An interview with a marketing manager in DPR Construction Company
Interviewee: Robert Smith
Position: Marketing manager
Summary of the interview
Managers play a vital role in managing affairs and operations of organizations. Some organizations deal with processing and manufacturing of different products, whereas others provide services to consumers. Despite the variance in operations, organizations squarely depend on their employees to attain their goals and objectives, increase profit margin, expand market space, and compete effectively with other business enterprises. In the interview, Mr. Robert Smith reported that employees are important component in an organization because they transform and implement policies into actions. According to Mr. Robert Smith, managers would not achieve organization goals and objectives without involving employees in decision-making process, planning, and implementing. Realization of these goals and objectives depend on employee’s level of commitment, dedication, and result-oriented approach. In the interview, Mr. Smith acknowledged the idea that working as a manager call for patient, calm, rationality, open-mind, and resilience because managers face numerous challenges.
Some of the pertinent problems managers face in organizations are administrative, but most of them are employee-related. In the interview, Mr. Smith highlighted that responding to crisis, achieving stretch goals and objectives, and balancing organizational policies and regulations with employee performance are examples of administrative challenges. However, in his career as a manager, Mr. Robert Smith affirmed that he had and experiences many problems when working with employees of various ranks and capacities in the organization. In essence, managers cannot avoid experiencing such problems based on the nature of their work that demand constant interaction with employees.
As a manager, Mr. Smith mentioned a number of instances that he had problems dealing with employees. They included; when employees fail to meet deadlines, violate rules, and regulations of the company, indulge in malpractices, underperform, and fail to balance their personal issues and organization goals, and conflicts among team members. Although manager experience these challenges with their employees, lack of motivation and emergence of conflicts and wrangles among the employees remain two major challenges managers experience more often. Motivation remains an imperative component in ensuring that employees work toward achieving organization goals and objectives in a cost-effective approach. Sometimes, employees may have the necessary qualifications, skills, competences, and knowledge to perform certain roles, but they do not perform optimally as expected because they lack motivation. In essence, motivation depends on a number of factors, which are either intrinsic or extrinsic. In an organization, lack of motivation results from poor and harsh working conditions, low pay, and enumeration process, lack of cooperation and support from the management, job description, and poor relationship between managers, and employees. Either these factors singly or unison influence employee motivation, performance, productivity and reduce chances of achieving organizational goals and objectives.
During the interview, Mr. Smith pointed out that a manager finds it hard to manage and motivate employees working in groups or teams. The difficult arise when all the team members have different needs, ambitions, capabilities, personality traits, and cultural values. To motive diverse work force, Mr. Smith uses various employee- recognition reward programs and performance appraisals. In the analysis, Mr. Robert Smith stated that implementation of reward programs help in motivating diverse work forces and the strategy has worked in many occasions. Additionally, he pointed out that managers should assign employees’ roles, duties and responsibilities based on individual needs, and provide tasks, which help employees fulfill those needs.
In the interview, Mr. Smith stated that organizational conflicts remain another key challenge that managers encounter in their line of duty. Conflicts many assume may forms, but it emanates from diverse and opposing needs, interests, and values between team members. Mr. Smith conquered that intergroup conflicts are caused by indifference in leadership style, power and authority, families issues, personality traits and personal factors such as health, substance abuse and psychological aspects. Although some conflicts encourage productivity, most affect employee performance, productivity, interaction process, and widen enmity gap between the involved parties. In his analysis, Mr. Smith categorically stated that solving conflicts among employees depends on a number of issues, but more importantly the type of the conflicts including; task-focused conflicts and personal or relationship conflict. Task-focused conflicts arise when employees fail to agree on modalities of executing assigned roles, duties, and responsibilities. On the other hand, personal or relation conflicts arise when employees dislike each other, fail to accommodate weakness of other members, differ in personality traits, and other individual factors.
Through his career, Mr. Smith uses different conflict management strategies, but more important, counseling strategy. Mr. Smith stated that most employees experience psychological and emotional problems at workplace; an idea that lowers their self-esteem and facilitate aggressiveness. In such scenarios, he believes the problem can be resolved through counseling that empowers employees with skills and knowledge to contain and address their psychological and emotional problems amicably.
The perspective of industrial psychology in addressing the two problems
Motivation is a psychological aspect that drives an organism to adapt and act toward a given goal; regulate and maintain goal-directed behaviors (Grenway, 2008). In other words, motivation is an intrinsic or extrinsic force that drives an organism behavior in goal-directed manner. It is an important component in an organization because it helps employees work towards achieving organizational goals and objectives effectively and efficiently. In most cases, motivated employees spend most of their time and resources working towards achieving organizational goals and objectivities, advancing their career through learning, and fulfilling their needs. Consequently, dissatisfied employees engage in activities, which lower organizational performance, productivity, and efficiency. However, managers who motivate their employees through provision of good working conditions, improving enumeration, and payment processes, rewarding employees, and establishing cordially relationship between employees, and managers; enhance job satisfaction, employee performance and productivity (Thomas, 2009). Lack of motivation among employees remains one of the key challenges, which managers address in their organizations. Understanding employee motivation remains an area that attracts interest for researchers in management. Most management studies focus on significant issues including cultural challenges and group dynamic, which affect employee motivation. Industrial psychologists working in unison with managers have the responsibility of studying employees’ behavior, organizations, and enhance employee motivation. More important, industrial psychologists and managers should motivate employees by establishing effective performance appraisal programs, enhancing satisfier factors (as proposed in Herzberg two factor motivational model), develop, and implement pay-for performance programs, and employee recognition- rewards programs (Purdy, 2008). It is recommendable that managers assign roles and responsibilities based on employee needs, potential, and expertise; formulate attainable goals and objectives; individualize and link rewards with performance and provide favorable working conditions.
Organization conflicts results from a discordant between two or more involved parties, which have opposing needs, values, and interests. Conflicts may assume different forms, but they all portray the aspect of rivalry, jealousy, competition, and divided interest in certain issues (Cook, 2005). In most cases, conflicts arise when employees fail to agree on the way certain tasks and responsibilities should be performed, sharing of responsibility, and power, defining roles and duties and disagreement on core values and principles of the organization. Organizational conflicts are grouped into main categories namely; role and personal conflicts. Role conflicts occur when team members fail to agree on provisions and modalities of executing the assigned roles effectively and in a cost -effective manner.
In other words, one set of members sideline with a particular approach while the other set proposes an alternative approach. Behaviorists argue that each employee in an organization belong in a particular role set that is a collection of individuals who perform defined roles, duties, and responsibility, but whose outcome depend on competences, technical skills and expertise of individual each team member’s (Rahim, 2011). In such a case, roles become intertwined, thus leading to conflicts among the members. On the other hand, personal conflicts arise when employees dislike each other based on personal issues, personality traits, and style indifferences. Although some conflicts have positive benefits in the organizations, managers need to prevent, control, and resolve conflicts using various conflicting management strategies. Apart from using counseling strategy, it is recommended that managers integrate various conflicting management strategies, including smoothing, avoidance, compromise, and confrontation. Implementing these strategies would promote coexistence, cooperation, and cohesion among the employees.
References
Cook, E. (2005). Conflict Management for Libraries: Strategies for a Positive, Productive Workplace. New York: American Library Association.
Grenway, B. (2008). The Relationship Between Employee Motivation and Job Satisfaction of African-American Human Service Employees. New York: ProQuest,.
Purdy, J. (2008). Job Satisfaction Within a Nonprofit Organization: An Application of Hertzberg's Motivation-hygiene Theory. New York: ProQuest.
Rahim, A. (2011). Managing Conflict in Organizations: Fourth Edition. New York: Transaction Publishers.
Thomas, K. W. (2009). Intrinsic motivation at work what really drives employee engagement (2nd ed.). San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
Appendix
List of interview questions
- Provide a brief history of your working experience before joining ABC Company.
- What roles and positions did you play and hold in your previous companies?
- I presume you enjoy your work and career. What are the career paths in this profession in terms of opportunities?
- Based on your work experience, it turns out that you have held senior position in the management. As a manager, what challenges do you face daily?
- How can you categorize these challenges?
- In your work experience as a manager, I presume that you have encountered challenges when dealing with employees. What are the common challenges that you have experienced with employees?
- As you mention managers, face many challenges, but what are two main challenges that you have experienced with employees in your career?
- Did you attempt to solve the problems? If yes, explain how?
- Which strategies did you use in resolving the two problems?
- Based on your experience and analysis, were the strategies effective in solving the problems?
- What parameters or factors influenced to use the strategies you have mentioned?
- What qualifies should a manager have when dealing with problem of motivation and conflicts in an organization?
- Which other strategies can you use to address the issue of motivation and conflict among employees?
- What advices can you to managers when confronted with these two challenges?
