Organizational Psychology in Corporate Application - Case Study Example

? Organizational Psychology in Corporate Application Teamwork, Stress Reduction, and Personal Focus in Business Operations ORG 6300: Final : Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 1 Abstract 2 Introduction 3 Teamwork in Organizations 3 Stress Reduction in Individuals 6 Building Personal Focus 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Abstract Organizational psychology can assist corporations in becoming more efficient by being attentive to the needs of employees and providing training programs that make employees more dynamic, productive, relaxed, and focused individuals. This essay discusses the application of organizational psychology for a hypothetical company, ‘We Make Widgets’, in order to build a model of corporate policy for employee support in daily operations. Introduction In working at 'We Make Widgets' as an organizational consultant specializing in corporate psychology, there was an immediate need for the implementation of policies related to teamwork in the company, stress reduction in individuals, and classes on personal focus related to the need of employees to separate work issues from professional requirements in order to make the business operations more efficient. My first research work in the organization involved a review of the company’s office and factory structure searching for a communications network that could be used to relay messages through the human resources department. It was my initial goal to establish the team leader in every work environment, and also to promote a new ‘team advocate’ who would be concerned with relating employee needs to management. The business totaled approximately 120 employees in a factory, warehouse, and adjacent management building. The company did not have an official counselor, so I have been hired in a dual role to implement my training in organizational psychology to employees as both a counselor and administrator of policies designed to attend to the mental health needs of the people on staff. Thus, I must be available for counseling and assistance to employees in resolving personal problems, while also building programs that operate across company departments to build greater efficiency in staff. Teamwork in Organizations In reviewing the communications structure in the organization, there was an existing upper management structure that included the CEO, President, and VP of the company, along with the CTO, COO, Board members, and their assistant staff. The upper management occupied the top two floors of a four story building, with a sales and marketing team of 12 employees on the second floor. On the first floor, there is an office for three Human Resource staff, a public receptionist, janitor’s room, and cafeteria area. Adjacent to this building is a factory area employing 50 staff, 6 of whom are managers or assistant managers, and 30 warehouse workers. The company employees no delivery drivers, rather preparing orders for pick-up by contract shipping companies who operate out of the warehouse area. The widget factory itself is mostly robotic, with the workers themselves managing two production shifts and a small team working on weekends. Some of the warehouse staff are trained in the factory, but the warehouse staff is generally viewed by management as a place for those with particular skills to be evaluated for positions in longer-term factory work. Consequently, most of the factory staff has company provided health insurance currently, with the warehouse staff generally seeking it as part of a longer-term position with benefits. There are three teams in the factory area with one senior manager and three assistant managers. The warehouse has one team with one senior manager and one assistant manager per shift. I decided to appoint team advocates by asking for volunteers at a company meeting with each group, and tasked the team advocate with relaying any employee concerns related to the work environment, personal safety, mental health, company policy, etc. to me personally through my office on a weekly scheduled appointment or on demand. I also selected a team advocate from the sales and marketing department, the janitorial staff, and the upper management secretary pool under similar terms. After doing this, I had established an efficient communication and business intelligence network within the company itself sufficient to monitor employee needs through feedback and to build new programs within the company through the team advocates. I determined that business intelligence and communications networking were an important structural element to establish before proceeding with building other policies, as this also allowed me to learn about the company operations directly from staff. In building a teamwork program, I decided to begin from the basis of the study conducted by Michael J. Stevens and Michael A. Campion in 1994 titled “The knowledge, skill, and ability requirements for teamwork: Implications for human resource management”. “This study reviews the literature on groups to determine the knowledge, skill, and ability (KSA) requirements for teamwork. The focus is on: (1) KSAs rather than personality traits; (2) team rather than technical KSAs; and (3) the individual rather than team level of analysis. Fourteen specific KSAs are derived. Then, the implications of these teamwork KSAs for the modification or development of human resource (HR) management systems are determined, and research issues are discussed.” (Stevens and Campion, 1994) The focus on knowledge, skill, and ability rather than personality traits was determined to be the basis of my teamwork strategy building program at ‘We Make Widgets’. Through the communication network that I had established with the team advocates, I was able to begin building personal files and assessments for each of the employees and teams in the company’s departments. Once the employees realized I was available as a counselor, some also began to visit my office for sessions to discuss issues they felt important. From this experience, I arranged with the CEO Maria Visionaria for permission to schedule meetings with all 120 employees over a three month period for 15 minutes each in a non-invasive, one meeting per day schedule that did not interrupt production facilities in any way. In this manner, I had built a strong understanding of the individuals involved in employment in the company within the first four months of my position at ‘We Make Widgets’. Through this, I was also able to develop team meetings to build understanding of KSA principles in the work force, as well as to consult with HR for optimizing staff hiring and team composition for greater efficiency in operations. Stress Reduction in Individuals From my meetings with company employees and staff, including upper management, I began to notice particular trends and problems. For example, the CEO Maria Visionaria was visibly stressed and overworked, but unwilling to give up any responsibility over operations and business growth. The COO Mujibar Delhi is nearing retirement and concerned with a variety of personal issues, including the health of his mother. CFO Wanda Sharp is managing personal issues with her family that cause increased stress in her lifestyle. In interviewing all of the individuals working in the company, I found innumerable instances of stress from family life and personal problems interfering with work operations. Management working on a salary basis averaged more hours per week than the factory and warehouse workers making a fixed hourly wage, but these employees also had major worries related to healthcare and job security that caused them to perform at less than optimum ability on the job. After recognizing the need for a stress reduction program in the workforce, I began to implement a number of different activities towards this end, but designed to appeal to different types of people through their particular likes and dislikes personally. For example, the office staff discussed the issue in a company meeting and decided that 10 to 12 of them would like to take a yoga class before work, and to keep a lounge with herbal teas as an alternative to coffee and hard chairs for breaks. Yet, the factory workers when discussing the same issue suggested that management should provide a lounge with a TV, ‘fussball’ table, ping pong, and relaxing chairs for breaks and meetings. They complained about the dirty nature of the existing lounge, prompting a change in janitorial policies. I discussed the lounge ideas with management, who agreed that it was a reasonable response to worker feedback for making the workplace more enjoyable and relaxing. In “Teamwork: emerging principles,” Eduardo Salas, C. Shawn Burke, and Janis A. Cannon-Bowers proposed that, “Although team researchers have made many advancements in understanding the antecedents, processes and consequences of effective team performance, there remains some confusion. This confusion is in part due to the following. First, by its very nature, teamwork is a multidimensional construct that is elusive and dynamic, making it difficult to study. Secondly, it is argued that there is confusion and a lack of clarity as to the particular components that comprise team process, teamwork. Thirdly, not all teams are created equal. More specifically, there are several different types of teams (e.g. action, production, management), all of which require slightly different process requirements in order to remain effective.” (Salas et al., 2000) It is because of these issues that I determined to meet with each of the groups separately in building a stress relief program that was not dictated by management or organizational psychology but rather designed and advocated by the workers themselves on their own terms of happiness. I felt this would be more efficient and better received overall in the company. Yet, with regard to upper management, I felt that their needs required personal attention in that they were generally isolated from the rest of the company through their positions. In this regard, when I met with them to seek approval for my teamwork programs or to introduce employee feedback, etc., I began to discuss with the CEO, CFO, and COO about their own lives and work schedules, and how they could achieve stress reduction on a daily basis in the workplace. They continually suggested vacations and less hours, but felt that they lacked the ability to pursue them due to work commitments. As these executives were not impressed at my personal suggestions for yoga, meditation, and breathing exercises for personal relaxation, I discussed with them the possibility of spa and racket-ball memberships as a part of an executive benefits support package that would encourage the leaders of the company to take a relaxing massage, steam bath, sauna, or exercise session multiple times per week in hopes of relieving the physical tension in these individuals through holistic recreation and sports. In summary, I felt that adventure therapy principles and holistic treatments were most suited to the stress reduction needs of the executives personally. Building Personal Focus A study by Achilles A. Armenakis, Stanley G. Harris, and Kevin W. Mossholder in 1993 titled “Creating Readiness for Organizational Change” determined four main aspects that I decided would be important to building personal focus in employees who were continually distracted by personal or private problems from outside the workplace. These factors were: “First, readiness for change is distinguished from resistance to change. Readiness is described in terms of the organizational members' beliefs, attitudes, and intentions. Second, a model is offered that describes the influence strategies as well as the importance of change agent credibility and interpersonal and social dynamics in the readiness creation process. Third, by combining urgency of, and employee readiness for, needed changes, a typology of readiness programs is offered. Fourth, a large multinational corporation's efforts to create readiness for large-scale change are described to provide a cogent illustration of the various readiness interventions described in the model.” (Armenakis et al., 1993) My theory in this program rested on the basis that if employees were ready to become agents of change in the workforce, they would develop a greater personal focus on the importance of their work activity, and apply their minds to making the product better, rather than becoming distracted by outside activity and slowing down on the job. Worker productivity was made a target of benchmarking criteria through which individuals could compete for prizes each month by out-producing or out-selling other employees. Performance based incentives relating to time off, pay raises, and company sponsored vacations were implemented in both management and the employee teams in order to integrate with stress reduction and teamwork themes. Conclusion In this manner, I was able to enact considerable change at ‘We Make Widgets’ over my first year of employment at the company in acting as a consultant in organizational psychology, and working as a counsellor for staff related problems. I attempted to build team identity in the company, as well as improve employee morale through the provision of new services that were based on feedback and workplace governance principles. I attempted to attend to the unique needs of workers in management, sales & marketing, the warehouse staff, secretaries, HR, and janitorial staff all through policies designed specifically for the needs of each group. The use of business intelligence was integrated with direct counselling sessions through a network of team advocates, team meetings, and personal discussion sessions that identified core proficiencies and deficiencies. KSA principles were used in organizing teams rather than personalities, and stress reduction was combined with health and recreation for an integral or holistic outlook to be reflected also in company policy through environmental awareness, innovation, and sector leadership. In making all of the workers competitive as “agents of change” in the company, we simultaneously built teamwork and increased efficiency in operations while providing for worker needs as they requested and defined them. References Armenakis, Achilles A. ; Harris, Stanley G. & Mossholder, Kevin W. (1993). Creating Readiness for Organizational Change. Human Relations, June 1993, vol. 46 no. 6, pp. 681-703. Retrieved from http://hum.sagepub.com/content/46/6/681.short Salas, Eduardo C.; Burke, Shawn; & Cannon-Bowers, Janis A. (2000). Teamwork: emerging principles. International Journal of Management Reviews, Volume 2, Issue 4, pages 339–356, December 2000. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1468-2370.00046/abstract Salas, Eduardo; Cooke, Nancy J.; & Rosen, Michael A. (2000). On Teams, Teamwork, and Team Performance: Discoveries and Developments. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society, June 2008, vol. 50 no. 3, pp. 540-547. Retrieved from http://hfs.sagepub.com/content/50/3/540.short Stevens, Michael J. & Campion, Michael A. (1994). The knowledge, skill, and ability requirements for teamwork: Implications for human resource management. Journal of Management, Volume 20, Issue 2, Summer 1994, Pages 503-530. Retrieved from http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/0149206394900256 Read More