward could be of high value.  Think about the following requests which are trivial enough and no managers/supervisors seem to care:

1. The door of the washroom is broken in the production floor
2. There is no cool water supply in the production floor
3. There are not enough tools, chairs, rulers & pen in the production floor
4. The hand wash soap is missed and the operators cannot completely clean their hands before going to lunch
5. The leaders/supervisors are rude and screaming at operators unreasonably which hurt his operators emotionally.
6. The operators complain the schedule of on-duty or the work station allocated while the leaders/supervisors for some reason overlook or do not want to explain
7. The working level people feel being disdained by the supervisory level and not being taken care of management.  (It is difficult to prove.)
8. The management attempt to explain a new policy by posting announcement to the employees while there is no platform to explain any query from the employees.
9. The company advocates respect & responsibility and value people but the employees do not have any channel to express their discontent or their miscellaneous request.
10. ……

In a bureaucratic organization, the subordinates should address their request to the supervisors and then escalate to the necessary hierarchy for solution.  But if the people do not feel being valued, how can they voice their need?  Usually, they vote by running out of the organization.  It is not wise to assume that everyone is rational and eager to speak, particularly it is not anonymous.  It is of no use for the organization to trumpet how open and transparent it is.  I heard so many times from some management that their door is always open and employees are welcome to talk to them regardless of their ranking.  Paradoxically, who dare to do it!  Will you feel shy of raising any request of the above to a senior management?  One may argue that it should be the responsibility of HR & Administration or middle management to handle it.  Right.  But, our middle management would only do what the senior management focus.  This is the problem.  At worst, if the operators thought that since their reasonable request is not met, why do they meet the production or quality requirement?  The slogan of respect would then remain slogan.