Professional paper
Authority and Self-management Micro-system
Božo Jušić
Abstract
In accordance with the general tendency toward the democratization of the society a question is posed whether the authoritarian mode of management is oposed to the self-managemental system of the enterprises. If the representative organs of the self-management are taken as the system superimposed on the traditional organizational hierarchic system the question is: whether it would not be necessary
to introduce an adequate self-management micro-system into the hierarchic organization of the working place, in order to insure the proper functioning of the self-managemental macro-system encompossing the working community. The principle of its developing would be bestowing the initiative upon the workers (open management and participation) and respect for the workers (satisfying the needs in the scope of the working task and positive motivation). The present investigation including 3000 workers from 22 companies represents an attempt to assess, by use of the mentioned dimensions, the tendency of the workers toward the authoritarianism, the estimation of the authoritarianism of their supervisors and the power distribution in their company. The results indicate that the intensive tendency toward authoritarianism is revealed primarily in assignment of the initiative and less in respecting the workers needs. The tendency is more
pronounced in supervisors than in workers, being most intensive at lower managemental ranks. According to the estimates of authoritarianism the authoritarianism is higher in assignment of initiative than in the sphere of satisfying the workers’ needs. Yet, the style of management is not the same for all. The higher ranks of workers enjoy a more democratic style of management, also the managers are treated more democratic ally than the direct workers, and the managers from direct production are treated less democratically than the managers from the non-produtive sections of the company. The estimations of the lower-ranks managers authoritarianism are positively correlated with those of the middle and higher managerial ranks, primarily in the sphere of the initiative asignment. So, the managers and workers are two distinct interest groups in respect to the authoritarianism. Such a structure of the authority is reflected upon the self-managemental macro-system, as the tendency to democratic leadership expressed in the estimations of democracy in assigning the initiative is negatively correlated with the dominant role of the director and other managers in decision making and positively with the power of the self-managment organs. The interpretation of these results besides the analyzed subjective factors (personality of the managers) suggests the objective factors limiting the selfmanagement authority such as: democracy of the system of the enterprise and its relevant surroundings, routine versus creative character of the task, its urgency, vertical complexity, number of executors, their information, maturity and attitudes. Besides, the factors of the non-equivalence of paths of the selfmanagemental micro- and macro-systems are analyzed, leading to the possibility of abuses of the managerial role in the scope of its legal functions. The differences of the possibilities of workers and managers is reflected in the characteristics of their coordinative function: in sources, flow and control of information, inseparability of the coordinatlve function from the role, individual or collective authority, its immediacy and publicity, simultaneity or posteriority of the control and disposial with the benefits that can be bestowed or withdrawn. The conclusion points out the fact that high level of illegality of the self-managemental microsystem is the main factor which enables the authoritharian management control the selfmanagemental rights of the workers.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
156694
URI
Publication date:
31.3.1972.
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