Performance and Recognition in the Workplace - Assignment Example

Critical Thinking Questions Identify five different criteria by which organizations can compensate employees. Based on your knowledge and experience, do you think performance is the criterion most used in practice? Explain. Performance stands out as the single-most significant aspect behind compensating employees every now and then. Apart from this, employees could be compensated based on piece-rate pay where a particular sum is allotted to them based upon their piece within the working domains of the business. Also they could be paid on the basis of merit-based pay where their work ethics and routines would mean that they are accountable for getting higher pays. Bonuses are offered on and off and they are usually given out every 6 months or an annual basis by different companies. Profit sharing plans are somewhat in line with the piece-rate pay where the employees are paid in accordance with the profits that have been attained by the company and thus every employee has a particular percentage share in the profit thus obtained. Lastly there is the method of employee stock ownership where the higher the stocks owned by an employee, the more likely he is to receive the pay based on those very stocks that he possesses. Of all these, one should believe that performance is the single-most important feature on which payments could be made and based upon in a consistent manner and one that demands fairness from all relevant quarters within the domains of the organization. 2. “Recognition may be motivational for the moment but it doesn’t have any staying power. It’s an empty re-inforcer. Why? Because when you go to the grocery store, they don’t take recognition as a form of payment!” Do you agree or disagree? Discuss. I do not seem to agree with this statement because recognition has a lasting effect on any business or related undertaking within the real world realms. This is because there is a much better chance of conducting a business activity within an individual who is recognized than the one who is not usually at home with this person or the business for that matter. Therefore recognition can act as a motivational agent and could thus prove to be a re-inforcer at the end of the day. It would mean that recognition could lead to recall and thus memory has a huge role to play in enacting positive or negative thoughts about the person, business or activity that is undertaken here. Thus recognition is not necessarily an empty re-inforcer and its role is much more varied than is thought of here. Recognition could assist in devising attitudinal shifts within people and thus they could take a leaf out of their past meetings, undertakings and so on if the aspect of recognition is present within the scope of business activities. Also recognition surely could be motivation for the moment but recognition leads to recall which is much more significant than having a mere recognition of a person. 3. “Performance can’t be measured, so any effort to link pay with performance is a fantasy. Differences in performance are often caused by the system which means the organization ends up rewards the circumstances. It’s the same thing as rewarding the weather forecaster for a pleasant day.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Support your position. I opine that performance can be measured only if the organization is really serious in having business performance yardsticks within the different domains of the said business. This could be done by consistently measuring a particular employee’s performance and thus jotting down the manner in which he came out clean and clear as regards to work ethics, routines and performance. Not only that but also his adherence to rules and policies, compliance with ethical codes and constructs could also be a quintessential feature of his performance which could indeed be measured all said and done. Business performance is also measured by different software that are now available within the related business industries and it gives a clear enough idea of the manner in which the employees go about doing their duties and undergo their usual work routines on a day to day basis. Performance measurement is thus not a fantasy in the modern times and almost all contemporary organizations are doing their utmost to achieve business performance measurement modules so that they could properly gauge the working routines of their employees and workers, in the short term as well as in the long run scheme of things. This indeed has turned a corner for measuring performance levels for a number of businesses in the present day corporate world. 4. It’s an indisputable fact that there has been an explosive increase in the difference between the average U.S. worker’s income and those of senior executives. In 1980 the average CEO made 42 times the average blue-collar worker’s pay. In 1990 it was 85 times. In 2000 it had risen to 531 times. What are the implications of this trend for motivation in organizations? The implications for this motivation within the organizations are that the middle management has come of age within the recent past. Organizations have started to realize that the middle tier is indeed the ‘brain’ of the organizations and thus they need to be provided pays which are in accordance with their respective skill sets. For this reason, specialists are hired more than mere managers in the current era of modern businesses. The middle management has made it big and it is in the present times that we see the middle tier to start making decisions on their own where the culture has started to shift from the decentralized management hierarchies to centralized ones. The top management has understood its role and taken a back seat since it knows that the middle management can deliver the goods, not only within the United States but also in other countries of the world. This is an interesting aspect and it will continue to blossom in the times to come since the business world is experiencing a shift in its practices and the way it does things. Within US, the workers have also benefited due to similar regime changes and this will keep on happening in the coming time as well. 5. Do emotions and moods matter in explaining behavior in organizations? How so? Emotions and moods play a huge role within the employees working in an organization. However this is against professional practice of conducting a smooth business but one must understand that the employees who work within these organizations are indeed human beings and they have their respective emotions, feelings, moods and behaviors which they exhibit from time to time. For a professional employee, it is best that he keeps emotions and moods behind him when he is dealing with customers or even his fellow employees at the work place. This would allow him to think and act in a professional and logical manner rather than being emotional about each circumstance that happens within the office domains. Being rational and logical holds the key for the smooth functioning of the business and being emotional is risky. Emotional and moody employees are usually not successful within the organizations and they are not given top management jobs as they could lead towards anarchy and trouble for the different working routines of the organization. Thus it is a sad fact that emotional and moody employees need to shed off their emotional angle at the earliest and attempt at being logical more than anything else. This is a sure fact that is known in nearly all the organizations of the world. 6. What, if anything, can managers do to manage their employees’ emotions? Are there ethical implications in any of these actions? If so, what are they? Managers need to be logical themselves, first and foremost. If they are rational and sound within their dealings, there is no way that their subordinates would do something that is based on pure emotion and gut feeling. Employees look up to their managers for gaining insight and in-depth knowledge. In the event of having an employee who is overtly emotional and works based on his mood swings, it would be better to make this employee understand that work at all times must hold priority for this individual and he must follow the rules and procedures of the organizational set up where he has been employed. It is duty bound for him to follow the ethical considerations since this will let him develop his skills, gain a positive rapport and more than anything else let him succeed in the short term as well as in the long run. Thus managers must be proactive in all their dealings and be fair to their employees when it comes to their weaknesses and should always encourage their employees no matter how difficult the circumstances turn out to be at the end. This will lead a positive example for the employees and they will be fair as far as their respective dealings are concerned. 7. Give some examples of situations in which the overt expression of emotions might enhance job performance. One example could be in the form of a nagging employee who is up and ready for having a fight with anyone, no matter senior or junior within the office. It would be best to warn this employee but if his antics do not stop immediately, the management must take a decision and put this employee off the present employees’ roster once and for all. He is bringing a bad name to the company’s repute and is constantly becoming a nuisance which cannot be tolerated no matter how effective he is within his work ethics. Another example is of an employee who just cannot take criticism in a positive stride and starts weeping whenever she is told to change her ways. She starts crying like a child and her emotions get the better of her. This means that she is able to gain a soft corner from her work colleagues and no matter how logically correct her boss would be, everyone starts saying rubbish about her boss and thus the boss feels left out. In fact this is a conflict of interest situation where the boss is doing the right thing within the working domains of the business yet is taking the flak at the hands of the employees who are mere colleagues for the weeping woman. Bibliography KANFER, Ruth. (2002). Emotions in the Workplace: Understanding the Structure and Role of Emotions in Organizational Behavior. Jossey-Bass Word Count: 1,736 Read More