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Top Trucking Company’s Wollongong yard gained a lot of praise in the locality and became famous as a high preforming workplace in the region. A union delegate of the company, George Psaros, had been playing an important role in the transformation of the workplace. The family that owned the company earlier was not making any efforts to improve the declining position of the company. The trucks of the company had become older than they should have been and even the number of organisational conflicts, accidents and stoppages were on an increase. The manager of the yard was rude to the employees and did not behave properly at some times. The things started to change for the company about three years ago when the company was bought by new owners. The new owners made a lot investment in improving the work conditions and even replaced the manager of the yard. Consequently, the yard started to improve and became one of the highest performing workplaces in the region.
Top Trucking Company’s Wollongong yard rose to its success as a result of a number of changes. The previous work practices and behaviour of the owners as well as of the manager were not positive and were failing to foster a positive work environment in the yard. The manager’s reactions were not appropriate as he would yell at the employees and would practice an autocratic leadership style (McFarland, 2016). The owners of the company did not want to make any investments to improve the work operations of the company and ultimately sold the company to its new owner. Due to a change in the ownership of the business, introduction of changes in the workplace became obvious (McFarland, 2016) (KUIPERS, et al., 2013). The new owners were ready to make investments in the business and spent their resources in rejuvenating the entire fleet of vehicles. The new owners also installed a new computer system in the warehouse, brought new uniforms for the drivers and got the yard all cleaned up. Further, the manager of the yard was also replaced with a new manager who had a very positive approach towards everything.
The changes that the new owners and the manager introduced were all aimed at improving the work conditions of the yard so that the management could foster a positive work environment and establish better relations between the management and the employee union (Sheehan, 2013) (Hall & Hord, 2001). The earlier work conditions along with the negative behaviour of the previous manager were not appreciated by the employees, which resulted in a decline in the performance of the employees and frequent stoppages, conflicts and accidents. When the management new uniforms for the employees, rejuvenated the fleet of vehicles and also introduced a new computer system in the yard, it clearly indicated that it cared about the employees and wanted a better workplace (Kalleberg, 2003). Further, even the manager’s ethical and justified behaviour towards the employees indicated that the company cared for them and wanted to ensure a positive work environment. Making changes that were in favour of the employees helped the company in developing a psychological contract in the mind of the employees, who became more committed towards their jobs and the company (Alfes, Shantz, Truss, & Soane, 2012) (Sheehan, 2013). Thus, the changes acted as complementary to each other and helped in improving the work conditions for the Wollongong yard.
Today, the business world has become highly complex and introducing changes in such a scenario is a difficult task. Once these changes are introduced, it is equally important and difficult to sustain the changes that have successfully been incorporated in the workplace. In the given case, sustaining the changes that the management at Wollongong yard had introduced till now would become impossible if George or the new yard manager is moved on from the yard. George is a union delegate in the yard. In general, it is observed that it is difficult for companies to establish a positive relation between the union leaders and senior level managers as the interests of both the parties intersect each other at one or the other point but in the case of Wollongong yard, the new manager has been able to connect with the union leader in a good way. Even though there were a number of conflicts in the yard, the yard manager never took hasty decisions and only came to a conclusion after in-depth analysis of the problem (KUIPERS, et al., 2013). The new yard manager always made sense while resolving conflicts or during strikes and was able to convince the union leader that he always had a reasonable point and that some of the members of George’s group were out of the line. Further, the new yard manager was open with the employees and never hesitated in discussing important workplace issues or the success that they had achieved (Oke, 2015). Even though George had to support some of his employees being a union leader but the understanding between George and the new manager helped the yard in a great way to accept the changes.
The relation and understanding between George and the new manager is acting like a backbone to the success that the company has achieved over a period of time. Where union leaders are not able to establish a peaceful understanding with the management most of the times, George has grown to respect the new manager and thinks that he makes sense in whatever he says. In case the company plans to shift the new manager or George to a new facility or they themselves chose to quit, their replacements might not be able to establish a similar level of understanding in the organisation as they both have been able to (Grama & Todericiu, 2016). Further, a new manager or a new union delegate, being new leaders in their own field, would definitely like to bring some changes in the workplace so that the workplace operates according to their preferences (Rouse, 2016). Such changes in leadership will definitely hinder the ability of the management to sustain the changes that it has been able to sustain so far and the understanding between the management and the employee union might come to an end (Hall & Hord, 2001). Thus, it is very important that George and the new yard manager are kept at the same place so that they can continue to help the yard in achieving an overall growth and sustaining the changes that it has achieved till now.
Blue collar workers are those employees who perform manual labour in industries. Blue collar workers work with their hands and require a lot of skill. (Alfes, Shantz, Truss, & Soane, 2012) Some examples of blue collar jobs are aircraft mechanics, plumbers, electricians and structural workers whereas there can also be certain blue collar jobs, such as cleaning, maintenance, etc. that do not require highly skilled personnel. On the other hand, white collar workers are those who basically perform job duties in an official setting and includes jobs like bankers, attorneys, accountants, etc.
From the very beginning, white collar workers have always been given more importance than blue collar workers and the work conditions for blue collar workers have always been tough. Blue collar workers are subjected to harsh working conditions and are paid according to the labour that they do. Workplace changes have always been a greater concern for blue collar unions as compared to white collar workers or public and private sector unions because they have a greater vulnerability towards the working conditions. Blue collar workers put in greater efforts and a lot of manual labour and are still not paid as much as private or public sector unions. Above this, if a workplace change interferes with the working conditions or is not in the favour of the blue collar workers then blue collar unions are definitely more likely to indulge in the change as compare to private sector or public sector unions. Further, blue collar employees are highly skilled but might not be well educated. They might not even have knowledge about their own rights while working as employees. As a result, blue collar unions have to be more involved in decisions related to the workplace so that they can look after the rights of the employees and ensure an ethical behaviour from the employers. Even in the case of Top Trucking Company’s Wollongong yard, the indulgence shown by George (union delegate) in the matters related to changes related to the workplace shows that the blue collar employees are highly affected by even the smallest of workplace changes and they need to have a voice that can represent their interests (Oke, 2015). Therefore, without a doubt, blue collar unions will always be more involved in workplace changes as compared to public or private sector unions who are not much affected by workplace changes.
In order to validate this piece of argument, one can consult various sources of information and find out that the blue collar unions have offered more resistance to changes as compared to private or public sector unions. It can be found that the blue collar unions have also resorted to more strikes and lockouts as compared to public or private sector unions while in certain cases, the blue collar unions have also resorted to violent behaviour against their employers.
The progress shown by Top Trucking Company’s Wollongong yard has been a direct result of the changes that the new owners and the new yard manager has introduced in the workplace. The understanding that has developed between the yard manager and the union leader is also promoting healthy employee employer relation and has become a catalyst in improving the performance metrics of the company. The Wollongong yard of the company has been rated as the highest preforming workplace in the region and people from all around the region are visiting the yard to analyse their operations. The Wollongong yard will continue on its path of success only if the organisation is able to sustain the changes that have been introduced so far. Thus, the organisation should try its best to analyse the success factors and sustain the changes.
Deadrick, D. L., & Stone, L. D. (2014, September). Human resource management: Past, present, and future. Human Resource Management Review, 24(3), 193-195.
Grama, B., & Todericiu, R. (2016, December). Change, Resistance to Change and Organizational Cynicism. 11(3).
Kalleberg, A. L. (2003, May 1). Flexible Firms and Labor Market Segmentation: Effects of Workplace Restructuring on Jobs and Workers.
Alfes, K., Shantz, A. D., Truss, C., & Soane, E. C. (2012, May 22). The link between perceived human resource management practices, engagement and employee behaviour: a moderated mediation model. 24(2), 330-351.
Sheehan, M. (2013, January 6). Human resource management and performance: Evidence from small and medium-sized firms. International Small Business Journal.
Hall, G. E., & Hord, S. M. (2001). Implementing Change: Patterns, Principles, and Potholes.
Rouse, W. B. (2016, May 20). Leadership and Governance.
McFarland, V. (2016, August 22). Change Resistance.
Kuipers, B. S., Higgs, M., Kickert, W., Tummers, L., Grandia, J., & Voet, J. V. (2013, August 24). The Management Of Change In Public Organizations: A Literature Review. 92(1), 1-20.
Oke, L. (2015). Human Resources Management. 1(4).
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