Improving Organizational Performance Simulation Summary
University of Phoenix
PSY/428

Improving Organizational Performance Simulation Summary

The “Improving Organizational Performance” Simulation was based on a stunt company called Airdevils Incorporated in Salt Lake City, Utah. Airdevils Incorporated was a fictitious organization founded by Celsey Evans in 1995. Celsey was the best female airborne aerobatic performer, who provided daring, innovative stunt performances to film producers and marketing firms. Celsey, with four of her colleagues, built Airdevils into a small prosperous organization with 115 employees. Their dramatic and daring stunts won the company numerous awards and many dedicated customers. The founding team of has since retired ad acts as the company’s management team. Over the years the quality of work declined as well as the awards and accolades decreased. Regular customers have expressed their dissatisfaction with the stunts and key employees have left the organization. The job satisfaction levels are low and employees are concerned about their salaries. They feel they could make more money if they freelanced versus working for Airdevils Incorporated. Celsey has become very concerned with the decrease in quality work and the lack of drive to entice customers to use Airdevils services. Celsey decided to take action. Her first step was to identify the cause of low job satisfaction among the stunt performers by initiating a Job Description Index (JDI) survey to the employees. As the organizational psychologist with Dream Teamworks, I will assist Celsey to identify the reason for the decrease in satisfaction in the stunt performers group. The survey findings will be interpreted and the cause of low satisfaction will be identified. The work and organizational structure of Airdevils will be examined as well as the comments on the internet blog to determine the psychological underlying issues which has caused such low job satisfaction. The simulation is divided into four phases; the cause, course correction, making a formation, and support under stress.
According to Airdevils’ job profile; there are 75 stunt performers, which is 75% of the workforce. The JDI overview also provided information regarding the employee’s pay, promotional opportunities, coworkers and his or her perspectives on management. Using the blogs and comments posted by the employees of Airdevils Incorporates. There were facts and information to go by to assist with analyzing and understanding the situation around the business, such as, blogs that would provide a window in viewing comments made by employees at Airdevils.
In the first phase of the simulation, the request was to identify the cause of Airdevils’ employee dissatisfaction. Based on the JDI overview, blogs and internet postings it was determined that the employees felt they were restricted from doing new and challenging stunts. I selected the option, “I can’t do what I joined this company for; the stunts are routine and don’t excite me much. Moreover my suggestions don’t find any takers. The result of my answer was correct. In viewing the personal profile of an average stunt performer it is evident that they are motivated by challenges; once they perfect a routine they naturally tend to aim for something more challenging. Reading the blogs helped to narrow down the most plausible answer.
The second phase was to suggest interventions that would improve the job satisfaction levels within Celsey’s budget. The employees were dissatisfied and felt the organization limited their stunts and the development or training of new stunts. At this point a course of action was determined by viewing new blog comments and understanding the work conditions and settings in which the employees perform. My recommendations included training in other stunts, improve job design, and allow participation in open competitions and rotation in industry meets. The total cost would be $142,390 which was within the designated budget. By training employees new stunts, Airdevils would show that they care about providing fair opportunities to their employees. It provides equal opportunity for each employee to learn new stunts and receive training. According to the blogs the underlying cause of low job satisfaction is the lack of exciting challenges. Cross functional training would pave the way for performers to try stunts, other then routine stunts. Improving job designs ensures that stunt performers concentrate on his or her core jobs and not forced to do something he or she doesn’t like. Additionally, allowing employee participation in open events and rotating them in key industry meets would provide them with better visibility and allow them to showcase their skills. This measure satisfies the psychological need of the stunt performers to seek recognition.
The third phase defined a solution to innovating new stunt plans for the stunt performers. Celsey feels that the real future of the business lies in stunts consultancy. The idea will be tested by creating a group to lead the new stunt plans for regular customers. The groups would be known as the ‘Stunt Consultancy Division’. In this phase of the simulation, three of the seven potential candidates would be selected to be part of the division. The decisions would be based on similar personalities and attitudes, which would provide the highest level of group performance. Deciding factors includes comments from colleagues for their opinion the candidates and suggests of Peter Mallow. The skill level and emotional stability of the group members are observed and the group’s compatibility and fit is considered. I decided on Alverta Valoy, Charlie Balboa and Carl Hanslow. Each member brings various skills to the table and be emotionally stable to deal with different views and the criticism of the other group members. The group had highly compatible personalities and they were compatible so they had a lower change of having inter-personal conflicts. I selected Alverta because she had the most experience and is the senior member of the skydiving group. Carl is relatively new, however she brings many years of gliding experience, and working well under pressure. Charlie is also new but his strength is his ability to get along with the team. The results revealed that the three members were a desirable mix of all attributes for a high performing team. The last phase, the support crewmember are reviewed to suggest measures to solve a problem of absenteeism. The support crew forms 20 percent of Airdevils’ workforce. The crew manager prepared a report for Celsey which includes the major reasons for crewmembers absenteeism. The report indicates that stress is the primary cause for the high level of absenteeism. In this simulation measures are suggested which would help solve the problem. My suggested solutions included the following: to initiate stress inoculation training, bio-feedback training, modify team structure, offer transportation, relaxation training, allow flexible work schedule, and provide software training. I felt these support crew members felt unappreciated and unsure of the job stability. I wanted to provide opportunities to improve their quality of work which would increase the employees’ morale. My result was well done, but I could have reconsidered some of my selections. I should not have considered the bio –feedback because it was too costly, instead I should have selected a code of conduct to ensure that crewmember is treated well by the stunt performers.
Many theories could be applied to increasing employee motivation and productivity. The Need for Achievement Theory could be applied to the employees aiming to acquire a great need for achievement. Specifically the stunt performers, who wants to achieve more and produce high quality work, exciting. The Goal setting theory also helps to increase productivity. This theory is good for all populations within Airdevils Incorporated. It is always important to set goals and make every effort to fulfill the goals. In restructuring the team, the organizational leaders could use the Cognitive process theory of Motivation to motivate employees to increase performance.
It is extremely important to understand human behavior, cognition and the affects on enhancing or harming a business unit. Absentees were a major problem within this organization. Understanding the human behavior allowed the organizational leaders to identify with the lack of job satisfaction and how it could lead to excessive absents turnover, and lack of motivation. Revenues were constantly decreasing because the organizational members lost their organizational commitment. Since the employees are a vital factor in a successful organization ensuring their happiness or at minimum a point of agreement could help restore the Airdevil’s revenues.
Based on the findings from the simulation, organizations can reduce workplace stressors for their employees by identifying the problem, identifying the cause or the problems, identifying ways to correct the problem and correcting the problem for all employees. Outlining solutions and alternatives lets the employees to know that the employer cares enough to address their concerns and make an effort to correct the problems. Additionally, the simulation demonstrated the impact that lack of training and continual advancement could have on workplace stressors. Most importantly, listening to the needs of the employees and working with them to determine an agreeable means to make them happy and gain organizational commitment is essential.

Reference:
Steve M. Jex, Thomas W. Britt (2008). Organizational Psychology. A Scientist-Practitioner Approach (2nd ed.). : John Wiley & Sons.