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You wouldn't think of Brady Corporation as an obvious place in which to find a fun culture. This traditional Midwestern company, a manufacturer of industrial signs and other identification products, didn't even allow employees to have coffee at their desks until 1989, But when Katherine Hudson became CEO in 1994, she and her executive team determined that injecting some fun into the company's serious culture could create positive effects within the organization and contribute to increased performance and sales. In this article, Hudson distills her approach to overhauling Brady's culture into six principles of serious fun: More people than you might think are comfortable having fun at work; used with an awareness of cultural sensitivities, fun and laughter really are well-understood international languages; humor can help companies get through tough times; fun can be embodied in formal programs; spontaneous efforts at humor can also be effective; and encouraging fun should begin at the top. She richly illustrates each principle with examples. At Brady, getting people to loosen up and enjoy themselves has fostered a company esprit de corps and greater team camaraderie. It has started conversations that have sparked innovation, helped to memorably convey corporate messages to employees, and increased productivity by reducing stress, among other benefits. And the company has doubled its sales and almost tripled its net income and market capitalization over the past seven years. Brady's experience suggests that promoting fun within the workplace can lead not only to a robust corporate culture but also to improved business performance. INSETS: Doing the Packarena;From No to Yo;When the Camel Died. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It looks like there's no solution. A supervisor unjustly gives a poor performance rating and threatens a worker with termination. The employee feels he's been wrongly criticized but worries that if he goes over the supervisor's head to complain, he will lose in the final confrontation. He fears that personnel will listen only to the supervisor and he sees no way out. Ultimately, the situation becomes too much, and finally, in frustration the employee quits. Not all employees are treated unjustly and not all supervisors are unjust, but in too many companies, the authors maintain, nonunion employees feel they have no safe, credible, and accessible route to take to have their concerns and complaints heard. The authors describe what nonunion employees go through when they don't have secure complaint channels and then discuss the structures and functions that best protect the rights of employees and managers while dealing with conflicts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Good managers recognize that a relationship with a boss involves mutual dependence and that, if it is not managed well, they cannot be effective in their jobs. They also recognize that the boss-subordinate relationship is a lot like the one between a parent and a child, in that the burden for managing the relationship should not and cannot fall entirely on the boss. Bosses are only human; their wisdom and maturity are not always greater than their subordinates'. Effective managers see managing the relationship with the boss as part of their job. As a result, they take time and energy to develop a relationship that is consonant with both persons' styles and assets and that meets the most critical needs of each. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The typical CEO has endless interruptions and limited options for action. In addition, he may not even hear about his choices, or any bad news that might require action, until it is almost too late. Finally, any decision he does make will probably require months or years to implement fully. This author suggests that this gloomy picture has another side. In fact, each of these "sad facts" of managerial life can be turned into an opportunity to communicate values and to persuade, and they add up to a new notion of the chief executive's function. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What have ten years of work innovations taught us? For one thing, these efforts are usually neither extreme successes nor extreme failures. For another, people who sponsor these projects are neither villains nor saints. Also, the quality of work life projects may add to productivity but not necessarily. In other words, work innovations are not absolute solutions to any set of problems; rather, they represent an approach to looking at problems. In this article, the author, a well-known authority in the area of work innovation, sets out to examine some of the myths that surround it. To do this, he puts forth his own three-level conception of work innovation showing how techniques, outcomes, and culture relate to each other. Using this conception, managers can better approach improving work in their own operations. One of his main conclusions from looking at the past ten years of experience is that work improvement efforts that have both productivity and quality of work life as goals are more likely to succeed on both counts than projects that stress one goal to the exclusion of the other. INSET: Principles reflected in the three-level conception of work innov. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Not everyone who rises quickly in a company and has good analytical skills and a lot of energy is abrasive, nor are all abrasive people in high management levels, but when the two do coincide, top management has a real problem. The problem is simply how to keep the extraordinarily talented person in a position where he or she can be most effective, and at the same time not sacrifice the feelings and aspirations of the people who work with and for this person. According to this author, managers can cope with this dilemma by helping their abrasive subordinates to understand the negative consequences of their personalities. This method takes time and patience, but it is most likely the only way managers can save such people for the organization. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Just because ‘the problem of communicating’ has become a catchword in recent years does not mean that an organization will be without such problems. Here, told firsthand, is the story of the steps one company took when it found it had serious difficulties. The author first discusses the theory of ‘up-and-down’ communications, which his company used to design its own ‘upward communications program.’ He then describes each part of the program, explaining how it was set up, what stumbling blocks were encountered, and what successes were experienced. He closes by summarizing key points of the program which may be applicable to other organizations that face similar problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an illustrated story about a seesaw that led a balanced life until managers began to tinker with it. In the initial stages of the seesaw's life it was almost never at rest, though on average it tended to be in the horizontal position. When some managers decided to add weights and affect the actions of the seesaw, it led to the development of new jobs to put weights on it, and even a research team designed to examine the management policy. Eventually, over-management of the seesaw leads to disaster, which could only be fixed by leaving the seesaw alone.

Individualism, private property, a weak central government--all the traditional notions in which this nation has so long believed seem to be assuming the status of discarded totems. What we really believe today, as measured from what we are actually doing, does not jibe with these time-honored notions; in many cases, our actions are diametrically opposed to our party line. And because we seem to be charging off in so many different directions at once, it is hard to get any kind of clear picture of the purposes and priorities of our society. The author has done his best to disabuse himself of dead issues and to open his eyes to what is happening to our goals and ideals. Here he adjures the rest of us to do the same. Unless every one of us tries to see his problems clearly, relying no more on the old notions of "right" but trying to assess what is going to be "right" in the future, we shall by default hand ourselves over to the chances of nondirection and chaos. He points out, as objectively as he can, where he thinks we are heading, and he adds a recommendation or two for managers who are willing to engage themselves with the process of social change, both as citizens and as executives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the past few years, many "experts" on Japanese management have isolated distinctive practices that seemingly account for Japan's remarkable economic success. The often-unstated implications of such analyses are that American companies might do well to adopt some Japanese techniques. In this article, however, an American who occupies an unusual position as a senior executive with a Japanese company in Japan exposes a different side of the vaunted Japanese style of management. There are drawbacks as well as advantages to such well-known practices as consensus management and lifetime employment. Indeed, Japanese managers are as eager to learn from the West as western managers are to learn from Japan. INSET: The cultural underpinnings of Japanese management. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In this article Gerry E. Morse, who is Vice President, Employee Relations, of Honeywell Inc., examines the significance of the trend toward centralization of management control. Over the years, he notes, various writers and authorities have worried about the implications of centralization. They have feared it would bureaucratize and dehumanize business. Actually, Mr. Morse believes, the current trend can have just the opposite effect if executives rise to the challenge and take advantage of the opportunities that are available to them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on adapting to organizational change caused by production or technological innovations and managing organizational relationships. Superior-subordinate relationships in business organizations have become both vertical and diagonal due to the horizontal nature of the work flow in assembly lines. The Technology Project at Yale University studied these nonformal relationships in the automobile industry where the foreman has to maintain peak performance in the equipment and production workers despite the pressure for short cuts. Topics include three ways of integrating organization and technology, examples of mechanisms such as the use of paperwork to reduce conflict in nonformal relationships, and steps in analysing the effect of technology on organizations.

The article discusses the field of human relations theory as an aspect of business management in the United States. Managers who wish to get the maximum potential out of their workforce are well served to consider their employees' functional specialization and its effects on efficiency and utilize a mechanical theory of organization. The author stresses the fact that economic incentive is not the only motivating force to which workers respond and details the necessity of face-to-face relations between employer and employee.

The article discusses how to overcome employee resistance to change, particularly resistance to technical change, and mentions two studies. Lester Coch and John R. P. French Jr. conducted research on resistance to change in a factory setting. They used "no-participation," "participation-through-representation," and "total participation" methods of introducing change. Another study indicated that organizational change has technical and social aspects. Solutions to the problem include recognizing the blind spots such as "self-preoccupation" in staff specialists and four suggestions for dealing constructively with staff attitudes.

The article focuses on the role of communication in management, especially in developing effective work teams in the United States. Communication involves words, perceptions about human relations and social integration, and day-to-day behavior in organizations. Types of communication between employees include: one-way communication such as a company publication; two-way communication such as a training course and trainee; and face-to-face communication such as interaction between individuals. An example illustrates a communication failure resulting from people talking, listening, and responding from their individual social context or personal frame of reference.

Having published so many articles endorsing the "human relations" approach on the part of management, we consider it our responsibility to give the Director of Research of the Textile Workers Union of America an opportunity to express his views on the subject. Whether or not we agree with Mr. Barkin's interpretation, we feel that all businessmen may gain in having a clearer understanding of the thinking of this well-known union leader. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article comments on leadership in business and the management function in the United States. In a free enterprise system, management is responsible for the organization's economic performance and productive efficiency, as well as the social life of the plant or corporate community. When management fails to take the initiative in labor relations, it is seen by the community as a failure to function. Topics include an example that illustrates an "enfant terrible" in management, the dual role of the foreman, selection and development of top executives, public resistance to a business location, and policies to conserve human resources such as keeping the older worker.

The article reports on the public's desire for economic security and a trend toward the welfare state and labor unions, which support state-guaranteed plans for security in the United States. Industrialization improved workers' quality of life, but automation diminished their sense of achievement in the work place. Business is concerned that a welfare state will lead to economic stagnation and reduced industrial productivity. A solution is government programs encouraging individual responsibility for self-sufficiency--not dependence on the state. Topics include the distinction between welfare society and welfare state, profit and loss economy, appropriate mix of "freedom from" and "freedom to" in a social movement, and management incentives to promote private initiative.

The article discusses the adaptive capacity of workers--defined as being able to keep an experimental attitude in times of change--and industrial relations in postwar United States. The lack of adaptability among industrial workers is attributed to an increase in the division of labor and a decline in the civilizing process. Social distance--resulting from job simplification and mass-production methods--is a source of strength for the labor-union movement. Religious institutions, family, and schools have not been effective in training people for teamwork situations in industry. Topics include informal groups and the organizing process, restrictions put on management by the Wagner Act and the National Labor Relations Board, and training for personnel assistants.

The article details the process of handling shop grievances and managing relations with labor unions in the United States. Employee complaints and the grievance process are viewed as indicators of shop behavior in general and emotional health among workers or with management. Case examples are: The inflated grievance, which focuses on a dispute over a railway service's job rating, becomes an 11 month impasse because the complaint was supposed to be submitted in writing; and The disguised dissatisfaction grievance is the steward's demand at a textile company for higher rates after an alleged work-load increase results from automation. Topics include investigation of "real" and "imaginary" complaints, emotional resistance, and legalistic aspects of the grievance process.

The article discusses the role of industrial supervisors in the United States. Foremen in mass-production industries are receptive to unionization because of five factors, including the lack of overtime pay and concern about demotion after the war. The foreman level puts an employee in a communication position with the boss, staff specialists, department managers, subordinates and line workers, and the shop steward. The job requires skill in 14 areas such as knowing company policies, labor laws, and industry regulations, maintaining discipline among workers, and training new employees.

The article discusses the use of industrial psychology in business management practices. The industrial application of psychology has the purpose of increasing the happiness and earning power of the employee through the management's observations of employee conditions. It is a powerful tool in ascertaining individual productivity variables and an adequate measurement of group morale. Analysts say business managers have both a financial interest and a social responsibility to utilize these tactics. They say this type of scientific research establishes reason in place of opinion.

The article examines the economic implications of the five-day work week. A brief historical overview of the shortening of working periods is presented. The logic behind the decision to reduce working periods is presented. The question of whether the reduction of working periods has kept pace with the mechanization of industry is addressed, and the practical experiences of the implementation of the five-day week are detailed. The industrial management goal of balancing production and consumption is also discussed.

The article explores how to improve an employee's quality of work life. The author presents eight conceptual categories that should be considered part of the work life environment. Regardless of how the issue of the quality of work life is approached, the diversity of human preferences, that is, the diversity relating to culture, social class, family rearing, education, and personality, should be acknowledged. The author advocates tailoring work assignments to the preferences and individual differences of employees.