Job_Redesign_and_Workplace_Rewards

Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Assessment Mary Oxendine Human Motivation / PSY320 May 31, 2010 Mary Sue Farmer Job Redesign and Workplace Rewards Assessment ABC Petroleum, Incorporated has been in business forty-five years and has remained family-owned. The company consists of 50 employees, including the owner and president. ABC Petroleum includes the main office which sells liquid petroleum gas (lp gas) and products that use lp gas to residential customers and businesses. It sells fuel to convenience stores and farms, and owns and operates four convenience stores. The company also leases one convenience store and has an un-manned fueling site. Philosophy on Goal-Setting, Rewards, and Performance Evaluations The company’s philosophy on goal-setting is to set the goals but never check to see if the goals have been attained or what the status is on the goals. Workplace rewards have been thought about, but never followed through with. Performance evaluations are not performed unless an issue arises which constitutes termination. The lack of rewards negatively impact productivity. A “thank you” or “good job” would be an appreciated positive reward. Job Productivity and Satisfaction The company expects the job productivity to excel; however, productivity lacks when too many responsibilities are handled by one person. When the employee is overwhelmed, it causes the employee to be dissatisfied with his or her job and things not completed on time. The position of customer service representative should include handling customers, such as answering phone calls, waiting on customers at the front counter, running credit report, setting up schedules to do installations or other service work, entering delivery tickets, running past due accounts, and collections. However, with ABC Petroleum, in addition to those responsibilities, the position includes selling appliances, selling road fuel to other convenience stores, handling paperwork for road fuel product sold, managing fueling site, inputting rack prices, entering accounts receivable, deposits, keeping handwritten lists of everything, managing servicemen, and any other responsibility that needs to be handled immediately. The employee is so overwhelmed that job satisfaction is near zero and productivity causes enormous stress to complete. Job Redesign Redesigning job positions can have mixed effectiveness. Some employees may resent having certain duties removed or they may even resent having new duties added to an already hectic set of responsibilities. However, a study published by Personnel Psychology in 2006, showed there was positive effect on three performance behaviors. These behaviors were effort, skill usage, and problem solving. In order to redesign this position, extra personnel should be hired to split the workload in half. The customer service representative should handle all responsibilities that relate to residential customers, such as waiting on customers at the counter, entering tickets, running credit reports, setting up new accounts, running past dues, scheduling service work and new installations, and collections, and answering phones. Of course, all other employees will assist during heavy winter season. It appears that the job position is still somewhat extensive; however, all these responsibilities are part of a good customer service representative (CSR) in a business such as this. A good CSR is able to handle these responsibilities and give excellent customer service, on the phone and in person. The problem with redesigning a job position is cost. When redistributing work assignments, the company may have to hire additional employees to take the work load that is being removed from the customer service representative. Depending on the difficulty of the tasks, it may take longer to train new employees. This will keep the CSR doing everything until the new employee is properly trained, which now puts two employees on the payroll instead of one. Workplace Rewards As stated previously, there are no positive rewards currently at ABC Petroleum. Therefore, a research of appropriate workplace rewards is a great place to start and to recommend to ABC Petroleum, Incorporated. Roxanne Emmerich has written an article about motivating employees during tough times. She state that there are four essential elements of leadership during hard economic times. They are build empathy, get past “ain’t it awful” syndrome, focus on making a difference, and recognize the steps along the way. These steps are important because the employee’s motivation is low and management’s focus is in many different directions (2001). She also wrote Ten Commandments of Workplace Motivation. These ten rules are as follows: * Build self-respect * Be clear and direct * Show respect * Live integrity * Be fair * Value and reinforce ideas * Give employees what they want * Give immediate feedback * Reinforce the right things * Serve others. Most of the above are common sense. To be able to motivate employees, the manager must demand respect and freely give respect. This policy will motivate the employees and will be the best reward the employees receive. Another reward could be employee empowerment. The company gives the employee ownership of his or her position by accepting ideas and comments from the employee. Employees need to be stroked in some form to become satisfied with their job. A “thank you”, a pat on the back, and even some sort of financial reward are great ways to motivate and reward the employees. Conclusion ABC Petroleum, Incorporated has been in business for a long time. Of the 50 employees, two have been with the company well over 10 years. These employees are self-motivated and are determined to get the job done at all costs. The company’s philosophy on setting goals, rewarding employees, and performance evaluations vary depending on which owner you speak to. The only time a performance evaluation is given is when there is a problem. ABC Petroleum would benefit tremendously from learning about and implementing the information contained in the text by J. Reeve, Understanding Motivation and Emotion. References Emmerich, R. (Oct. 2001) Motivating employees during tough times. October, 2001. The CPA Journal. Retrieved from the Internet on May 18, 2010 Morgeson, F., Johnson, M., Campion, M., Medsker, G., Mumford, T., (20069). Understanding Reactions to job redesign. Personnel Psychology. Durham: Summer 2006. Vol.59, Iss. 2; pg. 333, 31 pgs. Retrieved from ProQuest on May 27, 2010. Reeve, J. (2009) Understanding motivation and emotion, 5th ed. John Wiley & Sons, Inc.