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Employee Dissatisfaction, Final Case Study: Recognizably Equal
The success of an organization solely depends on the satisfaction among the employees. Usually the cases of lower turnover rate are dependent on the high employee contentedness rate. Therefore it is the responsibility of the management to keep their employees satisfied with their job and career. There are various reasons of the employees being discouraged with the organization and jobs which include lack of communication, high stress, limited opportunity for self-growth, lack of recognition etc. The management of the organization must actively seek in order to improve the related factors which lower down the turnover rate. The case of turnover presents an expense which has to be avoided even in the economic downturn (Ibrahim, M.E. and Perez, A.O., 2014)
According to, Kuvaas, B., (2006), higher employee satisfaction is seen to correlate to the lower staff turnover and the higher levels of customer satisfaction as the customer’s results and outcomes are directly affected by the employees providing services (Chi and Gursoy, 2009).
It is impossible for the organization to satisfy their customers if they are not getting appropriate support from the satisfied employees who run the operations of the company. Various HR studies have argued the importance of the improving employee satisfaction which requires combination of the employee opportunities for development and growth with factors like welfare, working environment, company policy, and employees’ sense of security. Studies like Van Scotter (2000) and McColl-Kennedy and Anderson (2005), have pointed out to the value of increasing the accountability and autonomy of the employees. This paper aims to reflect the various aspects of the employee dissatisfaction by elaborating the case of Fatima Memorial Hospital where the issue of employees’ dissatisfaction has been encountered recently.
Issue
Identify the problem relating to employee dissatisfaction. Justify your position
Fatima Memorial Hospital is one of the major medical facility provider in the MENA region. The hospital has been known widely for its charitable activities and the employee oriented schemes for the last decade. With over 150 administrative staff, 800 workers and 80 management level employees, the organization was seen to treat everyone at the same level and even provided the same coloured scrubs for their doctors and nurses and was standing by the rule of Employee Equality. Therefore the management had a cordial relationship with the staff. The hospital was even seen to provide its employees with competitive benefits package. But in the recent days, the hospital has been seen to face issues related to quality, supply and increase in the sick calls by their employees.
On probing further by the HR department of the company, it was seen that there were various loop holes in the system of the hospital. On investigating further, the issues creating dissatisfaction among the employees were identified to be:
Hiring of new employees for the higher level post where the potential internal candidates were not even considered.
These newly hired employees were given higher packages as compared to the ones who are already working in the same field.
The dissatisfied employees complained of the fact that there performance level was better than the newly hired as they are well-known of the rules, regulations and functioning of the hospital. The further believed that they required lesser skill assessment and lesser decision-making time as compared to the newly hired candidates. Therefore they should have been considered for the vacant positions.
The organization had spent an enormous amount of money while recruiting the newly hired, processing the hiring process and in training them. The low pace of the newly hired and the dissatisfaction among the existing employees has posed a severe threat to the functioning of the company. This issue was further aggravated by the higher packages being offered to the newly hired as compared to the existing employees who were working at the same level.
During the whole process of investigation it was concluded that the main issues was the lack of communication among the workforce. The managerial staff was kept isolated and could not related to the personal and professional growth of their existing employees (Branham, 2005). This left the whole staff to be highly disconnected and the employees were not considered during the hiring process. Even the employees were unaware of their performance measures and did not have a sense of improvement. This lack of communication further led to difficulty in making any progress in their respective efficiency. The employees were rarely praised for the performance quality.
One of the related HRM rule or theory related to the given issue is Victor Vroom’s Expectancy theory. The Expectancy theory states that the motivation of any employee is an outcome of the assessment that his efforts are leading to the expected performance (Expectancy), how much reward can be gained (Valence) and the belief that reward will be presented for the performance (Instrumentality). The Valence can be related to the expect outcome by the individual but it is only expected and cannot be considered as the actual satisfaction which is expected after achieving the desired goals. Whereas Expectancy is the faith that better performance is guaranteed if the employees put forward their best efforts. This factor is directly proportional to the availability of right resources, possession of appropriate skills for performing the job, availability of crucial information and receiving appropriate support from the management (Heneman, H.G. and Schwab, D.P., 1972).
Whereas Instrumentality is the faith that the employee will perform well in order to produce a valid outcome. It is affected by the factors like the simplicity of the process deciding who gets what outcome, believe in the people who decide who receives what outcome and clarity of relationship between outcomes and performance. The theory is seen to concentrate on the following three relationships:
Performance-reward relationship: This relationship related to the extent where the employees are seen to believe that their good performance leads to appraisal and rewards from the organization.
Effort-performance relationship: This relationship accounts for the likelihood that the individual’s effort will be recognized in his performance appraisal.
Rewards-personal goals relationship: This relationship deals with the attractiveness or appeal of the potential reward to the employees (Lawler, E.E. and Suttle, J.L., 1973)
Furthermore, the organization must have adopted to the organizational theory by Max Weber which defined the organizational structure and provided a detailed meaning to the communication process. The Weberian theory claimed that the organizations should have a clearly defined roles and responsibilities and asserted that the communicational process should be hierarchical, structured, and clear. When the communication process is clear, there is no confusion in the messages being transported from top to the lower management and all the employees can contribute to the organization by the manner their roles and responsibilities have been defined (Du Gay, P., 2000). A clear message must be given by the management regarding the situation of the company in order to retain utmost transparency and to instill confidence in the employees and staff members. The management needs to communicate effectively in order to elicit action, exert full control and to effect the coordination. This way the organization can be in touch with the employees and understand their needs and wants (Simpson, R.L., 1959).
Fatima Memorial Hospital should have reflected on the performance-reward, effort-performance and rewards-personal goals relationship. The performance of the employees must have been monitored from the very beginning and should have been motivated from time to time. This would have motivated the employees and led to job dissatisfaction. Even while hiring the new employees, the organization should have first evaluated the potential of their employees and then hired new employees if the existing employees were not found to be competent for the desired post.
The organization should have paid full attention to the concept of valence. In expectancy theory, the most important factor for motivating the employee is the social context. The employees expect and need to see that they are valued the promised rewards for their performance and extra efforts. The employees must be provided incentives from time to time. The effective employees must be provided with promotion and other relevant prizes (Kruse, K., 2015).
The efforts and performance must be connected with their efforts and the efficient and capable employees must have been considered before hiring the new employees or at least must have been concerned regarding the issue. This practice is the central towards the expectancy theory. The employees must be motivated and rewarded so as to not to make them feel unrewarded or neglected. This particular theory will be highly successful in eliminating the chances of employee dissatisfaction as it will motivate the employees to work towards expected outcome when their contribution to the organization is valued. The employees must be valued and respected so as to motivate them to the fullest. This motivation will act as an anchor and motivate the employees to work towards desirability of the expected outcome of the situation. They must be made believe that they can affect the success of the organization and their work is related to the desired outcome of the situation (Latham, G.P., 2000). The employees must be made believe that their actions will lead to fulfilment of the organizational success and objectives.
Secondly, the application of the Weberian theory in the Fatima Memorial Hospital will help the organization to make their employees clear about the respective roles and responsibilities. Once the roles and responsibilities are defined clearly and the communicational process is very structured and hierarchical, a clear message can be provided to the employees by using the top to down technique. A clear and to the point messages can be helpful in maintaining transparency among the senior and lower management and the employees would be able to confide in their senior management. A structured and hierarchical communication process and will lead to standardized procedures. While implementation of the Weber management theory will make the employees understand what is meant for them. The organization would be able to make employees an important and considerable part of the organization and encourage them to participate in an efficient manner (Herzberg, F., 1986).
It will the sole responsibility of the human resource department and the management to motivate their existing employees. The motivated employees will directly affect the organizational performance. Therefore the human resource management needs to concentrate on the various ways to motivate their employees and to fix the problem. Although the concept of motivational theories and rewards types might be time consuming for the organization but in the long run these will directly impact on the turnover of the company. Therefore the managers need to concentrate on the three key areas of responsibility for coordinating and integrating with the human resource policy. The three key areas of responsibility are mentioned as given below:
Performance Definition,
Performance Facilitation and
Performance Encouragement.
The managers need to set goal as per the performance and should also have an evaluative measure for accomplishing the common goals. Adequate roles, responsibilities along with the defined goals must be presented to the employees. The goals must be assessed as the unassessed goals do not motivate the employees in order to work accordingly. With regular progress assessment towards the achievement of goals, the employees are able to concentrate towards achieving the goals. This way they feel valued and with regular evaluation the management can also review their performance and consider existing employees instead of the hiring the news ones. Further the salary packages must ne same for all the employees at the same level be it for the existing or the newly hired ones. The management must be able to verify all the obstacles in the employee dissatisfaction. The employees must be provided with adequate resources so as to perform well in the organization (Watson, T., 2013.)
Lastly the management should encourage the employees in the areas of amount of rewards, value of rewards, and timing of rewards, equity and fairness of rewards. The amount and value of rewards must be same for the employees working at the same level. The employees must be valued personally and the best worker must be made aware of his accomplishments from time to time to make him feel better. The employees must be praised and encouraged even for smaller accomplishments. The employees must be communicated with utmost respect and they must be valued and involved in every aspect of the hospital. A clear communication will help the employees to present their ideas and the most efficient employee can also be considered for promotions and vacant positions in the hospital. The employees must be given information freely and about the change of plans, vacant positions, etc. so as to make them a part of the decision-making process. A simple token of appreciation will act as a morale booster for the employees.
Look at your investigation points 1 and 2 above. Were they justified or not? Support your answers with HRM related concepts.
Fatima Memorial Hospital encountered the following issues on investigation by the HR manager which were the primary reasons for the employees’ dissatisfaction in the organization:
Hiring of new employees for the higher level post where the potential internal candidates were not even considered.
These newly hired employees were given higher packages as compared to the ones who are already working in the same field.
Communication issues in the organization from senior to lower level of management.
The organization needs to perform equity and fairness in order to satisfy their employees. Satisfaction always derives from the relation between the earned rewards and what the employees desire. The organization needs to understand the difference between the comparison of rewards which a particular employee receives as compared to the other employees and to the amount of rewards the person receives as compared to the efforts he put in order to get the work done. Once Fatima Memorial Hospital establishes this difference, it will be able to consider its existing employees during the needed conditions and can define the difference between the reward earned and the rewards promised. With the help of this theory, the employee would be able to see their reward fair as compared to the efforts given by the individual (Cascio 1995, 419). The expectancy theory of motivation represents the most valid, comprehensive and useful approach to understanding motivation. The response from the management would be able to base the level of work by the employees. A positive performance appraisal in terms of promotion and equal pay as newly hired would be appreciated among the employees. The response level from the organization with clear and through communication channel will lead to quality of work among the employees thereby resulting in extra efforts from the employees that they put into their task.
The expectancy theory will be beneficial inn helping the managers to understand the ways the employees can be motivated from the various behavioural alternatives. The system of the organization must be tied very closely to the performances of the employee in order to enhance the connection between the outcomes and the performance. The management further needs to understand that the existing employees are more capable of the vacant positions and the rewarded employees is deserving. Lastly there is a need for the organization to implement an effective communication channel in order to improve their connection between the performance and the efforts. The managers must provide training to the employees for improving the capabilities of the employees and helping the employees to believe that they are important for the organization and their efforts must be accounted in terms of equal pay and promotions. The expectancy theory suggests that promoting employees from in-house supports the employee retention efforts. The recruiters must select the suitably qualified employees from the organization itself and meet the expectations of the corporate leadership and human resources. According to the theory the ability of the recruiter to find a well suited and well qualified employees from the existing employee base is the factor of success for the human resource.
Fatima Memorial hospital is about to open a sister hospital in Beijing China. Therefore, the management needs to design and consider an assessment for the recruitment and talent selection.
The employment relationship begins from the recruitment and selection. A strategy has to be developed in order to attract various applicants with the required qualifications, expertise and interest in the needs and interests of the organization. The recruiters are held accountable by the human resources and the corporate leaders for assembling the pool of qualified applicants in the case of vacancy (Compton, R.L., Morrissey, W.J., Nankervis, A.R. and Morrissey, B., 2009).
The organization consider employ qualified applicants and must implement a strict recruitment and selection regime. The organization can also consider the transfer of willing employees to the sister hospital as the in-house recruitment is cost effective and lesser amount of training will be given to such candidates regarding the working environment of the organization. Outsourcing of the employees will also help in separating the qualified and non-qualified candidates. Along with the various selection test and interviews has to be conducted for the newly hired candidates, the organization will take into account the recruiting costs. The managers and executives of the sister hospital must be willing to try various hiring process in order to maintain the quality of the employees and should work closely with the recruiters and the human resources department.
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