Effect Of Work Stress In Maruti Suzuki Commerce Essay

Introduction to Maruti Suzuki Ltd. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. is a leading manufacturer automobile company in India. It was established in December 1983 with the mission to motorise India. Maruti was Collaboration Company between Suzuki Motors Corporation, Japan and Government of India. Maruti is one of the largest compact car manufacturing companies in the world so till 2012. In terms of production, Maruti is the largest subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation and the company has produced over 15 million vehicles since the roll out of its first vehicle on 14th December, 1983. In the employment sector, Maruti has more than 75000 employees and its manufacturing facilities are located at two locations in India in Gurgaon and Manesae, both south of New Delhi. Maruti Suzuki is the only Indian company to cross the 10 million sales mark since its origin. In 2011-12, the company sold over 1.13 million vehicles including 1, 27,379 units of exports.(Marutisuzuki 2012)

Maruti’s Philosophy 

Maruti’s uses its Green Philosophy in the stems of “Three R’s”: Reduce, Recycle and Reuse policy in its plants, so that there is a minimal stress on natural resources. The company has launched a number of initiatives under its Three R’s umbrella to make the plants more efficient in terms of resource usage. It is also certified with ISO 14001:1996 for its Environment Management System programme and uses the principle of “Smaller, fewer lighter, shorter and neater” for its operations.

Problems in Maruti Company:

According to workers who are employed at Maruti Suzuki, highly stressful working hours have been a major concern for the stress of the employees who are working in the Maruti Suzuki. According to the workers, the stressful working hours leads the works to prolonged impasse. Excessive of work load and stringent time management is the major cause of the stress for the workers. There are several reasons for the cause of the work stress for the employees. In the several reasons the major seven reasons for the work stress are,(Cherry 2012, Sengupta 2012)

7 Reason for Work Stress

Differences in salary pay

No allowance

Job insecurity

Lack of promotion prospects

Under-promotion or over-promotion

Unclear or unfair performance evaluation systems

Being over-skilled or under-skilled for the job

Differences in Salary Pay

The first reason for the work stress for the employees is mainly due to the difference in the salary pay. Mostly about 70% of the employees are contract based employees and they paid very less salary when compared to the other workers who are working in the same grade as conformed workers.

No allowance

Since most of the employees are contract based employees the company has not provide them with any allowance. Hence they didn’t get any allowance from the government as well from the company.

Job insecurity

As contract based employment there is no security for the employees for their job. They can be fired at any moment. This is also a reason for the employees for their stress.

Lack of promotion prospects

As a contract based employee, there is no promotion prospects for them. Employees need to do the work what the work is assigned for them. This is also a reason for the employees for their stress.

Under-promotion or over-promotion

Since there is no proper evaluation system or performance appraisal system for the promotion, Employees are promoted in a basis of their influence to the managers. This leads to other workers for the stress in their working.

Unclear or unfair performance evaluation systems

As said before there is no proper evaluation system for the performance. And this leads to unclear promotion to the employees. So it leads to stress for the workers.

Being over-skilled or under-skilled for the job

As most of the employees are contract based employees, and hence the position what they are working being an irrelevant position. For example an employee who Mechanical Engineering and working in the finance department. So most of the employees are being like under skilled or over skilled for the jobs, so this also leads to stress for the employees in their working.(Sengupta 2012)

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is a theory proposed by Abraham Maslow in his paper “A Theory of Human Motivation” in the year 1943. Maslow mainly used the terms like Physiological needs, Safety, Belongingness and Love, Esteem and Self Actualization needs to describe his human motivation theory.

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Hierarchy

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs can be explained with the help of a pyramid. The most fundamental level of needs is specified at the bottom and at the top needs for self-actualization. Maslow explains the pyramid with four layers and he called them as “Deficiency needs” or “D-Needs”. The four layers are Esteem, Friendship and love, Security and Physical needs. He also explains that the most fundamental needs may not be the physical needs. Maslow also use the term Meta motivation in order to motivate the people. He also explains that human mind have the ability for parallel processing and thus by motivating the people also they can achieve their hierarchal needs. Thus Maslow acknowledged the likelihood that the different levels of motivation could occur at any time in the human mind, but he focused on identifying the basic types of motivation and the order in which they should be met.(Cherry 2012)

Physiological needs

Physiological needs are the physical requirements for human survival. If any of these requirements ate not obtained then the human mind won’t function properly and this leads to ultimate failure. Therefore food, shelter, love and respect are some of the basic physiological needs that a human normally expects to be with him.(Cherry 2012)

Safety needs

The safety needs in the sense job security, secure environment, procedures for protecting the individual from unilateral authority, savings accounts, insurance policies, reasonable disability accommodations, etc..(Cherry 2012)

Safety and Security needs include:

Personal security

Financial security

Health and well-being

Safety net against accidents/illness and their adverse impacts

Love and belonging

After physiological and safety needs the next basic need for a human is the love and belongings. This need is especially strong in childhood and this can be obtained by friendship, family and others love towards him. Maslow explains that humans need to feel a sense of belonging that they are accepted in their social group. For example small social group like family in which they are being accepted and they are recognised in the group.(Cherry 2012)

Esteem

All humans have a need have a feel that they need to be recognised in the society and they need to have their own respect. The fame or glory will not help anyone to get their respect they need to have their own self-esteem in order to be respected. Maslow states that while he originally thought the needs of humans had strict guidelines, the “hierarchies are interrelated rather than sharply separated”. This means that esteem and the subsequent levels are not strictly separated; instead, the levels are closely related.(Cherry 2012)

Self-actualization

“What a man can be, he must be.” This quotation explains the need for self-actualization. Maslow explains that everyone should have their own self-actualization in order to become the most that one can be. For example women may think that she needs to be the best mother for her children than any other mother. In understand this level of need, the person must needs to achieve the previous needs and also should be master in them.(Cherry 2012)

Self-transcendence

Self-transcendence refers to when a person seeks to further the boundaries of their ideal self, to experience an intimacy beyond one’s self. Cloninger later incorporated self-transcendence as a spiritual dimension of personality in the Temperament and Character Inventory.(Cherry 2012)

F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management Theory

F. W. Taylor was an American mechanical engineer completed his degree in Mechanical Engineering from Stevens Institute of Technology in 1883. He is well known as the father of scientific management.

Taylor’s Contribution to Scientific Management

F.W. Taylor has written the famous book called “Principles of Scientific Management” in which he mainly imposes three principles, they are

First: To explain through simple illustration.

Second: To convince the reader through systematic management, rather than explaining some unusual contents.

Third: To prove that the management skills are true science.

And also he explains that the fundamental principles of scientific management which can be applied for all human activities. For example a simple co-operation between the individuals in the company can raise the production value of the business. And also he convince the readers be simple illustration by correctly applying all his principles.(Taylor 1911)

Taylor has defined scientific management as follows:

“Scientific management is concerned with knowing exactly what you want men to do and then see in that they do it in the best and cheapest way.”(Taylor 1911)

Principles of Scientific Management

The principles of Scientific Management are:

1. Replacing rule of thumb with science.

2. Obtaining harmony in group action rather than discord.

3. Co-operation rather than chaotic individualism.

4. Increase in production and productivity instead of restricted production.

5. Development of workers by providing training.

Result of Work Stress

As a result of the work stress two major problems occurred in the Maruti.

Low Production

No Co-operation between the employer and employee

Low Production

Due to work stress for the employees, their hundred percent inputs for the work were not able to obtain and as a result it leads to less production. Most of the assembly line workers had much stressful work continuously and they are not paid for their work they intently produced less production. As these are the reasons for the less production.

No Co-operation between the employer and employee

Due to the improper management there was no proper co-operation between the employers and the employees. As the company has not followed any hierarchy structure and most of the employees are contract based employees there was no proper relationship between the employer and the employees. This is also a reason for less production. There two are the major cause as a result of the work stress for the employees in the Maruti Suzuki.

Basic Need of the Workers

By studying the two major theories, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management we can suggest some solutions for the problems of the employees in the Maruti Suzuki. According to the two theories basic needs for the employees are (Taylor 1911, Cherry 2012)

Permanent Job

Proper Work Timing

Promotion

Transport Facilities

Permanent job

As about 70% of the employees in the Maruti Suzuki are contract based employees and they don’t have the job security is also one of the reasons for the work stress for the employees. And the work stress leads to less production for the company. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs when we provide the employees with the basic needs of what they need they fell secure for working for the company. They get motivated automatically and they fell much secure and automatically reduce the work stress. As a result of less work stress, the employees may give their much effort for the production and hence the production can be increased considerably.

Proper Work time

Since most of the employees are contract based employees and hence they don’t have the proper work timing schedule. And so it leads them to work for more hours. This is also a reason for the work stress for the employees. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management providing the employees with their basic needs and make them esteem will increase the confidence level for the employees. As a result of the providing proper work time their stress for the working hours will reduce and hence the production can be increased considerably.

Promotion

As most of the employees in the company are contract based employees and they don’t have the promotion prospective. Since working continuously, without any promotion, or incentive makes many employees to feel stress about their work. According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management if we make the employees to feel much secure about the work what they do and provide the employees with the hierarchy for the promotion will make them to feel much secure and their work stress will be reduced considerably. And hence the production will be increased automatically.

Transport Facilities

Since most of the large scale sector industries are located at remote locations, transport facilities to the company being a very complex issues for many employees in the company. According to Maslow’s theory, proving the employees with their need many reduce the stress for the employee and as a result the production can be increased considerably. So providing transport facilities from the employees from the company to the city center during the shift end and the beginning may reduce the complexity for the transportation to the employees.

Implementation

By studying the theories of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management and the problems of the Maruti Suzuki, we can implement some solutions for the problems of the Maruti Suzuki based on the two theories.(Taylor. 2007, Taylor 1911, Cherry 2012)

Implement “Hierarchy structure” for promotion and work allocation.

As there was no proper management structure for the company for the promotion and other perspectives if we implement the Maslow’s hierarchy structure for the employment as the low level workers being in the bottom followed by the supervisors and managers and in the top level there being the management. By implementing Maslow’s hierarchy structure, the work load can be allocated and hence each worker will equal amount of works.

Implement Proper “Work Timing” with three different shifts.

According to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs providing the employees with their basic physiological needs the workers will fell much secure to work in the company. According to the theory implementing proper work timing with three different shifts which may reduce the workers to work for ling hours and hence their basic physiological needs get satisfied and the employees feel much secure in working for the company.

Provide “bus services” in line with shift timings

According to Maslow’s theory, providing the employees with their physiological needs may reduce the stress of the employees, According to which providing bus services to the employees in line with shift timing may reduce the stress in transportation to the employees. As most of the large scale industries are located in remote locations, so transportation being one of the major stressful tasks for the employees to make in time for the companies. By providing bus services may reduce their stress in transportation.

Create a “labor welfare committee” to promote good relations between the management and the workers

According to F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management providing proper training to the employer and employees can create a three sixty degree relationship between them. According to Taylor’s theory creating a labour welfare committee provide a good relationship between the management and workers.

Conclusion

After studying the problems of the Maruti Suzuki and the theories of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management the problems of the Maruti Suzuki have been solved by implementing the solutions to the problem from the theories of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management. The major problem of the employees being the work stress have been solved by the Maslow’s hierarchal theory and the major problem for the management being the less production which have been solved by implementing F. W. Taylor’s Scientific Management theory.