[College]
Abstract.
It seemed time or money could not help to company Driscoll. Company had insufficient funds to hire the company’s top ex-professional, Alessandra, and no time to create the coalescent team which loves work and is ready to follow the leader.
As a result, the team ‘leader’ Kristen felt guilty, and the ‘manager’ Tim didn’t know how to answer the simple questions, sooner they reversed their roles. Still, Tim had the opportunity to improve by acting as a leader to complete the project on time.
While performance can always be stimulated or strong-armed, the job satisfaction is the long-term construct requires the leadership nurture. The first one may fail due to shortage of the funds, the second due to shortage of the time if the project is urgent. The situation with Driscoll looked like the both.
Performance Issue:
According to Amabile, “high performance depends on four elements: creativity, productivity, commitment, and collegiality" (2007, p.6).
Creativity: The creative people can easily come up with ad hoc projects generate the new and applicable ideas. In contrast, two persons, Grahame and Veronica, only seemingly participated, in fact, decided to leave. The team trivially decided they would need three weeks instead of two to complete the project.
Productivity: The replacement cost of the manager Alessandra Sandoval to the company was high, and Tim realized the fact too late. Taking to consideration her quote of 400 U.S.D. per hour, the Company faced losing 2-3extra monthly salaries of Aleksandra, the opportunity cost for training Kristen and the lost productivity.
Commitment: The staff was tired, and the redundant messaging (Neeley, 2011) could somewhat stimulate the team in a short run.
Company Hybara Casinos was a returning customer who respected the qualified work of Driscoll. However, Driscoll failed to infuse the employees’ self-identity into the project by the Hybara Casinos.
Driscoll has also failed to initiate the collaborative crafting in “direct interaction with customers” (Wrzesniewski, 2013, p.296) to improve the esteemed organizational identity.
Collegiality: Collegiality is in relation with the work context. Still not all the team members had a feeling of support from their colleagues; "Grahame and Veronica exchange[d] a significant look" (Green, 2009) having a separate opinion. Actually, team was not coalescent to meet the deadlines without these two professionals.
Job Satisfaction Issue:
Tim was confident of his power. He was ready to exercise the reward power over Alessandra, the legitimate power over Kristen to replace her at any moment, and coercive power over Kristen wondering why she was one of them (Green, 2009). Power, as an argument, was the least important in this situation; moreover high power distance cannot promote job satisfaction.
Decreasing the power distance and crafting a progressive organizational identity (Wrzesniewski, 2013, p.294) is a step to recognize the employees need to find the identity in the collaborative work.
Development of the Team: Ways to Facilitate.
The team was nervous, because not ready to answer the simple questions why they should work so intensely during the holidays, how they can rich their goals, what the project means for each of them personally. In this situation, Tim was to change his role of a manager to the role of a leader and to facilitate a work of his team.
Perception formation and engagement in sensemaking: To eliminate the absenteeism, Tim was to engage the team into the sensemaking (Amabile, 2007). To eliminate the negative perception, Tim was to initiate the collective job crafting to define the organization in a positive light.
Emotional stimulation: At list, Tim could bring bottled water and a Pizza to start an informal conversation.
Motivation: Tim still had the uncovered potential to listen to the employees by making them "happier and internally motivated by love of the work" (Amabile, 2007). People can feel happier at work, because they have the opportunity to contact the leader who defines them positively. Tim was to engage into the job crafting to improve the progressive organizational identity.
Extending the Boundaries: Tim had to extend the internal and external organizational boundaries (Wrzesniewski, 2013). The organizational internal boundaries can be extended top-down through redundant messaging (Neeley, 2011) using different communication Media, personal contact, emails, SMS, voice mail, synchronously and asynchronously. The boundaries can also be extended bottom-up through the direct contacts with the management.
The external boundaries can be extended to let the team members synchronously discuss the issue with the Hybara Casinos using Skype to improve the esteemed organizational identity.
Developing and Sustaining an Effective Team: Motivational Strategies.
Team starts from a qualified leader. In fact, Kristen was neither a good manager, she had no experience, not a good leader. Tim had to give to Kristen a good training as she was a key manager.
Tim was to craft the positive attributes of the team and excite the organizational identity. When the personal identity and the company’s identities coincide the employees get motivated.
I imagine the first step taken by Tim is to ensure the informal environment for example, by offering the soft drinks and pizza. The first explanation is how high Hybara Casinos esteems the company’s professionalism. The first assurance is about the positive evolution of each of the employees in a future. The first move is to let the team feel themselves esteemed by having a talk with the Hybara Casinos by Skype.
References
Amabile, T., & Kramer, S. J. (2007). Inner work life: Understanding the subtext of business performance. Harvard Business Review, 85(5), 72–83. Retrieved from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/22888970/23422080/4a127809e7f4266b90aeed0b474bb088
Green, S. (2009). Is the rookie ready? Harvard Business Review, 87(12), 33–40. Retrieved from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/22888970/22889019/692064c6195fab6b974e401e73246dab
Neeley, T., & Leonardi, P. (2011). Effective managers say the same thing twice (or more). Harvard Business Review, 89(5), 38–39. Retrieved from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/cb/pl/22888970/22888972/360777306d9e9c5beabb4dbf6580df0d
Wrzesniewski, A., LoBuglio, N., Dutton, J. E., & Berg, J. M. (2013). Job crafting and cultivating positive meaning and identity in work. Advances in Positive Organizational Psychology, 1, 281–302. Retrieved from http://justinmberg.com/wrzesniewski-lobuglio-dutto.pdf
