Contents

• Scenario
• Impact of Events on Attitudes and Perceptions
• Two Relevant Motivational Theories and impact of events in scenario upon the motivation of staff
• Theory One: Process Theory - Vroom’s Expectancy Theory
• Theory Two: Content Theory- Hertzberg’s Two Factor Theory
• Group Dynamics and Teamwork
• Recommendations
• Reflection in relation to conclusions drawn from the scenario
• List of references

Description

I am reflecting on a time in my working life where I offered advice and business solutions to a mid-sized legal firm regarding problems relating to people management strategies. As an independent business consultant I was recommended to the Senior Partner of PBA Solicitors, a legal firm in Toowoomba who revealed the company was experiencing problems concerning low staff morale, lack of motivation and team relationships. My role was to provide the Partners with a proposal of solutions to help with improvement strategies for the business overall. This was a medium size thirty year established firm consisting of eight partners, nine solicitors in various filed of law and fifty employees in total, including paralegal, secretarial and administration staff.
The Senior partner controlled all areas of management without any formal Human Resource (HR) structure or quality standards in place, nor any Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programs, yet he desired the company to be viewed as progressive, with his informal catchcry being ‘Passion, Teamwork and Fun’. His operating style was unstructured hence he informed me during our first meeting he loathed the words ‘structure’ and ‘mission’. This was an evident fact as the company was void of a mission or value statement nor had a business or strategic plan in place to cope with exit or succession strategy, yet it was the partners’ desire to retire ‘rich’.
The partners all had external investment interests as company profits were high, however it was not of concern to them to plan for the future or expand the business at that stage due to the ease of the comfort zone.
Divisional cells applied to each area of law being Commercial, Litigation, Family, and Conveyancing. Each cell had a routine way of operating with the Commercial department being the main revenue earner due to the rapid growth of the property market in Cairns. This in turn was creating work load pressure particularly for the conveyancing team and administration staff; hence they felt unappreciated and totally unrewarded for their increased work efforts.
I ascertained there were three main areas of concern for this business overall being the lack of functional structure (no HR systems in place), problems regarding soft skills in relation to improving feedback and managing poor performance, and team development with breakdowns in communication, cooperation and working toward a common goal.
If these issues were not dealt with accordingly the company would experience problems pertaining to staff retention and attraction of new talent should competition become an issue in the future. The probability of staff being poached by competition was high if attractive remuneration and reward packages were offered by opposition along with the promise of a more inclusive culture and career development prospects relating to succession via promotions and partnering opportunities.
If this company was to survive, thrive, and maintain healthy market share then strategies for improvement regarding the ‘big picture’ required implementation.