Organizational Behavior and Leadership

722 Words2 Pages

Organizational Behavior and Leadership

This purpose of this paper is to discuss a company which hereafter will be referred to as Company X. Company X produces audio products and has recently instituted an innovative production process in an effort to help its employees meet its high production standards and goals. One of Company X’s supervisors is having difficulty with his employees adapting to the new process. During an informal discussion with the supervisor the following was revealed: some of his employees are not putting forth effort to master the process, those who have mastered the process are not putting forth enough effort to reach the production goals the company has given. When asked what was behind the employees lack of effort, the following reasons were given: some have said they cannot be successful with the process because they are not capable of the hand dexterity required, those who are not having difficulty with the process feel that it is not worth putting in extra effort to reach the production goals. The rationale behind those who are not having difficulty is there is usually no difference in wage increases among those who meet department goals and those who fall short of the goals, and they believe that workers at the company have to be very slow before their performance will affect their given salaries.

To solve this dilemma I believe we need to take a look at current motivation theory. Among current motivation theory Victor Vroom’s expectancy theory is one of the most widely accepted. Mr. Vroom’s theory argues that the strength of a tendency to act in a certain way depends on the strength of an expectation that the act will be followed by a given outcome and on the attractiveness of that outcome to th...

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...eir wages to the number of quality products produced under the new process thereby improving the rewards-personal goals relationship. Another option would a be merit-based pay plan where rewards could be introduced based on an objective performance appraisal based on realistic production goals under the new process.

Finally, whatever program is finally decided upon it would be advantageous to include the production employees in this process. Getting their feedback and ultimately their buy-in to the incentive program will potentially increase their enthusiasm for the process. In addition some employees complained they had dexterity difficulties with the new production procedures. Whether this is actually the case or due to motivation issues will need to be monitored closely, and any workers that cannot physically handle the process will have to be reassigned.

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