Positive Organizations
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This report focuses on the study of a Chinese production facility of cell phones, namely Precision Electro-Teks Dongguan (complete overview of the case in Appendix). We chose this case because there has been no effectiveness of continuous quality improvements in the production process, although the top management biggest priority is concerned with “everyday” quality improvements. In our opinion, because the production process at Precision has been neglecting active participation of all employees (including the ones from the lowest hierarchical levels), there is no opportunity for quality improvements or innovation in the production process. There is a problem of interactions between all the individuals within the company, which does not allow the production process to be as efficient as it could be.
With the aim of solving the problem, we will approach the case in a positive perspective in order to make a positive difference in this manufacturing company. So, by exploring the topic of “Meaning at work”, we will go deeply into the identification of the causes of this problem, give our recommendations (and also the limitations of them) and, finally, suggest a proper Action Plan.
CAUSES OF THE PROBLEM
In fact, there is a huge gap between what is intended from the top management and what employees feel they should do. We identified three main causes for the problem: lack of intrinsic motivation/sense of calling, poor leadership and organization culture and structure.
Lack of Intrinsic Motivation/Sense of Calling
According to Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS from now on), the employees at Precision are not intrinsically motivated. They have to perform a very mechanistic job that does not allow them to experience meaningfulness of the work: skill variety, task identity and task significance are very low.
Moreover employees do not have autonomy, so they do not feel responsible for the outcomes of their work and they have no incentives to work better, because they do not experiment a sense of Psychological Safety and this does not allow them to feel safe for interpersonal risk taking. These employees are driven just by extrinsic motivation (they perform an activity in order to attain an outcome, such as money). This lack of intrinsic motivation – that is the motivation driven by an interest or enjoyment in the task itself and exists within the individual rather than relying on external pressures or a desire for reward – is linked to the nature of their job. As