Question 1(a)
Personality is an enduring characteristic that describe a uniqueness of individual behaviors when reacting to and interacting with others. It will affect how people adjust differently to the particular situation and environment. According to Robbins and Judge (2010, p171-172) The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator and the Big Five Model are the two main frameworks that used to examine a person’s personality traits. The study on personality traits in the past 20 years explains that people are most likely to exhibit relatively consistent behaviors over time and across situations depending on what personality traits they posses.

Based on the given case study, Ronald is a Machiavellian. He is very practical and aggressive person at work and maintains emotional distances with his subordinates in order to be impartial and to have control over them. Moreover, he only focuses on company’s objective of making profit and his own personal interests while neglecting the importance of engaging his subordinates. Due to such personality at work, he is most likely to have good individual work performance in pursuit of the goals.

Based on the big five factor, it has also concluded that Ronald is an antagonistic person as he is very low in agreeableness. As Ronald is one who values feedbacks the least and believes that all right decisions lie within him at all times, his team members have to follow what he suggests. He does not believe that by interacting, negotiating and agreeing with team members can create a more effective and efficient marketing division. Such behavior shows that Ronald is always very confident in his own actions and has never thought of changing course. This personality of his causes him to distrust the work ability of his supervisors and hence, prevents him from assigning more significant job tasks to them. Lack of trust will in turn reduce team effectiveness and affect the work performances of his team as well as that of Ronald as a boss.

Hofstede’s framework meant for assessing culture also explains that Ronald is a highly individualistic person. From the given case study, it has showed that Ronald is skeptical about working in team. He has always behaves as an individual and never believes in working with members of groups. He strongly believes that working by himself gives him full control over the outcome of his own efforts. Therefore, he likes to fully take charge of any actions he makes at the company and also take full responsibilities of his actions and rectify it himself when needed.

All the above mentioned behaviors would lead Ronald to poor team work and as a result, he would face a lot of difficulties working with the others. Moreover, he is one that hardly heeds advices or learns from the opinions of others. By ignoring the valuable feedbacks from ground people will result in him being stagnant in this ever changing dynamic environment. Finally, the long-term consistency of this behavior will result in Ronald’s failure to create synergy of teamwork, affecting his performance at work. In order for Mr. Andrew Jackson to create synergy among the divisional head at work, he should ensure that Ronald improves on his human interpersonal skills.

Question 1(b)
Perception is an impression one has given based on what they deemed it to be and not the reality itself. After analyzing the case study, it is concluded that the two perpetual shortcuts used by Wilson towards Joanne are Stereotyping and Halo Effect.

Stereotyping shortcut occurs when people judge the others based on the perception of the group which they belongs to. In the given case study, Wilson feels that single women are too meticulous, inefficient and emotional. Using Stereotyping, he assumes that Joanne, like all single women, has such personality traits.

Halo Effect shortcut occurs when a person generalize an individual based on a single characteristic he or she possesses. In the given case study, Wilson perceived Joanne as being one who is inefficient and emotional, and therefore he tends to disagree with Joanne the way she has handled the work issues such as handling her supervisors who underperformed at work.

According to Robbins and Judge (2010, p 204), the Attribution Theory explains that behaviors can either be in the control of the individual or may also be the situation that has forced the individual to behave in a certain way. It has suggested three determinants to explain the ways how people tend to judge the behavior of the others. They are the distinctiveness, consensus and consistency. Terminologies from the Attribution Theory can be applied in this situation to reduce or eliminate the perpetual shortcuts which influences the decision-making process negatively.

Wilson could constantly monitor Joanne’s behaviors in different situations to determine the cause of the distinctiveness, check on the consensus of how other people react if they face the same situation as Joanne and lastly monitor the consistency of Joanne’s actions to determine whether her actions are caused by internal or external attributions.

After knowing the attributes to Joanne’s behavior, he can assign two staff- one being the single woman and the other being the married woman, to work on similar assignment given a stipulated timeframe. If the outcome of this experiment shows that single women can perform and accomplish the assigned task just as efficient as married women, it would help Wilson to understand that he should carry out evaluative judgments before concluding one’s ability.

By analyzing the attributes and further supported by the outcome of the above experiment, he will able to judge Joanne more objectively, eliminating the perceptual shortcuts that he previously has towards her.

Question 2(a)

The work of a team should help to create positive synergy such that each of the individuals in the team would generate higher output value with the same amount of inputs working as an individual. Ronald could improve the team work among the supervisors by reviewing on the key components for team effectiveness.

Firstly, the case study mentioned that Ronald preferred to work by himself. An effective team work should reinforce the importance of cohesiveness and a collectivism mindset among the team members. Ronald could improve the situation by changing his own mindset being skeptical about working in teams. One way of doing so is to learn to give up his control at work and empower his supervisors in the decision making process. By engaging them in the work processes, they would perceive autonomy and trust at work. This would results in a higher level of commitment and support towards the organizational decision. When their working relationships are no longer that defined, the working environment would be created much pleasantly. This in turn, would lead to a higher level of job satisfaction and productivity.

Next, the case study has shown that Ronald’s team faced some disputes at work. As the division head, he should always review and maintain the management functions to ensure they are in consistency with the organizational goals. Ronald should communicate the work processes informatively. He could ensure actions that need to be done, how it will be done and who is responsible for the actions have been clearly communicated to his staff. To avoid social loafing, we suggest that he could set up different lists on what the individual and as a team is solely and jointly respectively responsible for. By instilling a sense of common purpose in the team consistently, it is believed that teams will perform more effectively.

From the given case study, it has shown that Ronald only cared about his personal and division’s goals. He should however, try to focus on his staff abilities and the job characteristics. He should recognize that everyone is different in their work ability and try to align this ability in the job. Roles could be allocated based on the strength each individual can bring to the teams ensuring that everyone plays an important role in the team. If the job requires additional skills one do not acquired beforehand, he could send them for training programmes and workshops to acquire the skills ranging from technical to interpersonal such as communication, coaching and even conflict management. Given with the essential knowledge and skills for each of the team members, it would not only improve team work but also the team efficacy.

Lastly, Ronald could also improve the teamwork by introducing a rewards system that encourages cooperative efforts instead of individual effort. The purpose of having such reward system is to recognize the team through selfless contribution as a unit working to achieve the common goals. The amount of reward given to the team will reflect on how well they have performed as a team. By having the group-based appraisal, the members in the team would turn from competitive to cooperative, thereby improving the teamwork among them.

Question 2(b)

The two ways which Wilson could consider using to change the attitude of his employees are: Personality-Job Fit and Organisational Support.

Personality-Job Fit

Wilson could adopt the John Holland’s personality-job fit theory. According to Robbins and Judge (2010, p185-186), this theory argues that the satisfaction is at its highest when the personality matches with the job.

Wilson should recognise individual and cultural differences before concluding one’s ability at work. Wilson came from Hong Kong, it will be evitable that this nationality of his shaped his preference style of work, communication and rewards. He should not determine one’s work ability through the demographic factors but instead, he should get closer with them to identify the valuable traits in them. For instance, a female who is meticulous could be assigned to do the role as an accountant because she will be very careful with the figures. He should focus on the attributes one has and apply it in the organisation.

Perceived Organisational Support

According to Robbins and Judge (2010, p112), one would perceive their organisation as supportive when rewards are deemed fair and when they see their supervisors as supportive.

Wilson should not practice discrimination between the good and poor performers but try and align their ability with the job. Everyone is different in their work ability, hence when assessing their performance at work, Wilson could constantly provide feedback to his staff on what is done effectively, and what needs to be improved. The amount of rewards given to the staff must justify with the appraisal outcome. He should not overly rewards the better ones and under reward the poorer ones. It is more likely to influence their job satisfaction and commitment when perceived with justice. With the organisational support given to them, they will form organisational citizenship behaviour that exceeds normal expectation in job.

Question 3(a)

Oceanic Sport Limited

Mr Andrew Jackson
Head of Marketing

Proposal for

Employee Motivation

Objective

To increase employee motivation among the supervisors in every division.

Benefits

Being one of the important keys to effective management, motivation can increase productivity, performance, efficiency, job satisfaction and decrease turnover and absenteeism.

Proposed Approaches

1. Recognizing Individual Difference Division heads should take time to understand individual’s abilities and needs. We classify these individual needs based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, arranged in order of priority from physical to safety, social, esteem and lastly self realization. When each level of needs is satisfied, motivation builds within the employee to fulfill the needs in the next level above it.

2. Use of Goals & Feedbacks Goal-setting theory states that specific goals set the target for motivation. Assigning stretch but achievable goals increases higher performance and job satisfaction when goals are attained. Feedbacks identify shortcomings in performance and provide means for corrective adjustments.

3. Empowering Employees Empowerment creates the presence of motivators mentioned in Two-Factor theory, such as responsibility, recognition, advancement, growth. According to Herzberg, motivators creates strong levels of motivation and results in job satisfaction and high performance when present in a work environment.

4. Reward-Performance System Based on Expectancy theory, motivation can be maximized when they believe high level of effort and performance results in the outcomes they desire. As behavior is influenced heavily by its outcomes, it’s extremely important for managers to find out what outcomes are perceived as desirable by the employees and provide them as per individual needs when the level of performance is attained. Having a reward-performance system induces the perception of a strong association between performance and rewards. So that one will not only be motivated to perform according to the organization’s expectations, but also know that outcomes will be as per desired.

5. Maintaining Equity and Organizational Justice

Employees perceive equity when the ratio of their input (effort) to their output (rewards) is equivalent to that of their referent. Equity theory suggests that alternative ways, such as decreasing effort or work quality, having negative perception of self or others, change their referent or even quitting the job, are chosen to restore the sense of equity when an inequity exists. Therefore, showing fairness motivates employees when they believe that they will be rewarded with what’s rightfully theirs and prevent them from taking alternative choices as mentioned above.

Problems & Recommended Solutions

Ultimate success on employee motivation demands significant involvement by your division heads. Aligning with the 5 approaches earlier, we suggest the following which can be done on a daily basis: • Focus on rewarding the supervisors according to the level they’re in within Hierarchy of Needs or levels above it. • Specific goal-setting and job allocation can be assigned to them as a guide to what should to be done. • Giving regular feedbacks on performance from division heads to supervisors • Empower supervisors by sharing a significant degree of decision making power to make choices about schedules & procedures and problem-solving. • Practicing Representative Participation or introducing Participative Management programs • Reward employees according to their performance instead of seniority, qualifications, or skill levels. • Making sure that the input-outcome ratios of the supervisors are kept equivalent in daily work situations.

Question 3(b)
“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.”
Babe Ruth (1895-1948), one of the greatest baseball players in history

Cohesiveness and success build on each other - High cohesiveness results in high effectiveness and achievement, which makes the team more cohesive. To increase the team cohesiveness, we suggest open communication and trust building as the team norms which are vital to the success of an effective team.
Open Communication
By increasing the frequency of interactions among team members, such as weekly breakfast meet-ups discussing about work and non-work topics can allow them to share their views openly without having the fear for negative consequences. Keeping the team size small can ensure every member’s opinion is heard and evaluated by others during the discussions.
Team goals and objectives have to be clearly communicated to and agreed upon by members of the team in order to increase team cohesiveness. Division heads and supervisors should take proactive steps like giving soliciting feedbacks; encouraging members to put forward objections to a proposition (especially theirs) and ensure opposing ideas are not dismissed or criticized instantaneously. In this way, open communication increases team engagement & their sense of ownership.
Team members should be encouraged to share information openly with each other, without fearing to lose their decision-making power, especially when full disclosure of formerly restricted information might be necessary in these work-related discussions. Therefore, displaying trust for each other through sharing information improves the cohesiveness and having adequate resources of information increases effectiveness of the team in performing its job and attaining its goals.
Trust Building
Trust is a critically important ingredient for team cohesiveness which results ultimate success of an effective team. Trust works when the members know they can count on each other to perform a task effectively and to attain team goals. One way to show reliability among team member is to ensure everyone delivers timely and contributes as agreed.
Trust builds when dependency exists in the team. By creating dependency through challenging or sequential tasks, it also improves team cohesiveness while working together to accomplish these tasks.
Open communication and trust building are inter-dependable in team cohesiveness. To build trust, the team needs to be open with their issues, ideas and interests and to have an open communication, existence of sufficient trust among team members is essential. Ultimate success of an effective team depends team cohesiveness which is achievable through open communication and trust building.

References:

Robbins, S.P. and Judge, T.A., (2010), Organisational Behaviour, 14th edition, Pearson Education International, Pearson Prentice Hall: New Jersey USA

James L. Gibson, (2003), Organizations: behavior, structure, processes, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, Boston USA

BrainyQuote (2010), Babe Ruth Quotes-1845-1948 [online], Available from: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/b/babe_ruth_2.html [Accessed on 18 August 2010]