1. Decision-making for employees with varied strengths
Decision making for employees with different strengths requires different approaches from the side of the management. First, decision making for the group with high strength requires the management to involve them totally in the decision-making process. Such a group can provide good ideas that can help the management to enhance the efficiency of the organization. Therefore, the manager needs to embrace participative decision-making process for the performing group employees (Bouyssou, 2009).
Strong employee group also require the manager to be keen to ensure no conflicts occur. Consequently, the manager needs to apply voting for consensus. Sometimes, employees with quality strengths may bring trouble as they argue which is the best decision that the organization should adopt. In such a situation the organization should consider using voting for consensus. Such a method will be effective in an event whereby the members feel that all their alternatives are viable for the organization to succeed. The only decision they need to make is to choose one among many others. The winning decision from the vote of consensus by the members is the one that the manager needs to choose.
On the other hand, the management should use directed decision-making process in the case low performing employees. Ideally, this means that the manager should exercise the big percentage of decision making for such employees. However, the manager should also consult such employees about the decisions. Besides, the manager can allow the employees to participate in the exercise but take part in directing them to provide working views. The manager should then provide the stand on the right decisions to be followed by all the employees.
In some situations, the employees with productivity weaknesses may lack even the basics of making decisions. In such situation, the manager needs to appoint a representative to represent other in the decision-making process. The manager should then compel such employees to follow the decisions provided to them and offer guidance in pursuing them (Bouyssou, 2009).
Q2 Developing employees with varied strengths
Developing employees with different strengths needs proper management. The manager needs to develop each group separately to enhance efficiency. It is important to for the manager to have a differentiation motivation for the two teams of employees. The team whose strength is lowers than the other requires proper guidance and close supervision. The manager should provide such employees with proper information of what they are required to do and how they need to perform the work. Besides, the manager should always evaluate such employees and provide guidance on the areas where he feels that the employees need to improve further.
Additionally, training is another way through which the management can develop the knowledge and skills of the employees with differentiated strengths. However, the training should be subject to the employees’ strengths since each group has its weaknesses. Thus, the manager should consider conducting a job evaluation to have a clear understanding of each employees group. The training should thus follow the gaps identified by the job evaluation. Employees with lower strength need detailed training which should take place continuously within a specified period. The manager should also evaluate the employees after each period and provide feedback. Besides, it should provide strategies for the employees to improve on the areas that they seem to have weaknesses; On the other hand, the manager should consider providing the employees with high strength with self-directed training since they have the competence and the knowledge to handle complex matters.
Furthermore, the manager should consider applying benchmarking as one of the ways of developing the lower skilled employees. The manager needs to use the employees with high strength to assist others to improve their productivity. This implies that employees who have high weaknesses should benchmark with high performing employees of the company. The challenge will help such employees to improve their weaknesses thus enhancing their productivity which will automatically lead to good performance in the organization (Noe, 2008).
Finally, the manager should focus on rewarding the employees considering the merits of employees. Promoting employees depending on their productivity is a good way of motivating them. It is worth noting that employees with great strengths in the organization will enjoy as they climb the ladder. Also, the other employees whose productivity is low are also motivated to work hard to enhance their productivity. The motivation of the employees working hard to improve their productivity is based on the idea that they will receive rewards.
In conclusion, it is worth noting that decision making for two different types of employees should take separate methods. Besides, the development degree for both employee groups should also vary significantly. The reason behind this argument is that each of the employee groups has varied ideas and mixing the two groups may see one overweighing the others. It is thus important for the manager to put that in his mind to foster effective employees’ development. Such a move is vital in enhancing the performance of the organization.
References
Bouyssou, D. (2009). Decision-making process: Concepts and methods. London: ISTE.
Noe, R. A. (2008). Employee training and development. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
