Evaluating HRD Programs And Employee Socialization
Develop a post in response to the discussion question chosen. Post must contain 400–500 original words and adhere to the following: Include an analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of the topic. Include a reference and in-text citations for the course textbook. Include a reference and in-text citations for at least one article from a peer-reviewed journal, published within the past five years. Include a reference and in-text citations for the Bible. Include an assessment/analysis of your Christian worldview as it relates to the topic. Include both in-text citations and references in APA format. Utilize correct English, grammar, spelling, and punctuation. Include clear topic sentences for each paragraph, supporting sentences, and a conclusion sentence/paragraph.
QUESTION CHOSEN: Identify and describe at least 3 ethical considerations in conducting evaluation research. How do these factors affect the evaluation effort?
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The Impact of Teamwork on Employee Performance in Strategic Management and the Performance Improvement Department of Abu Dhabi Police, UAE
Abstract
The structures in the community are organized around the government, business, and non-profit organizations. The three sectors in any economy must correlate and work together for the welfare of the society. However, the environment today is changing and there is considerable concern about the effectiveness of the non-profitable organizations, which may lack the capacity and technical expertise to keep up with the change and there by contribute to an enriched and healthy quality of life. According to Sporeen & Holloway (2004), many non-profit making organizations are fragile and they are responsible for many responsibilities in the society. Many at times, they fail to meet their responsibilities because their financial and other resources are limited. As the environment changes, the demand for the community based services increases, more new needs are identified than there were before as new paradigms for exchange and interactions are identified. The organizations operating a non-profit are challenged by devising new modes of dealing with the specific challenges that come with the changing environment. According to Graen, (2003), the organizations can overcome these challenges if they formulate new corporate strategies to manage their employees, the strategies should involve all employees in the organizations. This calls for teamwork and capacity building.
The Impact of Teamwork on Employee Performance in Strategic Management and the Performance Improvement Department of Abu Dhabi Police, UAE
Critchley, Edwards and Fallon (2007) notes that the activities of organization are becoming complex daily with the advance in technology and there is need for participation of more than one individual. Many big organizations both profitable and non-profit making are increasing their training and teamwork activities in order to boost their performance. Many obstacles to teamwork have to be overcome for success and effective performance. Such obstacles emerge from the environment and the advancing technology. Also include are the conflicts among employees and the strategy formulation in organizations. Teamwork enables organization to overcome these obstacles through consultation and sharing of ideas. For success, the team participants must possess some skills and abilities that can enable them to perform their duties pertaining to the tasks of the group. Where such skills and abilities are limited, organizations have to train the employees and impart in them the specific needed skills. Teamwork is important to the organization because it helps the organization improve its performance through cooperation and participation.
Strategic management is another important aspect of the management that contributes to effective teamwork. Without proper strategies, the team will lack important tasks to execute hence the lag in the performance of the whole organization. Strategic management should treat teamwork as an independent strategy in ADP and therefore strengthen teamwork in all departments for the effective performance of the individual employees and the whole organization. This will involve strategic planning on how to improve teamwork in ADP through training and increased communication and interpersonal skills.
This study is important because it undertakes to study the effectiveness of teamwork as a strategy to increase the performance of employees in the Abu Dhabi Police as a nonprofit making organization. The study begins by the introduction, which highlights the aims and objectives of the study as well as the background to the study problem. It proceeds to the review of previous literatures on teamwork and performance, methodology, data analysis and findings and discussions of the study. The study ends by providing recommendation to ADP for effectiveness of teamwork for its employees and the whole organization.
The Abu Dhabi Police (ADP) is amongst the most challenged organizations in UAE. The police are also one of the most diverse forces where effectiveness, focus, and objective orientation are essential. Based on this, the Strategic management and Performance improvement (SM&PI) Department in ADP considers that the employees should have the capability as well as confidence to deal with critical issues that characterize their work. Most important, performance is crucial because any sloppiness could have adverse consequences on the community as a whole (Grant, 2004). The kind of work that police officers do requires them to work together in groups for them to be successful. Teamwork is so critical that in some cases it determines survival of the organization.
Teamwork in the organization has great significance for more than one reason. Organizations that have embraced this concept have reported increased problem solving, employee autonomy and increased performance in work production stimulating new growth. When managed well, this group project approach has increased input by improving employee morale. Teamwork is said to have benefits, which can make a positive impact in the organization. Changes in today’s business world have made teamwork a reality in organizations, as knowledge sharing is crucial for success. Employees, managers, as well as executives have to share information. In addition, because of the complexity of operations as well as proliferation of knowledge in various fields, it is essential for employees at all levels to have the opportunity work as teams and learn from each other for them to generate innovative solutions to organizational, efficiency and operational issues (Wilson, 2008).
Performance has to focus on team performance as it allows corporation more than competition. The performance of any organization is dependent on employees and how they work. This is in turn dependents on whether there is an organizational culture that promotes a high work performance culture particularly within the top and line management through teamwork. To understand the role of teamwork on employee performance, a case study will be conducted in which the researcher will assess the impact of teamwork on employee performance in the SM&PI department of ADP. Semi-structured interviews and unstructured questionnaires will be used to collect data, which will be analyzed using thematic analysis. The findings will be validated using multiple perspectives.
This study is not aimed at asserting the already written and existing literature on the impact of teamwork on employee performance in strategic management in non-profit-making organizations. Neither does it intent to set a new way that is right but it investigates the extent to teamwork affects positively the performance of employees in non-profit making organizations, especially the Abu Dhabi Police. The goal of the study is to establish the impact of teamwork on the Employees Performance in Strategic Management and Performance Improvement Department in Abu Dhabi Police in the UAE. In order to fulfill this goal, the study seeks to fulfill the following specific objectives of the study.
Objective 1 – To identify the kind of support and guidance that is required by teams from the organization’s management for effective team performance;
Objective 2 – To evaluate team effectiveness in terms of team autonomy, job satisfaction and performance.
Objective 3 – To identify the benefits of teamwork as well as problems suffered by teams as far as performance is concerned within the Strategic management department In ADP.
The objectives and the goal of the study will be attained is the study answers the following research questions:
What are the components of teamwork that are relevant in non-profit organizations such as ADP and specifically the strategic management department in the organization? How does it encourage teamwork as a strategy for employee performance in the strategic department in ADP?
Determine the link between teamwork as a strategic policy of the strategic department in ADP given the fact that it is a non-profit making organization.
Establish the effectiveness of teamwork on employee autonomy, job satisfaction and the performance of the employees in the strategic department in ADP.
This study is about the impact of teamwork as a strategic management tool in non-profit making organization on the performance of employees. The study seeks to fulfill the hypothesis that teamwork as a strategic management tool affects positively the performance of employees in non-profit making organizations such as the police (Adobor, & Daneshfar, 2006). The vital issues that this dissertation will consider will be centered on the impact of teamwork as a strategy in management to be employed by non-profit making organizations in order to improve employee performance. This will involve the analysis of teamwork as a strategy used in management in Abu Dhabi Police and its impacts on the performance of employees in the organization.
This study is important because it examines the impacts of The Impact of Teamwork on the Employees Performance in Strategic Management and Performance Improvement Department in Abu Dhabi Police in the UAE. Many non-profit making organizations usually operate with or without teamwork. However, the organizations know little of the importance of teamwork on the performance of employees in non-profit making organizations. As a form of strategic management, teamwork is an important strategy to use and apply in today’s modern flexible workforce because it can enable the organization improve the performance of the employees hence the overall performance of the organization. This study makes it clear as to why many profitable organizations encourage teamwork and why it is important for non-profit making organizations to emulate their profit making organization to achieve more.
This study seeks to use a case study as one of its methods in studying the study phenomena. The case study undertaken by the researcher is the Abu Dhabi Police as a non-profit making organization. This study is important to the organizations since it enables the organization understand the importance of teamwork as a strategy for strategic management and improving the performance of employees in non-profit making organizations such as the ADP. The research will help the strategic department in ADP to know the basic strategic management principles regarding teamwork and the employees’ performance.
Abu Dhabi Police was established in January 1957 late H.H. Shaikh Shakhbut Bin Sultan Al Nahayan , who was the first president of the State of Abu Dhabi and the elder brother of late H.H. Shaikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahayan, the establisher of the United Arab Emirates. Shaikh Shakhbut aim was to build a strong dependent government that provides security and peace to the country. ADP was formulated with very humble techniques (Strategic Plans, 2010). The very beginning duties were to watch and guard some areas like Ruler’s Palace, markets, banks and the boats coming from other countries. There were two police officers assigned to each location. There were at that time around 80 police officers. Coast Guards Unit in ADP was established in 1960 and in 1962; the first batch of Patrols was established. The first Police Music Band was set in 1963. These are the main steps in the establishment dates of ADP.
Abu Dhabi Police mission is to work in a cooperative environment to provide a safe and secured society, contains no crimes or other types of law breaking. The society we are seeking is stable and insures to keep the public’s rights. Its vision is to set up a professional and effective police staff whose main goal is to keep the community safe and free if crimes and to spread confidence among people. They are also seeking to build an efficient organization, concerned with motivating and training. It supports learning and new technologies (Strategic Plans, 2010).
The ADP has policies that are set up on finding problems in local policing and solving it. In fact, their policies are based on problem solving strategy, in order to continuously improve performance and quality service to achieve their main goal, which is insuring safety and security for community and diminish the crimes. Local policing is supporting decision-making and resources allocating, whereas Headquarters departments and sections are sustaining local policing through dedicated services and consultation. In addition, it emphasizes on community services through the improvement of their strategies, policies, and strategy’s standards and supervises the outcomes and performance progress.
In order to emphasize cooperation strategy, Abu Dhabi Police has established a service for reporting accidents and crimes occurrence. They had published their telephone numbers to make it easier for the people to find it. People can even report on missing things or people via Internet or newspaper. They have an advanced web site that enables citizens to interact with the police. Through this step, they are emphasizing people to cooperate with them and to trust them. Abu Dhabi Police also includes traffic and vehicle licensing. They are responsible for granting driving licenses and checking the state of the vehicles and its safety quality. Moreover, they provide instant help in case of car accidents or car break down, as there are many police patrols all over the city streets. A person can perform lot of services online, like registering new vehicle, apply for a new driving license or a replacement for a lost one, renewing the licenses, inquire about the fines or any other information, and pay the fines. Furthermore, they made special section for recruitment and applying for jobs. ADP has supplied toll free numbers for reporting or providing suggestions, in addition to the Call Back Service. They are well known to the Follow up System used.
After implementing new strategies and the amazing changes applied to the ADP management, the new approach focuses on involving the community with their processes. This style will develop security awareness among the people and therefore will encourage them to participate with the police to fight crimes and preventing them. With the assistance of the local community, the police’s duties become easier to perform since this cooperation aids them in dealing with the community and understand their needs and problems (Strategic Plans, 2010). Therefore, the police will be more capable of facing crimes and validating secured community. Continuous communication between ADP and his or her local community supports security awareness among the society and calls the attention that security is every person’s responsibility.
ADP has realized that in order to apply a good change strategy, the computer, and technology systems should be improved. Applying new techniques to the Police departments is essential to help in investigation services and problem solving. That is why they asked the aid of other developed police systems worldwide, like the British systems. ADP has installed advanced databases to keep their data organized and well managed to keep track of the data and the ease of getting them. Through researches, it has been found that a very famous innovation in police management field was the Compstat system, which is the computer comparison statistics that was applied in the New York City in the 1990s by former Commissioner William Bratton. Compstat is an interesting model of applying new techniques to the police systems. In order to realize its innovation strategies, the ADP receives technical tools and systems like uniform Criminal Information System, The Eye Scan System, The closed televised surveillance system, The Patrol Mechanical Information System and Mechanical Alarm System. Despite the employment of these important strategies, there is dire need for cooperation among the many employees of the organizations for effectiveness of the organization in achieving its set objectives. Therefore, the one important strategy missing is the management strategy to promote teamwork and cooperation among employees.
Chapter 1 introduction; this chapter introduces the research by giving the objectives of the study after establishing the background of the Strategic Management & performance improvement Department in ADP.
Chapter 2 Literature review; this chapter reviews the past literature concerning the teamwork, strategic management, and employee performance in non-profit making organizations. Both theoretical and empirical literature will be reviewed with findings on the study topic being provided.
Chapter 3 Research methodology; this chapter outlines the various methodologies that the study employs in collecting data and the analysis of the collected data. The study design, methodology, qualitative and sampling techniques are highlighted in addition to the validity, reliability, and limitations of the study.
Chapter 4 this chapter analyzes the data collected on the impact of teamwork as a strategy employed in strategic management on the performance of employees in non-profit making organizations. The responses to the questionnaire and interview questions are analyzed and discussed in this chapter. In addition, the findings regarding the performance of the employees in relation to teamwork are discussed.
Chapter 5 Conclusion; this is the last chapter of the study that concludes the research by making conclusions regarding the fulfillment of specific objectives of the study based on the findings of the study.
Chapter Six recommendations; the recommendations based on the findings of the research are related to strategies on how to improve the performance of employees basing on the application of teamwork to ADP. Moreover, recommendations on further research are provided and conclusion given basing on the findings of the study.
Teamwork: according to Jenner, Foote and Zhao (2010), several people have defined teamwork differently. However, though the views slightly differ, the organization of work using teamwork can be defined as a wide range of possibilities such as quality work, cross-functional teams, self-managing teams, or virtual teams. Many employers usually provide autonomy together with teamwork. A distinctive feature of teamwork is the successive work actions to assemble different parts of the product. In places where the aim is to improve the process of production, teamwork is more of complexity, increase in communication and integrative work. However, for the purposes of this study, a team will be used to mean Group(s) of employees who have at least some collective tasks and where the team members are authorized to regulate mutually the execution of these collective tasks’ (Critchley, Edwards & Fallon, 2007).
Strategic management: according to Graen (2003), strategic management refers to the process by which the decision making organ of an organization envisions the future of the organization and they develop the necessary procedures and operations to achieve that anticipated future.
Both profit and non-profit making organizations are finding teamwork very important in their operations and especially in employee performance and the overall performance of the organizations. Many organizations that have established the culture of teamwork do operate with high quality, speed and are more economical in their operations. According to Aichouni (2005), man is unable to live on his efforts alone and he therefore requires the help of a fellow man. Consequently, teamwork in many organizations is as important as the mutual interactions of man. A secure and friendly work environment is not a condition within itself for forming progressive teamwork. Politeness and respect are the first conditions for successful advancement of the team. However, they do not characterize teamwork (Thamhain, 2008). The important values of teamwork are communication, conflict resolution, and cooperation among employees.
Wilson, (2008) define a team as a group of people carrying out work collectively. Success in the work done is achieved if a good team is chosen. In course of executing duty, the individual members of a group that forms a team should have a common goal towards success. The qualities of a good team are capable, intelligent, communicative individual with a clear understanding of the problem at hand would like to cooperate in order to solve the problem as a team. The team should achieve the intended goal as a team and not as individual members of the team. According to Levy (2005), this is the right path to success. There is a connection between teamwork and looking for ideas such as problems and conflict solving ideas. These factors are interconnected and dependent on each other and therefore cannot be separated. In this regard, communication and cooperation are common and present everywhere. These can be depicted in figure 1 below.
Ideas in the teamwork: every member in the team is important. Ideas in the teamwork involve the collection of ideas from the team members in order to achieve the group goal. Ideas can be collected in the team through brainstorming sessions where participants state their ideas as they are noted down.
Teamwork and conflict resolution: teamwork is an effective means of solving conflicts in an organization. The conflict or problem at hand can be subjected to the views of the participants whose solutions to the problem differ. Conflicts are many and may arise from the steps towards achieving of the given a group goal or the members in the team can disagree on the goal itself. According to Russell (2005), there is no necessity of the team to solve the problems to be performed by a group of individuals. However, the synchronization of individuals, mutual adaptation and co-operation are necessary for solving problems. In addition, the main goal of teamwork is to solve problems. The diversity of the group members means that there are many different opinions concerning the solutions to the problems as the individuals. In order to arrive at the best solution, the team settles of the optimal solution to the problem at hand (Hesselbein & Shinseki, 2004).
According to Leedy and Ormrod (2005), conflicts regarding the given solution to the problem are important because it enable the team to come up with a better solution. A never-ending circle in the diagram means that whenever the group is trying to solve the problem, other problems come up.
Fog 1
Source: Rupar, B & Rupar, M (n.d), Importance of teamwork for non-profit organizations
For an optimal solution to be reached, the group should let go the conflicts and arrive at optimal solution to the problem.
Solving problems: this involves ideas that can solve a problem. The solution on the problem is obtained from the ideas obtained from the participants. For the success of teamwork, mutual-cooperation and communication among team members is very important. For participants to adjust, they need to communicate and cooperate. Schroeder & Lombardo (2004), argues that without communication and mutual cooperation, teamwork is unsuccessful. The communication used in teamwork can be either verbal or non-verbal. Through teamwork, the management of an organization can establish the goals of the organization regarding specific aspects with the help of teamwork. Graen (2003) add that effective teamwork can be achieved through motivation of the participants. Successful teamwork leads to quality work and better organizational operations with increased success at all levels of the organization (Linden, 2002).
Many organizations have adopted teamwork in their operations making it to be very valuable. According to Critchley, Edwards and Fallon (2007), teamwork is used in both profit as well as non-profit organizations. The failure of some companies to employed teamwork in their daily operations can be attributed to fear and mistrust of employees during the implementation of new methods of work in the organization. Teamwork is developed through five phases as indicated below.
Team development
Source: Rupar & Rupar, (n.d) Importance of teamwork for non-profit organizations
The first phase involves the formation of a group through the introduction f new members. The new members get to know each other about the problem at hand that united them. According to Boaden and Leaviss (2000), many ideas are put forth in this phase, in which based on adapting in the following phase must be adjusted. Consensus and the voice of the majority must be adhered to in the third phase. The participants must realize the common goal and therefore the idea for their membership. The third phase is the most demanding and the most important. As the realization phase approaches, the participants realize that they need to arrive at an optimal solution to the problem. King (2004) notes that the participants must be careful while negotiating the optimal solution so that they do not lose the support of other members because they will be of importance in the last phase of assuming responsibilities. According to Flick, et al. (2004), the working team should be maintained as a team for success and attainment of the necessary goals. Therefore, successful development of a team means a continuous process.
According to Creswell (2007), teamwork is essential to the success of any organization. Productive teamwork can energize the entire strategic department in ADP while the negative effects of teamwork can cripple the department hence entire organization. An organization can succeed if it knows how to select the right team that can work effectively well through cooperation and teamwork. Michalisin, Karau, and Tangpong (2004) adds that knowing how to select the right members of a team is important because no matter how hard a group might work together, without the right people on the job, the team will fail. Teamwork is important for every member of the team including the team leaders and individual members.
Every organization that looks forward to recruiting long-term effective team members should have a positive corporate culture that is open and invigorating. The members of a team can thrive well in an environment of creative work and challenges. According to Rouse & Boff (2005), destructive organizational climate that is characterized by high turnover, distrust, negative attitudes, and negative attitudes usually lead to high employee turnover in such organizations or they make their employees products of destructive organizational culture. Despite being the responsibility of every group member in the organization, the positive corporate culture should come from top management of the department down to the small groups of individuals in the organization.
It is the responsibility of the management to apply teamwork as part of the strategic management in the organization. According to Creswell (2007), a management can foster good corporate culture in several ways such as ensuring that the team has clear expectations, provisions of authority to team members on execution of decisions as required and supporting and backing up the decisions made by the team members.
2.2.2.2 Recognition
This is an important part of the success of a team. The team members usually search for recognition. Delarue and De Prins (2004) argue that the department of strategic management should positively recognize the members of the various teams in the department. Positive recognition entails recognizing outstanding performance, continued performance, and improved performance.
2.2.2.3 Positive feedback
The results of a team are measured against the feedback received. Therefore, without feedback, the team is unable to measure the results of its efforts. With no feedback, confusion will characterize the activities of a team and make them miss their expectations as they produce so many disappointments. The growth of a team depends on the frequency of feedback concerning the performance of the team. According to U.S. Army (2010), feedback should be provided on a regular basis. In addition to the above, there is also the provision of opportunities for employees.
Strategic management was first used in the 1970s to mean the strategic planners or strategic programs of an organization. However, as time passed on, the business environment changed forcing the strategic management also to change. In the 1990s, the strategic plan and strategic management of an organization were much different from before. Strategic management is the process by which an organization through its management drafts, implements and evaluates cross-functional decisions that enable the organization to achieve its long-term objectives. It entails the process of specifying the mission, its vision, objectives, and the development of the various strategies to achieve the objectives of the organization. In addition to that, policies and plans to achieve that are designed to achieve the specified firm objectives (Thompson, & Thompson, 2009). Also included in the strategic management process are the implementation process and the evaluation of the success of the strategies used. The evaluation on the performance of the organization usually involves the use of tools like a balanced scored card and benchmarking. In this case, the evaluation process analyzes the financial records of the strategic department and the strategies used. After successful evaluation, the department will know whether to change its strategies, mission, and objectives or not (Thompson, & Thompson, 2009).
According to Levi (2007), strategic planning is a prelude of strategic management and it follows that for strategic planning to be effective, it must be followed by deployment and implementation of the plan and the evaluation of the action plan. Strategic management is a system’s approach to identifying and making the necessary changes while measuring the performance of an organization towards the attainment of the desired goal. Strategic management goes beyond the development of the strategic plan. It involves the deployment and the implementation of the strategic plan of an organization (Jenner, Foote & Zhao, 2010). Deployment means the completion of the strategic plan and making it known to every member of the organization. The implementation of the strategic plan involves the resourcing the plan and putting it to action as well as managing the actions. The monitoring and evaluation of the plan involves tracking down the implementation of the plan and assessing how well the department is changing due to the implemented plan and using the information obtained to update the plan while avoiding deviations from the normal (Russell & Ryan, 2009).
Strategic management is comprised of five facets that include goal setting, analysis, strategy implementation, and strategy monitoring. These facets are the basic elements of the strategic management and when they are applied, they distinguish strategic management from less comprehensive approaches such as operational management or long term planning.
Source: Scribner, S 2010, Introduction to strategic management
Goal setting: this element of strategic management enables the department to articulate its vision. Through its execution, the department can identify what needs to be accomplished, define the objectives of the department in the short term and in the long term, and relate the objectives to what is to be done in the strategic department. It this section the department also provides its mission statement summarizing its purpose and goals.
Analysis: this guides the department to collect and consider information it fully understands. The analysis part can enable the ADP to assess its external environment and internal environment and identify its weaknesses, strengths, opportunities and threats that the department faces as it tries to meet its goals. Through such an analysis, the department can opt to capitalize on its strengths and available opportunities in the environment to meet its goals and objectives.
Strategy formation: according to Ruiz and Bianey (2004), the department can determine and develop a strategy by reflecting and prioritizing options. After its development, the department needs to make the right decisions and review the analysis as it reviews also the issues to be addressed while prioritizing them in terms of urgency and magnitude. The results obtained should help the department to design an alternative strategy while addressing key strategy issues.
Strategy implementation: for the implementation of the strategy, there is need of the department to assemble the required resources and apply them in the implementation process. The plan that is carefully chosen should be put into practice. Moreover, the necessary commitment should also be used as the strategic department taps into excess capacity or build new capacity and seek to achieve better and higher results as per the goals (Valle & Witt, 2001).
Strategy monitoring: this allows the strategic department to check the progress made towards attaining the goals set while assessing whether any changes in the environment necessitate alterations to the strategy. Plans and actions should be modified to adjust the strategy to the impacts of the changes in the environment. When monitoring is effective, the strategic department is able to react and anticipate. According to Pfaff and Huddeleston (2003), monitoring provides feedback to management for the analysis, strategy design, and implementation they conducted.
According to Daniels & Macdonald (2005), strategic planning and strategic management are a set of tools used by the management. They constitute a mindset of, an approach to look at the internal and external changes in an organization that can help the strategic department to achieve its goals and objectives. The use of planning and management tools strategically involves thinking essentially, mental framework and analytic tools. Strategic management requires the management have strategic mentality for success. Daniels & Macdonald (2005) adds that strategic mentality has four main elements that include:
Strategic approach is future oriented. It considers environmental change. The use of this approach enables managers to focus on a specific period in future, thus have going concern. The strategic focus has also an external emphasis. According to Cruz et al. (2009), there are several components found in the external environment that strategic approach takes into account such a politics, technology, economics and social aspects. Strategic thinking by management considers that these components are important while making business decisions. Politics for example determines the policies to be implemented, economics the organization’s level; of resources to be employed in projects while social factors can determine the benefactors of the products of the organization. Managers consider these external factors while making strategies to meet long term and short-term goals of the strategic department (Leedy & Ormrod, 2005).
Strategic approach also concentrates on assuring good fit between the environment and the strategic department while attempting to anticipate the required and assure continued fit. Lastly, the strategic approach is a continuous process that recognizes the need to be open to the changing goals of the department based on the changing factors in the business environment. The process requires monitoring and frequent reviews for feedback on progress.
Strategic management focuses on the both short term and long-term objectives of an organization. Following the future forecast of the position of an organization, the management can formulate goals for the organization. The goals and objectives set will also lead to formulation of specific strategies to achieve the objectives. The management formulates the strategies while the employees implements the strategies formulated by the organization. According to Lavon (2005), the employees also monitor and evaluate the strategies while making the necessary adjustments in case of a change in the working environment.
According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill (2007), the effectiveness of the strategies of the strategic department depends on the employees of the organization. The success of the strategies formulated of the organization will depend on the teamwork exhibited by the employees while executing the various tasks related to the objectives of the strategic management department in ADP. Boaden and Leaviss (2000) notes that the employees working as a team would lead to the success of the organization. Teamwork will give employees morale and motivation to work and achieves the given strategies. Moreover, Rouse & Boff (2005) adds that through teamwork, the employees’ conflicts accompanying the workplace and the issues standing in the way of objective achievement can be effectively solved without difficulties. As Lavon (2005) argued, the labor force today is divers and flexible. The diversity and flexibility of the employees is exploited by big organizations. The employees are involved in decision-making discussions with the management. This is usually made possible through brainstorming sessions where the employees discuss the issues facing them and the organization, hence coming out with perfect solutions to problems and issues. This is only possible with teamwork.
Bacon and Blyton (2006) argue that the success of teamwork in an organization also depends on the organizational culture created by the management. The organizational culture of interpersonal communication and training encourages sharing amongst employees. Such a culture encourages teamwork as compared to conservative cultures where employees are not encouraged to share their experiences and skills. Jenner, Foote and Zhao (2010), warn that for the department to succeed, it must also take teamwork important strategies that can enable it achieve its formulated strategies. When teamwork is taken as a strategy in itself, the strategic department is able to set up mechanisms of cultivating teamwork. It can also set aside resources for training on important teamwork skills.
The senior leaders of the strategic department are charged with strategic management of improving teamwork in the organization. Strategic management should be continuous in the strategic department and not only for a period in time. Moreover, the organization’s management should always think strategically as they constantly change the culture of the organization. The leaders of the strategic department are to facilitate, coach and be consensus builders as well as consultants regarding the strategic planning and strategic management. Transformational leadership, which is described by Jennings (2002, p. 79). as the superior leadership performance that occurs “when leaders broaden and elevate the interests of their employees, when they generate awareness and acceptance of the purposes and mission of the group, and when they stir their employees to look beyond their own self interest for the good of the group.”
There is a relationship between teamwork and autonomy of employees in non-governmental organizations. According to Salas, Gpoodwin & Burke, (2008), teamwork increases the level of autonomy of employees in making decisions about their work. Team autonomy is understood as the possibility of the group to participate in the decision-making process in relation to tasks, working methods, organization of working time and assessing the quality of their own work. Various types of teamwork generally differentiate according to the autonomy of individual members within the team and the autonomy of the team as a whole, including its participation in the decision-making process within the strategic management department in ADP. Working in a team is closely associated with an environment typified by the possibility to learn new things and perform complex tasks. Team workers are more likely to learn new things in their work than those not working in teams are.
Teamwork involves the involvement of workers working in a team and as a group. Working as a team has its own challenges and benefits. Employees experience all these. However, Donovan, (2004) note that there is a relationship between teamwork and job satisfaction. If teams work well, have a common goal, are autonomous in their decision-making, and have responsibility and support, teamwork becomes a valuable experience for the workers involved. ‘Working in a team empowers people and helps them develop autonomy, which is a source of profound job satisfaction and reduces stress.’ (Hayes, 2005, p. 172). Therefore, Working in a team contributes to job satisfaction. According to this model, two classes of factors influence job satisfaction. The first class of factors leading to job satisfaction corresponds to the employee’s need to further his or her qualifications and career and, by extension, to develop his or her personality.
The second category of factors that influence job satisfaction form the basis on which the first factors are formed and compromises working conditions in a broad sense while encompassing the wages of employees, the management styles employed and the organization. The initial class of factors is often denoted as motivators or satisfactory while the second class of factors is the dissatisfactory. Thus, they are often referred to as the factors serving to prevent dissatisfaction, but with little influence on positive attitudes to work. Satisfaction is important for team and employee performance. If teamwork increases employee’s job satisfaction, then the productivity of the employee will improve (Salas, Gpoodwin & Burke, 2008).
Teamwork is important in every person’s daily lives, though of particular importance if the relevance of the teamwork to businesses and organizations. Many activities of any organization are becoming complex daily due to advanced technology and it therefore calls for teamwork. Not all work employee teams produce good results (Lavon, 2005). Teamwork helps employees to overcome the many obstacles of coordination, role ambiguity, personal conflicts, and free riders among many other problems in an organization. According to Pfaff and Huddleston (2003), there is need for teamwork in all types of organizations including non-profit making organizations. Non-profit making organizations should form groups for teamwork. The teams should be taught how to improve their performance through improved skills. In addition, through teamwork, employees obtain the necessary skills for better individual performance. Chen et al., 2004; Ellis et al., 2005; Lavon, 2005) argue that the skills of a team do not have to be innate. It is possible for team participants to learn the knowledge, skills and abilities necessary for working adequately in a team (Fröbel & Marchington, 2005).
There are enough reasons for adoption of teamwork in non-profit making organizations especially regarding performance. According to Gill & Johnson (2006), organizations that have embraced teamwork have recorded increased performance in productivity at work, issues, and problem solving at work and stimulation of new growth in the organization. Group work can increased the morale of employees in the strategic department and make work even harder while affecting the output of the organization positively. Thompson and Thompson (2009) notes that many companies use the self-directed format of teamwork to perform better. In this format, the group leader is either assigned by the management or elected by the members. The leader must be effective for performance and completion of the project at hand.
The success of a team will also depend o the abilities that the individual members have in relation to working in a team. The important skills and abilities for successful group work are ability to a team player and posses the skills and knowledge necessary to complete the assigns tasks. The completion of a task earlier should enable individual members of a team help other teams finish. This calls for a team spirit in the entire workforce of an organization. Where these attributes lack, teamwork flounders and the management must now engage training for the employees to gain the necessary skills and abilities. Despite these few issues, teamwork works perfectly for all types of organizations.
Despite the importance of teamwork in relation to performance, Daniels & Macdonald (2005) admits that it is not easy to teach individuals on how to work in a team. This is because teaching individuals to work in a team goes beyond the limits of any traditionally based training as it involves the training of only the skills that can facilitate teamwork and the internal working of individuals. Teaching teamwork to individuals therefore involves innovative didactic techniques similar to techniques of experimental learning. For delivery of the required results in relation to performance of a team, there is need to specific skills necessary for working in a team (Walburg, 2006). Where such skills are deficient, the employees should be trained on how they can perform better as a team and therefore enable the department meet its set strategic objectives. In particular, Bacon and Blyton (2006) propose the teaching of the self-management team and the interpersonal team skills. These important skills enhance communication and interpersonal relationship in teams while enhancing teamwork and performance. The self-management team skills enable a team to manage its own activities and resources while working within the limits of the organization’s duties (Letts, Ryan & Grossman, 1999).
Despite all the positive importance of teamwork, there are possible negative impacts that can affect the team, employees, their performance, and the organization’s overall performance. This can include the possibility of an increased pace of work and the resulting higher workload and greater risk of health problems. However, the effects lie in the higher demand for performance and corresponding extended responsibilities and autonomy in work teams. The high demand of work with no scope of control for teams and decision making on how the high demand can be met can lead to employees experiencing high levels of stress and work pressure. The experts are divided into two groups with the first group advocating for teamwork for positive impacts in organizations on employees such as reducing the rate of work injuries, fewer absences from work and increased work productivity.
The other group advises against the use of teamwork in organizations arguing that teamwork may have detrimental effects on workers by increasing work-related health problems and the risk of occupational hazards’ (Askenazy, 2001; Brenner, Fairris and Ruser, 2004). The pace of work in the department can be increased though job rotation and greater responsibility of employees for quality of the services offered. The rotation of employees o their jobs and rapid organizational changes that are facilitated by production processes that are flexible can reduce the chances of workers to improve their safety through work routines and learning on the job. According to Donovan (2004), the introduction of new forms of work organization, including teamwork, led to an increased workload and an increase in time pressure caused by a staff shortage and technical problems. The study further note that the introduction of teamwork in organizations is followed by intensified work.
The high intensity of work can cause problems to the strategic department if the enlarged job is not accompanied by a great possibility for control over one’s work. According to Salas, Gpoodwin & Burke, (2008), there is a conflict between the practices in organizations that lead to high performance of employees and work life balance policies. Working as a team in groups plays a larger role in high work demands. People who work in teams think about their work in their free time often than those not working in groups. Therefore, teamwork is not very good for employees’ social life. Basing on these findings, it is important that the strategic department analyses the effects of teamwork both to the strategic department and to the individual employees before adopting teamwork as a strategy for achieving organizational goals.
Teamwork is important in every sector in an organization. Teamwork can enable all types of organizations (both profit and non-profit making) to increase their performance. Through teamwork, employees of non-profit making organizations and the strategic management department can gain morale to work hard and better yielding better performance for the team, the department and the organization. Teamwork can be adopted as a strategy in non-profit making organization to increase the performance of the individual employees and the organization. Effective teamwork should be cultivated in such strategic department through better organizational culture that encourages cooperation and participation. In non-profit organizations without teamwork, employees can be trained to obtain the necessary interpersonal skills for teamwork. It is important that all organizations encourage teamwork because employees cannot work alone in the environment that is full of obstacles and issues. The next chapter will discuss the methodology undertaken by this study.
This research will take a deductive approach that will entail the researcher working from a known hypothesis that teamwork affects positively the employee performance in the strategic management department in ADP. Thus, the study takes a top down approach as compared to the inductive approach that takes an up down strategy. This is illustrated by the figure below.
Fig 3.1
To realize the use deductive approach, quantitative tools of collective and analyzing data like questionnaires and interviews were used. Quantitative tools were preferred as compared to qualitative tools because they enable the researcher to come up with facts like a hypothesis that teamwork can improve the performance of employees in the strategic department of ADP and thereafter testing and confirming the hypothesis. This is unlike qualitative tools that first come up with an abstract idea that is followed by creation of theories and concepts about the idea. Lastly, data in quantitative research is hard and reliable as compared with qualitative research where data that is just rich and deep (Quinn, 2002).
In addition to the above, this study takes a positivism kind of philosophy towards the impact of teamwork o employee performance in strategic management department in ADP. A positivism approach will make us understand more the impact of teamwork on not only employees but also overall organization.
There are two ways to approach any study, either, qualitative or quantitative. However, a study can combine the two approaches by employing both qualitative and quantitative methods. The distinction between these two methods arises in how data is collected, treated, and analyzed.
A study that is quantitative usually makes an emphasis on transforming the data quantities and the models of statistics for purposes of measuring and analyzing data. The research topics in which researchers use this method have clear idea of what they look or search for and tools like questionnaires are used to collect data. Quantitative approach has its focus on the preciseness of data that is seen in terms of measuring data. Quantitative approach to a research involves using statistical data analyses to obtain information about the study simply because the approach is based on measuring the quantity or amount.
On the contrary, a qualitative approach to research makes the researcher to switch his focus to gaining a better understanding of the problem of the research by giving detailed information about the main theme of the study topic. The major goal of a qualitative study is to have a complete and detailed description of the study phenomenon by applying reasoning. Qualitative research involves the use of interviews and observations to collect data and there are no formal measurements involved. Qualitative approach makes the researcher understand the phenomenon under study and be in a position to describe the whole situation as it is. The approach consists of descriptions, quotes, observations, and excerpts from books and other documents (Quinn, p. 2002, p. 308).
This study would like the researcher and the reader to gain a better understanding the adoption of teamwork as a management strategy in the strategic department of ADP. The study will provide a detailed explanation of teamwork, its use, and application in the strategic department of ADP. In order to measure the impacts and importance of teamwork on employee performance and the performance of non-profit making organizations, a quantitative approach to research will applied by the study. This will involve gathering information about teamwork and the performance of individual employees in the strategic management department, the performance of the department and the performance of the whole ADP organization. This approach allows the researcher to use statistical data to analyze the impact of Teamwork on employee performance in the strategic department in ADP.
This study would get to the deeper understanding and knowledge of the impacts of teamwork on employee performance in the strategic management department of ADP. The study also involves investigating the teamwork as a strategy for human resource management in non-profit making organizations.
A case study is a strategy for the research that involves the researcher collecting and making an analysis of data from a given case. In this study, the researcher will use the strategic management department in ADP as the case study for teamwork and employee performance. A case study is relevant as well as useful to the study in all situations that will give rise to different but relevant interpretations to the topic of study. This study only analyzes one mom-profit making strategic department (ADP) as a case for study although there can be many cases. According to Yin (2003, p. 78), a case is a study that is empirical in nature and seeks to investigate the unclear phenomenon. This study will employ an embedded single case study that gives an attention to a single case study for analysis. There could be more chances of comparing several cases but due to time constraints, the researcher will study the impact of teamwork on employee performance in strategic management strategy in ADP (Jankowicz, 2005, p. 234).
A survey is another design that the research uses. A survey is good for this study because it can be administered from any location and large sample are feasible with many questions being asked about the impact of teamwork on employee performance in Strategic department in ADP. In addition to that, the use of surveys makes the researcher employ standard questions that result in uniform definitions and responses from the respondents.
It is important for the researcher to choose relevant data collection methods for the study because they will help him in successful completion of the study. The method that is selected by the researcher will determine how data is collected in the course of research. The various methods of collecting data will vary depending on the approach that the study is using. This study will employ interviews and questionnaires to collects data (Mcneill & Chapman, 2005).
There are also primary and secondary methods of collecting data. Primary are the methods that collect data for the first time while secondary methods are those where the researcher uses data collected by other people. According to Quinn (2002, p. 10), secondary data collection methods refer to the ability of the researcher to carry out an analysis of the data that other researchers have already prepared. This research will use both primary and secondary methods to collect data for the study. The primary sources of data will come from the questionnaires and interviews conducted by the researcher. The secondary sources will include a review of both published and unpublished literature related to the suitability of teamwork for employee performance in non-profit organizations. Primary sources will include the review of the findings from the interviews and responses from respondents from the strategic management department department in ADP (Jain, 2006, p. 376).
The population of the study will comprise of the various people in charge of strategic management department in ADP. It is important that all members of the study population be studied to ascertain the findings of the study. However, due to constraints experienced by the researcher during the study, only 30% of the study population will be studied. Mcneill, and Chapman, (2005, p. 226) argues that the process of sampling involves selecting elements from the study population so that by carrying a study of the sample and having an understanding of the properties of the characteristics of the subjects of the sample, it will be possible to generalize the properties to specific elements in the population.
Sampling techniques that can be used in any research are many and the researcher can choose depending on the goals and objectives of the study. The use of these sampling techniques allows a researcher to choose the sample population from a subset of a large population rather than the whole population reducing the cost of the study. Concerning this study, Stratified random sampling was chosen because it is a probability method that gives every member of the population equal chance of being selected as a sample.
The questions that are commonly used in surveys and questionnaires are usually open ended, closed-ended questions and likert scales. Open ended questions do not always give answers that a respondent can choose from but allow participants to answer freely. On the other hand, closed ended questions provide answers for the respondent to choose from. Likert scale questions requests respondents to respond to the question along a given continuum from the given responses. The questionnaire and questions for interviews that were used in this study, contained question that had the above three structures. The development of the questionnaire considered questions that will give rise to information that is relevant to the importance of teamwork on employee performance in non-profit making organizations.
Responses to the interviews and questionnaires will be analyzed using thematic analysis. This tool is considered to be highly inductive, as themes are not imposed on data by the researcher but rather emerge from the data itself. In this method, data from different people is compared and contrasted, similarities and differences identified in a process that continues until the researcher is satisfied that no more new issues or themes are arising (Flick, et al. 2004). Thematic analysis was chosen because it allows rich, in-depth, and detailed meaning to be derived from the collected data. It involves coding of data according to the emerging themes (Mcneill & Chapman, 2005). Thematic analysis analyses the descriptions line by line, allowing rich in-depth data to be derived from the responses (Russell & Gery, 2009). This tool categorizes the findings and conclusions from various sources according to the emerging themes, making it possible to identify similarities in the meanings and explanations from the various respondents. The researcher is also able to highlight the main issues emerging from the responses. Line by line analysis allows the researcher to highlight matching patterns in the text from the different responses allowing quantification of data (Salkind, 2008).
The performance of any research tool is usually measured in terms of reliability, validity and sensitivity as well as specificity. These concepts will also be applied in this study by the researcher to ascertain the reliability of the study. According to Waliman (2005), reliability is the ability by which a study is able to produce results that are consistent and stable over a given period of time and given similar circumstances (Waliman, 2005). Various types of validities exist that include internal validity and external validity. Internal validity relates to the correlation between items when measured on a scale. Whenever a study provides the same results after the application of two different measures, the outcome is said to be equivalent.
Validity is the extent to which a given instrument is designed to measure. The validity of a study can vary in different samples used. In one situation, a study can be valid while in other scenarios, it may not. The validity of a study is measured by what the study claims to and the availability of logical errors in the conclusions drawn from the study. According to Crotty (2003), internal validity is the extent to which it is possible to make independent reference from the findings of a study especially if the independent variable influences the dependent variable. On the other hand, external validity is the general application of the findings of a study to other settings.
The measurement of the theoretical construct of a study is measured using construct validity while convergent validity makes comparison between the scores that are obtained from different instruments that are used in the study. Unlike convergent validity, divergent validity compares the instruments used in the study that measure concepts that are opposite. Given the above validity and reliability, the study is valid ad reliable for use by any person or strategic department (Waliman, 2005)
This part analyzes the responses from the questions that were used in the questionnaires and interviews. The researcher used these two methods to gather data about the suitability of teamwork as a strategic human resource management tool that can be employed in the strategic human resource management department in ADP. These were used to improve employee performance and the performance of the strategic management department as a nonprofit making organization. To achieve the objectives of the study, the reliability, and validity of data collected was measured. The strategic management department in ADP has six sections with a total population of about 5oo employees. Four managers at the top position of the strategic management department lead the employees in the department. By use of stratified sampling, the researcher selected thirty percent of the employees in the department including the four managers leading the department. The four managers are influential in the strategic management department and are mostly involved in decision making in the strategic department in ADP (Dimmock, 1998). However, a lot of care was taken to ensure that there was proper representation to avoid bias. The researcher interviewed the four managers and ten more employees while the rest of the respondents were sent questionnaires to fill through the research assistants in the field. The researcher did the distribution of the questionnaires to his representatives on the ground to ensure that the research is completed in time (Heart, et al., 2001). Therefore, only 14 interviews were conducted with the rest of the 136 respondents filling the questionnaires and returning them to the respondent.
Out of the 136 questionnaires that were distributed to the respondents, only 118 were returned to the researcher. When added to the 14 interviews conducted by the researcher, it sums up to 132 responses, which represent 88%. The questionnaires that were used had both open-ended questions and likert scale questions. All questions were analyzed except those questions that were poorly or wrongly answered. All responses from all types of questions will be analyzed beginning with responses from likert scale questions. The eight likert-scale questions were rated using a likert scale of 1-5. The analysis that was done was based on the objectives of the study.
#
Question
SA
A
Ave
D
SD
Total
5
4
3
2
1
Q1
How would you rate the level of your organization’s teamwork?
43
28
23
27
15
136
Q2
Do you cooperate with or do your colleagues cooperate with you while on duty? To what extent?
52
18
22
20
25
136
Q3
In order to encourage teamwork and cooperation, there is need for communication. How do you rate the level of communication within ADP? Are you able to directly communicate to your boss in case of difficulty or any other issue in the organization?
27
37
36
19
17
136
Q4
How would you rate the degree of resource commitment in relation to the development and encouragement of teamwork in ADP?
24
18
19
33
42
136
Q5
What was the role of formulating teamwork strategy and methods of Strategic management in relation to employee performance?
45
37
23
15
16
136
Q6
Please rate the importance of teamwork on employee performance
41
48
20
16
11
136
Q7
On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents ‘extremely satisfied’ and 4 represents ‘extremely dissatisfied’ How would you rate your level of overall satisfaction with teamwork and cooperation within ADP?
20
23
46
27
20
136
Q8
How likely are you to recommend teamwork strategy as a strategic management strategy to a friendly non-profit making organization in another industry? Do you think the chances are?
This research was conducted on the basis that the adoption of teamwork in the strategic management department of ADP will affect positively the performance of the employees in the department and the ADP as a nonprofit making organization. This hypothesis can be tested using the response to the questions asked in the questionnaire and interviews conducted by the researcher (Gorelick, Milton & April, 2004). The means of the values for each response was obtained from the rating that corresponded to that of the likert scale. The mean weights (were ranging from 1-5) were multiplied to give rise to percentages. The weighted averages were used to test the study hypothesis that the adoption of teamwork in the department of strategic human resource management in ADP would transform the performance of the department positively. This is illustrated below.
#
Question
SA
A
Ave
D
SD
average
5
4
3
2
1
Q1
How would you rate the level of your organization’s teamwork?
34%
20%
16%
19%
11%
2.9
Q2
Do you cooperate with or do your colleagues cooperate with you while on duty? To what extent?
38%
13%
16%
15%
18%
2.8
Q3
In order to encourage teamwork and cooperation, there is need for communication. How do you rate the level of communication within ADP? Are you able to directly communicate to your boss in case of difficulty or any other issue in the organization?
19%
28%
14%
12%
27%
3.0
Q4
How would you rate the degree of resource commitment in relation to the development and encouragement of teamwork in ADP?
18%
13%
14%
24%
31%
2.9
Q5
What was the role of formulating teamwork strategy and methods of Strategic management in relation to employee performance?
33%
27%
17%
11%
12%
3.1
Q6
Please rate the importance of teamwork on employee performance.
30%
35%
15%
12%
8%
3.0
Q7
On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents ‘extremely satisfied’ and 4 represents ‘extremely dissatisfied’ How would you rate your level of overall satisfaction with teamwork and cooperation within ADP?
15%
17%
34%
19%
15%
2.8
Q8
How likely are you to recommend teamwork strategy as a strategic management strategy to a friendly non-profit making organization in another industry? Do you think the chances are?
30%
35%
15%
11%
9%
The discussion of the findings of this study will be conducted in the next section.
This question requested respondents to indicate whether there are good employee relations in strategic management department with full mutual respect and cooperation among employees and managers. Many respondents indicated that there were good employee relations in the organization. The employee relationship enjoyed was because of better communication and sharing in the department. This has encouraged sharing and consultation, while increasing the learning environment in the department. The end result if teamwork. The few respondents who argued that the employee relations were not goods was because the sectors they worked did not involve much consultations and therefore less teamwork. Moreover, they noted that teamwork increases the pace of work leading to higher workload with less autonomy on how the work is to be performed. Thus, the discussion on how work is to be performed is limited reducing the employee relations.
This part of the study concerns the incidence of teamwork on employee autonomy. The questions inquired whether teamwork increases the autonomy of employees in decision making concerning their work. According to De Vita and Fleming (2001), team autonomy is the possibility of a team to participate in the decision-making process in relation to their work, methods of work, work time organization (Schedules) and assessment of work done quality. However, this study focused on the autonomy of the individual rather than that of the team. Various types of teamwork generally differentiate according to the autonomy of individual members within the team and the autonomy of the team as a whole, including its participation in the decision-making process within the strategic department in ADP ’s organizational structure (Dackert, Lööv & Mårtensson, 2004).
Lean production emphasizes on the advantages of running production with the lowest possible level of inventories, very low defects and limited vertical integration. The respondents indicated that the teams could be homogenously composed, as different jobs do not require extensive formal training and employees can be exchanged relatively easily. Teams can also be organized in relation to socio-technical principles such as an autonomous group. A socio-technical team is a group of employees with 4-20 persons, responsible for a complete part of the production process and entitled to take certain decisions autonomously (Gorelick, Milton & April, 2004). The respondents pointed out that they decided the roles and responsibilities to suit the task and individual needs.
The respondents noted that they are able to choose their tasks depending on the team they are placed. The different teams perform different functions and it is the reason as to the ability to choose tasks depending in the team. Therefore, the use of teamwork increases autonomy in the employee decisions concerning the work. Though the impact of teamwork on autonomy is positive, Flin and Maran (2004) argues that the autonomy of the team or work group may conflict with the autonomy of the individual worker. The control of quality, planning, and the delegation of responsibilities does not automatically increase the autonomy of employees. The organization of a team can lead to increased workload while intensifying the work without the control of employees over their work (Stanton, 2005).
According to Pedler et al (1989), a learning organization is an organization that ‘facilitates and promotes the education of all its members and systematically transforms itself. It has always been assumed that teamwork creates an environment for shared responsibility, knowledge, and both continuous professional and personal development of employees. The learning environment aided by teamwork was measured by the question, Over the past 12 months, have you undergone training paid for or provided by your employer to improve your skills or not? Does your main paid job involve, or not, learning new things? The analysis of data from the respondents confirmed that working in a team is associated with an environment typified by the possibility to learn new things and perform complex tasks.
Basing on the above figure, the employees who work in a team are more likely to learn new things than those working as individuals on their own. This was confirmed at the level of both the managers of ADP and the employees in the Strategic management department in ADP. The above figure also shows that the management is 13% points more likely to learn new things at work than those not working in teams. Similarly, in the employees, the difference between team workers learning new things and non-team workers learning new things reaches 15 percentage points (‘Teamwork,’ 2007.)
This section seeks to clarify the relationship between teamwork and job satisfaction as found out from the study. It examines whether workers are satisfied with a team-based way of working, the association between overall job satisfaction and teamwork, and whether teamwork increases overall job satisfaction. As noted in the literature review, teamwork theorists have a belief that working together as a team with a common goal, autonomy in their decision-making and responsibility and support makes teamwork becomes a valuable experience for the workers involved. The hypothesis tested is that working in a team increases job satisfaction. The question asked to test this hypothesis is that On a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 represents ‘extremely satisfied’ and 4 represents ‘extremely dissatisfied’ How would you rate your level of overall satisfaction with teamwork and cooperation within ADP?
According to Kapucu, Maria-Elena and Krause (2007), for employees to be satisfied with the job they perform, there must be two factors that are fully fulfilled. They are the satisfactory and the dissatisfactory. All these are described in the literature review. The job satisfaction min this study is with regard to dissatisfactory. The figure below shows the satisfaction of work and the working conditions.
34% of the respondents pointed out that they were satisfied with their jobs with the dissatisfied group forming 49% of the study outcome. The satisfied respondents pointed out that it is through teamwork that they were able to get motivated on performing of their duties. In addition, they indicated that teamwork helps them learn new skills pertaining their jobs as well as being able to consult when facing difficulties in performing their tasks. This has made work not only easier but also enjoyable. Contrary, those who indicated that they were not satisfied by their work were mainly employees of the department who worked as individuals and not in any team. The usually worked on their own with no or little consultation (Scroggs, 2000). This makes their work harder because it is not easy to consult or even talk to their managers for help due to bureaucracy.
The satisfaction measured in this study was in terms of the work itself, the relations between employees and their managers, the salaries and promotions options. Many employees pointed out that the channels to promotions are high if the work of employees is satisfactory. The salary is in accordance with the job group of the employee while there are bonuses and appreciations for exemplary work done by an employee.
These section discuses the findings on the challenges of teamwork as experienced by employees in the department of strategic management in ADP. Teamwork increases increase the pace at which employees are to work. The consequence is that the workload on employees is increased. Other problems are higher demands on performance and corresponding extended responsibilities and autonomy in teams. The increased demand on teams does not allow the team participants to have a scope of control and decision making on how work should be done in order to meet the high demands. The outcome of this is increased stress and work related pressure (Cullingworth, 2001, Martocchio & Frink, 1994).
These findings are in accordance with the findings in a case study conducted in Austria in 1994 in which new forms of organization was introduced. The findings from the case study were that the introduction of new forms of work organization, including teamwork, could lead to an increased workload and an increase in time pressure caused by a staff shortage and technical problems (Sala, Druskat & Mount, 2006). Despite the challenges pointed out by the respondents, mainly employees, the management maintained that the distribution of work tasks between members of a team does not contribute to the subjective feeling that there is insufficient time to do the work, nor does it help to improve this situation (Rupar & Rupar, n.d). This is responsible for the 11% of the respondents in the figure below.
It is not easy for teamwork to exist alone. It must be accompanied by other values and culture of the organization. The encouragement of teamwork in an organization requires adequate communication. In this regard, the study sought to find out the level of communication in Strategic department in ADP. The respondents responded by noting that while strategic management department encourages dialogue, there are some sectors that communication is not common. In such sectors, the level of teamwork is minimal as compared to other areas in the department. Consequently, the sectors whose employees do work as a team do not have improved employee performance. This can be shown in the figure below where 27% respondents pointed out that they were not satisfied with the level of communication in the department since their sectors were not working as a team. This is a small margin as compared to the 73% of respondents who indicated that they were satisfied with the level of communication and teamwork in the department.
The department has a wornderful culture that encourrges teamwork. The managers pointed out that teamwork is encourages through appreciations, promotions, training programs and jpob rotation.
This section sought to find out the impact of teamwork on employee performance hence the performance of employees. The performance of employees is measured in terms of the work done and completed by an employee satisfactorily. In addition, the performance of non-profit organizations is measured in financial performance of the organizations and effective service delivery to the public. ADP is a non-profit organization that provides services to the community. The performance of employees in the strategic management department is measured by the effective service delivery both top the public ad to fellow employees in the entire organization.
Respondents noted that the teamwork is effective on their performance. Their managers who noted that teamwork encourages employees to work together as a team acknowledged their responses. The discouraged employees are encouraged by their colleagues while consultation and learning in teams enables those who do not know how to perform group tasks perfect on their skills. In addition, conflicts are resolved without many problems. The result is improved employees performance in terms of service delivery to the public and to the whole ADP organization. The managers of the strategic management department in the strategic department pointed out that the improvement in the performance of employees in the department significantly affected the delivery of services of the organization to the public (Anheier, 2000). Since the department realized that teamwork improves the employee performance, they influenced other departments in ADP to adopt teamwork in order to improve service delivery. This has significantly improved the services delivery of ADP as noted by the managers.
The figure above indicates that only 20% of the respondents indicated that their performance had not improved due to teamwork. It should however be known that the respondents were working in sub-sectors if the department in which employees work individually and they therefore did not realize the importance of teamwork.
The study analyzed the importance of teamwork as a strategic management strategy in the strategic management department in ADP on employee performance. Strategic management department is charged with making strategic decisions regarding the performance of the ADP as a non-profit making organization. The department makes strategic decisions for the organization. The study sought to find out the importance of teamwork as one of the strategies to be employed by the department by asking the overall satisfaction with teamwork and whether other departments in the organization and other non-profit organizations should employ it as well.
The respondents were quick to acknowledge the importance of teamwork to the service delivery of the strategic management department and the ADP. Only 20% o the respondents did not acknowledge the importance of teamwork as a strategy to be adopted in the department and organization in order to improve employee performance. They attributed their refusal to the challenges that come with teamwork like increased work, work related stress and reduced autonomy. Moreover, most of the most of those respondents who refused were form sectors in the departments where teamwork was not practiced. The rest of the respondents indicated the importance of teamwork to their performance in terms of service delivery, the department, and the organization.
This study has reviewed the literature on the importance of teamwork as an important strategy to be employed in the strategic management department in ADP. Teamwork involves grouping employees and assigning them specific tasks. The effect is improved quality of output, though there are some few negative consequences such as increased work pace, workload, and pressure to meet deadlines. However, the major objective of improving employee performance is already met. This chapter provides a conclusion of the findings of the study and the conclusion.
Teamwork, as an important instrument of new forms of work organization, is essentially a specific organizational measure that may display many different features in all organizations including non-profit organizations. The incidence of teamwork as recorded by the subjective reporting of employees and managers in strategic management department in ADP can be predicted. One factor indicating the incidence of teamwork is the historical context of the introduction of new forms of work organization. The organization of teamwork is particularly characteristic for the service sector especially in non-profit making organizations that provide services to the public such as the ADP. Teamwork is also dominant in many large organizations with many employees (Thamhain, 2008).
According to most experts, teamwork should contribute to a better quality of working life for employees, as well as improving not only their productivity, but also the productivity if the organization. Employee autonomy is considered an important attribute of the quality of work. However, the results of this study identify decisive findings in this regard. Data analysis did reveal a clear-cut positive correlation between the presence of teamwork and increased autonomy. The responses from the respondents of the study indicated that the employees in the strategic management who were working in teams were able to choose their own working methods to accomplish the tasks assigned. It is clear that the level of teamwork in the department directly influences the degree of employee autonomy. It could be presumed that team workers will be more autonomous workers due to their higher concentration on their professions like accountants, senior officials and managers (Hvenegaard, Jessen & Hasle, 2003). The analysis of data shows that employees in most subsectors in the strategic department display greater autonomy though there are some employees still in the department that do not show any autonomy since there is no teamwork.
5.2.2 Objective 2
An examination of the data reveals that, in the case of the opportunity for choosing work methods and pace of work, team workers in the strategic department of ADP have a significantly higher autonomy than employees choose in the same department not working as a team. The possibility of learning new things in one’s job also improves the quality of working life and therefore the quality of output. In this case, it can be stated categorically that teamwork contributes to employees’ personal and professional growth. In the Strategic department in ADP under study, team workers have a greater chance of learning new things and taking part in training paid for by the employer than employees not working in teams have. Teamwork is thus clearly positive in this respect and contributes to the learning environment in an organization. The learning received by employees in turn contributes the quality of work done and the employee performance.
Satisfaction with working conditions is another indicator of the quality of working life. Team workers display greater satisfaction than employees not working in teams do in the strategic department in ADP. Employees not working in teams are not satisfied. Besides positive impacts on the individual’s working life, such as a more developed learning environment, teamwork also has positive aspects. The need to boost productivity and performance, which is usually the primary objective of any organization when introducing new forms of work organization, often demands increased pace of work and greater work intensity. Working in a team generally means a higher pace of work and working to tight deadlines in the Strategic department. Most respondents argued that increased work intensity and work pressure have a negative impact on employees’ health and private social life. In conclusion, the findings from the study point out that teamwork can take the form of improved employee performance and organizational performance since quality products are manufactured.
5.2.3 Objective 3
The increased pace of work, work increased autonomy teamwork affects the quality of output for individual employees positively. The employees will deliver services effectively to the public and the ADP organization. Increased employee quality also improves the performance of the strategic department and the ADP organization. The strategic department acts as a good practice for teamwork with greater autonomy for employees, better access to training and learning new things pertaining the work (Sewell, 2005). In addition, employees in the strategic department in ADP were more satisfied with their work as they worked as a team as well as working conditions. These factors also contribute to improved employee efficiency in non-profit making organization like the ADP and specifically to the strategic department in the organization. Despite the positive impacts of teamwork on employees, many respondents indicated that teamwork affected their social and private life negatively as well as their health. This is because of increased pace of work and workload that comes with stress to meet deadlines in the delivery of services. However, the management emphasizes that teamwork is effective in improving the performance of employees and should be adopted in other departments of ADP, despite the negative effects on employees as pointed above.
This study has been evaluating the success of teamwork on the improvement of employee performance in the strategic management department in ADP. The study has established that teamwork is important and it affects the performance of employees positively. The performance of employees is positively affected because of the learning environment created by teamwork. Employees are able to increase their skills and ability to perform tasks. The increased skills can increase the quality of work performed by the employees. In addition, teamwork increases the pace of work thus making employee to do more work leading to increased output. Despite the increased level of quality work performed by employees, there are negative effects such as increased workload and work related pressure resulting from pressure to meet deadlines. This section provides the following recommend in additions to the strategic management department in ADP on how it can effectively improve on the effects of teamwork on the performance of employees. The following recommendations are good to be implemented.
6.1 Recommendation 1
The strategic management department is in the ADP organization, which mainly provides services to the public. The department requires improving its service provision to the public. This can be achieved through teamwork in the organization. Therefore, this study proposes the improvement of teamwork in the strategic department in ADP and thereafter the adoption of teamwork to the ADP organization to improve the employee performance and organization’s performance in service delivery. The strategic department should advise the management in ADP to employ the teamwork as a strategy to improve the performance of employees.
6.2 Recommendation 2
Teamwork as employed in the department of strategic management is effective in improving employee performance through the increase of pace of work in teams and the learning environment. However, it has some negative effects that respondents complained of including increased workload and work related stress resulting from increased pace of work, work, and pressure to meet deadlines. To reduce the pressure on meeting deadlines, the management should include training sessions to increase learning and modes of performing the various tasks. With experience, the employees will get used to working in a team yet performing well.
6.3 Recommendation 3
Few respondents indicated that teamwork was not improving their performance. Many of the respondents were not working as a team since there was little consultation. This study recommends that the management of the strategic department ensure that teamwork is employed in all sectors of the department for effective outcome.
To improve the outcome of teamwork and eliminate the negative comments, the management in the strategic department should initiate the reward system to the exemplary teams. Recognition of efforts will not only motivate the team participants, but it will also create a sense of competitiveness in the department making every member active. The overall effect is the improved performance of the employees and the department. Though the organization is a non-profit making organization, there should be some funds set aside specifically to motivate the employees in various teams in the strategic department in ADP (Jessen & Hvenegaard, 2000). 6.4 Recommendation 4
Communications is very important in the success of teamwork. The organization culture in the ADP and specifically the strategic management department should encourage communication among managers and employees. Communication will enhance the learning environment while strengthening the relations between employees and the management. Effective communication encourages consultations as a crisis and problem solving. In addition, employees will actively participate in brainstorming debates that will yield to better strategic decisions in the department and in the ADPO organization.
6.5 Recommendation 5
In addition to brainstorming debates, effective communication in the organization will ensure that the management obtains the feedback on every issue in the department and in the organization on service delivery. The availability of feedback will enable the management to know the level of satisfaction with service delivery and therefore develop the necessary strategies to improve where they have failed (Benton, 2005).
6.6 Recommendation 6
The outstanding members of teams in the department should be provided with new opportunities in the department or in the organization. This is done in order to keep the most effective team members. This can be through undertaking long terms planning of the employees’ future career plans. Each individual employee should be shown how their career goals could help the department and the organization (ADP) in the achievement of its long-term goals. Moreover, the management should create an organizational environment that is rich in creativity, openness, and energy.
6.7 Conclusion
These recommendations will no doubt steer the increased and improved performance of the strategic department in ADP and the overall performance of the organization in service delivery.
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This is a graduate level paper. Must be well thought, thorough, well researched, and well written.
Research Topic:
The employee whistle blowing program
Provide discussion and example where employee whistle-blowing is justified and an example
Provide discussion and example of where employee whistle-blowing it is not justified.
Grammar/Format:
APA 6th Edition Format.
500 – 700 word (no more or no less). Cover and reference page are not part of word count.
Use these headings in the paper
Introduction (Briefly explain the whistle blower program, laws, and employee protection)
Analytical Discussion
Justified Whistle Blowing Example (brief summary of example and solid reasoning why it was justified)
Unjustified Whistle Blowing Example beyond those required by the law? (brief summary of example and solid reasoning why it was unjustified)
Conclusion (wrap up research add a biblical reference to backup a Christian leaders responsibilities and actions towards the whistle blowing program.
Specific Details on the paper:
APA 6th Edition Format.
500 – 700 word (no more or no less). Cover and reference page are not part of word count.
Must use References and Sources below
1 Biblical source (NIV).
Integrate biblical ideas from a Christian perspective on the point of your paper (do not tell a bible story)
3 Scholarly Sources (with online perma link) (Books, reputable periodical business magazines) must be accessable
2scholarlyAcademic Journals (with online perma link) Peer to peer, periodical publications. Must be accessible
Chapter 15 of Text Book. Incorporate some of the major ideas from the chapter (attached in request…citation listed below)
Lawrence & Weber, 2014. Business & society: Stakeholders, ethics and public policy, Chapter 15
Incorporate major ideas from the chapter of the textbook in which the question was
Please be familiar with what constitutes as a scholarly source.
Periodicals are things that are published on a regular basis with a fixed interval between the issues. Journals, magazines and newspapers are types of periodicals.
Most instructors at the college level require that the majority of the periodical articles you use in writing a research paper come from scholarly journals.
Scholarly Journals are also known as professional, peer reviewed or refereed journals. They contain articles that have been reviewed (refereed) by the author’s peers — usually the editor and one or more specialists in the individual field of research — before approval is given to publish.
The library’s periodicals are available in a variety of formats. Some are available only in paper form, while others must be accessed online or on microform. Some are available in more than one format.Characteristics of Scholarly Journals
Although there is no clear-cut definition of a “scholarly journal,” the following guidelines give some clues to help you tell the difference between scholarly journals and other kinds of periodicals. If in doubt, ask your instructor or a librarian.
The articles often include an abstract (summary) of the article prior to the main text of the article.
Scholarly journals are often published by a specific professional organization.
Scholarly journals usually have a somber, serious appearance and often contain graphs or charts, but few glossy pictures or photographs.
Scholarly journals always cite their sources in the form of footnotes or bibliographies.
Articles published in scholarly journals report on original research or experiments (as opposed to news or opinion pieces based on someone else’s findings).
Articles published in scholarly journals are written by a scholar in a particular field of study or by someone who has done research in that field.
The author’s name will appear at the beginning or the end of the article.
The language of scholarly journals is technical and specialized because the articles are written for other scholars and not for the general public.
Scholarly journals often (but not always) have titles with words like “Quarterly,” “Journal,” “Review,” or “Proceedings.”
Scholarly journals are often published by universities or professional societies.
Scholarly journals are indexed mostly (but not only) in subject-specific databases. For example, the best place to find scholarly psychology-related journal articles is the PsycINFO database because it specializes in psychology-related literature. The best place to find scholarly nursing-related journal articles is the CINAHL database because it specializes in nursing-related literature.
If there is not a subject-specific database for your topic, try one of the general-purpose databases like EBSCOhost Academic Search Premiere or InfoTrac Academic ASAP.
If you want to find scholarly articles only, click the limiter that says “Peer Reviewed” or “Refereed” before you search (if the database you are using has such a limiter).
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Explain the ways that effective communication improves employee trust and engagement.
For this assignment, compare and contrast two communication techniques that can be used to improve employee trust and engagement. Feel free to use the channels or techniques discussed in “Communication Provides Foundation for Being a Best Place to Work” by Kathleen Skidmore-Williams—an article that is located in the Unit IV Required Reading section—or feel free to research your own.
Your assignment should include the components below:
Explain why communication is essential in an organization. Explain the ways that effective communication improves employee trust and engagement. Focus on comparing/contrasting two types of channels or techniques (e.g., on-site meetings, employee surveys, workshops). Explain the types of situations where each channel or technique would be most effective. Provide examples and facts for your audience. Avoid simply offering an opinion; rely on valid, academic research.
APA format should be used. The assignment should be a minimum of three pages in length. Content, organization, and grammar/mechanics will be evaluated.
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What types of psychometric assessments (e.g., personality inventories, cognitive assessments, and integrity tests) are best to identify applicants with the strongest job and organizational fit? Why?
Q B
When should interviews be used in a multi-hurdle selection process? Are structured interviews best? Why or why not? Do multiple interviewers add validity to the hiring decision? Explain.
RESOURCES
1. Do you understand why stars twinkle? Would you rather read than watch TV? Do you trust data more than your instincts?
Read:
Gray, E., & Nathan, G. (2015, June 22). Do you understand why stars twinkle? Would you rather read than watch TV? Do you trust data more than your instincts? Time, 185(23), 40-46.
2. Employability and Career Success: Bridging the Gap Between Theory and Reality.
Read:
Hogan, R., Chamorro-Premuzic, T., & Kaiser, R. B. (2013). Employability and career success: Bridging the gap between theory and reality. Industrial & Organizational Psychology, 6(1), 3-16. doi: 10.1111/iops.12001.
3. The Importance of Ability and Effort in Recruiters’ Hirability Decisions: An Empirical Examination of Attribution Theory
Read:
Carless, S., & Waterworth, R. (2012). The importance of ability and effort in recruiters’ hirability decisions: An empirical examination of attribution theory. Australian Psychologist, 47, 232-237.
4. The Structured Employment Interview: Narrative and Quantitative Review of the Research Literature.
Read:
Levashina, J., Hartwell, C., Morgeson, F., & Campion, M. (2014). The structured employment interview: Narrative and quantitative review of the research literature. Personnel Psychology, 67, 241-293. doi: 10.1111/peps.12052
5. The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings
Read:
Schmidt, F. L., & Hunter, J. E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 262–274.
4. The Relative Importance of Task and Contextual Performance Dimensions to Supervisor Judgments of Overall Performance.
Read:
Johnson, J. W. (2001).The relative importance of task and contextual performance dimensions to supervisor judgments of overall performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 86, 984-996.
What are two of the most important reasons for using theory-based information to develop employee training and development? What are two of the most relevant theories involved in this process? Explain.
Q B
Why is transfer of training important? Explain. How is this transfer measured? Explain.
RESOURCES
Electronic Resource
1. DC Network
Use the 10 Key Strategic Points template found under the Research/Dissertation tab.
http://dc.gcu.edu
e-Library Resource
1. Advances in Leader and Leadership Development: A Review of 25 Years of Research and Theory.
Read:
Day, D. V., Fleenor, J. W., Atwater, L. E., Sturm, R. E., & McKee, R. A. (2014). Advances in leader and leadership development: A review of 25 years of research and theory. The Leadership Quarterly, 25, 63–82.
2. Application of Cognitive, Skill-Based, and Affective Theories of Learning Outcomes to New Methods of Training Evaluation.
Read:
Kraiger, K., Ford, J. K., & Salas, E. (1993). Application of cognitive, skill-based, and affective theories of learning outcomes to new methods of training evaluation.Journal of Applied Psychology, 78(2), 311-328.
4. The Evaluation of Two Key Leadership Development Program Components: Leadership Skills Assessment and Leadership Mentoring
Read:
Solansky, S. T. (2010). The evaluation of two key leadership development program components: Leadership skills assessment and leadership mentoring. The Leadership Quarterly, 21(4), 675–681.
5. Transfer of Leadership Skills: The Influence of Motivation to Transfer and Organizational Support in Managerial Training.
Read:
Franke, F., & Felfe, J. (2012). Transfer of leadership skills: The influence of motivation to transfer and organizational support in managerial training. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 11(4), 138–147.
What are the most important requisite skills required of organizational leaders? Why? How do effective and ineffective leadership behaviors affect employees both positively and negatively? Explain.
Q B
Focus on Research:
Reflect on three of the articles you have chosen for the literature review assignment. How will these articles help you proceed from here?
RESOURCES
1. Assessing Your Leadership Style to Achieve Organizational Objectives.
Read:
Rubin, E. N. (2013). Assessing your leadership style to achieve organizational objectives. Global Business & Organizational Excellence, 32(6), 55-66.
Kaiser, R. B., & Hogan, J. (2011). Personality, leader behavior and overdoing it. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research, 63, 219–242. doi: 10.1037/a0026795
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What is the probability that a randomly chosen employee
1. Text book problems to complete Chapter Four Work: p. 173; 4.37
4.37 G2 Crowd provides commentary and insight about employee engagement trends and challenges within organizations in its G2 Crowd Employee Engagement Report. The report represents the results of an online survey conducted in 2019 with employees located across the United States. G2 Crowd was interested in examining differences between HR and non-HR employees. One area of focus was on employees’ response to important metrics to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of employee engagement programs. The findings are summarized in the following tables.
What is the probability that a randomly chosen employee
Source: Data extracted from “Employee Engagement,” G2 Crowd, bit.ly/2WEQkgk
PRESENTEEISM IS AN IMPORTANT METRIC
EMPLOYEE
Yes
No
Total
HR
53
79
132
Non-HR
43
225
268
Total
96
304
400
ABSENTEEISM IS AN IMPORTANT METRIC
EMPLOYEE
Yes
No
Total
HR
54
78
132
Non-HR
72
196
268
Total
126
274
400
What is the probability that a randomly chosen employee
a. is an HR employee?
b. is an HR employee or indicates that absenteeism is an important metric to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of employee engagement programs?
c. does not indicate that presenteeism is an important metric to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of employee engagement programs and is a non-HR employee?
d. does not indicate that presenteeism is an important metric to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of employee engagement programs or is a non-HR employee?
e. Suppose the randomly chosen employee does indicate that presenteeism is an important metric to consider when evaluating the effectiveness of employee engagement programs. What is the probability that the employee is a non-HR employee?
f. Are “presenteeism is an important metric” and “employee” independent?
g. Is “absenteeism is an important metric” independent of “employee”?
2. Non-text book problems to complete:
Use the following information to answer the next two questions.
Many people like to shop in person, then make their purchase later, online. Of all the shoppers, it was found that 30% of shoppers make purchases when they physically enter a store. Some retailers offer promotions to attempt to track customers purchasing using the process of looking then ordering online. Retailers started to offer customers, when leaving the building without making a purchase, a discount code to use for online purchases. It was found that there’s a 9% chance of a person making a purchase using the code later.
A. What is the probability that a shopper who enters the building will not make any purchases?
B. Retailers noticed when two shoppers enter the building to shop together (the purchases are not disjoint), there is a 20% chance they both will make a purchase. What is the probability that at least one of them makes a purchase?
C. You would like to “build-your-own-burger” at a fast-food restaurant. There are five different breads, seven different cheeses, four different cold toppings, and five different sauces on the menu. If you want to include one choice form each of these ingredient categories, how many different burgers can you build?
D. If P(B) = 0.05, P(A|B) = 0.80, P(B’) = 0.95, and P(A|B’) = 0.40, find P(B|A).
E. How many different ways can a senior project manager and an associate project manager be selected for an analytics project if there are eight data scientists available?
F. Texting while driving is a problem. Maryland Department of Motor Vehicles commissioned a study and found on average 400 accidents occur on the DC beltway every two weeks. The data is given next:
Number of Vehicles Involved in the Accident
Texting while Driving
1
2
3
Yes
50
100
20
170
No
25
175
30
230
75
275
50
400
What proportion of accidents involved more than one vehicle?
What proportion of accidents involved texting and a single vehicle?
Given that multiple vehicles were involved, what proportion of accidents involved texting?
Given that 3 vehicles were involved, what proportion of accidents involved texting?
G. True or False. If false, be sure to include why it is false!
1. If either A or B must occur they are called mutually exclusive.
2. If P(A) = 0.4 and the P(B) = 0.5, then A and B must be collectively exhaustive.
3. Suppose A and B are events where P(A) = 0.4, P(B) = 0.5, and P(A and B) = 0.1. Then P(A|B) = 0.4
Discussion
Please pick one topic or term, from the textbook content in Chapter Four, that was most interesting or difficult or relevant to you. Post on the discussion board the topic or statistics term and what you were thinking about this topic or statistics term. Include a summary of the topic or term, perhaps include an example, or a diagram – or another website or video about the topic, etc. Be creative! (This is meant to be an open discussion that can go in numerous directions.) Examples for topics or statistical terms could be (but not limited to): empirical probability, marginal probability joint probability, multiplication rule, Bayes’ theorem, combinations, permutations, independence, mutually exclusive, etc. The word count should be at least 150 words. The topic is 4.4 Bayes’ Theorem
Developed by Thomas Bayes in the eighteenth century, Bayes’ theorem builds on conditional probability concepts that Section 4.2 discusses. Bayes’ theorem revises previously calculated probabilities using additional information and forms the basis for Bayesian analysis. (Anderson-Cook, Bellhouse, Hooper).
In recent years, Bayesian analysis has gained new prominence for its application to analyzing big data using predictive analytics (see Chapter 17). However, Bayesian analysis does not require big data and can be used in a variety of problems to better determine the revised probability of certain events. The Bayesian Analysis online topic contains examples that apply Bayes’ theorem to a marketing problem and a diagnostic problem and presents a set of additional study problems. The Consider This for this section explores an application of Bayes’ theorem that many use every day, and references Equation (4.9) that the online topic discusses.
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Read the Hospital Care Scenario first: You are the administrator of a medium-sized hospital. The Director of Human Resources has been summoned to an executive team meeting in an effort determine why an unusual number of nursing staff leaving for other employment. During the discussions, the Director of Nursing provides her thoughts regarding why the nurses may be less productive and why some are departing. She states that the primary reason is salaries/benefits. A charge nurse thinks the reason might be working conditions, especially involving patient load in the various nursing units. Overall morale is low, which is adversely affecting productivity. This has also resulted in some patient quality outcomes discovered by the Continuous Quality Improvement team. During the discussion, the Senior Director of Admissions shares some experiences she had with a former employer–that the nursing staff tended to remain longer with the employer based on good working conditions, specifically in the area of learning new skills, obtaining additional certifications, licensure, and cross-training for other areas not usually assigned.
She feels that these measures result in higher retention and patient quality outcomes. After the meeting, you meet with the Director of Nursing and Human Resources Director, who is also in charge of all training and development for the hospital. As the administrator, you consider developing a small group to explore the feasibility of providing more skills development and training to your current nursing staff. Based on the Hospital Application reading, you have determined that not only does the orientation program for new employees need to be revised, but a new professional development program needs to be created for existing employees. Part I: New Employee Orientation The purpose of this assignment is to create an expanded outline or blueprint for a new employee orientation program that explains how it can be used to prepare employees. Continuing in the role of the hospital administrator from the Hospital Care Application assignment, you are required to create a blueprint or an expanded outline of the new employee orientation program for the Director of Human Resources (your supervisor), who will decide whether or not to implement the program.
Using what you have learned from the assigned readings and your own research, formulate new employee orientation program to train new hires. Include the following elements: 1. A training schedule that includes the necessary preparation needed to provide the training (who, what, when, where, why, and how), as well as a description of the practice training activities and feedback you will provide. 2. A description of written materials, such as handouts, to be provided during the training. 3. A description of at least one computer-, Web-, or DVD-based training element that will be used in the program, including consideration of the idea that staff may have varying levels of technology readiness. 4. Explanation of how the new employee orientation program is related to motivation and retention. Include discussion of the financial incentives provided to employees. Part II: Professional Development Program The purpose of this assignment is to develop an expanded outline or blueprint for a new professional development program for existing employees and to explain how the program can be used retain quality employees.
Consider how the organization leverages workforce diversity to encourage employees to collaborate and apply their unique talents. Continuing in the role of the hospital administrator from the Hospital Care Application assignment, you are required to create a blueprint or an expanded outline of the professional development program for the Director of Human Resources (your supervisor), who will decide whether or not to implement the program. Using what you have learned from the assigned readings and your own research, formulate a professional development program for existing employees. Include the following elements: 1. The focus of the program, which could include a combination of the following: learning new skills, additional certifications, licensure, and cross-training for other areas not usually assigned. 2. A training schedule that includes the necessary preparation needed to provide the training (who, what, when, where, why, and how), as well as a description of the practice training activities and feedback you will provide. 3. Description of written materials, such as handouts, to be provided during the training. 4. A description of at least one computer-, Web-, or DVD-based training element that will be used in the program, including consideration of the idea that staff may have varying levels of technology readiness. 5. Explanation of how organizations leverage workforce diversity to encourage employees to collaborate and apply their unique talents.
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Review the companys website, including the sections discussing its reputation, brand, mission/values, CSR, media relations/onlinepress room, employee communication, and any other relevant sources.
For this project you will select a large-sized company (must operate in Australia) upon which you will conduct a corporate reputation and identity audit. Using a triangulation of research methods and information sources approach, you will assess how the company projects its image and its stakeholders’ perceptions (i.e. in the minds of the stakeholders, do the company’s “words and deeds” generally align?) More specifically, you will likely use the following information sources and methods to conduct the audit: • Review the company’s website, including the sections discussing its reputation, brand, mission/values, CSR, media relations/online press room, employee communication, and any other relevant sources. • See where your company ranks on leading annual rankings of reputation, brands, CSR (such as FORTUNE, Harris RQ, and RepTrak). • Look up media coverage over the past year of your company to understand the media’s portrayal of it.
7001MKT: Assessment 1: Company Analysis Report
Purpose:
The purpose of this assignment is to assess students on their ability to research, identify and strategically analyse corporate reputations and the characteristics of their identities.
Task:
For this project you will select a large-sized company (must operate in Australia) upon which you will conduct a corporate reputation and identity audit. Using a triangulation of research methods and information sources approach, you will assess how the company projects its image and its stakeholders’ perceptions (i.e. in the minds of the stakeholders, do the company’s “words and deeds” generally align?)
More specifically, you will likely use the following information sources and methods to conduct the audit:
Review the company’s website, including the sections discussing its reputation, brand, mission/values, CSR, media relations/onlinepress room, employee communication, and any other relevant sources.
See where your company ranks on leading annual rankings of reputation, brands, CSR (such as FORTUNE, Harris RQ, andRepTrak).
Look up media coverage over the past year of your company to understand the media’s portrayal of it.
Format:
This assignment will be approximate 2000 words long and be presented in report format (Arial 11 point with 1.5 line spacing), using APA referencing style. Headings in the report should include (but are not limited to) the following. These sections are just given as a guide but students are encouraged to use their initiative and present their assignment in the most logical and well-structured manner that is possible.
Executive Summary,
Table of Contents (which also lists Appendices),
Introduction (approx. 100 words)
Company Background (approx. 100 words)
Factors influencing the organization and its reputation. (approx. 200 words)
PEST influences? What industry is this organization in? What do they do?
Organization Structure (approx. 100 words)
Describe the ownership structure (who owns the company) (National or international)
Other organizations owned, or associated with them.
Stakeholder theory (approx. 300 words)
Introduce and comment on the reasons why stakeholder theory is important to understanding corporate reputation.
Stakeholders of the organization (approx. 200 words)
A stakeholder map could help here.
Corporate Reputation Theory (approx. 200 words)
Company behaviour and activities (approx. 250-300 words)
Discuss your company’s behaviours and activities, which may specifically influence its corporate reputation.
Consider the building blocks of the company’s reputation.
You should also consider the company’s reputational associations, and online sentiment regarding the company.
You can include corporate communications.
Interpretation of the corporate reputation (approx. 300 words)
Note, the company may be perceived differently by different stakeholder groups. What factors may be influencing the organization’s reputation?
Implications and Conclusion (approx. 200 words)
DISCUSS the implications of your findings [“so what”].
This may include a recommendation for the development of a corporate communications strategy in the future to develop the corporate brand and reputation of the organization.
what influence do I have as a nurse in the motivation of my employees? (Communication, employee discussion, feedback, appreciation, interest for personal concerns of employees).
Employee motivation
My name is Maria Wachtel, I am 34 years old and have been working as a supervisor since 2013 in ambulant intensive care. The importance of motivated employees has quickly crystallized for me, as well as quickly dissatisfaction with employees can arise. The topic has aroused my interest and I have come up with some questions which I will discuss in my paper:
-what motivates employees? (Definition: motive, motivation, needy pyramid according to Maslow, material and non-material motivators, the opposite: internal termination, impact on the operation)
-which factors lead to work satisfaction and how is work unsatisfied?
– what influence do I have as a nurse in the motivation of my employees? (Communication, employee discussion, feedback, appreciation, interest for personal concerns of employees)
I would like to have a motivated and satisfied team for the future as a nurse. Since I am an important contact person for my employees in the nursing home day, I would like to have a trusting and respectful relationship with my employees so that this also reflects the care and the care of our patients / clients.
I hope that through the intensive study of employee motivation I have sensitized myself to the topic and created an optimal basis for the fulfillment of my ideas.
…. these were the few ideas I had on the subject. I find it difficult to limit the topic so that the paper is useful and as the teachers want the housework “round”.
My team is very close to my heart and I am convinced that as a nursing assistant, I make a huge (if not the largest) share of the work satisfaction and motivated work of my employees.
Daft states that “an open communication climate helps alleviate tension and conflict between departments build trust reaffirms employee commitment to a shared vision and makes a company more competitive.” Discuss an open communication climate an.
Daft states that “an open communication climate helps alleviate tension and conflict between departments, build trust, reaffirms employee commitment to a shared vision and makes a company more competitive.” Discuss an open communication climate and why it is important. Your response should be at least 500 words in length. Listening is a critical skill for both leaders and followers. Many overlook the simplicity yet the importance of being a good listener. The 10 keys to effective listening covered in your textbook are: Listen actively. Keep an open mind. Resist distractions. Capitalize on the fact that thought is faster than speech. Seek understanding. Judge content, not delivery. Hold one’s fire. Listen for ideas. Work at listening. Show respect. Discuss, in detail, which three keys from the list above are most important in your opinion and why. Your response should be at least 500 words in length. References: Daft, R. L. (2015). The leadership experience (6th ed.). Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning
