Organisational Behaviour

Group Report

Charlie ChenBrendan KellyNick Carson

Radion Ingman

Purpose of The Project

• Investigate issues of staff engagement, satisfaction and motivation in an organisation or organisational unit

• Analysis survey data, outcome and find the correlations between workplace engagement, satisfaction and motivation and the effect on performance without any quantitative analysis

Investigated Organization

Australian Vintage Insurance Company

Context the Company is within

• A family owned Australian Vintage Insurance company before being taken over by a top 20 ASX company

• Renowned as an industry expert in commercial and heavy motor insurance

• Head Office located in Sydney

• Workforce located in many capital cities of Australia

• After 3 years of poor results and huge loses, managerial change occurred implementing a new strategy and path forward for the company.

– Main focus on the more densely populated NSW & Qld operations

– Regional Manager instrumental in the new direction

– She has been with Australian Vintage Insurance for approximately 15 months

– Currently on track to achieve a small net profit for the first time after 3 years of bad losses

Methodology of Data Collection and Analysis

Qualitative Interview Method:

• Structured (predetermined)questions*

Our Objective:

• explore tangible and measurable outcome as well as experiences of employee engagement, satisfaction and motivation practice from individual participants

Surveys were conducted face to face with diverse members of the company

Our survey focused on 3 key areas and the perceived effect they have on performance:

• Engagement• Motivation• Satisfaction

*Gill, P. et al. 2008, Methods of data collection in qualitative Research Interview and focus groups 5

OB Theories &Our Findings

Engagement Motivation Satisfaction PerformanceDoes ?

ENGAGEMENT

“…work engagement is a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind

that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption” (Schaufeli, Salanova, González-Romá & Bakker,

2002)

Measures of Engagement

In the survey form we used following parameters to assess qualitative responses of Engagement:

• Level of employees believe that they have clear understand the company’s goals

• Level of workplace relationship and satification• Level of reward and recognition of employee’s contribution• Level of autonomy• Level of team work atmosphere within the division

Engagement Strategies Used by the Company

• Enhancing communication between management teams and staff– C level directors’ morning tea section– Regional director regular (inter states) face to face meeting

• Reward and recognition program– Rewards - broken down to teams, divisions rather than simply based on

over all company’s revenue

• Adequate performance review and ability assessment

– Proper requirement process– Focus on utilizing employees’ strengths development– Implement 9 Box grid talent assessment methodology (

http://www.greatleadershipbydan.com/2012/01/performance-and-potential-matrix-9-box.html)

Positive Outcomes of Engagement

As literature research indicated: employee engagement corresponds with positive and proactive behaviours in organization (Weigl et al., 2010). • Ultimate outcome of employee engagement is “the extent

to which people enjoy and believe in what they do, and feel valued for doing it” (Buchanan, et al. 2010, p. 285).

• Those fundamental changes, introduced by new regional director, from employee engagement perspective, have brought tangible uplift in business performance.

• We actually can feel enthusiasm and commitment from participates during the interview process.

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Finding: Engagement in Practical

We used the listed characteristics of engagement that described by text book (Buchanan & Huczynski, 2010, Organizational Behaviour) to study the survey outcome:

• The Important of job fit: a large percentage of participates told us that they feel happier, more productive after job reliance that introduced by new management.

• Open communication: The new management team provided much clear communication regarding the current situation and company business objective/goals between senior management team and staff

• Management adaptability: The current Management teams open to new idea and willing to adopt best practice has positively impacted employee’s enthusiasm towards their daily work

• Positive disposition: most of participates demonstrated their willingness to help others and enjoy team work

• Achievement orientation: the new management team has provided SMART objectives to staffs and has encouraged the need to succeed and to excel

MOTIVATION

• Employers and Managers not only see the motivation of staff as an integral part of workplace performance, but also as a major issue they face in staff management. If a staff member is unmotivated then they are likely to produce low levels of output and quality in their work. In comparison a motivated staff member is likely to have a high level of quality and output (Amabile 1993; Steers 2004).

Summary of findings relating to motivation theory

• Teamwork within AVI, was non existent. Through the Strategic change management is implementing strategies to try and change this and improve the outcomes achieved.

• Communication, and the lack of it was the biggest problem identified with the lack of teamwork within the company, this has improved but still requires more work.

• According to Jiang (2010), work within teams is becoming more common and managers are implementing strategies to monitor and motivate staff. One strategy which is clearly emphasised to all managers is MBWR.

Summary of findings relating to motivation theory

• The Reward & Recognition problems have overhauled and brought into line to work with the strategic goals of the company.

• Staff reviews and assessments through scorecards are now used and clearly outline the expectations of each staff member and are now focused on tasks which they work together in their teams better. Staff training programs are much better as they try to achieve the overall goal of better staff who can progress within the company through internal promotions. (intrinsic rewards

SatisfactionAffective Satisfaction Theory• “focuses on whether the job

evokes a good mood and positive feelings and affectively-oriented measures of job satisfaction” (Moorman, R.H. 1993)*

Cognitive Satisfaction Theory• “is satisfaction based on a

more logical and rational evaluation of the job conditions”(Moorman, R.H. 1993)*

* The influence of cognitive and affective based job satisfaction measures on the relationship between satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviour

Summary of findings relating to Satisfaction theory

Affective Satisfaction

Vintage Insurance Employees expressed the following

feelings about their jobs overall

Satisfaction(Emotional Resonance)

Openness and HonestyIntegrityValued

AppreciatedInspired

ChallengedExcited

Cooperative

Dissatisfaction(Emotional

Dissonance)

StressWork/Life Balance

Time for Family

Cognitive Satisfaction

Vintage Insurance Employees expressed satisfaction and

dissatisfaction with particular facets

Satisfaction

RemunerationSuper

CommunicationCompany StructureWork Environment

Dissatisfaction

Working hours Approachability of

Some Management Stress

Performance

• “To perform is to take a complex series of actions that integrate skills and knowledge to produce a valuable result” (Don Elger, Theory of Performance, 2000)

Assessment of the performance

The questionnaire with 14 questions used to assess and to understand the measures that the company has deployed to leverage employees performance. Investigated factors were:• Leadership Style, Organization Culture, Organization

Structure and evaluation impact on job performance• The simultaneous effect of these factors on perceived job

performance• Organizational factors that could affect the performance

of personnel • Organisational processes or routines that could be

improved

Summary of Findingso Management has adopted correct behavioural approach when managing employeeso Leaders adequately recognize employees’ behavioural patterns and traits

The findings empirically support the arguments of David A Waldman & William D Spongler (1989), Vrom, Yetton and Jago model (1988), Mullians (1989), Lewin, Lippit and White (1977). They explained the importance of leadership style in improving company. Since the investigative company has the new management emplaced the performance has dramatically improved.

o Employers and managers understand what the employees expect to get or benefit from the job situation

The findings are consistent with the arguments of Mullian (1989), A. H. Locher and K.S. Teel (1988), Robet Kreitner (1995). The study findings are different to those ideas of Robision (2000) though. He has concluded that traits such as loyalty and initiative may be prised by managers but there is no evidence to support that certain traits will be adequate synonyms for performance in a large cross section of jobs.

o Personnel needs and values are recognised by the company and fulfilled

The findings empirically confirm the theoretical arguments given by Stephen James Heskett (1998) and John E Sheridan (1992). The findings suggest that large scale industries attempt to develop an organisation culture within their organisation in order to enhance the performance with accordance to industry character.

o Personnel is adequately educated and prepared for any given tasks, even cross-functionallyo Employees are compensated adequately for the stress and challenges that they experienceo Regular personal and professional performance reviews and competency appraisals are emplaced

Conclusion/ Recommendations on Performance

Organisation structure was found as the strongest predictor of sufficient performance

The implication of the findings is that, if insurance industries need to enhance their profitability, Organization Structure, Organization Culture, Leadership Style and Performance Evaluation are critical to be considered and various strategies can be applied to enhance them.

Strategies should focus on improving the present level of variables

Proper organisation structure provides a clear picture to employees and it affects their performance.

Our Recommendation

Based on analysis survey data and published report, we believe the organization is progressing well in their transformation. Our recommendation for the company to move to next stage are:• Focus on short/medium tangible deliverables• Improve team coherence

– Strengthen relationships, negotiate and enact new behaviours, resolve conflicts

• Develop staff competence• Managing the Psychological contract

– Monitor for “pinches” & take action when they occur– Provide timely and unambiguous feedback– Keep the promises

• Ensure management and staff can retain Work-Life BalanceAnthony Fee (2013), Organisational Behaviour in Practice Seminar#3