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THE need for a renewed organisational culture to respond to the changing nature of the future of work in a post-COVID-19 environment was one of several recommendations made by lead partner in IR Plus Consultants, Danny Roberts, last Friday.
He was speaking at a panel discussion on the topic: 'Maintaining Harmony in the midst of Conflict', hosted by the HEART Trust/NSTA at their Inaugural Employee Relations Conference held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel last Friday.
Roberts said that understanding workplace relationships is about understanding the nature of the relationship and how it is regulated, experienced and contested. He noted that the fundamental objectives governing the employment relationship are about efficiency, and how best to utilise labour to achieve greater competitiveness and profitability; the need to achieve equity through fairness in the distribution of economic rewards; and the opportunity for workers to have a voice in matters affecting the conditions of their service.
Roberts, former head of the Hugh Shearer Labour Studies Institute at the Open Campus of The University of the West Indies, said that conflict is an inherent feature of every organisation and should not be viewed as a challenge to the authority structure of management. He noted that where conflicts are acknowledged an integrative conflict management system, which fosters a culture that welcomes good faith dissent and encourages resolution of conflicts at all levels, would be seen as a priority.
Roberts said that Jamaican companies have to move away from a culture of management by control to a culture of autonomy, competence and relatedness to improve job satisfaction and motivate workers to excel, with a focus on productivity improvements and profit maximisation.
He noted that a change in organisational culture has to be based on education and training through a process of social re-engineering that addresses issues of self-esteem, respect in dealing with differences of opinion and understanding the real meaning of dignity and respect as set out in Jamaica's Labour Relations Code.