Conflicts between Employees and Employers - Research Paper Example

Part A Audit of a need within an organization There are various issues and challenges within the workplace. They may include the low productivity, high employee turnover and other conflicts between the employees and employers. Some of these problems may lead to major loses in an organization. Low productivity may affect the financial statement of a given company. On the other hand, high employee turnover sends a negative signal about the management of a given organization. This may affect the reputation of an organization and this may lead to negative implications. It is therefore imperative to do an audit within an organization to identify any challenges and address them accordingly. The management has the responsibility of carrying out audit with an aim of identifying problems. Being a central coordinator in an organization, I was tasked with the responsibility of identifying a particular problem facing our organization. In my auditing, I was able to identify one of the main issues that have been contributing immensely to low productivity in the organization. Low employee morale has been the main challenge for a long time interfering with the growth and development of an organization. This problem needed to be addressed immediately to make the organization acquire a competitive edge. Introduction Employees play a major role in any given organization. They determine the success and failure of such institutions (Linder, 2000, p.87). While the management may refuse include them in major decision making in an organization, one cannot deny the fact that they are an integral part of an organization (Lippman 1999, p.87). However, various problems may interfere with the productivity of employees. When this happens, such employees may isolate themselves from the organization being only there to provide services. Low employee morale is a common phenomenon in many organizations. It is a problem associated by lack of motivation amongst the employees. When this happens, organizations grapple with issues of low productivity (Hoopes 2003, p.878). The low morale amongst the employees may also affect customer satisfactions in an organization. Many researches indicate that there is a correlation between morale and motivation. Low morale amongst the employees is a representation of the lack of employee motivation within an organization (Hamel 2000, p.59). Incentives are said to be imperative in improving the morale of the employees. However, the incentives must be equitably distributed to the employees. For instance, employees working in the same level with similar qualifications and doing same amount of work should receive same salary/wages (George 2012, 89). In some organization, some employees may receive more wages than the rest causing major upsets and lack of morale amongst the employees. Other forms of incentives, which may motivate workers, include and not limited to high wages, involvement in major decision making in an organization, favourable working conditions and time to rest. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation plays an important role in productivity within an organization (Conner 2011, p.76). The former type refers kind of motivation that is not dependent on the physical incentives (David 1995, p.90). Statement of the problem The continued low morale amongst the employees because of lack of motivation of employees leads to low productivity within an organization (Afuah 2003, p.72). This has resulted in diminished income within the organization that was once profitable and competitive. The relationship between the employees and management has deteriorated in the recent past, as the latter demand for positive results. The low morale has affected the relationship between the employees and customers (Barney 1999, p.99). As a result, the organization is gradually losing customers who were once loyal. The strategies, which were once put in place to retain and attract customers, are no longer working. There has been a high employee turnover in the organization. Most of the employees cite lack of motivations. With the company seeking to cut down on the cost of operation, it has been forced to cut the wages despite the fact that employees are expected to work for long hours. To compound the matters further, employees have not been involved in major decision making within the organization. This makes them feel isolated and leaves them disenchanted and powerless. Other problems being witnessed have been absenteeism and use of alcohol and smoking in some of the employees. These problems have contributed to huge losses in the organization. Main objective To establish the relationship between employee morale and productivity Questions of the study Do incentives increase employee morale? Is there a relationship between employee morale and productivity? Does communication between employees and management increase productivity? Does motivation of employees lead to customer satisfaction? Justification of the problem The study has been necessitated by the consistent problem in the organization. There is need for a quick solution to ensure the company is back in business. Currently, it has been producing way below its capacity, which has denied it its former competitive edge. On the other hand, the solutions obtained may be used by other organizations facing similar challenges. Limitation of the study Cooperation of the subjects in the study is likely to be a major problem. Though there is a promise that the information will not be shared with any person, both the employees and employers may refuse to provide true information. For the case of the employees, the main fear would be loss of employment once it is established that they provided information contrary to what the management may expect. On the other hand, there is a problem of shifting blames. The employees may blame the employers for the current problems. On the other hand, the employers may not be ready to accept the fact that they might have contributed directly or indirectly to the current issue. This may lead to biased information that may compromise the results and recommendations. Methodology A study is carried out through this scientific guideline. It refers to amongst other thing the data collection tools and procedures, population and sample, sampling techniques data processing and data analysis. Being scientific, a methodology is aimed at assisting a researcher acquire results that are objective. Population and sample Population refers to the total number of subjects whom the researcher is interested in. in this case; the population of study will be the employees and the management. However, due to the large number of employees and management team, the researcher will concentrate on a subset of the population. This is what is referred to as a sample. It is assumed that the characteristics of a given sample represent the true picture of the population. For the purpose of this study, the sample size will be 20 individuals. This is divided into 15 employees and 5 individuals from the management team. Sampling techniques These refer to the process through which a sample is obtained from the population (Chen 1999, p.167). It is imperative that the researcher obtain the subject in a scientific manner to avoid biased information. For the purpose of this study, random and convenient sampling techniques will be used. They are both simple and cheap in terms of cost. In the first category, the researcher ensures that all the employees are given equal chance to take part in the study. This is vital to ensure that the data collected is not subjective in nature. The subjects are obtained indiscriminately and allowed to participate in the study. On the other hand, the other hand, convenient sampling obtains subjects at any point they can be. For instance alone the way, in the office, during lunchtime and so on. However, the latter may yield biased data especially if the subjects are in a hurry or unwilling to share information. Data collection methods These refer to the tools that are used to collect information from the subjects (Coase 1999, p.390). There are various tools that a researcher may use depending on the type of study being conducted. However, for the purpose of this study, questionnaires and interview schedules were used. Questionnaires are vital especially when the study requires is no required to take long. It has a set of questions which the respondents are expected to respond to with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ answers (Collis 1999, p. 145). It has an advantage since unlike interviewing; a large number of subjects can be studied at once. However, it has setback of limiting the subjects to the provided responses. It can therefore be biased especially if such responses reflect the mind-set of the researcher. On the other hand, the interviewing assists the researcher to obtain more information from the target subjects. The latter are given the opportunity to talk and provide as much information as possible. Being a one on one interaction, the researcher has an opportunity to study the body language of the respondents. For that reason, it may be possible to establish any discrepancies between what subjects say and what is what is obtained from the body language. However, this method may not be effective especially with limited time. This is because a lot of time is consumed when dealing with the subjects. Data analysis After the collection of data and processing, there is need to analyse it. This is the process through which the collected data is presented in a form that can be understood by the consumers of such information. The information is presented in forms of tables, graphs or percentages. For the purpose of this study, qualitative analysis will be used. Data will be represented using graphs as well as percentages. The main reason for choosing a qualitative analysis method is the nature of some of the responses. It is difficult to measure emotions and quantify them numerically. They can only be represented in statement form or estimations. Proposed outcomes It is estimated that about 80% of the employees will indicate that incentives are vital for improving the relationship between the employees and the employers. The same percentage will also agree that productivity within an organization can only be achieved if the employees are motivated. Some of the incentives mentioned by the employees will include increased wages, favourable working conditions and being made part of the team making decisions in an organization. The 20% of the employees who will fail to agree to the use of incentives to improve productivity me be the intrinsically motivated or the employers interviewed. As indicated before, there the management was in the process of cutting down the cost of operation to increase profits in the organization. Such mind-sets may prompt them to state that incentives such as increased wages can make employees more productive. The conflict between the employees and employers is likely to resurface in the study. Depending on the responses, one is able to tell the relationship between the two. The question of whether communication is vital in improving productivity is likely to score about 90%. This is owing to the fact employees like being listened to. They require the employers to allow them express their emotions and give recommendations without fear of being discriminated against. Communication should be both upward and downwards (Conner 1996, p.489). This means it is a complete process since there is feedback. However, most of the times the employers direct without letting the employees give their insight. This is one of the main causes of inactivity amongst the employees. While it is the duty of the management to ensure that the goals of an organization are being achieved, it is equally important to ensure that employees are involved. 95% of the employees are likely to agree that being involved in major decision making of the organization. this owes to the fact that every decision made by the organization affects them directly. Some of the decision made by the organization may involve changing the working culture that the employees are used to (Hoopes 2003, p.76). For instance, decision to replace human labour with machines may not be received well in an organization. the main fear amongst the employees may be loss of employment opportunity. For that reason, it is vital that change agents communicate such changes to the employees before implementing them (Grant 2000, p.57). One of the biggest questions that the employees always ask themselves is ‘how does the proposed change affect and benefit me?’ they should therefore be involved in the decision making with an aim of allaying any fears and allowing them give their insight (Dierick 1999, p.98). About 80% of the respondents are likely to indicate that there is a correlation between employee motivation and customer satisfaction. This is true considering that the attitude of the employees towards the customers may be defined by their mood (Daft 1999, p.87). If they are happy, they will offer quality services to the customers. the opposite is also true. For that reason, there is need to boost the morale of employees to attract and retain customers. In conclusion, employees are important in an organization. they determine the success and failure of any given institution. They demand to be included in the major decision-making within organizations. With the need to cut down the cost of operation, most organization focuses on reducing the salaries of employees or downsizing. However, this decision may lead to big losses for the company that it was earlier intended. This owes to the fact that some employees may lose morale. This on the other hand interferes with the production within an organization. to prevent these problems, it is imperative that the management ensure a healthy communication with employees. there is need to listen to the plight of employees and addressing their grievances accordingly. Time frame Due to the need to collect and analyse the date, the study will take about two weeks. Bibliography Afuah and C. 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