Rationalisation in the Work Place

The Management of Health at Work Regulations 1999. Employers are obliged to make a suitable and sufficient assessment of the risks to health and then apply risk control measures based on this.

Also to avoid dangerous moving and handling, the employees then have the responsibility of making sure they use all equipment as they have been trained to do so, follow all health and safety working practices within their workplace, avoid putting themselves, other staff, individuals or visitors at risk, and making sure they report any hazards or risks to their employer.

As an employer, you need to be aware of the processes and duties produced in these regulations and the practical implications imposed. There is also a duty to involve employees in all health and safety

It is important to recognise the different responsibilities and approaches of a member of staff, the employer and others in the work setting. For example the employer is responsible to provide PPE and relevant health and safety training free of charge. It is then the responsibility of a staff member to use the PPE and to attend the training. So although the responsibilities are different they are also related and both need to work in order to ensure a high standard of health and safety. The employer provides as safe working environment, however if an accident or incident occurs it requires the efforts of both staff and sometimes others to report this to ensure measures are put into place to reduce any risk associated with the incident or accident. Another example of how health and safety has a linked responsibility can be shown through a member of staff ensuring they provide the relevant fire safety information/instructions to others. It is then the responsibility for others to follow these instructions.

Rationalisation as an approach towards Junction Hotel can show its advantages in efficiency levels however; even efficiency is not always affected in a positive way as Ritzer (2011) explains using the organisation McDonald’s as his focus, constructing social theories in the organisation about how people’s creativity can be restrained in the repetitive workforce. Ritzer (2011) explains his theory upon how individuals in the workplace are affected by a more psychological perspective. Thinking about the rationalisation approach towards the Junction Hotel may not only limit staff member’s creativity, but make the current workplace more repetitive and therefore dull. Increasing managing customers in an efficient time may also create a negative affect by increasing the workload per person

Organizational structures have changed greatly in the last fifty years. Whereas most organizations were once rigid and centralized, most organizations are now taking advantage of flexible and decentralized structures. These new structures have affected the standard relationships between employees and managers. Additional layers of management have been created which blur the lines between the functions of managers and the functions of employees. Employees have become decision makers, and some managers barely have any authoritative power. Subsequently, these changes to organizational structures have impacted organizational strategies. This too, expounds upon the increased power of the employee and the reduced authority of the manager. The changes in organizational strategies make use of the dispersion of power in order to reduce costs and enable additional safeguards within these organizations.

Taylor focused on coming up with new working methods to make workers more efficient and therefore allow them to do their job better. Rather than heavily focusing on breaking down the tasks, he focused on how he could make workers jobs easier. So how could Rational Organisation be beneficial to Junction Hotel bearing in mind the current economic climate? A level of Bureaucracy would be implemented. It would clear things up in terms of who is in charge of particular areas. A single person would be put in charge of the restaurant. This is beneficial as the waiters/waitresses would know exactly who they’re accountable to. It would also increase the efficiency of the restaurant as it would become more organised and therefore the restaurant could deliver a better quality and faster service to customers. Additionally, the tasks for the hotel would be broken down so they are less-complex, easier and faster. The hotel can recruit with little effort as the training time would be reduced. In turn, the hotel would save money on worker training as it’s shorter and less expensive to train workers. Rational Organisation would also be able to improve the control because it would introduce a set of rules and regulations to the hotel. As a result this would increase output per worker and therefore the entire output for the hotel.

‘It is an employer's duty to protect the health, safety and welfare of their employees and other people who might be affected by their business. Employers must do whatever is reasonably practicable to achieve this.’

Everyone in my company must comply with the health and safety procedure. We have to go on mandatory training to complete our health and safety certificate. This includes manual handling and fire safety. We must make sure our work environment is a safe as we can make it. If any accidents do occur i have to report them to my office or to the out of hours office, I must also record all accidents in the communication book so that other carers know what has happened this includes the nature of the accident, treatment received and where and when it happened. If any health and safety rules or procedures are breached then this may become a disciplinary for care staff. My line manager will always advise all care staff on and health and safety concerns that we may have.

Can lead to a failure to meet statutory requirements relating to providing a safe and healthy working environment

Health and safety legislations and regulations are implemented in own work settings because there will always be a possibility of accidents happening which may damage someone’s health and all work will expose people to hazards, however the health and safety legislations and regulations are put in place and used so that these risks and hazards are under control and so everyone’s health (staff and children) are safe at all costs.

Rational organisation is beneficial as efficient workers can perform more rapidly and easily (Ritzer 2008) meaning more work is done in the same amount of time, leading to increased efficiency for the business as a whole.

From the case study in the seminar introduces, one part of classical management theories is bureaucracy. It shows the system of rules and it is formal because every procedure and practice need to be followed. The bureaucratic organisations have the hierarchy of authority (structure) and they treat the employee in impersonal. Moreover, the fixed boundary which means the full-time tasks and every employee has the official duty. These three aspects illustrate that bureaucratic organisations are associated to the instrumental rationality. They are doing the things right (Knights&Willmott,2007). Besides Knights and Willmott had talked about this, Grey (2013) also said that bureaucracies are rational in one particular sense of the word that is the formal or instrumental rationality and this idea is means adopted to achieve the most efficient purpose that they minimise wastage and maximise production. As one important unit in Apple products is parts assembly, not in Silicon Valley but in Shenzhen, China. According to Chakrabortty (2013), this Foxconn plant has a huge number of student labour to make products. One worker performed one or two small tasks over and over again while standing for hours on end in a huge line turning out Apple products. They cannot have breaks whenever they are behind on the production targets. Obviously, workers and the organisation do not share the same goal, under Chinese law work-placements have to be directly related to a pupil

Employees are not encouraged to take risks and rewarded for following rules. This is suitable for a stable environment that is hard to find in these modern days. It is visible that Quinlan’s culture was bureaucratic. In particular Quinlan had: a) Properly defined rules and procedures to function in a predictable and routine manner b) Roles were clearly defined and labour was divided based on these roles c)

A hierarchical organisational structure was originally built to create more efficient workers to further improve productivity. The structure is based on a division of labour. It allows a business to select workers needed for each section and specify their needed training, (Hickey, Nader, & Williams, 2011). Ray White Hotels believes its success has come from their constant recruitment of a balanced and sustainable cross-section of experienced personal. In order for this to happen, the business has been split into a hierarchy system (shown in diagram 1). Tony Bargwanna and Andrew Jolliffe are the two managing directors of Ray White Hotels and are therefore at the top of the business hierarchy. As the managing directors work in different offices in Australia, the hierarchy then splits into two. Below Andrew Jolliffe is an executive assistant. The business then splits into sectors. The same is done at Tony Bargwanna’s office. Below Bargwanna is a COO (chief operating officer) and a bookkeeper. The business is then split into further sectors. Ray White Hotel’s organisational structure allows their workers to become specialists in the areas they work, overall improving the production and the business as