Abstract
The enhancement of a positive internal environment is essential in ensuring an organization’s high performance and productivity levels. In this study, this organization’s internal environment factors are evaluated to enhance a clear understanding of their effect on employee motivation.
Technological capacity, organization culture, management systems, formal structures, financial management, and employee morale are identified as the major factors that contributed to the company’s low employee motivation. The problems proposed based on the above factors include communication and cultural differences as well as technological equipment challenges. Essentially, the solutions to the problems proposed are elucidated to ascertain the improvement of employee motivation.
Introduction
The success of any organization in terms of high productivity and performance is dependent on the individual and business environment. In enhancing performance and productivity, an organization capitalizes on the control of its internal environment, as it encompasses the events, entities, factors, and conditions that influence choices and activities within an organization. It particularly involves such factors as technological capacity, organization culture, management systems, formal structures, financial management, and employee morale (Lussier, 2012).
Major internal environment crises encompass the main challenge that faces most multinational corporations. Owing to its multinational corporation nature, this company has been facing internal environment crises that have been hampering its productivity and performance levels. This paper deals with a close examination of the factors causing the crises and the considerable solutions to these crises.
Internal Environment Crises
The internal environment crises facing this company are related to low employee morale or motivation. This is linked to communication and cultural differences, the technological equipment challenge as well as the other factors that form the internal environment. Due to employee diversity, many cultures are represented in the company, and accordance with the radical behaviorism approach; these cultures have susceptibly influenced the behavior of most employees (Halverson & Tirmizi, 2008). A negative behavioral influence by cultural differences encompasses reluctance to engage in teamwork. Many employees are lowly motivated into joining teams because they believe their cultural difference will culminate in major conflicts that will infringe upon successful teamwork.
Essentially, cultural differences encompass the major de-motivating factor for expatriate employees, as their lack of understanding of a new culture infringes upon their cooperation with other employees from that culture in enhancing company performance. Effective communication channels are fundamental for multinational corporations. This is because business is conducted across many departments and countries; hence, the lack of comprehensive communication channels infringes upon the corporation’s performance (Ghoshal et al, 1994). In this company, varying communication channels coupled with cultural differences have culminated in communication differences that have infringed upon employee motivation as well as company performance.
The varying technological capacities of the different countries in which the company conducts its business have culminated in the technological equipment challenge, where some company branches have advanced technological equipment as compared to others.
Those employees originating from the branches facing the technological equipment challenge are very lowly motivated (Bruce, 2006). The company management system has always relied upon bureaucratic structures that do not allow employee contribution to the running of the company regardless of the country involved. As such, the management system has encouraged leaders whose leadership qualities to rely upon traits, skills, situational, and contingency leadership theories.
Essentially, the management system encourages the creation of definitive structures that define employee expectations and consequences for not achieving such expectations. This has de-motivated the employees as they are not accorded with the chance to participate in the company running. Though the organization culture is aimed at enhancing employee motivation, in the case of this company, it has not improved employee motivation.
This is because the control systems utilized under the culture limit the utilization of employee innovations in the production process. In terms of power structures, employees are not involved in the decision-making process hence de-0motivating them. Instead of uniting the employees, the organization culture symbols in this company reduce their motivation because they represent the disincentives the employees have to work with (Lussier, 2012). In financial management, the company has always lacked formal rewarding systems aimed at motivating the employees.
Solutions
The provision of diversity workshops is essential in solving the cultural differences between the employees. As part of the diversity workshop, employees will be accorded with training on the major cultures that affect the organization’s functioning. Such training will be followed by interactions between the employees, aimed at creating awareness on the other existing cultures that might not have been included in the training (Bruce, 2006).
To eliminate communication differences, the company should provide training on effective cross-cultural communication and should set up language policies aimed at enhancing the use of a common language by employees. In this way, communication outcomes will improve between the employees culminating in an improvement in their motivation.
In terms of management t systems, the company should replace the hierarchical systems with flatter systems that encourage employee participation in the decision-making process. This will in turn motivate the employees at a higher perspective. In terms of technological capacity, the company should invest in the enhancement of equal technological capacity for all its branches regardless of their location.
This will culminate in the elimination of the technological equipment challenge; hence, motivating the de-motivated employees. To the building of lasting relationships between the organization employees, the company should invest in such technological advancements as computers and the internet to enhance the real-time sharing of formal company information between the employees as well as informal personal information (Ghoshal et al, 1994).
This will not only create favorable working relationships between the employees but also motivate them at a higher perspective. To encourage employees to join teams, the supervisors should utilize Tuckman’s states of Group development. As such, under forming the employees should orient themselves by testing that identifies the task and interpersonal behaviors as well as boundaries (Halverson & Tirmizi, 2008). Under storming, every employee should be accorded with the chance to point out their ideas before they are considered with the aim of choosing the best idea that will be integrated into the norming stage. Finally, the group should be led to the performing stage that channels the group energy into task performance.
This encourages the participation of all employees in the decision-making process; hence motivating them at a higher perspective. As a form of self-motivation, employees should organize a formal rewarding system into which they contribute monthly.
As per the rewarding system, rewards will be accorded in accordance with performance (Lussier, 2012). This will motivate the employees to improve the performance to acquire the rewards that would translate into a return on their investment. In conclusion, though the company is facing considerable internal environment crises due to low employee motivation, various solutions can be accorded both by the company and the employees themselves to boost motivation. This will culminate in the enhancement of the organization’s performance and productivity level.
References
Bruce, A. (2006). How to motivate every employee: 24 proven tactics to spark productivity in the workplace. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Ghoshal, S., Korine, H., & Szulanski, G. (1994). Interunit Communication in Multinational Corporations. Management Science, 40(1).
Halverson, C. B., & Tirmizi, S. A. (2008). Effective multicultural teams: Theory and practice. Dordrecht: Springer.
Lussier, R. N. (2012). Management fundamentals: Concepts, applications, skill development. Mason, OH: South-Western.