Anticipating Change

While reviewing the employees and trying to decide how to rank their value within the company I found that I was really torn and I often wanted to give some of the employees who didn’t do much for the company a higher score because I felt sorry for them. I know this is an awful thing because I don’t even know these people, let alone are they even real J Those employees I chose to be the more valuable employees were the ones who rated average and above, friendly, regularly attends the meetings and those employees who worked on Saturday’s and worked overtime. For some reason those aspects had a lot to do with how I ranked each employee. The less valuable characteristics that I found were those employees, who were ranked average, worked unusual hours, complainers and disorganized. I did find some information that was irrelevant to the company for ranking purposes and those include what color clothes and socks a person wears and whether or not they drink and party. As long as the partying and drinking isn’t going on at work and it isn’t affecting them at work or during work related activities, it really shouldn’t matter what the employee does on their personal time.

My values compared to the executive groups were quite different. I ranked people a lot lower than I should have and in turn had really bad individual scores. For instance, I ranked Carole a 7 because she has unusual work hours and complains. That is two things about her that should be worked on and her overall score from the executive group was a 1. I then realized that she was ranked a one because she is above average, has a Ph. D. and has high technical and leadership skills. I now think I know what I should be looking for and the little things are something that could later be discussed with the employee if they become a matter.

The culture of the company if it was based off of my personal rankings would be a group that is educated in their work but often doesn’t have very high leadership of technical skills. These employees would be the ones who are very involved in the social aspect of work but often take longer breaks for golf lessons. I really did find that although some of my ideas had good thoughts behind them, I should have been looking for a more motivated, not necessarily always organized at their own desk (although always a niceJ) highly educated in their field whether it be through a degree or on the job schooling. Just because an employee takes a long break than another doesn’t mean they aren’t getting their work done and obviously, those employees that I looked over in this assignment were doing a lot for the company by the way the executive groups ranked them.

Culture can be defined as “the shared patterns of behaviors and interactions, cognitive constructs, and affective understanding that are learned through a process of socialization” (www.carla.umn.edu). Culture is important within a company because it builds the morale of the business. The culture is what each employee with the company has to go to everyday and see. Although atmosphere of a place isn’t its culture, it does have a lot to do with it.

Lastly, I found some very important issues to address before laying off any employees. Can the company handle having a limited staff? With limited staff will there still be great customer service? Who do you layoff? Should you lay off the employee with 35 years who does less work because of their age and seniority