Mini-Game
Climate
Objective
To gain insight into causes of poor employee morale and to learn ways to restore a productive climate in a demoralized department.
Problem
Supervisor Joe has just returned from a disturbing private conference with Mr. Big. He was told that his department productivity had dropped more than 20 percent in the past sixty days. Mr. Big didn't pull any punches. Joe must get employee morale and productivity back up. Joe is upset and feels that he has been considerate with his employees who are now letting him down. He knows that things have been going badly in the department. Productivity is down; morale is low; griping is high; mistakes have been too frequent. What should he do? After considerable soul-searching, Joe comes up with ten steps he might take to restore a healthy working climate in the department (see the following list). Joe wants advice to help him determine which steps would help and which might do more harm than good. (Readers not involved in group role playing are invited to go directly to the list.)
JOE'S LIST OF PROPOSED ACTIONS
1. |
Call a fifteen-minute departmental meeting. Release the productivity figures and make it clear that you expect immediate improvement. |
2. |
Instead of a group meeting, take time to counsel each of the five employees on the matter privately. If an employee's productivity is down, be frank about it; if it is mediocre, discuss what can be done to improve it; if productivity is good, be complimentary. |
3. |
Say nothing, but start tightening the department by your actions. Set a more disciplined climate without talking about it. |
4. |
Start immediately to correct all violations or unacceptable behavior you spot through private conferences in your office. Be pleasant but firm. Supervisors must use language that tells employees what specific behavior is acceptable and unacceptable. Generalities do not change behavior. When making an assessment of another's behavior, back it up with specific examples. |
5. |
Withdraw and act hurt until the employees feel sorry for you and, as a result, come around. |
6. |
Start involving your employees in selected departmental problems that you previously handled yourself. |
7. |
Have an off-the-job party at your home for all five employees. |
8. |
Give each employee a written report of the productivity drop and ask for written feedback on what might be done to get back to previous productivity levels. |
9. |
Go to Mr. Big with this list and ask him for suggestions. |
10. |
Spend more time with employees, listening to their complaints, working beside them, having coffee with them during breaks, and generally circulating to improve communications. |
Procedure
Break the class up into teams, each with four to six members. Each team then selects a spokesperson to summarize the team discussion. Have each team spend twenty minutes doing the following: (1) Eliminate those steps that might do more harm than good. (2) List the remaining steps and number them in order of preference. (3) If possible, come up with an action that the group prefers over any of those listed.
Once finished, each group should put its list on the blackboard. Take ten minutes to discuss differences. Everyone then votes for the list they feel will be most effective in getting productivity back up to the previous level. You win if you vote with the majority.
Postgame Discussion
Discussion should center on (1) differences among the answers of the teams, (2) whether any formula would actually restore high productivity, and (3) what caused the department to become demoralized.