Maruti’s Case

INTRODUCTION
 Maruti Suzuki India Limited is India’s leading automobile manufacturer in India,
established in 1982.
 The company is headquartered in New Delhi.
 The company is a subsidiary of Suzuki Motor Corporation, Japan.
 It is the first Indian company to cross the 10 million sales mark.
 The company has three plants at Gurgaon and one at Manesar, located in Haryana.
 The company is known for producing the most affordable, fuel-efficient, and reliable cars.

In July 2012, serious disputes broke out at the Maruti labour plant when workers became
aggressive. This led to the death of an executive, leaving hundreds wounded. Maruti had to face
a loss of $16.26 daily, resulting in the loss of market share to its competitors.

One of the major reasons for all these violence and trouble was the lack of communication
between the people. Hence, we will try to share some of the communication barriers that led to
this unfortunate incident.

EFFECTS OF THE STRIKE

 The processing plant, with an assembling limit of 1700 vehicles, was shut down.
 The sales fell by 1/5th, and the company lost US$550 million of market value in 3 weeks.
 The organization was in a tense situation due to the depreciation of the rupee & falling
sales.
 Sales plunged by 25.34% in 2011.
 The company Lost 50% of passenger vehicle sales.
 Cancellation of bookings as the waiting period of the cars increased.
 Rivals started eating up their market share pie.
 Long term effects were even after reopening; it was working at one-tenth the limit.

COMMUNICATION BARRIERS
 Closed Communication Climate: The factory administration acted in an authoritative
manner and pressurised the workers to follow their command without open
communication with them. They additionally imposed their decision upon the workers by
disabling the formation of MSEU, and also by making them sign a good conduct bond.
These activities led to several flash strikes and the creation of an anger bubble amongst
the workers, leading to terrible consequences.

 Emotional Hijacking: The strong emotions of the worker interfered with their logical
reasoning when the five hundred permanent employees were suspended, and their
demands were not fulfilled, leading them to take extreme measures like burning an
executive.
  Emotional Intelligence: MSIL management did not understand the emotions of their
workers while imposing their decision, as they tried to pressurize the workers against
joining the new Union and wanted them to sign an agreement. This apathy towards the
workers resulted in pent-up anger.

 Lack of Trust: Workers of MSIL had lost their trust in the management of the
organisation to look after their well-being and take action to resolve their problems.
Instead, they believed that the administration was forced to set up a worker’s grievance
committee and labour welfare committee only due to their strike.

 The difference in Perspective: MSIL management and the workers had different
perspectives regarding the demand for the formation of the Union. Workers perceived it
to be a positive externality, whereas the administration thought it to be futile. Both
extreme views were not resolved and led to undesired events.

 The difference in Status: The perceived difference in status between the management
and the workers resulted in messages and their meanings being lost while moving up
and down the corporate hierarchy. The management somehow seemed condescending
and tried to impose their thoughts on the free will of the workers. The workers, on the
other hand, took the issue to be an over-involvement of the management by engaging in
the micromanagement of things the management should not interfere with.

CONCLUSION
We have seen that there were many barriers of communications that led to this unfortunate
incident. To avoid such barriers, there are certain steps that could have been taken by people
like:
 Effective communication between the workers and the management should be
implemented by meetings or problem addressal events holding at regular intervals.
 Proper treatment to the workers in the factory, with a regular audit of the salary and
work-life balance to maintain a particular satisfaction level.
 More trust among people should be developed through various team-building activities.
 Avoidance of taking the law in their own hands.
 Maintaining a more open environment to accommodate the changes required to stop the
formation of agitation in people’s mind.

This can be clearly seen that no one got any benefit out of it other than chaos and losses. We
have also seen the various communication barriers which led to the cause of this incident.
This proves the importance of communication from the perspective of any business or Job.
Also, it really does not matter from which class the person came from; they should be treated as
an asset to an organization irrespective of their caste, background, or status.

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