2 Strategic Research Solutions Presentation to CEO
Describing The Organization and the Issue to Resolve: Auto Club Trust
The company that I selected for my case study is Auto Club Trust. It is affiliated with AAA of Michigan. It is its’ banking division. It follows the same corporate cultural philosophies when it comes to customers. The employees are dually employed by AAA of Michigan and Auto Club Trust. Founded in 1999, Auto Club Trust it is headquartered in Dearborn, MI, and has assets for $164,256,000. Though it has customers from its’ surrounding communities and online, primarily its’ customer base is AAA of Michigan employees. They began with 4 locations. There were three in Omaha and one in Dearborn.
The organizational issue that I have identified is job dissatisfaction due to the lack of proper incentive and recognition. It seems to be across the board that non-management level employees feel overworked and under-appreciated. Though I have witnessed team members expressing their concerns to management, there have not been viable solutions presented. They feel unheard and have responded with less effective production. As illustrated by American Automobile Association, (1983), keeping out of touch with upper management cuts communication. This results in employees being overworked.
Analysis Of the Company’s Current Corporate Culture
In operation for nearly one century, the AAA Michigan has always focused its culture towards providing valuable products and quality services to its members. Consequently, the company
has a corporate culture centered around its members. Like AAA of Michigan, the fundamental mission of Auto Club Trust is to give those members world-class service. As illustrated by Lewis et al., (1983), a customer-based corporate culture only seeks to satisfy members’ peace of mind. The company has promoted this culture by advocating, providing, and innovating solutions that benefit members whenever and wherever they need them. It is wonderful for the company to provide such top-notch service to its’ customer. However, employees should be treated with the same level of importance.
I believe that the Auto Club Trust’s underlying organizational issue of job discontent has been facilitated by the adoption of the parent company’s corporate culture. Having a business culture that largely focuses on customers or members while ignoring employees is risky to productivity (Lewis et al., 1983). The culture expected employees to work hard, care, and always perform their tasks effectively. The environment at Auto Club Trust was quite uncomfortable. People seemed to be tense and unapproachable. Though smiles could be seen regularly, they seemed to be insincere. The desks were cluttered, and one could see signs of disorganization. For instance, the goal boards were not consistently updated and customers walking or calling in for service were ignored while employees discussed lunch menus or chit-chatted about personal plans for the weekend. Additionally, due to the culture, employees developed negative attitudes and feelings of insignificance. Unfortunately, their perception that Auto Club Trust did incentivize properly nor pay fairly led employees to give less than their best.
How the issue of job dissatisfaction hinders organization efficiency
Job dissatisfaction has an immediate influence on several factors as it relates to organization efficiency. Cummings found three important points in the relationship between job satisfaction and performance. They are satisfaction causes performance, performance causes satisfaction and rewards cause both performance and satisfaction. (5) Contrarily, the lack of job happiness has hindered the organization in less than adequate job performance, negative attitudes, declination of production, and customer service complaints.
Identifying Areas of Weakness
Even though the corporate culture applied in Auto Club Trust may have been economically viable, it was also weak concerning employee wellbeing. Employees directly influence productivity and the bottom financial line. Productivity can be measured by the number of customers serviced and the new accounts, increased balances, investments, and loans acquired. The fact that the management does not adequately acknowledge, and reward employees is a real issue. According to Baek et al., (2019), failure to recognize top and crucial employees is a disservice to the culture. The area of weakness of productivity is extremely prevalent. It Is pertinent that the employees intrinsic motivation is contemplated. According to Kahn (1990) and May, Gilson and Harter (2004) motivation is specifically linked to employee performance. When intrinsic motivation and employee performance are low, productivity negatively affects the corporation. Therefore, assuring extrinsic motivation and performance rise, will result in augmented employee performance and profits. Hence, there is a direct impact on the relationship between work motivation (intrinsic & extrinsic) and employee performance. Auto Club Trust could be so much more lucrative if it placed more focus on the primary employee concerns of the lack of adequate pay and equitable incentives while concentrating on extrinsic motivation.
The poor culture promotes unethical employee behavior. Subordinates cut corners frequently when finalizing their job assignments. Staff appears to be disinterested due to their belief that they are undervalued. Team members have been heard speaking rudely and abruptly with clients, sneaking unnecessary extended breaks, and taking longer than necessary to conclude their workday to receive unearned overtime pay. This results in forms of micromanagement that have additionally hurt productivity. Spending time counseling or disciplining personnel has proven to be counterproductive.
The productivity was less than desirable due to the lack of intrinsic motivation caused by the issues of the lack of pay and rewards. Ultimately, employee turnover increased as well. I participated in the new employee orientation process and witnessed the number of new hires rotating frequently. Having to train new teams regularly, reduced productivity and increased the workload for existing employees while the new hires finished training. Finally, the lack of productivity has stifled motivation and created a less than desirable fruitful work.
Sources
1. American Automobile Association. (1983). Tourbook: Michigan, Wisconsin. American Automobile Association.
2. Baek, I. G., Kwon, S., & Matsumura, E. M. (2019, December). Unintended Consequences of a Creative Corporate Culture: An Empirical Investigation. AAA.
3. Kahn, W. (1990). Psychological conditions of personal engagement and disengagement at work. Academy of Management Journal, 33: 692724. [24].
4. May, D., Gilson, R, & Harter, L. (2004) The psychological conditions of meaningfulness, safety and availability and the performance of the human spirit at work. Journal of Occupational & Organizational Psychology, March 2004: 77(1): 11-37. Available on: Business Source Premier, Ipswich, MA [Retrieved: July 27, 2021]
5. Cummings, K. (1970) Job Satisfaction and Performance, Journal of Social Psychology, 141 (5) p. 541-542
