Case Study

Name

Institution

Executive Summary

The various changes in modern management practices necessitated by globalization and advances in technology and communication have led to emergence of human capital as an important input in modern organizations. However, many organizations fail to respond to the needs of their work force and may suffer from poor employee performance and lack of job satisfaction. This may be witnessed when absenteeism rates increase and employees become increasingly demoralized.

However, it is organizations that fail to adopt appropriate human resource practices of motivation, recruitment and training, and employee relations that may lead to decline in employee performance and job satisfaction levels. However, the management can solve this by providing appropriate training and development to employees and also defining other benefits to award them and increase morale. Moreover, this will reduce pressure associated with assigned duties and enable employees reduce their stress levels. Therefore, top management should direct sufficient funds to training and development programs to achieve this objective.

Case Study

Many large companies and business organizations rely on the performance of its branches as a critique for gauging overall performance, and it is apparent branch managers operate under intense pressure to achieve the objectives and goals set-up by the organization. They are obliged to sustain their operations under tight budgets while expected to realize increased sales and financial returns to their organizations. However, the emergence of human capital as an invaluable input in modern organizations has led to failure of organizations that do not cater for the needs of their human resource (Jaksic, 2013). Therefore, it is apparent that an organization’s success in global market relies on the satisfaction of its workforce necessary for translation of activities into real financial returns.

The main problem facing the store is employee job performance and satisfaction (Jaksic, 2013). The neglect of an appraisal system by the former management has compounded the problems faced by the employees in the working environment. The employees in the store lack the sufficient skills and expertise thus does not find their job interesting, challenging, and motivating (Jaksic, 2013). This is witnessed through frequent absenteeism from work in the disguise of sick leaves. This is because the workforce is overloaded with work, which may lead to work related stress (Jaksic, 2013). As a result, the employees in the store appear less motivated and enthusiastic about the duties and roles they are assigned in the store, and the trips made to out-of-town retail shops is done with less dedication and interest. Moreover, this has led to decreasing sales as the store trails others in overall sales in the business.

Moreover, the former management of the store nurtured a poor relationship with its employees as it failed to carryout performance appraisal and refused to work on opinion surveys organized by the business. This may be attributed to rising telephone costs as employees seek opportunities to work elsewhere. However, the problems may be associated to the human resource practices employed by the former management (Jaksic, 2013). The practices related to the problems in the case study may result from failure of the management of the store to carryout performance appraisal in order to notify management of employee problems (Jaksic, 2013).

The problems also expose the management practice of recruitment and training as employees in the store do not have the sufficient skills to perform their duties leading work related stress and absenteeism (Jaksic, 2013). The former management also failed to recognize employee need for training and development in the annual survey to improve their skills. Lastly, it is important for the store to recognize what motivates their employees and prioritize motivation as a human resource practice (Jaksic, 2013). The store does not have any mechanism for motivating employees, which explains the declining motivation levels among the workforce.

However, as a branch manager it is possible to resolve the problems inherited from the former management by adopting a variety of remedies, to ensure the store prioritizes its human resource as an important input in the business. Firstly, the store should implement recommendations of the opinion survey and provide training and development to its employees in order to facilitate development of new skills and improve performance of tasks and role (Jaksic, 2013). Moreover, the store should provide anxiety management training to employees to avoid the pressure in work and delegate authority to avoid overburdening the twenty employees of the store. Employee morale can be increased if the business combines its training programs with defined benefits to its employees (Jaksic, 2013). This will also boost job satisfaction as work becomes interesting and motivating. The advice to top management would be to direct sufficient funds towards training and development programs to ensure high employee morale and job satisfaction, which will translate into real financial gains through increased sale of computer equipment.

Reference

Jaksic, M., & Jaksic, M. (2013). PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT AND EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION. Montenegrin Journal of Economics, 9(1), 85-92. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/1355247790?accountid=458