Assignment

Topic: Case Study

Course Title: Organizational Behavior
Course Code: FNB206

Submitted to
MD. Awal Al Kabir
Assistant Professor
Department of Management
Faculty of Business Studies
Jahangirnagar University

Submitted By
Sumaiya Islam-1471
Golam Ishtiak Ayan-1492
Raisul Islam Akash-1493
A.K.M Sajib-Uz-Zaman Shanto-1494
Rakibuzzaman Mahdi-1512
S M Aminul Islam-1893

Department of Finance and Banking

Batch no:9th
 Date of Submission: 15th September,2019

Repairing Jobs That Fail to Satisfy

Introduction

Drain Flow is a major plumbing maintenance firm who specializes in both residential and
commercial services. For decades, Drain Flow has operated around the United States, using their
specialization strategy to stay ahead of its competitors. Although Drain Flow’s specialization
strategy has helped reduce its costs, customer complaints have been rising. Often, the customer
complaints are about response times and costs. Several appointments have been rescheduled due
to the wrong staff members being sent to jobs. Also, some customers have been overcharged due
to more experienced and expensive workers being sent to perform simpler tasks that assistants
could handle. The rising number of complaints has caused many customers to seek services from
a newer competing chain, Lightning Plumber.

Regional manager, Lee Reynaldo, has been analyzing the problems at Drain Flow and has
predicted possible sources. Lee believes that employees are not motivated enough and that the
job design could be contributing to the problems. As a result, Lee has proposed to use cash
rewards to improve performance among employees. She also wants to find new employees who
are a better fit with the company’s new goals. Whether Lee decides to go through with these
proposed solutions or not, a change needs to be in order to help Drain Flow return back to its
highly competitive position within the market.
Question 1: Although it’s clear employees are not especially satisfied with their work, do you
think this is a reason for concern? Does research suggest satisfied workers are actually better at
their jobs? Are any other behavioral outcomes associated with job satisfaction?

Answer: Employees who are not especially satisfied with their work tend to be less motivated to
achieve organizational goals. This raises a high concern for the organization, in which
organizational goals may take even longer to accomplish. In this case, employees at Drain Flow
are not motivated and therefore, lack the customer service that they should be providing.
Competitors such as Lightning Plumber offer great customer service in comparison. Lightning
Plumber has also created a more vital and energetic work environment.

Since the early 1900’s, job satisfaction and job performance have been linked together.
Beginning with the Hawthorne studies, happy workers were described as productive workers.
Throughout the years, these findings were challenged and the linkage was proven to be
moderately strong. Research suggests that organizations with more satisfied workers tend to be
more effective than organizations with fewer.

In addition to job performance, there are many more behavioral outcomes associated with job
satisfaction. These associations can be either positive or negative in regard to performance. An
employee’s organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is highly dependent on their level of job
satisfaction. Satisfied employees will go beyond their work expectations simply because they
have positive feelings toward their job. Support by co-workers and positive experiences in the
workplace usually cause employees to engage in OCB. Also, customer satisfaction has been
found to positively contribute to job performance. Satisfied employees have the ability to
increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. Currently, Drain Flow is receiving several surveys
reflecting customer dissatisfaction. 40% of the total survey respondents felt that their experience
was not good while 30% of the total survey respondents disclosed that they would use a
competitor the next time they experience a plumbing issue.
On the contrary, some associations with job satisfaction can result in negative behavioral
outcomes. Absenteeism, turnover, and workplace deviance all have a negative relationship with
job satisfaction. When employees are dissatisfied with work and alternative jobs are available,
they will have high absence rates. However, when few alternative jobs are available, dissatisfied
employees have the same low absence rates as satisfied employees. Similarly, turnover is a result
of alternative job prospects. Employees are influenced by the “pull-push” mechanism, the luring
of the other job and the unattractiveness of the current job. High human capital, such as high
ability, can even influence employees to consider other available alternatives. Finally, workplace
deviance causes withdrawal at work. Employees dislike their jobs so much that rather than
finding the source of the problem, they will control the situation with different responses.
Workplace deviance includes substance abuse, unionization attempts, and stealing at work.
Question 4: Explain the advantages and disadvantages of using financial incentives in a program
of this nature. What, if any, potential problems might arise if people are given money for
achieving customer satisfaction goals? What other types of incentives might be considered?

Answer: Financial incentives may result in both advantages and disadvantages. The main
advantage of financial incentives is that they are highly motivational. A program of this nature
would benefit from financial incentives because they would be striving to meet short-term goals.
Research suggests that financial incentives may be more motivating in the short term rather than
the long-term. In addition, financial incentives challenge employees and make them set higher
goals for themselves. This then improves performance and subsequently customer satisfaction.
Some disadvantages of financial incentives include the loss of organizational focus. Employees
may not be able to concentrate on organizational goals and tend to focus more on receiving the
cash reward. For organizations, they will incur higher compensation costs to account for the
additional bonuses. Finally, financial incentives increase competitiveness within the workplace
and takes away from competing outside the organization.

Given these disadvantages, potential problems may arise if people are given money for achieving
customer satisfaction goals. Organizations could start losing more and more money if employees
are constantly meeting satisfaction goals. Although meeting these goals are pertinent, giving
money as an incentive becomes costly. Also, employees may put pressure on customers by
always requesting feedback. I feel that feedback should be given at one’s ease. To prevent these
possible problems and any additional problems from happening, other types of incentives could
replace the form of money. Organizations can use a variety of employee recognition programs
that are either private or widely publicized. For example, Drain Flow’s regional managers could
announce employee accomplishments or even create a visible employee recognition wall for
everyone to see. These are both inexpensive ways to recognize employee performance and to
motivate other employees. Furthermore, organizations could recognize employees by giving
them rewards of some value. For instance, one month Drain Flow could decide to make the
reward a free pair of movie tickets. This method allows management to be more creative with
their incentives and leaves employees excited about their potential reward.
Question 5: Create a specific plan to assess whether the reward system is working. What are the
dependent variables that should change if the system works? How will you go about measuring
success?

Answer: As regional manager of Drain Flow, Lee Reynaldo should evaluate the customer
surveys on a weekly basis. It is important that she is aware of the progress of the employees and
the feedback from their customers. After roughly 3 months of implementing the reward system,
Lee should assess which individual employees and specific job categories are receiving the most
rewards. She should continue with this evaluation for every 3 months. By keeping track of the
employees and job categories that value this reward system, she can see how effective the system
actually is. This will also help her decide whether the reward system is working for everyone at
Drain Flow or just within specific job categories. Lee can then decide if she wants to keep the
reward system, make changes, or get rid of the reward system all together.

If the reward system is perceived to work, productivity and job satisfaction are expected to
increase. Employees will view this reward system as another goal they must reach and when they
do reach it, they become much more satisfied with their job. Also, absenteeism and turnover
rates are expected to decrease. Employees will be even more motivated to come to work and
increase their chances of earning the cash reward. They will value their job titles and are most
likely not to leave their organization. However, turnover could benefit Drain Flow if
underperforming employees leave the organization and can be replaced by someone with the
proper skills and that are interested in meeting the organization’s goals. Consequently, the
success of the reward system will be based on positive customer feedback. Drain Flow will be
much more successful if customers are satisfied with their services. Customer satisfaction results
in returning customers and possibly new referrals. The customer feedback will be gathered from
surveys and will be kept on record. The surveys will measure the success of the employee
meeting its goals by customers using a scale. The scale to rate the employee will be from 1 to 5,
1 being unsatisfactory and 5 being satisfactory. The customers will be able to rate them on a
number of things and can leave additional comments if they please.
Question 6: What types of hiring recommendations would you make to find people better suited
for these jobs? Which Big Five personality traits would be useful for the customer service
responsibilities and emotional labor?

Answer: Considering the problems with current employees at Drain Flow, there needs to be a
few changes to find people who are better suited for these jobs. All job categories should go
through a similar interview process but, interviews should be standardized within each job
category. This allows the general manager to better understand how qualified a person is for the
specific job. They must have the ability to perform all of the tasks required of that position.
Although a candidate may seem qualified for a job, they should still go through a 2-week
training session. This should make the general manager along with any regional managers at
Drain Flow to have more confidence in their employee’s performance. The sessions will cover
basic knowledge pertinent to the job category, organizational behavior, customer service, and a
brief overview of other contributing jobs at Drain Flow. In addition, personality tests should be
part of the hiring process. Personality traits allow managers to better understand how an
individual will behave in certain situations and how well they can interact with others. Both
aspects are key components when working at Drain Flow.

In my opinion, all Big Five personality traits would be useful for the customer service
responsibilities and emotional labor. Customer service responsibilities mostly reflect the
extraversion and conscientiousness dimensions. The extraversion dimension describes someone
who is sociable while the conscientiousness dimension describes someone as responsible and
organized. Customer service interacts with customers constantly and need to know how to
properly communicate with them. They are depended upon to handle any issues a customer may
have. Similarly, emotional labor mostly reflects the extraversion and emotional stability
dimensions. All employees at Drain Flow engage in emotional labor, a situation in which an
employee expresses organizationally desired emotions during interpersonal transactions at work.
To be more of an extrovert, employees must know how to deal with customers; whether it’s
through phone orders, at an actual job appointment, or through billing. The emotional stability
dimension characterizes someone who is calm, self-confident, and secure. All employees at
Drain Flow need to have these qualities to maintain job satisfaction. An employee will be better
satisfied with their job if they stay positive in regards to their performance and understand their
contribution to the organization.

The Big Five Personality Traits Model measures five key dimensions of people's personalities:

Openness (sometimes called intellect or imagination) – This measures our level of creativity,
and our desire for knowledge and new experiences.

Conscientiousness – This looks at the level of care we take in our life and work. If we score
high in conscientiousness, we're organized and thorough, and we know how to make plans and
follow them through. If we score low, we're likely to be lax and disorganized.

Extraversion/Introversion – This dimension measures our level of sociability. Are we outgoing

or quiet? Do we draw energy from a crowd, or do we find it difficult to work and be around
others?

Agreeableness – This dimension looks at our level of friendliness and kindness to others. Do we
have empathy? Can we sympathize with others?

Natural Reactions (sometimes called emotional stability or neuroticism) – This measures our
level of emotions. Do we react negatively to bad news and yell at our colleagues, or do we react
calmly? Do we worry obsessively about small details, or are we relaxed in stressful situations?
Recommendation

 Redesigning each job at DrainFlow to better fit the needs of the company and to increase
employee satisfaction.
 The job rotation will also provide another informal training opportunity for the account
executives;
 Interactive training sessions should be arranged to provide technical knowledge.
Incentive
 DrainFlow needs to implement a new incentive structure (reward system).
 The new incentive structure might have an employee recognition program.
 Peer-to-Peer rewards are especially important at DrainFlow because the employees are
highly dependent on one another.
The Stress of Caring

Question 1: What do the data on employee injuries, incidents, absences, and turnover
suggest to you? Is there reason for concern about the company’s direction?

Answer:

Nursing is a nothing but taking the care of individuals, families, and communities so they may
attain, maintain, or recover optimal health and quality of life from conception to death.

Whenever we start thinking or talking about nursing homes one name obviously comes in our
mind which is not other than Parkway health. Parkway nursing care is an organization which is
all ways known for its very high quality of services, because of that it was very famous among
the people from past 30 years but now a day’s parkway is facing lot of problem. To overcome
from that problems management of Parkway nursing organization are going to make some
massive changes in it.

Survey Results: According to data provided to us the researcher found that employee injuries,
incidents, absents, and turnover rate are increased rapidly which is not at all good for the
organization.

Yes! There are reasons for concern about company’s direction. And the reasons like injuries,
absentees and turnover.
Employee Absentees: There are numerous reasons for employee absentees which impacts their
organization. Like they would not be able to provide quality services to their customers or
clients on time or they can not meet the production deadline. The causes of absentees are
physical health, stress and motivation.

Physical Health: It is a reason when the employees are not keeping well or they have some
physical injuries.

Stress: When the employees personal and work life are not balanced and it makes the
employees very stressful.

Motivation: when the employees compare themselves with other organization’s employees they
would be demotivated

Injuries: Health care it is kind of job which demands lot of physical strength of employees in
their daily work. They’re supposed to lift their clients or patients for transferring from one
place to another .The health care worker’s loads are far more precious, come in all sizes and
shapes, and may not always be cooperative.

In the nursing home environment, there are many causes for back injuries, including injuries
such as the shoulder or arm, as well as neck strains. Most common reasons are low fitness
level, overall physical strength, and proper posture of the worker. An employer who
encourages, supports and promotes healthy lifestyles, such as weight management and exercise
programs, may positively impact the staff’s back injury exposure. Instructing staff in proper
lifting techniques is basic to maintaining a safe environment in the nursing home

Turnover: Employee turnover is nothing but the employees are changing their job. They quit
and go to another company. Employees turnover is always found that headache for any
organization because it is a costly part of doing business. When a company must replace a
worker, the company incurs direct and indirect expenses. These expenses include the cost of
headhunting fees, new hire training ,human resource costs, advertising, loss of productivity, and
customer retention all of which can add up to anywhere from 30 to 200 percent of a single
employee’s annual salary, one again it is all depending on that company and the job role.

There are several reasons for employee turnover. While lower paying job roles experience an
overall higher average of employee turnover, they tend to cost companies less per replacement
employee than do higher paying job roles. However, they incur the cost more often. For these
reasons, most companies focus on employee retention strategies regardless of pay levels. The
most common reason for turnover is management and that kind of reasons are preventable
According to survey result we come to know that there are number of problems are going on
inside the parkway nursing care organization but the main problem which we found that’s are-

1. Staffing

2. Physical demands of employees

3. Documentation

4. Focus is on feeling the bed

(1) Staffing:

Staffing has been a very important part of all types of organizations’ development. There is a lot
of organization found that good staffing plan could increase productivity and reduce operation
costs in terms of lower turnover rate and transition costs. As cost is decreases profit increases.
Very good staffing always helps to minimize cost in order to profit get increases. There can be
three types of staffing problems in nursing homes.

1) The nursing home does not properly train its staff.

2) The nursing home simply doesn’t have a full staff.

3) The nursing home does not perform sufficient background checks on staff members.

In the parkway nursing cares they are suffering with second type of staffing problem. because of
more and more patients are coming in. The number of patients is going on increasing every

individual year and there are no staffs to take care of these patients. The result is that nursing
home staff jobs come with a very high turnover rate, and adult care facilities are often
scrambling to fill openings.

(2) Physical demands:

Nursing is a kind of job which demands lot of physical fitness from you because
heavy lifting is required every time. Starting from the changing beds of the patients
even for changing bandages, changing their diapers or carrying patients from one
place to another Nurses need to be standing on their feet for hole day is the mostly
happened every were, they do have lot of other responsibility on their shoulders
like they need to caring, sympathetic, responsible, and detail oriented. As well as
they need to take care of other work which is related to patients like giving proper
medicine on proper time creating documentation etc. That kind of hard work gives
lot of physical and mental stress to the nurses those who are working in parkway
nursing homes. And there are lot of patients are coming everybody is having his of
nature some of them don’t cooperate with nurses that make their job very stressful.
Because of that, at the end of the day they become very tired.

(3) Documentation:

Documentation is nothing but to information about client is kept in form of paper or in the form
of electronic documents for example information is store in the cd, emails, and tapes or in the
form of image. In the documentation nurses mentioned their observation, decision and the
response of the patient. Accurate documentation is a very important task in occupations like
nursing some of patient symptoms and observations is critical to proper treatment and recovery.
Entries written on a patient’s medical record are a written, legal, permanent document. If
documentation is not properly written or inaccurately entered into a medical record, patient may
receive improper or potentially harmful care. What you document as fact in a medical record is
directly used by physicians, nurses, and physician assistants to plan, implement, and evaluate
their patient’s course of treatment.

The most of nurses in parkway nursing homes prefer pen paper for documentation they are not
very familiar with electronic documentation, so according to new rules of government they
supposed to produce electronic documents but they are not very comfortable with it.

(4) Focus is on filling bed:

The focus of any organization is gaining profit. The top management is always looking for
increase the profit. When sale increases and cost decreases then automatically profit is an
increase that is simple formula of increasing profit. In the parkway nursing homes management
is looking for increasing sales by feeling beds and looking to reduce number of staffs for
decreasing cost. Which put extra pressers on experience staffs because of those lots of problems
are going on in parkway nursing homes.
Question 2: The company is going to be making some significant changes based on the AI
process, and most change efforts are associated with resistance. What are the most common
forms of resistance, and which would you expect to see at Parkway?

Answer:

“It is not the strongest species that survive, nor the more intelligent, but the most responsive to
change.”

-Charles Darwin

Change Management Theory: The change management strategy defines the approach needed
to manage change given the unique situation of the project or initiative. There are always two
types of changes one is revolutionary changes and other is evolutionary changes.
Revolutionary changes are always coming from the top and they are going to affect each and
everybody in the organization.

Revolutionary change: In such kind of changes we are very receptive to ideas from outside of
the team. We are very proactive in seeing and managing external problems that could impact
the team. We all respond to changes in our external environment in constructive ways. The
change process itself becomes reliant on the individual.

Evolutionary change: In such kind of changes we are very proactive in seeing and managing
internal problems that could impact the team. We take the time to reflect on how well we are
working as a team and make necessary adjustments. We all respond to changes on the team in
constructive ways. Very often, this is related to efficiency.

Form of Resistance to Changes:

We all know changes and resistance are always walking by keeping hand in hand. Every
change comes with form of oppose by users. There are lots of reasons in people or in
employees mind for resistance to changes. The forms of resistance are like habit, security,
economic factor, selective information process, and fear of unknown etc.
Resistance in Parkway: When we are talking about parkway we can clearly see that staffing
is really very big problem in organization. To solve this problem, we need to increase or
improve number of nurses.

For that kind of changes parkways old staff or we can say senior staff definitely gives some
resistance.

There are lots of reasons to resist changes and the reasons are like insecurity about their job
they are afraid of losing their job. They are afraid of failure, nurses are not comfortable
because they feel that they might loss there Control, staff in parkway nursing care is not
having Trust on their management, nurses feel that they may not Comfortable while working
with new staff.

Physical injuries can be minimized by using automatic carrying equipment or machines but
the older staff which was appointed for do carrying patients will definitely adopt to these
changes because they do have fear of losing their job.

Because of the new rule and regulation of government of Singapore documentation is has to be
electronic, but most of nurses in parkway nursing homes are prefer pen and paper for
documentation they are not very familiar with electronic documentation. They are more than
happy in doing traditional documentation. They will definitely accept this idea because are not
very comfortable with it.

In the parkway nursing homes the main focus of an organization is filling a bed. The
management need to think about it they need to choose limited patients as much they can handle
properly. To implement this change management will resist because they are in under
impression like that if they reduce filling bed their income will reduce.

OVERCOMING RESISTANCE IN PARKWAY:

To overcome resistance is going on in the parkway nursing homes we will use

1) Increase urgency – Provide job security to all nurses. Organize some new training
program for them to remove fear in their mind.

2) Build the guiding team – Choose perfect employee on perfect place. Create a team with a
combination of senior and junior nurses.

3) Get the vision right – Allow that team to create new vision and strategy to minimize
resistance to changes. The vision should be designed in such a way that it should completely
focus on good quality and services.
 4) Communicate for buy-in – Communication is best way of taking response. Because instant
response is very important after every changes in organization. Try to involve more number of
nurses in the process. De- clutter communications – make technology work for you rather than
against.

5) Empower action – In particular, this stage implements all kind of changes in organization.
Like electronic documentation, automatic lifting equipment etc. and try to take feedbacks from
them provide very good support to implement it. Try to remove obstacles in the way.

6) Create short-term wins – Give some short term easy goal to achieve. Arrange training and
counselling to those nurses those who are still apposing to changes. Give training announce to
nurses.

7) Don’t let up – After completing training section take test of nurses and find out how they
are responding to training.

8) Make change stick- Select a leader who is having quality to support changes and who take
organization in right direction.

Question 4: What are the major sources of job stress at Parkway? What does the research on
employee stress suggest you should do to help minimize the experience of psychological strain
for employees? Create a plan for how to reduce stress among employees.

Answer:

Job of Stress in Parkway: Stress is nothing but a feeling of emotional or physical tension. It
is the way of response of our body in different situation. People feel stressed when something
going on around them. Stress can affect both your body and your mind. People under large
amounts of stress can become tired, sick, and unable to concentrate or think clearly.
Sometimes, they even suffer mental breakdowns.
 Sources of Stress in Parkway
Environment Stress: Environmental stress is nothing but a response to things which are going
around you that cause stress. From the beginning of the day to the end of the day, we experience lot
of minor irritations and frustrations. These can be very small, such as noise, crowding, and pressure
from work or family and include things like getting stuck in a traffic jam, suffering a backache from
an uncomfortable chair, being distracted by gossiping colleagues, disorganized environment. Even
though these frustrations are small, each one either triggers a small release of stress hormones into
our bodies or reduces our overall sense of happiness. This creates a background level of stress in our
lives, which is then exacerbated by the serious stressful incidents we deal with elsewhere within this
site. By managing the small stresses in our life, we can reduce the impact of the major stresses when
they occur. Understanding how the environment might affect you is the first and necessary step to
overcome this kind of stress or it will help lower your stress level.

Personal stress: There lots of reason of personal stress the main reason of all of them is not happy in
the particular environment such as a difficult or demanding job. Or personal stress can occur because
of the economical problems like exceeding income capacity. Personal relation with employee’s
family or friends is also cause for personal stress Or Major life changes such as divorce, the death of
a family member or an illness cause personal stress. Positive events such as the birth of a child or
attending college also will cause personal stress, because the sudden change requires a quick
adjustment to a new situation.

Action Required
Stress management involves controlling and reducing the tension that occurs in stressful situations by
making emotional and physical changes. The degree of stress and the desire to make the changes will
determine how much change takes place.

Workplace stress occurs when demand of work is increases and employees not having sufficient
recourses to handle or to complete that demand. Their recourses are can be physical, emotional,
economic, social, or spiritual. Workplace stress can be described as the physical and emotional
outcomes that occur when there is disparity between the demands of the job and the amount of
control the individual has in meeting those demands. Anytime stress occurs, it. Thus, workplace
stress occurs when the challenges and demands of work become excessive, the pressures of the
workplace exceed the worker’s ability to handle them, and job satisfaction turns to frustration and
exhaustion. Due to these employees’ absentees, workplace accidents, injuries, turnovers are
increases. Emotional stress is one of the parts of stress it usually occurs when employees found
situation which is difficult or challenging.
Emotional stresses are always very difficult to understand and manage because it is self-created, in
that kind of situation employees worried about their families or their job it can come out of nowhere
and the stress caused by it only heightens the emotions felt. Thus, as the emotional stress increases,
the emotions get worse, heightening the emotional stress. Thus without solving problem, problem
became worst. It is also called as internal stress this often happens when we worry about things we
can’t control or put ourselves in situations we know will cause us stress.

The main cause of this kind of stress is employees feel that they are not having job security. To
reduce its impact and to increase the chance of survival in the wilderness,

The main key point to overcome survival stress are keeping a clear head and thinking logically,
prioritizing your needs, and improvising all will help alleviate some of this stress.

When a problem arises, we should remember the acronym

STOP

S: Stop – Clearing our thoughts and focusing on the problem.

T: Think – Identifying practical solutions. Considering each in detail.
O: Organize – After looking at our options, picking one. Developing a step-by-step plan from
beginning to end.
P: Precede with our Plan – Being flexible and making adjustments as necessary.

Stress Management Plan:

Stress can impact our body very badly. The nurses in the parkway nursing homes are going
under lots of stress, so we are supposed to manage stress before everything. We can take some
positive steps to reduce or to control the stress.
There are several ways to manage stress. Such as-

Stress Management Training:

In this kind of training professionals will teach nurses how to control stress on there mind by
doing some physical exercise training, time management, relaxing, proper break planning,
improving social life.

Physical Exercise Training:

Health is always important factor of reducing stress. When the fitness level of nurses is high then
they will feel more energetic for work. Because of that Physical exercise is require. As well as they
require good and healthy food. Good health always appose impact of negative harmonies.

Relaxing:

Because of the heavy and busy schedule of nurses they never get time for relaxing if we give some
time for relaxing they will defiantly get refreshed and feel good while working that kind of process
is always works for reducing stress over the nurses.

Proper break planning:

Day by day they are doing same thing and nursing job give physical and mental stress to them. If we
give proper break to them so they can go out and relieve from the stress.