Melanie Pendleton XXXXXXXXXX:45pm Jun 2 at 4:45pm Recall an instance when you were personally dissatisfied at work. Over the years, I have worked for a variety of organizations. I have worked for two...

Melanie Pendleton

Recall an instance when you were personally dissatisfied at work.

Over the years, I have worked for a variety of organizations. I have worked for two different big-box retailers, with one being my first cashier job. I loved that job a lot and worked there for three years in the early ’90s and was happy up until the final six months. The customer service manager who I worked under was an awesome lady who was always teaching us new things to those who showed an interest. Suddenly in my last six months, the company let her go, and once that happened there was no customer service manager any longer. The assistant customer service manager was in charge and we had was called “key” position who was under the assistant customer service manager then there were the front-end employees. I was considered a front-end employee who could run a register, layaway, and customer service department.

How did your level of satisfaction and engagement impact your attitude and overall performance?

I had just recently been learning the “key” position, which would help count down drawers, help the cashiers, go to the cash office for money to change big bills, replenish the customer service return computers, and anything else needed in the front. I loved the position was excited to be next in line for moving up. When they let the customer service manager Debbie go to our assistant customer service manager, the Day manager was the acting CSM but only wrote the schedules. Employees who are satisfied in the workplace with the leaders, co-workers and an organization are more productive. Productive employee is more likely to stay with the company for many years (Almeida, Orgambídez, and Santos, 2020)

In all my performance reviews, my performance reviews were good reviews with nothing other to work on except for gaining additional training. I was happy and had worked very hard to be where I was in the company. I helped on the sales floor when needed anytime if we were slow upfront. Once Debbie was let go, we all had our hours shifted and people who had been put on day shift only due to performance and seniority were put back to swing shifts working random shifts, closing then having to open the next day. When expressing our dissatisfaction, we were told we had to start over as she did not know us, so we had to prove ourselves to her because Debbie had been too soft on us. This new person did know us all as she had been the manager for a while and knew us all.

Were efforts made by management to enhance your satisfaction and performance at work?

Honestly, there was no effort made by her at all. She gave everyone random shifts, and I was put into the “key” position but did not every receive the pay for it even after I expressed my concern. I was just told I had to prove myself more. It became very frustrating, so I started looking for another job leaving a few months later to work for my daughter’s school daycare.

If no, what could management have done differently?

The organization could have taken some time to sit down with each of the front-end employees with our files. She could see our past performance reviews and at least acknowledge our achievements. When I expressed my concern with being in a position that I was not getting recognized for and that I felt I was not appreciated, she did not even care. I told her I was going to have to find other employment, and she said, “that’s fine,” which told me she did not care about any of the employees at all. When I visited the location six months later, I did not recognize any of the front-end employees.

Dissatisfied employees in an organization tend to leave if the organization does not care. Job dissatisfaction turns into turnover according to the Basic Hom-Griffeth 1991 model. Employees who are unhappy tend to try to seek help from the organization leaders but if the employee does not feel heard those employees will start job searching and leave the organization. High turnover costs a company money as they must train new employees (Hom, and Kinicki, 2001).

Almeida, M. H., Orgambídez, A., & Santos, C. M XXXXXXXXXXThe Power of Perception of Global Empowerment in Linking Social Support and Psychosocial Well-Being (Job Satisfaction).Central European Journal of Nursing & Midwifery,11(1), 9–18. https://doi-org.proxy-library.ashford.edu/ XXXXXXXXXX/CEJNM XXXXXXXXXX

Hom, P. and Kinicki, A XXXXXXXXXXToward a Greater Understanding of How Dissatisfaction Drives Employee Turnover.The Academy of Management Journal,44(5), 975.

Julian Kaelin

Instance of Dissatisfaction / Satisfaction and Engagement Impact on Attitude and Performance

I have had an excellent career in the Air Force with truly little confrontations or work dissatisfaction; however, I can recall an instance where I was extremely dissatisfied. I was fulfilling a senior leadership role within the organization as the senior civilian reporting under the commander. Our office was being stood up for the first time and the commander had an authority issues meaning they did not want to allow anyone to make decision except them. I was a confident and capable deputy commander; however, along with the entire organization, I was micromanaged along with being verbally abused on an almost daily basis. Our reading from Mulcha XXXXXXXXXXtalked about how performance management is integrated into all aspects of management’s policies and processes helping the organization achieve their mission. Personnel were not allowed to think innovatively or lead critical teams as everything I or those under me did was not good enough and usually ended up with a scolding, in public, and a statement, I’ll do it myself. The commander’s actions were negatively affecting the organization, but the one positive in all this was, I remained positive and kept the balance among all employees.

Management efforts to Enhance Satisfaction and Performance

Like I mentioned above, I stepped in to offset the negative image / abuse from the commander and helped prevent the ship from sinking. According to Tao et al. (2017), leadership style effects organizational performance specifically, an abusive style increases the negative effect which was the case in our organization. As the commander left shortly after my arrival (less than 6 months), we just had to survive until the new commander arrived. Unfortunately, senior level leaders knew of the commanders abuse but maybe like us, they were allowing them to just move on.

Were Managements Actions Successful? If not, What Could Have been done Differently?

Personally, I had one-on-one conversations with the commander about their behavior and saw some improvements, but they were short lived. Hindsight being 20-20, I could have elevated the behavior to senior leadership sooner, but I chose to try to change the behavior at my level. The only thing I can think of that I could have done better was to elevate to higher level leadership sooner. As discussed in Week #2, if brought to the attention of senior leadership earlier, they could have initiated an employee engagement survey which according to Stone (2015), a survey could be used as a tool to diagnose an organizations health issues.

References

Mucha, M. J XXXXXXXXXXPerformance management self-evaluation. Government Finance Review, 27(3), XXXXXXXXXXRetrieved from https://search-proquest-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/docview/ XXXXXXXXXX?accountid=32521(Links to an external site.)

Stone, K. B., PhD XXXXXXXXXXBurke-litwin organizational assessment survey: Reliability and validity. Organization Development Journal, 33(2), XXXXXXXXXXRetrieved from https://search-proquest-com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/docview/ XXXXXXXXXX?accountid=32521(Links to an external site.)