Company bosses are often rather remote figures, and the bigger the company, the more remote the boss.
How far can a business be run democratically?
You might consider:
- the wide range o sizes of companies
- the demands on employees
- whether democracy is appropriate in a business setting
12 comments:
a good business is often the pduct of cold calculation. a democratic system often wastes time and money resulting in a poor business. a lone company leader can make quicker and more cost effective decisions resulting in a better business prospect. alan sugar is a relentless boss who is not afraid to make decisions even if it is a major dissapointment to somebody else. this supports the idea that often a lone business man is better.
The business boss usually knows best. Often they will have set up the business and it has succeeded because of their knowledge. Democracy in a business would lead to some people making bad suggestions, which could in turn lead to business failure. Whilst it seems unfair, the head of the business has experience running it and usually a feel for the market.
Businesses such as large factories such as Nike, their headquaters are based in countries such as America but the outlets and factories are based around the world. they can be run democratically because there are managers which are responsible for each outlet therefore they make the relevant decisions, however they do not make large decisions which will affect the business as a whole as this is the director job and they pass this on to this subordinates to carry out. therefore large multinational businesses are be run remotely.
in some cases businesses can be run democratically, this may depend on the number of employees, if there are a lot of employees than it may mean that everyone can not get their point across and may lead to conflict within the empoyees.
some employees may prefer to be told what to do and be reactive rather than proactive, a democratic environment may not be the best.
democracy may be appropriate if it is a small business as there won't be a lot of employees, this may become harder in a bigger business when there are lots of people
umisha patel 12kk
Bussiness's do have a remote bosses this is needed because there needs to be a leader.
There can be some type of democracy as this can be beneficial to the company. The bigger bussiness the less remote sub bosses will have to be because they all work together
the effectiveness of running a business on a democratic basis can be generally deduced from observing the organisational structure of a business.
a business that has a large chain of command tends to only have a small group of individual sharreholders that control the running of the business and make executive decisions that effect the business as a whole. businesses that have a seemingly flat organisational structure (ie. small businesses that do not contain many layers) can sometimes be beneficially run on democratic terms because any decisions that are made within the business tend to have a large impact on all of its employees.
If a business is a public limited company, there is an Annual General Meeting where shareholders can vote for the manager, because of this, current bosses of big business have to run the business democratically in order for them to continue running the business, having the employees and shareholders backing them.
Salman Sheikh
to gain the most from a large sized business it may be more appropriate to allow employees to be able to give opinions on how they wish the company to be ran, this will increases the morale of the employees as they will feel appreciated. However on the other hand, for more important decisions specialist staff such as head offices, who are linked closer to the top of the companies hierachy should make the more important decisions.
James G
Most multi-national corporations employee vast amounts of people e.g. Microsoft, and therefore the logistics of everybody having equal say in how the company is run is incredibly hard. Whereas within smaller companies it may be more suitable to
However there are some forms of businesses that do try to be as democratic as possible. An example of a Co-operative is the food company 'SUMA' in which all of the employers own a part of the business and they all have a say in how the company is run. Yet within this broadly democratic type of a company, certain people own more of the company and these people usually have the last say in discussions and decisions. The company is not a gigantic multi-national but it has too many people to fit into one gathering to settle decisions, so people elect their representatives.
It is almost inevitable that companies have a hierachy so that only one or a few people have the power to make most of the decisions, however if the employees can vote on important things that affect them and have the opportunity to have their views expressed, then I would call that a democratic business.
Oliver Shaw
The size of a business is always key to customer relations. A sole trader such as a corner shop keeper will also be able to communicate with their customers as they are on the shop floor. CEO and Chairman of big business such as Tesco don't communicate to the customer as they are distanced away from giving the customers good relations where as they are trying to make money for the Business. Medium size business owners often communicate with their customers because they are more likely to play a main role in getting custom in to the business. Most business especially Plc's are run demotracitlly as they have shareholders who will attend an AGM compared to smaller business who will be run by one person
* Celeb lives will always be in the for front of the publics mind, so the media continue to print stories, giving the public exactly what it wants.
* The constant exposure only enforces their "celebrity status" creating a cycle between the public and the celebrity of: exposure > the buying of products > celebrity paycheck
* This celebrity status does however come at a price. The constant paparazzi intrusion into private lives, the following through the streets.
E.g. On the news - Halle Berry had to tell the paparazzi to leave her and her baby daughter (1 year old) alone so they could eat in peace.
Kiera Knightly talks about getting chased down the street. In a taxi, it turned into a high speed chase to try and get away.
* The changing of facts to make for a good stroy. Creating false facts from pictures creates many sales.
* To conclude, I think that the cycle rests on the shoulders of both the public and the celebrity. They feed off of each other.
AND
I think that Hiten Naranbhai is clearly the bees knees!!
To an extent businesses can be run democratically, however the size of the business plays a large part in whether this is viable, as a smaller business will be able to run a small entrepreneurial organisational structure where decisions are made between each member of the company, however as the size of the business changes this is not viable as there are more departments and aspects of the business to control, and the lines of communication are longer, therefore it is simply not viable.
The demands on the employees also limit how far a business can be run democratically, as if an employee is under immense pressure to perform, they are less likely to consult others.
However, depending on the status of the individual, an employee if a lower status in the business may consult others before decision making.
There is also the issue whether democracy is a suitable business setting, as especially with smaller businesses that are constantly adapting; through negotiating meetings etc before decision making this could cause major failure of a business through lack of speed to react co competitor changes for example.
So, depending on the size of a business, this controls whether it can be run democratically or not.
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