Ways to improve the value of employees work contribution - Essay Example

? Management Report on ways to improve the value of employee’s work contribution Management Report on ways to improve the value of employee’s work contribution To: Upper Room Soup Kitchen manager Introduction Employees are the most essential resource in any organization and their development must be taken as a critical success factor at all costs. Organizations (employers) through their managers and supervisors have realized this fact and are working relentlessly towards realization of effective employee-employer relations, which are mostly focused on improving the values of the employees to facilitate organizational performance. Studies have revealed that employees’ values are essential driving factors in achievement of organizational success with many firms resolving to empower their workforce to ensure that the organizational obligations and requirements are met appropriately. It is therefore imperative that employers find ways to continually improve the value of their employees’ work contribution (Govindarajan & Natarajan, 2005). This paper seeks to find ways to improve employee value in their work contributions in Upper Room soup kitchen organization whose food donation system is in disarray using the 7 stage Checkland Soft Systems Methodology (SSM) Mode 1. The unstructured problem situation The Upper Room Soup Kitchen in Charlottetown is one of the long serving soup kitchens in Prince Edward Island in Canada serving to the need of the needy and hungry people in the area. During a two weeks voluntary work in the soup kitchen, as a management student I realized that the value the employees added to operations of the business and towards meeting the goals of the Soup Kitchen in serving the needs of the hungry in Prince Edward Island were constrained. This is despite the fact that most of the employees in the Soup kitchen were volunteers even though there was other long term paid employees. Notably, the food donation system was in disarray with the records of food donations received not properly managed. In addition, though there were quite a considerable amount of food donations received in a week, at times the soup kitchen would record shortages in key foods required, while have excesses of some other. Some of these foods that were not usually used stayed in the storage for too long and when they went bad, they would be discarded. This brought a point that indeed not only were employees’ contribution for effective running up of the place low, but also was the food donation and recording system lacking. After learning about SSM method which is a means through which problems can be holistically resolved, I thought of Upper Room Soup Kitchen’s problems and decided to develop solutions based on this SSM model that would help the manager of the soup kitchen ensure smoother running. The expressed problem situation With the above problem situation, phone interviews were conducted with five soup kitchen employees from various departments and the manger of the soup kitchen to get a grasp on the problem. The Upper Room soup Kitchen whose goal is to meet some food needs of the hungry people in Prince Edward Island through provision of low fat high nutrition healthy meals to this population is faced not only with low employee contribution in meeting its goals but also inefficiencies in the management of its food donation system. Markos and Sridevi (2010:91) indeed asserts that for value of employee contribution in an organization to be improved, the employees’ activities and goals need be aligned the organizations goals. Though the employees in the soup kitchen perform their daily duties well, a sense of laxity in the organization has made inefficient several systems that are core to the organization meeting its goals. For instance, the employees in charge of communicating the food needs of the organization to various stakeholders in order to align the food needs of the soup kitchen to those that are received have experienced some problems in that some of the foods that are often provided at time do not meet current needs of the soup kitchen or there may be excess of some kind of foods while there is a low stock for others. This was noted in high stocked canned foods such as beans in its warehouse and evidenced by the rarity in fresh fruits and vegetables that are donated in the soup kitchen and which are badly needed. Another notable problem in the soup kitchen low record keeping which document carefully the food donations received thereby keeping the organization in constant uncertainty about the food they have or have not, which in most instances may lead to excesses of some food items while higher need and depletion of others. Without proper records the entity is not able clearly and objectively develops a clear picture of its average food needs experiences random fluctuations in food availability based on the kinds of food products donated, and neither is it able to effectively analyze and provide information to the food donors on what is needed most in the soup kitchen. These are some key areas that the employees need to improve on in order to increase their contribution and performance of the soup kitchen. Since the Upper Room Soup Kitchen is not a profit making organization, and most of the employees are volunteers, the approach on how employee the value of employee contribution can improved can be a tricky one. During the management volunteership, I though realized that the employees responsible for managing the food donation system were actually employed together with the cooks, while volunteers did roles that can be changed frequently such as serving, cleaning, stock taking, and cooking. From the problem expression, the following rich picture was developed. Figure 1: Rich picture expressing the problem situation Methodology In conducting this research to analyze the problem, the seven stages of the SSM model were used to get a clear understanding of the problems and how they could be addressed. Checkland (1999) shows that in this model the problems are presented in real world terms and in systems terms , upon comparisons are done between these two to enable deeper understanding of the problem and how it can be resolved. In defining the problem and situation both my experience volunteering at the soup kitchen and a phone and internet interview with five employees and manager of the soup kitchen where they were asked to define how the employees enabled smooth functioning of the food donation system, motivation of the employees, and to create a clear rich picture of step to step, enabled further understanding of the problem. The five employees came of different departments in the soup kitchen: store keeper, cooks, cleaners, food organizer and planner and a volunteer. From these root definitions were done based on the rich pictures and CATWOE mnemonic, where information was still gathered from the soup kitchen employees and whom also provided important information on conceptual models that could be adopted to make the employees more efficient, and how these could be linked to the problems to help in solving it. Analysis Root definitions of relevant systems In developing root definitions, a more system’s view is taken into consideration in order to resolve the problem. In doing so PQR formula is first developed from the interviews. In order to be able to do this, Checkland and Scholes (1999:8) recommend the use of CATWOE mnemonics, and both view the transformation and the worldview as being in the centre of the CATWOE. Therefore T and W were the starting point. Transformation: As noted above, Transformation and worldview are deemed the most important parts in solving a problem (Patching, 1990). In order to understand the transformation using the PQR formula, it is imperative to understand the desired outputs, and then understanding what inputs would be required for that to happen. The desired output is higher employee commitment to running the activities of the soup kitchen, and an improved efficient food donation system that aligns the needs of the soup kitchen with donations received. The key inputs in this are developing a committed employee environment, getting data on food needs, streamlining the food donation system, and increased employee engagement (Sharabi & Harpaz, 2010:387-390; Davila, 2009). The transformation is: increased employee engagement in key decisions such as developing food plan, training employees on essential skills of such as record keeping and analysis, employee coaching, enhancing the activity on the soup kitchen’s website that will not only communicate the food need of the soup kitchen to the food donors, but also increase participation of both volunteers and employees in the soup kitchen’s activities creating a stronger ties among employees, and increased commitments. Worldview: worldviews were gathered both from the interview and secondary data search. It was revealed that a charitable non profit organization such as a soup kitchen would rarely need to focus on improving employee’s value of contribution as it was a non profit organization. Research though showed that it is important that employees within non profit organizations or the various volunteers be properly aligned the organizations goals and objective for effective use of resources (Liu & Ko, 2011:257; Kirkpatrick, 2006). In addition, Muthuri, Matten, & Moon (2009) and Kirkpatrick, (2006) note that voluntary employee can be developed to of higher value to organization through employee appraisal and coaching. Customers: the current customers of the soup kitchen are mainly the hungry people of Prince Edward Island and ideally even those who visit the island and face a hard time in the area. Actors: the actors are those that are involved in carrying out the activities of the soup kitchen and also those being served. These were identified as the employees in the soup kitchen, the manager, the food donors which are mainly church groups, the Food Bank, private citizens and various companies, and volunteers in the soup kitchen. In this system, the customers are not main actors as they do not majorly determine how various activities in the soup kitchen take place. Owners: based on Checkland (1999:318) the owners are those who could demolish the system or modify it. In this regard, the owner is mainly the manager of the Soup kitchen. Environment: the environment is mainly one which is external, influences and surrounds the system (Checkland, 1999:314). In the soup kitchen’s system, the external environment includes availability of food, and therefore these include the church groups, the Food Bank, private citizens and various companies. From the root definition of the problem analysis, it can be noted that the root definition and the essence by which a conceptual model that would be developed from this would one which through employee training on essential skills of maintaining the food donation records well, through increased employee engagement and through effective use of the soup kitchen’s website, the food donation system can be streamlined to meet the needs of the soup kitchen and also enable more needed food to be donated in the soup kitchen. Conceptual model The conceptual model was developed based on the root definitions, and the interviews which defined the ideal functional activities of the soup kitchen that would solve the problem. This is as shown below Figure 2: Conceptual model for ideal system in the Soup Kitchen Comparison of problem to conceptual model Based on the conceptual model developed, a discussion through the internet was initiated with the original participants, that is five key employees from the soup kitchen and the manager based on the conceptual model developed and the original problem defined. The question asked was if the model represented the model used in employee engagement and food donation system, and if not to explain differences. From this it was noted that the conceptual model was a slight representation with notable missing links in improving employee engagement mainly being employee training, food plan analysis, posting of donation data against needs in the soup kitchen’s website and lack of employee contributions to comments in the website or interactions through the site. Feasible desirable changes With these needs identified, desirable changes identified that would be able to streamline employee’s contribution in the soup kitchen and improve the food donation system are: it is recommended that the employees be trained on effective record keeping and efficiency. It is also recommended that the Soup kitchen develop a stable simple recording system of the various food donations that they receive so that it ease understanding what food will be lacking and which ones are in excess or can potentially go bad. Such records would enable them better understand the dynamics and average weekly needs of food items. It would also provide a point of reference from which various organizational food donors can refer in order to make a clear decision on how much to donate, and what to donate and when to do this. The most recommended would be the internet where employees contribute online to the value of the soup kitchen, and also interact with various former volunteers keeping in touch. In addition this would help the soup kitchen update its website with up and current information in such a manner that people who seek information on the soup kitchen can get satisfied results and can donate through the site. Action to improve the problem situation To improve the problem situation, action would mainly be based on the above conceptual model. Notable actions would include employee team building activities, training, online interactions, and making daily recording of the food donations they receive, and the daily food requirements in the soup kitchen, and also conduct an analysis on food usage and food retention in the warehouses. Such important data can be posted online, with the needs emphasized so that donors can know what to bring. References Checkland P 1999, “Systems thinking; systems practice,” revised ed., John Wiley & Sons. Checkland P and Scholes J 1999, “Soft systems methodology in action,” new ed., John Wiley & Sons. Davila, A 2009, Best human resource management practices in Latin America, Taylor & Francis, London. Govindarajan, M & Natarajan, S 2005, Principles of management, Prentice-Hall of India, New Delhi. Kirkpatrick, DL 2006, Improving Employee Performance Through Appraisal And Coaching, American Management Association, eBook Collection, EBSCOhost, viewed 16 April 2012. 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