Very Fast, Very Accurate - Article Example

Electro Logic Electro Logic is a firm that is responsible for the research and development of a technology called VFVA – Very Fast, Very Accurate. Steve Morgan is the founder of the company, an electrical engineer and the inventor of VFVA. The project is primarily funded by the government though the Electro Logic has plans of marketing its invention to non-governmental organization. Any business needs an amount of risk and determination to succeed. The capital is one important factor that determines the future of one industry that is why it is important that the amount invested in any given company or business is carefully monitored if it is being use to the fullest and if it will augment to all the needs needed to make it. In the case of the Electro Logic firm, their main source comes from government funding which is still not very reliable, that is why, maybe, Morgan is contemplating of engaging in the commercial markets as to meet all the needs of the firm and to make sure that the form will flourish. 1. Using the behavioral guidelines and figure 5 as diagnostic aids, what are the strengths and weaknesses of Electro Logic from a motivational perspective? VFVA is a technology that is going to be use in enhancing radar technology, robotics and some defense application. Government has funded Phase I and II of the VFVA research as to show that they are really interested in having the technology as experts saw its advantage especially for national defense. Morgan hired his staff for the product completion and still expands his team as to meet the needs for the VFVA project. His team is segmented to three groups, the engineers, the technicians and the administrative staff. Morgan’s research group for the VFVA project is almost 88% engineers, most of who are president’s graduates. Another quality that he is looking for his staff is that they also should have a pre-conceived notion about the technology that is being developed. Rises in salary, in all level, is directly related to their performance appraisal evaluations though there is still not a clear guideline for position advancement. Assisting engineers with their work are the technician, Technicians could be either high school or college graduate, and they are being trained in the job on handling micro technology fabrication. Technicians are paid on an hourly basis and worked on a fulltime work load. Tedious jobs are most of what they do. Administrative Staff on the other hand is mostly women are also paid on an hourly basis except for the staff head, personnel director and project controller. Hired graphic artists and technical writers are on a part-time rate. 3. Are all of the individuals in the case motivated by the same rewards/outcomes? What are the implications of their preferences for the management at Electro-Logic? Morgan wanted to investigate the employees’ primary need and how to boost their morale and how effective the firm is. The result was somewhat dissatisfying, the team is not happy about the way the system is being managed. They love their work but they are still contemplating on going out of the firm because they don’t see this as something that is for the long term basis as it also could not readily support them in terms of financial needs. Most of the employees have a relation to the president, Mr. Morgan, in the sense that most of which has been his students in college and moist have been offered a position by the president himself. A thorough analysis about the needs and concerns of those included in the conflict should be done in order to resolve it. Conflicts are not made overnight that is why all aspect of the problem must be investigated first before coming up with a solution. After analyzing, options should be presented regarding how to work out their problem. Business and companies exist within society and society prescribe behaviour norm as to what is expected from this financial group. (Reynolds) Creating a balance between financial, environmental and societal growth is a difficult task but is very critical if one company would like to make sure that they are to stay for a long time in the market. A company lay down factors or guidelines for their services and manpower in order for them to gauge if they met their goals or if there is a problem within and how to address it. There are factors that need to be considered when one company tries to check if its service and manpower are able to meet the goals and objective set. Each level of manpower has their own criteria in evaluating their work. Performance evaluation could not be an all uniform assessment because of the difference in workload and capacities of each profession. The criteria may be different but there could be similarity in the values that are being asked for any profession, it will just vary on the intensity that is being asked for each value used as a criterion. All results have their corresponding actions or appraisal depending on their needs as dictated by the result. Each component contributes to the behavior of the system. No component has an independent effect on the system. The behavior of the system is changed if any component is removed or changed. The system has an outside - an environment - which provides inputs into the system and receives outputs from the system. 2. What are the high-priority action items you would include in a consulting report to Steve Morgan, president of EL? Focus in specific actions that he could initiate that would better use the abilities of the staff and foster a more motivating work environment? Change is significant in a company if owners or stockholders are not satisfied with financial results. They will try to find avenue for improvement in order to make sure that the reason they are in business are met. Change is also important if after investigation, one could see that the team is not working harmoniously and that they are not able to feel like the company or form that they are working for is worth it. Like in the case of Electro Logic, everyone loves the idea of being part of the invention of one great project – the VFVA – but they are not contended with the way the management handle their people and the compensation that they are receiving. It would help best if there is a way in which employees could voice out their insights in a regular basis. Changing the perspective of employees to fit for one that is aimed at sustainable development is a hard task. Seminars could help in this where there could be exchange of ideas afterwards and that would help in inputting how sustainable development could be achieved and on how societal expectations could be meet. In order for there to have a change in the system, there still needs to be change in the behavior of the employees and stakeholders; this is what they need to remember if they would want something positive. Not all would readily accept this that is why implementers should have a broad mind and patience with everyone. This is about humans with emotions and thinking, they are not numbers and season that can be manipulated and predicted. Body language plays an important role in how we communicate for success. We have to be careful on how we convey messages; we might be saying something that our movements are not backing up. If one would like his peers to believe him and respect him, a supervisor must have consistency in his dealings and use non verbal cues to maintain his stature and validity of the messages that he gives. Productivity within a team needs to be established for this is critical regarding the success of a company. Work related goals must be set and let the employees be aware of these and how it could be achieved. Rewards and punishments play an important role in determining how an employee does his job. Management should let their team mates know about the rewards that they could get depending on their performances; this could motivate them to work harder and improve. Punishments and discipline should be effective. One way of making sure that this is effective is being fair in giving punishments to those who have faults, no favoritism in the part of the supervisor. This would make them feel that they are working in as a team and that they are responsible for their action and their teammates as well. Electro Logic should also employ some motivation techniques to make workers more creative and productive. They must have passion for their job to make sure that they are performing at their best. Their needs must be satisfied and management must use positive reinforcement to boost one’s ego thus making him more productive. An employee must be reinforced in doing the right thing at the right time. Management must determine on why there is that specific team and their role in the company must be made aware as for them to know how they would properly function. There are a lot of things that needs to be taught to ensure that productivity is being met by the team. Some of them are stages of team development - storming, forming, norming, performing; team roles - team leader, scribe, and process observer. Consensus decision making is a critical skill that one needs to develop. (Howardell, 2004) Winnet gave four vital steps in effective communication, in order to create a harmonious relationship between the boss and the worker. The four steps that he discusses were Attention, Apprehension, Assimilation and Action. If we would like that our message would reach the receiver, we have to make sure that we have the other person’s full attention as possible as it could be. Distractions must be avoided and genuine respect should be shown so that each will understand the other. Winnet paralleled apprehension with understanding. He suggested that there must be a free flow of input from the receiver to ensure that the right level of understanding is achieved. Merely understanding the message is not enough, this is where Assimilation plays a crucial function. It must be ensured that the information was assimilated in the own being of the receiver. It was also stipulated that this could go a long way to be definite about active participation, and harmonious cooperation, in the workplace. (Winnet) The final step for an effective communication according to Winnet, is Action. It is not enough that he message was conveyed, supervisors has to make sure that something was done by the receiver as to what message was conveyed. 4. How involved should Steve Morgan be in facilitating goal accomplishment for the different groups of employees? In order that an employee’s relation could be improved, management must make sure that the working environment they cater is suited for them to work harmoniously for personal and corporate success. Management must have clear and defined visions known by the rest of the team. They should know what the aim of the company is and how their future is seen. It will be helpful for a team if they have a framework that allows for principle-centered policies, procedures and decisions. (CME) Relations within the workplace could be improved if management will not show any favoritism and will have a way to know the employees feedback about their job, this could be through surveys or a drop box where they could put a letter indicating how they feel about their job. Employees’ benefits, like health benefits, should be given on time and in accordance with the law to make them feel that they are being taken cared of and that they are important beings for the company and not treated as just mere workers. It must be understood that everyone has a life outside of the business or company. It would help if employees could be felt that we superiors are aware of it and that are more than willing to do something about creating a balance between work and private life. Assessing one program’s effectiveness is crucial to its success. The president of Electro Logic should give an emphasis on this concern and how to have things work for both the firm and employees advantage. It will not be easy but if they would like VFVA to be a true success it has to start from the people who are working for the research and development of it. Summary: VFVA is a technology being developed by Electro Logic, a firm that is headed by Steve Morgan. Currently, the development of this technology is being funded by the government, though the president, Mr. Steve Morgan has plans of marketing it commercially in the future. The government is funding this technology, VFVA, because they think this could help in enhancing radar technology, robotics and some defense application. Electro Logic is composed of a team of engineers, technicians and administrative assistant. Mr. Morgan contacted a firm that would assess what his employees are thinking about his work and the project. Most of who are dissatisfied with how they firm is running its business. Everyone loves the idea of being part of the invention of one great project – the VFVA – but they are not contended with the way the management handle their people and the compensation that they are receiving. It would help best if there is a way in which employees could voice out their insights in a regular basis. A thorough analysis about the needs and concerns of those included in the conflict should be done in order to resolve it. Conflicts are not made overnight that is why all aspect of the problem must be investigated first before coming up with a solution. After analyzing, options should be presented regarding how to work out their problem. In order that an employee’s relation could be improved, management must make sure that the working environment they cater is suited for them to work harmoniously for personal and corporate success. Management must have clear and defined visions known by the rest of the team. Relations within the workplace could be improved if management will not show any favoritism and will have a way to know the employees’ feedback about their job. It must be understood that everyone has a life outside of the business or company. It would help if employees could be felt that superiors are aware of it and that are more than willing to do something about creating a balance between work and private life. Assessing one program’s effectiveness is crucial to its success. The president of Electro Logic should give an emphasis on this concern and how to have things work for both the firm and employees advantage. It will not be easy but if they would like VFVA to be a true success it has to start from the people who are working for the research and development of it. Reference: Howardell, Doug. 2004. Seven Skills of a Highly Productive Workforce. ACA Group. May 11, 2006. http://www.theacagroup.com/improveproductivity.htm Management science - Decision Making Through Systems Thinking, H.G. Daellenbach & D.C. McNickle, 2005, Palgrave Reynolds, Andrew. 2006. Process, power, culture and ethics. Lecture notes acquired June 03, 2006. Winnet, Azriel. Communicating Effectively in the Workplace: Four Essential Steps. May 11, 2006. http://hodu.com/business-communication.shtml Read More