Communication Issues
Communication issues can seem very complicated at first when a manager or supervisor are trying to figure out how to solve a problem that involves one employee working below his or her expected level of standard. When people are distracted with other things going on in their life their work could fall below their normal standard and may unknowingly cause this person to get in trouble at work. It is always good to give the employee the benefit of the doubt and it is also a part of a manager’s job to know what is going on with the employees that he or she supervises. Communication issues arises when managers and employees do not talk about issues that are going on in their personal lives or with relationships with a co-worker and many people feel uncomfortable about sharing information about their feelings and he or she will tend to avoid the situation because they think that the problem will go away if they ignore the issue, which in reality will only make the situation worse and not better.
The manager and supervisors need to ask the right questions in order to resolve the problem of the employee who is working below the company’s standard and causing trouble with the other employees because he or she could be facing a personal issue that is hard to handle alone. There are ten members on this team, someone should be able to talk to the manager and let him or her know what the deal is with this one worker, it could be something that can be resolved by sitting the employee down and finding out what the issue is that they are dealing with. People do not stay at a job for two years and then all of a sudden become hard to work with unless there is some hidden reason and asking the right questions mean that whatever this person is keeping from the others will mean a quicker route to solving a problem. Getting this person back on track is important because he or she is part of a team that requires a certain amount of technological skill and this person may know how to do parts of the job that his or her coworkers may be less skilled in and this problem is throwing off their work as well, as this one employee.
One way to motivate team members is by using the Motivator-Hygiene Theory which was developed by Frederick Herzberg he believed the, “Factors that create positive attitudes toward work are different from those that create negative attitudes (Watson, 2003).” This relates to our case with the employee who is having a tough time with meeting the needs of the business and getting along the other employees, but who is to judge what is really going on with this case because we have only heard one side of the story and it paints a very negative explanation of what the situation is, we do not really know unless there is an open line of communication between all parties involved. What positive attitudes are being used to promote a healthy work environment from the managers? What type of work environment is it? Are there members of the team who have negative feelings toward this team member and who may make up or embellish a story to get this person in trouble? Someone had to go to the manager with this issue, and the manager should have known of the problem before it was brought up by somebody else, because a good manager always knows what is going on with his or her employees. We are only given a little bit of information about the problem and more questions will need to be asked to come up with a good solution to resolve this situation and the goal is to get this group back on track so that they can as a team become productive again.
One way to motivate team members is by using the Motivator-Hygiene Theory which was developed by Frederick Herzberg he believed the, “Factors that create positive attitudes toward work are different from those that create negative attitudes (Watson, 2003).” This relates to our case with the employee who is having a tough time with meeting the needs of the business and getting along the other employees, but who is to judge what is really going on with this case because we have only heard one side of the story and it paints a very negative explanation of what the situation is, we do not really know unless there is an open line of communication between all parties involved. What positive attitudes are being used to promote a healthy work environment from the managers? What type of work environment is it? Are there members of the team who have negative feelings toward this team member and who may make up or embellish a story to get this person in trouble? Someone had to go to the manager with this issue, and the manager should have known of the problem before it was brought up by somebody else, because a good manager always knows what is going on with his or her employees. We are only given a little bit of information about the problem and more questions will need to be asked to come up with a good solution to resolve this situation and the goal is to get this group back on track so that they can as a team become productive again.
Below is a list of questions that should be considered before making any decisions about letting this person go and so far we have limited information about the situation. How recently has this person been performing at a substandard level? Does the job match this person’s interest still or would they be happier in a different department? What outside factors could be happening in this person’s personal life that may be affecting their concentration level at work? Does this person have family related issues that may be distracting them like a sick family member, a loss or a gain of a new family member, money problems, any one of these factors could wear a person down and if any of these issues are the cause of distracting this person at work, then steps can be taken to counsel this person. The managers need to figure out the reason why this person has created a new work pattern because when someone is at a company for two years, there must be a new issue that is occurring or this person would have been let go a long time ago. A manager cannot always assume the worst case scenario without knowing all the factors involved and maybe this person needs someone outside of his team to help him or her get back on track, and that person would have a safe place to go to talk openly about the issues that are affecting their work. Some people may not be able to determine the factors that are causing them issues at work and talking to a neutral person like a counselor will allow this person to feel empowered to resolve the situation and get back on track and prove that they can be a team player.
Being a team player is important, there are many ways that a manager can go about building a stronger team, so when one of the teammates has an issue they know that they can turn to someone on the team instead of being alone and taking their frustrations out on other team members. All team members know, “That their individual work depends upon and affects the quality of others' work and, ultimately, the ability of the team to reach its goal (Linley, 2010)”. They may not be conscious of this, but they all know that each person on the team can affect another team member without trying to cause a problem, and usually this awareness happens after a problem has occurred, and all team members feel strange when they do not have good communication skills. Some people prefer to avoid a situation when all that is needed is an open communication line and each person portrays a different role in the group and by doing team building activities, having workshops on communication skills this and other problems will be deterred because the team members have a new sense of awareness that will help them be happy, productive workers that get along on a professional and personal basis.
When managers talk to their employees they should follow the advice of Marley Majcher, because it sounds like she has learned to approach her employees and has changed her communication skills so that her employees would look to her with respect and not be fearful when a conversation needs to occur and some people fear their bosses so anything that comes out of their managers mouth may seem like an attack. Some of the tips she gives are; do not make the employee feel intimated, do not blindside the employee, allow them to have their turn to speak up, follow up with the person to see if the situation has recurred, continued or has been resolved, positive feedback is also important, and finally do not keep bringing up the situation because nobody wants to feel stupid and the employee will need to know that their boss respects them (Majcher, 2010).
When this issue is resolved another one will come (maybe with another person) and take its place and unless this person does not accept the challenge to improve their work habits and their communication skills with coworkers than a serious consideration will have to be taken if after a few months nothing has changed. I do not believe that will be the result, because if the manager takes all of the suggestions that I have given then they are taking a proactive approach to figuring out what the problem is. Without knowing all the factors, and right now we are only given very limited information it is too early to determine if this person needs to be let go from the job or if he or she needs to talk about what factors are occurring in their life that need to be addressed and given support so this person can get back on track and be a team player. More details will help the manger figure out how to solve this situation and I think it would be a great idea to have communication skills workshops because this team is working in the high tech field and sometimes techies know how to interact better with computers than human beings. The nature of this type of work allows a person to sit at a computer all day with little or some interaction with their coworkers so that limits the time that is spent with other team member even having minimal communication with each other. The manager needs to step in and figure out what the problem is and come up with a creative solution to resolve this problem, we do not have all the facts here and maybe the issue is only a perception of something that is different from what is really going on.
References
Linley, A. (2010, December 19). Our top ten team building exercises. Retrieved from
Majcher, M. (2010, December 19). 6 must have tips when speaking to employees about
problematic office issues. Retrieved from http://www.buzzle.com/articles/6must-have-tips-when-speaking-to-employees-about-problematic-office-issues.html
Watson, S. (2003, May 21). Talking shop: motivate employees through empowerment. Retrieved
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