interview assignment

Manager Interview

Name:

Institutional Affiliation:

Introduction

The purpose of this paper is to identify the theories and concepts used in organizational behavior. This will be guided by the approaches used by the interviewed manager in the day to day running of the firm. Acquiring an informed perspective from an experienced manager is important for a clearer understanding of a manger’s role in leading employees, motivating them and ultimately enabling them to be satisfied in their jobs. For this paper, I interviewed Mr. Steve Newman who is a store Manager at Walmart.

General Background and Responsibilities

Mr. Steve Newman has been with Walmart for the past nine years. He has held the position of store Manager for the past four years. In his job, Mr. Newman is responsible for organizational development, administrative management and general human resources management of the store. His position requires him to ensure that the most important resource in the store is operating efficiently. Mr. Newman notes that some of the difficult aspects of his job as a manager include ensuring that there is continuous enthusiasm amongst the team members as well as enhancing business development. He indicates that these two aspects are difficult to tackle because they involve huge dynamics of people management that embroil different people with different attitudes and motivations. In my interview with Mr. Newman he reveals that some of the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of his job as a manager include the chance to continue learning, to continue developing and to carry out resource allocation of rights.

Managing Employees

1. Creation of Satisfied Employees

In my interview with Mr. Newman, he indicated that 80% of the company employees enjoyed working for the company and another 30% of them were proud to be associated with the company. This indicates a high level of job satisfaction. Employees experience positive feelings when they engage in job tasks or when they think about their work. From my interaction with Mr. Newman, it came to light that various factors cause employee satisfaction or dissatisfaction. However, this all depends on the value attached to the employee on that particular factor. One of these factors is the pay they get. With high, secure pay, employees are likely to be satisfied with their jobs. Staff members are also likely to be satisfied with their job if they receive frequent promotions that are based on ability and not favoritism. They are also likely to have a high level of job satisfaction if they enjoy working with their fellow employees. Another important factor enhancing job satisfaction is the work environment. If the environment is comfortable and safe, then the employees are likely to experience a high level of job satisfaction. It also helps when the employees feel a sense of helping others in their work. The employees feel more satisfied with their jobs knowing that they are creating solutions to other people’s problems. Moreover, some employees’ job satisfaction stems from the work itself. The employee has to feel a sense of freedom and intellectual stimulation to achieve a job satisfaction. In addition, the status of the employee within the firm also determines the level of job satisfaction of the employee (Imran, Arif, Cheema & Azeem, 2014).

Without these factors, employees are likely to portray an array of counterproductive behaviors. These may include production deviance whereby employees waste the resources allocated to them or engage in abuse of drugs and substances. This affects the efficiency of their work output negatively thus hurting the company and its image. The employees may engage in property deviance whereby they steal or sabotage company property. In the long run, this leads to hefty losses for the company. With little job satisfaction, employees may also engage in political deviance whereby they gossip or chat on company time. This leads to inefficiency of the company’s productivity and a destruction of work-relationships within the firm. Another counterproductive behavior that may be observed in employees with little job satisfaction is personal aggression. Employees may harass or abuse their colleagues to deal with their frustrations (Lazaroui, 2015).

Employee satisfaction breeds employee commitment. If an employee is not satisfied with the organization he is working for, he is likely to move to another firm. Mr. Newman notes that there is a significant level of employee satisfaction in Walmart. As a result, employee commitment to the organization is high as well. Some of the employees may have affective commitment to the firm. This means that they have an emotion based commitment to the firm. They may be committed to the firm because there is someone they really care for within the firm and they would miss that person if they left. They may also like the atmosphere created by their current job and they would not want to miss that by moving to another firm. Moreover, the employees may simply enjoy working in the firm because it is rewarding and they do not want to change that. On the other hand, Walmart may enjoy such a high employee commitment because some of the staff members have a continuance commitment to the firm. Such employees remain with the firm for the financial benefits it brings. For example, the employee may be due for a promotion in the coming days. In such a case, the employee would opt to remain with the firm because if they move, they might not advance as quickly in the new workplace. In another case, an employee may remain with the firm due to the favorable salaries and benefits he receives from it. The employee may not be too certain about the salary and benefits provided by another firm. Additionally, an employee may stay with the firm because they have already established roots within the current area and it would therefore be expensive to move to a new job and a new area altogether. As a result, the employee remains committed to the current firm. In this case, the employee remains committed to the firm because he needs to. Lastly, employees may remain committed to Walmart for normative reasons. For example, an employee may remain committed to the firm because his superiors have invested so much in him and he therefore feels guilty about leaving. An employee with normative commitment to the firm is also likely to stay within it because they hired him first when every other employer thought he was not competent enough. In other words, this kind of employee remains committed to the firm because he ought to (Colquitt, LePine, & Wesson, 2013).

2. Motivating Employees

Mr. Newman notes that it is important to have motivated staff members. To motivate staff members within the store, Mr. Newman sets clear, smaller goals for the employees to achieve. Achieving the small goals successfully leads to a reward for the employee. For example, an employee may receive an afternoon off for being the first to achieve a set goal. Sometimes, Mr. Newman also acknowledges the good work being done by a particular employee or team. This recognition enables the staff members to feel valued and they therefore become more motivated to do more for the firm. Other employees are also motivated because they would also like to be acknowledged by the management. Additionally, in the management of the store, Mr. Newman utilizes bonuses to keep the staff motivated. After appraisal, the employee with the best performance in that quarter is awarded a bonus. This keeps the employees motivated to do their work properly because they have the chance to earn more. Moreover, Mr. Newman emphasizes on the need to have a proper work-life balance, with less stress levels. He often encourages employees to take vacations and have fun at the work place.

From the data got from the interview, I gather that the expectancy theory is very much at play in the Walmart store headed by Mr. Newman. He admits to me that most employees are only willing to work equal to the amount of pay they expect to receive. If the employees do not expect to have a pay increase or a promotion, they become less motivated to fulfill the roles allocated to them. Where employees expect a bonus or expect to have a pay increase, they are very motivated to work and this leads to effective work performance.

Additionally, from my conversation with Mr. Newman, I gather that most of the employees at the store are more tuned to theory X motivation. This is because he only describes to me the external factors he uses to motivate the staff members. The store setting does not also allow for employees to be intricately motivated because there is a limited amount of independence, autonomy and intellectual stimulation. Theory Y motivation is therefore not a motivation factor in this setting. This means that the management has to come up with new ways of motivating the staff members externally (Lazaroui, 2015).

Moreover, the two factor theory of motivation is evident within the store setting. The management has come up with ways to create interesting work experiences for the employees. These are the motivators that encourage the employees to work harder at their jobs. Moreover, Mr. Newman continues to ensure that employees have a safe work environment to work. Without such hygienic factors, the employees will be demotivated in carrying out their work.

3. Leading Employees

To effectively lead the store employees, Mr. Newman employs the use of proper verbal skills. This ensures that any message he has is delivered to the employees effectively. Through this means, the employees are also able to seek clarification on various issues. Due to the nature of the store set-up, it is often difficult to hold one on one meetings with the employees. The manager therefore usually communicates using memos and occasional meetings. Additionally, Mr. Newman uses emotional intelligence while dealing with the employees. He reads into employees’ emotions and is sensitive while dealing with the staff members. He also revealed to me that while interacting with the employees, he makes a point of making every employee feel important by noting their names and asking how they were doing. Mr. Newman is also quite funny and his jokes help to diffuse otherwise tense situations. This makes his leadership tick. Moreover, Mr. Newman revealed to me that he tries to remain physically fit so as to help with lifting and arranging of boxes and items in the store when a situation necessitates it. Above all, Mr. Newman emphasized on the use of quick, proper reasoning in his management routine. He stated that a big part of being a manager requires one to make speedy decisions depending on the situation or the conflict at hand (Robbin, Judge, Millet & Boyle, 2013).

Conclusion

From the interview conducted with Mr. Steve Newman, I learnt that a manager engages in five major activities. One of them is the setting of objectives and goals for the team members to follow so as to achieve the set organizational goals. Another activity is organization whereby he has to select people to conduct various activities. He also has to motivate the people under him to be the best they can be in the roles allocated to them. A manager also measures performance against the set guidelines and determines whether the performance necessitates a reward or a punishment. For this reasons, the manager is tasked with developing people, which is helping them amplify their strengths and reduce the impact of their weaknesses (Imran, Arif, Cheema & Azeem, 2014).

References

Colquitt, J.,LePine, J.,& Wesson, M. (2013). Organizational behavior. Improving performance and commitment in the workplace.McGraw-Hill Education. NY

Lazaroui, G. (2015). Employee motivation and job performance. Linguistic and Philosophical Investigations. 14,97

Robbins,S.,Judge, A.,Millet, B.,& Boyle, M. (2013). Organizational behavior. Pearson’s Higher Education. Au

Imran, H., Arif, I., Cheema, S., Azeem, M. (2014). Relationship between job satisfaction, job performance, attitude towards work and organizational commitment. Enterpreneurship and innovation management journal 2(2), 135-144.