3. Compare the characteristics of the jobs carried out by the grocery team and the nightshift workers and discuss the possible impact of this on the job satisfaction of workers in the two departments. What could the nightshift manager do to improve the work attitudes of workers on his team?
Workers at the grocery department appear to have embraced working together and customer centric activities which have promoted their success when it comes to customer satisfaction and being organized. On the other hand, the night shift workers appear not to have embraced working together as team based on the clear division that the human resource manager was able to notice between the part-time and full time workers. Both teams work in the same organization but under different styles of management. Generally, workers or employees behavior or attitude toward their work is a reflection of the kind of leadership and direction that is offered.
Workers at the grocery department are more of customer service officers and therefore their behavior and working style means a lot when it comes to retaining and attracting customers. Their organization skills and ability to develop a good relationship is important in growing sales and maintaining customers.
The success of the grocery department can be attributed to great management and motivation coming from their manager. The manager has an appraisal system that supports career development. Workers are pushed to show their efforts toward achieving their career growth plan. This has promoted hard work and efficiency in the department as the workers push toward achieving their career aspirations.
The night shift workers on the other hand take care of the late night supplies by arranging them on the shelves. During their activities, they don’t get to interact with the customers but their work plays a major role in ensuring that everything is in place for the following day’s operation.
There are however differences among the workers that were noticed by the human resource representative. There existed two factions within the workforce, the full time workers and the part-time workers. This problem can be attributed to poor management as it appears that the part-timers are left without directions on what to do and as such they end up being idle waiting for further directions and this creates a gap between them and the full time workers. The difference between workers is a sign of how demoralized the workers are due to poor leadership and lack of guidance.
A cohesive work force is key in achieving and attaining successful outcomes in any organization. In this case, the night shift management should promote cohesion the night shift team. The management should also involve all the workers in planning the work schedule as opposed to the situation where the part time workers are not included the plans rendering them without any form of structure activity to undertake. In order to achieve a cohesive and positive minded workforce who appreciate and get satisfied with their work, the management should develop ways that make the workers own their work.
Team work is an important aspect in any organization. The night shift workers lacked the spirit of team work and that why the full time employees regarded their part time colleagues as useless and they did not involve them in their daily work plan. To rectify and save the situation, the management should regularly hold consultative meetings with all the workers regardless of their employment status. This would assist in developing a collegial spirit that would end the differences.
For the case of the night shift workers in the supermarket, the management had failed to offer leadership and concentrated on having the work done in which they ended up leaving some individuals out. The management should put more emphasis on setting directions that should be followed by the workers while evaluating their abilities. This would assist in ensuring that workers are given tasks that they can efficiently deliver and further enable workers to develop positive attitudes towards their job.
References
Kokemuller, N. (2018). Management Styles & Techniques. [online] Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/management-styles-techniques-78335.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018].
Caramela, S. (2018). What Is Industrial-Organizational Psychology?. [online] Business News Daily. Available at: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10162-industrial-organizational-psychology.html [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018].
LaBier, D. (2013). Why Today's Workplace Is so Destructive to so Many People. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-resilience/201306/why-todays-workplace-is-so-destructive-so-many-people [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].
4. Superbrand have decided to introduce a new stock monitoring system. Staff will need to learn how to use the new hand scanners to collect data on the shop floor, download the scanner data to the system, run computer reports and interpret the report details to adjust the levels of stock they are ordering.
With reference to relevant learning theory to support your suggestions, provide recommendations on two approaches to training and development the store could use to prepare its staff to use the new system. Discuss the implementation problems and barriers to learning which the store development team may need to overcome.
There are several methods of training and development that can be applied in different settings. Superbrand being a supermarket has to adopt a system that allows the business to go on.
On the job training.
This method of training takes place in a normal working environment. The workers generally learn the job while actually performing it. This method may be risky at the beginning stages since the learners are bound to make mistakes but it in essence it builds perfection of an employee in the end.
Under this form of training, the trainee is normally placed under an experienced personnel who assists him or her to get acquitted to the new way of working. In this case Superbrands human resource department should bring on board trainers who have the experience of using the new machines or system.
Advantages of on the job training.
This method of training is cheap in that no additional costs are required to implement it. The employees also continue handling their tasks and therefor there are man-hours wasted in the process.
This method of training also creates high levels of efficiency in that the employees learns while actually performing. This assists in reducing mistakes on the job.
Disadvantages of on the job training.
In most cases the trainers provide the employees with only what they feel is important while carrying out their duties and therefore they do not provide other necessary information. This may be problematic especially when minor technical problems occur. This form of training is normally incomplete since the trainees only learn based on what has happened and therefore they may not be prepared of the unknown.
The trainee may also adopt bad habits from the trainer since the whole process may not be monitored.
Off the job training.
In this method, the workers are supposed to leave their work stations and dedicate their time on training. This form of training provides a better platform for the workers to learn than in case of on the job training method. This method enables the workers to understand their new tasks effectively since deep information is provided including simulated trainings which assist in equipping the trainees with practical capacities.
Advantages of off the job training.
This method of training involves moving the employees away from the work place to another place where they can fully concentrate on the new information. This enables the employees or the trainees to get more information on whatever they are learning.
Sending employees out for training makes them feel more appreciated and this may positively influence their morale at their place of work.
Disadvantages of off the work training method.
It an expensive method of training since the organization may be forced to hire an external facility to host the training.
The workers may face difficulties while trying to implement the theory learned at the place of work.
In this case, Superbrands should adopt the on the job training to avoid extra costs. This method would also assist the supermarket chain avoid the problem having shortage of workforce in the course of training and would even be easy to monitor the ability of employees to adapt to new way or system of workers.
References
Kokemuller, N. (2018). Management Styles & Techniques. [online] Smallbusiness.chron.com. Available at: https://smallbusiness.chron.com/management-styles-techniques-78335.html [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018].
Caramela, S. (2018). What Is Industrial-Organizational Psychology?. [online] Business News Daily. Available at: https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/10162-industrial-organizational-psychology.html [Accessed 10 Dec. 2018].
Reddy, C. (2018). 9 Different Training Methods and Techniques for Employees - WiseStep. [online] WiseStep. Available at: https://content.wisestep.com/different-methods-techniques-training-employees/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018].
5. Using a theoretical model of your choice, compare the leadership approach adopted by the checkout manager and the grocery manager. Discuss the strengths and weakness of the different approaches.
There are several management styles that can implemented in an organization setting. In this case, the Checkout manager is an example of an authoritarian manager who likes his employees to be procedural and orderly and his main focus is on ensuring that the employees are meeting his set agendas and targets. The checkout manager, just like other authoritarian managers, strictly relies on the hierarchy in that information from the top is normally passed down through the various levels of management until it reaches the person at the bottom.
The Checkout department manager also appears to have somehow instilled fear among his employees in that whenever he communicates to his employees, he insists on the consequences of failure. In this case the managers’ main concern is the results by any means. The employees are normally pushed to observe a strict guideline that has been developed by the management. In most cases the guidelines do not put into consideration the welfare of the workers.
Authoritarian system of management yields results that are in line with the management plan but at times it negatively affects the morale of the workers. The workers tend give in to the pressure of delivering the desired results which may cause high turnover of employees. This is the case at the checkout department, where there is a high turnover of employees since he workers don’t feel that their efforts are appreciated.
Under authoritarian management, the top management instructions or messages are passed down through the various level of leadership in an organization and as such alteration of the messages may occur as the various managers seek to exceed the expectation of the top management. This eventually subjects the employees under immense pressure to deliver and in some cases it influences the quality of services or output of an organization.
The grocery manager on the other hand seem to have adopted an extrovert style of management where he involves the workers or employees in general decision making process. The grocery team, according to the human resource manager appeared to be the most accomplished among all departments she had evaluated. The human resource manager further observed that the management motivated their team by setting them up for future career growth and as such the employees worked hard to ensure they attain the growth.
Under extrovert management system, the manager and the employees normally consult when it comes to anything that affects daily work. This makes the employees to own the process and also improve in terms of efficiency and general hard work. Extrovert managers are normally flexible to adopt new ideas and as such both the management and the employees work to support one another.
This management system may however be ineffective especially when the workers tend to take advantage of the freedom space given to them to do other things that may not be in line with work which may hurt the plans of the organization.
References.
Tanner, O. (2014). The Psychological Effects of Workplace Appreciation and Gratitude. [online] Emergenetics International Blog. Available at: https://www.emergenetics.com/blog/workplace-appreciation-gratitude/ [Accessed 9 Dec. 2018].
Toren, A. (2016). 7 Insights From Psychology Known to Boost Workplace Productivity. [online] Entrepreneur. Available at: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274284 [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].
LaBier, D. (2013). Why Today's Workplace Is so Destructive to so Many People. [online] Psychology Today. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-new-resilience/201306/why-todays-workplace-is-so-destructive-so-many-people [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].
6. What could be causing conflict between the part time and full time employees on the nightshift? How could the nightshift manager try to resolve this?
The main difference between the full time personnel and the part timers is based on the fact that the full timers have their proper job description while the part timers don’t. the problem between these two is basically poor management in that the managers opts to pull a friendly gesture instead of providing leadership to have the work done by everyone. Poor leadership forms part of the reason as to why there is high turnover of employees in this department.
The part time workers appear not to be appreciated by the management since they are not given tasks yet there are so many tasks that need to be undertaken before the store is opened in the morning. In general the division among the night shift workers is basically as a result of failure by the management team to provide leadership and direction.
To rectify this situation, the management should reorganize themselves in terms of the style of management they are to employ in order to bring sanity in the nightshift work force. The managers should promote team work by ensuring that they assign duties to all workers regardless of their employment status and this will assist in reducing the division.
References
Bell, S. (2018). 4 steps to resolving workplace disputes. [online] Seek Insights and Resources. Available at: https://insightsresources.seek.com.au/4-steps-resolving-workplace-disputes [Accessed 8 Dec. 2018].
Lytle, T. (2015). How to Resolve Workplace Conflicts. [online] SHRM. Available at: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/070815-conflict-management.aspx [Accessed 6 Dec. 2018].
Harper, J. (2012). 10 Tips for Tackling the Toughest Workplace Conflicts. [online] https://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2012/07/18/10-tips-for-tackling-the-toughest-workplace-conflicts. Available at: https://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2012/07/18/10-tips-for-tackling-the-toughest-workplace-conflicts [Accessed 5 Dec. 2018].
