1

SAS Institute Employee Management

Computer Science, University of the People

BUS 1101-01: Principles of Business Management – AY2022-T5

MBA, Shawn A. McCastle

September 14, 2022

 2

SAS Institute Employee Management

The SAAS institute seems to have understood how the four factors of organizational

behavior intervene in the success of a company. Carpenter et al. (2010) establish 2 factors

preferred by recruiters: Job Performance, and Organizational Citizenship Behavior; and 2

unwanted factors, absenteeism, and staff turnover, as rudders that determine organizational

behavior. But, what strategies does the Saas Institute use to take advantage of the positive factors

and mitigate the risk of the undesirable factors?

Job Performance (JP) is the result of the combination of hard skills and soft skills to

achieve the objectives and, therefore, can be measured based on the employee's outputs, since

they are indicators of the employee's satisfaction and degree of commitment. with the

organization (Gibson et al., 1996). On the other hand, Organizational Citizenship Behavior

(OCB) is easier to identify and take advantage of because it only needs soft skills such as

socialization, critical thinking, or communication skills (Carpententer et al., 2010). But,

understanding that all organizations are social structures made up of people (Gibson et al., 1996),

there is the possibility that when acquiring the desired behaviors of the employees, there is also

the risk that undesired factors appear. Such is the case of Absenteeism (Ab), which can occur due

to illness, one's own or that of a family member, and even the loss of a loved one.

According to Carpenter et al. (2010), the Saas Institute understands the risks of Ab as one

of the factors that can cause more losses for the company, since a healthy, happy, and

intrinsically motivated person has a better performance in the company (Carpenter et al. 2010;

Spielman et al., 2020). But this does not mean that it is only the employee's responsibility since

the environment modifies behavior and if the company does not offer the correct stimuli in a

timely manner (Spielman et al., 2020), the employee's motivations can change. At this point,
 3

staff Turnover (To), which is defined as the dismissal or resignation of an employee, would be an

indicator for the company to seek to redesign the job or that there is an inadequate environment

for the motivation of employees who want to keep in their groups.

Also, isn't Ab another variable that influences JB? The organization can measure

employee satisfaction based on their JP and OCB traits. However, one of the variables to

highlight is the age of the employee, the youngest employees seem to have the highest rates of

Ab and the least motivation towards OCB (Carpenter et al. 2010) but it is something that can be

modified through the environment, offering positive and negative reinforcements to drive

learning (Spielman et al. 2020) of the company's philosophy and objectives

So, the strategies that the Saas Institute use to take advantage of the positive factors and

mitigate the risk of the undesirable factors is through agile methods that allow facing the change

that occurs within the organization, either by external agents or changes in staff motivations. The

Saas Institute takes care of its staff so that stress is not an impediment to their work performance

or a cause of health problems. In combination, job satisfaction is shown in a better OCB and a

decrease in turnover.

For this reason, we agree with the Saas Institute employee managent. wich adopts an

agile methodology to “remove obstacles from employees” (Carpenter et al., 2010, p. 67) and

improve JP (for example; applying a simple and less bureaucratic organizational structure.)

(Carpenter et al., 2010,). Also, the Saas Institute offers other benefits to mitigate the risk that its

employees are absent from their jobs, by offering "nudges" (for example; gym, medical attention,

sick leave and adequate working hours) that help them lead a healthier life but it is also a

protection of their own interests, since it decreases the probability that a person will lie to take

time off work. However, what happens with the death of a family member or the illness of a
 4

loved one? Although the company offers all these services to the employee, the scope of its

health benefits is limited in terms of the health of loved ones.

But, we do not agree that Ab is included solely as an undesirable trait in organizations e

exposed by Carpenter et al. (2010), since we think, Ab is rather a risk, both for the company and

for the employee. It is unlikely that the employee wants to get sick or lose a loved one. And even

if you don't want it, there is always the possibility of acquiring a disease, even due to stress

( although there are stress management techniques, no one is immune to its effects) and it is up to

the organization and its leaders to carefully observe the behavior of its employees, before,

during, and after finishing an objective. Therefore, this factor does not disappear, only the risk is

mitigated. .
 5

References

Carpenter, M., Bauer, T., & Erdogan, B. (2010). Management principles,  v.1.1.

https://2012books.lardbucket.org/books/management-principles-v1.1/index.html.

Gibson, J., Ivancevich, J., & Donnelly, J. (1996), Las Organizaciones [The Organizations] (8va

ed.). McGraw Hill. 

Spielman R. M, Jenkins, W. J., & Lovett, M. D. (2020). Psychology 2 ed. Openstax.

https://openstax.org/details/books/psychology-2e