Kelsey Knutson Comm 482 Solutions Paper April 25, 2013

Solutions Paper
Resource:
Perlow, Leslie A. Finding Time How Corporations, Individuals, and Families Can Benefit from New Work Practices. Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1997. Print.

Introduction
Communication issues are hindering the success of the Fortune 500 business Ditto. Employees are feeling the strains of trying to balance their home and work life because of multiple issues. The top three organizational communication problems are an emphasis on an individualistic culture, unproductive time management, and unreal expectations from management and leaders. These problems have created a crisis cycle within Ditto that will keep repeating if nothing is changed. In order to create a more supportive and productive climate, Ditto needs to emphasize teamwork, generate quantity and quality time for its employees, and provide leadership and management that supports and emphasizes the changes that need to be made.

Problem #1
Ditto encourages an individualistic culture verses a group or collectivist culture. In certain situations, an individualistic culture can thrive and produce great things for an organization. However, Ditto is experiencing more harm than good as individuals prioritize their own goals and work over the goals of the organization. Many examples highlight the emphasis on the success of the individual verses the success of the company. First, engineers perceive that their reputations depend on success completion of their individual deliverables, not on the

products profitability(34). Second, everything is urgent when it concerns an individuals priorities, and one employee, Max, states, it is not the companys job to manage crisis. It is the individuals responsibility to accommodate(15). Not only is every employee trying to succeed for themselves but when one employee has a more collectivist mindset, they are seen as problematic(69). Matt particularly makes a point to help and teach others. However, his effort to aid others is not recognized by management, and instead is seen as difficult to manage (70) because his work style does not fit those of the other employees at Ditto. Finally, the individualistic culture at Ditto causes the idea that, families are not a part of the place!(46) One employee even uses the metaphor that home and work are like a war a battle(54). Because Ditto places such high emphasis on the individual, the work and family life balance is even more strained than in any other business. The individualistic culture that is rewarded at Ditto creates a highly competitive and defensive climate for employees. As a result, most of the employees sacrifice home life to succeed at work and put more energy into competing against fellow employees than time with their family.

Problem #2
An emphasis on individual work is not entirely bad for an organization. Yet, when Ditto employees do focus on their individual tasks there is poor time management. Fragmented work days are common with many interruptions from co-workers and management for checking. The author Leslie Perlow gives the following statistics about individual work: 75 percent of the blocks of time spent on individual deliverables were one hour or less in length(77). Additionally, most interactions (95 percent) occur spontaneously(78). This means there are constant distractions happening frequently during the day for the employees and most are unplanned. This leads to longer work days and fatigued employees (90). In addition, the

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constant interruptions elongate projects and lead to a race to get the product to market(92). This time crunch environment leaves the business constantly fighting a crisis. Perlow notes that when a crisis occurs managers know of no viable option but to throw time at problems(98), thus creating a destructive cycle. Additionally, the output from employees suffers as they cut corners to get the product to market creating work arounds instead of real solutions(90). When one employee breaks away from the crisis culture, they are seen as nonconformists and a hindrance to the success of Ditto. For example, one employee Chris substituted many Saturdays for Mondays in order to accommodate his home life. He finished his work early, yet when the project concluded and other employees were working fast to catch up to Chris, the manager thought Chris was uncommitted (41). Many employees claim that long-term time commitment goals are not reasonable because the type of long-term investment is impossible given the schedule(63). Constant interruptions during the day, a crisis cycle, and demands of the market are all problems focused on the time management at Ditto. The crisis cycle has put a strain on employees and affected the quality of their output. Furthermore, the crisis mentality has become a norm at Ditto, and when one employee tries to change it they are seen as nonconformists and uncommitted.

Problem #3
Finally, unreal expectations from management are an example of poor leadership. Employee recognition is on hours worked not productivity. Perlow notes managers notice the hours that the engineers work and use these observations as a criterion in ranking them(40). This creates employees to strategize how they can appear present within the workplace: leaving their car or jacket at the office at night. Employees work longer hours as a sign of commitment (38), yet being present has little to do with performance or substantive output(39). Thus, the

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criterion that managers use to evaluate employees has no direct relationship to actual work performance. Furthermore, this form of evaluation gives no credit to employees like Matt who provide help for his fellow co-workers. Instead, those who appear present and work 80 hours a week are rewarded even though this does not necessarily mean their work is better than others. Additionally, with Lauras case, pay equals the experience on the job, not the job title or tasks. Laura is receiving low pay for someone with her level of responsibility (30). There are also high demands put on employees by managers. Employees are expected to accommodate work, think carefully about saying no, and be willing to do whatever is asked.(35). The managers justify these expectations by saying it is for the team. However, Ditto only rewards individual heroics when the task is completed. Finally, the software manager Zeths short-term goal approach has every problem being treated as urgent (84) and working reactively rather than proactively (89). Problems are not really getting solved because short-term resolutions are being implemented which has a Band-Aid effect. Evaluation criteria and short-term goal plans are putting unrealistic pressures on Ditto employees.

Solution
Multiple solutions will aid Ditto in becoming a more productive and supportive climate for its employees. First, the individualistic culture created competitive conflict between the employees. In order to create a more collectivist culture, a collaborating conflict strategy should be used when problems occur with an individuals work. In the case study, Matt had a difficult time asking for help because he felt uncomfortable asking others when he knew they would receive no recognition for their help and therefore, be not as willing to help (69). A collaborating conflict strategy requires both parties to combine their resources and knowledge and produce a superordinate goal (Keyton). It takes time, yet the product will be more than

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either party can achieve on their own. Also, collaboration supports an environment that values teamwork and collectiveness. When employees are comfortable enough to go to one another with problems and generate solutions, the competitive culture will break down. Instead employees at Ditto will produce a supportive climate and group culture. Also, without having to worry about having more hours at work than their co-workers, employees can produce productive work during business hours and spend more time with their family. The obstacle in implementing this plan is making the employees buy in to the culture. In order to do this, it would be beneficial to assign group tasks for the employees at first. Requiring employees to work together will inadvertently create identification with one another. Working in a group forms bonds and will make employees more comfortable when going to one another with problems in future projects. Creating a collectivist culture will take time, but simple changes can make a big difference. Along with new group working strategies, Ditto would benefit from a more structured time allocation system. This means having quality time as well as quantity time during the work day. An hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon during the work day should be set aside for individual work. To make this productive, each employee needs to set priorities, avoid multi-tasking, and then, delegate or ask for help. Individual time during the day will be the same for every employee, so it is important that during that time each employee sets priorities on what needs to get done. Then, when employees are working individually, avoid multi-tasking. Focusing on one task has proven to more productive than trying to accomplish multiple projects at once (Rubinsteim, Meyer, & Evans). Then, when individual time is over ask for help with parts of the project the employee cannot complete on his or her own. Prioritizing work in this way will allow employees to first get their individual work done as completely as possible and

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then focus on group work. In addition, quantity and quality time at work puts less stress on the crisis situations that will inevitably arise with the organization. There is no possibly way that Ditto can eliminate every time crunch situation that will occur. However, they can be more prepared for those situations by managing time and producing excellent outputs from all employees. Hopefully by implementing these mandatory individual work times, fewer employees will have to stay later or come in on weekends to acquire quiet time for work. Finally, management and leadership styles need to change at Ditto in order to support the changes just discussed. Management at Ditto has always rewarded on the basis of individual product output and time spent at the office. However, with the new implementation of a group culture, management needs to change their evaluation criteria. Ranking should be handled more in-depth than just the hours worked. Each employee should have a chance for a one on one review where they can talk about their work with the managers. Additionally, criteria for rewarding employees should be on work production and quality time, not quantity. Currently in Ditto, managers value commitment, but they assess that commitment on never saying no and being available anytime. This is just not reasonable for employees at any company. They believe that all employees have a duty to the company and that should be their priority. However, they are overlooking the rights of each employee to have a life outside of work (May). Ditto can expect and receive commitment from employees, but there high standards are harming their employees. Furthermore, the software manager and leader Zeth has a very short-term goal agenda. This is problematic for a leader whose job is to guide the rest of the organization to long-term success. Zeth needs to recognize this deficient part of his leadership style. In order to be successful, there has to be a clear long-term vision for the organization. The leaders of Ditto

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need to build a climate that members can communicate with equality, empathy, and avoid control. In this way, employees will feel comfortable applying the suggested changes.

Conclusion
Many problems are harming the success of Ditto. However, solutions are possible. Ditto has created a competitive climate where employees feel uncomfortable asking for help and as a result sometimes produce subpar products during crisis situations. Home life suffers and employees feel hopeless when trying to be a non-conformer. Perlow talks briefly about Kate and her problems at work. However, before her frustrations she valued her work at Ditto and was relatively happy (104). Ditto needs to make all their employees feel this way by realizing they have rights and should be evaluated on quality, not quantity. By implementing these suggestions some of the crisis mentality will fade away and more long-term as opposed to short-term goals can be addressed.

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Works Cited Keyton, Joann. Communicating in Groups. third. New York: Oxford UP, 2006. Print. May, Steve, ed. Case Studies in Organizational Communication. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications, 2006. Print. Rubinsteim, J., Meyer, D. & Evans, J. (2001). Executive control of cognitive processes in task switching. Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception and Performance, 27(4), 763-797.

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