Introduction
This report is based on the key findings established after going through the case study of Intercontinental Hotel Brisbane. The hotel consists of 1019 rooms and is situated in a prime location in Brisbane. The workforce at the underlying hotel comprises agency workers (coming from Asian and some other foreign countries) and directly appointed employees. The company has recently introduced an automated system based on a software application called Optii to appraise the performance of their employees in order to make them utilize their full potential. The question is how far Optii has been successful in dealing with the issues faced in terms of time and work among directly appointed attendants.
Despite all the positive outcomes of the new employee performance assessment system integrated into the Hotel, the writer could identify a key issue that can affect employee motivation in the long run. And, it is the issue of job security that is detrimental to employee motivation and productivity (Atkinson, 1966). Apart from this, new reward and punishment system contingent to work and time is in more interest of peripheral employees than core workers. The underlying essay sets out to investigate these problems keeping in view their long term impact that is followed by suggestions to eliminate the same.
Theories and Ideas to be Used
The writer aims to use the theory of motivation conceived by Atkinson (1966), wherein motivation is connected to the success or failure as defined by human being on the basis of their self-defined goals in terms of work and time. If they succeed in achieving their targets, they will call it their success; and sense of failure has a bad impact on their motivation. Furthermore, employers’ policies towards employees, especially that relating to job security determine their sense of achievement that nurtures motivation among them. Some of the major terms are defined and briefly explained as follows:
Make Time: employees are making time when they are utilizing it in a way that is productive for the organization (Noon & Blyton, 2007).
Fiddling Time: it simply refers to the employees’ wasting their working hours unproductively usually due to lack of control and monitoring (Noon & Blyton, 2007).
Labor Flexibility: labor flexibility is the name of flexible job attitude among employees making them stay ready to adapt to any new change in terms of time, work, and labor utilization imposed on the part of employers (Corby & White, 2002).
Core Workers: these are full time, skilled, and trained workers directly employed by the company (Knights & Willmott, 2007).
Peripheral Workers: these are indirectly hired employees lacking specific skills (Knights & Willmott, 2007).
Functional Flexibility: it refers to organization’s ability to make employees adapt themselves to allocated or reallocated tasks at any time (Corby & White, 2002).
Numerical Flexibility: aligning the size of the workforce to economic activity is termed as numerical flexibility (Corby & White, 2002).
Employer Perspective
Installation of Optii in order to appraise the performance of employees in comparatively more critical way promises a high level of benefits for employers. As found in the case, it has created the optimized balance between the productivity of agency workers and that of directly appointed employees. Both of them are striving to give their best performance. The chief benefit of the software is the change in the job attitude of directly employed workers as a result of numerical, functional and cognitive flexibility. They are no longer tend to fiddle away their working hours but are determined to give maximum input in order to please their employees with their performance. Contingent reward and punishment system is also playing a key role in this regard, which is a great source of employee motivation whether analyzed in the light of expectancy theory or referring to Maslow’s hierarchy of needs (Cassidy & Kreitner, 2009).
The performance of core or directly appointed workers is being assessed and monitored from different critical angles. And, if they fail to give input aligning to the expectations, they would be “sent home”. Employers, in this policy towards workers, are not making any distinction between directly appointed or peripheral workers (agency workers). Though it can make them work harder, will disturb work relations. Furthermore, employers may suffer long term ethical issues by not providing good work-life balance to its core workers (Clutterbuck, 2003). Furthermore, lack of job security may deprive the hotel of talented core attendants in future.
Employee Perspective
Directly appointed or core employees have shown a good level of flexibility by adjusting them to new standards of economic activity required from them with respect to time. The contingent reward system is motivating them to give their best input. However, they are not happy with the current status of what they are earning against working hours. Optii is offering more benefits to peripheral workers as compared to core workers, which is also against an ideal model of organizational flexibility (Corby & White, 2002). Then, they are under strict pressure due to the insecurity of job. They are not working under a sense of motivation, but fear of losing a job is dictating their activities.
As a matter of fact, Job security is directly linked to employer and employee relationship. Even though current setup makes employees give their best output, it does not offer the desired level of job security. Hence, it does not address the high level of employee motivational needs such as ‘safety’, ‘love’, and ‘self-esteem’ either, as perceived by Maslow in his hierarchy of needs (Cassidy & Kreitner, 2009). Furthermore, it is also detrimental to employees on a psychological level, as working merely to save job has nothing to do with ‘self-defined’ goals (Atkinson, 1966). Therefore, in future, the human resource management at IHB may fail to attract a talented workforce, especially core workers in the year to come. It will force them to rely mainly on agency employees or peripheral workers that offer a non-optimized level of productivity due to their low level of skills, experience, and suitability (Knights & Willmott, 2007).
Conclusion and Recommendations
Optii has helped the underlying organization optimize labor utilization by eliminating some of the routine issues faced by it in past. It has mobilized the directly appointed employees. However, the negative aspect of current HRM policies is a lack of job security which is both detrimental to work relation and a threat for employee motivation. It is good to have a contingent reward and punishment system. But, the threat of losing a job as a result of bad performance should separately be applied to peripheral workers, while the management should amend its policy to define softer punishments for directly employed workers in case of delays or below the mark performance in allocated time period such as pay cut to name only the most appropriate one. This consideration will create an atmosphere of the high level of motivation among the workforce, which is in the best interest of the organization in the long run.
References
Atkinson, J. W. (1966). A theory of achievement motivation, Volume 6. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Cassidy, C., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Supervision: Setting people up for success. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Clutterbuck, D. (2003). Managing work-life balance: A guide for HR in achieving organizational and individual change. London: Sage.
Corby, S., & White, G. (2002). Employee relations in the public services: Themes and issues. London: Routledge.
Holley, W. H., & Jennings, K. M. (1984). The labor relations process. Chicago: Dryden Press.
Knights, D., & Willmott, H. (2007). Introducing organizational behaviour and management. London: Thomson Learning.
Noon, M., & Blyton, P. (2007). The realities of work: Experiencing work and employment in contemporary society. Houndmills, Basingstoke: Palgrave.
