Module 3 – Case
DEVELOPING AND REWARDING EMPLOYEES
Assignment Overview
Hallowell (2011) explains, “What I mean by peak
performance—and what most of us seek in our lives and what managers wish to
help their people achieve—is consistent excellence with improvement over time
at a specific task or set of tasks.” He further asserts, “Those three
factors—excellence, consistency, and ongoing improvement—define peak
performance for my purposes.” Managers should always be on the lookout for
employees who just don’t “fit in” with the organization’s culture. “You can
tell a person is not in the right role if he feels no enthusiasm for what he’s
doing, if his mind never lights up, if he never gets excited about his job, if
he chronically complains. And, the author continues, “This doesn’t mean he’s a
dull person or that the line of work he has chosen is intrinsically dull, just
that he’s not assigned to the right task.”
Being assigned the right tasks and then being responsible
for those tasks relates to the “division of labor” concept coined by Adam Smith
(1776). “The goal is for employees to spend as much time as possible at the
intersection of three spheres: what they like to do, what they are most skilled
at doing, and what adds value to the project or organization.” For peak
performance or enhancing productivity levels, many would argue that specific
tasks should be assigned to specific individuals with specific skills.
Strategic leaders are known for being able to quickly match skills to tasks.
HR managers need to understand the importance of employees
having fun while at work. Many organizations are highly task oriented and
forget the importance of being relationship oriented. “One way you can tell if
your employees are in alignment with the Cycle of Excellence is to see if they
are having fun.” For example, some modern managers see the value of having fun
at work or even taking time off from work to just relax and reflect. For
example, Bill Gates is famous “for taking seven days off, twice a year, in a
secluded cabin where he reads, drinks diet Orange Crush, and thinks.”
The author provides the following recommendation for
managers, “Consider having a goofy day of some sort now and then. It must
conform to the basic rules and values of your organization’s culture, of
course. But make it fun.” By having a goofy day at work or dressing up for
certain holidays, employees are able to have some fun, which also relieves
stress.
“Effective management limits bad stress as much as possible,
while promoting good stress in the form of surmountable challenges.” Effective
managers also understand the importance of recognizing employees for their
daily contributions. The author continues, “Recognition is so powerful because
it answers a fundamental human need, the need to feel valued for what we do.
Managers are in a unique position to offer—or withhold—such recognition, and
with it, the feeling of being valued.”
According to Hallowell (2011), there are five steps to
igniting peak performance in an organization.
He calls the steps the Cycle of Excellence:
Step 1—Select: Putting people into the right jobs so that
their brains light up.
Step 2—Connect: Overcoming the potent forces that disconnect
people in the workplace both from each other and from the mission of the
organization, and restoring the force of positive connection, which is the most
powerful fuel for peak performance.
Step 3—Play: Play, or imaginative engagement, catalyzes
advanced work, and managers can help people tap into this phenomenally
productive yet undervalued activity of the mind.
Step 4—Grapple and grow: Managers can create conditions
where people want to work hard, and employees making progress at a task that is
challenging and important turns ordinary performers into superstars and
increases commitment.
Step 5—Shine: Doing well—shining—feels good, so giving
recognition and noticing when a person shines is critical, and a culture that
helps people shine inevitably becomes a culture of self-perpetuating
excellence.
The five steps of the Cycle of Excellence provide a novel
approach to maximizing peak performance.
Reference: Hallowell, E.M. (2011). Shine: Using Brain
Science to Get the Best from Your People. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review.
Case Assignment
Drawing on the material in the background readings and doing
additional research, prepare a magazine article —
Analyzing the five steps of the Cycle of Excellence and
discuss the added value of using the Cycle of Excellence.
Critique Hallowell’s Cycle of Excellence and use it as a
beginning step to create your own cycle of excellence. Bring in real-world employer examples (by
employer name).
Discuss how the cycle of excellence you have developed is
the optimum approach for managing human capital.
The magazine article you are writing should be similar to an
article you might find in TD: Talent Development (magazine of the Association
for Talent Development) or in HRMagazine (magazine for the Society for Human
Resource Management, SHRM). Both are
found in the Trident Online library.
Bring in at least three other sources to build your
article. Cite sources within your
paragraphs and include a References list at the end of your article. (Note: Even though practitioner magazine
articles at times do not cite sources or have a reference section—for our
academic purposes they are needed. See
the Student Guide to Writing a High-Quality Academic Paper, for additional
information.
The magazine article you prepare should be double spaced and
1100-1200 words (about 250 words per page using 12-point type size (Times New
Roman), and one-inch margins.
Include a cover page.
Written
Communications Assessed
As you may recall, in MGT302 (Organizational Behavior and
Teamwork) written communications was assessed at the “introduced” level. Now at this “reinforced” level, the MGT407
Case 3 takes written communications a step further by working on a submission
that could be presented to a practitioner’s magazine for publication.
And, finally, in MGT491 (Capstone in HRM) your written
communications skills will be further developed.
The skills needed in these three assignments build upon each
other and aim to offer you the opportunity to enhance and practice your written
communication preparation skills.
The grading rubric for written communications at the
undergraduate level has been developed to measure student success in meeting
the MGT407 Case 3 expectations related to written communications. Rubrics for
the other two courses are included in their respective written communications
assignments.
Assignment Expectations
Your submission will be assessed on the criteria found in
the written communications grading rubric for this assignment:
Context and purpose for writing
Content
Adherence to conventions in specific disciplines
Sources of evidence
Syntax control and mechanics
Timeliness
