Implications of an Ageing Workforce

PART A

QUESTION 1: The ageing workforce has several important implications for organisations. Identify and explain four implications of the ageing workforce for organisational behaviour and suggest mitigation strategies to overcome these implications.

Answer:

The transition towards older talent may lead to challenges for the organisations in the recent years where the companies face difficulties to manage the older or ageing employees in the organisations. There are several implications of having ageing employees in the organisational workplace and the major four implication of having the older generation in the workplace are such as,

Technology challenges

Health concerns

Loss of expertise

High salary due to their working tenure

One of the major implications of ageing employees in the organisation is technology challenge where the older generation may not be as computer literate as their contemporary colleagues who are growing up with the technological advancement, internet and Smartphone. The ageing workers are facing difficulties to scope up with latest technology and it becomes problematic for them to work with utilising the latest technique in the workplace. The professionals in the recent years focus on technological innovation to improve brand’s creativity and lack of proper knowledge on latest technology and new system among the ageing workers is one of the major negative implication of having ageing workforce in the organisation where productivity of the employee may loss in long run. The second major issue of having ageing workforce is heath concerned, where the staff members may likely to require more medical attention as compared to younger generation in the workplace. The human resource department will have to deal with strong insurance policy to maintain health and safety of the ageing workers in the organisation and it increase the cost of managing staff and other implication related to this are ergonomically correct workstation, computer screen, lighting management and need for regular breaks which also hamper the organisational productivity. The third implication of ageing workers is loss of expertise where the human resource department faces issues to handle the older population where the people are going to retire in some time. The older workers may have corporate knowledge and experience, but their productivity is deteriorating over the period of time. The fourth implication is high salary due to long tenure of the workforce in the organisation where the human resource management must provide high salary, incentives and other rewards to the older workforce due to their working tenure and remuneration as a senior post.

The above mentioned implications are serious where the human resource departments of the organisation face difficulties to handle the older generation, as it requires more money, time and patience to manage the ageing staff. It is required to tackle the challenges of having ageing workforce in the workplace through managing the staff efficiently. The organisation must arrange technical training and development program for the ageing workers, so that the employees can cope up with latest technology and learn more about the innovative technique to perform better. The organisation also needs to manage work life balance and motivate the ageing employees to improve their expertise over time and encourage them for better performance and contribution in the organisation.

QUESTION 2: Managers cannot operate without using power bases and engaging in political action in organisations. Using examples to support your answer, discuss how different sources of power and politics could be used by the manager in the delivery of outcomes.

Answer:

The organisational power is the ability to make changes and thing happened according to the one’s perspectives for the organisational benefits where the managers assign tasks to different employees and make those tasks perfect to fulfil the organisational objectives. The organisations utilise their power and politics to control the staff members, preserve them and maintain the human resource of the companies efficiently. Power and politics are integrated process to manage the workforce effectively and create values for them. There are different sources of power which are legitimate, reward coercive, referent, experts and cultivating own power in the organisation where the organisational politics and utilising the management power are beneficial or the managers to handle the employees and lead them towards achieving future organisational success. Legitimate power is the ability to influence others because of the position that the manager holds in the organisation and it is called to the authority to command.

The person’s position is determined and the subordinates accept the power and the authority is utilised vertically from top to bottom. There are senior and junior team where the junior staffs obey the instructions of the senior employees. The senior members are able to command over the working process of the juniors and direct them with proper information and knowledge. For example, the organisation Apple, which is famous electrical goods manufacturing company in the world follows the vertical organisational structure where the legitimate power influence the team members for better performance. On the other hand, coercive power refers to punishing the subordinates for not meeting the performance expectations where the managers use their power in the workplace to reprimand fire and demote the employees. This is not effective power utilised by the manager for achieving the ultimate outcome, as the labour retrenchment as well as the staff turnover rate are high in the workplace which further deteriorates the productivity of the organisation in long run.

Rewards power and manager’s politics to influence others is one of the best way to manage organisational behaviour and encourage the employees for better performance as per the expectations. The manager try to provide reward to each employees through enriching jobs, promotions, giving compliments and monetary incentives which are beneficial to handle the workforce and encourage their creativity to perform efficiently. This is the way through which the management team can handle the employees and lead them towards achieving the organisational objectives. For example, Google is also another famous company where the CEO and the management team are successful to handle the strong employee base through reward power and positive organisational politics, where the employees are motivated through promotions, encouraging their creativity, proper empowerment of them in the organisational decision making behaviour and performance related pay. On the other hand, expert power is also fruitful where the managers try to maximise experience, skill and knowledge of the staff to perform efficiently. Hence the organisational politics should be positive where the managers need to utilise expert, legitimate and reward power to motivate the staff and maximise their productivity to achieve the organisational outcome.

PART B

QUESTION 1: List and explain three motivation theories that you have studied as part of the subject Organisational Behaviour that could be most useful to help employees in Bundoora Technology to get motivated.

Answer:

In order to manage the workforce through continuous motivation and restructuring the organisational policies, it is mandatory to implement the motivational theories which are,

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

Herzberg’s two factor theory

Vroom’s theory of expectancy

As per the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, there are five needs which are physiological or basic needs of food, shelter, water and air, safety needs a the workplace, love and belongingness through develop strong corporate relationship among the employees, self esteem and self actualisation needs. The managers must focus on fulfilling each need as per the hierarchy of needs proposed by Maslow in order to encourage the staff and lead them towards achieving future success. On the other hand, Herzberg’s motivational theory has two factors, motivation and hygiene. As per the motivational factors, the strategies are such as achievements to the staff, giving the suitable responsibility, work standard, recognition and advancement and personal growth. On the other hand, the hygienic factors are working condition for the staff, co-worker relationship, basic salary and wages, organisational policies and rules to manage the employees and supervisor quality. These are the major factors trough which Bundoora Technology would be able to handle the employees and increase innovation and creativity to fulfil the organisational aim. The Vroom's theory of expectancy also provides a scope to the managers of Bundoora Technology to fulfil the expectation of the staff by providing them monetary and non-monetary rewards for increasing their performance efficiently.

QUESTION 2: From those theories that you have listed for Question 1, recommend one theory that you think will be ideal for your organisation to set clear targets and objectives for employees. Explain in detail why this theory is the most suited in this context.

Answer:

In order to motivate the employees in the organisation, the Hertzberg's two factor theory is ideal for Bundoora Technology to set clear targets and objectives of the employees. As per the theory, the manager provide achievement and responsibility to each employees where the staff members have clear roles in the workplace, which further helps the company to tackle the issue of lack of clear roles of the staff in the workplace. On the other hand, personal recognition encourages the staff to perform efficiently and contribute positively in the organisational success. The managers can handle the staff members through providing personal growth opportunities by training and development program which further improves employee’s interest to perform productively. On the other hand, the hygienic factors as per the theory proposed by Herzberg are also effective for Bundoora Technology to achieve future success, where the salary structure and promotional activities encourage the staff to perform efficiently. The managers also can maintain employee’s safety and security by handling the working condition and supervision quality where the employees are getting motivated through high cooperation from the senior team and quality advisor as well as get proper direction and support to perform better.

QUESTION 3: Using the theory recommended in your answer for Question 2, propose a motivation strategy that can be implemented at Bundoora Technology to improve employee performance. Illustrate your answers with examples.

Answer:

Bundoora Technology must focus on restructuring the organisational policy to motivate the staff members in the workplace, where the managers can lead the employees towards achieving future success. As per the investigation Bundoora Technology suffers with the reward and incentives policy which are not linked with the employee performance and this is the major drawback of the organisation which leads to lack of employees motivation, fairness to treat the staff and give promotion, and lack of transparency in giving rewards and other benefits. Hereby, it is mandatory for the organisation to strategise their reward policy and provide performance related pay to each employee. The supervisor or the quality advisor must review the performance of each employee and provide reward on the basis of their performance. Hence, the performance related pay is one of the major motivational strategy through which Bundoora Technology would be able to manage the workforce and encourage employee’s creativity to perform as efficiently as their capabilities.

QUESTION 4: Although employees at Bundoora Technology, in general, are progressive and open-minded to change, management expects that the proposed change may result in conflict with some employees.
As this is an avoidable risk, you were asked to identify the ideal conflict resolution style as a mitigation strategy; and explain in detail why this is the most suitable conflict resolution style for Bundoora Technology.

Answer:

The employees at Bundoora Technology are open minded and progressive to respond with the organisational changes, but internal conflict among the employees is one of the major issue which may lead to deteriorating of the employee performance at the organisation. The ideal conflicts resolution style for Bundoora Technology is collaboration and communication, where the managers must interact with each of the members at the workplace of the company and share the need for changes at the workplace, the managers also needs to collaborate and develop partnership working to improve trust and bonding among the staff so that the employee scan rely on other’s decision an start cooperating for partnership working. The collaboration and communication is the best strategy to tackle internal employee conflicts at the workplace, where the managers share the organisational information, empower the staff in the decision making behaviour as well as give them the chance to participate in the change process. The managers also can develop teamwork and encourage employee’s creativity at Bundoora Technology for resolving the conflicts through collaboration and communication. The strategy of collaboration and communication are hereby beneficial for the company to deal with the issue of internal conflicts and manage the team members successfully to lead the organisational change towards achieving future success.

QUESTION 5: As you have identified strategies to improve employee performance, design an appropriate communication strategy for Bundoora Technology to implement the suggested changes. Use case facts and examples to support your answer.

Answer:

Communication strategy is mandatory to lead the employees cooperatively and for Bundoora Technology, the strategy of open interaction, group discussion as well as arranging general meeting is the best way to enhance internal communication at the workplace. Arranging general meeting and empowering the staff in sharing their opinion is good for encouraging the employee’s creativity where the members can share their perception and interact with more innovative ideas. Encouraging open communication as well as implementing the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is also effective communication strategy for Bundoora Technology to enhance interaction among the staff members. For example, the multinational corporations use the communication strategy of implementing ICT, arranging meeting and pen discussion for enhancing interaction and thus it can be stated that, the above mentioned communication plan would be beneficial for Bundoora Technology to manage the employee and achieve future organisational aim. The other communication strategies are such as sending email to the employees, enhancing telephonic conversation at the workplace as well as creating employment portal, where the employees can share their personal opinion for more interaction and these are also advantageous for the organisation to enhance internal communication and motivate the staff to interact with others successfully.