Generation Y and Management - Case Study Example

Introduction to management xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Name xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Course xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Instructor xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Date Executive Summary It is quite evident that many governmental institutions across the globe are faced with many problems ranging from customers to those being experienced by staffs. There is a dire need for these institutions to change their operation so as to have a greater competitive advantage as compared to private companies. This paper will initialize by giving a brief introduction which will be followed keenly by a broad overview of the company analysis. Further, the paper will analyze the problems that have been outlined in the company analysis giving out various recommendations for each specific problem. The various recommendations that will be issued will range from training, offering motivation to workers and team building. Lastly, the paper will give a conclusion describing each aspect that have been outlined within the paper so as to give a broad idea on how governmental institutions can be improved to ensure their operations are run effectively in favor of customers, employees and the entire organization. Introduction It is quite evident that dealing with a large governmental organization implies having a great and diverse customer base. For any given multinational organization, customer service is considered to be a key priority whereby it is necessary to develop active complains and compliments for an effective customer service. Developing an effective customer service should allow creativity so as to ensure organizations are able to handle problem at hand or in a designed process of conducting everyday business. The paper focuses on largely discussing how most of governmental institutions are managed across the globe with main focus on the bureaucracy that exist in most institution. Further, various recommendation will be issued in view to the outlined problems indicating how these institution can be managed effectively. Company Analysis It is quite evident that being a government organization, the company is very well established not forgetting that it is bureaucratic. Even with the need to provide an effective customer service, the staff here widely operates under various rigid policies, processes, procedures as well as designated start and finish times. Most of the organizational funding is constantly received on submission of report based on the operations carried out within the organization. Being a governmental institution, excellence in timely and accurate data entry not forgetting proper record keeping is necessary whereby specialized staff on this area are on board. The staff base of this organization are primarily women whereby 50% are baby boomers, 30% are of generation X and 20% generation Y with many baby boomers being employed for very long periods of time within this same organization. There are several complains within the organization that need dire attention. Generation Y staff are greatly dissatisfied with working in the company whereby they feel the organization lack various career opportunities, staff are not friendly and work at times becomes boring. Generation X staff finds it very difficult to balance both their work and personal life and to make it worse the management appears to be unsympathetic to their needs. Baby boomers on the other hand feel that generation Y staff show no commitment towards the organization and greatly lacks proper work ethics. Most of the workers are greatly overworked and stressed and that the organization lack proper communication networks. Apart from complains received from the workers, the company faces other problems whereby there are high number of errors in data entry not forgetting the constant customer complaints. Further there is a medium where attrition rate for generation X whereas that of generation Y is high. In general many of the staff lack motivation and appear to be more apathetic. Motivation The department has several problems and this may affect the delivery of its services to the customers, putting into consideration that the organization delivers services to customers. The major problem is evident in different areas within the department. One of the problems is evident with Generation Y staff. The fact that they are dissatisfied with their work, lack of career and of major concern the unfriendly staff, are grave problems that demand for attention. To add fuel to their problem they complain of the work being boring. It is also noted that the staff do complain of lack of motivation. To eliminate these problems and ensure effectiveness and efficiency of the employees, motivation is a concrete solution to some of these problems (Rainey 2009). Motivation may solve several performance problems and has been evident that it has increased quantity and quality in workplaces. Work motivation is that process that will initiates and continue to maintain the performance that are goal directed. For example in this company one of the goals is to ensure that the clients are well satisfied with the services that they get from the organization (Matcham & Schlenker 2005). Motivation does fuel enthusiasm, energizes the thinking of the employees and also color the negative and positive emotional of the staff reaction to life and work. It generates the needed mental effort that will drive an employee to apply the gained skills and knowledge. Basically, without motivation, it is impossible for even for the most capable employee or individual to continue working hard. The department has come up with three strategies of motivation that will be implemented to every employee. Firstly, the department will aim at developing the employees’ self confidence in their daily work. There is need to support the staffs’ beliefs on their capability to achieve the organizational goals. This is important as lack of confidence in achieving the specific goals, will result to the employees not tacking the targeted goals. The department will therefore, embark in ensuring that the employees concerns are checked to assist them in building their confidence. In this way, the employees will be able to appreciate their work and this will kill any boredom that has risen as a result of lack of confidence in the work. This will be accompanied by respect and understanding, which are major values in creating motivation attitudes towards people. Basically, increase in confidence will ensure that the employees are not dissatisfied with the work and therefore, will result to increase in the performance of the organization (Dubrin & Dalgish 2003). Secondly, the department will also create an emotional environment that is positive to every employee of the organization. This is as a result of various problems associated with lack of positive emotions such as joy, humor, joy and stress. Negative emotions such as stress, depression and frustration have been felt in the organization. Actually, the reports from the team leaders of different sections within the department have reported extreme stress among the employees due to overworking. This has resulted to lack of commitment to their work and poor achievement of the department goals. However, it is not necessary that one has to be happy to perform but it is not also good that people are stressed about the work issues either. The basic thing is that people are assisted in maintaining an excellent level of positive emotion that will result to commitment in their work. Creation of a positive workable climate will pay off by creating an environment whereby the employees will increase their commitment in their daily work and reduce the negativity towards the work (Marsh & Shaw, B 2000) The third strategy is to readily support the basic strong personal values of the employees for performance goals. Values are considered as one of the way people express their view of what make them effective. The main aim of this strategy is to connect the values and staff commitment to the goals of the department. According to some authors values can be of three different types: skills, utility and interest value. In interest value, people will quickly and more easily select what they want to do most. People are more interested in learning how to gain new skills. Actually it is well described as an intrinsic. The employees will definitely perform as long as they have an interest o what they are doing. Therefore, the department has set up measures to ensure the employees’ interests are considered in assigning of tasks. In skill values, it has been noticed that people will always challenge a skill they consider special. The department will take keen interest in the skills of the employees and therefore, ensure that the people, who are skilled at a particular task, perform it and eventually the goals of the department are met. Apart of the goals being met, the problem of the employee complaining that they are lacking career opportunity is eliminated. Finally, the utility value ensures that the focus is shifted from means to ends of a particular task. This helps employees to focus on the benefits of the tasks at hand rather than the displeasure experienced during the performance of that task. This will help in assisting in eliminating the problem of job dissatisfaction. Financial incentives are another way of motivating the employees. This will done according the past performance of the employees. They are four incentive programs that do exist. They include piece rate schemes, quota schemes, flat rate schemes and tournament schemes. The department will apply the quota schemes. The scheme involves additional bonus to the generation that achieve excellent performance that exceeds the previous. This is one of the largest motivation gains that an organization can implement to motivate the employees. The scheme will ensure that the each sector will work hard in order to ensure that the better their performance. This will also guarantee that idleness, which is a major problem in the department, is eliminated. In addition, it will improve team work as the employee will have to definitely come together to work towards a common goal. This of course will result to the department achieving its set goals. One problem that was evident in every sector is the issues of rigid procedures, policies and processes. The employees have constantly been complaining that the roles and procedures have made them to be ineffective in their tasks. The department has laid down strategies to eliminate cumbersome policies and unnecessary rules that have served as de-motivators. The employees will be involved in this process of setting up effective and efficient processes, rules and policies that will ensure that the employees are comfortable with. This will be done through their team leaders in order to come up with rules and regulations that will help them work effectively and efficiently. However, in creating the beneficial rules, the employees will not be allowed to take advantage of this, to control the department in a way that will result to poor performance. For example, they may take advantage of creating more free time which may be perceived as idleness. Another action that will be implemented is the replacement of prejudicial feedback and negative feedback with a feedback that is gap-focused. This is necessary as it is noted in the report that the Baby Bloomers are complaining of poor work done by the younger staff. This immediate jumping into sectors’ mistakes need to be eliminated. This is because it has resulted to negative reactions that deteriorated performance of the sectors that are said to be victimized. In actual fact it has resulted to great lift within the department and resulted to low self esteem among the employees. There is need to avoid unfairness in the department which may have one of the major causes de-motivation among the employees. For example according to the report, different groups have been carrying attrition. Some have recorded high rate of attrition and this has resulted to lack of motivation in the generation that is most affected. Measures taken will ensure that all employees are given equal share to enhance collective responsibility among the different sectors within the department. Training According to the reports, another problem faced by the department is poor communication skills. This has been accompanied by poor work ethic and unfriendly among the staff. The department has resolved to come up with training in the various sector of the department. This also includes ethical training. This will ensure that the employees obtain the needed skills that are significant as they carry out their various tasks. Communication skills are very essential in any organization. The department has therefore, laid down strategies to ensure that is well maintained. Every employee will have to undergo through a training to promote and enhance the skills. In any organization, training will ensure that productive behavior is encouraged from all the employees and all the members of the organization. Training also assists in discouraging the negative that may paint an organization which include illegal behavior, discriminatory and destructive behavior. Other benefits of training to the department include equipping the employees with basic skills and knowledge in handling the customers enquires (Rainey 2009). This will of great help as it will also reduce complains that have increased from the customers of the delivery services. This has been as result of the compliment and complaints programs that have been established in the organization. Training will also create and continue to promote job satisfaction. The nurturing of the employees will develop well rounded employees who have gained skills that are necessary in ensuring that the performance goals of the organization. It will also contribute to eliminating boredom among the employees. It is an efficient tool in instilling commitment and loyalties from the employees. Staff who are lazy are going to be motivated to work will be engaged in the running of the department. Training will also add efficiency and flexibility and therefore, the department has laid down strategies to ensure that all the employees in the department, cross-train as this will prevent laziness and idleness in the department. It will also kill any poor working strategy as a result of monotony. Apart from this, it will also foster team work spirit as different sectors interact. The employees will also understand the difficulties faced by co-workers in different sector and therefore, appreciate. This will decrease any blame game that has been experienced in the department. Cross-training will also aid in relieving the employees who may feel overburdened in the tasks. Training is an essential tool in knowledge transfer. The employees will be able to share among themselves. This will not only create unity but will also improve the deteriorating relationship among the employees in the department. The department will also gain from this. For example, if an expert in one sector suddenly leaves an organization, the organization will not experience hard times in recouping the knowledge. Equipment As indicated in the report, errors in data entry and recording have tremendously been on the rise. This is a major concern as it within the mandate of the organization to ensure that data entry and recording is excellent and is very crucial. This is very evident as the organization has employed staffs that are well trained and specialized in this area. The department has decided to set strategies that will ensure the records and data entry are effective. The department will introduce effective equipment that will assist the staff to carry out their task. Questionnaire will also be distributed in the department to be filled by the staffs that are in charge of the data and record keeping. This will assist in knowing which area within the sector that requires improvement. The exercise will be carried out by the team leaders who will then submit a report to the department. This will definitely allow the employees to air out the grievances and other recommendations that may increase excellent performance within the organization. Eventually the delivery to the customers will be excellent. Team Building Team building is another strategy that the department will implement in its activities. This is a result of divisions within the department. For example, the Baby boomers felt that Generation Y staffs are lazy and that they show no commitment in the work. This negative opinion within the department ha resulted to uplifts which have eventually brought about poor performance in the department. Attrition rate has been on the increase within the department. For this reasons, team building will try and fix the differences that have been felt in the department. Actual most work is effectively carried out by team work. It will ensure that every employee feels appreciated in the department. This is because every person will have to take part in the team building activities. The department has therefore organized a tem building activity away from the work place. All sectors will actively been involved in the activities. The aftermath of this, is that the employees will be able to interact more free and build trust among them. This is also one way of motivating the employees. Various complain have been forwarded by the Generation X staff. They claim that it has been hard to balance their home life and their work. Taking into consideration the fact that it is quite impossible to employ more staffs; actions need to be taken to solve the grave issue. This will involve the affected employee as they need to come up with a strategy that they are able to balance their duties (Caulfield et al 2004). This will still fall under training. This will help them to learn how to manage time. Time management is very crucial in any organization. This will help in reducing the workload that on is expected to do. Time management will also assist the employees in setting their priority well. The management will also undergo training in order to attain the needed skills that are required in running the department. This is very crucial as it will help in eliminating complains from the employees. It will also ensure that good relationships are between the management and employees. Conclusion For any effective organization to maintain its set goals, all the problems that are facing the facing the employees need to be addressed. In this organization, the department has been having several problems that have hindered the operations of the organization. The bitter results of the problems are constant complains from the customers, lack of motivation of the employees, complains from the employees and soon. The department has therefore, laid down strategies to eliminate the problems. Motivation has been the chief requirement. The other measures taken include training of the employee team building and allowing the employees to contribute to the running of the department. This will definitely ensure that the department carries out it task efficiently and effectively leading to the attaining of the set objectives of the organization. Therefore, the main reason for this report is to give recommendations that are very crucial in maintaining the image of the organization. REFERENCE Caulfield, N, Chang, D, Dollard, M, Elshaug, C. 2004, A Review of Occupational Stress Interventions in Australia, International Journal of Stress Management, 2004, 11, 2, pp 149-166. Dubrin, A, Dalgish, C, 2003, Leadership, An Australasian focus, Miton, Old: John Wiley and Sons Australia Marsh, L, & Shaw, B, 2000, Australia’s wine industry. Collaboration and learning as causes of competitive success, Working paper, Melbourne: Australian Graduate School of Management. Matcham, A, Schlenker, 2005, The Effective Organization. The Nuts and Bolts of Business Value, Queensland, John Wiley & Sons Rainey, H, 2009, Understanding and Managing Public Organization, Queensland: John Wiley & sons, Inc. Read More