Assignment Task:
Abstract:
Modern, progressive companies understand the importance of developing inclusion early in a team's life cycle, rather than assuming that inclusion will automatically increase with time and contact. This case involves talent management at a greeting card company in a department that writes the wording (phrases, messages, wishes) found in all of the company's cards. The manager of the department is faced with one particular highly talented employee who does not relate well to, and is impatient with, her coworkers who work at a slower pace. The work style of this employee is creating friction that impedes the collaboration and progress necessary to turn out outstanding greeting cards as a team. The manager wants the achievers on her staff to feel valued and included and have the opportunities to be recognized for exceptional individual contributions and cooperative teamwork participation and team goal attainment. The manager seeks the knowledge of the more seasoned managers and her "informal" mentor (who possesses company expertise and knowledge) to help her deal with this difficult but talented employee, ensuring inclusion and achieving the organizational benefits that come with embracing full inclusion, shared purpose, and team goal attainment.
The Greeting Card Publishing Industry Background
Over the past five years, the greeting card publishing industry has contended with growing competition from low-cost digital alternatives and no-cost social media interaction. The industry excludes companies that solely publish industry products online, including art prints, greeting cards, and calendars. Furthermore, remaining brick-and-mortar customers of industry products are acknowledging the shift in consumer preference toward digital substitutes. For example, in March 2019, major retailers CVS Pharmacy and Walmart Inc. (Walmart) announced a cutback on greeting card sales by reducing the amount of physical shelf space in retail locations, noting the overarching trend of consumers simply opting for digital options.
Talent Manager:
Sally is a mid-level manager at Make Their Day, a medium-sized (210 employees) hand-written greeting card company. Sally's team is responsible for writing "social expressions" that can be used in the various seasonal and special occasion greeting cards. Sally joined the company nine years ago and thoroughly loves her work, because she is given creative autonomy, good pay and benefits, as well as recognition and appreciation. Sally was a member of a team that revised the company mission statement as follows.
Sally's Vision of a Successful Business
Sally believes the sole purpose of any company is to satisfy the needs of customers by developing and motivating staff who are capable of producing the goods customers crave. A company that does not provide value will have no customers over the mid-term. Sally is driven to develop the talent of her team and motivate them to strategize and work well with each other by answering the question, "Why should customers be expected to buy from our company?"
Make Their Day Mission Statement
We are committed to creating the finest hand-made greeting cards available with each card being designed, embossed, stamped, cut, and assembled with great care by individuals who have an eye for detail and a passion for their craft. Sally's management style is one of delegating work to the right workers and empowering them to complete the work on time and in good form. Sally realizes she may be considered too soft on her team by some of the other managers, but she knows how to manage this way, even though she may be a bit timid and evasive when tough challenges arise. Sally has recently hired an employee, Jane, who is smart and talented but appears to not work well with her teammates. Jane is not disrespectful to them; she just does not have the patience to wait for them to catch up on things. Because of this, her teammates consider her to be rude and arrogant. Sally's research on talent management shows that talented employees are usually quite innovative and can add greatly to the culture of their company and become collaborative in their approach to coworking. However, in truth, Sally believes that her team as a whole is not producing as much as they could. This really came to light when Jane joined the team and her creativity and productivity took off like a rocket. Sally believes that Jane may be considered a threat to her coworkers, which could be the main reason why they are uncollaborative and keep her out of their inner circle. Sally is frustrated, because Jane's talent could enable her to serve as a "go to" mentor to her coworkers and to share a great deal about writing and producing creative cards. But Sally knows that Jane is very businesslike in her approach to getting things done and she would need to be coached in working more collaboratively. Sally has solicited the help of other managers at Make Their Day to provide suggestions that could be adopted for managing Jane and helping her become more of a team player and be accepted by the rest of the team.
The Team Must Function as a Team
Sally knows that she needs to encourage her talented employee to work well with her coworkers, so they can feel comfortable working with her. Sally wonders if offering Jane a relaxed and conversational performance review-and also for each of her team members-would be in order, so they can open up about working within a team culture that is uneven in performance and seems to lack much-needed full inclusion, collaboration, and comradery. Sally really wants to find out how they feel about the work they are given and the process they use to get it done. She does not want to assume anything-she wants to let the team talk, or vent as needed. Neither does she want anyone to feel like they are under a microscope and are being judged for dismissal. Sally's "informal" mentor emphasizes the fact that the whole team should be held accountable not just for what they do, but how they do it. The mentor tells Sally that if team performance and collaboration skills need development, she should discuss these issues with the whole team and make her position known. The mentor points out that there may be several people on the team who need help and that Jane should not feel she is responsible for team development simply because she works at a faster pace, but that she could still provide assistance if her coworkers request it. Finally, the mentor states that Jane is probably just as frustrated as Sally about productivity and collaboration, so her only option is to stay busy and keep to herself. Sally knows that she must find a way to utilize the know-how of her talented employee in special and difficult work challenges and assignments. The other managers advise her to give Jane some tough problems to solve that require the education and skills of others on the team to complete. One manager suggests that she should give Jane a title such as "special project coordinator," but Sally must be careful to not let the power of coordinating a special project make Jane think she can boss the others around. Sally needs to define Jane's role and the roles of the other teammates involved in other special assignments. But quite certainly, Sally must pinpoint the results she expects from the team, and explain the value of including each member when planning how to get things done. The idea is to help Jane become more active and more involved with others in the department and to get Jane's coworkers more familiar with her. One manager says that Sally should find out if her talented employee wants to pursue a management position, in which case Sally should offer her some management training with a focus on helping her understand that the best leaders know how to build the best relationships. Sally realizes that any training given to Jane should also be made available to the entire team. At the other end of the empowerment spectrum, one manager says that he has a surefire way of handling Sally's situation. He says, "You tell her if she doesn't improve her attitude and start including everyone on the team, she can investigate other companies to work for." Sally knows that she can't accept that rather "hardnosed" view, but she is still wondering what to do.
An Inclusive Team Acknowledges and Utilizes Differences and Similarities
On the advice of most of her fellow managers and her "informal" mentor, Sally attends a human resource development program at a local college to gain some insight about how to develop employees with diverse skills. She learns that it's one thing to build a diverse team, but it's another to build an inclusive one. To effectively do the latter, Sally is told that she must recognize people's similarities and differences, both of which are essential to building strong, meaningful relationships at work. She is told that each of her workers has a collection of characteristics, which includes observable attributes (such as personality and intelligence), but also less observable but well-known attributes (such as functional expertise), and invisible attributes (like personality types and special skills.) Sally also learns that she should not make the mistake of trying to emphasize only what everyone has in common. She realizes that pretending that differences don't exist is a surefire way to actually make people feel excluded. Instead, she needs to create climates that encourage differences to come out. At the same time, she must work to uncover common ground. Sally learns that similarity and shared interests are the precipitators of close working relationships. And she must commit to having difficult conversations instead of avoiding them, which will enable her team to respect each other's differences and discover surprising common ground-the foundation of trust and inclusion. After learning about all the aspects and responsibilities connected with employee talent development and managing an inclusive, collaborative team, it is an understatement to say that Sally's head is spinning. She has gained talent management insights and lessons on nurturing team cultures, but she is not sure where to start and where to go to propose and implement a talent management program. She needs help! She cannot afford to lose any of her more talented employees, and she does not want all employees believing that their talent growth is not a priority.
FROM the above What evidence do you find that the employees are not working well as a team? Your analysis must demonstrate your ability to apply Organizational Behaviour concepts to explain what is causing the issues you identify.
1. You must discuss in detail and length TWO issues related to teamwork or group performance: Group performance, deviant workplace behaviors
2. Additionally, describe the Manager's leadership style and analyze how leadership behaviors influenced manager/employee attitudes, perceptions and/or performance at the company.
3. Recommendations - recommend an action plan to fix the issues identified in part 1.
Propose practical, real-life things that they, the managers and/or team members need to do, or stop doing.
Use Organizational Behaviour concepts whenever possible to explain why your recommendations will improve the situation.
Describe the specific improvements that can be expected after following your recommendations.