A2. Employee Engagement (Objective 2)

A2. Employee Engagement (Objective 2)

2A. Review Questions: Chapter 1. The Measuring Stick

Instructions. Prior to reading Chapter 1, respond to the following questions in Worksheet 2A. Then read Chapter 1 and review the PowerPoint slides for Objective 2. Record the answer supported by the book or slides in Column 2. Write your explanation in Column 3.

1. A company’s financial success is more dependent on ___ than on ___. a. incentive payments, employee talents b. employee talents, incentive payments

2. ___ is a greater cause of company failures than ___. a. Inadequate metrics, low wages b. Low wages, inadequate metrics

3. Which of the following is the better example of “intellectual capital”? a. proprietary data bases b. tribal knowledge

4. Effective leaders focus more on measuring ___ than ___. a. numerous metrics, financial performance b. financial performance, numerous metrics

5. Employee responses to which of the following is of greater importance? a. “I have a best friend at work.” b. “My promotional opportunities are great.”

6. Which of the following is more likely to correlate with company profitability? a. Employees strongly agree with, “My company sells high-quality products.” b. Employees strongly agree with, “I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.”

7. Of the two, which is more highly correlated with an organization’s success? a. Employees strongly agree with, “In the past seven days, I’ve received praise at work.” b. Employees strongly agree with, “At work, my opinions seem to count.”

8. Which is the more likely reason why a high-performing employee might quit a company? a. The employee was offered a much higher salary at another company. b. The employee did not have a good relationship with the manager.

9. When employees are new, which is more important? a. Ensure that they have the materials and equipment needed to do the work right. b. A company mission that makes them feel like their job is important.

10. Which is more likely to result in highly satisfied employees at work? a. Opportunities to earn good pay and be promoted. b. The job fit between the employee’s abilities and the work itself.

2B. Increase Team Engagement—How to Motivate Harold

You are responsible for leading a team of nine individuals. During the last several months, most have produced good work on schedule. Harold, who has been on your team for nine months, works slower than you would like and has missed several deadlines. The quality of Harold’s work is OK—not great. Harold’s performance has caused frustration among other team members.

Harold has been trained and you have personally coached him on five or six occasions. When confronted about his missed deadlines, Harold usually has excuses such as: “Others keep adding to the scope of my assignments,” “Internal customers are taking a lot of my time,” and “The bugs in our new data collection software are causing problems.” You are aware of these issues, but you doubt that they are the real cause of Harold’s performance issues.

Instructions. Next week,you have thirty minutes to deal with these issues. Consider the following actions and record your analysis in WS 2B.

Actions

A. I would break Harold’s tasks into components and identify how much he needed to complete each day. I would prepare a checklist for Harold and ask him to give me daily status reports on his progress.

B. In our weekly team meetings, I would list the status of all members’ projects and recognize those who deliver quality, on-time work. If Harold should improve, I would recognize any improvements, no matter how small.

C. I would be patient with Harold and let him know that I understood how disruptions might impact his work. I would express confidence in Harold and continue encouraging him.

D. I would professionally explain to Harold that his current performance is below expectations. I would remind him that he has been trained and coached; failure to improve could lead to consequences.

2C. Discussion: Engagement

Instructions. Record your responses in Worksheet 2C. Support your answer to Discussion Question 1 with an example from your personal experience. Support answers to Questions 2 through 5 with a web source and include in blue the web address.

1. Select a blog from the site: http://usefulleader.com . List the title of the blog and record “yes” or “no” to indicate your agreement or disagreement. Describe an example from your experience that supports your response.

2. Which is more important for engaging employees? Hints from essay help service

a. salary and benefits b. opportunities for advancement c. the work itself

3. Which is more likely to engage millennials in work such as yours?

a. greater freedom b. more structure

4. Is employee use of social media at work (psychological withdrawal) a major problem?

a. yes b. no

5. Which of the following is likely to be the major reason for employees quitting an organization?

a. relationship with immediate manager b. did not believe in the mission c. fear of organizational failure

WS 2A. Review Questions: Chapter 1

Instructions. Prior to studying the book and reviewing the slides, record your answers in Column 1. Then refer to the book and slides, select the correct answer, and record in Column 2. Write a brief explanation, by paraphrasing material from the book or slides, to explain your Column 2 answers. You may expand the cells. See

1	2	3. Book Explanation
		1.
		2.
		3.
		Etc.
	How many answers were the same for both columns?

WS 2B. Case: Engagement—Motivate Harold

Instructions. In Column 2, list an advantage of each action. In Column 3, allocate 30 minutes among the actions to indicate how time you would spend on each. You may expand the cells.

1	2. Advantages	3
A
B
C
D

WS 2C. Discussion: Engagement

Instructions. Report, in Column 1, whether you agree (A) or disagree (D) with the blog. In Column 2, include the blog title and a brief summary of a personal experience to justify your agreement/disagreement.

For Numbers 2-5, record your answer in Column 1. Use Column 2 to summarize your justification based on a web source. Insert the web address in blue. You may expand the cells.

1	2. Justification: Experience/Web Sources
	1. Blog title:
	2.
	3.
	Etc.

1. Submit all worksheets in one word.doc file.