Addressing Low Employee Motivation through Improved Engagement - Coursework Example

College: Proposal Argument Addressing Low Employee Motivation through Improved Engagement Introduction With the emergence of human resource theory as part of the organizational management discourse, the issue of employee motivation has become one of the priority areas for organizations of all types and sizes. Employees are now considered part of the organizational resources. However, unlike financial or material resources, employees are widely considered as the most important type of resource in modern organizations (Hayes and Jack 7). In fact, Werner and Randy emphasize this point by noting that “an organization is only as good as its people” (4). It is undeniable that any organization depends on its human resources including managers and employees for success. Based on this, it is incumbent upon any organization to ensure that employees are in their optimum level of performance by addressing their needs and interests. Part of this involves ensuring that employees are motivated at all times. Employee motivation has a direct impact on employee productivity, employee satisfaction, and employee retention. All these factors are critical to any organization. For example, the productivity level of employees affects the overall organizational productivity. Additionally, with low employee retention rates, an organization suffers the risk of losing talent and critical knowledge base, which undermines the sustainable competitive advantage (Rainlall 52-53). No organization would want to experience such employee problems. In this regard, this proposal targets the management of Techy Company. To address the problem of low employee motivation in the company, the management of the company should create a more horizontal structure that would improve employee engagement as an effective strategy to improve employee motivation. Problem Background Techy Company one of the most promising technology start-ups in England. Having being established in 2010, the small technology company has made significant strides towards becoming a major player in the technology industry. This impressive growth can be attributed to various factors including a visionary leadership, talented labour pool, and an effective organizational strategy.In all of these aspects, the management of the company has had a major role to play. Through a combination of effective leadership and management practices, the management team has been able to steer the young technology start-up forward to the delight of all stakeholders including the founders, management, employees, and customers. However, over the last 18 months, the company has experienced a growing rate of employee turnover, which threatens the continued growth and success of the company. Since the last quarter of 2013, Techy Company has lost a total of 13 employees. Out of these, four were part of the company’s management including the finance manager, manager of innovation, head of marketing, and the assistant marketing manager. The other nine were employees working in different departments. Although most of these positions have already been filled, there is a looming fear that more employees may be leaving the company in the near future. This should be a major concern for the management of the company. Such a high rate of employee turnover is only an indication of an underlying problem. Considering the past strategies and policies in the company, the likely problem is the decline in employee motivation. This observation is supported by direct observation and interaction with employees. As one of the company employees, I have the privilege of working closely with my colleagues. I have been able to gather from my colleagues that their general level of motivation is low because they feel that they are not engaged enough in the organization. Specifically, the employees feel that the management has not given them enough room or opportunities to engage in the decisions affecting the organization. For instance, one of the major areas that the employees are concerned with is the company’s policy of promotions. The employees feel that promotional decisions are made without their input. From a personal perspective, I confirm these employee concerns. Apart from the direct evidence, research also supports the view that employee motivation is the most likely problem in the company. In a study to determine the relationship between employee engagement, employee satisfaction, and business outcomes, the researchers established that employee engagement is a primary determinant of employee satisfaction, employee motivation, and employee retention (Harter, Frank and Theodore 276). This study provides a strong basis for linking the high employee turnover at Techy Company to the lower employee engagement. The feeling of inadequate engagement among the employees is causing a decline in employee motivation and satisfaction, which in turn causes the increased employee turnover. Addressing the current problem of low employee motivation should be a priority for the company’s management. If nothing is done about it, the problem is likely to escalate. The level of employee motivation will continue to decrease. This will result in more employees leaving the company for other companies that have better employee engagement. If this happens, the growth and success of the company will be jeopardized. As noted, employees form the most important asset in an organization. Losing employees through employee turnover would therefore affect the company’s sustainable competitive advantage. The employees that would leave the company will be taking with them critical knowledge and skills that would be difficult to recover. The employees can also apply this knowledge to the disadvantage of the company especially if they move to rival companies. Proposed Solution and Justification To address the problem of low employee motivation, which is causing the high turnover in the company, the management of Techy Company should improve the level of employee engagement by ensuring that employees are involved in decision making processes. This should entail creating a more horizontal organizational structure that allows more room for communication across the entire organization. Specifically, the management of the company should abolish the hierarchical structure that prevents employees from the lower level from participating in decision making. The horizontal organizational structure enhances employee engagement by creating multidisciplinary teams (DuBrin 268). In other words, a horizontal structure creates a team structure where employees and managers from different departments and levels can engage productively. Evidence of this benefit of the horizontal structure can be seen in Mayo Clinic. According to a 2008 report by the Commonwealth Fund, some of the main attributes of Mayo Clinic included care coordination and teamwork (McCarthy, Kimberly and Jennifer 2). These coordination and teamwork are based on the clinic’s horizontal structure that allows cross functional relationships (4). This structure will improve employee motivation in Techy Company by making it possible for employees to participate in decision making irrespective of their levels or departments in the company. Unlike the vertical structure that centralizes decision making to the top management level, the horizontal structure decentralizes decision making (Daft and Dorothy 251). The decentralization of decision making in the company due to the adoption of a horizontal structure will have a direct impact on employee motivation. When employees are engaged in decision making, they derive a sense of belonging and being valued by the organization. The employees will feel that the management appreciates them and values their contribution to the organization. This will then create a sense of prestige and improve the motivation of the employees. The employees will no longer feel side-lined in the organizational decisions. In a case study of two American medium-size prisons in New England, Farmer (24-25) established that employees who had more decision-making opportunities were more satisfied with their jobs than those who had limited decision-making powers. With regard to the issue of promotion decisions, the employees will have an opportunity to give their opinions on who they feel is the best suitable candidate for a particular promotion opportunity. Ultimately, the employees will have trust in the newly promoted individual and will respect him or her because of the feeling that he or she is one of them. With the rise in employee motivation, the employee turnover rate will decline. Employees will no longer see the need to leave the company because their concerns and needs have been addressed. In fact, a strong sense of belonging will enhance the employee retention rate. Apart from solving the underlying problem of low employee motivation, adopting the horizontal structure will also have other additional benefits. The management of the current burden on the management of the company will be reduced. Currently, the management is burdened with multiple functions including planning, controlling, leading, and organizing. All these functions require decision making. With a horizontal structure, the management will be relieved of the heavy burden of making all company decisions. The decision making burden will be shared with the employees. Referring back to the case study of the two American prisons, management had low level of involvement in decision making where decision making was delegated (Farmer 25). Additionally, the decision making process will improve. The decentralized decision making will be faster as more people will be involved in the process. The employees are better suited to make decisions relating to their specific areas of work because they have the knowledge and experience. Therefore, the employees know or understand the problems and solutions in their respective areas better than the top management. If they participate in decision making, they will provide their ideas, which will lead to better decisions. In a study to determine the effect of integrating decentralized decision-making in the strategic planning processes of 185 North American companies, Andersen (1287) found out that decentralized decision-making improved the strategic planning process. This provides evidence that decentralized decision-making enhanced decision making process. Counter Arguments Critics of the horizontal structure may argue that it will lead to management losing control over the company. This argument is baseless because the management still retains the management functions. Decentralizing decision making does not undermine the role of management in any way. In fact, it enhances the management function because it enables management to focus more on other core functions instead of making every other decision for the company. This is evident in decentralized decision making in Ethiopian schools where the effectiveness of head teachers improved when parents and the community were involved in decision making. For example, head teachers no longer had to perform the task of looking for students who had dropped out of school because the parents and the communities performed this task, which allowed head teachers to focus on administrative matters of the schools (Abebe 11). Instead of getting involved in smaller matters that could be resolved at lower levels, the management of the company will only focus on major issues if the horizontal structure is implemented. Another possible criticism of the proposed solution would be that the company already provides good incentives for employee motivation. To some extent, this is true because Techy Company offers very good salaries. However, it is important to realize that employee motivation can be extrinsic or intrinsic. The good salary is a form of extrinsic motivation. However, extrinsic motivation is inadequate in sustaining employee motivation in the long-term (Benabou and Jean 516). Intrinsic motivation is considered more effective in motivating employees because it affects employees internally. Employee engagement is part of the intrinsic motivation. As a successful start-up company with a vision to become a leading technology company, Techy Company has a unique opportunity to realize this vision by sustaining a high level of employee motivation through improving employee engagement. The management of the company has this responsibility on its hands. Creating a horizontal structure that will improve employee engagement will be a decision that will shape the destiny of the organization. Works Cited Abebe, Workneh. “School Management and Decision-making in Ethiopian Government Schools: Evidence from the Young Lives Qualitative School Survey.” Young Lives, 2012. Web. 17 April 2015. Andersen, Torben J. “Integrating Decentralized Strategy Making and Strategic Planning Processes in Dynamic Environments.” Journal of Management Studies 41.8 (2004): 1271-1299. Benabou, Roland, and Jean Tirole. "Intrinsic and extrinsic motivation." The Review of Economic Studies 70.3 (2003): 489-520. Daft, Richard and Dorothy Marcic. Understanding Management. 7th Ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2010. Web. 27 March 2015. DuBrin, Andrew. Essentials of Management. 8th Ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2008. Web. 27 March 2015. Harter, James K., Frank L. Schmidt, and Theodore L. Hayes. "Business-unit-level relationship between employee satisfaction, employee engagement, and business outcomes: a meta-analysis." Journal of applied psychology 87.2 (2002): 268. Hayes, David K and Jack D. Ninemeier. Human Resources Management in the Hospitality Industry. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2009. Web. 27 March 2015. McCarthy, Douglas, Kimberly Mueller and Jennifer Wrenn. “Mayo Clinic: Multidisciplinary Teamwork, Physician-Led Governance, and Patient-Centered Culture Drive World-Class Health Care.” Commonwealth Fund Publication 27 (2009), 1-18. Web. 17 April 2015. Rainlall, Sunil. "A review of employee motivation theories and their implications for employee retention within organizations." The journal of American academy of business 9 (2004): 21-26. Werner, Jon and Randy DeSimone. Human Resource Development. 6th Ed. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning, 2011. Web. 27 March 2015. Read More