Work-Based Incentives and Dispersed Decision-Making - Assignment Example

Resource Management Name Institution Date Resource Management a) Describe two market-like arrangements that have impacted on your workplace whether positive or negative Dispersed Decision-Making The new social perspective emerging mainly because of globalization as well as the new information and technologies calls for new types of organizational management within each and every company type. As a result, my workplace has adapted to this new reality and reformed the organizational managerial model to an organization with dispersed decision-making. The organization is characterized by its varied missions, plural organizational structure, whereby its powers are distributed across the whole organizational hierarchy and its activities are operated in an extremely specific management system. Considering that personnel in the organization enjoy working independence in addition to taking decisions allied to their activities, management of the organization is challenging to the organizational managers (Gerhart, & Milkovich, 2000). Since the organization is bid and diversified, it is not logical for only few people to possess all the resources for achieving all organizational goals and objectives. Consequently, it is not practical to concentrate decision-making power at the top. In addition, the organization is geographically-dispersed and hence dispersing decision making facilitates direct supervision of the organizational operations on daily basis. The purpose of dispersed decision making in the organization is that to facilitate faster decision making as well as improved adaptability to local conditions and context (Porter, 2006). Dispersed decision making operates through implementing various types of teams. As a result, the organization has established self-directed work teams as the fundamental production group. At other organizational levels, the organization has established cross-functional teams on a permanent basis as the common way of carrying out the organization’s work. In order to ensure dispersed decision making, the organization has taken various steps, for instance expansion of the scope of jobs, engaging employees in problem solving along with planning, in addition to fostering open communications and this has resulted to increased job satisfaction and improved performance among organizational employees. Basically, decision making as well as goal-setting procedures are shared at all organizational levels and communication generally flows more freely all over the organization (Porter, 2006). Work-Based Incentives The work-based incentives in the organization are based on the conception that effort increases since individuals see themselves progressing towards their target. As a result, the programs provide organizational employees with various products and services basing on their distinctive interests and varied requirements. The incentive programs have been designed carefully in order to keep participants eager to approach a new target after achieving a reward. In the organization, the incentives are based on individual performance. According to Drennan (2008) individual based approach has the benefits and costs as well. For instance, basing incentives on individual performance is basically associated with more pressure on people to perform and increased accountability and also increased risk-taking behavior. The individualistic incentive scheme effectively distinguishes between high and low performers and hence provides an important source of performance feedback in addition to fostering the sense of a meritocracy. Drennan (2008) further notes that, individual incentives can be in particular valuable within big organizations where employees may otherwise feel lost within the system. As a result, under the individualistic approach there is a higher likelihood of having both resources and information hoarded than shared. Individualistic approach in the organization exacerbates the sense of a two-tiered society of organizational winners and losers (Gerhart, & Milkovich, 2000). Basically, for the incentive system to be successful in the organization, organizational goals are drawn up basing on the strategic goals of the organization and the goals are normally clear-cut as well as specific and this enables all the participants to clearly comprehend the expectations. In addition, the set targets are normally challenging but attainable because if the targets are perceived as unachievable, the incentive program will be destined to fail. Objectives in the organization normally consist of workers’ motivation, acknowledging performance, convincing clients to make a purchase in addition to reinforcing a marketing message. After the incentive program objectives have been established, all aspects of the program are measured against the objectives and this is to make sure that the program’s success in target accomplishment. When successful, goals normally provide measurable outcomes and this allows the organization to track performance and also evaluate the incentive program’s overall success. Nonetheless, at its core, an incentive program is devised to elevate the performance outputs of a group of individuals involved in a particular activity through increasing their motivation (Porter, 2006). The incentive system is important in the organization since the human service employ handles somebody else’s problems daily and goes home to handle their own problems. Usually, the payment range for such jobs is low to average and hence the workers may have high stress and disagreement levels. In addition, workers endure a wide range of emotions from customers every day and this automatically can affect the employee at some point. Therefore, the management in the organization rewards the worker for a job well done or acknowledges their value within the organization through the incentive programs. The organization is generally operated on a tight budget and hence financial rewards are not normally possible and as a result the management has established other ways of rewarding their caring and dedicated personnel (Porter, 2006). One form of incentive in the organization is sales incentive plan (SIP) which is a business tool that the management uses in motivating and compensating sales employees to meet targets over a given time period and is normally broken into a plan for a financial quarter or financial year. Other incentive programs include providing the employees with flexible work hours, premium contributions, and health savings in addition to paid sabbaticals. Generally, the management uses the work-based incentives in increasing overall performance of the workers and thus the organization normally used these programs to increase morale and loyalty, enhance employee wellness, enhance retention, as well as drive every day employee performance (llen & Judd, 2007). On the hand, incentive programs have in some instances negatively affected worker performance, particularly in instances where workers work together in teams. For example, the organization uses a commission basis for the sales people and also gives bonuses to the best sellers within the organization. As a result, this has fostered reluctance in teaching any new worker useful selling skills since the existing best sellers perceive this to create more competition for themselves. Moreover, this has also brought social issues where in a broader framework the incentive program results into emotional problems within the worker place. In order to get the promised reward or bonuses, at times workers work harder to accomplish the set organizational targets and in some instance they become stressed, develop negative emotions in addition to making more mistakes than they would otherwise make. Still, awarding bonuses to just specific workers results to envy and backstabbing and this makes the workplace environment unhealthy (Joseph, 2008). b) Evaluate the impact of each on the quality and value of the services your place of work provides Dispersed Decision-Making Dispersed decision making has resulted to motivational influence of workers within the organization. This is because when workers take part in decision making process, they enhance understanding and insights among co-workers and management and improve workforce value within the organization. As a result, this has ensured the completeness of decision-making and has also increased commitment of each and every team member to ultimate decisions (Ling, et al., 2009). This is because the dispersed decision-making provides all team members with an opportunity of sharing their perceptions, air out their views and taps their skills in order to enhance team efficiency. In addition, since all members are able to relate to the team decisions, there is a better opportunity of their accomplishing the results. Generally, there is a positive connection between decision efficiency and organizational performance where the better the efficiency, the better the performance (llen & Judd, 2007). In the aspect of workers, dispersed decision-making has resulted to job satisfaction as well as improved performance and hence increased commitment and productivity while in aspect of employers dispersed decision-making is involved in decision quality and effectiveness that results from numerous and differential mixed layers in regard to information access, degree of participation, processes and dimensions in dispersed decision-making. Specifically, the following are some of the values and areas that have been improved through dispersed decision-making within the workplace: Increased job satisfaction Increased organizational commitment Perceived organizational support Improved organizational citizenship behavior Better labor-management relations Improved job performance and organizational performance Increased job productivity Increased organizational proceeds Reduced employee absenteeism, which is normally low because of motivation that comes with dispersed decision-making (Barrow, 1996). Furthermore, since almost everybody within the organization takes part in process of decision making, communication within the organization is much more efficient and everybody produces more effective results. Through sharing decision-making with other workers, everybody in the long run accomplished organizational goals influencing them. Within this program, dispersed decision-making is utilized a tool for improving relationships within the organization, exploring incentives of workers and this has also increased the rate of circulating information across the workplace. Dispersed decision making in the organization facilitates efficiency because all actions do not have to be endorsed and cleared by top management. This means that the organization is able to better implement to conditions through delegation of authority to the workers who are physically present and active within a specific project or operation. In addition, this also serves to groom the management in that the managers at lower levels gain relevant experience and this enhances the quality of human resources in the organization (llen & Judd, 2007). Work-Based Incentives Work-based incentives have been ideal for the organizations especially in instances when the organization wants to achieve a given goal. This is particularly useful because the organization has a monthly sales quota it sets to achieve and along with targets of increasing sales by specific amounts within one quarter. The organization offers bonuses to all workers when they meet the target and also to employees who bring in the most profits. This has in turn instills values of hardworking and dedication among organizational employees which in the long run contributes a lot to the organization’s proceeds (Joseph, 2008). The work-based incentives have also been useful in controlling worker behavior within a broader ranger of activities as compared to work output. For example, the organization awards profit percentages to workers who come up with innovative ideas for marketing or new means of improving organizational competence. The management also awards workers on their honesty, integrity as well as participation within team activities. This promotes creativity among employees and in most cases it results into increased proceeds for the organization (Gerhart, & Milkovich, 2000). In addition, the work-based incentives enable the employees to get feedback regarding their performance. According to Ross (2006), employees who are given information regarding their performance basically outperform employees who are not provided with such feedback. In addition, comparative feedback is particular valuable. Therefore, this program has added values such as diligence and comprehensiveness when employees are handling their tasks. The program also allows workers to be assessed basing on their competence. Moreover, work-based incentives result into combination of organizational objectives and feedback and this has a stronger impact on task interest as well as persistence among workers. When organizational objectives and feedback are combined, the management is able to recognize that it is on the correct path and is also able to establish the farther it needs to go in order to achieve its goals (OECD, 1993). The Retrospective Commentary This assignment has enabled me to learn several things regarding market-like mechanisms used in enhancing program outputs. I have learnt that organizations get the best from their workers and retain them for a long time if they show them that they care about them and value their services. The best and simplest means that organizations can do this is showing the daily efforts of the management in acknowledging and thanking workers when they perform their tasks competently and not just waiting till the end of the year to formally acknowledge them on just one special day. I have discovered that potential workers are seeking different things from their work life as compared to where they were, some years back due to numerous changes within the market labor. The current workers are looking for some balance within their lives. For example, several workers will give up a percentage of their lives for the 52-hour week but there has to be some benefit s coming with such amount of labor (Barrow, 1996). This is where work-based incentives come along because workers have some expectations of their organization. Workers are seeking an integrated approach to life and hence for the amount of labor that they provide, they expect that they be given considerable benefits. These benefits include competitive salaries, flexible working hours, training and learning opportunities among other benefits (Ross, 2006). Accordingly, work-based incentives should be able to cater for all these. The workers also expect that the organizations will facilitate the “soft” cultural values, for instance the organization’s commitment to environment and society at large. Organizations should also expect that the workers have their own established ethical values. Therefore, organizations are supposed to facilitate open communication from the management to the employees and vice-versa (McMahon, 2007). I have also learnt that organizations should recognize their employees as their most valuable asset. Accordingly, within greatly dispersed organizations where people work across locations, unified communications should be implemented in the disbursed-decision making strategy as this will provide the organization with a link that defines the organization and is operational activities while keeping workers happy and in a position to utilize the machineries and applications they want to use, wherever they are. Unified communications is also important in assisting in reducing employee frustrations and facilitate quick decision-making (Joseph, 2008). Availability and presence of information helps workers to make enhanced communication choices. For instance, if an employee is aware that a fellow worker is at their desk and making a quick call or instant messaging session can save numerous hours rather spent on “email conversations”. In addition, within the current challenging times, organizations should put more focus on customer service. According to what I have learnt, clients expect to communicate using their preferred media, for instance email, telephony or social network. In this regard, unified communications will assist organizations in managing all the communication channels more efficiently. Disbursed-decision making also assists organizations in attracting and retaining employees (McMahon, 2007). During the course of this assignment I also learnt that when an organization is designing an incentive system for rewarding the workers, the management should recognize that convections forms of acknowledgement like achievement award, gift cards, and public perks have weakened in value for most of the current workers. According to different literatures that I came across when doing this assignment, such forms of rewards are ranked near the bottom within workers surveys worldwide. The workers perceive themselves as working for other individuals and not working for their organizations. It is those individuals they work for and management as well that can most make acknowledgment consequential and special (McMahon, 2007). I have also discovered that dispersed-decision making goes a long way in motivating employees. This includes offering employees autonomy and authority, for example allowing them to decide how best to perform their tasks, allowing employees to pursue ideas they maybe having for enhancing things within the workplace. This includes giving the employees “incentive” of flexible working hours, training and learning opportunities and most importantly, the managers giving employees undivided attention (Drennan, 2008). I recognize that this form of reward and recognition program is intangible and extremely situational as well. However, I feel that warding this form of response to a well done job is the best form of recognition preferred by today’s workers. Giving the employees autonomy to make decisions lets the workers know that the management recognizes them as a part of the organization. It also makes the workers aware that the managers will be there for them if need be and this motivate the employers, which in turn increases productivity and organization’s profitability in the long run. Organizations should systematically move away from things that their workers no longer value and instead move to things that employees happy about as long as this does not affect the organization negatively (Ross, 2006). Finally, through this assignment I have discovered different types of organizational structures for example, centralization and decentralization organizational structures. In centralization, decision making authority is at the top and most of the important decisions are made at higher levels of the hierarchy. On the other hand, in decentralization, there is a dispersed-decision making and here decision making power is concentrated across the organization and hence the employees are not alienated when it comes to making important decisions in organizations (Joseph, 2008). When there is dispersed-decision making, the employees within the organization have authority to do something without prior approval from the top management and can make decisions without having to consult their seniors. This promotes fast decision making and makes workers feel that they are part of the organization. In conclusion, the assignment has provided me with immense knowledge regarding market-like mechanisms, and particularly, work-based incentives and dispersed decision-making. References llen, J, & Judd, B. (2007). Participation in decision-making and job satisfaction: Ideal and reality for male and female university faculty in the United States. Human Communication, 10(3), 157–179. Drennan, D. (2008). Motivating the majority. Management Today, March: 88-92. Joseph, A. (2008). Organizations: Structure and Behavior. New York: Wiley. Ross, J. (2006). Increasing and decreasing intrinsic interest with contingent rewards: A test of cognitive evaluation theory. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. Vol. 14:588- 597. Barrow, C.W. (1996). The strategy of selective excellence: Redesigning higher education for global competition in a postindustrial society. In: Higher Education, 41. Netherlands: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Fitzgerald, L. et al. (1991). Performance Measurement in Service Businesses. Cambridge: Chartered Institute of Management Accountants. OECD (1993).Managing with Market-Type Mechanisms. Paris: OECD. Gerhart, B. & Milkovich, G. (2000). Organizational differences in managerial compensation and financial performance. Academy of Management Journal. Vol. 33:662-69 McMahon, M. (2007). Career Coach: Decision-making. London: Pulse. Porter, L. (2006). Employee responses to formal performance appraisal feedback. Journal of Applied Psychology. Vol. 71: 211-218 Read More