Dear Ammar,

We are facing crisis at our company and I feel very frustrated as I saw the problem coming, and I told my supervisor about it, and no body cared to look into what I was saying.  Now that the problem I was warning about actually happened, they are going to find a scapegoat to blame it on, and forget that it ever happened.  Why management never seems to listen to workers?

Regards,

Y.M

Dear Y.,                                                                          

Taking emotions out of it, if management knew that a problem would happen, then they would and should do what they can to prevent it.  Also, if management knew that you had key information that prevents an imminent problem, needless to say, they will, and attentively listen to your advice.  So, the question actually consists of three underlying questions. 

The first is: why team members feel that management don’t listen?

Team members’ feeling that they are not listened to is a management problem to start with.  Communication is a two way street, but it is management responsibility to establish communication channels with their people and keep them open. 

So, team members feel management is not listening when they do not provide clear communication channels for their employees to give opinion and they do not take action based on team members’ feedback, which happened in your case.

The second part of the question is: why management do not get the message from workers?

Why this happens can be for different reasons.  Some managers either are too conceited with their knowledge that they feel their employees just need to `carry their orders and should not think,” or that employees are not capable of thinking at the same level of intellect as their managers.

The other reason is that managers worry about employees  bombarding them with problems that managers do not care about, and feel that problems workers have do not concern them because they are different than managers’ problems.

Management, even if they try to listen, sometimes do not get the message.  This is also management’s fault.  Either management have not set up an open communication environment that encourages people to talk freely. For example, management might punish people who express their opinions.  Therefore team member worry about expressing themselves freely and openly and even when asked, are not willing to give information.

The final part of the question is: How do we solve the problem?

Communication management within the organization must be given top priority.  There are many ways to do that.  One is to establish management – employees meetings where issues are discussed openly and clearly.  Another way to improve communication is for management is to encourage root cause analysis and proper problem solving.  Also, they have to hold everyone, management and employees accountable. This will push people to clearly and openly discuss issues and solve problems.

Unfortunately in many cases, management complains about a problem but does not work diligently towards solving it.  Or they use techniques that handle the symptoms rather than the root causes, and the problem end up resurfacing worse than before.  Problems must be resolved for real.  In other words, look for root causes, engage management and employees in the investigation, and hold people accountable for the causes and the resolution.

Some people are afraid to take on problems head on because they worry that the investigation might expose them.  They worry about the solution affecting their status or jeopardizing their position.  Organizations cannot reach their growth potential under such heavily political environment.  Instead of always trying to surface problems and fixing them, a company will only improve at a degree that is convenient to its managers and their political motives.  This way, an organization will always be constrained to grow only to the extent perceived safe and  beneficial to its managers.

So, when management does not seem to listen, it is always a management problem, and only management is in the right position to resolve the issue.  They better do it fast, because there is nothing worse than a staff that feels disconnected from management.  It leads to mistrust, lowering of morale, and lack of cooperation, which in turn leads to grave losses in productivity, competitiveness, and company image.  

From your perspective as an employee, please do not give up on the organization, and keep doing your best to do your job and duty towards your company.  Management sometimes takes time to get the message, but in many cases, over time, they do figuring  out and doing what is right.  The wheels of change in big organizations are sometimes slow.  Meanwhile, what one can do is keep doing their best to help the organization along its continuous improvement path.  Remember, the learning is not only for the benefit of the organization, but for you also as an employee. 

Good luck.

Regards,

Ammar