Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant - Organizational Behavior

Engstrom Auto Mirror Plant had 7 years of good business. Productivity was up; employee morale was high as everyone was reaping the rewards that were earned from their hard work and keeping production up. These bonuses were calculated based on payroll being 50% less than revenue from sales. Everyone was on board for this new implemented bonus program. Employees felt as they were valued because of their knowledge of their job. The employees had the opportunity to put in their suggestions to improve the process of production or the bonus program. The company received hundreds of suggestion over the 7 years a good business. Why did productivity rates drop? Why haven’t the bonuses been paid in months? Most of all, was there enough or too much communication from upper management when giving insights to the process and bonuses?

Suggestions were coming in hundreds and over time these numbers decreased to approx. 50 suggestions a year.  But what caused the lack of employees willing to continue to give their suggestions? Could it have been due to lack of communication downward and lack of listening from upper management? The employees eventually begin to feel that they are not being heard and haven’t seen changes in the way the bonus plan works. Employees began to distrust the system and felt as if management was creating what they called a moving carrot whenever the ratio was changed. When Bent began questioning his own abilities to perform, it had a trickling effect on the rest of the employees. There lacking aspects in communicating between upward and downward communications.

The first issue that needs addressed is communication. It seems as though the employees are becoming dissatisfied and that their voices are being heard but not being listened to. Let’s remember that “Communication is what the receiver understands, not what the sender says” (Newstrom, pg 54. 2015). I believe that the downward and upward communication needs improved by ways of training for managers. This training will help them better their listening and communication skills. This is where they will learn to utilize better practices skills concerning upward communications.

Another element that will be utilized is implementing performance feedback for all employees. There are some employees that seek performance feedback to learn how they are doing and how they can improve their work or that they are doing a good job. There should be a performance review for every employee and at which time their manager can discuss the individual’s performance. During such time, the manager should allow the employee to discuss what may be upsetting them or any ideas they may have to improve a work process or productivity. Here would be a great opportunity for the manager to have open questions and ask questions concerning the employee’s thoughts on the bonus plan. I suggest this because there were still 19% of the employees that voted no for the bonus plan. Why did they not want the bonus plan implanted, did they have another suggestion?

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