Employee motivation
In the management of an organization, one of the structures that should be put in place by human resource management to enhance the achievement of organizational goals is employee motivation. The employees need to be motivated to boost their morale for the work they are doing. In addition to motivation, their working environment should be structured in a way that it creates conducive avenue for all the employees (Whetten and Cameroon 48).
This can be enhanced by giving employees some freedom and adequate breaks that can allow them to socialize and break the monotony of work. Whenever employees work hard, their efforts need to recognized through giving them some rewards not only in form of monetary rewards but also other non-monetary rewards. Employees may be motivated by increasing their wages, promoting them or even through oral appreciation.
In the provided case study, it is so surprising to see how employees are being treated taking into account that employees from other organization who are in the same level of education and qualification are being accorded fair treatment. Upon the enquiry of the reasons behind demotivated, the reasons cited are not genuine.
The situation needs to be adjusted to accommodate the interests of all the employees. This can be achieved by giving them relevant motivational needs and giving them the freedom, they deserve (Whetten and Cameroon 81).
Measuring employee’s performance
It is important the performance of employees be constantly monitored, evaluated and measured to see if they have met the set targets. Besides portraying good characters and being obedient in their places of work, the employees should be hard working enough to achieve what has been set (Whetten and Cameroon 100). Though having precise measurement parameters for employees might be a problem to some extend, it is good to put some systems that will differentiate the poorly performing employees from good performing ones.
Using a balanced score card and measuring the achievement of set targets against the achieved targets are some of the measurement criterion that can be adopted to measure the employees’ performance. An appropriate action need to be taken against any employee who does not deliver the expected results. In the given scenario, an assistant manager though gaining support from the other employees is not delivering what is expected of him to the organization.
What the top management should do to such an employee is putting strict deadlines that he has to meet to ensure that he brings about positive impact to the organization. The organization should be more concerned of performance not the employees’ character since this is so significant as far as the performance of the organization is concerned. However, the approach to be taken against the manager should be friendly not to damage positive feelings employees have towards him.
Armand need only to be advised on the importance of being social enough to the other fellow workers and no big action should be taken against him while on the other hand, Ken has to be subjected to available performance parameters as well as being advised of why his performance is important to the existence of the organization.
Selling or presenting a business idea to the area of interest
The most successful business entities have made it through incorporation of modern and more efficient ideas that are increasingly replacing the traditional ways of doing things. However, sometimes managers may be too old fashioned such that they cannot recognize the significance of such ideas (Whetten and Cameroon 54). In the case provided, the person who is presenting the idea has some level of proof on how it has worked successfully in many businesses.
Since there seems to be some difficulties in adopting the idea, the employee needs to convince the manager using considerable tangible evidence. Provision of possible benefits that might accrue to the organization after absorption of the idea is important to convince the manager accepts the idea. In the second case, it involves presentation of an idea to strangers that is aimed at benefiting the presenter.
In the presentation of the idea, the person should be precise and objective in what he plans to do in future and how the success of his career would benefit other people apart from him. He should also state given the opportunity how he is going to explore his music talent. The person should not be too vague otherwise, his idea might be rejected. Besides, the best language has to be used to communicate the message well to the interested parties.
Adapting leadership style to a new situation
Amongst the good characteristics of leaders is flexibility. Leaders need to adapt to the changing environment since we are living in a dynamic world (Whetten and Cameroon 48). In the given scenario, the particular branch has been having troubles partly because there has been mistrust and respect on the part of outgoing manager. That is the reason why even employees are happy of his exit. The newly created manager needs to restore the trust within the branch.
The manager should start by creating an avenue where all the people’s opinions and grieverances are heard and make sure that the employees are involved in some decision-making processes.
The manager ought to maintain the existing relationship with the associates who he has been interacting with before the promotion. The past poor financial performance may be attributed to mistrust and disrespect that has been existing and therefore boosting of employees morale through building good relationships might improve the declining performance.
While managing more than one group of people, a manager needs to use different approaches since different groups of people require different management styles (Whetten and Cameroon 48).
To solve a crisis like one presented whereby there is some dissatisfaction on the part of the employees, the manager need to identify the cause of the crisis and apply the appropriate methods to the scenario in question ensuring there is fairness in their treatment. The two conflicting groups need to be brought together, identify who might be causing the problem and then solve the problem jointly while reminding each group of its responsibilities.
How to make teamwork perform
One of the reasons why organizations or groups fail to achieve is the failure to define their roles, goals and objectives (Whetten and Cameroon 48). A team may comprise of competent people but lack appropriate direction to get them ahead. In the case of an organization that has the right people but it is not achieving anything an appropriate action is required.
To solve this problem, the group should sit down, reflect on why the organization was formed, lay down the duties and obligations of each, the goals that to be achieved within a specified period of time and how the goals would be achieved. There ought to be specialization in the group such that each group member can perform what he/she is best.
In the second case where the leader has been assigned a group that seems to be in the dark since nobody seems to contribute on how the team should get started, it is the role of the leader to ignite the team and present a comprehensive list of goals and objectives to be achieved to the group. This will open up discussion forum for all the members to participate in giving their own opinions on how the goals should be achieved.
Resolution of a team dispute
One of the responsibilities of a good leader is the ability to solve conflicts within an organization or group (Whetten and Cameroon 123). In the given context, there seem to be a heated debate between two of the group members that has led to the adjournment of the meeting. The manager has to look for the best ways of solving such a crisis. To maintain the productive spirit of the team, the team leader should get to the bottom of the burning issues and determine what the main problem was.
In addition, the leader before calling for joint meeting to solve the problem, should first approach the person who triggered the trouble who in this case is Pat in the meeting and kindly explain to him that the approach he used was wrong and that was not the best way of solving a problem. Then the second person to be approached who is in this case Jordan should also be informed that the response he used was wrong and is not acceptable at all.
After these two initial approaches, the two persons should be brought together for reconciliation and then the problem be solved collectively where the two parties are briefed of the importance of working in harmony to maintain the status quo of the organization. Then finally, a joint meeting of all the members is called to allow the offenders to apologize and get the organization moving.
Conversion of Organizational problem into an Achievable change Initiative
Whenever a leader takes up leadership position in an organization or group that is having troubles, he/she is faced with a challenge since he/she is supposed to convert the situation into an achievable thing (Whetten and Cameroon 156). The newly appointed president of the professional business fraternity is required to lift an organization that is in a mess since even new membership is not being often witnessed.
Firstly, since lack of motivation seems to be one of the principal causes for declining membership, the newly elected president should come up with programs that will motivate the existing members to prevent their exit and attract new members from outside. The president should also appoint a committee that will oversee the analysis of the problems that have been troubling the organization. The formulation of lasting solutions that will help solve the problem is the next step.
In a move to initiate motivation that will see the increased registration, the members need to be convinced of the benefits of being in the organization. The rate at which the new members will have joined the organization will tell how successful the president is at the end of the year.
Work Cited
Whetten, David and Cameroon, Kim. Developing management skills. London: Harper-Collins, 1991. Print.
