Managing People at County Medical Society Answering Service - Case Study Example

Managing People at Work Name of Student: Course: University: Table of Contents 1 1 Managing People at Work 1 Introduction 3 Body: Case study Questions 3 Using a motivational theory discussed in this course, advise Grace how she could better understand what is motivating her employees. 3 Group decision-making would be an important area for Grace to develop with her employees. Discuss a group decision-making technique that would assist Grace and her team. 4 Grace needs to become a better leader. Use a leadership theory discussed in this course to advise Grace of how she can develop her leadership skills. 5 Advice Grace of how you believe improving her Emotional Intelligence will help her manage her employees better. 7 Conclusion 8 Managing people at work Introduction Grace is an employee at the County Medical Society Answering Service who, in being diligent and determined at work, earned her promotion from the level of a call handler to a shift supervisor. In the event of her being promoted, her excitement was watered down by the fact that handling her juniors, who are the friends she used to work with, is with time becoming a problem. This report seeks to address the issues Grace is facing in the perspective of presenting counsel in the major areas she should address in order to increase productivity and morale at her work place. Body: Case study Questions Using a motivational theory discussed in this course, advise Grace how she could better understand what is motivating her employees. Motivation, as from its definition is a process that is geared towards the arousal and sustenance of goal-oriented behaviour. Grace currently faces the challenge of demotivated employees at the call station. The manner in which Grace is required to handle the employees calls for prudence since the team that she is handling is composed of people she has previously worked with at the same level. The Expectation theory of motivation would come in handle to aid Grace in creating a long lasting solution to her current quagmire at her work place. The Expectation theory explains motivation on the basis of every individual’s view of the current performance process. It is common knowledge that employees expect to attain some certain level of performance or outcome based on the amount of effort they direct towards the achievement of the tasks they have. This theory is based on three constructs; valence, expectancy and instrumentality. Valence relates to the value placed on a given reward. Expectancy relates to the common belief that effort is directly proportional to performance. Instrumentality relates to the belief that performance is directly proportional to the reward. Grace has in the past had hard times managing the employees at the call centre with her previous attempts to have her work policies adopted to. In the application of this theory, Grace can have a reward set out to have the best employee work forward towards attaining it. The existence of rewards motivates employees to expend more energy on having their effort and performance increase and to outdo their fellow employees. A meaningful reward such as a work break or a good lump sum token would stir up healthy competition at the call centre and all Grace would have to do is to have her new ideologies define the terms under which the best employee has to work by to attain the reward. Group decision-making would be an important area for Grace to develop with her employees. Discuss a group decision-making technique that would assist Grace and her team. Decisions appear to be best for a team if they all take part in making the decision. Individuals are very sensitive to decisions made on their behalf and most will tend to react in a hostile manner when it comes to being required to enact those decisions. Collective decision making is also seen to build synergy in the way people work since they are very observant on who is following the decisions made and who is breaking the decisions. Grace, should focus on a way in which she will involve the call handlers in making the decisions that affect them in such a way that they will be judged from the side that they broke the rules they set. The rationality model could be in this instance used by Grace and her team to define the framework and functionality of the collective decision making processes. The rationality model is based on the logical analysis of alternatives and their accompanying consequences in a defined decision making approach. Grace has her suggestions about how she thinks the work at the call station should be handled and so do the other employee. The conflict arises due to the fact that it is not possible to everyone follow what Grace on her own has decided without having involved the rest of the team in making such a decision. Under the rationality model therefore, a consistent system of preferences is set to be used in the selection of the best alternative. Grace needs to have the team the team involved in the creation of such a system of preferences to be used in selecting the best alternative that suits every employee while maintaining the work objectives at an achievable level. The existence of such a system is good not only for the present moment, but also for the future when the need arises for there to be more changes to be implemented. The rationality model fits in best for this situation simply because it takes care of all available alternatives, thus decisions cannot be solely based on a single person’s perspective of issues. Grace needs to become a better leader. Use a leadership theory discussed in this course to advise Grace of how she can develop her leadership skills. Leading a team of employees requires that one acquires very strong leadership qualities that will come in handy in the steering that team towards the achievement of the set out goals at the work place. Grace has a responsibility to oversee the call handlers’ tasks and still carry on with her own duties without letting either side go unattended at the end of the day. Many leadership theories have been put forward by theorists all of which are bound to breed results on successful application. The path-goal theory of leadership is aimed at creating very able leaders by equipping them with the needed skills to stand in the authoritative positions to make decisions which will be adhered to, while still enabling them to create an amicable atmosphere for interaction with their juniors. Grace’s situation calls for her to hone her leader behaviour styles as per the path-goal theory of leadership. She should be directive, supportive and participative. In addition to this she should be achievement oriented. This goes to complement the Expectancy motivation theory recommended for Grace to use in motivating the employees. The path-goal theory also requires that the leaders define their follower characteristics. Under this section, the leaders should be able to define their authoritarianism and the locus of control which in this case is external. The manner in which Grace is able to establish these characteristics define the manner in which she will have the other employees responding to her directives and proposition at the call station. Grace, after having followed the McClelland need theory of motivation and having managed to create the required work ties, should be in a position. The theory also requires the team leaders to acquire workplace characteristics. They should be in a position to define the work groups, task structures and the authority system. The work situation at the call centre requires that Grace comes up with an organised task force structure that will enable her to monitor progress with a lot of ease and to pass on any messages to the employees from her position of authority. Along with these, the leaders should define follower path perceptions and follower goals. Traditionally, followers are perceived to be passive, but recent development in the mannerisms of effective leadership has seen followership take a more active state. Active followership makes a team leader be perceived to be more of part of the team rather than the authoritarian. The important bit to note about the other sections of this theory is that they are found on the leader behaviour styles. How far a leader can go into being effective in their ways of leadership is rooted in how well they manage to acquire the leadership behaviour styles. Advice Grace of how you believe improving her Emotional Intelligence will help her manage her employees better. Handling people from a point of authority on a daily basis can be emotionally tasking since one has to ensure that they don’t get carried away be emotional spasms. Grace should use the pillars as the basis of improving her emotional intelligence at work, so at to ensure that she does not mishandle her juniors, who are her friends, from reasons that can be directly attributed to a lack of control of her emotions; Self-Assessment Self-Assessment is defined by the possession of the ability to figure out one’s values, weaknesses, strengths, drivers, emotions and having a clear understanding the impact they have on the people we associate with[Bre16]. In order to go to the maximum heights of self-realization, it is required that we build confidence on who we are, something that is based on understanding who we are and why we reason in a given way. Grace direct some effort towards seeing that she assesses herself from a point of one out to understand who they really are and what they are really capable of doing. Self-regulation Self-regulation is in other words termed as discipline. This element involves a person taking control of and redirecting those emotions that we find disruptive and then developing a quick mental strategy that will see us focus on positivity in such a way that we don’t dwell on one point of negativity[Bre16]. Leaders in their place of work do not have the leisure to let emotions drive them around. Emotions are rather contagious and if the leaders manage to pick the right ones, they will for sure pass them to employees. It is an inevitable task for Grace to practice keeping her cool at all times in order to ensure that she does not handle the call handlers inappropriately. Empathy and Compassion Empathy relates to one’s ability to view things from another person’s perspective[Bre16]. With empathy, one is at the liberty to be compassionate. The task is for a leader to associate with the other employees in order to have their perspective of issues. Grace should in this instance develop empathy in order to understand the call handlers and in turn become compassionate to them Relationship Management This elements revolves around maintaining relationships with family members, works and with ourselves in as far as regulating the amount of attention we should give to each is concerned[Bre16]. Grace should be sure to know how to handle her juniors based on her knowledge on how they would respond to her given that she is their friend. Conclusion Grace is faced with a situation that requires her figure out how she can handle her juniors, with whom she previously with on the same level, in a manner that will not affect their friendship or affect productivity. It is thus important for her to seek ways in which she will keep them motivated, involve them in decision making as well as cultivating her leadership skills. On the overall, Grace should manage to have emotional intelligence to enable her to manage her juniors without causing any sort of friction. References Bre16: , (Gleeson, 2016), Read More