The Effect of Negative Hiring on Productivity at Gaylord National - Case Study Example

The Effect of Negative Hiring on Productivity at Gaylord National Joseph Appiah Dr Claudia Santin Table of Contents ……………………………………………………….…...3 Introduction ……………….……….………………………..……..4 Concept of Organization in Gaylord …….……………………..….4 Literature Review …………..….…………………………………..5 Employee Behavior in Gaylord ……………………………………6 Influencing Workforce through Organizational Learning………….7 Proposed Study on Behavior Change Using Motivation.…………..7 Implementation of Culture and Diversity…………………………..8 Conclusion………………………………………………..………...9 References……………………………………………………….....10 Abstract The research on not recruiting and hiring the right employees reveals unequivocal evidence that employee inefficiency increases the likelihood of dissatisfaction regarding productivity and some sort of adverse organizational behavior. The behavior could be both long-term and short-term with the likelihood of physical and verbal aggressive conduct and antagonistic emotions that affect employees’ job performance in an organization such as Gaylord. What impact are these behaviors having on the day-to-day activities of people in the workplace? What role do concepts of positive psychology have in helping people to not only cope more effectively, but open their hearts and minds to move forward with newfound confidence, resilience, determination, hope, and anticipation for a better future? How can workers and their organizations create a more positive and proactive workplace that bridges economic and human goals? The purpose of this article is to examine these questions through an integrative analysis of conceptual and empirical approaches, in order to promote positive organizational behavior and outcomes. Key Terms: Organization behavior, Motivation, Cultural Diversity. Introduction Organization behavior is a very complex phenomenon. When it comes to play in any organization it can have a significant impact on either performance or productivity. In today’s turbulence economy, it is important for organizations to embrace a standard business practice as long as the organization intends to compete for a position in the industry. Gaylord National is posing to become a brand leader in the coming years. However, the organization could be seen to have management and leadership problems, mostly regarding hiring, which has impacted employee performance and productivity. This report is streamlined into four parts to explain what goes on in the organization and a suggested model to help improve the leadership, hiring, motivation and above all productivity. Concept of Organization in Gaylord Gaylord National is an organization that specializes in the hospitality industry. The quest of Gaylord National is to be a brand leader in the business. As an organization, Gaylord National has a number of unfavorable organizational behaviors that slow employee performance and productivity. But first let’s ask ourselves, what do we mean by organization? Indeed, some authors have argued that it makes more sense to cite specific examples of organization than to even make an attempt to define the term. The term “organization” is considered synonymous to various manufacturing businesses, food-chains, hospitals, service providers etc. There is a need to understand the reason why people take organizations and these above mentioned examples of organizations as one and the same thing. Some people have encountered a situation where people are asked to compare a social gathering, such as a cookout, with a work department of an industrial enterprise in order to discover the differences in features of an organization. Although it has much to laud as a means of simulating thought and discussion, there are obvious limitations to this procedure. An oral description of the characteristics of an organization is required and here the working definition given by (Schein, 1965) will be quoted to set a standardized meaning of this term. They stated that: "An organization is the rational co-ordination of the activities of a number of people for the achievement of some common explicit purpose or goal, through division of labor and function, and through a hierarchy of authority and responsibility." This definition is an integration of the traditional views on organization. It depicts those views which are formally established for giving a purpose to which the harmonious functioning of people’s activities is effectively directed and planned. It also does not include friendship groups, families and tribes, which basically emerge just by social interaction. The major concern in organizations such as Gaylord National is that more structured groups are deliberately set up to accomplish a specific task through which most people earn their living and seek to influence the environment. Literature Review One of the important characteristics of organizations is that they are under constant conditions of persistently changing individual membership (Robbins & Judge, 2011). For the above reason, behavior within an organization may be described in standardized forms of behavior associated with each task or function that in terms must be fulfilled in order to achieve the organization’s objectives. Provided that the functional capabilities of these roles are accomplished, it does not matter who actually fulfills them, at least in principle, although in reality it may make a lot of difference to the quality of performance. In an organization such as Gaylord National, the extent to which the occupant of a given task can shape or change it to suit his own personality and inclinations is usually limited, as a result if one person leaves and another is brought in, it is expected that the newcomer will do much the same as his predecessor. The degree of task definition within and between organizations varies considerably, but it is generally assumed that the tasks to be coordinated can be well defined. Hence, this confirms Schein’s(1965) definition in which he emphasized on the coordination of activities, not people or in the words of Katz and Kahn (1966) - “ what is exactly organized are acts – people acting on materials, acting on equipment but above all interacting with each other”. Employee Behavior in Gaylord Since the meaning of organization has been clearly defined, it is important to understand why behavior is linked with organization in this report. Because Gaylord is an organization, it consists of people engaged in a pattern of activities such as operating, bargaining, communicating, recruiting and serving, of which the behavior of each individual is determined to a considerable extent. However, it is not only the behavior of individuals that the report is focusing on, but also the training and hiring processes of Gaylord National in general. According to Cameron (2003), decisions are taken in the workplace by leaders of virtue by taking into account the ethical and moral considerations. This is not the situation at Gaylord National, because when it comes to hiring, most employees are hired not because of their skill but for the simple fact that one might be a friend of the hiring manager. What happens when employees realize that the role expectation implied in the psychological contract are not met? If management is deserted in keeping its part of the bargain, then it results in negative repercussions on employee performance and dissatisfaction which is the case in Gaylord National. Influencing Workforce through Organizational Learning One method that can counter this problem is organizational learning. The use of the word learning comes from a very old English word leornian meaning “to get knowledge, be cultivated,” (Harper, 2001). The process of acquiring knowledge can be through continuing education, and being cultivated is the knowledge one acquires through experience and growing from the both. The field of organizational learning explores ways to design organizations so that they fulfill their function effectively, encourage people to reach their full potential, and, at the same time, help the world to be a better place (Pegasus Communications Inc., 2005). In Gaylord National, because the organization is not frequently earning and adapting to changes in the hospitality business they are constantly loosing customer base to competitors who are persistently training and hiring competent employees. Changing Behavior in Gaylord through Motivation Goleman (2006) argues that our brain is wired to make us open to social influences for adaptive purposes. Gaylord National as an organization can undergo some sort of behavior modification, which includes the normative essence of the concepts of motivation, reward, learning and organization culture that will elevate the employee performance and productivity (Wilson, 1992). Behavior can be modified or reinforced by certain motivating and controlling measures. As motivation is the internal force of an individual that accounts for the level, direction, and persistence of effect expended at work (Robbins & Judge, 2011), management at the organization can reward an appropriate behavior in order to implement change. Since motivated employees are more productive, organizational performance can be enhanced by regular positive reinforcements. The rewarding processes and the modeling training programs should be constant throughout the Gaylord Organization in order to spur an affirmative change in the performance and productivity of employees. The concept of human resource resiliency should be offered (Luthans et al., 2006) to identify proactive ways in which the organizations can strengthen resiliency among their employees. Senior managers need to communicate with strong urgency that each and every one within the organization should build a burning common platform for change. Implementation of Culture and Diversity Every organization has a different source of motivation for choosing to provide satisfying social services (Robbins & Judge, 2011). Managers at Gaylord National have the duration role of encircling different concepts into their decision making aspect. As mentioned above, understanding behavior in organizations is one thing but understanding how the culture influences the behavior in the organizations is another. Organizational culture is a general belief system of norms, ethics and values that influence its members’ actions (Schermerhom et al, 2005). Sometimes skills and knowledge are not enough for excellent performance. Performance can be enhanced by identifying matching core values of the organization and the employee. Managers at Gaylord National should implement the organization’s culture if they want to build their name and compete in the industry. Many of their behaviors and activities are built by the culture in which they exist. At the end, the organization in question can realize that culture can be an amalgamation of upbringing, faith, strengths, weaknesses, prejudice and personal performance standards. Gaylord National can also work on its demographic variation in the organizational workforce, which is popularly referred to as diversity. Efforts must be made in this aspect in order to improve upon their image and productivity. Diversity as it stands in organization can include different race, people from different cultures, people with skills level and experience (Schermerhom et al, 2005). Educating the employees to respect and understand how to relate to each other and how to accomplish goals using the right communication mode and action can help improve relations in the organization. Conclusion The understanding of organizational behavior and its concept implied at Gaylord National goes beyond the simple fact of what it is in the dictionary. The understanding in question will come by the organization hiring the right people, examining the ideas of the word of the employees and applying the analyzed information to become stronger and competitive in the hospitality industry. Educating, communicating, and using diversity will improve the organizational behavior situation and make Gaylord National stronger and more competitive. Again, organizational behavior problems yield dissatisfaction which in turn leads to low performance. Communicating, using diversity, educating and building strong cultures among the employees and management, all influence organizational behavior and make them more efficient and effective when implemented. In view of the demands of an organization, improving employee morale requires increasing motivation and understanding of the theories which will help. Top management needs to establish a more flexible and adaptive policy when it comes to hiring new employees and that will lead the future of Gaylord National into a new high level. References Cameron, K.S. (2003). Organization Virtuousness and Performance. Positive Organizational Scholarship. San Francisco: Berrett Koehler. Pp. 48-65. Davenport, T.H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Knowledge Codification and Coordination in Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What they Know. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press. Goleman, D. et al. (2002). Clustering Competence in Emotional Intelligence: Insights from Emotional Competence Inventory. Department of Organization Behavior, Case Western Reserve University. Web. Retrieved on December 8, 2011 from http://weatherhead.case.edu/departments/organizational-behavior/workingPapers/WP%2099-6.pdf Harper, D. (2001). Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved November, 9, 2011 from htt://www.etymonline.com/ Katz, D and Kahn, R. L. (1966). The Social Psychology of Organizations. New York: Wiley. Luthans, F., Vogelgesang, G. R., & Lester, P. B. (2006). Developing the Psychological Capital of Resiliency. Human Resource Development Review, 5, pp. 25–44. Pegasus Communications Inc. (2005). What is Organizational Learning. Web. Retrieved on December 8, 2011 from http://www.pegasuscom.com/aboutol.html Robbins, S. P., & Judge, T. A. (2011). Organization Behavior, Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. Ed. 14. Organ, D. W., & Ryan, K. (1995). A Meta-Analytic Review of Attitudinal and Dispositional Predictors of Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Personnel Psychology, 48, 775-802. Staw, B. M, Sutton, R.I., & Pelled, L. H (1994). Employee Positive Emotion and Favorable Outcomes at the Workplace. Organization Science, 5, 51-71. Schermerhorn, J.R., Hurt, J.G., & Osbom, R.N. (2005). Organizational behavior. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Schein, E. II. (1965), Organizational Psychology. Englewood Cliffs: Prenticc-HulI. Wilson, D. (1992), A Strategy of Change: Concepts and Controversies in the Management of Change, Roughtedge, New York, NY, Chapters 1-4 Read More