Steel City Inc.

Case Study

1- Steel City Inc. adopts a functional organizational structure which is commonly used
among organizations. This is evident as the organization runs a top-down management
approach where the organization is divided based on traditional departments or job
functions like IT, HR, Accounting and headed by a CEO. Hereby the operations system
relies strictly on the functional role of the employee within the organization. Further, this
enables a high level of specialization and reflects on a vertical reporting system among
employees and their superiors. Moreover, such grouping of functions enables the share of
skills among employees, thus contributing to operational effectiveness.

2- Steel City Inc.’s president follows Herzberg’s two-factor theory also known as the
motivator-hygiene theory to understand and boost employee motivation. This is the case
where the motivation factors and hygiene factors are identified and assessed based on the
level on employee satisfaction. Here Herzberg claims that the opposite of satisfaction is
not dissatisfaction, rather it’s no satisfaction. Hence, this is why two factors are
considered. Hygiene factors or maintenance factors reflect the basic factors required for
motivation to exist at the workplace. The absence of such factors doesn’t create
satisfaction, however, they affect the level of dissatisfaction among employees. These are
extrinsic to the organization and reflect the physiological needs of employees such as
pay, policies, and working conditions. On the other hand, motivation factors are those
internal to the organization that yield positive satisfaction and contribute to superior
performance. Further, they reflect psychological needs such as recognition, growth
opportunities and sense of achievement. This is evident in the case of Steel City as the
president as employees are complaining about their work as they claim that it is
repetitive. Further, employees don’t understand the value they add to the organization and
how their job fits within the organization. Moreover, the president aims at planning the
employees’ development through training as a means to increase the motivation level.

3- With its attempt to boost motivation, Steel City Inc. could benefit from using job
enrichment as its new job design. This approach is a vertical expansion of the job’s scope
which involves adding more tasks and increasing the duties of the employee. This yields
 an increased autonomy and flexibility for employees in planning and controlling their
performance. Further, this approach increases the job’s depth and boosts motivation by
fostering a culture of creativity and responsibility which enables employees to grow by
developing their skills. Accordingly, this boosts employee satisfaction as the
psychological motivators are achieved, thus challenging Steel City’s employees and
reducing the repetition of tasks. Further, increasing Steel City employees’ responsibility
help employees understand the value they drive to the organization as a whole.

4- Steel City Inc. could resort to developing problem-solving teams as a means to increase
employee autonomy and reduce operational costs. Such teams are formed as a temporary
structure combining leaders and team members who are assigned on a specific project
with the goal of solving a particular business problem. This results in increased
organizational resilience and expands the communication network within the firm.
Hence, this enables greater autonomy and exploits the employees’ operational knowledge
to yield a reduction in operation costs, improved quality of work and enhanced customer
service.