Employee Control and Employee Performance Measure - Case Study Example

? S-S TECHNOLOGIES INC. CASE STUDY ANALYSIS Group letter Your section s of Group Members For an organization to meet its goals and objectives, its employees play a big role. The management, whenever laying down the organizational strategies, keeping in mind that the efforts of the employees would contribute to the achievement of these goals is important. This enables them to lay down their strategies with the employees in mind. In the current organizational climate, every organization treasures the contribution of its employees in the achievement of its goals and objectives. As such, they take their employees through training and device ways of motivating them to achieve their goals and objectives. Among these are the organizational control mechanisms that indirectly contribute to individual employee performance. 1. Ouchi sought to develop a framework that would help in controlling employees in the organization in order to achieve organizational goals and objectives. In his regard, Ouchi found out that the biggest problem that organizations currently face is the failure of achieving cooperation among a collection of individual employees or different units that share only partially congruent objectives. He thus drew the mechanism that organizations could use to achieve this cooperation. Three of the most important techniques he proposed to for managers include, market control, bureaucratic control and culture or clan control (Ouchi 1979 p. 834-847). S-S Technologies faces a problem of employee control. While the firm is at a fast development stage, the management has little control lover its employees. Ojala by briefly leaving the firm to work for a bigger firm was an indication of the weakness existing in the control of the organisation employees. Moreover, there was no particular command of duties. Due to the poor separation of duties and definition of powers, conflict among employees was a major occurrence in the organization. Further, the firm faced yet another form of employee control problem, that of motivation and remuneration. The fear of retaining the highly skilled employees in the organisation lingered in the manager’s head, as he tried to device strategies that would keep these employees in the organization. Markets, as Ouchi (1979 p. 834-847) observes, deal with the control problem by their ability to precisely measure and reward individual contributions towards the organizational success. This form of reward system allows the employees to receive remuneration in relation to their efforts and contribution towards the achievement of organizational goals. The management, using this form of control, allows the employees to pursue their non-organizational goals, though at a personal loss of reward. Ouchi further argues that should a party, during a market transaction attempt to cheat another, is there is any discovery of the cheater, and then all members of the society should take the initiative of punishing the culprit. In this regard, S-S Technologies should strive to provide their employees with the actual value of their contribution to the organization. During the interviews, there were arguments raised on the poor remuneration of employees, with relation to the organizational performance. Growing at a fast pace, the organization should provide its employees with bonuses that meet their level of contribution to the exemplary performance to the organization. The lack of this bonus system was a major setback for the employees. Were it not for the intrinsic motivation within these individuals, perhaps their performance would be wanting. Strictness of the bonus system, if implemented by the management would play a major role in solving this problem. Computed in an ethical way, the bonus reflects the level of performance and efforts of the employees in the organization. Bureaucratic form of control on the other hand significantly relies upon a mixture of a close evaluation with the socialized acceptance of common objectives. In bureaucracy, the management strives in achieving explicit monitoring routines among the employees, instilling rules among the employees among the workers and ensuring compliance with the set rules. The most dangerous situation in an organization is a workforce that does not have a direction and a centre of command. Not only do such employees take their jobs for grunted, they also make no efforts in achieving their targets. The main purpose of rules in an organization is to instil discipline among the organizational employees. They change their attitude, especially if there are leaders who show seriousness in adherence to organizational rules. According to the rule of bureaucracy, the superiors have the authority to direct the efforts of the subordinates on an ad hoc basis (Ouchi 1979, p. 835-840). The employees in S-S Technologies, due to lack of any bureaucracy, do not have a formal way of carrying out their duties. although this open system of operation, which allows employees to cover their official 40 working hours in a week on their own chosen time creates disorganization in the organization. As the interviews revealed, the organization does not have any form of bureaucracy, and thus, a person can visit any manager they feel free can handle their issues. This discourages accountability ion the organization, and could lead to irresponsible behaviour among the employees. In its current position, the plan could be harmless. However, in future, when there are a high number of employees in the organization, this could be a major setback. Although bureaucracy has high administrative costs, managers should realize that it saves them the agony of dealing with extremely complex cases culminating from black of accountability and irresponsible employees. The main secret behind the success of the cultural or clan control in an organization is its ability to attain cooperation by selecting individuals in such a manner that their individual objectives overlap with organization’s objectives (Flamholtz, Das & Tsui 1985, p. 38). While developing such a culture, the management creates ceremonies, stories, and rituals that encourage employee cohesion. It also encourages socialization process ion the organization. Further, it helps in the establishment of social agreement on the values and beliefs of individuals in organisation. By building a culture, the management eliminates goal congruence among employees in an organization (Flamholtz, E, Das, T, & Tsui, A 1985, p. 40). Since there is no organizational culture in S-S Technologies, the organization needs to introduce one in the nearest future. This will help in the integration of the organizational goals and objectives together with employee goals and objectives to achieve organizational success. Organizations whose employees share similar cultures have common goals and objectives. Subsequently, these speed up the achievement of organizational objectives. 2. Although S-S Technologies in its present state enjoys a fast growth rate and extremely successful business period, with its current organizational control systems, it is less likely to achieve its goals and objectives. Currently, everything appears top work according to plan. The fast growth rate of the company, coupled with the enthusiastic employees who are willing to work extra hard in order to achieve their targets is satisfying to the management. It is however, imperative for the management top reconsider its organizational control systems in order to take care of the future expansion and growth (Sitkin 2010, p. 12). It is possible to manage a small number of employees, like in the case of the organization. However, with time and due to growth and expansion, there is likely to be more employees to manage, as well as increased resources. There is every need for the management of S-S Technologies to change its organizational controls in order to take care of the future growth and development. Understanding that growth comes along with increased responsibilities for the existing employees and more work for the managers is essential to this organisation. Currently, there is less definition of organisational roles, duties, and responsibilities. Additionally, there is the need for the management of the organization to consider the people responsible for various duties. Currently, the organization curries its business in a haphazard manner, which is likely going to cost the organization significantly. Organizational control is the process in which the management establishes and maintains authority throughout the organization (Sitkin 2010, p. 11). In large organizations, managers use systems in monitoring and assessing their employees’ performances, which helps them in making appropriate administrative decisions. As Sitkin (2010, p. 12) points out, the organization should however develop a system, tailored in order to meet its organisational needs and objectives. There is minimal control in most of the organizational departments. Where there is any form of control, the weak nature of these structures makes them prone to anybody’s corruption. According to Dose (1997, p. 236), strong controls focus on the critical points in the organization. This way, they help in avoiding any form of in eventuality that may arise in any part or section of the organization. There are departments where the management cannot risk having failures, such as in the development departments (Dose 1997, p. 230). As the company’s biggest target is creating programs and systems to solve an existing problem, the management cannot afford having a problem in these departments. Yet, there is little or no control, especially if the freedom of the engineers is anything to go by. With the overconfidence that the management has on its team, there is little monitoring. Actually, every department, although working independently, enjoys a highly integrated nature of operations with all other departments. All departments in one way or another have an integrated system, where people have assessed to different departments. There is less privacy in the organization, thus exposing it to a myriad of problems. Anybody could tamper with any work in progress, while a trusted engineer could mess up things. One thing is certain; this form of openness is unhealthy for such an organization. The company also lacks bureaucracy that would help in bringing some order among the employees. Employees in most cases seek for assistance from any person they feel is capable of helping them. This does not allow for professionalism in the organization. Therefore, in the event of a problem, tracing individuals holding the biggest responsibility is difficult. While there are managerial positions in the organization, they appear functionless. Employees disregard these, evidenced by the conflict in the reporting authority. At one point, employees in one department report to different managers, thus creating confusion in the bureaucracy. Further, there are no rules of hiring, evidenced by the exit of Ojala, who later returned to work for the organization after five months. This is likely to create indiscipline among the employees, as they could chose to use this as a way of getting higher salaries and pay rise. If the management of the organization does not show keenness in addressing these issues, in case the organization was to face a major crisis ion future, it could cripple its operations. 3. Measuring employee performance in an organization is the best way to determine their level of contribution to the organizational success. Measuring employee performance helps in determining the amount of benefits and bonuses that employees receive. Additionally, it helps in identifying the employees to promote and ones not to. Organizations however use different forms of employee measurement. The most common methods that S-S Technology Company could use in measuring the performance of their employees include productivity measurement, efficiency measurement, training and skills measurement and effectiveness measurement (Houldsworth & Jirasinghe 2006, p. 248). In productivity measurement, the management compares an employee’s actual performance against expected performance. Efficiency on the other hand is the ability of the individual employee to maximize their productivity with minimal costs. Employee’s success in the training programs in most cases determines their performance levels in the organization. Finally, effectiveness seeks to determine whether the employee succeeds in achieving the desired results for the organization (Houldsworth & Jirasinghe 2006, p. 248). An analysis of S-S Technology Company reveals the various issues inherent in an organizational environment. Organizational control, being one of the most important roles of managers gives the organization direction. It leads the organization into achieving the goals and objectives of the organization. Although some organizations such as S-S Technology have poor controls against a good performance record, the reality is that these organizations, if they were to operate in such a state, they risk getting into crises in future. Total word count: 1998. Works Cited Dose, JJ 1997, 'Work values: An integrative framework and illustrative application to organizational socialization', Journal Of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, 70, 3, pp. 219-240, Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 29 November 2013. Flamholtz, E, Das, T, & Tsui, A 1985, 'Toward An Integrative Framework Of Organizational Control', Accounting, Organizations & Society, 10, 1, pp. 35-50, Business Source Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 29 November 2013. Houldsworth, E., & Jirasinghe, D 2006, Managing and measuring employee performance. London [u.a.], Kogan Page. Ouchi, WG 1979, 'A Conceptual Framework For The Design Of Organizational Control Mechanisms', Management Science, 25, 9, pp. 833-848, Business Source Complete, EBSCO host, viewed 29 November 2013. Sitkin, S. B 2010, Organizational control. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Read More