Morale, Motivation, and Productivity
Recommendations to key issues
There are a number of issues affecting the morale, motivation and productivity of the Acme employees and more so the internal team. The organization can effectively address these key issues by taking into consideration the following recommendations. This will be a means of restoring the confidence of Acme’s. With the current situation whereby the employees of the internal team are underworked, it is highly possible that they are not as confident as they need to be. Kirsten (2010) explains that morale is important for employees because it makes them aware of their capabilities.
Therefore, the first recommendation in tune to this is to set realistic milestones for the internal support team. The team needs to have constant work and have set objectives for them to meet on a weekly basis; they will rarely feel they are doing “busy work” as is the situation. For example, Ron as the new internal support supervisor ought to develop a plan that allows the team to interact with different organizational departments on a weekly or monthly basis. This will not only give the team something to do but will help them identify the problems within that department and solve them effectively. This will eventually allow for the general morale of the entire organization to increase.
In respect to the low motivation present among the employees of Acme, allowing advanced marketing strategies to highlight the existence of the internal support team is highly recommended. Currently, the team is only relying on the brochures and posters for marketing and this is not sufficient. Marketing is a strategic tool that creates awareness and when well placed, will yield the desired results in addressing the set objectives (Ryan, 2014). Brochures and posters will not meet the marketing needs of the team. They require a marketing plan that will utilize other marketing tools that are more aggressive. The one marketing tool that the team needs to employ is online marketing. Online marketing allows for a wider audience (Shankar, Carpenter & Farley, 2012) and this will give the internal support team the ability to reach more people thus effectively marketing its existence and services. This is what the team truly needs given the magnitude of success most organizations have realized through online marketing. Ryan (2014) explains that online marketing is effective because of the number of people who are constantly exploring the internet and its continual advancement.
To address the issue of productivity, creating a challenging work environment is highly recommended. Given that the staff is capable of delivering objectives based on their careers, the best that the organization can do is provide an atmosphere where their skills, experience, and knowledge are challenged. This challenge is simply providing an avenue for employees to get out of their comfort zone and solve specific problems (Kirsten, 2010). This will allow the team to stay sharp and gradually seek ways to grow their skills. For instance, to make this work, the team can have weekly case studies that are either hypothetical or real in nature to work on. The case studies need to be challenging thus forcing the team to think out of their comfort zone and work as a team.
Tactics to address resistance to change
Change is used to bring about positive and modern ways of doing things and is often resisted amongst employees. In response to this, organizational leaders have to formulate ways to address this resistance thus allowing change to be implement and acceptable in the workplace. One tactic that the CEO of Acme would have employed when it was time to change the supervisor of the internal support team was to use effective change management. Effective change management calls for introducing change to a situation by doing right at the first attempt (Carnell & Todnem, 2014). For instance, if Carol was to be replaced by a more senior, skilled and experienced individual such as herself, the team would not have a problem with the leadership position. Effecting change as effectively as possible for the first time definitely leads to little or no resistance to change.
Another tactic that comes highly recommended is preparing the team for change rather than just ambushing them. Pieterse, Caniels & Homan (2012) explains that there is great importance in implementing change when the team is already prepared for the change. For this to be effective, the team at Acme would have been prepared for the change of supervisors as gradually as possible. After the change has occurred, managing it will further come in hand by addressing some of the possible causes to change resistance. When the team leader is aware of the causes, the issues will be addressed and the change reinforced as effectively as possible. These two tactics will allow low resistance to change with as little threat to the continual existence of the team as currently is the situation.
The above tactics as mentioned are most likely to affect the current organizational strategies and techniques by calling for internal consideration for a position to be implemented. In order to motivate its employees, Acme has to formulate policies that ensure the right person is promoted to the next level. Promotion within an organization motivates employees to work harder in order to prove they are adequately talented to meet more objectives (Bruce, 2012). The current strategies and techniques for Acme will thus have to reflect on the importance of having the right person take up specific jobs. In addition to this, the organizational culture will also need to be defined such that with changes, some elements of the working environment need not change. For instance, it is unnecessary for Ron to have the team members consult with him before they can engage in any form of teamwork. Thus, it ought to be the culture of the organization to encourage teamwork such that this is not threatened by any change.
