Case study on worker empowerment and development at Armstrong Knitting Mills

Abstract

Anand, the CEO of Armstrong Knitting Mills (AKM) is sitting in his office, sipping filter coffee when he gets a call from Prasad, the Chief Manager. Prasad wants to show him the latest designs that have come. Anand is pleasantly surprised at the way employees at AKM have started putting in so much effort in their work. Things have changed a lot, Anand thinks. AKM is a new world now for him and his employees. Just as Rome was not built in a day, this change took its time to materialise. It was when the management at AKM decided to rope in external consultants (Ethical fashion consultancy and Resonate consultancy) and a local NGO (SAVE) that the changes started to surface. AKM which is an exporter of cotton garments to several brands across the world has 650 employees across 22 departments. As part of this ‘change exercise’, a working group of 52 people was created at AKM with a 60:40 ratio of workers to management selected by AKM. This working group was further formed into small groups that were engaged in interviewing 13 worker groups (of five workers each). These groups were facilitated by AKM middle management and SAVE with 1 Resonate facilitator per group.