Scientific Management Theory
Scientific Management is a system that evaluates and synthesizes workflows. The principal obligation of scientific Management aims at enhancing the robustness of the economy, majorly labour production. In Fiji Island, the role of scientific Management is very conspicuous in the public sector. Features of scientific Management have helped change the condition of the service sector (Ashcraft, 2013). Scientific Management has affected employers, employees, and the state government. Some of the experimental management features that have changed the civil service sector’s status quo include employment-based on contract, the rise of trade unions that champions for the rights of the workers, and the employment of modern equipment in production to enhance the production capacity. Due to the onset of Scientific Management practices, the main actors in the economy, including employers, employees, and the state, are faced with some advantages and disadvantages.
Features of the Scientific Management in Fiji Island
Features of scientific Management are evident in the civil servant employment in Fiji Island. These features are quite a several. Firstly, one of the scientific management features in Fiji Island is the rise of the trade unions that champions workers’ rights. The Trade unions work closely with the government, employees, and the state to maintain sanity in the labor sector (Giacalone & Jurkiewicz, 2010). The trade unions fight for the rights of the workers in both the formal and informal areas. Mostly, the trade unions closely monitor the impacts of the employers on their employees. One of strategies that trade unions in Fiji island have adopted in the fights for the workers’ rights is the adoption of some acts, such as the Employment Act of 1986. Examples of the trade unions in Fiji Island include; National Farmers Union of Fiji, Fiji Teachers Union, and National Union of Factory and Commercial Workers Union. Some of the acts that Trade unions have pushed through include Shop Act, Workmen’s Compensation Act, and the Petroleum Act. Secondly, employees are employed on a contractual basis (Knights & Willmott, 2016). The above condition is premised on the fact that workers employed on a contractual basis are relatively more productive.
Traditionally, workers were never employed on a contractual basis, but on a full-time basis, that method was associated with some original cost, which increased production cost. Some of the sectors that embarked on the decision to employ workers on a contractual basis include; the banking industry, manufacturing sector, insurance sector, and the media firms. The idea of a contractual basis was instigated by the private sectors when the public sector owned by the government discovered its effectiveness; they quickly adopted the approach. Thirdly, the workers’ rights were formulated; traditionally, there were no rights of workers. Companies used to exploit their employees to their tunes. The employees had no place to run because there were no rights that could cushion them from any form of exploitation. Some of the workers’ rights include; right to fair treatment, right to timely payment, directly to a conducive working environment, and right for at least thirty days leave annual. Employers who breach the rights of the workers face legal action to the extent of being ousted out of business. Fifthly, there is the use of machines and any other form of equipment. The purpose of the devices and other stuff has increased the quantity and quality of the work. These aspects save time and reduce the number of employees that a given firm produces. Also, the use of machines and equipment encourages the employment of experts only.
On the other hand, finally, the form of leadership created in an organization has changed. Traditionally, leaders of the organizations were exploitative and dictatorial by nature. They often acted as bosses to their juniors (Narayan, 2010). In Fiji, leaders of the organizations have changed from the traditional set up to modern group up where leaders act as servants. Leaders no longer take part in exploiting their juniors but in the protection and defence of the rights.
Advantages of the Three Main Actors of Fiji
Competition
Competition in Fiji has aided a lot. Three actors of the economy of Fiji have reaped some advantages attached to the game. Regarding the state, it faces international Competition which sometimes edges it out of business. Due to the Competition, the government faces a massive role in ensuring that it ups the quality of its goods and services. Through the increment on the efficiency of goods and services, the government has managed to secure opportunities to competitive advantages of its goods and services. Employers also have leapt a substantial amount of gains from the Competition (Nicole, 2011). Employers have improved the quality of their goods and services, and as a result, the market of their goods and services continues to increase immensely. Furthermore, the employees have leapt the benefits of Competition. Competition has forced the employees to go an extra mile in improving their skills and knowledge so that they can have a competitive edge in the market. Through the brand packaging, the employees have managed to secure opportunities that they would not get without the improvements.
Innovation Encouragement
Scientific Management encourages Innovation. Innovation is beneficial to the state, employees, and employers. The invention enables employers in becoming a monopoly that produces and distributes goods and services across the globe. Innovation increases the revenue of the employers hence the profits that they reap from the from this expansion in the jurisdiction of operation. Growth in the areas of operation enables employers to discover potential business opportunities in the new environment. Also, the employees benefit substantively on Innovation. Whenever employees innovate something on the ground that they are working in, they often get a promotion and increase in the amount of the salary that they receive. Innovation increases the value of an employee in the organization. Furthermore, Innovation helps the state. Through several design a nation gains status on the global map. The government usually gets an increment on the amount of the revenue that it collects from the new prospects.
Employment
Scientific Management encourages the creation of employment, due to the employment creation, the state, employers, and employees’ benefit. Scientific Management encourages Innovation and quality on the operations. Firstly, the employees gain a lot on the employment opportunities created. Through the employment opportunities created, the employees are always assured of employment in case they lose their jobs. Secondly, due to the Innovation enhanced by scientific Management, the employers benefit from employment opportunities created. The employers get assured that they will have people who will work for them and help them in pushing their dreams. Through that, the revenue that the employers receive increases. Finally, the state gets a sigh of relief due to the offloading of the burden of unemployment. Creation of employment opportunities reduces dependability ratio. The reduction on the dependability ratio helps the government in channelling the funds that it could have used on servicing the dependents into other prospective areas such as infrastructure and the education sector.
Improvement of Human Resource practices
Scientific Management helps in improvement of the Human resources practices. The progress on human resource practices benefits the state, employers, and employees. Some of the modification on human resource practices include; compensation, allowances, and bonuses. In case an employee gets hurts by anything he/she often receive payment for the work done, and if at all he/she does an extra job he/she receives bonus and allowances to cater for the work that has been done. The adopted human practices deal with the welfare of the employee compared to the traditional welfare practices did not factor in the welfare of the employees. The employers benefit a lot by having happy employees that are working for them. In the long-run these happy employees increase the production and the output of the organization. For any fair deal between the employees and the employers, the government on the other end is the beneficiary. The government gains by having an improvement on its GDP. Also, the government benefits by having a conducive environment which factor in the needs of the employees.
Disadvantages
Loss of Employment
Scientific Management encourages Innovation, the use of machines and equipment on production. Whenever machines are introduced on production there is always an impact on the sources of the production capacity. Loss of employment affect the state, employees, and the employers. The state loses in greatly. Loss of jobs in an economy always increases the dependability ratio. The government spends a lot of its money trying to improve on the livelihood of the suffering population. Loss of employment encourages the rise on the rate on unemployment and other forms of crimes. The employees lose the source of their income. The loss on the source of income encourages the employee to continue suffering hugely. Loss of jobs to employees can lead to other side effects such as depression, dementia, and loss of lives due suicide that employees commit due to frustration in life. The employers sometimes face legal expenses due to the untimely decision they took in laying an employee due to the pressure of the trade unions.
Environmental Damage
Scientific Management encourages Innovation, some of the innovations are very dangerous to the environment. The environment damage affects the state, employers, and the employees. Environmental damage affects weather patterns and causes disease (Waring, 2016). Some of the conditions that the environmental damage causes include cancer. Cancer affects employers and employees. Whenever an employee gets cancer, he/she fails to attend work, his/her source of income is concerned. Likewise, when an employer gets cancer, he/she will not be able to manage the business; hence the business will collapse. When a business collapses the employees lose their source of income and also, his income will get affected. The government will incur an extra cost in dealing with conditions of the patients.
High Demands on Employees by the Employers
Scientific Management encourages measurement and regulation of the work done. As a result, employees tag high demands which sometimes the employees find it challenging to attain. Employees develop stress due to high demands priced on them for failing to achieve the required target. The employers usually get disturbed when their employees do not attain the targets that set for them.
Challenges Faced by the Three Main Actors
The three main actors in the economy of Fiji face several challenges. Firstly, Technological change is a vast problem that affects the state, employers, and employees. The growth in technology happens to be very rapidly such that the employers are unable to keep with its pace due to the cost associated with the adoption of the technology. The state is also facing a similar challenge because it has to incur a lot. The employees are the most affected group, rapid in the change in technology has led to declaring some jobs obsolete. The people who trained in jobs tend to become hopeless as they have no other skill that can generate income for them. Secondly, Competition is a significant challenge for the three actors of the economy of Fiji. These actors face both local and international Competition. Due to the degree of Competition, some employers are forced out of their business since they cannot cope up with the challenge. Also, Competition makes the employees to fail in securing employment due to the limited number of the opportunities. The state faces international Competition from other countries. Some of the opportunities that the state fails to include; destinies for exports, and places for marketing their goods. Thirdly, Aging Workforce, the three actors of the get face faced with the problem of aging workforce. The employers are finding it hard to condone the aging employees because their performance in the job is very minimal and cannot cope up with the new technology. On the state, the old employees continue to be a major challenge because their productivity is very low. Old employees always lose their jobs and in case there were not prepared for the retrenchment they end up leading poor lives such that some of them become depressed and succumb (Singh & Slack, 2016). Fourthly, there is unhealthy business environment. The challenge affected the state, employers, and employees. Some of the problems in the business environment include; delay in clearances of goods when importing and exporting and shadow trades which encourages smuggling of goods in the country. The practices have not only snatched substantialsubstantial revenue to the employers, the state but also denied potential employees an essential source of income. Finally, Climate change seems to be a problem that cuts across the board of the three actors of the economy of the people of Fiji. For employees who work in the agricultural related issues, due to the impact of drought, the employees get laid off because the source of their employment is hugely affected by drought. On the same vein, the government lose meaningful revenue that they would have obtained from the agricultural sector. Also, employers lose the constant revenue that they were gaining from the agricultural industry, which is affected by the poor environment.
Recommendations
Several changes must be put in place. Firstly, the state should work hard to ensure that it creates a conducive environment for doing business. Secondly, employers who are still mistreating their workers should be arrested, convicted, and incarcerated. Thirdly, the state should ensure that it works in tandem with the trade unions to enhance workers’ rights. Fourthly, employers ought to ensure that they treat their workers fairly. Finally, Fiji employees should minimize their demands to create opportunities for various companies to employ them.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Scientific Management is a system that synthesizes and evaluates the workflow. Scientific Management has played a significant role in changing the economy of Fiji. Scientific Management in Fiji’s economy is essential in the rise of the trade unions, enhance good leadership, formulation of the rights of the workers, and employment-based on contracts. Scientific Management has resulted in some advantages and disadvantages that face the main actors of the economy of Fiji. The main actors of the economy of Fiji include; employees, employers, and the state. Also, some of the advantages realized include; fair treatment of workers and the rise of the GDP value. The disadvantages faced include; constant strikes from trade unions and an increase in the clique of high demanding employees. Besides that, the three main actors face some challenges, including legal costs, exploitation of the workers, and decline in production due to constant strikes from the trade unions.
References
Ashcraft, K.L., 2013. The glass slipper: “Incorporating” occupational identity in management studies. Academy of management review, 38(1), pp.6-31.
Giacalone, R.A., and Jurkiewicz, C.L., 2010. The science of workplace spirituality. Handbook of workplace spirituality and organizational performance, 2, pp.3-26.
Knights, D., & Willmott, H., 2016. Labour process theory. Springer.
Narayan, J., 2010. Labor’ Pains’ During Public Enterprise Reforms in Fiji. IUP Journal of Organizational Behavior, 9(4).
Nicole, R., 2011. Disturbing history: Resistance in early colonial Fiji. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press.
Singh, G., and Slack, N.J., 2016. Job satisfaction of employees undergoing public sector reform in Fiji. Theoretical Economics Letters, 6(02), p.313.
Waring, S. P., 2016. Taylorism Transformed: Scientific management theory since 1945. UNC Press Books.