hy should even blue collar workers act in a self-responsible manner and participate in the decision process on their work and their working environment? The answer is simple: because only then they identify themselves with the decision to be taken. Good assembly- line workers know the shortest work procedures and the little "snags" of their machines much better than their supervisors who – in a hierarchically-oriented company - often have the responsibility over the whole machine park. Each individual employee of a company is able to think like a businessperson. All it takes is asking them to do so. In Belgium, the Volvo Car plant is often cited as an example of this new kind of thinking. It is a triumph of an employee-friendly approach. Yet, they didn't do it without economic purpose. Volvo Cars learned that it made sense to make people work together in teams: it helped them to become the most efficient car plant within the Volvo group, and even one of the most efficient European assembly plants in general. According to Volvo Cars Gent, Teamwork linked to fostering a sense of responsibility and initiative is crucial to achieving total quality. They want employees to strive to reach their potential, using their preferences as a starting point. They believe that valuing people, letting them participate in running the organisation makes a difference. If you look at the evolution during the second half of the 1990s, all figures show drastic improvements. For instance, their productivity went up, their maintenance costs went down, the number of remarks during quality audits decreased ant the employee satisfaction rose. In 1999 they won the European Quality Award ant the TPM award for World Class Achievement.

The recommendation?

Charles Szulak, former president of Visteon Automotive Systems at Ford is known for saying: "It is impossible that a handful of top managers can enforce substantial changes in a company with 82.000 employees". If you want to conduct successful Change Management today, you have to include ALL people affected by the possible consequences of this process. Only that way one can effectively react to the environmental problems which are becoming more complex every day.