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Show iiwii withii il BMrn" " ... ... ........... ....... . n1(1frr-.n. r'"""""""1'" lymkers Need! ffiesgimiittiin) Bays QJJ The ranks of America's work force are replete with disgruntled employees who often experience no linkage between performance and recognition, says a University of Utah expert on organizational organiza-tional behavior. DR. JOHN W. Seybolt, assistant as-sistant professor of management, says supervisors super-visors could play a major role in easing the problem by increasing their efforts to instill in-still a sense of usefulness and job accomplishment in rank-and-file workers. "If you want to improve the quality of work life, one of the most influential ways is to improve the feedback from supervisor to worker," suggests sug-gests Seybolt. "WHEN A worker does a good job, his supervisor should acknowledge it, not pecessanly by saying, 'Hey, o - t jL" !,' ' Ij a. ...g sup that ewr'-ds irt de available to that individual for performing weh." Seybolt has conducted extensive ex-tensive research in the interlocked in-terlocked a.eas of work motivation, mo-tivation, job satisfaction and employee turnover. He ays a common thread running through his surveys and interviews in-terviews of thousands of workers is the complaint that performing well does not lead to rewards thi the individual values. "THE REWARDS I am talking about are not just money, but include such-things such-things as a sense of accomplishment, ac-complishment, challenge, responsibility and the development of new skills," he says. This has fostered an attitude atti-tude of "what's the use?" Seybolt says. He adds that workers rationalize their predicament by saying, "Why. bother working hard if it doesn't matter. I'll stick around, especially if the labor market is bad, but I'm not going to put forth any real extra effort since there is no payoff for me." SEYBOLT HAS found that one of the most significant differences between those who leave their jobs prematurely prema-turely and those who remain is that the former see no relationship between performance perfor-mance and rewards. Seybolt says the majority of , workers in the studies he completed lack a sense of career. They view their job as a "dead end." In fact, in one recent study of the health care industry, more than 50 percent of the employees were dissatisfied with the d:rection of thgir careers. "WORKERS OFTEN feel they're not asked to. use the full range of their talents. A common complaint is, "I see my boss is literally swamped with work. I only wish he'd let me take on more responsibility. I could really help him. As it is, I'm bored." Private industry and the federal government are' showing increased interest in programs aimed at improving improv-ing both job satisfaction and worker productivity, according accord-ing to Seybolt. HE IS concerned, however, that they may be plunging too much money into untested programs that may be more in need of additional research and refinement than immediate implementation. "Many organizations have adopted the questionable as sumption that the introduction introduc-tion of certain kinds of change will create a positive impact on both worker satisfaction and productivity," he says. "Unfortunately a change in one may have a negative effect ef-fect on the other. The tradeoffs involved are often not made clear to the organizational or-ganizational leaders before they initiate such programs." IN THE past, the U professor profes-sor adds, labor unions largely viewed Quality Work Life (QWL) programs with sus-. picion. They saw them as management ploys to saddle employees with more work without compensatory pay increases. That view is moderating and labor leaders are now participating in the development develop-ment of programs in some industries, he says. Especially exciting has been the recent development of labor-management committees commit-tees in both government and industrial organizations to increase worker involvement in organizational issues of concern to them. THE ACADEMIC community, com-munity, Seybolt adds, has generally adopted a more cautious posture in the development of QWL programs than have government govern-ment and private industry. He says the recent thrust among many researchers has been toward more rigorous program research evaluation. "The entire notion of Quality Work Life has become somewhat of a social movement that has caught the interest of private industry," Seybolt says. "UNFORTUNATELY, some organizations are unaware of the negative consequences con-sequences of such programs, if hastily designed and administered. ad-ministered. Evaluation, the key to understanding program effectiveness, is all too often neglected or ignored. |