Organizational Behavior - Assignment Example

 Organizational Behavior The issue in this case is to ensure that the employees who are left after the downsizing operation will work with morale and ensure that the Blaze recovers despite the competition that is being offered by other sources of information such as the internet. Andrea, who is considering the words that should be used, though she won’t be the one to deliver the news of the layoff to the employees knows the complications that will follow such a move with some of the employees most likely losing the morale to work or deciding to leave after realizing that the highly performing and well paid individuals in the production process have been laid off. Therefore, this paper will address the justified justice dimension that she should employ in the morning briefing and ensure that the impact of the layoff is not felt in an adverse way as it can. The paper will also address the process from an ethical point drawing the discussion from the ethical issues and concerns that would follow such a process. This is important considering that Andrea has been aware of the impeding lay off procedure but decided to stay silent and await the dreaded day. Thirdly, the employees who shall be left are supposed to work extra hard and deliver to the goals which have been set as well as offering credible competition to other sources of information. However, considering that the best or the highly paid individuals shall be laid off, the remaining ones need to be motivated to work harder and smart. This introduces the concept of motivational theories which shall be used in the paper. Lastly, the Blaze is transiting to its new normal. The amount of information that will be given by Andrea to the employees may be the difference between a new dawn and the impeding dusk. The paper shall therefore look at the inputs that Andrea is supposed to give as the Blaze enters the ‘new normal’. Andrea should employ the restorative justice style in approaching this situation. In this kind of scenario, the employees who shall be laid off will feel betrayed by the company they may have sacrificed a lot to work for. On top of that, it would have been better if they would have been warned ahead of the planned lay off as they would have likely understood the idea of downsizing the company. Therefore, the approach that will be sued will not only affect the ones that will be laid off but also the ones who will be left as the flag bearers to steer the company to the next level. According to Adams (1965) and Homans (1961), after a betrayal process, the betrayed person often tries to establish a form of restitution with the betrayer. Therefore, Andrea can take this chance to restitute with the offended employees knowing very well that they have been treated in a manner that is not good. Apologies though not always welcome in such a situation can play important roles in this approach. She should prepare a sincere apology without trying to hide some issues. The employees must also be aware that the company was not performing very well with the changes in technology and the failure by many people to embrace the form of media that they were using to relay their information preferring the internet and others such as the television. Andrea should not try to be deceptive to win their mercy but instead she should be honest to the company, the employees and herself and let them see the logic behind the action. Restorative justice puts things as they were before the social change was done. This company can be viewed as a small society with the normal social dynamics controlling it. Therefore, when such a change occurs, the leaders who include Andrea will work hard to ensure that they go back to the state they were before. This is basically what restorative justice aims at achieving and so she should consider suing the approach. Failure may mean that the remaining group will lack working morale and this will negatively affect the company productivity. Employee retention bonuses (ERBs) can play a significant role in ensuring that the recovery in the company is swift and employee-employer cohesion is realized. However, there are ethical issues that surround the issue of giving retention bonuses. It is argued that retention bonus are used to buy loyalty instead of earning it. In this case, Andrea desperately needs to earn the loyalty of the employees who shall be left and motivate them to work harder for the company to realize its goals. However, the way they will perceive the use of retention bonuses may be misconceived. Loyalty to a given personality or the company is earned rather than bought. The employees considering the fate of their loyal and ardent workmates may see it as a bad move and fail to cooperate. Employee retention bonuses have been found not to work where turnover rates surpass 40%. In this case, though it is not a turnover case but a lay off which will have similar effects as a turnover, the retention bonus may not work. Andrea should therefore consider allowing things to settle down then when she has cultured renewed trust with the employees, she can use them as a motivational strategy. Third, employee retention bonuses have been found to affect the organization in an adverse way in most of the cases (Heskett, 2009). The employees will expect that they will be given bonuses every now and then and so a failure to honor that may mean that there will be no cohesion in the company and productivity will go down. There are two important steps in ensuring that employees are motivated and willing to go that extra step to achieve the goals set by the company. First, the company should establish their sources of dissatisfaction then eliminate them and second they should create conditions for job satisfaction. Personal satisfaction is an important part in employee satisfaction. Using the motivational theories, Winslow Tailor argues that workers do not necessarily enjoy the work they are doing and so there is need to motivate them to ensure that the production is increased. Abraham Maslow was also categorical in developing the hierarchy of needs theory which can be used in motivating the employees by understanding what they exactly need and addressing the problems. Employees come from different backgrounds where they will have various needs that they are working to achieve. The first step as a human resource manager or in the human resource development section is to establish the social state of the employees as it will be hard to make them achieve the goals of the company while they are not settled. They should first get the basic needs such as food and shelter. The needs according to Maslow (1943) are achieved in levels. If the employee achieves the needs in the first stage, they will work to achieve the ones in the next stage. Maslow therefore proposed that in a job set up as the one we have in this case study, Andrea has to understand the current need level of each employee that will be left and know what kind of motivation they will need. Since it is less likely that there will be new employees joining the company, the old ones should be motivated to work harder. Jeremy Bentham also used the Carrot and Stick Theory to explain the employee motivation situation. He explained that the employees are motivated to work hard by two things. Some of them are motivated by the need to climb the ladder while the others work hard due to the fear of losing the job. In Andrea’s case, she should know that it is less likely that the individuals left will fear to lose their jobs and so they should be motivated to climb the ladder or become more significant in the company. Andrea has a big part to play in this case to ensure that the remaining employees works to achieve the goals. She should give them more voice and freedom to steer the company without being so bossy. The levels of suspicion that will be created by the act of laying off the loyal employees without warning them in advance and also laying off the best will make some of the employees who are left to feel insecure. She therefore needs to create an environment where everyone in the company feels he/she has a primary role to play in the achievements achieved. It is only in this way that they will own up the success and the drawbacks as they come and steer it to success. Llopis (2012) notes that trustworthy leadership is important in making the employees deliver. Therefore, in the brief she is planning and the immediate period that will follow, Andrea has a role to play in recovering the trust the employees had on the company. This will not be achieved by threatening them but by putting in place correct motivational strategies. This way it will be possible to make them understand the new predicament in their market and the need to downsize the company and the consequent layoff to cut on the costs. References Adams, S. J. (1965). Inequity in Social Exchanges, in Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, (2), Leonard Berkowitz. New York: Academic Press, 267-299. Heskett, J. (2009). Are Retention Bonuses Worth the Investment? Working Knowledge. Retrieved from. Homans, G. C. (1961). Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms. New York: Harcourt, Brace and World. Llopis, G. (April 6, 2012). The Top 9 Things that Ultimately Motivate Employees to Achieve. Forbes. Retrieved from. Maslow, H. A. (1943). A Theory of Human Motivation. Psychological Review, (50), 370-396. Read More