Nora Elm is a newly appointed HR manager at Seven Oaks, a famous PR firm that is not doing too well at present. As she assumed the post of the HR manager, everyone impressed upon her the need to energize the employees and motivate them to give their best to the job. After she met with the employees and managers, she felt that many employees were demotivated because they had attained their maximum potential in their current job roles. Additionally, she felt that though the management believed strongly in its employee-friendly nature, this nature was not manifested in its actions. Those employees who were on the board had begun to mimic the management's action of attributing the lack of any constructive change to company policies. Describe any two changes that Nora should propose at the meeting with a rationale for each.
The two changes that Nora could propose are job rotation or job enrichment and a more participative management style.
Job rotation/ Job enrichment: Since the employees feel they have nothing more to learn in their current jobs, the act of job rotation would help them learn something new which would be motivating and beneficial to the company as well. For employees who cannot be moved to another job, different strategies of job enrichment, like enhancing the job vertically or combining their tasks into natural work units, would be an option. These would directly satisfy some dimensions of the job characteristics model.
Participative management: The employees at Seven Oaks are demotivated not only because of the stagnant nature of their jobs, but also because the company is not truly employee-friendly. The company has nominated some employees to its board of representatives but this is only a symbolic act of employee involvement. Participative management, wherein employee and managers engage in joint decision making, will go a long way in motivating employees by giving them more autonomy and representation in the real sense.