Introduction
Team spirit and motivation are two critical factors that define the ability of a firm to achieve success in the market. According to Baporikar (2018), successful firms understand the fact that human resource should remain motivated to enhance its productivity.
The lack of motivation is a sign that the management is failing to meet the basic needs of its employees. On the other hand, lack of team spirit is a sign that the firm is lacking a platform for resolving conflicts to ensure that possible differences can be addressed. In the current competitive business environment, there is need to ensure that that workers are offered a perfect environment for them to explore their talents as a way of promoting creativity. Team spirit makes it possible for them to work as a unit in addressing the challenges that might exist in the market. In this paper, the researcher seeks to apply the concept of organizational development to address the two issues that affect employees of this company.
Organizational Development Phases
The concept of organizational development has emerged as a powerful tool that firms use to address challenges they face systematically. When faced with the challenge such as the one that has been identified, which affects employees’ productivity, this concept can be used to find a lasting solution that would promote teamwork and motivation. The organizational development identifies various steps that should be taken to address a specific issue. This section will use this model to address the issue that this firm faces.
Entry
The initial phase of organizational development, also known as the entry phase, is the stage that the management appreciates the fact that a problem exist that requires an urgent solution. Baporikar (2018) explains that at this stage, the management may notice that events at the company are not going as per the set goals or a lot of money or time is used contrary to what had been set previously. In this case, it has been identified that there is lack of motivation and teamwork among employees. The problem is affecting their productivity within the company. The next phase is contracting, where the firm identifies a team of experts who can help solve the identified problem. In this case, the researcher is the contrary who has set forth to address the marketing problem at the company.
Diagnosing
The initial stage of solving the problem starts with the diagnosis. As Bushe and Marshak (2015) observes, one should start by understanding the root-cause of the problem within the firm. The term should investigate processes and systems within the company to identify the possible cause of the problem. Weisbord’s Six Box Model is a popular theory that is often used to diagnose a problem within an organization. It starts by identifying the purpose of the firm in the market.
This company offers electronic products in the local market. The next step is to determine the structure of the company to determine how work is divided. The company has fully functioning marketing, finance, logistics, and human resource departments. Under the marketing unit, there is the customer care unit, public relations unit, promotional campaigns unit.
The model then emphasizes on the relationships, especially how the firm manages conflicts, and whether there is the use of technology in the process. The analysis has revealed that lack of team spirit and motivation is a major challenge that the firm faces. Most conflicts within the firm are resolved by the decision of the top management unit relevant at that specific level. It means that the decision of the marketing manager would override any other opposing view.
In the context of helpful mechanisms, the focus is to determine if there are adequate coordinating technologies within the firm (Jamieson, Church, & Vogelsang, 2018). Such management strategies where employees are denied the opportunity to engage and offer share their views on issues affecting them often lead to limited motivation among employees.
It was evident that the firm lack proper coordinating technologies, which limit dialogue, hence the issue of lack of team spirit emerged. Although individual employees within the firm regularly use social media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, and Twitter, the firm is yet to embrace these platforms as official means of communication among employees. It means that other traditional means of communication such as face-to-face meetings, phone calls, letters, and memos are still preferred means of passing official communication (Ardichvili & Dirani, 2017).
The concept of reward where tasks are attached to specific incentives is another factor that one should consider when conducting the diagnosis. Most of the assignments that employees within this department have to undertake are not attached to specific incentives. As such, the problem identified does not arise from this issue. The whole system requires an enabling environment to achieve the desired level of success. Figure 1 below summarizes these factors.
Feedback
The feedback of the diagnosis show that the main problem at the firm is that there is no team spirit and employees’ motivation is significantly low. The employees within this company find it difficult to work as a unit. They have failed to appreciate the significance of diversity in the workplace. They are unable to appreciate the fact that they can have different thought and perceptions in life but still work as a unit. The lack of team spirit is partly responsible for the limited motivation among workers. These employees feel that their views are not valued, and that the management is not making any significant effort to address the lack of team spirit.
The feedback from the diagnosis also shows that the current problem has been caused by the limited communication that employees have. The firm lacks a proper platform where employees can interact and share their views on how to address these issues. The marketing department sometimes organizes conferences for all employees once or twice a year to discuss issues that affect their operations. However, such an arrangement does not offer an adequate platform for the employees to engage and find a common solution to the issues that the department faces.
Planning Change
At the planning stage, the team will focus on addressing the identified problem. The marketing department will need to find a way of addressing the problem of lack of motivation and team spirit. The management will need to engage employees to understand why they cannot work as a spirit. It is also necessary to understand why they are not motivated at work (Waddell, Creed, Cummings, & Worley, 2019). The team should then find a way of addressing these concerns within the firm. It is equally important for the management to ensure that all stakeholders agree about the strategy that they should use to achieve the desired goals. The following are the specific objectives that should be realized from this project:
- The management should engage employees within the next one month to identify specific reasons where there is no team spirit.
- The firm will need to use both monetary and non-monetary factors to ensure that there is a significant increase in the level of employees’ motivation within the next one month;
- Addressing challenges above should enable the brand value of the firm to increase by at least 10% within the next one year.
Intervention
The intervention phase involves implementing the plans to achieve the specific objectives. The first plan was for the management to develop an effective way through which employees within the firm can engage with one another and agree on how to undertake their responsibilities as a unit. The diagnosis of the problem revealed that the team find it difficult agreeing on how to undertake different responsibilities. The lack of team spirit and other challenges that these workers face has led to reduced levels of motivation.
These workers feel that their views do not matter and that there is no deliberate effort by the management to promote teamwork. Ardichvili and Dirani (2017) explains that when two opposing teams cannot find a platform to address their conflict, then each team will propagate for what it believes is the best. The problem is that in such a case, the management will have to intervene. Sometimes the intervention may lower levels of motivation further.
The team whose idea is dropped will feel ignored, and as such, they may not support the new course. To avoid such problems at this company, the plan is to have a forum where views of all employees will be taken into consideration as a way of promoting teamwork. Through such forums, any misunderstandings can be addressed as people embrace a positive approach towards finding a common interest. This process of creating a new platform for communication should take less than one week. As Widodo (2018) suggests, the management can create a WhatsApp group or a Facebook page for employees to discuss issues of common interest. The marketing manager can monitor such deliberations to help them make a decision based on facts as expressed in the views of employees.
To help solve the problem of reduced levels of motivation among employees, the firm should consider using various strategies. The first strategy is to ensure that employees are rewarded appropriately for their work. The remuneration should reflect the individual effort of the employee’s effort. Studies have shown that a firm can also motivate its employees using non-monetary strategies (Ardichvili & Dirani, 2017). Public recognition of workers who have registered excellent performance is an effective way of promoting hard work and motivation. These workers will know that the management is monitoring their commitment to the firm and appreciates it.
Promotion is another factor that can motivate workers. Individuals who have remained loyal and committed to the firm through their good performance should be considered for promotion as a way of motivating them. Baporikar (2018) argues that the management should make it clear why they consider specific individuals for promotion. When it is based on performance, it is necessary to communicate this fact to avoid cases of dissatisfaction among other workers who do not get such promotions. Widodo (2018) believes that sometimes it may be necessary to involve employees themselves in identifying the top performers. Such strategies eliminate the perception that the management favors specific individuals as opposed to others.
Evaluation
The last stage is the evaluation, where the team will assess the outcome of the implemented solution to determine the way forward. When the evaluation shows that some weaknesses still exist, which may require further improvements then the team can take necessary steps to address them. The current problem that this company faces is that there is no team spirit and motivation, partly caused by the lack of an effective internal mechanism of solving internal conflicts and agreeing on the best way of overcoming various challenges. The researcher has developed a new model of organizational development that can be used by this organization to solve such future problems.
The new model is based on three pillars. The first pillar is effective communication. An organization can only achieve success if the involved parties can share their views. The new model also emphasizes the need for teamwork. All stakeholders should understand the value of working as a unit. The last factor is the need to invest in research and technological advancements. A firm can only achieve innovativeness if it embraces regular research and investment in emerging technologies. These three pillars will help this company to address the problem identified in this case study.
References
Ardichvili, A., & Dirani, K. (2017). Leadership development in emerging market economies. New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Baporikar, N. (2018). Global practices in knowledge management for societal and organizational development. Hershey, PA: Business Science Reference.
Beckhard, R. (2006). What is organization development? Organization Development, 4(1), 3-12.
Bushe, G. R., & Marshak, R. J. (2015). Dialogic organization development: The theory and practice of transformational change. Oakland, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, a BK Business Book.
Jamieson, D. W., Church, A. H., & Vogelsang, J. D. (2018). Enacting values-based change: Organization development in action. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave Macmillan.
Waddell, D. M., Creed, A., Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2019). Organisational change: Development and transformation. Melbourne, Australia: Cengage.
Widodo, T. (2018). Unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model to analyze user intention of Smartphone in banding. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 25(4), 535-559.