Individual Decision-Making and Problem-Solving - Essay Example

Organizational Behavior 2 ID Number & Total Number of Words 517 Lesson 5 - Motivation The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, expectancy theories, goal-setting theories, and equity theories of motivation are similar in the sense that employees should be rewarded in order to motivate them at work. Specifically the theory of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs clearly explained that HR managers should be able to first satisfy the physiological needs of each employee before satisfying their safety needs, affiliation or love needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 159). As soon as the HR manager is able to satisfy each employees’ physiological needs (i.e. offering competitive salary, free lodging, free food, etc.), it will be easier on the part of the HR manager to satisfy the higher needs of each employee. Unlike the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, expectancy theories are not focused on satisfying the individual needs of each employee. Depending on the kind of rewards employees could receive from a business organization, the theory of expectancy suggests that employees will be motivated given that their efforts at work could contribute to the business success (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 162). Similar to expectancy theories, the use of goal-setting theories also requires the HR managers to pay back employees’ efforts through attractive rewards (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 165). In general, the main purpose of goal-setting theories is to increase the work expectations of each employee. Since a higher goal setting increases employees’ work motivation, the overall productivity of each employee is also expected to increase. The equity theories are based on “social exchange” (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 165). Given that each employee is happy in their work environment (i.e. no conflict with other employees, fair working policies, etc.), there is a higher chance wherein employees will exert an effort to convert the organizational goals into a reality. When we talk about fair working policies, it means that the contribution of each employee to the success of the company should mean higher rewards as compared to the rest of employees. To be able to motivate employees, I assume that a realistic and fair monetary reward is necessary to satisfy the basic needs of each employee. Basically, when the financial needs of a person is not met, that person would either look for another job that offers higher salary or search for another part-time job. It means that the person becomes less loyal to his/her first employer. In case a company offers competitive salary, the next step in keeping a person loyal is to satisfy his/her safety needs, affiliation or love needs, self-esteem needs, and self-actualization needs (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 159). Rewards and high compensation is not the only way to motivate employees at work. Basically the four employees are good example of self-directed workers. Therefore, the four employees are highly motivated each time they are given challenging and non-repetitive tasks and each time they receive autonomy at work (Denhardt, Denhardt, & Aristigueta, 2002, p. 164). Jess should apply the Self-Esteem needs in Maslow’s theory. By recognizing the work performance of these four employees and trusting in their work capabilities, Jess will be able to keep the four employees motivated. Lesson 6 – Individual Decision Making and Problem Solving Regardless of the company size and the type of industry, the two key organizational outcomes that Marcia Blenko mentioned as being most highly correlated with decision effectiveness includes: (1) better financial performance especially in terms of a higher revenue growth, return on capital, and total shareholders return; and (2) employee engagement (Blenko, 2010). According to Marcia Blenko, the four defining characteristics of “decision effectiveness” include not only a high quality decision making but also speed in making important decisions, yield or the extent the managers execute important decisions the way it is planned, and using the right amount of effort to execute decision making effectively (Blenko, 2010). Basically, the speed in which a company executes an important decision is crucial to the success of any business organization. It means that even before a close competitor is able to copy or implement a counter business strategy, the manager should be able to position the company well in the market. Companies today are more complex. Therefore, the two of the most pervasive obstacles that Ms. Blenko identified as getting in the way of effective organizational decision making include not only the cutting through the complexity of a corporate structure but also leadership behavior of the managers (Blenko, 2010). On top of poor leadership skill, ineffective organizational structure can make it difficult to point-out who really has the power and authority to do the final business decisions or who should be included in decision making. On a yearly basis, Ms. Blenko suggests that organizations should be able to identify top 25 decisions when prioritizing their “critical decisions” for performance. On the other hand, the five steps in effective organizational decision that Ms. Blenko presented in the video include: (1) understanding how well the manager can make and execute decisions; (2) identify critical decisions from the most important to the least important; (3) focus on critical decisions (i.e. who is involved in the decision, what should be decided, when to implement decision, how to implement decision, etc.); (4) make sure that all stakeholders will support the decision; (5) implement the final decision (Blenko, 2010). For example, Mr. X is the HR manager of company Z. Before anything else, Mr. X should determine how well he can make and execute decisions on how to retain their best employees by taking some decision-making tests. Based on the test result, Mr. X will know whether or not he needs to improve the quality, speed, yield, or effort when making important decisions. Given that Mr. X decided that the most important strategy to retain the best talents they have is to improve the company’s reward and compensation system, Mr. X should focus on identifying how and what to change in the company’s existing rewards system. Eventually, Mr. X will have to decide who to talk with or to whom he should seek approval before he can execute the plan. To ensure that the rest of the stakeholders (including the shareholders and business owners) will support the plan, Mr. X should be able to come up with a good argument for him to be able to convince people involved to support his idea before he could finally implement the final decision which is to implement the plan. Lesson 7 – Group Dynamics: Teams and Teamwork The work team portrayed in the case entitled “The Team That Wasn’t” is best characterized by a cross-functional team. In general, a cross-functional team can be effective by encouraging the managers of different departments to share and exchange business information for them to be able to come up with new business ideas necessary in problem solving. It means that the senior managers of human resources, manufacturing, finance, distribution, design, and marketing need to come together for them to be able to accomplish higher production output at a relatively lower operational cost. To be able to achieve team effectiveness, the CEO should be able to encourage the team members to learn and immediately respond to the on-going environmental changes followed by focusing on the importance of efficiency. Using lesser resources, it means that the CEO should be able to encourage the team members to work together in order to achieve organizational goals. Eventually, the CEO should focus on improving quality. Therefore, the CEO should be able to exceed customers’ expectations by improving the quality of products and services given to them by the company. Lastly, the CEO should focus on satisfaction. It means that the CEO should encourage each members of the team to stay committed and enthusiastic in terms of achieving the organizational goal. With regards to the case, none of these were implemented in the work team. Basically, the team failed to learn and immediately respond to the on-going environmental changes due to lack of trust and support particularly in the case of Randy. According to Randy, “a brilliant idea never came out of a team… but from brilliant individuals” (Wetlaufer, 1994, p. 25). Even though Randy was considered as “the future of FireArt” (p. 24), his decision not to support the idea of working in a team makes it more difficult on the part of the company to attain its organizational goal. Eric Holt – the vice president of FireArt failed to come up with a comprehensive plan for the company’s strategic realignment. This explains why the team members doesn’t know how they should work together in order to maximize the use of their skills and expertise. For example, instead of spending more time finding out how they can resolve issues related to internal conflicts, Eric was more focused on protecting the feelings of each employee (Wetlaufer, 1994. P. 28). Therefore, the rest of the team failed to get things accomplished. In the case of Randy, he does not recognize the value of collective work and skills. Therefore, Eric should focus on finding ways on how he can make Randy realize the importance of teamwork. References Blenko, M. (2010, October 18). Harvard Business Publishing. How Companies Can Make Better Decisions, Faster. An interview with Marcia Blenko. Retrieved June 23, 2012, from: http://sciencestage.com/v/37283/effective-decision-making-better-and-faster-decisions-how-to-improve-company-and-business-organizati.html Denhardt, R., Denhardt, J., & Aristigueta, M. (2002). Managing human behavior in public and nonprofit organizations. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications Inc. Wetlaufer, S. (1994, November-December). The Team that Wasnt. Harvard Business review, pp. 22-38. Read More