ORGB364 Assignment 2 Chantagne Mildenberger 3434078 PDF

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Chantagne Mildenberger

ID#3434078

Assignment 2: ORGB364 Chantagne Mildenberger Student ID: 3434078 May 25, 2020

ORGB364v17

Chantagne Mildenberger

ID#3434078

ORGB364v17

Part A 1. Your organization wants to improve employee motivation. Employees already have strong P-to-O expectancies and the outcome valences are quite favorable for strong performance, but they seem to have a low E-to-P expectancy. Describe expectancy theory and identify three distinct types of strategies that would potentially increase employee motivation by improving the E-to-P expectancy.

As outlined by McShane, Tasa, and Steen (2018, p. 137), expectancy theory describes how individual work efforts are conducted primarily towards behaviors that will produce the most beneficial outcome. The theory states that there are three factors that influence a person’s effort to obtain the most probable satisfaction. The first of these factors is effort to performance expectancy which is an individual’s awareness of the outcome resulting from their work effort. For example, an individual may believe they will accomplish exactly as expected though their performance, or they may not produce a satisfied outcome even with exponential effort. The probability generally falls between these two extremes. The second factor that influences an individual’s work effort is performance to outcome expectancy. This factor is the probability of an outcome based on an individual’s behavior or level of performance, such as the belief that performing a specific task will result in a particular outcome or their performance will not have any effect at all. Performance to expectancy generally falls between these two outcomes. The final factor that influences the level of effort an individual exerts is outcome valences. This factor is the likely positive or negative satisfaction that results from a particular outcome. It is expected that when an outcome satisfies an individual’s needs and supports their values the valence is one of positivity and quite the opposite when they do not. To increase employee motivation by improving effort of performance expectancy McShane et al., (2018, pp. 127-128) states that employment involvement through self-efficiency is beneficial. Self-efficiency is an individual’s belief that they are capable of performing their jobs based on job clarity, ability to perform their duties and the resources to succeed at the work effort they are providing. As self-efficiency corresponds to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs of self-actualization; the natural motivation for an individual to reach their highest potential, an organization can increase employee’s motivation and self-efficiency by providing proper training resulting in an increase of confidence and the ability to perform necessary tasks. The organization may also find it beneficial to match individual skills and abilities to specific tasks to enhance their expectancy of performance. McShane et al., (2018, pp. 143-144) further suggests that goal setting improves employee effort of performance by providing clarification of job obligations. Setting goals encourages appropriate behaviors to further improve work performance, as well as increasing the consistency and persistence of an individual’s work effort. These goals should be specific to create clarification of job expectations, measurable in progress and achievability, relevant to the individual’s job, include a due date or time-frame, provide challenges and excitement for the individual, and include reviews for employees to keep them on task while also providing recognition. Examples of steps an organization can take to encourage employee motivation through goal settings would be to provide examples of other employees with similar skills and goals to reassure them of the abilities they possess to complete the given tasks. Also, providing

Chantagne Mildenberger

ID#3434078

ORGB364v17

appropriate time and resources for job duties and tasks would also encourage employee effort and motivation. Another strategy that can be used to further increase employment motivation by improving effort to performance expectancy is through proper feedback. McShane et al., (2018, pp. 144-146) explains the importance of feedback as being a fundamental element of ensuring the understanding of employee roles while continuing to improve the individual’s skills and abilities. Positive feedback has the ability to boost employee confidence and motivation to further improve self-efficiency. For feedback to be productive it should be relevant to the duties being performed by the employee, contain specific metrics to show progress, take place once a milestone through work effort is achieved, as well as being provided frequently by a creditable source. Organizations can successfully perform appropriate feedback through strengths-based coaching; focusing on the individual’s strengths rather than their weaknesses. This approach increases an employee’s self-efficiency and motivation to continue improving their skills and assets when completing their duties. 2. After Crispy Foods Ltd. had poured millions of dollars into the development of a new machine-made potato chip, the Board of Directors of the food-processing firm fired the CEO who had proposed and championed the product's development. The new CEO's first task is to find out why this monumental waste of money had occurred and how it can be prevented in the future. Describe escalation of commitment and provide two strategies the new CEO at Crispy Foods Ltd. can implement to prevent or minimize this escalation of commitment in the future. Your answer must refer to this specific incident.

Escalation of commitment as stated by McShane, Tasa, and Steen (2018, pp. 198-199) is the tendency for repetitive investment involving funds, time, or resources committed by an individual or group within an organization that may not be beneficial to the company. There are four main influences that are responsible for escalation of commitment which include the selfjustification effect, self-enhancement effect, prospect theory effect, and the sunk costs effect. Self-justification effect occurs when a decision appears to be rational and justified due to the belief that it will be beneficial even when it proves not to be. The need for justification encourages the individual to continue supporting their decision to disprove their failure and keep a positive public reputation. Self-enhancement effect occurs when the need to feel good about one’s self, the want to uphold public image, or having the desire for a positive outcome creates unconscious bias information and the illusion that failure can be recovered. When an individual feels a greater negative impact from a project loss than they do from the positive effects of breaking even, we call this prospect theory effect. The fear of failing fuels the need to continue investing, leading to more risky behavior. The final effect that influences the escalation of commitment is the sunk cost effect. When a value of resources has already been invested within an organization, the individual in power of those resources feels as though sinking more into the project will help bring upon a positive outcome. This effect is a way to test the waters of a project’s success while gathering new information. The higher the closing costs of a project the more likely an individual will engage in this effect leading to escalation of commitment.

Chantagne Mildenberger

ID#3434078

ORGB364v17

According to McShane et al., (2018, p. 199) a strategy that the new CEO of Crispy Foods Ltd. can implement to help reduce or prevent the escalation of commitment would include the separation of roles. Making sure that there is more than one individual overseeing a project will help reduce the self-justification effect by minimizing biased decisions. At Crispy Foods Ltd. more success will arise when a separate individual is making the decisions and one is evaluating those decisions to determine the success or failure of a project. Previously, the CEO at Crispy Foods Ltd. was the only individual who was fully and personally involved with the investments of the company and in the long run ended up costing the company money, effort, time and later abandoning then project for someone else to deal with. The new CEO should be involved with being supportive of the ideas and decisions being made but stay neutral so that he or she can directly decide whether to continue investments based on the assessment of each project. More individuals being involved with a project increases the chances of identifying problems which further saves the company from improper investment or the ability to decide whether to continue or cease the project. Another strategy that can be used to minimize or eliminate the escalation of commitment as stated by McShane et al., (2018, p. 199) would be to implement a stop-loss effort which is deciding how much resources should be invested into a particular project and setting a cost limit. This guideline helps to identify when a project should be terminated due to high development expenditures. The previous CEO of Crispy Foods Ltd. continued investment even with a failing project and eventually sunk so much into the expenditures that there was no way to recover those costs. By implementing a stop-loss effort the new CEO can prevent overspending and more easily determine when to stop a project. 3. Rather than relying on design engineers alone to design new products, the CEO of Quokka Resources wants to form teams of people from several departments to develop more creative products. These teams will consist of design engineers, manufacturing engineers, marketing staff and purchasing staff. Quokka's CEO believes that these teams will develop more creative products than design engineers did when working alone. Identify and discuss three potential constraints that might interfere with the CEO's expected benefits of team-based decision making and creativity. McShane, Tasa, and Steen (2018, p. 216) identifies a team as consisting of two or more people within a group who work towards a common goal. Each individual within the team are apart of a social entity who help to sway each other in deciding a plan of action. Communication is particularly important to share ideas and create a collaboration to reach the end goal of a project. Common characteristics that all teams share include permanence, skill differentiation, and authority differentiation. Permanence refers to the length of time the team works together depending on their task within the organization. Another characteristic of a team includes skill

Chantagne Mildenberger

ID#3434078

ORGB364v17

differentiation which are different skills and knowledge that each member possesses to bring diversity to the team. The final characteristic of a team is authority differentiation which can be described as how responsibilities are divided between members or if all the decision-making power is given to only one or a couple individuals. The CEO of Quokka would like to create multiple teams within the organization to increase the creativity for new products. McShane et al., (2018, pp. 218-219, 238) describes that teams can elevate the development of products, increase engagement between coworkers, improve decision-making, increase motivation, and improve the transfer of information and knowledge between employees. Although there are many advantages there are also constraints that can inhibit effectiveness within the company. The first of these disadvantages is the cost of resources and time that takes place called process losses. The more individuals who participate within a team creates more time loss when finalizing decisions, dealing with disagreements, training or informing new members, or learning how to work together as a unity. According to Brooks’ law adding more members to an already formed team can cause projects to delay further due to process loss or a problem known as production blocking. Production blocking is a time-related restraint based on only one person being able to speak at any given time. Waiting too long to express their ideas can cause the team members to forget what they were thinking of or pay less attention to the conversation taking place decreasing creative ideas. McShane et al., (2018, pp. 218-219, 238) describes social loafing as another constraint while using teams within an organization. Social loafing is the loss of motivation from members of a team due to shared responsibilities, knowledge and skills. An increase of members within a group creates less exertion in effort from workers, especially if they feel their contribution is not as noticeable. If the team becomes too big with multiple individuals there is more chances the motivation for each individual decline as there are more voices to be heard or less importance to their individual thoughts and knowledge. Individuals are also more likely to be singled out in a team due to social loafing if their skills and ideas are not seen as important to the other members. This may create divided groups within the team, singling out others providing room for more miscommunication and discrimination within the workplace. Team based work can also create a pressure to conform where individuals feel that they must follow the same ideas as others supressing the ability to create new ones. This desire to fit the team norms can also be due to the team members evaluation apprehension. Elevation apprehension is the need for an individual to protect their self-esteem and portray themselves as important and knowledgeable. This self evaluation restricts new ideas that may seem to be odd or illogical when spoken in front of others, therefore members tend to never discuss out-of-the-box propositions limiting creativity. The final constraint that may affect Quokka’s CEO from receiving all the benefits of team-based decision making and creativity is the use of virtual teams. McShane, Tasa, and Steen (2018, pp. 235-236) describes virtual teams as using technology to connect teams that operate from

Chantagne Mildenberger

ID#3434078

ORGB364v17

different locations, time zones or organizational boundaries. The CEO may use this form of teams as he wants to separate his company into departments such as design engineers, manufacturing engineers, marketing staff and purchasing staff. As each department may operate from different buildings or even different locations, communication through technology is necessary to share new ideas and creativity. Although virtual teams can be beneficial it can also have many problems. One problem that virtual teams may have is the lack of face-to-face contact. Knowledge and ideas are much more easily exchanged in person than over the internet. It takes more effort and time to create and receive responses than being able to walk directly to the department you need to have a discussion with. Virtual teams also prohibit trust building between multiple teams. Trust is needed to create bonds and relationships between each other to ensure everyone is doing their part within the organization. While short distance between teams may continue to be successful, virtual teams that are stationed further apart may experience differences in beliefs, cultures, experiences, or expectations than their fellow members and departments. This may make it quite difficult for anyone to agree on the ideas that are being suggested and create even more problems during the decision-making process. Team members may also start to feel they have less control or influence over a distance causing a lack in motivation and participation. Part B 1. What two critical symptom(s) in this case suggest that something has gone wrong?

In the case study Yakkatech Ltd. it is stated that the customer service department had doubled within 5 years. This is the first evidence that something is going wrong within the company. Customers increasingly complain about the long length of time it takes to receive a response in relation to the customers issues as well as having to educate the employees about what IT system infrastructure they are using. Furthermore, if a customer is still experiencing the same issue as previously submitted, they must open another ticket with the company and deal with a new employee rather then the original one. Customers also complain about how the employees seem indifferent to their issues when looking for help or answers. All these customer service issues can be related to job specification within the company. As stated by McShane, Tasa, and Steen (2018, pp. 170-171) job specification is when work within a company is subdivided into different jobs or tasks and are assigned to separate individuals. Although job specification can be very beneficial for increasing quality of service where employees are specialized in their individual jobs, it can also pose the opposite effect by employees becoming less productive or unmotivated due to their job being very repetitive or tedious when dealing with the same daily tasks. Also, due to an employee only having knowledge about their specific job they are unable to provided customer service pertaining to other departments within the organization creating a lack of appropriate communication between employee and customer further leading to poor service and lack of efficiency.

Chantagne Mildenberger

ID#3434078

ORGB364v17

The second critical symptom in this case study that suggests there is a problem within the company is evidence of employee dissatisfaction. Employees expressed that their work at Yakkatech is very monotonous and they felt disconnected from the consequences of their work. While job specification has been known to increase productivity through employees being able to master their specific job or having less tasks to manage, it also lowers employee attentiveness and motivation due to the repetitive work patterns. The stress of dealing with customers issues on a daily basis increases employee’s dissatisfaction with their job leading to employee turnover. As stated by McShane et al., (2018, pp. 170-171) jobs that are specialized and have a short cycle time generally increase employee turnover. Cycle times are the amount of time between seeing a task to completion and starting over again with a new client. With Yakkatech having generally short cycle times the employees become bored with the repetitive nature decreasing their need or want to provide the same high-quality service to each customer therefore leading to more employees leaving their job. 2. Using the Job Characteristics Model, what are three key causes of these symptoms? Provide support for your answer.

McShane, Tasa, and Steen (2018, p. 172) states that the Job Characteristic Model created by Frederick Herzberg identifies five main job characteristics including skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. These characteristics are linked directly to the production of the psychological states of meaningfulness, responsibility and knowledge. All of these psychological states directly impact an employee’s motivation, satisfaction, and work effectiveness. The first cause of the employee’s lack of motivation leading to poor customer service and a high employee turnover at Yakkatech Ltd is mentioned by McShane et al., (2018, pp. 172-174) as a problem with the job characteristic known as skill variety. This job characteristic develops the psychological state of meaningfulness. Skill variety is the ability to use many skills and talents within the workplace. At Yakkatech Ltd. the employees have a very specific role of dealing with customer issues and questions which leads to repetitive jobs tasks and therefore a lack of skill variety. Each individual is assigned particular client tickets that pertain only to their department of customer service. This not only leads to employee’s lack of emotional involvement within the company but also does not support the ability to work with othe...