Ryan Bradshaw

Weekly Paper: Organizations as Human and Collegial

For many higher education institutions, like Southern Illinois University Carbondale
(SIUC), employee salaries are one of the largest expenses. SIUC, for example, spent just over
$308 million to 6,377 faculty, staff, and graduate assistants in 2015 while bringing in just $406
million in revenue that same year, which helped contribute to a large loss for the institution in
that fiscal year (Office of Institutional Research and Studies, 2016). This helps demonstrate the
importance of effective human resource management at institutions of higher education as the
people who work at the institution are both its greatest benefit and cost.
While many theories exist about human resource management, a relevant one in this
discussion is McGregors Theory X. McGregor theorized that most managers believe that
workers prefer to be led due to the fact that they are lazy and have little ambition on their own.
Theory X can be implemented in both a soft and hard manner, with soft versions resulting
in leaders avoiding conflict and creating a fake sense of harmony in the organization, leading to
resentment, apathy, and indifference by team members. Hard versions of the theory entails
tight controls, coercion, and punishment and typically results in low productivity and militant
unions. The key point if that if you treat people as if theyre lazy and need to be directed, they
conform to your expectations (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 123). Bolman & Deal (2013) also note
that when workers feel they are not on equal footing with managers, as in when they are treated
with a hard version of Theory X management style, they form their own alliances, or unions, to
try to equate the imblance (p.127).
Egalitatarianism is occasionally a hard sell in the workplace, particularly ones governed
by many unions. Organizational democracy, allowing employees more say in evaluating their

own work and their supervisors, is often opposed by union leaders who believe that it is being
offered as a gimmick by management and as a replacement to increased wages or benefits
(Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 154-155). Bolman & Deal (2013) believe that union leaders
themselves also tend to revert to Theory X management styles if that is the type of organization
leadership they themselves have been exposed to, leading to the union itself failing at
organizational democracy. This can enhance the worker apathy and reluctance of workers to take
initiative to improve a function or task. This ultimately leads to the idea that if treated like
children, employees behave accordingly (Bolman & Deal, 2013, p. 148).
Currently, SIUCs employees belong to four different unions: the Southern Illinois
University Faculty Association (FA), the Southern Illinois University Non-Tenure Track Faculty
Association (NTTFA), the Association of Civil Service Employees (ACSE), and Graduate
Assistants United of Southern Illinois University Carbondale (GAUnited) (Rodriguez, 2011).
The four unions represent the majority of the 6,377 employees of the institution, other than most
management positions and student wage employees.
From personal experience working at SIUC, the unions have a large impact on the
institutions and its employees daily operations and ability to implement change. Regulations are
in place to govern what tasks each employee is able to complete. For example, only custodial
staff may complete cleaning related tasks, as protected by their union. Therefore, when water
was spilt on the floor during an intramural basketball game, posing a slip hazard to the
participants and student employees working as officials, only a custodial staff member could
wipe up the water. The result was a long process in which a staff member had to radio a custodial
staff member, who had to leave the task they were working on, go and get a mop, and come to
the basketball court to mop up the water. This led to an unneccessary delay of up to 10 minutes

for a task that could have been completed in 30 seconds, which was detrimental to the experience
of the students who were playing in the game itself as they had to stand around for 10 minutes
waiting. Money was also wasted on paying three student officials, a scorekeeper, and a
supervisor, to idly wait around for 10 minutes waiting for the custodial staff member to complete
the task any of them could have completed with little training.
A separate example related to inneficient use of resources was the cost of maintenace
performed on department vehicles. Regulations had been put in place mandating that all
mechanical work on university owned vehicles be performed at a university owned Vehicle
Maintenace Facility operated by the SIUC Physical Plant and Service Operations department.
Individual departments were then charged for each service performed at a rate based on union
determined prices. The end result was that it cost departments over $100 to have the oil changed
in their vehicles, when similar services would cost under $25 at a reputable mechanic offcampus. Departments, however, were required by the unions contract with the institution, to
continue to spend the extra funds to have the oil changed on campus, even though a significant
savings could be realized by contracting out the service off campus (Ehling, 2013).
These experiences exemplify a Theory X management style. Employees at the institution
were apparently treated poorly at some point in time, resulting in almost all employees feeling
the need to unionize to attempt to equate the power imbalance. However, management and union
leaders have taken it upon themselves to treat employees like children, strongly regulating their
behavior and responsibilities and discouraging them to think outside of the box. Bolden & Deal
(2013) note that this type of regulation leads to low morale and low productivity.

As SIUC struggles with decreased enrollment (Office of Institutional Research and

Studies, 2016), below National average retention and completion rates (U.S. News and World
Report, 2016), and institutional goals of increasing those retention and completion rates (Cheng,
2013), and record losses are posted (Office of Institutional Research and Studies, 2016), the
institution and its unions must find ways to empower employees to make decision to save
departments money and improve the student experience.

References

Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing Organizations (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA:
Jossey-Bass.
Cheng, R. (2013). Pathways to Excellence: A Strategic Plan. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois
University - Carbondale. doi:http://chancellor.siu.edu/_common/doc/a-strategic-plan.pdf
Ehling, W. (2013, September 24). Personal Communication.
Office of Institutional Research and Studies. (2016). 2015-16 Factbook. Carbondale, IL:
Southern Illinois University - Carbondale. Retrieved from
http://www.irs.siu.edu/quickfacts/pdf_factbooks/factbook16.pdf
Rodriguez, C. (2011, April 29). SIUC unions file notice of intent to strike. The Southern
Illinoisan. Retrieved from http://thesouthern.com/news/local/siuc-unions-file-notice-ofintent-to-strike/article_1f24937e-7215-11e0-9461-001cc4c002e0.html
U.S. News and World Report. (2016, September 13). Southern Illinois University - Carbondale.
Retrieved from http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/southernillinois-carbondale-1758