1-According to the work nature and my interviews with the employee I think that “The goal setting Theory” applies on more than one level of the organization. Let us take the foremen for example. Goal attributes which related to a higher level of performance are present.
A specific goal is assigned to the foremen. He has to fully understand the required job and this is not a problem because the goal is well communicated to the foremen. After a job is required Sean assign to the foreman to the job and explain his responsibilities and he will visit each job and make sure that the foreman is completing the work properly. Armando as well is responsible for explaining to the foreman what the required job is in quantitative measures and making sure that this goal is appropriate to the job objectives which contribute to the attainment of the organization’s objective(Goal specificity). It is not easy for the foreman to construct and monitor the workers to make sure that the job is completed in a proper manner. This requires to make sure that the workers are taking the appropriate safety precautions, the machines are in good working order and the necessary job tools are available to the workers, but this is perceived within the control of the foreman (Goal difficulty).
The effectiveness of those attributes in increasing the foreman motivation is moderated by two factors, “good acceptance” and “goal commitment”. For a goal to be accepted and to be owned, it has to be reachable, beneficial and the resources have to be available. As mentioned before the goal is perceived reachable. Foreman have the experience in the field and they have the ability to put in the required effort. They find the goal beneficial because when the company does well the employee shares theprofits. And finally Armando frequently visits the site to make all the jobs requirements available.
These factors also enhance the goal commitment which is necessary throughout the process of performing the job. After the foremen exert the effort to perform, the required performance level is moderated by two variables. The first one is the individual’s ability. Steven who is responsible for hiring the employees make sure that he chooses qualified well trained employees. Most of the employees have been working for the company for a long time now, so they earned the experience, skills and relevant knowledge. The second variable is the organizational support and this includes employee skill development, resource allocation and feedback mechanism.
The organization always provides training and skill development for its employees to offer the best performance level. The organization has sound policies for resource allocation. Sean, Steven and Armando work towards this objective. Sean and Steven visit the site to make sure that nothing is missing. Steven is responsible for purchasing equipment (trucks, machines, garbage boxes) and Armando is responsible for rerating the extra needed equipment and taking care of the office equipment. Feedback is really important.
Employees receive direct feedback from the job itself as they are working in the site, feedback from their peers as they are working in groups, feedback from the assigned Foremen, from Armando that visit the site and direct the workers and the foreman and finally from Sean and Steven as they visit the site from one time to another. The final stage of the process is the good attainment and it is moderated by two factors internal and external. The external environment factors are not within the organization control they are unpredictable and uncontrollable, but the internal factors such as material, technological and human resources are well taken care of as pointed out earlier. Sean, Steven and Armando work to provide all the material and technological requirements for the job to be held perfectly. The goal is end result based and both intrinsic and extrinsic outcomes are experienced when the goal is fully achieved.
The feedback of accomplishment as the workers perform and the end. After they reach the goal (intrinsic) and the scheduled benefits as agreed between the both sides(extrinsic). The satisfaction of outcomes is guaranteed because it depends on the equity of the outcomes and this equity is appreciated in the organization. Since it is a family business all employees are treated extremely well and fair. 2- Employees as mentioned before work together in groups in site and to accomplish their tasks they have to fully utilize the intellectual, technical and social skills. This will happen if they interact closely with each other.
As they carry on the task behaviors. The com con network is the type of communication network. It is a decentralized communication network. Although that same members, Steven, Sean and Armando have greater authority and responsibility but as the job is being done all the members can contract each other. The workers contract the foremen, Armando, Sean and Steven as they visit the site and vice versa.
The task in this case is complex so decentralized communication network is more efficient. In this kind of business as all employees work together and with other contractors a lot of conflicts is likely to happen. As a result of my interviews I perceived the following antecedent conditions of conflict. “Ambiguous jurisdictions” exist when the task and authority structures are not clearly established , i.e. when the task behaviors are not clear enough that individuals overlap responsibilities.
This happens on more than one level in the organization. First at the management level, Sean is the one responsible for acquiring the job, jobs estimation and visiting sites, but apparently Steven as well is involved in acquiring the job and site visits which cause conflict as each one of them choose a different job at the same time where the organization cannot handle the two together, or as they give different instructions to the workers on the site. Another thing that usually happens is for the father to visit the site as well and give instructions for the employees, this causes a lot of confusion and conflict for them and make the process of carrying out the task behaviors more complicated. The second level where this kind of conflict is likely to happen is with Kari and Christine. Kari used to work as secretary and bookkeeper before.
Christine the bookkeeper is hired andeven after that Kari still interfere with Christine’s job and responsibility. ” Association of parties” is another antecedent condition of conflict. Employees obviously have to work together in task performanceso there is a great possibility for the conflict to happen. The last one is “unresolved prior conflicts”. Again with Kari and Christine the conflictive behavior in the past is a reason for continuos conflicts because there is no satisfaction with final outcomes.
About the ways these conflicts are taken care of at the worker level Sean always visit the site to resolve any conflict that may arise and he has an open door policy, no matter the status of the employee and no matter the degree of the conflict the employee can always meet Sean and tell him about the problem even if he/she has already discussed it with his/her foreman or manager. Also Armando is Always there to deal with all the problems with all kinds and if the problem is really complicated he will talk it over with Steven. About Sean and Steven they try that each one of them take responsibilities of a different site not the same one at the time and they try to discuss the job together first before one of them decide to take it. And with Kari and Christine, Steven tries to clearly define the responsibilities of each one of them and the boundaries between the two jobs Bibliography:
