Suppose you were arriving to be the new manager of a newly aquired shortline railroad. You find that moral is pretty low, that the operating people do litle more than the minimum to earn their wages, that when problems arise, service suffers dramaticly without any attempts to work around the problems, and that potential customers are lost to trucking because of the lack of commitment of the operating people. What would be your managemene stratergy to motifate your new employees?
Now suppose this operation is in a foreign country where the spoken language is not English, although some of the employees do have a working knowledge of English. You have just begun to learn their language.
That is a good answer, and if you really are the boss, you can implement it. But suppose you are only an employee, an employee manager, of one of the larger organizations and cqnnot implemen that policy immediately, if ever, before geting the approval of the overall management?
Well, if you can’t motivate by the carrot, you will have to use the stick. But either approach is complicated. Maybe you could tell us a little more about this operation. Is this a hypothetical question or not? If not, can you tell us more about the short line such as traffic, profitability, business history, etc.? Also tell us the details of how the employees are under performing. Is this a private enterprise or a publically owned business? Is there a union? Where is the railroad located?
Case 1. North American carrier. Branchline spinoff of a class 1. Non-Union. Former owner bought it for scrap value and decided to make some money hauling freight with minimum upkeep and maintenance. New owners consider the line potentially profitable with some investment to upgrade track and with leased locos in good condition replacing the run-down ones ready for scrap track.
Case 2. Overseas privitazation of the formerly government owned railroad that hauled the one commoedity that is the main export. Union with featherbedding and union ties to government. Very crowded and unsafe highway means governmen want private ownership of railroad to take truck traffic off the highway. Thus the privatization, which the government really looks at as a an experiment.
In a non-freight application, the first year of operation Jerusalem Light Rail shut down completely during the Jerusalem Marathon, since the runners’ path impacted the route. The second year service was provided on outlying sections to trailing crossovers just outside the impacted area, and two regular bus routes procided the bridge with free transfer.
Case 1 sounds like it has potential. Above, I suggested finding a way to incentivize the employees by giving them a stake in the operation.
You said the person entering this management position will not have the authority to make such a large change. But if it is a small operation, as it sounds, there can’t be that much upper management. So I suggest the person convince that upper management to make the changes for incentivizing the employees.
Either that or fire the employees who are not performing and replace them with ones who will do the job. With a small operation, that should not be too difficult of an option either. It might be easier than incentivizing the employees.
Case 2 sounds impossible. If it is unionized with a semi-government
Maybe in case two, union agreement for improved productivity must be had before assuming the control. But even then, in a foreign situation, how assured can we be that the agreement will be adhered to? Anyone have experiences like this?
Well, if the line is productive and can make a good profit, maybe it could work with the union operation. But you suggested that the union operation is hurting the business. Once it reaches that point, it is very hard to reverse. Public sector operation alone is like a union. When you unionize the public sector, it is like two unions in tandem. So fundamentally, it stands in opposition to improved productivity.
You just have to use a different carrot. There are lots of carrots out there.
RESPECT does not cost you anything. Respect and value each employee. Instead of punishments use compassion, teaching and praise to move them forward.
TEAMWORK does not cost you anything. Getting in there with the work force, getting your hands and clothes dirty will help to earn their respect.
PRIDE does not cost you anything. Take pride in your railroad, your employees and your employers. Your employers give you money and therefore have defacto earned your respect. Take pride in the work of your employees, and they will put more pride into their work. They are doing YOUR work, ergo they have earned your pride and respect.
NOT being in the Railroad Business, I might take a different approach to the situation…
#1 Issue: Why was the line placed in the Position to be sold by the original Ownership ?
#2 Since it is a different Country than the Buyers are used to operating in. I would think that the Local Political Landsacape would bear serious investigation.
( Was there not an American Investment Group (?) that bought a National Railroad Network,(in either Central or South America?). After serious time and financial investment in it; had the local politicians throw so many obstacles in its path. The Investors pulled out and the whole situation degenerated into a scenario of " My lawyers can whip your lawyers." ) ?
#3 Determine the Local Labor situation.
3a.)Are skilled workers from the previous operations still available and willing to continue working for the new ownership ?
3b.)If not would workers from outside the local environment be able to come in and operate safely?
3c.) Are conditions such that skilled workers could be brought in and operate the new line in a profitable manor?
3d.)Would Local Labor, Politics;or even Religious Environment) preclude safe operations of the new line or operator?
A last question might be, Can the Investment group opertate the line profitably, or would it be better to bring in a more skille
Situation #2 would be an extreme risk – dealing with a foreign country rife with graft, bribery, and corruption among railroad management, government officials, and labor unions. Risk of a coup overthrowing the government and confiscation or nationalization of the railroad should also be considered.
The first thing any competent manager must do is to Manage him-or herself. Therefore you do not even look at Case 2. It will cause you more grief than salary can buy.
In Case 1 you evaluate this before you take the position and insist on those decisions and controls which will enable you to adjust as you communicate with both employees and customers ( and perhaps with local government officials). If your employer agrees to give you these you then begin by determining what needs to be done first, second and on down the line (being prepared to change priorities as things change). Then the several suggestions offered by other respondents can then be implemented as appropriate.
If your prospective employer will not give you the control you need look elsewhere for a management position.
I would begin by trying to understand what the underlying problems are. There’s no point in changing anything until one gets to the root of what’s wrong. I’ve found that one really can’t assume anything. I used to go into trucking companies and do just that. I was brought in to turn things around, and I was usually given a clear mandate to do whatever was necessary (and within the law of course). Sometimes the people who hired me didn’t like what they heard… i.e. that an improvement in performance would require that I fire the very people who hired me to do this. One time I had to fire relatives of the owner…that required a lot of tact, but it had to be done. And sometimes no firings were needed at all…simple fine tuning some procedures and moving people around was enough to improve performance to acceptable levels. In most cases improving performance was a matter of putting together the right team. Once that is done you’ve got bench strength, and everything else falls into place…that’s probably true in any company, domestic or foreign.
The secrets to success are 1) show up. 2) know what you are doing, and 3) pay attention.
Assuming the new owner is good to go with these three, then what can he do to turn things around? The new guy has a window early on to be “the new sheriff in town”. That is, he can explain and demonstrate “how things are going to be”. This is neither carrot nor stick. It’s just about setting expectations. Explain what the goals are, how the work should be approached and what success looks like. Then, “walk the talk”.
After that, the trick is to get the workers to act like owners. This doesn’t happen merely because you give them a stake in ownership, but that might help. I’d have them earn that. But you do want to push down decision making as responsibility is earned. Listen more than you talk.
Third, measure everything you reasonably can and provide feedback so that you fix what’s broken and can reward tangible success.
First of all, if I were the new manager I would have done some research before accepting the job. I would believe that the railroad had potential and I would have come with a strategy.
That strategy would include talking to my own supervisors to assess the problem. I would also be very active in getting out and working with the employees to see what they were doing and what their own perspective was. If there was a language problem I would make it a point to have a person I trusted who was fluent in both languages.
In any organization employees are not identical. Skills, motivation and personal style will vary. Based on my own research I would choose a group of customer service reps. who would also function as ombudsmen to cut through the bureaucracy. I would make it clear to them that there job was both to solve customer problems and make the customers happy and I would empower them to do it. And I would reward them with an appropriate salary increase.
Also, I would have a general meeting with all employees to outline the problem. I would emphasize that loss of business is a problem we all share. Either all of us on this railroad would succeed together or we would all fail together. And I want to succeed.
Finally, I would find time to spend part of my day and a good part out working on the railroad with employees. I would know about the problems and the solutions because I was there when they occurred.
After 3 months of this I would assess to see the company’s and my own strengths and weaknesses. Then a second 3 months and then 6 months which would be a year away. After a year if I hadn’t turned the situation around I would resign. But I fully expect that I would be continuing.