The Improvement in Perfomance in a Working Environment of Microsoft - Case Study Example

?Discussing the Improvement in Performance and Positive Influences on Individuals in a Working Environment: A Case Study of Microsoft Inc. The report is aimed to establish an authentic study of various factors that positively influence the individuals in working environment in Microsoft Inc. The report will incorporate the ‘Two Factor Theory’ proposed by Frederick Herzberg in 1995. The purpose of including this theory in finding out and discussing the individuals’ performance in Microsoft is the effectiveness of the theory with which the employee attitudes and motivation can be better understood. The report will also highlight various leading forces that may improve the performance of the individuals who are working as a team. The discussion of the letter subject will help us understand how Microsoft can apply those suggestions in its own professional environment, which is necessarily a team-based. -------------------------------------------------- Introduction: The quality of work in a business environment is becoming the foremost concern in industries all over the world, which was not true until 1959 (Herzberg 1995). Considering the motivation of work, top priority is given to the worker satisfaction instead of achievement that is gained through the work qualitatively done. Improvement of worker satisfaction deals with the enhancement and development of human relations between the humans working together in an organization. Two main issues have been faced by the organizational management - in lieu of the aforementioned statements – that run side by side. While the industries are now struggling to resolve the unfathomable hygiene problems of evading the interpersonal dissatisfaction in working environment; they have neglected the other essential concern of workers’ motivation for training and quality production, which leads to even more dire consequences in terms of job dissatisfaction and health issues. In regard to these two important issues, Frederick Herzberg proposed a theory known as Two-Factor Theory or Motivation-Hygiene Theory, in 1995 that will logically respond to the above two problems collectively to provide a harmonic and synchronized solution that will keep the interpersonal relation at its best as well as provide the organizations qualitative work, and will ensure the employees to stay health and keep job satisfaction for a longer period of time. Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory: According to this theory, people in a working environment are influenced through two factors, i.e. motivation factors, e.g. satisfaction and psychological growth, and hygiene factors, e.g. dissatisfaction. The theory was established based on the investigations done by Herzberg on 200 engineers and accountants in the USA. Hygiene factors ensure the avoidance of the employees being dissatisfied with the job and working environment. These factors do not relate to the motivational aims but still without them the dissatisfaction is not avoided. Some of the most common yet essential and avoidable hygiene factors are as follows: working conditions, status, salary, quality of supervision, job security, company profile, interpersonal relations, and company’s administrative policies. Motivation factors on the other hand relate to the motivation of employees to make their performance better and let them achieve higher aims. Internal generators within employees are the actual cause of these factors. Some of the typical motivation factors are as follows: achievement, growth, recognition for achievement, interest in job, task responsibility, and recognition for the achievement. The combination of both the leading factors of theory leads to four underlying scenarios which differ from each other in terms of achieving the objects a business management official is seeking among his employees. The four scenarios will now be discussed under each of the two sections given below. One of the next two sections will strictly speak of the positive influences on the motivational enhancement of employees of Microsoft. The other section will talk about the improvement of the performance of the team members working together as a team in any department at Microsoft Inc. Positive influences on the motivation of employees: The two-factor theory can also applied on the practical fields as the hygiene factors and motivation factors can lead to enhanced motivation and improved performance of the individuals. Considering the hygiene factors, they can be very effective in influencing the employees on positive note. Motivation is the key to an employee’s success and encouragement is considered the only organizational weapon through which management can gain absolute benefits from their master minds. One of the four scenarios by combining the hygiene as well as motivation factors will be the case where we have high levels of hygiene as well as motivation. This will mean that the employees in our organization will have absolutely favorable working conditions; they will be facilitated by a talented supervisor; they will be paid handsome salary and will have their job security; they will be respected by their employers; they have good interpersonal relations with each other; the job they are doing is of their interest; they have growth opportunities within Microsoft; they have the opportunities to advance to the higher professional levels; and their achievement is recognized by everyone. These are key positive influences that can lead to the motivation of the employees at Microsoft. Favorable working environment is the most important facility that should be provided to the Microsoft employees, as they are working as team members and yet everyone has been assigned a distinct job that he has to do. Therefore separate rooms must be allocated to the employees. The working environment must also be very quiet one, as most of the team members are working through deep technological thinking, where a peaceful environment is necessary to deployed. Another useful point that Herzberg’s factors theory will let the Microsoft management officials think and apply in the working environment is the betterment of interpersonal relations between team members. The jobs basically have to be done through collective effort, so the employees must be groomed with such an approach that will keep them working in a friendly environment and to respond to each others’ comments and critical remarks about their performance with respect. This is considered as a significant barrier that once crossed may no longer cause problems in an interpersonal relationship environment. Another positive influence that we can deduce through thorough study of this theoretical approach is the alteration of employee attitudes by turning their status as ‘dissatisfied’ to ‘satisfied’ with the job. Alternatively, the potential employees must be informed about how much secure they are in terms of working as an employee for Microsoft. A long-term contract might or will cheer them up as they would be more satisfied in terms of working with absolute diligence. Also, employee benefits must be necessarily provided to all the employees on equal grounds, as this will impact the employees on a positive note that the organization is taking great care of all the employees on equal scale. Changing the professional job attitude in timely manner is another important that can cause positive influence on the employees in Microsoft, as they will not feel themselves to be lonely and will professionally feel in a safe environment where their mistakes are being rectified on regular period (Kirkpatrick 2006). Therefore the management of the organization must come up with the key factors as suggested in the theory that can affect job attitudes of employees from one leading to dissatisfaction to one leading to satisfaction. Important factors that can lead the Microsoft employees to dissatisfy with the job can organizational policies and regulations, supervision principles, relationship with bosses, working conditions, and salary. These factors must be brought into consideration of higher management, and must also be replaced with positive factors such as recognition and respect, growth and advancement, self-reliance and responsibility, and achievement. As the positive factors always lead to positive influences, hence the Microsoft management will evidently be proud to see the optimistic changes in the professional behaviors of their employees once they have worked on these factors’ application. On the ‘other’ hand, rest of the three scenarios will cause some negative influences upon the employees that must be avoided by the management. High hygiene and low motivation will cause the employees to complain about some issues and no motivation can be expected in such complain-full environment. Similarly, low hygiene and high motivation will meet the objective of motivating them, but not in a positive style and that might be the case for a short period of time, as the employees would still have some complaints to make. Lastly, low hygiene as well as low motivation will cause a worst case scenario where neither motivational objectives are met nor the employees are satisfied with the job. Hence, these scenarios must be avoided by us to become an effective management. Improving the performance of team members in Microsoft: Improvement in the performance of the team members of Microsoft needs absolute consideration of the criteria through which the management reviews the performance of each employee on yearly or quarterly basis. The review criterion is the most essential tool after the assessment of which the employees’ performance can be improved on individual as well as collective grounds. Also in Herzberg’ two-factor theory, it has been mentioned that the company policies and regulations must be followed by the employees. Hence the employees of Microsoft must respect the performance review’s results and must take it positively. To improve the performance of the team members as a whole, we essentially need to look at the performance of each of the individual members, as theory suggests. The most important criterion is to assess the job knowledge an individual member of the team has. It is important that all the personnel have exact idea of what objective they need to achieve and other key details (Cushman, King 1997). Quality of work is another tool that examines the whole period’s performance at a glance and an overall view is provided to the individual. Punctuality is also a key concern that a team has, as it has been observed often times that whole team is not working together at the same place and at the same time, which becomes problematic in terms of carrying out a project as each member has assigned a distinct duty and his absence will cause the work to be completed at a slower pace. Therefore absences must be closely watched. Innovation and courage to initiate something is another measure that assesses the potential leadership qualities in a member. Lastly, as a team is working collectively and all the team members are reliant on each other, so the dependability must also be another factor that should be reviewed by the management in each review period. The above criteria will be a comprehensive assessment of each of the employees, in light of Herzberg’s theory. Once the assessment is final, each of the employees must be called upon and be provided his performance report. The management also needs to discuss each point of the report in a very friendly environment, as the correction of the mistakes pointed out by the management or leadership is the one and only factor through which individual team members will rectify their errors and will improve their credibility in the team as well as their performance. Once the motivational meeting with each of the employees of the team is done, the management must address to the whole team about the common issues we face in the working environment and an ice-breaking session must be held in each review period in which higher management officials must come to the work-field and encourage and motivate the members as well as point out the wrong doings so that performance is improved for the coming days. Conclusion: The purpose of this article was to highlight the important points proposed by Herzberg in his theory known as Two-Factor theory in which he has addressed to a very common organizational issue by providing a feasible solution. The ideas of the theory have been incorporated and applied by the researcher and some useful recommendations have been prepared for Microsoft officials and its employees. The company must have a friendly working environment, but it must have strict policies in terms of promoting professionalism among the employees, because that will be the leading factor in building them the entrepreneurs of future. The employees on the other hand must be taking responsibility of their tasks in their own hands and must be establishing stronger interpersonal communication and relationship as that will also be the key element in the success of team. References: Reece, Barry (2006). Human Relations. Ohio: South-Western. 32-47. Herzberg, F. (2006). Motivation Factors, Hygiene Factors: Two Factor Theory and KITA. Available: http://www.valuebasedmanagement.net/methods_herzberg_two_factor_theory.html.  Herzberg, F. (2009). Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Available: http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/. Herzberg, F (1995). The Motivation to Work. 12th ed. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. 51-110. Cushman, D; King, S (1997). Continuously improving an organization's performance: high-speed management. United States of America: State University of New York Press. 80-112. Kirkpatrick, D (2006). Improving employee performance through appraisal and coaching . 2nd ed. United States of America: AMACOM Publishers. 64-73 Read More