Employees Emotions and their Job Performance - Research Proposal Example

Employees’ Emotions and their Job Performance Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 3 Discussions Findings 3 Survey Investigating the Customer Perceptions 5 Findings from the Survey 6 Survey Investigating Customer Perception of the Environment and Comfort Level offered by Dental Care Alliance 8 Survey Investigating the Self Perception of Internal Employees 9 Conclusions/ Recommendations 11 Work Cited 13 Executive Summary Dental Care Alliance is one of the facilities providing dental health care. The facility has been making efforts of becoming a leader in the industry. Therefore, it has been investing in providing empowerment to its employees in an effort to register a high level of human resource management. However, the facility has received negative customer feedback despite its efforts of ensuring that employees acquire exemplary expertise. Surveys of identifying factors that contribute to the negative feedback from the customers revealed interesting aspects. It emerges that employees do not exhibit the expected level of professionalism hence customers are dissatisfied with their services. Moreover, employees do not have the capacity to control their emotions and exhibit the required working attitude. This contributed to customer dissatisfaction with their services. Managers are also unable to control their emotions by exhibiting the emotional intelligence. These findings call for numerous adjustments if the Dental Care Alliance is to achieve its goals of providing a remarkable customer experience. Systematic training can offer employees the relevant knowledge and skills in an effort to improve their performance. Introduction of the reward systems will motivate employees to register exemplary performance. The Dental Care Alliance should also define strict rules and high performance standards that employees should conform to at all times. The managers need training on emotional intelligence as well as psychological counseling and seasonal evaluation programs. Introduction In order to prove highly competitive, businesses are becoming aware of the need to understand customer satisfaction levels. This is especially the case in the service industry whereby customer satisfaction depends on multiple factors. Notably, in a product business, the quality of the product is the main determinant of the customer satisfaction. However, in the services industry, the quality of the service depends on the behavior of the service provider and eventually the service itself. One of the businesses in the services industry that will receive attention in this paper is the dental health care. Experts recommend that individuals should visit a dentist regularly. Moreover, the emerging needs of people concerning tooth care have contributed to the popularity of the dental healthcare industry (Alan, Baldwin, and Amrik 209). The Dental Care Alliance is one of the entities in this industry. Worth noting is the fact that this company has been making efforts of remaining competitive in the industry. The Dental Care Alliance has always hired employees with exceptional expertise in dentistry in an effort to ensure that customers receive quality services. However, it emerges that the level of customer satisfaction does not only depend on the competencies of the dentist. A close analysis of customer feedback to the institution reveals that they exhibit a high level of dissatisfaction. The above is majorly because of the behavioral patterns, and emotions exhibited by the employees. This report highlights the findings of a study that sought to analyze how the emotions of the employees affected their performance, altering the customer experience, and leading to either satisfaction or dissatisfaction. The findings emerged from surveys conducted on customers, employees, and managers in an effort to identify how the emotions of the employees affected their performance (Alan, Baldwin, and Amrik 212). Evidently, the emotions of employees have the potential of altering the experience of the customers. Worth noting is the fact that customers seeking dental health care usually have a measure of anxiety prior to the services. Dentists need to exhibit an emotional intelligence in an effort to address the needs of the customers effectively. Therefore, they need to understand their emotions and feelings as well as those of the customers. The decisions made by the dentists should promote the interest of the customers and should focus on delivering the best quality. Just as the case in other health care facilities, customers seeking dental health care need a measure of reassurance from the professionals. Many of the patients view the quality of services based on the attitude and emotions exhibited by the employees. A qualified dentist with the required skills and knowledge may find it difficult to ensure a high level of customer satisfaction. The purpose of the study was to highlight the factors that contribute to negative emotions exhibited by the employees within the workplace contributing to negative customer feedback (Chang, Wen-Jen, and Chang 240). Employees with a high level of emotional intelligence usually have the capacity to control their emotions and assess the feelings and attitudes of the customers. Such an understanding of both personal emotions and those of the customers serves to create a favorable environment for delivering quality dental health care. Discussions / Findings The Dental Care Alliance is one of the facilities seeking to offer quality dental services to their customers. The company recognizes that customer loyalty depends on their level of satisfaction. The company has taken measures to ensure that it is one of the leading dental care facilities. Dental Care Alliance achieves this by hiring employees with exceptional skills and knowledge. The hiring process includes procedures of identifying candidates who exhibit salient understanding of the customer’s dental needs and have the potential to address such needs. In addition to hiring the best dentist, the company invests in human resource development. This occurs through extensive training programs offered by the company in an effort to ensure that the dentists present a high level of expertise. The training program seeks to empower the employees and impart them with new skills and competencies. Worth noting is the fact that these training and empowerment programs have been of critical importance in developing the skills of the dentists (Chang, Wen-Jen, and Chang 244). Career development programs within the institution have also served to advance the professional competency of the dentists. Usually, individuals hired into the institution receive a diverse range of opportunities towards the career progression. Therefore, many of the employees of the Dental Care Alliance have the opportunity to exploit their full potential in their careers. The company realizes that human resource development is one of the critical measures in ensuring the success of the services businesses. Notably, the employees of Dental Care Alliance form the conduct point of the organization and the customers. This explains why investing in human resource development is likely to register a higher level of impact on the part of the customers. If this impact is positive, a higher satisfaction level from the customer results. However, employees who lack the required skills and competencies often leave a negative impression on the customers (Dewi et al 172). Therefore, the Dental Care Alliance has also adopted strategies for ensuring that employees pursue advanced education. Evidently, advancing the employees’ education serve to increase their competencies. Without doubt, the Dental Care Alliance has invested highly in human resource development. In its expectations, this level of investment would attract more customers because of their unique health experience. Despite the measures taken by the Dental Care Alliance to ensure that customers have the best experience in the facility, customer feedback reports, do not suggest a high level of satisfaction. A tracking system on customer feedback reports revealed that many customers exhibited a high level of dissatisfaction with the company’s services. The company needed to highlight the contributing factors to such a negative customer feedback despite the presence of highly qualified dentists. Many of the customers leaving a negative feedback highlighted that the emotions of the employees during the entire process of visiting a dentist made the experience horrible (Farh et al 891). This meant that Dental Care Alliance employees exhibited negative emotions that affected the experience of the customers. More importantly, these negative emotions also presented adverse effects on the performance of the employees. In order to ascertain that this was the case, the company carried out different surveys investigating into the issues. The company cannot underestimate the feedback from the customers. Experts have highlighted that customers leaving a negative feedback or making a complaint about the services offered present an organization with an opportunity to register growth after making improvement on the highlighted areas. This is the reason why the Dental Care Alliance keeps a close track of customer feedback reports. One of the surveys sought to highlight the views of the customers towards the employees. Understanding the perception of the customers in the services industry is of critical importance (Farh et al 892). The goals of the organization mainly involve delivering quality dental care services to the customers. However, services exhibited different characteristics that determine the perception of the customers. One of the critical characteristics is the aspect of inseparability. This is because it is practically impossible to separate a service from the service provider. The inseparability of services introduces certain challenges in the services industry. One of the outstanding challenges is how to ensure that service providers understand the needs of the customers and that they can deliver quality services to the customers (Farh et al 894). The Dental Care Alliance is facing the problem described above. The company has made efforts of increasing the skills and competencies of each employee. However, this has not served to register a high level of satisfaction amongst customers. Therefore, it becomes evident that certain aspects of the service providers alter the customer’s experience. As mentioned previously, customers seeking dental health care need the reassurance from the dentist. The dentist should be in a position to understand the emotions of the customers specifically their needs, fears, and expectations if they are to deliver quality services. However, this may prove impossible if certain barrier factors do exist. Employees who lack the capacity to control their emotions or handle them in an effective way may find it difficult to impress customers. In the case of Dental Care Alliance, it is evident that employees exhibit negative emotions that convert the customer experience to a horrible one (Farh et al 897). According to the affective theory, it emerges that personal issues, social issues, and family matters have the potential to influence the emotions of the employees. Difficult situations in these three different realms may trigger negative emotions in the employees. This often results to negative customer feedback. Negative emotions have the capacity to affect performance negatively. Therefore, Dental Care Alliance sought to understand the specific factors that affect employee emotions and how these emotions altered their performance level leading to customer dissatisfaction. Understanding these aspects was of significance importance to the organization because it would provide substantial data and evidence that can influence decision-making. For the Dental Care Alliance to define effective strategies that can address the current problem, research proved to be highly important. Three different surreys provided the required data in an effort to determine the factors that altered the customer experience. One survey focused on the customers. The purpose of carrying out research on customer perceptions cannot receive any underestimation (Goetz et al 1). This is because customers are the most important stakeholders to any organization. The availability of customers determines the profitability level of Dental Care Alliance. Survey Investigating the Customer Perceptions In order to identify the views of customers to the company’s employees, random sampling of customers occurred. The randomized sampling is an effective sampling strategy when carrying out surveys, especially when seeking to understand customer perceptions. The customers identified in the survey were required to describe their views on the professional knowledge and performance of the employees as well as the environment and comfort level offered by the Dental Care Alliance. In order to describe the professional knowledge and the performance of the employees, the customers focused on different aspects (Mills et al 81). They highlighted whether the employees exhibited professionalism. In the case of dental health care, professionalism comprises of emotional intelligence, skills, and competencies in the field. The survey expected customers to rate the employees highly concerning their skills and knowledge because Dental Care Alliance has invested immense in career development programs. Moreover, the fact that the company hires individual from across the globe who present exceptional expertise in dental health care would translate into a positive customer perception of the professionalism of the employees. The attitudes and behaviors of the employees during dental health care provision also merged as critical factors that determined the perception of customers on the professionalism of the employees. The researchers requested customers to provide details of their experience with the employees of the Dental Care Alliance. This was to ensure that the researchers could gather reliable data concerning the customer perception of the professional knowledge and performance of the employees. Understanding the perceptions of the customers was of critical importance in gathering data that can help the Dental Care Alliance develop strategies of fostering higher levels of customer satisfaction. Worth noting is the fact that being able to define the needs of the customers as well as their concerns regarding the services provided by the company is one of the critical cornerstones in business success. Dental Care Alliance recognizes that without the customer, there is no business. Moreover, the absence of the customer means that professionalism does not exist. This is because professionalism involves the identification and satisfaction of individual customer needs. The definition of professionalism influenced the questions that customers required to answer in the survey. The purpose of the survey was to ensure that the customers could rate the professionalism of the employees of the Dental Care Alliance. Findings from the Survey Results from the surveys on the customer’s perception of the professionalism and the performance of the employees of Dental Care Alliance revealed that 85%of the employees exhibited professionalism. As mentioned above, professionalism meant that the employees were able to recognize the needs of the customers and address them effectively while registering the customer satisfaction. Eighty five percent of professionalism was an impressive finding. However, it emerged that 10% of the customers viewed the professionalism of Dental Care Alliance employees as normal. The Dental Care Alliance is a facility that seeks to be a leader in the dental care industry. This explains why the facility has been using its resources in developing human resource. All these efforts seek to ensure that the company provides exemplary services to the customers. In a highly competitive business world, customers perceiving employee’s performance as normal is a rating that is below average. Figure 1: Pie chart indicating customers’ feedback about employees’ professional knowledge and performance One of the goals of the Dental Care Alliance is to empower employees so that they can exhibit a high level of professionalism. Ten percent of the employees only managed to exhibit normal professionalism without depicting any outstanding characteristics that would contribute to customer loyalty. This means that certain factors hinder the employees from offering outstanding services. The Dental Care Alliance does not only purpose to offer good services, but to provide customers with the best experience with the dentist. This is especially the case because many customers in this industry have highlighted that visiting a dentist is a scary experience. It is unfortunate that 5% of customer feedbacks revealed that employees of Dental Care Alliance were not professional. This explains why customers exhibited the satisfaction with the services provided. Lack of professionalism in this case implies that the employees lacked the potential to develop a positive relationship with the customer. The lack of a positive relationship hindered the employee from identifying the unique needs of the customers. Therefore, it was practically impossible to satisfy the customer’s needs. In accordance with the definition provided above of professionalism, the employees failed to identify and satisfy the needs of the customers. This explains why the customers highlighted that they were not professional. In other cases, it is possible that the employees identify the needs if the customers, but fail to address them effectively. The efficiency of addressing customer needs in this case brings into focus both the professional competencies and the attitudes of the employees. Evidently, the Dental Care Alliance has invested in increasing the professional competency of its employees. Therefore, it is evident that the attitudes exhibited by the employees compromised their professionalism. The employee’s emotions have triggered these emotions. Understanding the perception of professionalism of the employees by the customers and the reasons supporting their perception can help in identifying viable solutions (Wall 46). From this survey, it emerges that; Dental Care Alliance needs to take some measures in an effort to improve the professional knowledge and performance of its employees (Palihawadana and Barnes 229). Survey Investigating Customer Perception of the Environment and Comfort Level offered by Dental Care Alliance The selected participants identified through random sampling of the customers also offered their opinion about the environment and comfort levels of Dental Care Alliance. Seventy eight percent of the customers highlighted that the environment and comfort level was good. Worth noting is the fact that the Dental Care Alliance has measures in place to ensure that it offers a favorable environment that can promote the comfort of the customers. Some of these measures include maintenance of proper hygiene by cleaning the facility after every hour. In addition, the facility undertakes a redecoration program on an annual basis. Fresh plants and flowers also define the Dental Care Alliance environment. Worth noting is the fact that customers associate the comfort of the environment with the quality of the services. This explains why the hospital has identified this as a priority and takes measures of promoting the level of comfort offered by the facility. Although 78% of the customers feel that the environment is good, 19% viewed it as normal while 3% highlighted that it was bad. This only means that the Dental Care Alliance has not registered an extremely favorable environment that can promote the level of comfort experienced by customers. Figure 2: A pie chart showing customers’ feedback about the environment and comfort level of Dental Care Alliance The three 3% of customers who view the environment as bad present a statistically significant number of customers who do not experience their expected measure of comfort in the Dental Care Alliance. The negative perception about the environment had the potential to contribute to low satisfaction levels from the customers. Worth noting is the fact that the environment does not only refer to the physical environment. It is inclusive of the values and belief systems exhibited by the employees and those that define organizational culture. Therefore, treating of customers concerning the environment also indicates that employees need to make certain adjustments if customers are to view the organization in a different light. The goal of the Dental Care Alliance is ensuring that it presents its customers with the best possible environment and the highest level of comfort when receiving dental health care (Palihawadana and Barnes 229). Employees can alter the perception of the customers concerning the environment if they foster positive relationships with the customers during service delivery. Many businesses have recognized the value of focusing on relationship oriented businesses. Establishing a unique relationship with customers provides the required environment for the provision of dental health care. This is because the customers can receive individualized health care and achieves a level of relaxation and assurance that the dentists will offer the best care. Finally, the customers rated the working attitude exhibited by the employees of the Dental Care Alliance. Sixty percent of the customers highlighted that employees exhibited a bad attitude. Eighteen percent of the customers viewed the employee’s working attitude as normal. Only 22% of the customers interviewed highlighted that employees of the Dental Care Alliance have a good attitude when working (Wall 45). This reveals that the main problem with Dental Care Alliance is the attitude exhibited by its employees when working. This is because a great percentage of the customers believe that employees exhibit bad attitudes. Survey Investigating the Self Perception of Internal Employees The second survey carried out sought to understand how the employees rated their professionalism while delivering dental health care. This survey was of critical importance in understanding aspects that defined the level of performance exhibited by the employees. Self-perception of the employees concerning their level of professionalism offers reliable data that can facilitate comparison with data from the customer perceptions (Palihawadana and Barnes 229). Several aspects considered in this survey in an effort to establish the barriers that prevented the exemplary performance. The survey requested employees to rate their own professionalism using a Likert scale with 10 points. Ten on the Likert scale indicated that the employees strongly agreed with the statement while, one indicated that they strongly disagreed. . Results from the interviewed employees highlighted four critical aspects. It emerged that daily affairs had the potential of affecting the emotions of the employees. This meant that personal issues, social issues, and other matters affecting the individual on a daily basis resulted in a varied range of emotions. Moreover, it became evident that the employees lacked the required capacity to keep their attitude in control. Random sampling proved critical in the identification of participants in this survey. The identified employees received a briefing on the purpose of the survey as well as the confidentiality maintained during the entire process. This was prior to the employees signing the consent forms. Understanding how employees perceive their performance is of critical importance in any business (Wall 49). This is because it helps in identifying the existing gaps between the level of performances exhibited by them, and the established standards in the industry. The internal employees were required to rate their professionalism when working on a scale of 10. The average score for this was 9.5. This means that many of the employees feel that they exhibit professionalism when delivering dental care services. When asked to rate whether their core workers exhibited professionalism, the average score was nine. This means that employees have a positive attitude towards the professionalism of their core workers. However, the score is lower that the self-rating of each employee. The employees scored an average grade of 8.3 when asked to indicate whether they thought their patients were satisfied with the services they provided. This score was much lower than the 9.5 score exhibited by the employees when asked about their level of professionalism. One would expect that the employees would score higher when asked about customer satisfaction with their services. This shows that there is an existing gap between the perceived level of professionalism and the perceived level of customer satisfaction (Palihawadana and Barnes 229). Employees indicated that they exhibit a diverse range of emotions when delivering dental care services with an average score of eight. Moreover, they had the conviction that a bad mood only serves to exaggerate their bad attitude with an average score of 8.6. It emerged that pressure from the supervisors and managers affected the emotions of the employees. This is because an average score of 9.2 indicated that employees felt their direct supervisor’s different emotions and moods. If the moods of the supervisor was bad, their attitude was negative when they were having negative emotions, and this presented negative effects on the attitude exhibited by the employees (Wall 52). Worth noting is the fact that emotional intelligence helps employees to exhibits measure of self-control that can allow them to portray a positive attitude within the workplace even when they are having a bad day (Mills et al 84). However, the employees Dental Care Alliance lack this capacity of maintaining a positive attitude when under the pressure of negative emotions. Worst still supervisors pass their emotions mindlessly to the employees affecting their attitude. This is a pathological behavioral pattern because supervisors and managers who lack emotional intelligence as leaders end up affecting their teams and subordinates adversely. Figure 3: Diagram showing the conclusion of the results from employee interviews From the revelations of the employees indicated by their scores on the Likert scale, the employees’ emotions and working attitude depend on the daily affairs as well as the emotions of the managers. Consequently, the emotions and working attitudes of the employees determine whether customers are satisfied or whether they leave a negative feedback. Poor customer satisfactions as well as negative customer feedback qualify Dental Care Alliance as a less competitive entity in dental health care. Without doubt, the Dental Care Alliance needs to make adjustments in an effort to ensure that employees exhibit positive emotions and working attitude, which can lead to a higher level of customer satisfaction, positive feedback, and prove the facility highly competitive (Mills et al 83). Conclusions/ Recommendations Dental Care Alliance can make certain adjustments in an effort to improve the professionalism and the performance of the employees. The facility can achieve this by offering systematical training to its employees. Systematic training involves the use of specific assessments identified in an effort to determine whether the training process achieves the defined goals. Systematic training relies on methodologies used in assessing the efficiency of the training process. Systematic training is a formal training that helps employees to acquire the new competencies. The formal training takes place in different phases in accordance with the identified needs of the employees. The purpose of systematic training is to empower the employees to register high levels of performance. The first phase of adopting systematic training should include a rigorous identification of the needs of the employees (Saremi and Nezhad 24). From the surveys conducted above, it emerges that employees of Dental Care Alliance need proper training on emotional intelligence and maintenance of high quality customer services. The employees need to recognize that their emotions and attitude have a direct effect on their performance and the satisfaction levels of the customers. Therefore, a training program that conforms to the mission and goals of the Dental Care Alliance will serve to present the employees with the competencies they require. Different types of training programs will be required in the case of Dental Care Alliance. This is because the employees need to understand how to attain emotional intelligence and foster self-awareness and understanding of the emotions and the feelings of the customers. Other aspects of systematic training that Dental Care Alliance can adopt included the performance analysis and employee orientation. For each of these training programs, the employees should understand the goals of the training and receive motivation on the value of undertaking such training programs. The facility should ensure that employees give their feedback after their training and that the training exercise is enjoyable. Evaluation processes should come after the training in an effort to determine the level of effectiveness of the training programs (Saremi and Nezhad 25). Surveys carried out after training should indicate positive customer feedback if the training was effective. The Dental Care Alliance should also introduce strict rules that govern employee performance. When the facility defines high performance standards, the employees will have no choice, but to conform to the required standards. Establishing performance standard and rules ensures that employees remain aware of their behavior, attitudes, and emotions during performance. This will foster a higher level of control of attitude and emotions and consequently positive customer feedback. Moreover, the Dental Care Alliance can introduce a reward system, which fosters positive competition. Many of the employees will work harder in an effort to register exemplary performance because of the reward system. Employees who exhibit the highest level of professionalism, the best attitude towards customers and their work and those with the capacity of controlling their emotions will receive recognition and rewards. This will serve as a form of motivation that will ensure employees keep improving their performance (Saremi and Nezhad 27). The surveys carried out by the Dental Care Alliance highlighted that managers influenced the emotions and attitudes of employees negatively. This is because they lack the required emotional intelligence to exhibit self-awareness and self-control. They are also unable to understand the emotions of their employees. Training programs that seek to improve emotional intelligence can serve to ensure that managers exhibit the required attitude in the workplace. Emotional intelligence is becoming one of the critical aspects that determine the success of leaders. Therefore, the Dental Care Alliance should invest in ensuring that its managers receive the relevant training in an effort to achieve higher levels of emotional intelligence. Psychological counseling for the managers can also help them address their emotions and attitudes effectively. This will be a positive step in ensuring that managers do not influence employees adversely when under the pressure of negative emotions. The final recommendation for managers is the adoption of seasonal evaluation. The Dental Care Alliance should lay down evaluation processes that will assess the performance of managers and supervisors. Self-reflection is part of the seasonal evaluation that can help managers identify the relevant action plans that can correct their behavior (Saremi and Nezhad 29). If all these recommendations prove successful, then Dental Care Alliance stands a chance of restoring customer satisfaction and proving to be highly competitive in the market. Work Cited Alan, Baldwin, and Sohal Amrik. "Service Quality Factors And Outcomes In Dental Care." Managing Service Quality 13.3 (2003): 207-216. Business Source Complete. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. Chang, Wen-Jen, and Yen-Hsiang Chang. "Original Article: Patient Satisfaction Analysis: Identifying Key Drivers And Enhancing Service Quality Of Dental Care." Journal of Dental Sciences 8.(2013): 239-247. ScienceDirect. Web. 3 Dec. 2014. 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