Who should do what and why?

Who should do what and why?

My manager and I have had many discussions that she has been a bit lenient with some of the employees. She feels that even though she should be able to request an employee from our department to take on an extra task they seem not willing to do so. If the employee is not knowledgeable on the assignment that is handed to them, I feel that my manager should be able to give them direction on the assignment and how to properly complete it. This should be done without the employee stating excuses about how this is not their job and they rather the assignment not be given to them just to avoid the extra responsibility. There are many excuses for an employee to not take on extra work, it’s up to the manager to help them understand there is no I in Team

So, if my manager is not able to go up to an employee with a task if they are shorthanded without the employee giving excuses on why they should not have this task, what is the manager to do? How are they able to make them understand that a team is that a TEAM and not an individual? Who should do what and why?

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My first article that I found helpful was online with a simple google search from 2018 Entrepreneur Media, Inc. Entrepreneur magazine. It goes into detail on how to go through 10 essential team-building exercises for the workplace. The information is not in blog form, and it is backed by researchers that are in the article itself.

The first exercises are team building one exercise. As the article suggests you should “keep things normal” don’t make the people involved in the exercise feel out of there comfort zone. The second one is based on team-building activities. According to the research done by the magazine from Citrix it says that 21 percent of the office workers today will not part take or just dislike team building activities. Harvard Business School Publication Research supported from the American Psychological Association say that the employees that do part take in the activities will be the ones that are more motivated to do more work and feel more important and even valued in their job.

So, if they feel can feel valued how is it that employees don’t want to part take in this? Why is it so hard for people to open to new things? How can we change this?

The second one I found is from Chron.com that goes on to explain how the lack of cooperation can affect the productivity. this article has back up research.

This article caught my eye with the title alone. “how can a lack of cooperation affect the productivity in the workplace?” by Kristen Hamlin

It goes on to explain how some employees will see cooperation as something other than that, they will see it as competition. We all tend to rely on someone from our team or their input for the completion of a task, this is very true in my work place. But when one person is not wanting to work well with the rest then this can turn into competition. The production rate will drop, and effectiveness will lessen.

According to the research done by the article in 2002 leadership at revenue technology services saw that the company’s different area divisions where not working as well as they wanted them to work together. The production was dropping and this in turn affected there earning. The company set goals for each division and they had to work together to be able to reach them. In one year they saw a significant improvement. If a simple cooperation of goals can do this to a company, how is it that we can apply this in a smaller scale to an office?

With all the Team work talk we must take the step back as well and think why, why do the other employees not want to work with the group? Why do they prefer to work alone or not be part of a new assignment? According to an article from the HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW by Paul Strebel employees may feel uncertain about the managers reason for change or reasons for the extra work they are assigned. Some employees may feel that they need the manager to define the terms and persuade them to accept the changes. The employee may want a better or revised job description if they are to do a new task, they may be reluctant to do the assignment otherwise. They may also ask them selves as stated in the article by Paul Strebel; What am I supposed to do for the organization? What help will I get? how will I get evaluated for this and will I get the pay that goes with it? The managers may think that this is not fair as they expect the employee to “just do their job” any task that is handed to them should be done for the sake of getting the job done. The employee may not feel the same way as he or she will feel that they may have to work extra and not get compensated for the job they are preforming.

In conclusion, the manager should be able to answer the questions and concerns that the employees may have on taking on extra task. It may be possible they don’t like working in groups, or they don’t feel that they are getting the support they need. It is up to the manager to assure them they are essential to the job and that this is going to benefit not just them as a learning experience but the company. The employee must also reach out there concerns instead of just not doing the job or saying they are not willing without explanation. Taking that extra step is essential in May companies and the upper management may be looking to the employee because they feel that they are qualified to do so.

Reference:

10 instances of building, motivating, and managing an exceptional team.  2018 entrepernar Media, Inc. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/234475

Hamlin, Kristen. (n.d.). How Can a Lack of Cooperation Affect the Productivity in a Workplace? Small Business – Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/can-lack-cooperation-affect-productivity-workplace-13395.html

HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW May-June 1996 Paul Strebel from https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul_Strebel/publication/248439192_Why_Do_Employees_Resist_Change/links/54fda68e0cf20700c5ec0962/Why-Do-Employees-Resist-Change.pdf