Improving Organizational Performance
Rose Bond
PSY/428
June 25, 2014
Melissa Ray

Airdevils Redirection

Airdevils is a company that provides dynamic stunts such as sky diving, sky surfing, hang gliding , para gliding, ballooning and micro lighting, for the movie industry as well as demonstration events, publicity stunts and marketing campaigns. Founded by Chelsea Evans in 1995, later to be joined by four colleagues in 1996.The organization has since grown to employ 115 individuals. After two years of business decline, Ms. Evans requested consultation from Dream Teamwork’s, an organizational consulting firm directed by Peter Mallow. By utilizing the Job Descriptive Index created by Patricia Cain Smith and her colleagues, an overview of employees’ needs and concerns are identified. Following are the issues, recommendations and results of these intervention strategies.
Cycle 1

Situation- The results of the JDI depict a very low level of overall job satisfaction among the stunt groups stemming from the perceived routine nature of their work. “The personal profile of an average stunt performer showed that they were motivated by the challenges in performing stunts. Once they had perfected a stunt routine, their natural tendency was to indulge in something more challenging. However, the job profile of the stunt performers indicated that not only was the job of a stunt performer monotonous, it also entailed undertaking other activities unrelated to performing stunts. The JDI scores and comments on the blog indicated that the employees were not satisfied with the job itself.” Recommendations- Provide cross-functional training, improve job design, allow participation in open competitions and allow participation in industry meets.

Results- “Implementing cross-functional training would pave the way for stunt performers to try stunts other than their routine ones. Improving the job design would ensure that stunt performers concentrate on their core jobs and are not forced to do something they don't like. Allowing employee participation in open events and rotating them in key industry meets would provide them better visibility and allow them to showcase their skills.”
Cycle 2-

Situation - Lack of exciting challenges in the employees’ current job profile. Recommendations- Training in Other Stunts, Physical/Mental Training, Improve Job Design, Performance-based Incentives, Allow Participation in Open Competition, Rotate Key Employees to Visit Industry Meets, Enter New Lines of Stunts Results- The employees will be trained in other kinds of stunts. The best performers in training will be allowed to perform multi-disciplinary stunts. Physical/mental training allows the employees to keep fit and counter organizational stress. Improving job design will reduce the role ambiguity. A variable performance based salary component will compensate for the employees performing more number of and riskier stunts. Allowing participation in amateur/professional stunts events would enable the employees to earn extra money and interact with the stunts community. Allowing employee participation in open events and rotating them in key industry meets would provide them better visibility and allow them to project their skills. This measure would satisfy the stunt performers' psychological inclination to seek recognition. Cycle 3-

Situation- There is a perceived lack of stunt innovation. Chelsea has received feedback from customers that Airdevils is low on innovation. Their stunts have become repetitive, and competitors are executing Airdevils’ stunt sequences at a lower cost.
Recommendations- Chelsey has decided to form a Stunt Consulting Group .The group will be required to prepare an innovative stunt plan for each assignment that the company gets. The group will be required to balance risk and aesthetics in the stunt plan, and also be able to visualize each stunt plan—as seen through the eyes of a camera.
Results- Chelsey selected seven potential candidates for the group. Dream Teamwork’s assisted in narrowing the choice to three candidates; Alverta VaLoy, Cari Hanslow and Cari Hanslow. Alverta, Cari and Charlie have highly compatible personalities as well as sharing similar attitude concerning work. The synergy of these attributes within this group will ensure that they would approach each consultancy problem with a similar mindset. This group also demonstrates a low level of inter- personal conflict, allowing the group to spend more time solving current problems. Cycle 4- Situation: Absenteeism due to stress. Chelsea discusses the situation with crew manager Hans Evans who in turn calls a meeting of all crew members to determine the reasons for the high rate of absenteeism. A budget of $150,000 is set aside to support the solutions. Recommendations- Relaxation training ,biofeedback training ,stress-inoculation training, software training , modify team structure , provide transportation facilities, move temps from contract to payroll (50% of crew is on contract, leading to job insecurity),establish a code of conduct (currently the stunt people treat crew members like servants. This contributes to emotional labor on the part of the crew. Cost could be the legal fee) and allow flexible work schedules (swapping)
Results-Relaxation training will allow the crewmembers to take better care of their physical health, reducing health related absences to reduce significantly. Stress inoculation will help employees to alter their appraisal of their work environment and recognize stressors. Biofeedback training will provide the employees’ techniques to manage their stress by controlling their physiological responses to stress. Software training will reduce employees’ anxiety about the safety of their jobs and improve the efficiency of the organization. Modification of the teams will alleviate interpersonal problems. Establishing a code of conduct will provide equity among performers and crewmembers. Transportation services will ease the stress of late night performers. Providing a flexible work schedule will allow employees much needed personal time with families and friends out of the work environment.
As demonstrated by this summary, there are many mis-cues between an organization and their employees. Without attention to employee’s expectations and perceived notions of an organizations intent and structure, there is high probability of dissatisfaction and disillusionment among employees. This in turn leads to an imbalance in an organizations work force resulting in loss of revenue. Complacency in practices and procedures often find an organization settling into a false sense of security of all is well. By following motivational theories such as the equity, need for achievement and personal recognition theories, organizational flexibility needed for success and employee satisfaction will make the transition to solid change more viable and long lasting. Adaptation to organizational change as provided by companies such as Dream Teamwork’s will ensure an organizations profitability and ability to maintain a stable and sound workforce while providing the employees their need for achievement and sense of recognition and personal equity.

References
Jex, S. M., & Britt, T. W. (2008). Organizational Psychology A Scientist Practitioner Approach (2nd ed.). Retrieved from The University of Phoenix eBook Collection database.
"Improving Organizational Performance" Simulation
https://ecampus.phoenix.edu/secure/aapd/vendors/tata/solutions/organizational_pyschology/organizational_psychology.htm