Organizational Situations

The Situation
Workers at the company of Kroger do not appear motivated since the outbreak of COVID-19 has increased their workload. They are grumbling about not getting paid more even though more is now expected of them. They are stocking shelves more, cleaning the store more, disinfecting carts, and generally working non-stop from start time to finish, whereas they are used to having some down time and things being more leisurely at work. Management is beginning to notice that employee morale is sinking and workers are beginning to slack. Management wonders what it can do to motivate employees.
Two Lenses
Maslow’s (1943) theory of human motivation and the hierarchy of needs stipulates that people are motivated and become self-actualizing when all their needs are met. These needs include the basic human needs of food, shelter, safety, love and affection, a sense of belonging and esteem, and at the top of the pyramid is self-actualization wherein all lower level needs are satisfied and the person is self-motivated out of a sense of self-worth and a desire to do good and be successful.
Rogers’ (1951) theory of congruence is based on the idea that there is a self-image and an ideal self conception that people have. Rogers (1951) states that congruence occurs when the self-image (how one sees oneself) is brought into alignment with one’s self-ideal (what one wants to be). This in turn creates a fulfilled, motivated individual. To reach that point requires some exploration: Rogers (1951) states that “psychological maladjustment…[is the result of a person] denying awareness of significant sensory and visceral experiences” and that “the best vantage point for understanding behavior is from the internal frame of reference of the individual” (p. 495). Thus one has to get inside the head of the individual to understand how they see themselves and what their ideal self looks like.
Practical Implementation of the Intervention
The best way to understand the needs of the workers is for managers to get engaged by interviewing and surveying them. Requesting feedback from workers will always deliver positive results because it makes workers feel like they are engaged and that their views are valued (Kotter, 2012). The responses will also give managers a better idea of what the workers’ needs are and how to satisfy them. Once basic and lower level needs are satisfied, it will be easier for workers to reach the level of self-actualization where they want to pitch in for the common good.
Discussion
Pros and Cons
The pros of the intervention are that it provides managers with greater ability to connect with workers, understand them and create a bond, which is good for transforming the workers into a motivated force and for improving morale. Workers will feel valued and dignified because managers are showing concern for them. The cons are that this is an intensive intervention and requires a great deal of engagement on the part of managers. However, the benefits are that if managers get engaged with their workers to this high degree the rewards can be great because managers are showing the love to workers and workers will in turn pay it forward to co-workers and to consumers who are shopping there.
References
Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading Change. Harvard Business Review Press.
Maslow, A. H. (1943). A theory of human motivation. Psychological Review, 50(4), 370.
Rogers, C. (1951). Client-Centered Therapy. MA: Riverside Press.
2 Leadership Development
The Situation
The firm needs to improve its pool of leaders to choose from. It wants to promote internally but it does not have any clear indication of which employees would make the best leaders if promoted. Top level management wants to know what it can do to fix the situation. Basically, they are looking for a way to engage in leadership development—they just have no idea how to approach this problem.
Two Lenses
Shanks and Buchbinder (2012) state that “leadership development includes both formal and informal efforts” (p. 279). The big value to look for workers who can be developed into leaders is communication: Communication is the number one competency needed for leaders (Ruben & Gigliotti, 2017). Workers who can be developed into leaders will typically have strong communication skills. They will be interested in talking to others and in sharing and obtaining information. They will show a willingness to want to learn more. To find them managers need to conduct both formal and informal assessments. This means they need to observe workers and note how they behave and they should also survey them to obtain more data on their thought processes and actions when managers are not there to observe.
Practical Implementation of the Intervention
The way to practically implement this intervention is for managers to be very hands-on with their workers so that they get to know them, get to know their characters and attitudes, and get to know how effective they are at communicating. They should take special notice of workers who have high communication skills and are able to demonstrate a penchant for leadership in this manner. They should also survey other managers and all workers for a deeper assessment. This is a very practical intervention that can be conducted without too much difficulty. Workers will appreciate the engagement from managers, as they do not like feeling that their managers are distant and not paying attention to them (Schyns & Schilling, 2013).
Discussion
Pros and Cons
The pros of this intervention are that it allows managers to obtain the information they need to make good decisions about which workers to develop into leaders and which workers lack the basic foundation and traits needed for effective leadership. Communication should be the cornerstone of leadership development and the best way to find out which workers communicate the best is for managers to get engaged with them, talk to them, and survey them and one another. The cons of this intervention are that it is time-intensive and requires a lot of focus on the part of managers. However, this is not necessarily a bad thing and individuals who have leadership traits and characteristics will be grateful that their managers are taking the time to interview them, to learn about their characters, and to give them an opportunity to rise up in the organization. Most workers want such an opportunity and it can create an incentive among workers to improve in their overall skills.
References
Ruben, B. D., & Gigliotti, R. A. (2017). Communication: Sine qua non of organizational leadership theory and practice. International Journal of Business Communication, 54(1), 12-30.
Schyns, B. & Schilling, J. 2013. How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta- analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly, 24, pp.138-158.
Shanks, N. H. & Buchbinder, S. B. (2012). Introduction to health care management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning. 
3 History and Organizational Psychology
Historical events have affected the course of research in organizational psychology by changing the way researchers looked at the field. Psychology was introduced to industry early on in order to help firms improve production and hit goals. Then WWI came and industrial psychology was used to vet new recruits for the military. They found that some men are leaders and some naturally gravitate to being followers (Meacham, 2017). Later studies included the Hawthorne studies which showed the individuals will alter their behavior when they know they are being watched. All of this impacted how industrial psychologists think about their research in the field.
Socialization Process
The socialization process for graduate students in my program consists of meeting one another in class and socializing online on forums and social media. The program is successful in socializing newcomers and creating job embeddedness because it gives people opportunity through social engagements to meet one another and get to know people in the industry.
Reduce Work-Family Conflict
An organization can reduce or prevent work-family conflict by making sure that all employees are getting enough paid leave time, are using vacation time (which should be mandated) and having opportunities to do events with their families. Having family functions is a good way to help bring family and work together in a fun way, such as employee appreciation picnics that workers can bring their families to. Employees should also have access to a family counselor on staff who can help them with family issues if they are occurring.
Evaluate Employee Performance
Murphy’s Law is that anything that can go wrong will go wrong, so one way to conduct an employee assessment is to have face-to-face interviews in which the managers get to know their employees and assess their performance. There is also an opportunity in this way to gauge temperament, which can be a good indicator of whether the employee will make a good leader. The Five Factor theory classifies the personality types as:
1. Extraverted
2. Agreeable
3. Open
4. Conscientious, and
5. Neurotic (Canadas-De la Fuente et al., 2015)
This theory allows the manager to see what the strengths and weaknesses of the personalities of the workers are and whether they would be conducive to leadership roles within the company.
Organizational Constraints that Lead to Counterproductive Behaviors
Organizational constraints that can lead to counterproductive behaviors include leadership struggles and environmental issues, such as lack of access to recreational rooms such as gyms for getting exercise during the workday, poor lighting, too much noise distraction, too little airflow, not enough greenery in the workplace, or too much clutter that can have an adverse effect on worker psychology and morale. All of these issues can be addressed and solved to help make workers feel better in the workplace so that they can be more engaged and productive in their work.
References
Cañadas-De la Fuente, G. A., Vargas, C., San Luis, C., García, I., Cañadas, G. R., & Emilia, I. (2015). Risk factors and prevalence of burnout syndrome in the nursing profession. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 52(1), 240-249.
Meacham, W. (2017). History of industrial and organizational psychology. Retrieved from https://owlcation.com/social-sciences/History-of-Industrial-and-Organizational-Psychology