"Zapp!", by William Byham shows a positive method to change employee's work morale and self confidence for the better. The story is a contemporary fable that shows what supervisors, managers, and organizations must do to create and maintain an empowered workforce. The steps are easy to follow and can be applied to any workplace.
The beginning of the story presents us with a typical situation. The self-esteem and moral of the workforce is very low. Employees just care about showing up, doing the minimum they have to do to get by, and get paid at the end of the week. Little concern is given over each other and also the product. The supervisor, Joe Mode, is caught between upper management and the workers. He takes most of the responsibilities on himself which leads a busy and very stressful work environment. When Ralph Rosco, one of his employees, attempts to talk to him about a great idea, he immediately dismisses it since it isn't one of Ralph's responsibilities and that if it was that great, the research and development team already would have figured it out.
The book that I chose to do is Street Pharm by Allison van Diepen, the book has 297 pages, the reason I chose this book is personally I am tired novels taking place years before I am born. This novel pertains to urban problems and one kids' attempt to survive in the pressures of present day Brooklyn. Within the novel, there are several subplots, one being his love interest, Alyse, and Ty's fight to stay in school. As well as, his fight not to lose money or control of his territory. It is interesting to watch this young man, balance these things in his life and not let them interfere with each other.
This third case study takes place within the organization called TechnoloComm. The main character in this story is named Jessica Martinez, she was hired by TechnoloComm to work in the human resources department. Specifically, she is working on internal newsletters and publicity for the organization. Peter and Alex, are two men who are a part of her team that works together on the newsletter, communication training, maintaining the company’s website and organization publicity. Their boss’ name is Tom, he is there to check in on their progress and make sure everything is running smoothly.
Organizations face massive challenges in attracting and retaining a high-quality and productive workforce. Companies are continually looking for new ways to keep their employees satisfied at all levels in order to harness greater productivity and ideas from people while keeping them motivated and happy. One real challenge examined earlier is the need to transform General Motors to be a much more productive and fully utilized organization by examining the hourly workforce. This is a great change from the traditional "us versus them" mentality of the past between management and the union.
Empowerment is commonly confused with incentivizing employees. In many cases, there are no consequences for employee empowerment gone wrong, but some actually have severe consequences for the business. A recent example of this phenomenon is the Wells Fargo fiasco. Wells Fargo employees were incentivized in a way that made them behave unethically to meet standards and gain rewards. This skill application, will discuss Wells Fargo could have used other methods of empowering and engaging employees, which probably would have had a less harmful effect on their business and how they should act in the future.
In the essay “Everything Now” Signs of Life in the USA: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers, author Steve McKevitt blames our unhappiness on having everything we need and want, given to us now. While his writing is compelling, he changes his main point as his conclusion doesn’t match his introduction. He uses “want versus need” (145) as a main point, but doesn’t agree what needs or wants are, and uses a psychological theory that is criticized for being simplistic and incomplete. McKevitt’s use of humor later in the essay doesn’t fit with the subject of the article and comes across almost satirical. Ultimately, this essay is ineffective because the author’s main point is inconsistent and poorly conveyed.
The last leadership pitfall is when leaders overwork their employees (Comaford, 2014). Many employers believe that short periods of having their employees work harder and longer will pay off with short term gains and makeup for previous slower productivity (Stillman, 2014). However, there is a recent study called the Towers Watson 2012 Global Workforce study and it explains that making employees work harder does not end with businesses thriving and not even when its temporary (Stillman, 2014). The Towers Watson 2012 global workforce study “concludes that the traditional definition of engagement – the willingness to invest discretionary effort on the job- is no longer sufficient to fuel top performance in a world of relentlessly increasing demand, the problem is that “willing” doesn’t guarantee “able” (Stillman, 2014, papa. 4) The study also finds that the businesses that overwork their employees will have productivity problems and employees will eventually quit their jobs. Another, the Towers Watson study says that the Sustainable engagement is more important because it will allow the work surroundings to activate employees by helping their personal, emotional, and communal happiness (Stillman,
In Pouliuli, a novel written by Albert Wendt, Faleasa Osovae awakens to find the life he’s been living all along is a mere façade. Pouliuli invites readers into the Samoan community of Malaelua, which is turned topsy-turvy when Faleasa misleads his aiga and community by acting maniacal. Albert Wendt ties a famous Malaelua saga about a mythological hero named Pili to Faleasa Osovae’s life. In the myth as well as in Faleasa’s story, they both had the same goal, which was to live the rest of their life “free”. To accomplish this goal, they both had to accomplish three tasks. Pilis’ tasks were to eat a mountain of fish which the giant’s had caught that day, to race the giants down a river, and make himself disappear. Faleasas’ tasks were to destroy Filemoni, Make Moaula the new leader, and remove Sau and Vaelupa as council leader. Of course they couldn’t have done these tasks alone so both of them enlisted help from friends. Pili enlisted the help of Tausamitele, Lelemalosi, and Pouliuli. Faleasa enlisted the help of his long time friend Laaumatua and his son Moaula. Finally to get the freedom they so wished for they had to complete one last task. In Pili’s case it was to divide his kingdom among his children while Faleasa had to remove Malaga as congress of the village. In the end, they both end up with nothing. Both ending up in the darkness of Pouliuli.
In William Zinnser’s essay “Simplicity” he states that “clear thinking becomes clear writing; one can’t exist without the other.” He believes that people speak more complexly then they have to and that the key to good writing and speaking is simplicity. In his argument he goes on to say that often writers are not careful enough. They know what they are trying to say but do not know how to put it down on paper. They assume that the reader will understand what they are thinking even though their writing is not obvious to others. He does make several suggestions for improvement. Very easily one could make their writing easier to understand by simple corrections.
Assembling the right personnel for the new bakery is like concocting the right recipe for the perfect cupcake; it starts with hiring people who fit the company’s philosophies. In addition, it requires finding people with the right attitude, personality, core values, and desire to belong to something greater than themselves. The next step is to “train employees in a practical, accurate understanding of the natural behavior of the business in which they work, connect those employees’ efforts to the company’s objectives through clearly defined goals and expectation, provide support, and stand back and watch them go” (Pound, Bell and Spearman). Finally, as leaders, it is our responsibility to encourage our employees to achieve the greatness within themselves. In order to be successful, we must coach, motivate, and inspire them to grow, not just as individuals, but as an efficient and productive unit.
I chose this particular concept due to the need for effective leadership in today’s workforce as it pertains to employee development. In most cases, many businesses have ineffective leadership development programs that are designed to tear down employees rather than build them up. I have experienced such a lack of leadership through past employment experiences, however, those experiences have afforded me the ability to recognize and prevent those issues from occurring today. I have noticed a lack of focus on behalf of organizations where employee turnaround is the highest. There is nothing more stressful than an organization that is continually trying to see you fail added in with the daily problems of an adult life. The importance of leadership development is found in the constant need for strong and intuitive leadership throughout today’s modern organizations (Rowland, 2016). Organizations of the modern setting will need to explore alternative and innovative avenues to implement effective leadership skills as it pertains to specific industry cultures and or competition. I personally believe that the diversification of today’s workforce has promoted a positive change in how employees are treated and how organizations operate competitively in today’s business
How to Motivate Every Employee: 24 Proven Tactics to Spark Productivity in the Workplace, Anne Bruce (2002)
Whether or not employees feel valued in their contribution to the workplace is one of the most important factors in their overall perception of their company as a great place to work. In fact, among the “100 Best Companies to Work For” recognized by Fortune (2014), an employee’s sense of their value through strategies such as recognition programs and performance incentives, is more closely associated with their experience of a great workplace than factors such as competent leadership, unique benefits, and even fair pay. However, while programs designed to promote employees sense of value can drive an organization towards success and promote a strong company culture, the performance-based culture of the modern business world can push leadership personnel to inadvertently fall into a pattern of behavior, or “Pittfalls of Leadership”, that leaves their employees feeling as if they don’t matter.
The idea of a manager is someone on who is in charge of the overall functioning of a team and who seeks to guarantee that whatever is needed to be successful in their roles is provided for the success of the company. On the other hand, the term leader does not need to be a designated person who is overall responsible. A leader can in fact be any and all employees in the organization. Yet, in order for such distinctions to have a positive result, only managers that exercise servant leadership can empower their employees to take ownership of their roles and to become overtly creative and self confident (DeGraaf, Don; Tilley, Colin; & Neal, Larry, 2001). Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to define what servant leadership is and to give examples of how servant leadership can be implemented in the
Hiam,A.(1999). Motivating & Rewarding employees: new and better ways to inspire your people. Adams Media Corporation. U.S.A.
So psychological empowerment measures the extent to which employees perceive they are allowed to use their own initiative and judgment in performing their jobs (Hartline and Ferrell, 1996). In sum, psychological empowerment reflects an active orientation to work, and pass on the notion that individuals not only want to, but are able to, shape their work role and context. Psychological empowerment is a process because it begins with the interaction of one’s personality characteristics within the work environment; then the interaction of environment with personality shapes the empowerment cognitions, which in turn motivate individual behavior (Spreitzer, 1995). Each dimension of psychological empowerment dimensions will be discussed with coming