The Impact of Lack of Employee Recognition and Value on Employee Engagement

The work situation that characterizes Initech is one where there a general employee disengagement from the company’s production activity. There is a prevailing lack of recognition of the efforts employees are committing to the organization to promote productivity. The management and supervisors seem inclined to addressing the poor case of employee contribution in the company without issues related to improving the performance of the employees by resolving the challenges they face. Additionally, it is clear that communication at the organization is a one-way form of communication whereby the top leadership ignores employees' views of the organization. The underlying attribute is the fact there is underlying lack employee recognition and value, an issue that has contributed to lack of employee engagement and additional low morale as is evident by looking at Peter’s situation.

The Environment at Initech

The work environment at initech can best be described as being unfavorable for employee productivity. Overall, the working environment can be described as being significantly dysfunctional and resulting in significant stressful occasioned by poor employee relationships and interactions with the management (Movieclips 2015).  The main challenge is characterized by the poor working relationships between the employees and supervisors, with co-workers refusing to accommodate each other’s needs to improve the overall productivity (Movieclips 2015). There is the additional issue of poor communication between the management and employees. The assertion, in this case, is supported by the fact that supervisors and managers do not seem interested in what employees at the organization say; their only interest is getting things done. The implication of this state of affairs is the fact employees like Peter feel demoralized lacking the interest to work at the organization (Movieclips 2015). Productivity dips in such instances as employees cannot see their effort and value they add being appreciated by the management. One implication of this attitude by supervisors is that subordinate staff like peter feel end up being unable to communicate honestly with the supervisors since they have developed a fear of response they will be getting from these leaders (Movieclips 2015). The impact of this trend is the fact supervisors and managers will end up with a trail of poor decisions as they will not be getting accurate information from the employees to make sound decisions relating to the company’s strategic direction.

Overall, the work environment at Initech can be characterized as being a toxic work environment due to the dysfunctional and significantly stressful interactions in the daily interactions instead of being an exception. The evident environment is characterized by supervisors and coworkers who routinely mistreat and undermine each other, acting only in a self-serving manner without taking into consideration how their conduct affects the entire organization (Movieclips 2015). The levels of dissatisfaction and lack of commitment are significantly high being due to the managers’ conduct of undermining the junior employees.

Job Attitude of Peter and the Coworkers

One of the job attitudes observed as being evident with Peter as well as his colleagues is that of laziness and irresponsibility. The attitude is seen in john’s conduct where although he had received a memo relating to how TPs forms should be formatted he still fails to include the new format and when asked he affirms that he forgot but since the reports have not been shipped there is no hurry (Venkataramani, Labianca & Grosser, 2013). The fact that he makes excuses for why he failed to include the new format and further goes on to indicate there is no hurry is indicative of his laziness and irresponsibility.

Additionally, the nature of exaggerations of the errors made by the employees is an additional attitude observed where the supervisors keep on ensuring that Peter is aware he made an error yet he had been told and accepted to correct (Venkataramani, Labianca & Grosser, 2013). Lack of interest and concern over the colleagues work, and wellbeing is seen when peter’s colleague refuses to turn down the volume of his radio for Peter and colleagues to concentrate on their work. Lack of appreciation is the other attitude evident at peter’s workplace where while Peter managed to deliver the report before deadlines and erred on including the new attachment, the coworkers only address the failure to include the new coversheet on the report (Venkataramani, Labianca & Grosser, 2013).

A Possible Outcome of the Attitudes

When all these attitudes interact, several issues are going to become evident in the organization. Poor productivity is going to be the first outcome of the attitude as most of the employees will not be interested in working for an organization that does not appreciate those (Edmans, 2012). The lack of commitment and dedication will be the prevailing trend. High employee absenteeism is going to be the other outcome as an employee will always be looking for reasons to avoid going to work due to the toxic work environment (Edmans, 2012). High turnover rates will be the additional implication of the attitude as employees working at the Initech will always be looking for opportunities to leave the organization and go where their contribution is valued and appreciated. Constant conflicts among employees additionally make up the outcome of the adverse workplace attitudes at Initech (Edmans, 2012).

Conclusion

The work environment at Initech is one where employees feel unappreciated, with the leadership taking no measures to improve the situation. Coupled with the attitudes that are evident in the organization, initech has become a workplace where employees do not like going to work. One of the common attributes that are going to fail is the issue of productivity which will decline due to employees are not committed to working towards the organization’s goals. Some of the strategy recommendations to be used in improving job satisfaction among employees at the organization include:

1. Devising interventions that will contribute to a positive work environment as providing staff canteens, introducing employee assistance centers to offer an assortment of services to employees like transport passes (Wong & Laschinger, 2013).

2. Ensuring that there are strategies to reward and recognize exceptional performance, focusing on personal employee recognition (Wong & Laschinger, 2013).

3. Involving and engaging employees at the workplace on the diverse decisions at the workplace, ensuring that they feel their input is valued is the other strategy which could involve sponsoring employee retreats to asses and come up with unique production strategies (Wong & Laschinger, 2013).

4. Ensuring that employees are empowered and their skills developed is the other strategy to be used via the introduction of training and education to make them more productive and innovative (Wong & Laschinger, 2013).

5. Evaluating and evaluating job satisfaction via continuous assessment and improvement of employee skills is the additional skills that should be used in ensuring employees are satisfied (Wong & Laschinger, 2013).

References

Edmans, A. (2012). The link between job satisfaction and firm value, with implications for corporate social responsibility. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 26(4), 1-19.

Movieclips (2015). Office Space (1/5) Movie CLIP - Did You Get the Memo? (1999) HD Accessed via https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jsLUidiYm0w&feature=youtu.be on May 30, 2018

Sturt, David (2015). Training Journal; The power of 'thank you' London (Apr 2015): 57-59

Venkataramani, V., Labianca, G. J., & Grosser, T. (2013). Positive and negative workplace relationships, social satisfaction, and organizational attachment. Journal of applied psychology, 98(6), 1028.

Wong, C. A., & Laschinger, H. K. (2013). Authentic leadership, performance, and job satisfaction: the mediating role of empowerment. Journal of advanced nursing, 69(4), 947-959.