Psychological Applications Applied in a Business

Executive summary.

Psychological applications applied in a business, benefits the customers, owners and the employees. This is a proven concept.

Now how far this is true for Bangladesh is our key concern.

This report is divided in to two parts. One dealing with the theories, i.e. what is Business Psychology, and the other dealing with the practical, for which we have gone in three different organizations for survey, to see whether the psychological applications are applied or not and what are the outputs.

What is Business Psychology ?

By business we mean the part of social life whose function is to provide the society with the commodities they need. This takes place with the exchange of money.

Business psychology is the systematic study of the state of mind of the people at work so that several business and industrial problems can be solved and the relation with the workers and customers are improved.

Applications of Psychology in Business

Recruitment and selection of personnel .
Marketing
Ethical questions
Supervisory tasks
Management
Union
Labor Management relationship
Mental Health of the employees
Group working
Social situations

Importance of Business psychology

Selection of proper men at proper place.
Proper distribution of work according to ability and attitude.

minimizing the wastage of human power due to fatigue , illness and accidents
promoting labor welfare
improvement in human relations
Improvement in industrial relations.
maximum production

Reasons why Psychological Principles are not applied in Bangladesh

Absence of professional manager.
lack of modern attitudes of the management
abundant supply of employee.
Psychologists are laboratory oriented and class oriented .
Lack of idea about the psychologist in our business
appointment of Psychologists is expensive

Psychology focuses on the Followings

Behavior
Perception
A whole person
Motivated Behavior
Desire for involvement
The value of a person

Attitudes
Personality
Morale.
Safety
Training

Difference between the Management and Labor

1) Economic Aspect

2) Ego, intelligence level

3) Different perception of different people

4) Increase of production _ this can be benefit both if they agree on it . But in realty it can not be found since each gain at the expense of the other .

5) Unemployment creates psychological changes for an employee in a negative direction. The unemployed man becomes emotionally un stable, loses his/her sense of value , self confidence and acquires habit of loafing and killing time and destroyed his /her spirit.

Company profile

Chung JI ( BD) Appeals.

Company Profile

Chairman: Mr. Shin Leu

Director: Mrs. Lucy Leu.

MD. K.M Hussain.( MP)

Location: Middle Badda, Dhaka.

Total workers: 343(app.)

Products: jeans pants, shirts, casual shirts, pants, T shirts, sweaters,

Psychological applications in Chung Ji

The GM to Chung Ji Mr. H.S.M Imran told us that they do not apply all the psychological application. According to him none of the factories or the companies apply them and the concept pf introducing is beyond expectations. Maintaining the total workers relations are given to the HRM department, which is controlled by him .

They have an advisor too, based in whose advises , the treatments for the workers are designed..

The working environ-ment:

Chung Ji has a very ideal working condition. Not a single person is allowed to enter inside with shoes. The floors are clean and clear. Sweepers are sweeping the floors in every 1 hours. The light inside is sufficient and almost pure air to breath. All the departments that produce noises are kept separated with Thai Glasses.

Safety :

Since it deals with cloths and dying chemicals which are flammable subjects , they always concentrates more on the safety precautions. They have almost 8 fire extinguishers in all its 6 floors with sprinklers in to the ceilings. The fire alarms and the sprinklers are connected to sensors which on smoke activates both the alarms and the sprinklers. Since fire could cause a greater harm at any time , the fastest escapes are essential. For this once in every two months they practice fire Drill, where the workers are taught to escape form the emergency exit quickly.

The dangerous machines that they have , like the cutting machines or the pressing ones, are all fenced .

There are some machines with possibility of greater accidents. Those machines are operated only with the experienced ones.

Employee /worker Recruitment:

When ever there is a vacancy or requirement, it is published in the national news papers. The applicants need to have experiences of at least tow years. The office employee interviews are taken in the presence of the chairman and managing directors. Beside English they are expected to have skills in either Chinese or French. Beside asking some formal questions , they are also asked informal questions. An environment is created where the interviewee is hardly made realized that, he/she has sit for an interviews.

Once the employee are appointed , they are kept as “BS or Before Starting” where their attitudes, ability to cope with the organizations, dedication to work etc are observed. Once the newly appointed employees passes this stage, they are placed as permanent.

The working policy

The working hour starts from 10,am to 6,pm. The administrative officer figures out the schedules for each day, which are allocated to all the four departments. The works are not fixed. They are constantly changing, form maintaining accounts to monitoring the production, in to the 3^rd to 6^th floors. This according to the GM beside keeping the employees off from boring, makes them interested too.

There are options such as overtime, only for the factory workers who gets paid for the extra hours they work..

Employees being motivated/ their morale.

According to the manager, no one wants to work unless they are forced to. On the other hand, once forced constantly, people might be dissatisfied and the experienced could leave jobs. Keeping this mind they have found out an alternative, i.e. launching packages such as bonuses for those who have never taken a single leave, finishing production before time. There is a doctor employed, who gives free treatment to the workers or employees. This too inspires the workers or accelerates the willingness of the workers to a greater extent

Avoiding fatigues

Its common that no one can work constantly, very one needs a rest or a gossip to keep them off from being bored or feel sick. Once bored, working concentration would be broken and the production hampered.

To avoid fatigues, the floor in charges are instructed to overlook the gossips that the workers do in between their works. They are also given two short breaks in every 3 hours apart from their lunch breaks.

Avoiding frustration

If the employees are frustrated due their family hassles, the authority have a very little to do. But especial attentions are given so that are not frustrated for their efforts or works. For this the first and the primary key is the traditional promotion system. Who ever shows better performances are subject to promotion. Nothing but sole concept of better performance is considered here. Once promoted the salaries too gets increased. Thus they also get economically liberty. There are some machineries where possibilities of occurring accidents are more. Those working for those machines might be frustrated, de motivated or their morale could be decreased. Thinking this the Chung JI have provided free insurances for all those working in risk conditions and for more then three years. So once in accidents they get the medical coverage, on death their family gets paid both by the insurance and the company.

Job safety

None of the workers are fired or their gets reduced. For their faults or mistakes they are corrected without drumming out the whole thing to the others. With the constant correction, if the respective person do not come to his working form, his/her salaries are reduced and on more deterioration he/she is advised to resign. He or she can work as long as he/she wants to work.

They are free to point out the authorities faults.

Yes, it sounds funny and unimaginable but its true that they are free to point out the authorities faults.(if any). Each workers are supplied with a form. When ever they are ill

Treated either by the authority or by fellow employees are they are totally free to specify it on the form and then dump it in a box kept only for this purpose. There are instances on which based on and being proven, steps were taken against the wrong doers.

They are also taken informal interviews, where they are never at all gets realized what they are passing through. In this way they often speak things out of their grudges and thus the authority focuses on their problems.

How are the employees being corrected ?

Some times the workers make mistakes such as faulty cuttings , or stitching. Often they also misbehaves with the in charges. Its made mandatory by the rule makers that in such cases the employees should not be treated harshly.

The labor and the management relation relationship :

The labor management relationship is a very sweet one. They respect the chairman, MD.GM and each of the workers and the employees. None of the people here underestimates each other, rather they treat other brothers and sisters.. this scenario is really an inspiring one .

Once in two months the management and the employees sit in the Chung Ji courtyard for meeting. Where the employee come up with their problems and one after another is solved smoothly.

The labor & employee relationship :

The employee relationship too is a noticeable one. The possibility of fighting is almost zero. All the workers in all the floors are working at their own pace. Except occasional giggling ,murmuring laughing. According to the GM, since it was announced before that every one should be concentrated with their own their own work no one interferes with others. This reduces the possibilities of fighting.

Solving labor problems

problems could arise between the labor or the management.

Labor to labor problems

This arises among the labors in one or two cases it lead to fighting. In such cases the subjects are simply separated from one to another. After a day or two, both the parties are brought to the HRM supervisor, where they are asked to explain their problem which is solved instantly.

Labor management problems.

The labors often comes with their demands. With the demands they are allowed to come directly to the Chairman or the MD. None of the records says that the labors reacted violently. All the demands are produced, listened and considered if possible , else rejected showing proper causes. A report says that , in 2001, the workers demanded increases in wage but the authority considering the situation, said that they can do it only from the mid of 2002, they even produced causes which satisfied the workers. The management of course kept their words and increased their salaries from the mid 2002.

Workers sincerity and regularity

Employees of Chung Ji are much sincere and regular. The attendance for the month of march 2004, shows that only 5 out of 487 workers had taken leaves that too for pregnancy and periodic leaves. Their sincerity is appreciable too. They never leave the factory unless they have finished the jobs that they are allocated to. We were told a very interesting case regarding this matter. In 2003 , they had a huge order and with 8 hours in a day it would not be possible to meet the deadline. The authority did not know what to do . realizing the importance of the matter and the possibility of loss , all the workers willingly agreed to work 12 hours in a day finally the production was over before deadline.

If this is a true story we can easily assume that the works did it out of their dedication, love and satisfaction and for the positive attitude to the authority and the organization.

Trainings for the Employees:

Chung Ji is a garment factory and more the workers are skilled that’s the better for the authority. To train them regarding the new techniques, professional skilled people are brought directly from China. The trainings are mainly based for 6-8 month and the main advantage is that the trainer knows and can speak Bengali fluently, which the workers can understand.

How do the workers feel?

While taking the workers interviews Shahzan Miah told us that, he is completely satisfied with what ever he gets in Chung JI. According to him he gives priority to the working condition or the environment, and then obviously the salaries which he thinks is comparatively higher then the other factories. He also tells us that many other factory workers do not enjoy the advantages that he gets here and the authority is an ideal one who values the workers progress and lets them explore their inborn qualities. . We had to believe him , because according to one of the supervisors he is the one who had already worked in more than 10 other companies and never staying there for more than a month. Asma Banu (19) says that , previously she was working in a nearby factory where the women were ill treated , and abused for mistakes. She never could work at ease and that made her make more mistakes. But now that she joined here , she feels her self free and independent , rather then acting like a puppet. She stresses more to the point that “women here are never liked down or ill treated and just looked as they do to the men “

We have also found some workers who have some demands, demands like a transport facilities and a bit increase in a salaries.

The child care :

According to the factory law of Bangladesh, every factory with majority of women must be having a childcare. The Chung JI too have it obeying the laws, which many other factories don’t.

The Chung Ji’s Childcare is a beautiful one. It really looks goods to see that the mothers are working at one end and the kids are playing on the other. The kids are buried in dozens of toys which their parents would not afford to buy.

Attitude, Satisfaction & Production:

Attitudes of both the employees and authority are positive , they value each other highly. the workers are comparatively smarter then what we usually see for the other garments. They have a self respect with a mixture of arrogance. Later we came to know that at the beginning all the workers were taught to talk to the visitors. This in today has sharpened their Character & Personality.

The workers are satisfied and they feel the company as their own part. This could be the key factor for which the production or the supply was never delayed and rather increased.

It’s a common complain that the garment lady worker are always treated badly. This is not true for Chung Ji, where the majority workers are women and they do work at ease.

Observing MAY DAY

Each year May Day emerges as Eid for the employees’. Huge arrangements are done. Dancing, singing gossiping, having no barriers, restrictions, no formality to maintain to the authority, relishes the whole years burden off the employees.

Lacking:

Chung JI is such an ideal working place, still it lacks providing important facilities like “Psychological Applications in Business. They do apply it , but its in their own way. The scenario would be mush better if we could have seen a psychologist there. but why are the lacking? According to the GM , first of all this is a concept which the workers will hardly find interesting whose sole intention is just drawing salaries. More over they are still traditionally back ward and will hardly disclose their problems to the psychologists. If they can come out of the tradition of Chung JI will surely appoint a psychologist , no matter how expensive he/she is. Finally, the main barrier is Bangladesh have few reputed psychologists, but they do not deal with the business problems.

Photos to clear the scenario of Chung Ji.

We have also found some workers who have some demands, demands like a transport facilities and a bit increase in a salaries.

The child care :

According to the factory law of Bangladesh, every factory with majority of women must be having a childcare. The Chung JI too have it obeying the laws, which many other factories don’t.

Lacking:

Attitude , Satisfaction & Production :

attitudes of both the employees and authority are positive , they value each other highly. the workers are comparatively smarter then what we usually see for the other garments. They have a self respect with a mixture of arrogance. Later we came to know that at the beginning all the workers were taught to talk to the visitors. This in today has sharpened their Character & Personality.

The workers are satisfied and they feel the company as their own part. This could be the key factor for which the production or the supply was never delayed and rather increased.

It’s a common complain that the garment lady worker are always treated badly. This is not true for Chung Ji, where the majority workers are women and they do work at ease.

Trainings for the Employees:

Company profile

Owner: M. Nasir

Established: 1995

Product: Finished leather

Director: M. faiaz

Location: Hazari Bagh

Taking the interview of the MD. Hafiz uz Zaman, we came to the surprising fact that he does not know any thing about psychological applications for business. He has never hard about it. So how does he manage it? The MD says that the workers usually come , attend their job and leave. The company has nothing to treat form their part. Now lets see the scenario of the inside factory.

The working environment

They have a very stingy working place. Every where it has stagnant dirty water. The drainage is over flown. The working place is monstrous. There is no fresh air or ventilations. Light that too is very insufficient and deeming. Expressing in simple words the working condition is not at all an ideal one.

Safety

The factory for finishing lathers uses flammable chemicals which are dangerous indeed. At any moment there is a possibility of serious accidents. To prevent this none of the machines are fenced, neither have they have sufficient quantities of fire extinguisher. More over we have found that electrical wires of high voltages are lying on to the floor or to the stagnant water.

How was the May Day observed?

Nothing much but just a day’s leave is all that the workers received form the authority. Beside it was also mentioned that those willing, can come and attend their works.

Recruitment of the employees

The employees here do not need much experiences, except for few cases where they have to operate huge machines. Other than that those willing to work can come, request the authority and if vacant can manage a job.

The working policy

The workers are supposed to come at 8:30am and leave at 6:30pm. They only get an hour’s break. They are paid on daily basis and each female worker gets tk.100, where as the male gets tk.120.So we suppose that the authority have sex differences. The workers do not get or rather do not take any leave because once missed a single day, they don’t get paid. Whether the workers are permanent or temporary, it depends upon the MD, where he is the one to decide every thing.

Employees being motivated

None of the employees are motivated. They work out of fear, for being less paid and thus starving. They do not work out of any interest but for the fact that with their salaries they will feed their families.

Avoiding fatigues.

Not the smallest efforts are taken to avoid fatigues. The employees are sue to suffer from it. The sullen faces of the workers proves that they work for hours in that stingy place with dirty water and with out proper ventilation. Its probably due to this fact that most of the workers are with broken health.

Avoiding frustration

The majority of the workers of Bangladesh are sure to be frustrated due to their family problems. But once they come to the working place they must be made to forget it. No such efforts are taken in H. B tannery regarding this. More over the workers are worried or frustrated because their salaries could be cut off or they might be fired off any time.

Job safety

The job here is not at all a safe one. The workers here might loose their jobs at any time. The workers in Bangladesh are always available and cheap and this is what the authority takes advantages of. More over none of the workers are promoted and they remain there for ever.

Are they free to point out the authorities faults ?

The authority runs the business the way they like it. None of the workers here dare say anything about them. What ever is ordered has to be followed by the workers.

How are the employees been corrected?

The MD him self with some other supervisor monitors the work. Whenever the workers takes pauses, gossips they get scolding. Often they are used abused with filthy languages.

Why is the scenario so different?

HB Tanner y don’t follow or apply psychological applications. So they will motivate, avoid fatigues or frustrations is far beyond imaginations. But what are the reasons behind this? The main reasons could be lack of ideal business concepts and proper educations other than making money. The proprietor thinks that its an expensive job and probably would need maintaining procedures. Who would do this? Even when we advises them and told him some of the advantages of applying psychological applications , he simply answered us that its the tradition that we follow, perhaps we will think about psychology in business.

Workers and their feelings

When we wanted to take the workers interview the MD looked a bit annoyed. Still he did not stop us

Now taking the interviews was a troublesome task. They looked and was looking to the MD’s room again and again. Finally we had to promise them that whatever us said would not be disclosed to the authority.

Mr. Mobin Miah (47) is working here for almost 18 months. At first he hated this job and now it buys him food. Why don’t he leave the job ? he thought of leaving the job. But once he would leave it, it would take him several days to find another and during these days his family would starve. He also says that the company earns so much due to their hard work and are hardly appreciated or given bonus. On such occasions the owners though parties where they are never invited.

Maimuna Begum (35) has joined here recently; it’s only some 7 months. She mistakes us as journalists & urges “brothers, please write something for us………..for how long we the tannery workers will be treated like animals.”

Their social responsibilities:

The whole inner work place is no doubt polluted. They pollute the environment too. The drainage line is blocked & locked—consequences are roads are flooded with afflunts.The left over are not even dumped on the dustbin, its down on the road. Thus polluting the nature & the environment.

Attitudes & Satisfaction:

Though the workers, attitude between each other is considerably better one, their attitude to the authority is much worse. Yes it’s true that they salute them while passing, but once passed they simply abuse them. None of the workers are satisfied. They don’t feel like working in H.B.Tannary, still they do & have to. This is because they are bound by their fate. They do it out of their need to keep their appetite full.