N.Z. INDUSTRY TODAY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14639, 7 April 1948, Page 5

N.Z. INDUSTRY TODAY

MANAGER’S ROLE IMPORTANT Need For Goodwill Of Workers Proper Attitude Towards Staff “It is often said that labour unions are going to dominate and gain control of industry that man can no longer run his own business. There has never been a time when the balance of power has not been with industrial management, and if that situation is upset it will be the manager’s own fault,” said Mr R. D. Greenwood, in his presidential address to the annual meeting of the New Zealand Institute of Industrial Management, held in Wellington recently. Those who set cut to make their own way in the world shouldered the entire responsibilty, and no trade union limited their hours of labour, said Mr Greenwood. Moreover, there was always an uncertainty that was unknown to those who worked for a fixed 1 wage. The head of a one-man business shared with the piece-worker that worrying uncertainty with regard to his wages, a factor generally accepted by serious people as one of the greatest hardships that the working people had to put up with, but a consideration rarely, if ever, recognised to the employer. “Throughout the ages the average man has expressed himself in his work, and he will need to do so in the future,” said Mr Greenwood. “The problem then will shift from that of too much work and too little reward to too much leisure and too little meaning in life to make the spare time anything but a nuisance.” It could be maintained with truth that the business administrator exercised a power infinitely greater than did any professional man, for he practically determined the conditions under which the huge mass of the people must work and live, and the great responsibility he bore, combined with the 'intricacy of his task, alike called for the highest type of practical intelligence carefully trained along the soundest lines.

“Undoubtedly the greatest source of all wealth in manufacturing is the ability to secure the good will of the work-people in their work,” said Mr Greenwood. “This can be done by no short cut to popularity; it is possible only through the proper attitude of the company towards the workers, which means of the management or manager towards them.”

Good . leadership commanded loyalty not to a glamorous personality. It gained its best expression only in a situation where human ends were in view and human satisfactions were by way of being realised. “The present idea of management, taken in its broadest and best sense, would suggest thinking of it a profession rather than a job,” he said. “The manager of a plant of average size has the opportunity to contribute towards the happiness and uplift of many people, to advance the

physical welfare of these people more than the average doctor, and to serve them with good counsel, advice, and leadership more intimately and effectively than could the average lawyer.”