Your research paper is based on the following scenario:
You have just taken over as a Shift Supervisor at Fast Fleet Shoes Manufacturing and have a team of 30 under you. Your educational and training level is exactly what you have today.
Your teams rotate shifts every 3 weeks and there are two shifts, morning, 0700-3:30 PM and evening, 3PM to 11:30PM. You have the flexibility to move people around shifts, and you stay on the same shift, with overlap (i.e. your hours are 9-6). Two co-leads take over when you are not there and stay on shifts with their workers.
The previous supervisor was let go for cause, failure to meet quotas and leadership inability. The department’s morale is very low and there is a great deal of pressure for your shift to perform.
On top of this, there is a problem with some of your employees, one is always late and the other calls in sick frequently (you can decide what factors lead to their absenteeism). The previous supervisor never did anything about this and everyone knew it was an issue. One of your co-leads has brought it to your attention and wants to know when you are going to fix it.
You also have an employee that has been there for 14 years and has never been promoted to co-lead or supervisor. He came to you and wants to know why? He is an older worker and knows what he is doing, however, one of your co-leads told you that some of the younger workers grumble that he is too slow and can’t learn new technology. He also stated that unless he gets the opportunity to move up, he’ll quit and make sure that management knows you never gave him a chance.
Finally, there is a brand new worker, a single mother, who is super sharp and a very hard worker. She told you on your first day there how much she loves working at the company and wants to progress upward. However, childcare is an issue and sometimes she needs to leave early. Currently no one does any work from home (your organization has not embraced it as a culture), however, in her position (she is inventory control) she feels she can perform this just as effectively from home several days a week and ask you if this is possible? What is your response?
You are to develop a solution to present to each of your co-leads on how to start fixing some of these issues. Make the paper informative, with some of the techniques and terms that we have addressed thus far in the course that deal with new supervisors. This about the terms leaders vs. managers, counseling, feedback, types of leaders, SMART objectives, SWOT, generational differences, Theory X and Y, MBWA, and favoritism. These terms are not all-inclusive and you are welcome to add others to support your solutions.
This can be a narrative paper, informative paper, a letter (albeit a long one) or a talking paper. You can use the first person to discuss what you think needs to be done. You can also assign tasks or take tasks away from co-leaders.
Your supervisor, co-leads, and workers can have fictional names, you can add in additional issues or factors and most of all, have fun and be creative in developing this workplace. Your co-leads can be good or bad at their job, you can decide how little or much you want to delegate to them as well as how much reporting back to you is needed.
Think about these challenges you will face as a new supervisor. You may want to break this into fixing immediate problems, a six-month goal, and one-year goal
Research Paper
Leaders, including shift leads and supervisors, should work with a motivated team of shift workers to achieve departmental and organizational goals. First, as the new supervisor, I have identified some of the issues affecting performance that they should fix. First, poor performance, including the failure to meet quotas and leadership inability, led to the dismissal of the previous supervisor. Secondly, the department morale is low amid pressure to perform. Thirdly, the department experiences problems with individual workers, such as lateness and absenteeism. Fourthly, an employee who has been with the company for 14 years is concerned about his lack of promotion or upward mobility in the company. Finally, work-life balance affects a new working mother who has to take time off to care for her baby. For the department to improve performance, leaders should address the emerging issues. This project includes the goals to achieve immediately, in six months, and one year and specific steps and strategies to address the issues.
SMART Objectives
- The immediate goal is to address lateness and absenteeism in the department to ensure that all employees can work their shifts.
- The second goal is to improve employees’ morale within the next six months.
- The third goal is to improve departmental performance and meet quotas within the next year.
Steps and Strategies
Leadership
Leadership changes will improve short- and long-term performance by influencing people to achieve the objectives. Effective leadership with a clear department vision is an immediate need for the company. Santora and Bozer (2017) suggest that SWOT and SMART activities help leaders improve their leadership capability by realizing their strengths and weaknesses. Thus, managers and supervisors will work together to identify how they can use their strengths and work on their weaknesses to improve their relationships with employees. For example, improved communication will make them more approachable and can collaborate with workers to create and achieve team goals. The departmental leaders will review their workplace leadership performance after six months to establish changes that will be achieved and plan for future improvement. They can also implement the management by wandering around (MBWA) to observe employees while at work to inform them of the necessary changes to improve performance.
Motivation
Employee morale affects the performance of employees in the department. Thus, the management should motivate employees to increase their morale and productivity. The first step is evaluating the performance of individual workers to inform personalized approaches to motivation. According to Kamphorst and Swank (2018), employees’ rewards and career perspectives depend on how supervisors perceive their contribution to the workplace. They should evaluate results to implement material and non-material rewards to motivate employees. They should also abandon Theory X in favor of Theory Y of motivation. For example, they should stop accepting lateness and absenteeism as a normal activity in the department (Theory X) and instead implement measures to encourage employees to adopt positive behavior (Theory Y). The management should also adopt other strategies, such as implementing a flexible work environment for the new mothers. Maruping and Magni (2015) encourage leaders to adopt collaboration technologies to leverage employees’ intellectual resources. For example, the young mother can work from home through technology, meet her job goals, and take care of her child.
Employee Development
The strategy is an element of employee motivation. The leaders should adopt changes to develop each employee after the performance evaluation depending on individual feedback. Ok and Vandenberghe (2016) propose applying competence development activities and feedback-seeking behavior to improve employee performance. The approach will solve the problem affecting the employee who has been in the department for 14 years without promotion. The supervisor will evaluate his performance to determine the lack of upward mobility. The supervisor will work closely with the employee to address his work-related challenges and improve his chances for promotion to become a supervisor. The management should also adopt career counseling to prevent generational differences and perceptions of favoritism in the department.
Culture Change
The supervisor and other leaders should change the current culture of the department to achieve the goals. For example, the employees who are always late and absent adapt to the current culture that allows laxity. The previous supervisor and co-leads did not question the behavior or even implement any steps to address the problem. The new supervisor should immediately call the affected employees to understand the reason for their behavior and address accordingly. Another aspect of culture change is embracing technology, such as allowing employees to work from home some days of the well as long as they meet their performance goals. Working flexibility is an example of a non-financial motivator for employees in the modern technology-enabled workplaces.
Conclusion
The department requires major changes in leadership and motivation to improve performance and productivity. Managers and leaders should collaborate to implement necessary changes, including creating a motivating work environment for all shift workers. They should also collaborate with employees for the necessary feedback regarding the most effective changes and achieve the short- and long-term goals.
References
Kamphorst, J. J., & Swank, O. H. (2018). The role of performance appraisals in motivating employees. Journal of economics & management strategy, 27(2), 251-269. https://doi.org/10.1111/jems.12241
Maruping, L. M., & Magni, M. (2015). Motivating employees to explore collaboration technology in team contexts. Mis Quarterly, 39(1), 1-16. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26628338
Ok, A. B., & Vandenberghe, C. (2016). Organizational and career-oriented commitment and employee development behaviors. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 31(5), 930-945. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMP-04-2015-0157
Santora, J. C., & Bozer, G. (2017). Leadership and Planning. In Leadership Today (pp. 401-413). Springer, Cham.
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