Skyline State University Staff Productivity and Morale - Case Study Example

Case Study The issue related with productivity, incentives and morale is often assumed to have a significant impact on non-academic organizations. However, academic institution is also not excluded from such issues. Skyline State University (SSU) which is a comprehensive teaching institution has been running out of resources, which has caused the emergence of significant issues and problems both for the SSU administration as well as faculty members. Correspondingly, the case study focuses on the staff productivity and morale problem faced by SSU. Staff Productivity and Morale Case study Skyline State University (SSU) is a comprehensive teaching institution with 14,200 undergraduate and 3500 graduate students accompanied with 400 faculty and staff. SSU is situated in an attractive and relatively isolated setting in Lubbock, Texas. In the recent years, SSU has faced numerous challenges and difficulties. There has been considerable increase in the annual tuition fees but resources to meet the new initiatives have been limited. Although SSU has a few resources in order to meet capital improvement or for the commencement of new programs and initiative but these resources are not adequate. In the recent times, SSU has been able to provide only 1 percent rise across the board faculty and staff salary cost of living and standard promotion adjustment but it has witnessed no major increase in the number of staff for several years. Two programs namely a Staff Performance Excellence Program (SPEP) and a Faculty Distinction program was initiated in the year 2000 and 2001 respectively which were framed to recognize and motivate outstanding performance. However, since 2005 neither program was funded. The performance documentation and employee-supervisor discussion committee of the SPEP occupied a key role in deciding the eligibility and levels of merit based salary increase. SPEP was not tied with in any manner with the compensation rather it was totally an academic exercise. Besides, staffs within SSU have also not taken this program seriously as they believe that the program will have no significant impact on their promotion. At the same time, Faculty Distinction program has been paused for many years (Ruben & Jurow, 2012). There was no rigid plan to resolve this ongoing problem faced by the university and the faculty members in the university. As a consequence of this, faculty members in SSU felt increasing level of stress and they deemed to remain strapped for time to teach. Faculty members in SSU who are economically vulnerable remain disheartened about their career prospects. Faculty members within the university have been continuously stressed and continue to struggle with the ramification of the finance. Also, large class size and poor remuneration have dramatically contributed towards the low morale and increased stress for faculty members in SSU. The increased stressed and decreasing morale of faculty members in the university have adversely affected their productivity. Faculty members who are demoralized and demotivated have revealed apathy as well as indifferences to work, followed by increasing absenteeism, poor record of time keeping and a lack of co-operation in dealing with problems faced by the university. Most of the faculty members in the university are feeling that the salary received by them is inferior to the amount of work they perform. The lack of adequate support services has significantly made these faculty members in the university insecure, frustrated and vulnerable. The faculty members in the university are facing subtle forms of demoralization. Besides, the faculty members in the university were feeling their working hours to be unrealistic and unpractical. The lack of proper communication regarding the ongoing aspects of compensation other than the official mail conveying faculty members about the policy decisions stating their deferral as an excuse has further contributed in increasing the problem in the university. All these factors have contributed towards the increasing job dissatisfaction amidst the faculty members of the university. The prevailing situation in the university has significantly disturbed the working environment. Its impact on the students was also clearly reflected. Increasing absenteeism of students could be directly observed from the attendance register. The university was going through the most difficult phase that it had ever witnessed. Apart from this, those faculty members who were talented and extremely ambitious were involved in exploring alternative employment opportunities. Such action revealed by some of the faculty members had further deteriorated the climate within the university followed by contagious downward spiral of morale. Faculty members in the university were more interested in lunch discussion that involved conversation of the depressing future. The feeling of dissatisfaction and continuous discussion about the compensation issue had led towards elicited decisions to change the university and look for alternative jobs among other faculty members as well. Such ongoing environment has created a greater risk of faculty turnover in the university. It is believed that if faculty members leave their employment, it will definitely create a shortage of faculty members within the university which will further increase the tension prevailing within the university. Besides, it is believed that such actions will further increase the cost for the university in the form of finding and recruiting appropriate candidates to fill the vacant position. Nonetheless, the university is already experiencing a lack of adequate resources and the emergence of such situation is perceived to have a significant impact on the other faculty members as well as students. All these dynamics collaboratively have an adverse impact on the organizational morale as well as on personal initiative and productivity. Later, three faculty members left their employment simultaneously that further heated the atmosphere in the university. Although the situation witnessed was not beyond the expectation but three faculty members leaving the employment simultaneously was a huge loss for the university. The situation faced by the university was uncontrollable as there was nothing much left for the university to directly change the situation. The university was already experiencing a shortage of capital and the loss of three faculty members came as a massive setback in quantifiable term. It has increased the fear of further losing the other faculty members. For a university that was running out of fund and which had already lost three faculty members at a time, subsequent loss of any further faculty members could be devastating. Outcome of the Case After quitting the employment by three faculty members, no other staff left the job. However, the problem of compensation, productivity and morale continue to exist in the university. Despite the increasing risk of staff turnover, SSU administration has brought in no major programs or did not hire new faculty members. Overall Analysis of the Case Facts of the Case Resource to meet the new initiatives was limited despite the increase in the tuition fees SSU has a few resources to meet capital improvement or for the initiation of new programs and initiative but these resources were not adequate SSU provided only 1 percent rise across the-board faculty and staff salary cost of living and standard promotion adjustment but no major increase in the number of staff for several years was witnessed Staff Performance Excellence Program (SPEP) and Faculty Distinction program were initiated in the year 2000 and 2001 directed towards recognizing and motivating exceptional performance. However, Staff Performance Excellence Program (SPEP) was not tied with compensation plan while Faculty Distinction program was deterred Faculty members within the university were continuously stressed and continued to struggle with the ramification of the finance. Besides, a large class size and poor remuneration had led towards low morale and increased stress for faculty members in SSU Impact on the students was reflected in the form of increasing absenteeism Three faculty members left their employment which further deteriorated the university environment as well as increased the risk of faculty turnover Stakeholders Skyline State University Texas Education Department William B. Jefferson, Director of the Skyline State University Faculty members of SSU Students of SSU Parents of students Decision Situation What can the SSU administration do to prevent other faculty members from leaving their employment? Issues Prioritized What strategies can the SSU administration take to motivate the faculty members of the university? How can the SSU administration reduce the impact of demoralized faculty members on the students of the University? What measures can be taken by the SSU administration to deal with the situation of reducing staff motivation and a lack of initiative considering the problem of limited resources? Theoretical Frames Frame 1 Structural According to Bolman & Deal (2008), structural frame assumptions reflect the ongoing trend of organizational structure. According to structural frame assumptions, properly defined roles and responsibilities have the tendency to reduce the personal static distraction and at the same time they enhance the performances of personnel with the organization. This frame firmly advocates that in order to ensure smooth functioning of the organization, it is crucial to assign people in the right role and responsibility. The six key assumptions form the basis of the structural assumptions. Accordingly, the first assumption claims that the core purpose of an organization is to realize the stated goals and objectives. In this regard, the goals and objectives of Skyline State University (SSU) as an organization have been to prepare students to meet the diverse requirements of their chosen career. Besides, the university aimed at assisting students to develop proper work habits and to promote professional, moral and spiritual developments in order to contribute to the global workplace needs. The second assumption of the structural frame requires the organizations to increase the efficiency and enhance the performance by specialization and proper segregation of labor. In order to enhance the performance of faculty members in the SSU, the university administration had undertaken two major programs including Staff Performance Excellence Program (SPEP) and Faculty Distinction program during the year 2000 and 2001. However, due to limited resources, the latter program was deterred by the university while the former program was not tied with the compensation. According to the third assumption of the structural frame, effective communication and coordination within the organization contribute towards resolving the complex issues faced within the entity. Nonetheless, SSU administration demonstrated their failure to inform faculty members regarding the realities about the compensation issue rather the university was engaged in seeking excuses for the delays in resolving the issue of compensation. Similarly, the fifth assumption of the structural frame claims that properly designed structure assists an organization to ensure smooth functioning of it. However, SSU administration possessed no idea about how to resolve the issue of compensation faced by the university and there was no plan to address the demands of faculty members. The sixth assumption firmly states that structural deficiencies negatively influence the performance which ultimately leads towards the emergence of problematic issue (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Noticeably, the ongoing issue pertaining to compensation has radically contributed towards increasing stressful situation for faculty members leading towards their deteriorating performance. Ultimately, the students of the university were also suffering as a consequence of demoralized behavior revealed by the faculty members in the university. According to Adam’s equity theory (Hofmans, 2012), the level of motivation for a person is firmly associated with his/her perception of equity and fairness practiced by the organization. Relating the equity theory with the ongoing issue faced by the university, it is apparent that the SSU administration had failed in revealing realistic picture regarding the compensation issue to the faculty members in the university which had further led towards demoralizing faculty members. Frame 2 Human Resource Bolman & Deal (2008) through the human resource frame have illustrated the complex relationship between the organization and the people. This frame holds the assumption that aligning the needs of individual and the goals and objectives of the organization while engaging people in productive activities facilitates an organization to acquire profit. However, this frame also articulates that in the current and globalized environment, there is a greater possibility of emerging conflicts within the organization. In order to eliminate any possibility of dispute situation, the frame claims that developing understanding regarding the people as well as their symbolic relationship with the organization is crucial. According to the first assumption of human resource frame, the purpose of existence of an organization is to meet the human needs. However, SSU administration has hardly focused on meeting the needs of its faculty members. Instead, Faculty Distinction program which was initiated in the university to recognize and motivate the employees was also deterred. On the other hand, the second assumption states that both people and organization are integral to each other wherein the organization has the need for talent, productivity and ideas while people have the need for salary, compensation, careers and opportunities. SSU administration due to limited resources was not able to provide adequate compensation to the faculty members. Evidently, faculty members had received a meager increase of 1 percent in the salary and standard promotion while there had been no other major benefits received by them. Correspondingly, such scenario had contributed towards the emergence of insecure and frustrating feeling among the faculty members. Accordingly, the third assumption claims that when there is a poor linkage between the people and organization, it leads to the emergence of a situation, where both the people and the organization become the victim. The limited resources within the SSU and its inability to provide sufficient compensation had caused faculty members to suffer stress while on the other hand three faculty members giving up the job had resulted in the university to suffer from shortage of staff. According to Douglas McGregor’s Theory Y (Bolman & Deal, 2008), it is the responsibility of the management to create an environment wherein the staff members are motivated to deliver their best service to the organization. Based on the human resource frame, it is the responsibility of the SSU administration to foster a condition wherein the faculty members are willing to render exceptional service towards the university that would promote the development of the students (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Frame 3 Political Bolman & Deal (2008), claim that an organization is a coalition of individuals and different interest groups. Power is viewed to play an imperative role within an organization. The third assumption i.e. political frame states that allocating scarce resource is the most challenging task for management. According to the political frame, if the subordinates believe that authorities who are liable for making decisions are too harsh towards them then they will take the risk and will try to release the pressure. Furthermore the political frame articulated that in certain circumstances subordinates may emerge to practice powerful actions that may result in the collapse of the authority system. It was apparent that quitting of employment by three faculty member had resulted in increasing the fear of more staff turnover amid the administration of SSU (Bolman & Deal, 2008). Similarly, the fourth assumption states that scarce resources and differences within an organization contribute towards the emergence of conflicts. In line with this statement, SSU having limited resources to meet the demand of faculty members has led to the emergence of a situation wherein faculty members can be viewed to engage in conflict with the administration of SSU. Gamson (Bolman & Deal, 2008) expounded that there are two antagonists within the political frame including authorities and partisans. Authorities who occupy a higher position are eligible to decisions that are binding to the partisans. Based on this theory, Administration of SSU can be categorized as the authorities who were entitled to make decisions on the various aspects and issues faced by the university while faculty members can be recognized as the partisans. The SSU administration did not raise the number of staff for several years and at the same time no significant benefits were provided to faculty members. Furthermore, as a consequence of such action demonstrated by the administration of SSU, the faculty members in the university were required to attend a large class size without adequate compensation which had resulted in demoralizing the faculty members along with increasing their level of stress. The faculty members ingrained a feeling that their working hour was unrealistic and impracticable. Notably, due to the increase in the level of stress and a lack of any career prospects, three faculty members had also left their employment. Frame 4 Organisms According to Morgan, (2006) viewing an organization from this frame helps managers to understand the transformation within the organization pertaining to the changes in the resources as well as whole population. Based on this frame, Morgan (2008) articulated that changes in the environment are a continuous process and these changes are not ideal for all population within the organization. The metaphor organization as organism propounded by Morgan (2006) significantly relies on the Darwin theory of evolution and natural selection. According to the principle of this frame, people function effectively when their needs are satisfied. However, the productivity of faculty members in the SSU had dramatically deteriorated which implies that these members were not satisfied with the certain aspects within the organization. Apparently, the inability of the administration in SSU to provide adequate compensation can be attributed as the key factor that had caused major dissatisfaction among the faculty members within the organization which had ultimately resulted in their reduced productivity. Responsively, it is stated that if the needs of the faculty members are not satisfied, the university must adapt changes that would facilitate in meeting the needs of the faculty members as well as students. Nonetheless, faculty members in the university were extremely disappointed about the compensation and were stressed owing to the need of attending a large size class on a continued basis. Besides, the administration in the university was not able to deal with this situation which further created more tension when three faculty members quit their employment (Morgan, 2006). Morgan (2006) further stated that bureaucratic organizations often operate smoothly and effectively in such an environment which is stable. However, in order to maintain stability, it is crucial that the needs of every individual and group are fulfilled that would promote greater level of satisfaction. In other words, for attaining stability, there is a greater need for satisfaction. Correspondingly, it can be argued environment within the SSU was not stable primarily due to the fact that the faculty members within the organization were not satisfied with the compensation plan. The effect of this dissatisfaction was clearly visible on the overall productivity, morale and student as well (Morgan, 2006). Frame 5 Psychic Prisons The ability of an organization to survive is significantly influenced by its past experience. Morgan (2006) noted that psychic factors such as obsession, mind-traps and strong emissions often act as hidden aspects that tend to block or encourage innovation and changes within the organization. Issues such as running short of resources and the possibility of staff turnover faced by SSU administration can lead to a situation which Morgan (2006) coined as “blind spot”. Moreover, Morgan (2006) noted that people often get trapped by their own psychic prisons. Similarly, the faculty members in the SSU and the SSU administration were trapped by their own principles. At the same time, the metaphor also claims that people tend to get trapped by their beliefs and perceptions. Evidently, the faculty members believed that SSU administration were rigid and were reluctant towards addressing the issue of compensation left their employment (Morgan, 2006). Marshall McLuhan’s fish metaphor (Morgan, 2006) identified blind spots where it is noted that SSU administration suffered by deterring Faculty Distinction program and not tying Staff Performance Excellence Program (SPEP) with compensation plan. Nonetheless, the reason behind such action of SSU administration was primarily due to a lack of adequate fund availability for the purpose of making changes within the university. In order to prevent the turnover of three faculty members, SSU administration could have spontaneously addressed the issue of compensation but they deferred which caused increasing level of stress and frustration among the faculty members of the university (Morgan, 2006). Action Plan Rationale The human resource frame offers a more coherent solution to the case of staff productivity and morale at Skyline State University. The frame argued that people within the organization can be regarded as one of the key factors, who possesses the ability to increase the performance of the organization, while on the other hand people also have the capacity to break the organization. Moreover, the frame noted that an organization should reveal their effort to meet the needs of the people. This frame further assumes that aligning the needs of individual and the goals and objectives of the organization facilitate in mutual growth of people and the organization. In this case study, SSU faces the challenge of limited resources despite the increase in the tuition fees. Although there has been an increase in the tuition fees but the university has been unable to provide adequate compensation to the faculty members. It is thus crucial for the SSU administration to align the need of faculty members with the goals and objectives of the university. Moreover, another major factor behind reducing morale of the faculty members can be attributed to the omission of Faculty Distinction program. It is thus essential for the SSU administration to resume this program so that employees are motivated to deliver their exceptional services towards the achievement of the university goals of preparing students to meet their diverse choice of career. Douglas McGregor’s Theory Y expounds that management is responsible for creating a working environment wherein every individual is motivated to perform better. Accordingly, the SSU administration needs to effectively communicate meaningful messages regarding the issue of compensation to faculty members instead of seeking excuses for ensuring harmonious working environment within the university. Short and Long-Term Solution The problem encountered by the university is not limited with the compensation only. Other two issues including productivity and morale of staff have created significant tension. In this circumstance, the role of William B. Jefferson, the Director of Skyline State University can be identified to be crucial. It is essential for the director to assume the role of a leader. Leadership values, principles and practices often serve as a valuable means to motivate staff during the situation of difficulties. Thus, the director should display his leadership’s qualities through effective communication. This will enable the director to provide reassurance, direction and recognition of the realities of the situation faced by the university to the faculty members. Communication is a two way channel, it is thus necessary for the director to listen to the grievances of the faculty members giving emphasis on explanation and talking for dealing with the confrontational situation. It will contribute towards reaching solution based on mutual understanding. As a long-term solution, the SSU administration needs to recommence Faculty Distinction program as well as the administration should tie Staff Performance Excellence Program (SPEP) with the compensation plan. Besides, as a long-term strategy, SSU administration should introduce a program for the induction of new faculty members in order to release the increased level of work stress from the existing faculty members. The long-term goal should also be to concentrate on creating a workplace environment where every faculty member is motivated to render their outstanding services. Possible Road Blocks The action plan for this case study is based on the human resource frame but the psychic prison frame can be observed to explore the potential obstacles that might impede the identified solution to the issue. According to the psychic prison frame, people are often obsessed by their past beliefs and perceptions. Relating to this case, it is possible that faculty members of SSU may develop a belief based on the past experience wherein the administration may give false assurance and might make their commitment as an excuse to defer the issue. Such perceptions of the faculty members may possible have a significant impact on their productivity as well as on their morale. References Bolman, L.G., & Deal, T.E. (2008). Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice and leadership. (4th ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Hofmans, J. (2012). Individual differences in equity models. Psicológica, 33, 473-482. Morgan, G. (2006). Images of organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Ruben, B. D., & Jurow, S. (2012). Leading in tough times: case studies for higher education leaders. Retrieved from http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/BusinessPolicyAreas/Lumina_Case_Studies_FINAL.pdf Read More