Increasing Morale Productivity and Motivation

Motivation in the Workplace Case Study: Acme, Inc

Key Issues

The main issues faced by the employees were being underutilized, bored, and leadership change. Considering the group’s experience and skills, it was surprising that no tasks were assigned to them related to their purpose. Instead, Carol had to find ways to keep them busy because there was no soft skills support needed by the other organization departments. Carol tried her best to ensure the employees did not feel like they were being underutilized, giving them the leeway to interact and collaborate freely. The hands-off approach by Carol was a great motivator because the employees did not feel they had to report and seek permission to collaborate. There was also flexibility in their work, which ensured employees did not have to just do a particular task.

Considering the experience each of the employees had, it was demotivating for them to sit around and do nothing. The employees indicated they wanted to do something productive. The lack of work impacted their productivity, and they felt they were losing their skills, making some of them start looking for other opportunities in different companies.

What is clear is that the need for the internal support group was not adequately communicated to other departments. Carol noted that she did not receive as many calls as she had hoped, indicating before the new team was formed, there was always a constant need to contract services to external parties. Therefore, the expectation was that the same would happen once the group was formed. Without proper internal communication and advertisement of services offered by the team, it became hard for other departments to know the services available and how to utilize the team. The result is the team was idle and only handled small requirements.

When Carol had to leave the team and relocate, Ron was appointed to replace her. Ron did not have the experience to lead such a team, and he further exasperated the team’s issues by demanding to know everything each employee was doing, including timings. Ron was an autocratic leader and having worked in the engineering department, he believed he could use the same approach with the internal support group. According to Caillier (2020) an autocratic leadership style is not flexible and is best suited for areas needing much control. The demand to know what was happening and to control everything that each employee was doing was a morale killer for the employees, who had been used to a hands-off approach and had the freedom to collaborate. Ron’s leadership approach made the employees feel untrusted and less experienced, even though they were all more experienced than Ron.

Morale is a condition of emotional and physical well-being in a person, making it possible for them to live and work effectively and hopefully (Basit et al., 2018). The thoughts and suggestions of the team were not valued by upper management shown by the denial of their request for off-site training and increased advertisement or marketing. Carol denied off-site training when she indicated that funds for training would only be available when the team proved its value to the organization. While that was noble, it was unfortunate that the team did not receive any opportunities to prove its value because there were further restrictions in terms of marketing to other departments. When Ron was appointed to head the group, he further curtailed attempts to increase marketing, stating that the CEO did not want an increase in marketing.

The team’s motivation and morale were further decreased by the appointment of Ron as Internal Support Supervisor. The group had a general consensus that Ron was less experienced, and the CEO did not value the team. If the CEO appreciated the team, he would have hired a more senior and experienced person to lead the group is what the team members believed. Appointing a less experienced person to lead a group of more experienced people than him was never going to be received well by the employees. The demand by Ron for detailed information on what each employee is doing demonstrates his lack of experience and understanding of the team. Therefore, appointing him to lead the team had a negative impact on productivity, and Ron gave the team meaningless work.

Motivation is a vital aspect of any leadership as it influences employees to work towards achieving company goals (Mallik et al., 2019; Paais & Pattiruhu, 2020). The Internal Support Group was not motivated to work because their suggestions were always shut down, and they were not offered opportunities to increase their productivity. Motivation factors differ for each employee, which is evident in the motivation for Berl, where they prefer to just coast and let time pass by so they can have enough 401(k) to retire. The others are passing the time as they search for new opportunities where they will be valued and appreciated.

In addition to a lack of work, the team was further prevented from increasing business by a lack of marketing and advertising of their services. It was noted that the CEO could have done a poor job communicating to the other departments about the need for the team, and change efforts did not incorporate knowledge sharing of what services the group offers. Therefore, most department heads find it hard to request service from the team. Change should be managed appropriately for it to generate the necessary results. Communication is the key to change, and it seems there was a breakdown in communication about the team and the services it offers. There should not have been a need to advertise the team’s services if there had been proper communication regarding the services, reasons for the team, and benefits for the company and employees.