Organizational Improvement Outcomes

OL500- Milestone Three
Student’s Name
Institution
Organizational Improvement Outcomes
Employees are integral to the performance of an organization and neglecting their affairs can have a devastating effect. Engstrom faces a number of organizational issues including low productivity, product quality issues, escalating costs, and low employee morale. The root causes of these challenges facing the organization are poor communication, poor management, and a hostile work environment. A focus on addressing these problems can help it turn around its performance.
To improve the condition at Engstrom, the company can focus its effort on engagement, communication, and employee morale. Employee engagement is critical to a firm’s performance since it impacts key business outcomes such as customer satisfaction, productivity, profitability, and company growth (Markos & Sridevi, 2010). If Engstrom could have these outcomes, it would solve the problems it is experiencing. With employee engagement, employees would be able to voice their issues to the management rather than having the problems affect their performance. After raising their issues, the management of Engstrom would find ways of addressing them without the productivity of the company being affected. From the case study, participative management is integral to the success of the Scanlon plan. It is deducible that employee engagement and participative management go hand in hand, and their implementation would be significant in turning around the fortunes of Engstrom.
Improving communication and employee morale can help the company turnaround its performance. As noted in the case, communication of business information to employees is an important tactic in the Scanlon plan (Beer & Collins, 2008). Therefore, it is important for Engstrom to communicate important business information such as the problems it is experiencing and inform employees how it is addressing them. The company should also try to boost employee morale. According to the equity theory, employees tend to compare their input in the organization with the output they receive (Badubi, 2017). When the Scanlon bonus stopped, it reduced the output employees received from the organization, consequently affecting their morale. Boosting employee morale together with improved communication and engagement can help the company improve its performance.
Two organizations, General Motors and Quaintance-Weaver Restaurants and Hotel have previously experienced almost similar problems as Engstrom’s. According to Mishra, Mishra, and Spreitzer (2009), the companies focused on maintaining trust with employees through communication. As pointed out by the authors, transparent communication with employees reduces anxiety and stress when the organization is experiencing challenges. Therefore, maintenance of trust with employees helped the firms address their problems.
Strategic Actions
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