Employee Motivation and Involvement Quiz

Employee Involvement

• Employee involvement is a strategy to enhance quality and productivity.
• Japanese firms successfully adopted employee involvement programs.
• It complements, not replaces, management.
• Involvement aims to achieve organizational goals at all levels.

Chapter Overview

• Introduction
• Motivation
• Empowerment
• Teams/Groups
• Suggestion System
• Constructive Feedback
• Recognition and reward

What is Employee Involvement

• Employee involvement is when workers participate in crucial management discussions.
• It aligns employees with the organization's values and work ethics.
• Employee involvement boosts autonomy to improve performance.

How to Ensure Employee Involvement and Motivation

• Management should understand the vital role of employees in quality improvement.
• Employees are best positioned to identify issues and improvement opportunities.
• Continuous improvement fosters innovation, productivity, and customer satisfaction.
• A conducive environment is crucial for employee involvement.
• Open communication about goals, progress, and achievements is essential.
• Encourage employee autonomy and responsibility to solve problems.

Implement Tools and Processes

• Implementing suitable tools and processes, like ISO 9001 training, is crucial.
• Training in quality improvement methodologies helps in understanding key concepts and applying structured approaches.
• Fostering a continuous learning environment equips employees with essential knowledge and skills for quality improvement.

Measuring the Impact of Employee Involvement

• Measuring the impact of initiatives is vital.
• Key performance indicators reflect quality improvements (e.g., defect rate, customer satisfaction, delivery times).
• Quantifying progress with these measures helps understand the effectiveness of initiatives.
• Employee involvement improves customer satisfaction and organizational performance.

Benefits of Employee Involvement

• Increased Productivity: Employees make calculated decisions, plan their work well, and bring enthusiasm, boosting productivity.
• Enhanced Employee Morale: High morale employees stay motivated and work effectively for organizational goals.
• Healthier and Transparent Relationships: Fosters knowledge sharing and strengthens manager-employee relationships.
• Commitment Towards the Organisation: Employees become loyal and work towards the future of the organization. Employees take initiative for better results, and take responsibility.
• Innovative thinking: Employees become more responsible about their work and push themselves to find better results.

Concept of Motivation

• Individuals must be motivated to achieve desired performance levels.
• Understanding motivational processes helps in understanding why people do what they do.
• The motivational process is positively related to the concepts of aspiration levels, commitment, and inclination towards action. Motivation transforms ability to do into the will to do.
• Definitions by Michael Jucius, James Drive, and P.T. Young are important.

Successful Motivation

• Getting people to do what you want them to do.
• Achieving the desired outcome in the way you want it.
• Motivating employees such that they want to do what is required of them. 

Why Motivate Employees

• High employee turnover is expensive.
• Motivated employees maintain a competitive edge.
• Happy employees keep customers happy.
• High motivation leads to increased productivity and higher output levels.

Motivation Tips

• Positive work environment
• Open communication
• Advancement opportunities
• Fair compensation
• Recognize and reward employees
• Encourage teamwork

Maslow's Need Hierarchy

• Motivation depends on the order of needs an individual wants to satisfy.
• Physiological needs (food, thirst, shelter, companionship) are fundamental.
• Safety needs (protection against danger and threats) follow.
• Social needs (love, affection, belonging) are next.
• Esteem needs (strength, confidence, recognition) are important.
• Self-actualization needs (becoming the best you can be).

Herzberg's Two-Factor Theory

• Hygiene factors (e.g., supervision, working conditions, pay) are essential for avoiding dissatisfaction.
• Motivational factors (e.g., achievement, recognition, challenging work) cause satisfaction.
• Separate groups. Absence of hygiene factors causes dissatisfaction, but presence doesn't cause satisfaction. Presence of motivators causes satisfaction, but absence doesn't cause dissatisfaction.  

Motivation (Employee Wants)

• Management frequently prioritizes good pay.
• Surveys show that pay is often ranked in the middle, regarding importance, for workers.
• Employee wants often reflect Maslow's and Herzberg's theories.
• Manager perceptions may differ from employee wants.

Motivation (What Employees Want)

• A prioritized list of employee wants in terms of importance, according to surveys (interesting job, appreciation, involvement, job security, good pay).

Achieving a Motivated Workforce

• Building a motivated workforce is mostly an indirect process.
• Managers create the environment.
• Employees want to do good work.
• Communication is critical.
• Flexibility is key.

Achieving a Motivated Workforce (Cont.)

• Managers must know themselves and their employees to establish a positive attitude.
• Sharing organizational goals with employees is vital, and they need to be monitored regularly.
• Employees need interesting work, effective communication, and success celebration. 

Benefits of a Motivated Workforce

• Lower absenteeism
• Reduced employee turnover
• Improved relations
• Improved worker performance
• Improved quality and customer service

Empowerment

• Empowering employees is important.
• Employees are motivated when they are given the ability, confidence, and commitment to take ownership and make improvements. 

Empowerment (Examples)

• Provide education, resources, encouragement and remove restrictive policies.
• Promote a trustworthy environment, and share information freely.
• Make the work worthwhile, and train managers in hands-off leadership.
• Train employees on acceptable levels of latitude.

How to Empower Employees in 6 Steps

• Delegate responsibility for manageable projects or tasks.
• Ensure employees understand guidelines, boundaries, and best practices.
• Encourage and value communication.
• Coach employees on their work if difficulties are identified.
• Provide opportunities for professional growth, training, and transitions.
• Support employee development plans.

Empowerment (Conditions)

• Understand the need for change. Fear of change is common.
• Structure the system/processes to reinforce individual or group goals.
• Provide information, education, and the skills needed for success.

Benefits of Employee Empowerment

• Increased Productivity
• Reduced Costs
• Improved Quality
• Competitive Edge
• Better Job Satisfaction and Employee Retention

Barriers to Empowerment

• Incongruent Organizational Culture
• Rigid Control Systems
• Inadequate Delegation of Authority

Empowerment of Women

• Attitudes of those in senior positions, and woman themselves regarding their capabilities; appropriate attitudes and responsibilities are important for success.
• Training for new skills and higher assignments is needed, and organizations should reward excellence without discrimination.

Teams

• Optimized by team use.
• Teams should be empowered.
• Teams are an efficient approach for problem solving.

Definition of Teams/Teamwork

• A team is a group of people cooperating to achieve common goals.
• Teamwork is a cumulative action where team members subordinate individual interests for the group's objective.

Why Teams Work

• Multiple viewpoints contribute to greater expertise for solving problems.
• Team members learn from each other.
• Rapport building leads to higher quality work.
• Enhanced communication improves results.

Types of Teams

• Process Improvement Teams
• Cross-Functional Teams
• Natural Work Groups
• Self-Directed Work Teams

Characteristics of Effective Teams

• Clear purpose
• Informality
• Participation
• Listening
• Civilized disagreements, consensus decisions
• Open communication
• External relations
• Style diversity
• Self-assessment

Functions of Teams

• Identifying the problem
• Defining the problem
• Collecting the data
• Defining the cause
• Devising solutions
• Evaluate and select the best solutions

Team Member Roles

• Teams generally comprise a leader, facilitator, recorder, timekeeper, and members.
• Clear roles and responsibilities for all team members are crucial for success.

Effective Team Meetings

• Regular meetings are needed.  
• Meetings must have well-developed agendas, focusing on past meeting feedback; and a logical sequence.  
• Evaluation by participants is necessary for improvement.

Stages of Team Development

• Identifying stages of development in teams helps managers understand team performance  for improved performance. They help avoid unrealistic objectives.

Stages of Group Development

• Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing, Mourning are the typical stages of group development.

Groups and Teams - Impact on Effectiveness

• Groups can achieve several positive outcomes: enhance performance, improve working environments, create flexible leadership, improve customer satisfaction, and give a competitive edge. 

Consequences of Group Cohesiveness

• Factors leading to group cohesiveness include size, effective management of diversity.
• Group cohesiveness has consequences and these include level of participation, level of conformity to group norms, and the emphasis on the accomplishment of group goals.

Correct Team Attitudes

• Have courage
• Be eager to learn
• Shared responsibility is essential for leadership
• Teamwork is critical for effectiveness
• Problem-solving is a core element
• Collective accountability is vital.

Common Barriers to Team Progress

• Insufficient training
• Incompatible rewards/compensation
• First-line supervisor resistance
• Lack of planning
• Lack of management support
• Access to information systems
• Lack of union support 

Suggestion System

• Designed to involve employees in organizational activities
• Functions effectively with a robust foundation in TQM for improved organizational activities; and with strong top management encouragement.

Suggestion System - Definition

• A formal mechanism to encourage employee suggestions to improve the organization; to gather, analyze, and implement ideas for valuable outcomes for the organization and its customers.

Aims of a Suggestion System

• Promote organizational growth
• Improve morale
• Improve quality/customer performance
• Promote personal growth 
• Engagement by employees

Goals of a Suggestion System

• Tangible and intangible results
• Improved job performance
• Development of employee skills
• Development of the organizational structure

How to Formulate a Good Quality Suggestion

• Locate a problem
• Investigate the problem
• Examine/evaluate the problem
• Devise a solution
• Weigh feasibility
• Fill out the Suggestion Form
• Submit the Suggestion

Benefits of a Suggestion System

• Improves employees’ own work and the work environment.
• Engages and empowers employees.
• Creates ownership and trust.
• Fosters teamwork.
• Enhances communication between employees and managers.

Approaches to Suggestion Systems

• Bottom-up approach (employee initiated) and high participation
• Top-down approach (management initiated) and low participation 

Scope of Suggestions

• Acceptable suggestions relate to work improvements, savings on resources, process enhancements, tool or equipment improvements, and safety improvements.
• Matters that are out of scope include company policy, compensation, disputes, grievances, criticism without constructive reasoning, jobs under supervisor instructions.  

Suggestion System (Rules)

• Consistent and frequent requests for suggestions.
• Reducing fear of suggestions; focus on process not individuals.
• Easy-to-understand and follow suggestion process.
• Swift and constructive responses to suggestions.
• Recognize and reward contributions effectively.

Constructive Feedback

• Face-to-face conversation to address employee performance issues.
• Obtaining facts related to the issue is crucial.
• Provide direction to resolve the issue.

Why Provide Feedback

• Improves employee performance and behaviors.
• Reduces employee anxiety.
• Makes evaluation less of a surprise.
• Enhances employee-employer relationships.

Barriers to Feedback

• Uncomfortable for those giving and receiving.
• Fear of confrontation.
• Lack of employee receptivity.
• Past experiences with feedback.
• Uncertainty regarding how to provide and receive feedback effectively and properly.
• Lack of time. 

More Barriers to Feedback

• Uncertain goals or behaviors.
• Questions regarding whether the observed behavior is a problem.
• The task is not part of the employee's job responsibilities, or not important enough.
• Insufficient time.  

Effective Feedback Criteria

• Specify behavioral issues
• Provide feedback in a timely manner
• Focus on behavior not generalizations.
• Frame feedback descriptively, avoiding evaluation.

Recognition & Rewards

• Organizational success depends on satisfied and motivated employees.
• Reward and recognition can enhance satisfaction and motivation.
• The four elements of Recognition and Rewards are praise, opportunity, respect, and thank you.
• Rewards can be intangible or tangible.

Recognition & Rewards (Implementation)

• Employees should be involved in designing and implementing recognition and reward programs.
• Cross-functional teams can improve program administration.
• Understanding and review of the system is essential for lasting employee motivation.

Characteristics of Successful Reward Programs

• Senior management support and involvement
• Employee/manager participation
• Simple and easy to administer
• Tailor rewards to individual needs
• Align rewards with achievements
• Effective communication
• Be timely and specific
• Ensure understanding by employees. 

Worth Remembering

• Compensation is a right, recognition is a gift.
• People value recognition and praise more than money.