Culture of UTA’s Maintenance Department
Written by: Jesse Mease, Kevin A Petersen, Dewayne Logan Peterson, & Paul Jaeger
Audience: Mr. Jerry Benson, VP of Operations w/copy to Marette Monson.
Purpose: This report will analyze the culture of UTA’s maintenance department through a live case study conducted through Westminster College’s MBA program. Following live presentations from various levels of the UTA organization we will analyze the embedded culture of the maintenance department, define a critical area for improvement and provide methods to obtain the desired results.
One of the main issues that will be discussed is the issue of decreased engagement of employees, over time, in the UTA Maintenance department. We will explain the importance of employee engagement, and show the gains that will be made by addressing this problem. We will cite several leading authors on leadership and motivation while prescribing methods to change the culture achieving desired results to the organization’s defined issue.
Executive Summary
Culture Today
We have identified the following themes from the speakers that have presented in our class, as well from touring the maintenance facility. The maintenance department has a culture that emphasizes the hierarchical structure of the business, valuing compliance and efficacy over employee engagement in the work. The CEO is obligated to visit the group floor.
Culture Tomorrow
In the long run, we’d like to encourage the community to adopt a leader-leader organization that further encourages employees to participate and engage more fully with their employer. Through our recommendations we feel the following themes will emerge in UTA’s Maintenance Department culture. After implementing the new policies, the maintenance department will almost certainly reflect an improvement in morale almost immediately. In addition, the CEO will be made available to the employees; one benchmark to check is whether each employee has spoken with the CEO within the past year.
Cultural Alignment to UTA’s Strategy
How can a company’s strategy be fulfilled when subunits of that company do not have the culture that reflects or is in alignment with that strategy. As the CEO it is your job to ask, is the culture of today in alignment with our strategy, and if its not then what can we do to change that.
Introduction
After several presentations from many levels of the UTA maintenance (and other) departments we have concluded that productivity in the maintenance department could be improved by challenging the embedded culture. There is a lack of motivation by some employees that spreads throughout the department. Our first guest speaker was Jerry Benson, the COO, of UTA. He mentioned the problem of employee engagement decreasing over time. He pointed to surveys that document engagement levels decreasing significantly the longer the employee is with the organization. The next guest speaker was David Higher, Head of HR. He posited the very difficult question of: “How do you incentivize Bargaining Unit employees, that cannot be rewarded financially?” and responded to his own question, “If I knew the answer to that I would be a rich man.” We were left with this question to ponder before we heard the next round of speakers present on their areas of expertise [Chris Chesnut (Manager of Service and Planning),
Dan Lock (Environmental Manager), Mike Jackman (Maintenance Supervisor)].
Each speaker individually stated that most of their days are spent communicating and leading but there are no systems or structures in place to train the soft skills of leadership. In Turn the Ship Around!, a nonfiction text about leading and leadership, author Marquet (2012) writes: “All problems are fundamentally about people and leadership.” In the UTA organization, there is a focus on operations, management and training, but encouraging and developing leadership as a process has been neglected. This presents a problem when the working culture for a location is directly shaped by the leadership—or lack of leadership—within an organization. As Marquet (2012) states: “People are frustrated. Most of us are ready to give it our all when we start a job. We are usually full of ideas for ways to do things better. We eagerly offer our whole intellectual capacity only to be told that it’s not our job, that it’s been tried before, or that we shouldn’t rock the boat. Initiative is viewed with skepticism. Our Suggestions ignored. We are told to follow instructions. Our creativity and innovations go unappreciated. Eventually, we stop trying and just toe the line. With resignation, we get by. Too often that’s where the story of our work life ends.” (Marquet 2012 Pg. xxiii). This resignation, Marquet (2012) suggests, is what becomes toxic in the work environment.
The last presentation was from a young bargaining unit employee that gave all of us a very different perspective on how the maintenance department actually runs on a day-to-day basis. First and foremost, the Bargaining Unit Staff is resistant to any cultural change and is unwilling to question the system. There is a disconnect between leadership and bargaining unit employees, a large lack of trust exists stemming from the lower levels of the hierarchy, specifically bargaining unit employees. This lack of trust is where the disengagement of employees begins and erodes over time, leading to lowered levels of productivity.
Problems Summarized
- Some front line workers feel other employees are not motivated and produce sub par results, while those in question are the ones resigned to just getting by. This union driven culture, tolerates employees being unmotivated. Potentially, out of fear of fellow workers rejecting and persecuting the motivated employee who may wish to excel.
- The front line employees do not feel they completely understand the strategy as there are multiple, and the culture is not a priority for the front line employees.
- The culture is the responsibility of upper management [1,2,3], it is understood that a unionized work force has a subculture that often times works against the wishes of the company. The unmotivated element of the culture stands in direct contrast to the companies strategy of pursuing an ambitious transient development program, that includes the elements of a financial and economic development, sustainability, accountability, and service.
- Changing the culture will not happen overnight and will take a lot of work [1,2,3]. A culture is a “learned result of a group experienceculture is only found where there is a definable group with a significant history of togetherness” [1].
All of these observed issues will fight directly with the companies strategy and the departments challenge to be in alignment with that strategy, which is: Motivating staff to be accountable and to complete work in a timely manner. If employees are not engaged it is the direct result of Leadership at the General Manager level (or lack of leadership). This cultural misalignment impacts key elements of UTA’s strategy, starting with Customer service, sustainability (State of good repair, alternative energy, balanced fleet, etc), Ridership and Service, finances/funding etc.
The UTA has a hierarchy much like the military. It is that leader’s job to get a desired return. This is where we will use the book by Marquet complementing it with the use of the other author’s to support the argument and also tie in class readings to provide a comprehensive analysis. Recruitment of people that have the same values and convictions as UTA is paramount to their mission and strategy (they are first and foremost a public service). Several experts on non-financial rewards and leadership theory in including Sinek have been used to suggest ideas to improve employee engagement without being limited to a stick and carrot reward system structure.
Recommendations
With a clearly defined challenge within the UTA Maintenance department, we would be amiss to offer no solutions. The solution lies within the ability of leadership to steer a change in culture that leads to increased employee engagement, higher levels of trust and ultimately drastically increased productivity. There are various ways to achieve this desired cultural change, of which we list here:
- A start -over unit, which is a separate unit designed to address a particular problem [1,3].
- Develop a bottom up Leader-Leader Culture (Marquet, Turn the Ship Around! Pg xxvi).
- Control, competence, and clarity.
While the solution seems like a simple recommendation of guiding employees to adopt a new culture, it will take the complete adoption of a new methodology and the loss of the Leader/Follower Culture that has been instilled in our culture since the writings of the Iliad and Beowolf. Robert Greiner suggests, “Traditional leadership logic (leader-follower) says that organizations need a strong leader to take command and control when workers were performing tasks that are more physical in nature like construction or building widgets on an assembly line. However, over the past several decades, we've seen a shift from physical-labor oriented jobs to thought and connection centered work yet we insist on managing this new breed of workers as if they were still working on the factory floor A more effective approach to managing today's thought workers is to adopt a leader-leader model. In its simplest form, the leader-leader model forces you to push power and responsibility as low on the organizational hierarchy as possible. This allows leaders at every level to re-focus their efforts on more meaningful tasks, while trusting those below them to figure out how to get their job done.” (http://robertgreiner.com/2013/12/leader-leader/).
Each independent business unit should be tasked to changed the way business is done and push the accountability to the General Managers with a specific goal outlined but a process not defined. This could be compared to Commodore Denny giving complete control to Captain Marquet but tasking him with a specific goal in Turn the Ship Around! (pg 20). As with the UTA, a nuclear submarine is an unlikely place for a leadership revolution, considering the unforgiving environment. (pg xxix) But is has been proven effective and the effects are long lasting (going on over 10 years at this point pg xxx). “the Leader-Leader model leaves a legacy.” Pg xxx
This model for cultural change is based on three core concepts: Control, Competence and Clarity. We will define each and provide methods to implement the change in culture.
Control
The first pillar in this process is to embrace a new and different methodology, “Don’t move information to authority, move authority to the information.” (49 The company must begin by divesting control of decision making to the level where the competencies exist. This may be a shock for the disengaged employee because this will immediately take away their privilege and replace it instead with accountability, responsibility and work. Although this sounds daunting, it is an essential step to engage the employee. Understanding that trust flows both ways, employers and managers will be showing your trust in the bargaining unit employees and their managers while trusting that they understand the goals and purpose of the UTA as well as leaders and executives do. This is a large flrst step in control but also we will see later in clarity.
A way to start a new culture is to create a new environment wherein a new culture could be produced. One way this could be managed is by creating a separate unit of maintenance, which is physically separated from the current maintenance department [1,3]. For UTA we recommend to take only the workers who exhibit exceptional personalities and ambitious nature (need not be talented), this crew will be challenged with taking on a particular task in addition to their regular maintenance duties. The other team members would be told this team is a new program where teams are developed to tackle certain challenges or tasks, and this is the first petri-dish experiment. This will help reduce resentment and bad feelings that potentially may ensue as an aspect of the separation and selection.
It will be required of leaders and managers, of the team, to exhibit the cultural elements that are desired on a daily basis. Verbal reinforcement with constant genuine positive feedback will ensure these cultural elements are reinforced. Management should stop by in both locations, as often as possible, to reinforce the desired culture change which aligns with the companies strategy. If you find a new subculture starts to emerge with those employees that are not a part of the trial group, proactively remove one of these individuals from the team and trade them out with another team member. Begin first with the biggest naysayer or union unengaged worker. If you can convert this person you will have more leverage to convert the remaining workers.
The problem/task selected should be in alignment with the company’s strategy, which include:
- Service - engaged, motivated, accountable workers are more in tune with the needs of the company meeting the service needs of the customer. The work is to the extent that the busses/autos have a high level of reliability, are repaired in a timely manner, and are safe and efficient. This objective increases ridership (a component of company strategy).
- Sustainability and innovation (environmentally friendly safe vehicles) - problem may be directed to removing weight from busses to increase fuel efficiency.
In order to begin this project the following objectives will need to be considered prior to its initiation. These include but are not limited to:
1. The selection of the employees who exhibit an ambitious work ethic.
2. The problem/task that they will be assigned.
3. Laws presented by the unions that may inhibit this endeavor, and find ways to circumvent.
4. The number of maintenance workers needed for this test group.
5. The location should be located away from the other maintenance workers. Thus, facilitating new culture development.
6. A serious re-evaluation of the current reward and values system in order to determine what changes should occur, which will help to encourage a culture of accountability, motivation, and engagement.
Another mechanism to encourage a cultural change is to resist the urge to provide solutions. (pg 91) The bargaining unit employees need to define the challenges that exist in their areas and create the solutions (Marquet 2012 pg.91). There are many possibilities with these teams, based on UTA’s strategy. This team could be used to create efficiencies by challenging them to complete a task as quickly as possible without compromising quality. After a specific task is completed, it is important to select different team members for the team and assign a group the same goal with the same or similar task. We would recommend having a competition with this strategy and have a board to build bragging right of the fastest groups. The result would be that a culture of efficiency would start to trickle into their day to day work.
Competence
The second pillar means that people must be competent to make the decisions that you have ceded control to. The maintenance department needs little improvement in this area. The departments are full of competent employees and literally dozens of Journeymen. The following argument is anecdotal, however it should be given some serious thought. A licensed Journeyman has spent on average 10,000 hours training to obtain their expertise. The average PHD (considered experts in their field) only spends on average 7500 hours obtaining their degrees. With that parallel in mind, you can understand why bargaining unit employees would lose engagement over time if they have no control over the decisions made in their areas of expertise. With their level of competence, control needs to be divested to their level and authority to make decisions needs to rest on their shoulders.
Organization = understanding processes – Paul
i. Specify goal and not just freedom to do whatever whenever.
Clarity
“As more decision-making authority is pushed down the chain of command, it becomes increasingly important that everyone throughout the organization understands what the organization is about.” (Marquet 2012 pg161). Clarity can also be defined as your “Why” which is explained in incredible detail in Simon Sinek’s book, Start with Why. Clarity in the context of UTA’s maintenance department relies on leadership’s ability to connect daily activities to something larger, the purpose or noble cause of the UTA. This communication must be communicated from the top of the organization in a manner that everyone within it can define UTA’s “why.” Once the entire organization understands the driving principles, their decisions will be made with the idea of adding value. They will feel accountability, responsibility and ownership; they will no longer be frustrated and cease to just toe the line.
We propose that senior leadership needs to make meeting with front line employees a standard process. This should be considered as a CEO boots on the ground type program. From our research we found that some employees have met senior leadership once since they’ve been there. We feel that having a culture that each front line employee can say they have met with senior leadership at least once within the last six months would drive a stronger connection from the top to the bottom.
We do not want senior leadership to provide any negative feedback to front line employees as we feel that would be best handled by their front line supervisor. Instead we want the senior leadership to provide praise and recognition and always be a positive encounter. This relationship would build a stronger connection to senior leadership and have employees with stronger loyalty. We feel this would also be a great opportunity to reinforce strategy, and other changes within the organization. This would also be a great opportunity for senior leadership to see how well their messages are being translated to the front line employees, including asking directed questions like “How are things going for you with our new strategy, new initiative?” etc.
Conclusion
Engagement in the process by upper-level and mid-level management is fundamental for the success of the project. Upper- and mid-level management must work in cooperation to ensure that employees are being provided with ample opportunities for engagement in the working process. Employees must find enjoyment and meaning in their work or their engagement in the process will suffer heavily. Financial motivations are not enough to keep people working in jobs that are not enjoyable in the long term; building a positive and cooperative working environment can easily change the entire culture of the workplace.
References
- Clayton M. Christensen. What is an Organization’s Culture? Harvard Business School, 9-399-104, REV: August 2, 2006.
- William Q. Judge. Building Organizational Capacity for Change. Dimension 7: Accountable Culture. Harvard Business Publishing, February 1, 2011.
- Charles A. O’Reilly III and Michael L. Tushman. The Ambidextrous Organization. Harvard Business Review, April 2004.
Mercer, “Inside Employees’ Minds: Navigating the New Rules of Engagement,” June 2011, http://inside-employee-mind-.mercer.com/referenecontent.htmidContent=1419320 (accessed November 20, 2014.
Sinek, Simon. Start with why: How great leaders inspire everyone to take action. Penguin, 2009.
Brainstorming UTA paper
Culture today
Get told what to do, Robot my day, Complacent, no accountability, no drive of pride, no ownership of their work, happy laid back culture, buddy club, doing what they love to do, not engaged, no recognition, ceo obligated to go to ground level.
Culture tomorrow
Opposite, engaged happy to go to work, innovation, can speak their mind, their work is meaningful, sense of pride, less entitlement, union isn’t the safety net, efficient, high speed, ambitious, energetic, happy to engage, new guys have passion about their job, old guys get the passion back.
Structure
Executive Summary - Kevin
Describe the current problem, outcome they are getting from existing culture, why is this problem important, how addressing the problem will impact the organization. Discuss proposal and tie in readings or references to support proposal.
1. Control – Describe - Jesse
a. Motivation of employees – Logan and Kevin
Logan’s idea for separate sub team.
Convert the biggest naysayer. And new ones that are pumped about their work.
Competition pride and speed. – be innovative. How to align with mission statement.
b. Ownership - Jesse
Get employee engaged - Divest Control, own decision making, they are in charge
Change from I was doing what I was told, to this is broken and this is what we should do to fix it. – ownership and accountability.
2. Competency(supports control)– Describe - Jesse
a. Organization = understanding processes – Paul
i. Specify goal and not just freedom to do whatever whenever.
b. Have journey man in charge of training. - Jesse
3. Clarity(supports control)– Describe - Jesse
a. Description - Achieve excellence don’t just avoid errors, Understanding why you are there, bigger picture, manager on the ground, build trust, etc.
b. CEO boots on the ground – always positive when see the CEO/manager, direct supervisor provides anything negative, “this is why we are here today”, checking in with front line employees “how are things going with more directed questions. - Kevin
