BUS603: Managing People

In 2006 almost half of the respondents failed to answer the question whether they were encouraged to show personal initiative, or not. In 2008 the number of employees who were not sure how to answer the question decreased by half; compared to 14.9% in 2006, in 2008 35.8% believe that they are encouraged to show personal initiative; but at the same time the number of respondents who think that they are completely not encouraged to show personal initiative increased in 2008. Average assessment of the statement in points in 2008 compared with that of 2006 changed slightly: 2.8 points respectively compared to 2.3 points out of 5.

Encouragement of employees to show personal initiative depends on the head of department where the employee works. For example, employees having no managerial positions in the logistics department and former sales department are strongly encouraged to show personal initiative, but employees from personnel and production departments are discouraged to show initiative. In-depth interviews revealed that the CEO also encourages employees to show personal initiative and his behavior compared with the previous CEO is more open: he not only participates in the meetings with department managers, he also meets with the employees holding non- managerial positions and in case of problems ask employees about the decision one could offer.

Average assessment of the statement that employees made decisions independently both in 2006 and 2008 is the same: 3.3 points, so it can be concluded that there were no significant changes in this area. About 60% of respondents agreed with the statement that the manager controls only the final result of their work and they themselves decide the work organization issues. Analysis has shown that this perception is spread among the top and middle-level managers; specialists, however, think that the manager controls their results, and work organization issues as well.