November 30, 1997 goes down in the history of  a Bangalore-based electric company as the day nobody wanting it to recur but  everyone recollecting it with sense of pride. 

It was a festive day for all the  700-plus employees. Festoons were  strung all over, banners were put up; banana trunks and leaves adorned the  factory gate, instead of the usual red flags; and loud speakers were blaring  Kannada songs. It was day the employees chose to celebrate Kannada Rajyothsava,  annual feature of all Karnataka-based organisations. The function was to start  at 4 p.m. and everybody was eagerly waiting for the big event to take place.

But the event, budgeted at Rs  1,00,000 did not take place. At around 2 p.m., there was a ghastly accident in  the machine shop. Murthy was caught in the vertical turret lathe and was  wounded fatally. His end came in the ambulance on the way to hospital.

The management sought union help,  and the union leaders did respond with a positive attitude. They did not want  to fish in troubled waters. 

Series of meetings were held  between the union leaders and the management. The discussions centred around  two major issues—(i) restoring normalcy, and (ii) determining the amount of  compensation to be paid to the dependents of Murthy.

Luckily for the management, the  accident took place on a Saturday. The next day was a weekly holiday and this  helped the tension to diffuse to a large extent. The funeral of the deceased  took place on Sunday without any hitch. The management hoped that things would  be normal on Monday morning.

But the hope was belied. The  workers refused to resume work. Again the management approached the union for  help. Union leaders advised the workers to resume work in al departments except  in the machine shop, and the suggestions was accepted by all.

Two weeks went by, nobody entered  the machine shop, though work in other places resumed. Union leaders came with  a new idea to the management—to perform a pooja to ward off any evil that had  befallen on the lathe. The management accepted the idea and homa was performed  in the machine shop for about five hours commencing early in the morning. This  helped to some extent. The workers started operations on all other machines in  the machine shop except on the fateful lathe. It took two full months and a lot  of persuasion from the union leaders for the workers to switch on the lathe.

The crisis was blown over, thanks  to the responsible role played by the union leaders and their fellow workers.  Neither the management nor the workers wish that such an incident should recur.

As the wages of the deceased  grossed Rs 6,500 per month, Murthy was not covered under the ESI Act.  Management had to pay compensation. Age and experience of the victim were taken  into account to arrive at Rs 1,87,000 which   was the amount to be payable to the wife of the deceased. To this was  added Rs 2,50,000 at the intervention of the union leaders. In addition, the  widow was paid a gratuity and a monthly pension of Rs 4,300. And nobody’s wages  were cut for the days not worked.

Murthy’s death witnessed an  unusual behavior on the part of the workers and their leaders, and magnanimous  gesture from the management. It is a pride moment in the life of the factory.

 

Question: 

Do  you think that the Bangalore-based company had practiced participative  management?

If  your answer is yes, with what method of participation (you have read in this  chapter) do you relate the above case?

If you were the union  leader, would your behaviour have been different? If yes, what would it be?  

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

From the given information it appears that the Bangalorebased company did practice participative management Participative management is a type of lead... View the full answer