Module 3 – Case DEVELOPING AND REWARDING EMPLOYEES Assignment Overview
Signature Assignment: Written Communication, Reinforced level
In this assignment, your information literacy skills will be assessed. The information literacy rubric will be useful for this purpose. In the course MGT302, written communication skills were assessed at the “introduced” level. In MGT407, they will be assessed at the “reinforced” level. Finally, in MGT491 your written communication skills will be assessed at the “emphasized” level. The grading rubric for written communication at the undergraduate level has been developed to measure student success in meeting the MGT407 Case 3 expectations. Rubrics for the other two courses are included in their respective assignments.
In an interview with Dr. Edward Hallowell (Harrison, 2011), he discussed his Cycle of Excellent as a five-step process that managers can use to foster high performance in their organizations.
To manage employees, managers must first employ them, which is the first step—Select; however, the key point here is that the new potential employees selected must fit the current culture of the organization. How does one know if they do? When managers conduct job interviews, they can often tell by the candidates answers to the questions whether they are a fit or not. However, sometimes people get through the hiring process that perhaps do not turn out to be a fit. This is one reason why a probationary period is often worked into a job offer.
Another way to determine if a new employee fits in the organization is if they have connected with it, and this is the next step of Hallowell’s five-step process, (2) Connect. Does your new hire speak positively about the organization? If the answer is yes, then they have likely created the beginning of a connection with their coworkers, manager, and the organization.
The next two steps, (3) Play and (4) Grapple and Grow, go together because they are actions taken by employees along with their managers. Managers provide Play opportunities for employees to excel in tasks, but it is up to the employees to have fun doing them through newly acquired advanced skills and creativity. Increasing their skills through play leads to the fourth step, Grapple and Grow. This is when employees stretch their current skill level by taking on more difficult projects. These growth opportunities go a long way to increase job satisfaction and productivity levels.
The final step, Shine, occurs when managers recognize employees for a job well done. Recognition comes in a variety of forms, such as a “thank you” said during a staff meeting, a gift card, an up-close parking space, or something else valued by the recipient.
Reference: Harrison, J. (2011, March). Interview with Edward M. Hallowell, MD, author of Shine: Using brain science to get the best from your people. Human Resource Management International Digest, 19(4), 43-45. Available in the Trident Online Library.
Case Assignment
Draw on the material in the background readings and do additional research to prepare a magazine article in which you do the following:
- Analyze the five steps of the Cycle of Excellence and use it as a starting point to create your own cycle of excellence.
- 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 HR Magazine (magazine for the Society for Human Resource Management, SHRM). Both are found in the Trident Online Library.
- Utilize at least three other reference sources to build your article. Cite sources within your paragraphs and include them in 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, they are needed for our academic purposes. See the Introduction to APA 7th Edition for additional information.
- Include a cover page and a reference page. Note that the deliverable for this assignment is not an essay paper, but rather a journal article formatted like other published journal articles. (Hint: Most articles are written in columnar form.)
Citation and reference style instructions are available at https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/. Also see Trident University’s Introduction to APA 7th Edition
You will find the following useful as you critique sources:
Cornell University. (2015). Critically analyzing information sources: Critical appraisal and analysis. Retrieved from http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/skill26.htm
Cornell University. (2014). Evaluating Web sites: Criteria and tools. Retrieved from http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/ref/research/webeval.html
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
