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Acquisition: Motivational
Factors and Solution
Derek Denaro
(Graduate Student In A Masters
Program)
Org 502/Managerial
Communication
Professor Al Beck
April 5, 2003
Motivational Factors and
Solutions
Goals: As a manager we want to keep the current
employees thereby eliminating employee turnover
for both acquired and acquiring companies.
At the same time we want to keep all
resources of the acquired and acquiring companies. Communicate a plan of action that will
empower the people (workers).
How
can we go about to empower the people?
In our study of Organizational Behavior,
(Robbins) states learning helps us to adapt to and
master our environment, by changing our behavior to accommodate changing conditions
we become responsible citizens and employees. (73)
Solution:
With that said managers today must be
able to equip themselves with significant information
to avail themselves with the necessary tools to meet the rapid changes of today.
In this line of business, open
communication and consistent research are necessary factors
for implementing the right tools for the right strategies.
In a personal conversation I had with
Richard Jorgensen, founder and CEO for Life Skills
U On-line distance learning, and my personal mentor and coach, I discussed the matter
of this acquisition.
Acquisition
Once he understood that our plan is to
acquire the company and that our intentions were
for the most part, to keep all resources and employees, He recommended,
"we should
focus around the key people of both acquired and acquiring companies. Let them participate.
Provide ownership to them. Empower them. Workers need opportunity to participate
in the decision making process."
I could not agree more. As it stands it
is common knowledge today that many individuals,
small and large businesses alike, will be reluctant and resistant to change.
Yet change is like a two-edge sword and
can be viewed as opportunity or a threat.
As Jorgensen (2001) indicates, When
change is attempted often the following is experienced:
§
Resistance
for the sake of resistance
§
Blame
others when plans don't work
§
Priority
conflicts
§
Emotional
reactions instead of logical responses
There are other factors that add to
resistance to change within the corporate culture.
As Jorgensen (2001) comments, Culture,
consequently, also includes the personal problems
of all the people within the organization. Culture walks in the door every day with
problems from home.
§
Problems
with teenage children
§
Marital
problems
§
Financial
problems
§
Substance
abuse problems
Just to name a few. People cannot just
check their personal issues and triumphs at the door
to the office. They can't "unmarry" or "unparent"
themselves. Yet these can and do affect
and infect an organization. The organization cannot address these issues nor
does it many
times want to.
Solutions
for Real and lasting Change:
What Jorgensen has researched and
developed and what has been tested by third party agencies
under a Federal Grant has shown a statistically significant increase in self-esteem
with a 95% probability that the positive changes occurred as a result of this process
alone. This process is known as Parallel Learning™.
Parallel Learning™ is very different from traditional education or
linear learning used in most workshop and classroom experiences.
Parallel Learning™ communicates with the left and right brain, on a conscious and
unconscious level concurrently. It causes simultaneous unlearning and relearning.
Linear
learning processes are appropriate for learning new information. Parallel Learning™ is appropriate when a process of
unlearning and re-learning is required. Tests proved that the educational experience produces
lasting changes as opposed to motivational changes that are typically short-lived.
Participants were tested 90 days after completing the process and a steady, ongoing
increase in self -esteem was observed.
Here is why:
According to the Skillet (2001), Toyota Rose's Vice President and General Manager, wrote a letter to Richard Jorgensen expressing his
beliefs…
Richard,
I am writing this follow-up letter to
tell you about the long-term results from the "Creating
a Team culture Responsive to Change" seminar you held for Toyota Rose.
As you know,
our seminar took place a few years ago. Since then, I can’t count the times that our
managers quoted you. They never forgot all the things you taught them.
We worked
together…to achieve our mutual success…with very few changes in personnel...until
November of 2001. At that time, we sold the Toyota dealership, and the property in
mission Valley.
Because we felt it was the thing to do,
we notified the employees "months" before the sales were
consummated or completed. In most dealerships this honesty would have caused a
"mass exodus" of employees.
The fear of change destroys their focus
and devastates the profitability of the dealership.
In our dealership, our employees (we had
115) chose to stay and support us…all the way through
the changeover. The Last month in business as Rose Toyota, we had the biggest Profit
month in our History.
I feel that your seminar had a
significant affect on how our employees related to each other,
their supervisors, and our ownership. It starts with the ownership.
If they truly
believe in developing a culture (honesty and integrity is a must,) it flows through the
supervisors and through all the employees.
We believe it,
instituted it and made it our culture.
We still keep
in contact with many of our employees from Rose Toyota. Not only were we
mutually instrumental in our combined success, we have remained friends.
Thank you for
your support!
Sincerely,
Rose Toyota
Byron E. Rose,
Vice President
The
letter above is just one of the thousands of testimonials of what the Parallel Learning system has done for others, and it is a
solution and idea who's time has come.
The
software process facilitated by Life Skills U can make lasting change for all Individuals and organizations. Managers interested in
solutions for real and lasting change would be wise to consider this process. As Jorgensen
(2002) points out, It is not the concept of change that bothers us. The difficulty
lies in believing that we really can change. Our learned patterns of thinking, feeling,
and behaving have made it difficult (if not impossible) to stay changed.
Thus
through the Parallel Learning process, one must:
§
Identify
specifically, what it is we are doing that is not working.
§
Recognize
where these learned patterns came from and how they are reinforced today.
§
Examine
real solutions that are natural to us as human beings.
§
Experience
a deep awareness that these solutions can work for us.
§
Structure
an ongoing process of accountability that allows us to integrate these
solutions into our life process.
As pointed out by Robbins (2001) What is going on is
that managers are empowering employees. They are putting employees in charge of
what they do. And in so doing, managers are having to learn how to give up
control, and employees are having to learn how to take responsibility for their
work and make appropriate decisions. In later sections, we'll show how
empowerment is changing leadership styles, power relationships, the way work is
designed, and the way organizations are structured. (P18)
As
Stephen Robbins also states, OB theory and practice are essentially products of
the Twentieth
century. (pg 95)
Perhaps it is time for a renewed process
to take shape since we have made the foundation
for so many hundreds of years. Perhaps as we are ushering in a new century that
we can finally get to the bottom of what drives human behavior.
References:
Jorgensen, RD (2001) CEO, about LSU,
Team Culture, Testimonies Retrieved April 4, 2003 www.Lifeskillsu.org/success.html www.information@lifeskillsu.org
Robbins,
P. S (2001) Organizational Behavior, Custom edition for UOP earson Custom publishing
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