University of Phoenix 1
Week 3: Improving Organizational Performance
Organizational Performance
Ms. Annie Fongheiser
Week 3
Frederick R. Paige III
University of Phoenix 2
Abstract
Successful businesses rely heavily on the workmanship of their employees and the
continuity of working with others. Success in an organization can be determined by profits, and
reaching business goals established by management or owners. Reaching that success within an
organization is a not easy and requires diligent work by all members involved. A company that
started out with early success but then started to pitfall was Airdevil. We will look into the early
successes and accomplishments of Airdevil and the gradual downfall that changed their
perspective on the organization. We will discuss how the organizational stresses affected the
employees motivation and other factors that determined the decreased level of production. I will
also observe a few motivational theories, which can be implemented to reverse the negative
course that Airdevil was descending to and work towards its earlier successes.
Airdevil
Airdevil was established in 1995 and during the next 10 years the companies popularity
and success grew. Airdevils success could be attributed to the founder as well as the personnel
who seemed to enjoy the work. Combined with state of the art photographic equipment, Airdevil
specialized in aerial jumps such as; skydiving, sky surfing, hang gliding, paragliding, gliding,
ballooning and microlighting. The corporation is based out of Salt Lake City, Utah and has won
awards since its inception in 1997. The company is engaged in many types of aerial work
ranging from movies to marketing. In 2007, Airdevil started seeing a drop in performance and
worker satisfaction so they decided to hire professional assistance to try and get back to the
pinnacle of its success.
The company realized that there was dissatisfaction with key elements of the organization
to include employee satisfaction with management, money issues and job satisfaction. A job
University of Phoenix 3
satisfaction survey was conducted which detailed questions were answered by employees to find
the root of the problem and assess the employees. The results were not clear so Airdevil hired
Dream Teamworks, a professional organization for assistance
Job Satisfaction
Through careful analysis of the employee survey, it was concluded that the performance
level of Airdevils was attributed to the low level of job satisfaction among the performers and the
absence of creativity in the stunts. Some employees felt that the stunts were routine and not
challenging because that is why they had come to such an award winning company. Other
employees believed their job performance had dropped because of the management was not
listening to their needs based on thrill seeking needs and new stunts. Thrill seekers joined this
company because of the excitement of the stunts but felt creativity was not being addressed by
management and the same stunts were being performed. The trend of duplicating the same
stunts and management not listening to personnel was determined to be a factor of the low levels
of job satisfaction, so management decided to address the issue and make a change.
Change
The data revealed that the organizations success had dropped because of the
dissatisfaction with the employees performing the stunts. The performers felt that the
organization was inflexible and rigid when it came to performing new stunts. Other issues were
also addressed such as pay, promotion, co-worker cohesion, and work environment. These
issues were conducted through a JDI Survey report in which those categories were not as highly
marked. Management approved a budget in which allowed for gradual change for select
interventions in which the performers could benefit.
University of Phoenix 4
Strategies
With a budget of $150,000, management decided to implement select interventions in
which it would try to raise employee satisfaction. These interventions were training in other
stunts, physical and mental training facilities, and entering new lines of stunts. These
interventions were implemented with the hopes of not having to hire specialists for certain stunts,
and training current stunt performers to meet the physical and mental needs needed to perform at
a higher level. These interventions seemed to increase job satisfaction however management felt
that the real future of the business lied in stunt consultancy.
Consultancy
The consultancy group was going to incorporate the existing members from the
organization and their goal would be to prepare innovative stunt plans for the corporations
regular customers. If the customers were satisfied with the stunts and were willing to pay extra
for a stunt consultation, Airdevil will form a separate stunt consultancy division; which would be
a prestigious assignment. To achieve a successful team the potential candidates for the group
would have to mix personalities and work cohesively to achieve success.
Increasing Job Satisfaction
The support staff of Airdevils was also suffering from stress causing job dissatisfaction
and lack of performance. Management, with the advice of Teamwork, decided to financially
fund ways in which job stressor could be alleviated from its support staff. Seven measures that
were funded were relaxation training, stress-inoculation training, software training, modify team
structure, moving temps to permanent positions, establishing a code of conduct and allowing
flexible work schedule. The support staff included photographers, mechanics, pilots and
computer technicians.
University of Phoenix 5
Motivational Theories
For any organization to be successful, employee behavior must be channeled in
directions that contribute positively to that success. (Jex & Britt 2008.). Airdevil was losing
success because of stress amongst the support staff and complacency amongst the performers.
Some theories that would apply to Airdevil employees would be Goal-setting and Self-
Determination. Goal setting would allow the employees to enjoy their work and set goals in
order to reach the next pinnacle of success. Letting the stunt performer be innovate and
passionate about their stunts would incorporate the next theory of Self-Determination.
Self-Determination would allow the stunt performer to intrinsically motivate themselves
and not have to be told what to do. It would also allow for the stunt performer to have come up
with new routines and include his support crew and consultancy group, building teamwork
among all the employees. As described earlier, it was not the pay, work schedule or training that
discouraged the employee, it was the frustration of not being able to perform at a higher level.
Success in any organization relies heavily on the personnel and the communication
between the management. One time-effective and pleasant way of dealing with communication
problems in the workplace is to feed back the information that was received. Workers, as well
as their managers, should be encouraged to do this. (McKenzie & Qazi). There is no such thing
as being perfect or having the perfect organization, there are only steps that build to success and
successful businesses. With teamwork, communication, accountability and responsibility,
organizations can profit and succeed with the help of its employees.
University of Phoenix 6
References
Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational psychology; A scientist-practitioner
approach (2
nd
ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Son and other creditable sources.
McKenzie, C. L., & qazi, C. J. (1983). Communications Barriers in the Workplace.
Business Horizons, 26(2), 70.