On Improving the Organization of Labor of Workers and Engineering and Technical Personnel in Geological Organizations
Abstract Generated abstract
This article examines the organization of labor for workers, employees, and engineering and technical personnel in geological exploration organizations, where work is often performed in remote, mobile, and difficult climatic conditions. It argues that labor organization should be treated as a scientific and managerial function extending beyond workplace processes to include rest regimes, sanitary and hygienic conditions, training, standards, workplace design, and the distribution of duties. The author identifies shortcomings in existing administrative responsibility and planning, noting that improvement efforts are often left to voluntary groups and are dominated by technical measures rather than labor organization itself. The article proposes assigning formal responsibility at all management levels, developing complementary labor organization plans across organizational scales, improving measurement of working conditions, and using these measures to raise productivity, reduce costs, and improve collective morale.
Full Text
On Improving the Organization of Labor of Workers and Engineering and Technical Personnel in Geological Organizations
P. I. Stepanov
(Presented by the scientific-methodological seminar of the Department of Economics and Organization of Production)
Improving the organization of labor for all categories of workers in geological organizations is of great importance. Workers, employees, and engineering and technical personnel, as a rule, work far from the main supply and repair bases, in difficult physiographic and climatic conditions, constantly on the move, far from the places of permanent residence of their families, and so on.
It is precisely in these, at times most difficult, conditions and circumstances that labor must be organized so that a person works with the greatest productivity, with minimal fatigue, and in good spirits. This can be achieved by improving, on a scientific basis, the organization of labor of all categories of workers in geological organizations; moreover, issues of improving the organization of labor should be considered not only as applied to the labor process during working hours, but much more broadly, taking into account the use of nonworking time.
During the years of Soviet power, considerable work has been done to improve the organization of labor. However, very, very much remains to be done, and, above all, this problem must be solved on a scientific basis, taking into account the latest achievements in the technical equipment of geological exploration work, in the physiology and psychology of labor, and in the organization of production and management, etc.
In order to organize the labor of employees of geological organizations on a scientific basis, it is necessary to eliminate the underestimation of the role of measures that improve organization, to raise the knowledge of managers and engineering and technical personnel in the field of labor organization, and, finally, to change the organizational forms of conducting work to improve labor organization.
Observations show that the administrative apparatuses at all levels of management of geological organizations perform the function of improving labor organization very poorly. An analysis of the provisions on the duties, rights, and responsibilities of subdivisions of geological organizations and of the job descriptions of managers and engineering and technical personnel shows that they lack duties and responsibility for improving the organization of labor of workers, employees, and engineering and technical personnel. The principal work on improving the organization of labor is carried out by creative brigades and councils for the Scientific Organization of Labor, working on a voluntary basis.
Plans for improving the organization of labor, drawn up by creative teams and NOT councils, have significant shortcomings. In organizational and technical plans, measures for the technical re-equipment of work production and the improvement of the technological process predominate.
Undoubtedly, measures to improve equipment and technology are the principal reserves for increasing productivity and reducing the cost of work. However, it should not be forgotten that if the organization of labor of the performers of the production process is poor, it is difficult to expect full returns from the equipment and technology being introduced.
The organization of labor examines the laws governing the interrelations of the performer of the work—the human being—with the surrounding environment and, above all, with the instruments of labor and the objects of labor at a specific workplace. In the organization of labor, the basic element is labor as purposeful human activity. A person’s labor process must be carried out on a scientific basis, regardless of the technical equipment of the workplace.
The organization of labor is one of the principal and determining constituent parts of the organization of production. If the organization of labor considers the interrelations of a person with the instruments of labor and the objects of labor at an individual workplace, then the organization of production studies the interrelations of the collective of performers with the instruments and objects of labor in the production process.
The main directions for improving the organization of labor of workers, employees, and engineering and technical personnel in geological exploration production, as in industrial enterprises [1], include: the division and cooperation of labor (selection and placement of personnel); rationalization of work techniques and methods; planning and equipping the workplace; the use of progressive wage systems, bonuses, and the improvement of labor standardization; rationalization of the work-and-rest regime; systematic improvement and introduction of the latest achievements in the field of sanitary-hygienic, aesthetic, and physiological-psychological working conditions; raising business qualifications and strengthening labor discipline.
The studies being conducted show that in every direction there are reserves for increasing labor productivity and improving the socio-psychological microclimate in the collective. Thus, for example, solely by bringing all parameters of labor organization up to normal—that is, to the parameters recommended by science and advanced practice—it is possible to increase labor productivity by no less than 30–50%. In geological organizations, the question of the quantitative ratio of technicians to engineers and of the distribution between them of functions, rights, and responsibilities has still not been fully resolved. Engineering and technical personnel spend up to ten percent of their working time performing work characteristic of auxiliary technical personnel. In setting labor standards for workers in drilling and mining operations, category standards are being introduced slowly, as a result of which labor productivity is determined by actual footage driven. In organizing workplaces, the requirements of anthropometry are almost not taken into account, as a result of which workers unproductively spend up to 10% of their working time walking to the location of tools and blanks when warehousing finished products, etc.
In geological organizations, sanitary and hygienic working conditions are very often violated. Thus, for example, internal-combustion engines used in drilling operations create noise of up to 105–110 de—
decibels; and drilling rigs from 90 to 105 decibels; illumination is sometimes only 12–18 lux; in winter conditions there are sharp changes in air temperature when hoisting operations are carried out in drilling work.
In order to make use of all reserves for increasing the efficiency of geological-exploration production, it is necessary to increase the responsibility of managers and engineering and technical personnel engaged in administrative activity for the state and improvement of the organization of labor of all categories of workers; moreover, responsibility must be increased at all levels of management, from the ministry down to the brigade. This problem is especially urgent for geological-exploration production because the repair-and-mechanical base directly in geological parties is low-powered, as a result of which many organizational and technical measures for improving labor organization cannot be carried out at the work-production site. As production organizational-structural subdivisions become larger, the repair-and-mechanical base becomes more powerful. Under these conditions it becomes possible to manufacture new devices, modernize equipment and apparatus, etc. Therefore, plans for improving labor organization (NOT plans) must be developed at the scale of the party, expedition (trust), territorial geological administration, and the Ministry of Geology of the USSR; furthermore, these plans must not duplicate one another, but supplement one another.
Along with improving planning work for perfecting labor organization, it is necessary to include in the regulations on the duties, rights, and responsibilities of subdivisions and officials the function of improving, on a scientific basis, the organization of labor of all categories of workers. In evaluating the activity of subdivisions and officials, the achieved level of labor organization in the subdivisions they manage should be taken into account in accordance with the existing developments [1, 2].
In geological organizations, extensive work must be carried out to create comfortable sanitary-hygienic working conditions. Here, above all, geological organizations must be equipped with measuring and monitoring instruments for measuring the actual parameters of sanitary-hygienic working conditions. At present, geological organizations do not have such instruments, and the persons responsible for safety engineering and labor protection cannot make a correct assessment of the actual state of sanitary-hygienic working conditions.
The introduction of the indicated measures will make it possible to improve significantly the organization of labor of workers, employees, and engineering and technical personnel in geological-exploration production and, on this basis, to increase labor productivity, reduce the cost of geological-exploration work, and improve the psychological microclimate in the collectives of geological organizations.
LITERATURE
- Fundamentals of the Scientific Organization of Labor. “Ekonomika,” Moscow, 1971.
- A. N. Bakhchisaraitsev, V. I. Shabalin, V. A. Ovakimyan. Determining the level of labor organization in underground mine-development work, “Ekonomika geologorazvedochnykh rabot,” 1969, No. 1.