Employees Conflicts in the Acme Manufacturing Company

The Acme manufacturing company has been facing employees conflicts over the past six months. The employees in first and third shifts are fighting over neglect of responsibilities by the third shift. The fights have escalated and are getting out of hand becoming a risk to the company. The firm reputation is likely to be affected hence proper disciplinary action should be taken against the employees and subsequently setting the performance standards.

Disciplining staff is a complicated situation under management and supervision of a firm. The best way to discipline the employees is addressing their performance issues as they occur through progressive approach. The progressive approach is a disciplinary method which offers various steps of responses to conduct problems and determine employee performance. The organization should adopt progressive discipline to address mild and severe disciplinary actions depending on their frequencies and nature of the problem (ZHU, 2013).

The discipline programs form a base of the companys disciplinary response to the conduct of each employee. The progressive discipline has numerous benefits to the employers and the whole management. More importantly, progressive discipline sets a groundwork for fair and legal employment termination for workers who fail to improve. This prevents the rise of legal issues from complaints of dismissed staff in future. It then allows the managers to correct the employee behavior efficiently. The manager can intervene at the first sign of trouble before it explodes to beyond control.

Moreover, it ensures consistency and fairness when solving staff problems and enhances communication between employees and their managers. It further improves employee retention and morale through showing them that their efforts and remarkable performances attract rewards and consequences in case of poor performances (DeNisi & Smith, 2014). This aids in avoiding replacement costs and in the long run help manages to accomplish higher performance and productivity from their staff. Progressive discipline system regulates the management of the firm to respond to workplace problems in time to avoid adverse consequences.

Failure of the management to control the employees actions and behaviors leads to an escalation of issues like conflicts because employees will not know their actions are not acceptable. The managers will not get the opportunity to assist their staffs to improve and also the company will continue to experience negative impacts of employees problems. Internal conflicts result to high turnover rate, lost opportunities, low employee morale, reduced revenue and productivity as well as failure to control customers and quality of products.

Progressive discipline can help an organization stay out of staff and legal troubles. It guides employees on their expectations to the company, to be consistent, and fair. It directs employers to include their employees in the procedure of improvement to aid in documenting actions and decisions about them effectively. Following the procedure correctly enables the manager to prevent the legal ability of employees who are unwilling to progress to file a lawsuit (ZHU, 2013).

The culture of conflicts can, however, be reversed through motivation mechanisms to employees. Motivation assist staff to be in line in achieving the firms goals. Motivated workers work extra hard to achieve the company goals and in turn improving their productivity. Motivational theories can be used in the workplace to shed light on the individual performance of each employee. This will guide managers to understand how to further motivate them to perform at peak levels.

The job description and job position of the workers are what determines the appropriate motivational theory to use. Motivational theories include reinforcement theory, restricting jobs and reward plans, goal setting theory, discipline and punishment, and satisfying staff needs (Peter & Martin, 2011). The efficiency in the organization can be improved if employees are motivated, and manager can minimize the difference between the actual state and desired state.

Performance Management System (PMS)

The shift workers can be managed using performance management system which assists them to understand what managers expect from them. It helps them to receive feedbacks regarding their performances relative to expectations of the management. PMS also helps employees to recognize development opportunities and managers to address areas which do not meet expectations and reward them accordingly. Well detailed PMS assist the staff to have higher contribution in progression of their careers and managers can better acknowledge productive employees and reward them based on certain criteria (Paile, 2012).

Purpose of Performance Management System

PMS provides managers with a framework which allows them to communicate work standards and how it will be achieved. The system ensures fair and consistent behavior of the staff which assists them to reach the required performance standard. The PMS should connect workers job achievements to strategic performance of the company. Recent PMS focuses on continuing staff professional growth and advancement of their performance rather than aiming for compensation decisions.

Elements of Employee Performance Management

The company can emphasize on various aspects of performance management when designing an employee PMS policy. Firstly, the company can use supervisor-employee collaboration. The employee PMS can create constructive and productive working relationship between staff and their supervisor thus building trust within the firm. The PMS assists in the construction of a relationship in setting performance objectives and evaluating the results thus motivating the employees. Secondly, employee PMS helps a firm to set shorter performance management cycles. This is critical when establishing annual performance management cycle of the company depending on the projects.

Another element is an alignment of staffs performance objectives to the business goals. The job description establishes the activities which employees are required to do to deliver the companys services. On the other hand, the performance objectives will define the standards of each activity undertaken. For the organization to succeed, all the employees should understand their work and their performance levels. Lack of connection between the two affects the progress of the company leading to stagnation and possible loss of revenue (Turangan, Pangemanan & Tielung, 2016).

Performance Standards and Appraisal Ratings

After finishing performance management cycle, a performance appraisal should be conducted. The performance appraisal is conducted through the face-to-face meeting of the employees and their supervisors to discuss performance achievements extensively. It is later documented safely in the employee file to enable closer look for improvement. A company can further establish appraisal ratings of each staff which indicates the level of performance the staff achieved. This will simplify the rating scales and encourages words to describe their performance rather than numeric scales (Maina, 2015).

The rating system is fundamental in that it provides a clear indication of performance of each employee in their jobs. In spite of this, a rating of staff can minimize the value of continuing performance development of the employee because of too much focus on previous performance ratings. All aspects of the performances should be emphasized when analyzing individual performance rather than relying on ratings only. The focus should be on future performance while basing it on the past performance and mistakes of the employee.

The firm should develop appraisal forms which will contribute to consistency in performance management and feedback. It also ensures proper documentation of performance management activities for future use. Appraisals forms should always be kept simple and clear without any complexity to avoid cases of miscommunication and misunderstanding in the organization. The performance results can be used by the management when making compensation decisions, but it used primarily on improving the performance of each employee. Appropriate compensation will be achieved if precise performances of the staff are rightly analyzed.

Performance Appraisals

For an efficient management of a firm, the performance appraisal of each personnel including senior staff should be evaluated. This will mostly enhance the company performance and developing junior individuals to fit into the overall organizational planning. The firm should conduct annual formal performance appraisals for all the workers through their line manager or supervisor. The line manager is appraised by the directors who are then assessed by the company chief executive officer. At the top of command, the company chairperson or the owners are tasked to appraise the CEO. This, however, depends on the structure of the company and its size.

The management is given an opportunity to monitor the standards, delegation of tasks and responsibilities and agreeing on practical objectives and expectations through annual performance appraisals. The individual employee performance evaluations are helpful to the organization because it sets employee training needs and allows further analysis and planning to improve the training needs (DeNisi & Smith, 2014). Comparison between the current and previous year performance of an employee aids in checking the staffs performance progress. The performance appraisals can assist in developing career and planning for employees, employers and the company as a whole.

The appraisal of shift workers performances can motivate them to do their work efficiently and have a behavior development. Their attitudes are likely to be changed and will be able to communicate and align their individual and companys goals which strengthen their relationship with the management. The appraisals will provide a recorded and more formal review of the individual worker performance. This helps in nurturing them and planning for future development. It forms a base at which their careers will be built, and the organization can efficiently analyze and assist them build their careers further (DeNisi & Pritchard, 2006).

There are many types of performance appraisals which can be used by the organization. This will depend on the job requirement of the employees which makes it easy for the management to rate them according to the set standards. The current performance appraisals include a behavioral checklist, 360-degree feedback, psychological appraisals, rating scales and management by objectives (Agwu, 2013). All these form a basis on how the employee will be appraised to be efficiently productive.

The managers are tasked to monitor the work of the workers closely and finally evaluate the performance basing on agreed standards. They further conduct training and coaching sessions in meetings and seminars to enhance workers abilities and skills. The company will categorize the employees according to their performances thus getting to know active ones and under performers who will undergo extra training. This will improve the organization performance in long-run.

References

Agwu, M. O. (2013). Conflict management and employees performance in Julius Berger Nigeria PLC. Bonny Island. Browser Download This Paper.

DeNisi, A. S., & Pritchard, R. D. (2006). Performance appraisal, performance management and improving individual performance: A motivational framework. Management and Organization Review, 2(2), 253-277.

DeNisi, A., & Smith, C. E. (2014). Perf...