Overcoming Challenges to Effective Organizational Performance

The main obstacles to effective organizational performance is already covered in this blog and the ways to overcome them are discussed below.

1. Employees Training and Development

The hope is that employees who receive training in line with their individual or organizational goals will become more efficient in what they do. Organizations should look at the positive effects of training on employee performance, and consider employee development as a targeted investment into making the front line worker stronger. More importantly, development plans that include “train-the-trainer” (training that trains employees to become trainers of a skill) can provide exponential benefits to the organization. This training can be anything from how employees can do their own jobs better to these employees being groomed to replace their supervisor. In addition, employees who are invested as a trainer might be further inclined to stay with the organization, and possibly reduce employee turnover.

2. Motivation

Basically, there are three assumptions in human motivation established in any organization. The first one assumes that motivation is inferred from a systematic analysis of how personal, task and environmental characteristics influence behavior and job performance. The next one infers that motivation is not a fixed trait; but rather it refers to a dynamic internal state resulting from the influence of personal and situational factors. This means that motivation may change with changes in personal, social or other factors. Finally, motivation affects behavior, rather than performance. Initiatives designed to enhance job performance by increasing employee motivation may not be successful if there is a weak link between job performance and an employee’s efforts.

Definition of motivation varies. This is a basic example why the term ‘motivation’ is filled with complexities.   Motivation is the willingness to exert high levels of effort toward organizational goals, conditioned by the effort’s ability to satisfy some individual need. On the other hand motivation is also the set of processes that arouse, direct and maintain human behavior toward attaining some goal. This definition contents three key essential aspects: arousal, direction and maintaining. Encouragement is to do with the drive/energy behind people’s actions such as their interests to do the things or they do it just want making a good impression on others or to feel successful at what they do. Direction means the choices people make to meet the person’s goal. Maintaining behavior could keep people persisting at attempting to meet their goal hence to satisfy the need that stimulated behavior in the first place. When the workforce on an organization is effectively motivated, employees’ continuous improvement is not far at hand.

In connection to emotional labor, motivation of employees is vital. There are times that the pressures of the work exhaust most number of employees. During this instances, there are simple ways that can help them motivate themselves to work even better even with the presence of some barriers in their effective service management. For example, a tap in the shoulder from the manager, kind words from co-workers, a simple praise, or mere gestures of appreciation can highly motivate an employee. Furthermore, incentives and rewards may also be offered by the management.  The objective of the reward system has been to motivate employees in delivering the best service they can. In order to do this, rewards are distributed in such a way that the more valuable employees will be left with a feeling of satisfaction. Pay is also a contributory element in the process of motivation. The reason for basing pay upon performance is the impact that may result from employees’ pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, and performance. While there are other reasons for making pay contingent on performance, such as the effect it may have on absenteeism and turnover, these are the most important ones. Indeed, the primary reason for having such a pay system is the potential it has for the motivation of performance.

3. Coordination

Some management consultants believe that as modern organizations grew larger, skills become increasingly fragmented and specialized and positions become more functionally differentiated. However, it should be likewise put in mind that people are diverse and complex beings.

As social beings, employees are entitled to their own opinions, needs and expectations. The role of HR is one of catalytic conversion that prepares organizations to understand their history, strategize for the present, and create visions for the future as a one of visionary guide, change agent, and culture monitor. The HR department has the responsibility of making employees feel they are crucial in the efficient and effective functions and operations of the company especially during times of organizational development wherein change is inevitable. In this light, the management was confronted with the need to promote positive working relationship and good communication channeling among the personnel in the establishment whether between the supervisor and the subordinates or employee to peers and colleagues.

4. Power and Politics Management

The change in status is definitely advantageous for the organization through delegation. Management have to understand that to stay at the top of the power curve it is important to convert power effectively into interpersonal influence in ways that avoid abuse of power and to create effective teams by delegating authority to others. The powers held by a person in a company can be converted into influence strategy by following, retribution, reciprocity and applying reason. Retribution is forcing others to do what the superior says. To make people just to do what is expected by the team leader, the leader may use coercion and may also use intimidation to increase the pressure on the team members. The management can also use the reciprocity concept, by following bargaining or ingratiation. But the best approach is to share the facts with the employees and by appealing to their personal values.

5. Commitment

HR experts believe that organizational behavior is resistant to change due to human cognitive processes and defensive routines which were accumulated from past experiences forming beliefs that rationalize every action. Such human characteristics prevent managers from learning that their behavior is inconsistent with their aspirations which could lead to the persistence of organizational policies and practices in the context of new business environment and realities.

6. Competency

Keeping an organization’s place in the business world as competitive innovator and provider of a specific service has sustained its ever increasing number of customers. However, the company, in order to be successful in their implementation of any change in their operations and transactions, has also considered the not just the competence and competitiveness of the organization as a whole but also take into account the competence and competitive behaviors of the people that run the business. A weak workforce simply means less productivity and progress, while a strong workforce means more. Leadership potentials among the management personnel are highly evaluated during times of change and participation and aggressive working environment among the staff were likewise monitored for the smooth pace of the improvement processes within the business organization.

Ensuring employee performance requires establishing a level of competence which the employee should be aware of as a target to be achieved. This is the measure to be used by managers in determining compliance with the standard and in identifying problems met by the employees in meeting the standard. In developing a training program to enhance the productivity of employees the manager will look at the competency problems of the employees and fashion the program to enable the employees to reach and even exceed the competency standard established for their work. This requires a great amount of perceptiveness on the part of the manager in determining what method of training will be most effective in improving employee competence. Some of the training includes computer software training, internet-based training and self teaching by encouraging innovativeness in the workplace.

7. Leadership

Leadership comprises the aptitude and ability to inspire and influence the thinking, attitudes, and behavior of other people. It is a process of social influence in which one person is able to enlist the aid and support of other individuals in the achievement of a common task. The major points of this definition are that leadership is a group activity, is based on social influence, and revolves around a common task. Leadership has different styles that a leader may follow or may not. It distinguishes the basics elements of leadership. Leadership is considered to be situational; it is dependent on organizational, environmental, and historical context. Relational, signify the relationship between the leader and the followers, and last element is the distinct from position. Structural leadership plays a decisive role in shaping the organizations. Structural leaders can be successful when they have the right answer for their organization and they can get their answer acknowledged and implemented.

8. Organizational Culture

The culture in a particular workplace is an interactive one. Workers have different culture that makes them distinct above others. However, one great factor that influences the culture in a particular workplace is the behavior of the workers themselves. In this regard, it is found that a certain workplace has different and diversified types of workers.

Some people argue that culture is the single most important factor contributing for the success or failure of organizations. Some suggests a psychological theory of the link between organizational culture and business performance. Some perceived culture as a reward of work for if we sacrifice much to the organization – a form of return to the exerted effort. Responsive culture provides the organization the ability to be culturally inventive which is also related to leadership and top management has the responsibilities for building strong cultures. Leaders create the social reality of the organization; they mold the values and attend to the vision and mission of the organization. Relationship culture is also generally constructed and it reflects the meanings that are constituted in communication and that form commonly acknowledged definitions of the situation.

Culture is controlled and it refers to the processes that unite the organization together. It must be consensual rather than conflict-oriented. Idealism of organization culture reinforces the unifying strengths of fundamental goals and establishes a sense of common responsibility. Task culture or performance culture are the considered to be the opposite of role cultures. It maintains the strong sense of the basic mission of the organization and teamwork is the basis on which jobs are designed.

9. Managing Diversity

Diversity is important in an organization because it is about inclusiveness; that it’s not simply a code word for minority concerns, but embraces a new way of thinking about maximizing the potential of everyone within the organization. It is basically about providing equality within the organization.   It stated that since the early 1990s, the debate on equal opportunities (EO) at work has been characterized by the introduction of the relatively new concept of managing diversity. They defined it as understanding that there are differences among employees and that these differences, if properly managed, are an asset to work being done more efficiently and effectively. Examples of diversity factors are race, culture, ethnicity, gender, age, a disability, and work experience.

EO is different for managing diversity. EO focuses on discrimination while managing diversity is concerned with ensuring that all people maximize their potential. Thus the emphasis in managing diversity is that differences between people should be effectively managed as opposed to being avoided, or viewed as a liability. Furthermore, the managing diversity approach focuses on individuals in contrast to EO’s focus on groups such as: women, ethnic minorities, and disabled people.

The managing diversity approach has been suggested as engaging with a strategic perspective, playing a critical role in ensuring economic and competitive success, and is described as being the responsibility of all employees, but particularly managers. EO on the other hand, is largely considered as the concern of personnel departments or human resource specialists.

The role of managing diversity in business has been considered important particularly to the welfare of the employees. It places an important emphasis on the nature of organizational culture and management styles. Certainly it has been asserted that cultural transformation is integral to the managing diversity approach, with the organization adapting and changing, rather than individuals conforming to long established processes.

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