The Reluctant Worker - Case Study Example

?A REPORT ON THE CASE STUDY: THE RELUCTANT WORKERS Report Based On the Case Study: The Reluctant Worker Generally, skills are very essential when it comes to work especially when dealing with diverse workforce. The presence of skilful leaders and personnel as well as workers really matters as this determines the productivity of the workers and the organization. There are various appropriate skills that are recommended by most organizations and they keenly consider these skills when it comes to recruitment process. Effective interpersonal skills, communication skills, and negotiation skills among workers and accountable leadership enhances productivity of the organization. Moreover, these skills promote understanding among individuals at workplace and enable them sustain good relationships and this in turn benefits the organization. This paper represents a report based on the case study of the reluctant worker focusing particularly on key professional skills that influence the growth and development of an organization. Actually, there are core skills that are at play in the case of the reluctant workers. Basically, all professionals are required or encouraged to possess a broad range of skills but most importantly, is the ability to communicate effectively with others and be able to express their views freely. For instance, three key skills that apply or are insufficient here are lack of team building, Leadership skills as exhibited by the project manager, and planning. To start with, there is lack of team building among workers and their team leader in this organization. Ideally, team building refers to the ability to form productive groups and conform to the rules set and cooperate with others with the aim of achieving a common goal. Arguably, team building at workplace enhances goal achievement, efficiency in working process and satisfies the workers (“Ferguson Publishers”, 2009). Team building entails clarifying the goals of a group, verifying roles, ensuring vivid communication channels as well as completion of task assigned (“Ferguson Publishers”, 2009). Ideally, in a situation where the workers are aware of their specific roles assigned to them, they feel confident to contribute and help other workers to achieve the common goal of the organization. Team building therefore plays a significant role in motivating the workers hence, organization tasks progress more efficiently and effectively. Secondly, appropriate leadership skills are very essential in ensuring that the management operate in the required manner, workers are motivated to work accordingly with increased efforts thereby increasing productivity of the organization. According to Adair, leadership is regarded as the most important composition of management (Adair, 2013). A leader has to understand others and cooperate with them appropriately (“Ferguson Publishers”, 2009). Ideally, leadership involves accountability, transparency and understanding. Generally, good leaders act as a role model in the organization and always concentrate on upholding the name or reputation of the organization. They should be able to understand themselves and other people as well. More so, the best leader ensures completion of tasks, roles and responsibilities both assigned to them and their subordinates (“Ferguson Publishers”, 2009). They are expected to exercise self development and self management in the light of leadership knowledge and skills. Based on the case study of the reluctant workers, the project manager, Tim Aston to a larger extent did not exhaust and practiced the recommended leadership skills required in his position. Aston failed to clearly define the sequence of activities, create appropriate time for the juniors to be able to attend the meetings, and motivating the workers maybe through teambuilding process. Aston did not actually communicate effectively to the workers and this we can assume that he lacked good communication skills to be able to convince the workers and understand their situations. Planning is also necessary. This is the ability to ensure that things are in order and organized meetings or activities do not complicate the attendants, the workers and other leaders. The best project manager or any other leader in the organization is expected to make plans of activities, organize meetings, and assign tasks in favour of the workers (Ferguson Publishers”, 2009). They should create a conducive working environment for all. Actually, good planning ensures smooth running or undertakings of the organizational activities hence increases productivity of the organization. Let us take the case study of the reluctant workers, poor planning ruined everything and discouraged Aston to the extent that he decided to lower his effort to make the organization successful. His timing collided with the workers’ schedule which complicates things even more. On the other hand, the workers were poor planners. For instance, they prioritize their interest so much to the extent that work and the organization came last in their schedules. The workers were very reluctant to forgo some of their activities like fishing in order to commit themselves to work (Kerzner, 2013). Tim Aston as the young project manager, though committed to work, was not able to understand the situation of his subordinates who were far much older them him. Aston lacked effective communication skills and this hindered his interaction with the workers. Additionally, Aston failed to mobilize the workers through team building. Lack of this reduced the attention and cooperation of workers and even made them to prioritize their personal interests and work later. Again, based on his scheduling of activities and meeting, Aston exhibited the quality of being a poor planner. Due to his tight meeting schedules, Aston failed to consider the workers schedule and this led to misunderstandings and failure of these meetings happening. However, these complicated issues with the workers left him with no option but to seek help from the director of the project, Phil Davies, to guide or rather advice him on the problem he was facing. Davies advised him to understand the people’s conditions, respect their interests and motivate them in order to work mutually and effectively (Kerzner, 2013). I think Aston received this support and advise positively. Aston’s positive reaction towards the support will probably change the situation to the better. Following the condition and factors that are at play in the case of the reluctant workers, I would recommend the senior executives and Tim Aston to focus on personnel motivation and ensure equitable resource allocation. Aston is supposed to learn communication and interpersonal skills where necessary in order to communicate effectively. Additionally, Aston and other leaders in the organization should be familiar with the important managerial skills and apply these skills appropriately so as to maintaining good relationships among them and the workers to increase productivity of the organization. If these, Aston consider all these, he will be a very effective project manager. In conclusion, leadership of the organization in many ways influences the workers and the productivity of that organization. Upon the recruitment process, the firm should be recommended to recruit skillful workers who understand or equipped with important managerial skills. The organization can as well train their members to acquire these skills, motivated them and assign them roles based on their area of specialization. All these will increase their effectiveness thereby increasing the growth and development of the organization. Team building, good planning and good leadership skills are the drivers of productive organization. Workers as well need to be mobilized and motivated in order to increase their efforts and be effective. References Adair, J. E. (2013). Develop Your Leadership Skills. Ferguson Publishing. (2009). Leadership Skills. New York: Ferguson. Kerzner, H. (2013). Project Management: A Systems Approach to Planning, Scheduling, and Controlling. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Read More