The introduction of new technologies within a firm will always have its impacts, some positive and others negative. The positive impacts of course are more visible to the owner of the business and the negative impacts are mostly related to employees. The computer based scheduling system will not only improve work performance among employees but will also improve morale once employees realize that the system is rewarding each individual according to the rate of productivity. As Rothwell (2010) argues it is important to realize that the mode of presenting the system to the employees within the work environment will mean a lot to how the system is accepted by the employees. Initially, the system will face a lot of opposition from most of the workers but with time it will be commonly accepted as the best rewarding system within the work environment.
The situation at Montego Bay is a complex situation but will require proper organization from the operations manager and the store manager. It is important to realize that the motivation behind the success within the trial period was varying right from the operations manager down to the store manager and subsequently, to the employees. Daley, the operations manager was motivated by the need to improve productivity while minimizing payroll costs. It within her responsibility to ensure that productivity is improved with minimal operational costs. On the other hand as the store manager, you had the motivation to implement the system to ensure efficiencies in the store in terms of available labor while also maintaining the harmony that had previously existed in the store amongst the employees.
For the workers, the motivation was completely different. There was improved productivity based on the need to improve individual performance metrics that would mean better allocation and earnings. There was little concern from the employees about the performance of the firm and the initial harmony that existed was not there again. From this analysis it was quite clear that everyone had different motives and this would therefore not be helpful in meeting the firm’s vision, goals or objectives. While the original idea of computerization was excellent its implementation was way out of the proper channel that should have been followed. Both the operations manager and the store manager were met with a situation that was of concern from the start, lack of harmony amongst the employees due to unhealthy competition in the search of better performance metrics. It is therefore clear that both Daley and Mahoney failed in implementation. Neither of them took time to reflect on better ways of presenting the employees with the system.
The management team should have known that it was important to set the employees to have a common goal and involve them right from the designing of the system to its implementation. Their feedback would have been important and they would feel incorporated in the whole process and as such the system would have faced less resistance whole also ensuring that the its implementation would not affect harmony within the store ( Rothwell, 2010). Employee productivity is not only affected by efficient scheduling system but of great importance in the short term will be the harmony within the work environment. It will also be very hard to retain employees for long periods of time, sometimes even losing the most influential and experienced staff. These will be some of the effects of implementing the system using the approach taken by Montego Bay (Rothwell, W. J, 2010).
Daft (2011) says that one of the most important reward systems in any working environment is the intrinsic reward system yet it has been completely ignored by the system designers. It does not only improve employee morale but also creates greater responsibility among the workers since they feel that doing something beyond their normal duties for the sake of the company is worthy the task. But the current competition within the store means workers have less time to handle tasks that cannot add anything to their performance metric. It is therefore important that the company looks at the reward system and ensure that it can make the staff not only motivated by money but also responsible and concerned about the company’s image to the outside world.
In my opinion, I would that while the system should continue doing the performance metrics, it is important that the company sets a minimum amount of time that an employee can work such that they would feel comfortable helping the company otherwise even without even improving the performance metric as per the system. The system should ensure that the minimum amount of time allocated for each employee is not only motivating but also set in such a way that the performance metric values will not bring in unhealthy competition within the working environment. (Daft, R.L., 2011)
References
Daft, R. L., & Dryden Press (2011). Management. Orlando, Fla: Dryden Press.
Rothwell, W. J. (2010). The manager's guide to maximizing employee potential: Quick and easy strategies to develop talent every day. New York: American Management Association.
