HRM540 Week 3 Journal Entry

 Week 3 Learning Log: 

What surprised you?

This week, what surprised me most was the Week 2 Discussion 1 assignment. When I first read the assignment details, I was unsure of what the assignment had to do with HR, if anything. However when completing the experiment, I was able to connect it to how teamwork, communication and strategy go a long way in helping an organization run smoothly, and how significant these key factors are towards an organization's success. I thought that this assignment was a fun and creative way to open up the topic of teamwork for this week's lecture and discussion material.

Another area in week three that surprised me was the individual assignment, where we were given the task of addressing a current challenge at our organization and then completing three different analysis tools to better understand the root cause of the issue. I feel that it is very important for an organization to not be hasty with business decisions, and to thoroughly review all of the different variables both inside and outside of the company that may be tied to the challenge. This allows for better insight, especially if there are numerous variables that are causing a strain or challenge within the business. My challenge was employee engagement, and I found that the current high levels of stress among management and employees are the root causes for the lack of engagement. I also discovered that the stress is coming from both inside and outside of the organization. Inside the organization, the stress is derived from the many internal changes that are currently happening, such as the high employee turnover at the beginning of the year and all of the organizational role changes. Outside of the organization, the global pandemic has caused huge stress on the economy and drastic changes to people's everyday lives. We had to quickly adjust to working remotely, using tools such as Slack and Microsoft Teams to stay engaged. Companies around the world are all experiencing these external stresses from the pandemic, and there has been a reported correlation between high levels of stress leading to lower job satisfaction, higher absenteeism and turnover, and lower productivity and employee engagement (Cummings, 1990).

What applications do you see in your job?

I saw the application of the Week 3 Individual Assignment to my job as I was performing three analytical tools on my current organization to the area I feel is currently a challenge. I was able to apply the Six Box Analysis, Fishbone diagram, and Five Whys analysis to analyze the current state of my organization and determine what the root cause was for the lack of employee engagement.

Additionally, in the Week 3 Discussion 2, I was able to reflect on all of my training experiences from my previous and current positions. I found that training at my current job incorporated both technology tools, class style learnings and on-the-job shadowing and training. I feel that my current organization has a very well rounded onboarding and new hire training program because the training appeals to many different learning styles. My learning style is more hands-on or kinesthetic, meaning I prefer to learn on the job and carry out the roles and responsibilities of a job as I go (Bailey, 2014). Also in Discussion 2, the class got on the topic of team building and employee engagement. My current organization is looking into fun and creative ways to get employees involved and promote teamwork and company culture remotely. Some ideas, such as an online cook-off, were shared to help employees continue to feel a sense of community and connectedness which is critical during these unprecedented times.

What questions do you have about what you've studied?

Depending on the problem, are there certain company analytical tools that are preferred over others for different organizational issues?

What would you like to know more about?

I am intrigued to learn more about the processes for assessing an issue within an organization. This week we used three tools to assess an issue and determine the root causes of problems. However, I wonder what other popular tools or methods one can use to analyze a problem in an organization and how and when to apply them. 

 

Resources:

Bailey, S. (2014). Training: How to Know and Employees Learning Style. The Business Journals. Retrieved from: https://www.bizjournals.com/bizjournals/how-to/human-resources/2014/02/training-how-to-know-learning-style.html

Cummins R. (1990).  Job stress and the buffering effect of supervisory support. Sage Journals: Group and Organizational Studies. Retrieved from: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/105960119001500107