Question

Answer each of the following questions in detail:

a) The goal of incentive schemes is to increase productivity of employees, as well as, result in enhanced earnings to the organization. If you were asked to design an incentive scheme for a mid-sized organization working in the Manufacturing space, what are the key points that you would consider? Discuss any seven of them.

b) Assume you are a CEO of an organization. List and describe six methods that you would leverage on to keep the culture of the organization alive.

c) Your manager has asked you to think through and arrive at alternatives to performance appraisal. Discuss any 7 alternatives that you would suggest.

d) You are an internal organizational development consultant for a project in your organization, which has a powerful union and have trouble gaining support for change intervention. Describe any 6 methods that you would make use to overcome this resistance to change.

e) ‘Technology is a job stealer” What are your views on this? Reflect and illustrate with 3 examples. [5 x 8 = 40 Marks]

Answer 1

1. Key points to keep in mind while designing an incentive scheme for a mid-scale organization in manufacturing space are as follows:-
   1. Demand forecast Accuracy: In order to incentive, even demand should be present in the market, hence accurate demand forecasting is necessary to identify the right period for providing incentive
   2. Current productivity of employees: If employees are already performing at an exceptional rate, there is no need for incentives.
   3. Attrition rate- Analysing the attrition rate in the company as well as in the industry is required to formulate incentive policies.
   4. Suppliers power- There is a need to assess whether raw material suppliers will be able to fulfil demand completely
   5. The ability of employees to cut down cost and consistently working towards economies of scale
   6. Satisfaction level of employees and workers in the organization through conducting market research
   7. Projected costs for the company, if the company is looking to invest in plant and machinery it is difficult to provide monetary incentives
2. How to keep organizational culture alive
   1. Clearly define your culture
   2. Make leadership a priority
   3. Hire for cultural fit
   4. Build accountability into your culture
   5. Reward culture champions
   6. Reinforce culture regularly
3. Alternatives to performance appraisal

   1. . Focus on accomplishments and goals- Focusing on two or three questions that are closely tied to company strategy, rather than rating workers on a long list of skills and strengths, is less time-consuming and more useful.

      2. Have more frequent reviews- Encourage frequent, informal feedback. Incorporate feedback into weekly, monthly, or quarterly interactions between managers and team members. Or consider conducting reviews on a rolling basis at the employee’s request.

      3. Get more input- Consider including peers in the evaluation process. Have employees review managers.

      4. Replace formal review with casual feedback- Train managers to see a review as an opportunity to coach rather than reward or admonish. Focus feedback on preparing for the future rather than reviewing the past.

      5. Separate feedback from compensation- Instead, tie raises, bonuses, and promotions to data and accomplishment. You might consider awarding smaller bonuses more frequently and adjust the timing of raises so they don’t coincide with reviews.

      6. Go digital- Consider implementing apps and digital performance review platforms that provide real-time feedback to employees and mirror social media environments. Some even give employees the option to make feedback visible to peers.

      7. Review the review- Finally, adopt a process to gather meta-feedback. In other words, gather feedback about your feedback process, and consider revising your review rituals accordingly.

4. How to overcome resistance to change

   1. Provide information in advance- Whenever possible managers should provide employee who will be affected by the proposed change, information in advance regarding the reasons for the upcoming change, its nature, its planned timing, and its possible effects on the organisation and its personnel. Withholding information that could seriously affect the lives and future of particular individuals should be avoided if possible.

   2. Encourage participation- When possible, employees should be encouraged to participate in establishing the change. A person who is involved in implementing change procedure will likely to be more supportive of the change.

   3. Guarantee against loss- To promote acceptance of technological changes, some organisations guarantee that there will be no lay-offs as a result of such changes. In case of changes in methods and output standards, employees are often guaranteed retention of their present level of earnings during the learning period.

   4. Make only necessary changes- Changes should be made only when the situation demands them, not because of the whims and fancies of managers. If a manager makes changes for the sake of change, he will soon discover that any changes proposed by him will receive only minimal acceptance irrespective of whether it is beneficial or not.

   5. Provide counselling- Counselling or discussion with the employees who will be affected by the change may reduce the resistance and may stimulate them to voluntarily adopt a change. Nondirective counselling has been used effectively in many change situations.

   6. Allow for negotiations- Resistance to change can be reduced by the process of negotiation. Negotiation is a primary method used by labour unions to effect modification of proposed managerial changes.

5. Technology is a job stealer-

   1. The immediate result of new technologies will be job losses because some jobs will become redundant. Machines and automation are replacing low-skilled workers. If any company do not replace human labour by technology, it is susceptible to losses due to heavy competition from other companies which use technology. So, it is inevitable for companies to catch up with the technologies. In this process, low-skilled workers will be the first section to be removed from the jobs. As a consequence of that, income inequalities are further widening.

   2. Not just the low-skilled, and semi-skilled jobs, even high skilled job are at threat due to the new wave of technologies like Artificial intelligence. This can reduce the employment opportunities available for technically skilled persons.

   3. At present gap in the career is worse than ever with changing and constantly improving technologies. This may force some women to stay at home after taking maternity leaves.