Assignment 2: LASA 2: Company Assessment Directions: Conduct an interview with a
ID: 3494041 • Letter: A
Question
Assignment 2: LASA 2: Company Assessment
Directions:
Conduct an interview with an employee (preferably a supervisor or manager) at your current job or a previous job. If you have no prior work experience, you may interview a family member or friend who is currently employed. You have just been promoted to the manager of your department and have been asked to review the following:
Value of a team environment: Is the company operating with a team structure? How effective is the team structure? How could the company improve the effectiveness of the team environment? If there is no team structure currently in place, how should one be implemented?
Job satisfaction of the employees: Are the employees satisfied or is there a lot of complaining, absenteeism, and turnover? What could the company be doing to improve job satisfaction?
How does the company currently communicate with their employees regarding company changes? Do they rely on technology for their announcements? Is this an effective method of communication?
Efforts made to motivate your employees: What is being done to motivate the employees? Do employees get regular pay raises? Is there a rewards program? Are they being recognized for their accomplishments? Name at least three things the company could be doing to motivate their employees.
Assistance offered in helping your employees to deal with stress management: Are the employees given any tools to deal with stress management? Does the company have access to mental health counselors? Are employees given permission to take any mental health days? What could the company be doing to help employees deal with their employees’ stress?
Prepare a 4-6 page report that includes an overall assessment of how each of the above is currently being handled and how you would change the system. Be sure to provide examples and be specific in your reasoning behind your suggested changes. Utilize at least three scholarly resources in your report (one of which may be your text book). This report must include:
Executive Summary
Analyze and explain what is being done in the five areas described above (team, job satisfaction, communication, motivation, and stress management) in the company.
Write recommendations for what they could be doing better in all five areas
Conclusion
Appendix: List of questions asked in interview
Explanation / Answer
Value of a team environment: A healthy organization shares its business goals with employees at every level of the organization. Management shares goals with employees and gets them on board with the mission and vision of the organization. Employees and managers, together, understand the factors that are required to reach the set goal.
Organizations should be able to develop team morale, and by the aid of that employees and managers work together by assisting each other in every step of the way, and in this manner they can meet cooperate objectives.
Good leadership is one of the primary factors that could be utilized to improve the team environment of a cooperation. If employees have good relations with the management that is based on mutual trust and respect there are higher chances of gaining optimal performance from the said team.
But, if there is an absence of a well organized team structure, the first and foremost thing required to set the ball rolling would be to create a hierarchy, without which there are chances of chaos, power politics and mayhem. According to Tuckman, there are five stages of team/group development, which includes forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. These steps are vital in forming a coherent and healthy team dynamic.
Job satisfaction of the employees: The person job fit model says that a persons job satisfaction would be higher to the extents if there is perfect union betwixt his/her personal characteristics and the nature of the job - This is where personality inventories become significant to the companies recruitment process. For example the Myer Briggs inventory and the 16PF. And the aforementioned attribute is more common to employees high on the Growth Need Strength (GNS) - Which can be defined an an employees receptiveness to challenging job characteristics wherein they want and prefer their jobs to benefit their personal growth and development as well. A give and take from of a relationship between the Employee and The Cooperation.
It is absolutely necessary to involve an employee completely in their respective jobs. A state of involvement would imply a complete and relative state of engagement of the employee (psychologically) wherein the employee associates with his/her work and not delineate him/herself from the image of ones work.
Also, companies need to confront poor performances rather than ignore them, as it would compromise the work ethic of the entire cooperation. Although the confrontation should be one of constructive criticism that involves an assessment measuring the attributes of the said employee that can be further improved to hold up the integrity and work morale of both, the employee and the cooperation.
How does the company currently communicate with their employees regarding company changes:
It depends on the nature of he organization as to how they would communicate changes, if any, with their employees. If it it a tall structure organization wherein there exist numerous levels of rungs i.e. of hierarchy, then it would be wisest to use the technological method of communication in order to assure swift and effective as well as barrier free from of communication. Although, if it is flat structure organization wherein there aren't many levels to the companys hierarchy, then the changes can also be communicated by the help of a seminar or a meeting within the organization which would involve a Q&A round to clarify any further queries of the employees. This last step is vital in every organization be it any mode of communication.
Efforts made to motivate your employees: Performance appraisal is a form of formal assessment or regular review of an employees performance. This helps in setting of goals and targets as performance standards. It also helps the cooperation in training and development needs for the employees. After all of the above - and more - rewarding of performances is of utmost importance to retain employee loyalty and uphold the work morale and performance, as positive reinforcement (in the from of pay raises and recognition for their achievements or promotion, so on and so forth) goes a long way as opposed to negative reinforcement, which would only fester frustration within an employee, hence wasting the untapped potential.
It helps in handling deficiencies and reinforcing good performance.
Assistance offered in helping your employees to deal with stress management:
If and when an employee faces issues concerning their work it festers frustration and stress within their head space, which creates fatigue and that further goes on to physically manifest itself, and compromise the working capacity od the concerned employee. The Human Resources department in an organization is created precisely for the alleviation of the said problem. They are equipped with the power and expertise to handle such breakdowns and provide assistance to the employees. In such cases the employees are passed through stress management programs and counseling sessions, if need be.