There is a division between the followers and non-followers of senior administrator of the Customer Support Department in a supermarket. This paper will analyze the job responsibilities and attitudes of different employees having impact upon their individual functioning in the team and offer recommendations for improving their motivation, team spirit, job satisfaction and productivity.
Jessica is a senior administrator of the Customer Support Department in a supermarket. Picking up the relationship-based leadership style, she attempts to find an individual approach to each of the administrators. Jessica considers the personal needs and family circumstances of her subordinates when making up a schedule for the whole department.
However, sympathizing with each of the employees, she may lose the control over the situation because some of the administrators may misunderstand her intentions, thinking that she may lack authority and leadership qualities. Jessica is the most competent and experienced of all administrators. However, her competence is acknowledged not by all the members of the team.
She is highly motivated and optimistic about the innovations and change processes within the company and tries to encourage the rest of the team to share her vision. Jessica is the first to learn how to work with an innovative database and provides support to the rest of the team when it is necessary. Still, some of her subordinates understate her support and try to challenge her competence and authority.
Ann is one of the administrators of the sales zone who does not acknowledge the authority of the senior administrator and makes attempts to doubt Jessica’s competence. Although Ann is competent and experienced, the level of her motivation is rather low which has a negative impact upon her performance. While communicating with customers, Ann can be impolite and does not make attempts to be helpful.
She is inclined to delegate her responsibilities to other administrators if she has such an opportunity under certain premises. Ann is a single mother and explains her moral position with her limited family circumstances. Although some customers complained of Ann’s impoliteness, she was not fired and only received a warning because the management sympathizes with her situation.
The main reason of her opposition to Jessica’s leadership was her own career expectations of becoming a senior administrator which were not realized due to her own underperformance. Trying to raise doubts concerning Jessica’s competence, Ann spreads rumors concerning Jessica’s failures in personal life and professional activities.
Kate is a newcomer in the company and one of Jessica’s followers. Although Kate works in the company for only a few months, she was able to learn all the guidelines and develop the necessary practical skills. Therefore, regardless of her recent employment, Kate can boast of excellent performance and is competent in all operations.
She obtains excellent knowledge of the full range of goods and their arrangement in the supermarket. Kate is highly motivated and is always ready to make extra effort to reach the targets and improve the organization and performance of the whole department. She is always friendly when communicating with customers and other employees.
Kate acknowledges the competence and authority of Jessica and asks for senior administrator’s advice whenever such a need arises to adopt her valuable experience. Her motivation is high and is not limited to the financial compensation. However, Kate receives bonuses for her excellent performance. She chose a neutrality position and carefully treats the informal information, trying not to spread rumors.
The factors which should be taken into account to improve the motivation of the administrators of the sales zone and enhancing the productivity of this group include the internal communication within this group, feeling of a family, equity and job satisfaction of the employees. To improve the internal communication within this group, the leader might offer certain team building activities and unofficial meetings (Miner 124).
The division within this department among the followers and non-followers of Jessica was caused mainly by the lack of motivation, failure of career expectations and inequity concerns in Ann and others. Thus, some employees may feel that their input is not equal to the output received from the company.
In that regard, the dissemination of the information on the performance and competence of the employees can be helpful for filling in these gaps and avoiding the sucker effect. Ann might have reduced her efforts because of loafing. Therefore, her equity motivation should be restored. Additionally, appropriate training is recommended for creating the team spirit and feeling of family in the employees.
This might be helpful for preventing the cases of delegation of responsibilities. Proper motivation is essential for encouraging the employees to make extra efforts and improving their performance. Furthermore, professional ethics need to be fostered to prevent the effect of social loafing and spread of rumors having negative impact upon the reputation of senior administrator and other employees (Griffin and Moorhead 76).
Furthermore, Jessica should develop her leadership qualities. Regardless of the fact that the relationship based leadership style she has chosen is favorable for the existing situation, she might be more authoritative in particular situations.
Therefore, the main recommendations for improving the motivation, team spirit, job satisfaction and productivity of the employees of the Customer Support Department in a supermarket include creating the team spirit and feeling of family, handling the equity concerns and improving the motivation of the employees.
Works Cited
Griffin, Ricky and Gregory Moorhead. Organizational Behavior: Managing People and Organizations. Mason: Cengage Learning, 2011. Print.
Miner, John. Organizational Behavior: From Theory to Practice. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2007. Print.