This order has been set on revision status. Please press the "Confirm" button to tell us you are aware of this revision, and will complete it within the time provided.

Literature Review on Enhancing Employee Productivity at Samsung

Authors Name

Institutional Affiliation

Contents

3 Company Overview

4 The Challenge of Employee Productivity-Problem Statement

4 Motivation and Employee Productivity-Recommendation

6 How to Improve Employee Productivity-Implementation Plan

9 Tackling the challenge of employee productivity-Analysis

Literature Review on Enhancing Employee Productivity

Company Overview

Samsung is an electronics company that is the chief subsidiary of South Korea’s giant Samsung group and is the largest electronics producer in Asia. The company operates four main products divisions; digital media, semiconductors, information, and communications and home appliances (Chang, 2012). Samsung was established in 1969 as a branch of the Korean Samsung Group, since then, it has grown gradually, and in the process, it has developed a diverse line of consumer electronics. The company as well as produces, manufactures ships and sells a wide range of appliances and electronic products over the world (Piao & Kleiner, 2015).

The Challenge of Employee Productivity-Problem Statement

One of the biggest problems that the managers are facing in the modern-day world is how best they can be able to get employees that give their all to their work in an effort to realize the organization’s objectives. In this case, it is understood that workers differ not only as far as their skills and abilities are concerned, but also in their will to perform the task assigned to them. Additionally, Samsung being one of the renowned electronic brands image in the world, is not left behind when it comes to the problems revolving around employee productivity. Before the advancement of technology, business communication and transactions depended heavily on personal contact with customers. However, as the level of technology advanced, there has been a change in how businesses are carried out in a more professional manner. For instance, portable laptops have replaced desktop computers, from cellphones without internet capabilities, to smartphones among others. In simple terms, with lack of proper training in such technologies, employees may find it challenging to adopt it hence reducing their productivity levels (Certo, 2015).

Motivation and Employee Productivity-Recommendation

It is accepted that most workers need motivation to have a great feeling about their jobs and in the process perform optimally. Additionally, issues such as money motivate some employees while others find rewards and recognitions motivating on a personal level. In other words, the motivation element at work has a positive implication on the productivity of employees at workplace since any worker who is motivated will always try to perform their responsibilities to their optimal abilities as possible. Apparently, in a work place situation, an incentive is an element of motivation that is used to influence the behavior of employees to produce quality work. In essence, acknowledging a job well done by offering feedback and tracking employee progress about their level of improvement over time is essential in improving the productivity of workers. In such a case, recognition of an employee in public may as well act as a motivating experience that can drive an employee’s productivity (Brynjolfsson & McAfee, 2012).

Many companies are still depending on voicemail and email as a mode of passing relevant information across the company.Additionnaly, circulating presentations, spreadsheets, Unstructured information and MS word are very common modes of communicating and accessing information but rather lacks the much-needed coherent system, repository and process for realizing the resulting compilation of the organization’s team spirit. In such instances, an individual may distribute the pieces of information and wait for the updates and feedbacks from the workers who received them. However, some responses come in late, basic project details change, and some details and responses may never arrive. In simple terms, the implication of such scenarios is a wasted effort on the part of the employee hence resulting into demoralization. With high level of demoralization among workers, their work output and productivity also reduces tremendously (Massey & Meegan, 2014).

A revolution in productivity and efficiency is underway and its initiation is being modeled by the intranet or rather the internal workplace. However, most companies are operating below their maximum efficiency level. In this case, this huge efficiency gap as far as efficiency in productivity is concerned is not because of technology but rather its owing to the fact that the internal company systems are managed and designed poorly such that they discourage workers to give out their best at work. In other word, for most organizations that try to make the internal systems work more efficiently, they always realize positive revenues coupled with a competitive advantage over their competitors. In fact, those organizations whose internal systems are at best will keep and attract the best talent and brightest employees that prefer an easy employ socially connected online world to use (Papay & Kraft, 2015).

The modern company operations are increasingly distributed, connected, and fluid. Additionally, traditionally, it would have been easy to find individuals who are better suited for their task, but in the modern day, motivation plays a crucial role in determining the kind of abilities, job skills and tasks that they would like to pursue in future. In this case, motivation acts as a baseline that gets people to engage in what they enjoy doing at their best .Therefore, in order for an organization to find people who are better skilled in their job occupations, they must establish incentives that will attract them to join the company operations. Even if they joy a company that does not offer them an opportunity to learn or develop their abilities, they may end up being demotivated hence reducing their productivity levels at work. In essence, with a proper motivational strategy in an organization, then the employees will be able to feel a good directed action hence they will try as much as possible to behave in a manner that satisfies a particular desire. In simple terms, this can be said to be one of the most prevalent inducement that can be given to new employees as well as their existing ones to improve on their work output (Bal, Kooij & De Jong, 2013).

How to Improve Employee Productivity-Implementation Plan

In most cases, employers restrict the internet use by their employees beyond the expected byline. One of the reasons behind overly restrictions of internet use revolves around the fear that the employees might put the organization computers to irrelevant use. However, it is acknowledged that with the numerous resources available over the internet, company workers can exploit them efficiently and put to grater use if the employees are allowed to maneuver across the internet for more knowledge. For instance, the employment of social media may be important for Samsung since in the modern century, it is crucial in ensuring that the modern day companies grow. In Samsung for instance, employees are restricted on the use of their social media pages especially during working hours; however, social media can be significant in ensuring that the employees are up to date with the latest moves of their competitors (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).

Measuring the Returns on Investment of employee productivity in manner, as the way marketing and sales is determined is crucial in establishing the overall employee productivity. In this case, demarcating the process of working with consumers into stages and steps and in the process, determining every step will be crucial to experiment improvements that can make the employee productivity to increase. In other words, to improve the employee productivity, the whole picture of the employee structure in the organization will need to be evaluated, examined and experimented on based on a recorded history of their previous performance. Apparently, to improve productivity statistics, the reporting data of employees must come first to obtain a comprehensive idea of what needs to be worked on to ensure positive results Bamber et al.,2013).

Setting goals to assist workers to grow and develop is also another important technique of motivating workers. In such instances, the company managers should try as much as possible to determine the current state of the company and then establish their expectations and rules. Additionally, the top managers should as well conduct regular check-ins about the progress and the objectives of the company just like other key performance initiatives. With certain performance services in place, employees may be better placed to keep track of their performance on individual basis and in the process, they may hold themselves accountable for fixing any challenges that they may encounter. For instance, if an employee is able to realize an area where they waste their time much, it therefore becomes much cheaper and easier to eliminate the time wasting activities at work place. In so doing, the company may experience a ramification implication of sorts (Elnaga & Imran, 2013).

Accounting for brain breaks is also another influential way of enhancing the productivity of workers. As much as workers monitoring and evaluating is important in improving the productivity of employees in an organization, it is crucial for organization’s managers to accept the fact that everyone needs a break occasionally. In other words, vacations and short breaks have been proven to assist the brain to perform even better. In this case, it is therefore significant for company employers to give their workers some latitude required to conduct their personal business on the company computers. For instance, reading a joke from their social networking sites can help employees to refresh their brain and by the time they revert to work, they may be ready work productively (Jiang, et al., 2012)

When workers are unhappy or distracted, their overall work suffers and in the process, the overall performance is affected. Additionally, when employees are undergoing challenges, it is possible that they will not perform to their full potential. For instance, most troubled employees in most cases of they call in sick or are mentally distracted whenever they are working. Financial stress is one of the core reasons why most employees underperform. In this case, having difficulties in repairing a damaged car or repaying a mortgage loan can be troublesome to employees and in the process; it may impede their work performance productivity. Therefore, it is important for managers to teach workers how to manage and plan for their money and improve their financial security may as well improve the quality of work. Apparently, the money the company will employ training; developing and training employees financially may pay off when the net revenues of the company will increase competently (Mitra, 2016).

Another common distractor for employees is job security. In this case, when the company employees are not guaranteed of their future or the future of the company, they may not be able to produce their maximum output. In this case, hardworking and committed workers are always assured of their job hence they do not have to worry about their future in the company or rather feel threatened by a replacement. In case there is a layoff or impeding firing, the organization managers should meet with the workers that are remaining to assure them there is no further firing that will take place. Moreover, personal issues such as marital problems can divide the attention of employees since it is very challenging to concentrate on work when the issues at home need to be solved at the same time. It is therefore important for the human resource department to help the affected worker by encouraging them to visit the human resource department for further assistance. In so doing, the employee will feel loved and will remain motivated hence improving on their productivity (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 2013).

Tackling the Challenge of Employee Productivity-Analysis

It is very challenging for an employee to be productive when they are uncomfortable physically. In other words, anything that makes employees to be in situation where they feel like they are uncomfortable such as desks, workstations, noise levels, and temperatures can affect their productivity in a negative manner. Additionally, the employees comfortable level with innovation tools, software, and equipment’s at their workplace may also have a negative implication on their job performance. In essence, if the employees do not comprehend how to use a particular technology, it is possible that the job (Crim et al, 2013).

Samsung electronics has been known to assess individual employee capabilities based on the job function and in the process, it offers an extensive number of training opportunities to develop and nurture all employees into experts in their fields of work. Additionally, to offer all workers including those found internationally with access to comparable training levels regardless of the location, Samsung has established a global online education portal and an education system that is very mobile. Besides, it’s Human Resource development Center, a number of programs are offered via training programs in accordance to the work function and business division (Kim & Sung-Choon, 2013).

References

Bal, P. M., Kooij, D. T., & De Jong, S. B. (2013). How do developmental and accommodative HRM enhance employee engagement and commitment? The role of psychological contract and SOC strategies. Journal of Management Studies, 50(4), 545-572.

Bamber, G. J., Gittell, J. H., Kochan, T. A., & Von Nordenflycht, A. (2013). Up in the air: How airlines can improve performance by engaging their employees. Cornell University Press.

Brynjolfsson, E., & McAfee, A. (2012). Race against the machine: How the digital revolution is accelerating innovation, driving productivity, and irreversibly transforming employment and the economy. Brynjolfsson and McAfee.

Certo, S. (2015). Supervision: Concepts and skill building. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.

Chang, S. I. (2012). Study on human resource management in Korea's chaebol enterprise: a case study of Samsung Electronics. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(7), 1436-1461.

Crim, J., Han, K. H., Jain, S. M., & Sidhu, I. (2013). Best Practices for Performance Management.

Elnaga, A., & Imran, A. (2013). The effect of training on employee performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(4), 137-147.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Pearson.

Jiang, K., Lepak, D. P., Hu, J., & Baer, J. C. (2012). How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of management Journal, 55(6), 1264-1294.

Kim, H., & Sung-Choon, K. (2013). Strategic HR functions and firm performance: The moderating effects of high-involvement work practices. Asia Pacific Journal of Management, 30(1), 91-113.

Massey, D., & Meegan, R. (2014). The Anatomy of Job Loss (Routledge Revivals): The How, Why and Where of Employment Decline. Routledge.

Mitra, A. (2016). Fundamentals of quality control and improvement. John Wiley & Sons.

Mowday, R. T., Porter, L. W., & Steers, R. M. (2013). Employee—organization linkages: The psychology of commitment, absenteeism, and turnover. Academic press.

Papay, J. P., & Kraft, M. A. (2015). Productivity returns to experience in the teacher labor market: Methodological challenges and new evidence on long-term career improvement. Journal of Public Economics, 130, 105-119.

Piao, M., & Kleiner, B. (2015). Excellence in the Electronics Industry: The Comparison of the Organizational Culture among Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics and Google Inc. Conflict Resolution & Negotiation Journal, 2015(1).