Productivity

Throughout our studies of organizational communication and studies of several theories of organizations, I decided to interview my own dad, Jorge Lopez, about his personal experiences with organization and how organizations have evolved in terms of worker productivity. He sees the evolution of worker productivity as having changed in three ways: Personal productivity, business productivity and a difference in quality.

Personal productivity advanced in the 1980’s with the creation of the personal computer. No longer was there a need to handwrite memos and papers, in order to send them through a chain of people in order to have them typed and sent out. People, businessmen in particular, had no need for secretaries in a clerical sense. They gained the ability to perform not only their own work, but also their clerical work done in a much more efficient manner. Emails allowed for people to talk to co-workers on the same level, as well as those above them, although decisions were made in a bureaucratic manner.

Personal productivity as a worker helped further along the business productivity. As the secretarial positions became almost obsolete, several functions that the workers used to serve became obsolete as well. The amount of time that it took workers as well as how many workers to order new merchandise, fill their orders, etc. got cut down because of business software. This new business software forced workers to become more efficient because they didn’t have to perform many tasks by hand anymore. These tasks became mechanical and automatic, and managers were forced to “bring together the science and the man” (Taylor 64).

Personal productivity also helped to further advance the quality of the products that were made as well. If quality is built into a process, the companies don’t have to spend money rebuilding if it doesn’t work. This aspect I am reminded of the craft ideal. In the craft ideal, people were driven by love of their job in order to be productive. Today this same notion may not be completely true at least in the sense that they do their job because they necessarily love it. This is where the quality aspect also reminds me of alienated labor as well. In alienated labor, work is happening to the worker, they are working for money and not for the love of their job. The point that my Father was trying to get across to me is that companies have married the two concepts together.

With the higher technology, people are able to be more precise, almost in a craftsman like way, and at the same time they are able to produce a lot more than they used to be able to. He gave me the example of the Honda Company. Before our family got a Honda, we had an older Ford station wagon. The gold station wagon was nice because it had space, but it had a large amount of problems with it. Efficiency was built into the process, however, craftsmanship may have been lacking. When we sold our ford for a Honda, the car rarely broke down and only needed minor fixing.