The Identified Organizational Issues

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 4

Identified Organizational Issues - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 6

Analysis - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 9

Recommendation - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 12

Conclusion - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 14

References - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 15

Executive Summary

The study involves C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS), one of United Arab Emirates’ top Information and communication Companies, part of the Emirates Advanced Investment Group which is based in Abu Dhabi. The organization specializes in Network & Systems Solutions, Communications & Security Solutions, Knowledge Solutions, Managed and Outsourcing Solutions and IT Project Management Solutions. Based on the information gathered, the organization is facing some organizational issues such as lower employee job satisfaction and motivation, high turnover rate, cultural differences, and organizational or managerial decision-making and communication.

Based on the analysis, job satisfaction is the dependant variable in our case study .. There are namy independent variables that lead to lower rate of job satisfaction such as Low participation in decision-making , less perceived control , issues in cultural differences , communication , motivation and performance evaluation . This is the reason why the management should be careful in deploying roles and regulations as well as in deciding and communicating about the benefit package. Actual processes could also sometimes be not followed due to the cultural differences within the teams. However, cultural diversity can be viewed as a positive component of the organization instead of capitalizing on its negative attributes.

The earlier mensioned Issues in our organization could be handled if managers, team leaders and the employees undergo and participates in seminars about culture differences and communication . It will increase the capacity of the managers to handle employees with different cultural backgrounds. It will also bring a large understanding to the employees farthermore , HR department should have clear policy about employee performance evaluation , clear job description and career path, top management should work in improve the work invironment through challenges and incentives , also the employees should be involved in the descision making which makes them sence the importance of their careers . A detailed analysis of the issues is included in the paper as well as helpful recommendations to address the current issues that the organization is currently enduring.

Introduction

It is important for the organization and its departments to function as one and be united in order to achieve its objectives. However, an organization does not exist without challenges. Challenges either make or break the organization. C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is one of United Arab Emirates top Information and communication Companies, part of the Emirates Advanced Investment Group which is based in Abu Dhabi. The organization specializes in Network & Systems Solutions, Communications & Security Solutions, Knowledge Solutions, Managed and Outsourcing Solutions and IT Project Management Solutions. Dr. Abdul malek Aljabri is now the current Executive Director of this international Information Technology and Telecommunications solution provider (C4AS).

C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) provides a wide range of high end IT products and solutions, backed by consulting, deployment, and implementation. It also provides reliable, scalable and effective communication solutions in terms of leveraging state of the art telephony to enable voice and video over the data network. For security, it guarantees IT enterprises a more secure physical, virtual, and cloud environments, keeps the organizations safe from threats inside and outside the organization.

C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is primarily composed of 4 departments; IT department for programmers, Administration for administrative assistants, BPO for Business Process Outsourcing agents, and Enterprise for human resources practitioners and trainers. All departments are governed by one Executive Director, same with Emirates Advanced Investment Group, but each department has several managers, assistant managers, team leads which govern the rank and file employees. The organization primarily works in teams. Each of the departments has HR representatives whom employees could voice out their concerns to. HR representatives are then the ones to tell the management about the concerns, promising the confidentiality of the identity of the employee of concern.

Performance evaluation is done annually. This is conducted by managers and team leads debating the performance of each of the employees. Employees are rank according to the testimony and evidences presented by corresponding team lead and manager. The other managers can oppose and negate the claims of the other managers until the group arrives into a final list containing the ranks, ratings, and the ones eligible for promotion. Performance evaluation or debate of the managers is conducted separately per department. That is, programmers are compared to themselves while BPO staffs are also rated against themselves. Rating is intradepartmental not, interdepartmental. This process is done within a specific period of time set by Human Resources Department.

For the performance evaluation, all of the employees from managers down to the most bottom rank and file employee input their goals annually into the tool. The managers and team leads then revisit these goals of they have really been achieved by the resource. So if the employee was able to achieve those goals and this has been backed up by the manager and team lead, chances of promotion is higher.

The management which is composed of Executive Director and managers adjust the roles and regulations and benefits and let the employees know about the decision by sending out email communications to the employees. This way of the management makes the employees feel that they are not part of the decision process in the organization and their opinions are not being considered. As of Quarter 4 of 2012, turnover rate of the organization has increased to 35%. Management issues us one of the major factors viewed by Human Resources Department that causes the high turnover rate.

The Human Resource Department serves as a middle man between the management and the work force of the entire organization. The Human Resource Department considers this as a challenge since it is their duty and responsibility to provide a clear and transparent communication between the two ends for the benefit of the organization. HR manager has regular checkpoint meeting with the Executive Director and company managers via personal or teleconferencing using firsthand the state of the art facilities of the organization. This way, HR are kept updated on the latest moves of the management and it also keeps the management updated on the current state of the performance of the employees and the organization, in general. It is very seldom that the Executive Director attends to any of the activities of the organization. The Director primarily communicates in terms of memorandums sent via electronic mail.

Based from the abovementioned organizational flow, it can be observed that there is an existing problem in the organization both in the individual, group, and management level, impacting the performance of the organization. Evident problems are employee motivation and job satisfaction and once-sided communication in the management level. we selected this company among other companies because Information Technology is one of the booming industries nowadays. Being among the booming industries, the group would like to know how the chosen organization handles the challenges that threaten its internal foundation and how does this affect the way they handle their clients and their equally aggressive competitors.

Identified Organizational Issues

To know the issues on a deeper level, we gathered relevant information about the organization, the group conducted an interview to one of the organization’s manager who has been in the company for 7 years and has seen the dynamic processes that occurred within the organization. C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) as one of the top performing IT companies in the Arab region offers a good benefit package to its employees. This includes a medical insurance, medical reimbursement bonuses, and sick/vacation/paternal/ and maternal leaves, plus the various allowances.

In addition to that a servey was conducted among 20 employees of the organization from different departments. a sample of the servey attached in Appendex A. this servey focused on some factors related to the employee job satisfaction such as employee envolvment in descision making, top management motivation and the effect of cultural diversity.

Just last year, 2012, the entire organization has been shocked by the email communication from the honorable Executive Director which states that benefit package will be cut off as a cost-efficient move for the company and as a form of mechanism for the company to be at par with its competitors. The employees were told that the bonuses that the C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) employees receive will not be given in bulk but will be given monthly. The existing employees are disappointed but on a positive note, this serve as an attracting component for the organization to recruit more talents for the company since base pay has increased. Being used to the tradition that employees will receive luxury bonuses, many employees have communicated their disappointment to Human Resources department. HR department responded by conducting an open forum with the employees wherein they make the people understand the management’s side of doing such decision. Luxury bonuses were not reinstated. Mandatory bonus remains.

These are the major problems that are affecting the individual level. As of the fourth quarter of 2012, C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) has reached a high rate of resignations. It is alarming as it is the highest rate since the organization started its operation in the United Arab Emirates.

C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is also facing an issue with the communication between the leadership and the labour force. Lately leadership is communicating many changes in the organization such as the change in benefit package for reasons that are beneficial for the organization. The employees felt that their rights are being violated because of such changes. The communication shocked them to the core since they are totally oblivious of the plans involving organizational changes.

Another identified problem in the management is the conduct of performance evaluation which is the primary basis for employee rating, salary increase, and promotion. Employees input their goals into a tool and the team leads and managers will assess if the employee has achieved those goals or not. The management arranged a month-long session in which the different managers and team leads debate whom to rank as the lowest, middle and the highest. Performance evaluation and the debate of the managers are conducted differently from the different departments.

Hence, IT, Administrative, and BPO are rated against the peers from their own departments, not interdepartmental. The employees, and the other managers and team leads are amenable, viewed this as not objective since once only has to be shown to the manager or team lead in order for his or her performance to be seen or acknowledged. Due to the subjectivity of the process, some deserving employees are not promoted, while promoting the non-deserving ones. This is creating a not-desirable culture in C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS). Some of the employees believe that they are not being compensated and appraised well with the effort that they have contributed to the team, department, and to the organization.

Another long occurring issue in C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is cultural differences among the employees affecting the performance of the team. Since United Arab Emirates serves as the focal point between the east and the west, C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is a picture of an organization which is composed of employees from the different cultures. The employees of the company are from UAE, European, African, American, and Southeast Asian countries. Each of the employees is bringing different set of cultural views and preferences into the organization. Employees coming from American and European countries are individualistic in nature; on the other hand, employees who come from Asian countries are highly collectivist in nature.

The organization is aiming to work in teams as a form of organizational strategy in order to achieve higher productivity and to be at par with its competitors. However, the cultural differences of the employees post a challenge for the organization. The objective of working closely in team to achieve a result cannot sometimes be obtained. Some of the employees still prefer to work alone or claim to be more productive if allowed to work on their own saying that they are more productive individually. The Human Resources Department has been receiving feedback from the managers about this dilemma.

These issues are affecting the performance of the employees, the department, and the organization itself. The amount of complaints that the Human Resources receives from the employees is already alarming. The organization needs to acknowledge and identify these issues in order for the management and the organization to determine specific actions as a form of resolution. High turnover rate is already affecting the productivity and operation of the organization.

Analysis

In understanding the organization, it is important to understand the organization behavior as well. Griffin and Moorehead (2011) defines organizational behavior as the study of human behavior in organizational scenarios, the convergence between human behavior and the organization, and the organization itself. We cannot fully analyze and understand the functioning and the current situation of the organization apart from the individual employees. Similarly, we cannot fully analyze and understand the behavior of the individual employees apart from the organization because the organization affects and is being affected by the individual employees.

C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is currently confronted with issues that are impacting the employees, the department and even the performance of the organization especially if the issues are not addressed the soonest. Based on the information we gathered, the organization is primarily faced with the following issues: employee dissatisfaction, employee demotivation, cultural differences among the employees, communication problem between the management and the employees and problems in the decision making process. Employees are the most valuable resource of the organization. Hence, the presence of these issues needs immediate and serious actions.

As indicated by Griffin and Moorehead (2011), productivity, financial performance, absenteeism, turnover, attitudes, stress, survival, and stakeholder satisfaction are the individual-level and organizational-level outcomes that lead to organizational effectiveness. These outcomes are triggered by different factors. In the case of job satisfaction rate which is prevalent in the organization being currently studied, the available literatures are pointing out that such outcome is influenced by attendance motivation (Steers and Rhodes, 2012). Also, job dissatisfaction itself leads to a decline in attendance motivation.

An increase of job dissatisfaction progresses into low productivity rate absenteesim. In the case of C4 employees, job satisfaction of the employees could be attributed to the subjective performance evaluation system wherein a lot of the employees felt that they don’t deserve the rating that they got and that some of the employees being promoted do not actually deserve the promotion. The employees don’t feel that the amount of work and effort they exerted are being compensated well. Due to the high subjectivity of the evaluation process, the employees need to be showy to the management, team leads and managers, in order for their efforts to be acknowledged – unfair for those who actually gave their best effort and contributed so much to the team or project but were not that visible to the management.

The management’s move to cut the benefit package by cutting the luxury bonuses also contributed to the dissatisfaction of many of the employees except for those who have just recently been deployed to the company and have not yet experienced the advantages of the bonuses.

Aside from the high absenteeism level, low productivity rate and lateness , job dissatisfaction is also associated with other undesirable behaviours and consequences. This includes the employees using the organization’s time and resources to do personal tasks, psychological and practical withdrawal from the work, behavioural changes that affect the work environment, absenteeism, early retirements, and lower participation in team activities (Getahun, Sims, Hummer 2012).

On the other hand, with high job satisfaction, Lee (1988) posits that employee’s organizational commitment and job involvement also increases. With high job satisfaction, employees are more engaged with their work and the company in general. They are also maintaining a good relationship with their work peers. Job satisfaction is also associated to the retention of employees in the company. C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) needs to work on the level of job satisfaction of the employees in order for the organization to harvest its positive effects, as opposed to the current situation of the organization.

Cultural Diversity that leads to differences in preferences is also seen to be issues in the organization. Since UAE is a common destination of people from the east and the west looking for opportunities, most of the companies in the region are composed of mixed race. C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is not the lone organization to experience such problem in the United Arab Emirates.

As shown in the study of Stahl and Voigt (2008), cultural differences affect sociocultural integration, synergy realization, and shareholder value in different and opposing ways. Similarly, C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) is experiencing integration and synergy problems in the sense that people in the team, most of the time, does not converge to a common decision. The employees have different point of views upon a given situation that even deciding to a single operational approach will take time. Full cooperation of the team cannot also be achieved since some team members prefer to work alone since they are effective in working alone. This is the dilemma that the managers and team leaders are currently facing within the organization.

On the other hand, Cox and Blake (1991) assert that cultural diversity brings advantages into the workforce and the organization. They pointed out that a well-managed and diverse work environment serves as a competitive advantage of the organization. This is because people with different cultural backgrounds bring a lot of fresh and innovative ideas into the team or the project. The inflow of rich and innovative ideas can bring a positive impact to the team and the organization in general, by bringing creativity into the approach to a particular scenario. This is suggestive that managers or the management should be trained related to cultural diversity to maximize its effectiveness instead of its downside.

In terms of decision-making, the employees of C4 Advanced Solutions felt that they are not being accounted for by the management when the management arrives to changes in the policies, regulations and benefit packages within the organization. The most recent move of the C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) Corporation regarding decision making is the slashing of benefit package which the employees are already used to. A number of complaints from the workforce across all the departments are received by HRD.

According to the study of Jackson (1983), that participation in the organizational decision making has a number of positive impacts to the employees. Participation in the decision making has negative effect on role conflict and role ambiguity. Role conflict and ambiguity are negatively related to job satisfaction and positively related to emotional strain. This means that the higher the conflict and uncertainty of the employee is with his/her role, the lower is the job satisfaction. Emotional strain is positively related to absence frequency and prodactivity. The high level of carelessness and lateness in C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) can be attributed to the perceived less participation in the organizational decision making by the employees.

Being able to actively participate in the organization decision-making process, employees are increasing their perceived control over their career within the organization. High level of perceived control is correlated with a higher job satisfaction, organizational commitment and involvement, performance and motivation, lesser emotional distress, role stress, absenteeism, and turnover rate (Spector 1986).

Recommendation

Based from the analysis, we were able to have a closer look on the issues that are happening within C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS). A number of other employee-related behaviors are impacted by the decline in motivation and level of job satisfaction. Hence, C4 Advanced Solutions should focus in working out to increase this one. One good way to do this is to re-evaluate the job evaluation process. Instead of the managers just debating on the performance of the employees of whom to give the top, average, and the bottom ranks, performance should be based on a metrics. Human Resource Department should develop or adapt a 360 degree performance evaluation from wherein the managers and team leads, the peers/teammates, and the Human Resource practitioners would have the equal chance to evaluate the performance of the employee instead of just relying on the debating power of the manager and team lead where things could get subjective.

Also, the management together with the Human Resource Department should seriously reconsider the benefit package of the employees since a bulk of the complaints received by HRD is pertaining to this organizational change. Even if not the exact amount or benefit will be re-provided, this action from the management will surely console the complaining workforce. As for the huge amount of taxation scheme, since the organization is following the amount required by the government, the management cannot lower it just to increase the positivity of the employees.

What the management should do is to organize a forum where the Human Resource PR actioners, the managers, and the Executive Director are present. They should actively take part in making the entire workforce to understand about the entire taxation process. All possible questions from the employees should be entertained. The Human Resource PR actioner could also send an email memorandum to all the employees indicating the breakdown of the taxation in order to be transparent about the process. Once the employees totally understand about the process, the higher is the chance that satisfaction and motivation level will be pulled up.

In terms of decision making, the management should also consider the side of the employees. Before doing any changes in the organization, no matter how big or small it is, the employees should be consulted about it. The organization should take note that employees are the most valuable resources of the organization. If all of these valuable resources will resign from the company, the company will eventually crumble. C4 Advanced Solutions (C4AS) should consider that participation and high perceived of control by the employees will lead to a higher work satisfaction, increasing their stay in the company, keeping competitive resources within the organization.

For the cultural differences, this will not become a big problem if the managers and the team leads will be equipped with the proper knowledge to handle the resources. This is also equally true to the employees. There should be a separate training session about cultural diversity management for the managers and team leads and another session should be made to cater the employees. With this, differences will be bridged and integration will be strengthened. Managers will also acquire the right set of knowledge in handling cultural-related issues within the team, the department, and the organization.

Conclusion

Just like the other organizations in the United Arab Emirates, C4 Advanced Solutions is experiencing issues in terms of employee’s job satisfaction and motivation, cultural differences, high turnover rate, and organizational decision-making and communication. As stated in the introductory part of this paper, organization issues either make or break the organization. We have determined the causes of the abovementioned issues and cited some actionable recommendations to guide the management in resolving such issues. Job satisfaction affects a lot of other employee behaviors. That is why, the organization and its management should be extra careful in doing any actions that could lower level of job satisfaction. This study has identified that low job satisfaction and motivation is the primary contributor to high turnover rate within the organization. Another major point is to make the employees participate in any decision-making event of the organization. This will help them strengthen their sense of perceived control keeping the employees more engaged with their work and committed to the organization.