Electro Logic

Electro logic (EL) is a small R&D from located in a Midwestern college town adjacent to a major university. In primaries mission is to perform basic research on, and development of, a new technology called very fast very accurate (VFVA). Founded four years ago by Steve Martin an Electro engineering professor and inventor of the technology, EL is primarily funded by the government contracts, although it planned to market VFVA technology and devices to a nongovernmental organization within the year.

The government is very interested in VFVA, and it will enhance radar technology robotics and a number of other important defense applications. El recently received the largest small business contract ever awarded by the government to research and development this or any other technology. Phase one of the contract has just been completed and the government has agreed to phase two contracting as well.

The organizational chart of EL is shown in figure 6.11 and there are currently 75 employees with roughly 88% in engineering the hierarchy of engineering titles and requirements for each are listed in table 6.6 heads of staff are supposedly appointed based on their knowledge of VF BA technology and their ability to manage people. In practice the government of El handpicked those people based on what some might call arbitrary guidelines most of the staff leaders were or are the president's graduated students there is no predetermined time frame for advancement up the hierarchy raises are directly related to performance appraisal evaluations.

Working directly with the engineers are the technicians. Technicians generally have a high school degree, and some also have a college degree. They are trained on the job although some have gone through a local Community College program on micro technology fabrication. The technician performed the mundane task of the engineering department running test building circuit boards manufacturing VFVA chip and so on. Most are full time, hourly employees.

The administrative staff is composed of the staff head (who has an NBA from a major university), accounts, a personal director, graphic artist, a purchasing agent, a project controller, a technical writers/editor, and the secretaries. Most of the people in the administrative Staffs are women. All our hourly employees except the staff head, personal director, and project controller. The graphic artist and technical writer/editor are part time employees.

The facility staff is composed of the staff head and maintenance personnel. El is housed in three different buildings, and the primary responsibility of the facilities staff is to ensure that the facilities of each building are in good working order. Additionally, the faculty staff is often called on to remodel parts of the building as the staff continues to grow.

El anticipates a major recruiting campaign to enhance the overall staff. In particular it is looking for more technicians and engineers. Prior to this recruiting campaign, however, the president of El hired an outside Consultant: to assist employees needs as well as the morale and overall effectiveness of the firm. The Consultant: has been observing El for about three weeks and has written up some notes of her impressions and observations of the company.

Consultant: Notes from the observation of Electro logic

faculties Electro logic ESL is housed in three different buildings two are converted houses, and one is an old school building. senior managers and engineers are in the school, and others are scattered between the houses. Meetings weekly staff meetings are held in the main building to discuss objectives and to formulate and review milestone charts. Social interaction: hey core group of employees interact frequently on a social basis for example sports teams parties. The administrative staff celebrates birthdays at work. The president occasionally attends.

Work allocation engineers request various tasks from the support staff which consist of technicians and administrative unit personnel. There is obviously some discretion used by the staff and assigning priorities to the work request, based on the report rapport and desirability of the work.

Turnover: the highest turnover is among administrative personnel and technicians. Exit interviews with engineers indicate they leave because of the companies' crisis management style, better opportunities for career advancement and security in larger organizations, and overall frustrations with ELO peaking order engineers with the most responsibility and authority and authority tend to leave.

Salaries and benefits: in general, wages at El are marginal by national and local standards. A small group of scientists and engineer do make substantial salaries and have a very attractive benefits packet, including stock options salaries and benefits are new in are new engineers tend to be linked to the perceived level of their expertise.

Office and facilities: only EL's president, vice president, and chief financial officer have their own offices. Engineers are grouped together in pods by project assignments. There is very little privacy in these work areas, and the noise from the shared printer is distracting. The head of administration shares a pod with the personal director, the facilities head, and the project controller. One to three secretaries per building are located in or near the reception areas. The large building has an employee lounge with three vending machines. There is also a coffee and tea station. The smaller buildings have only a soft drink vending machine in the reception area.

Consultant: interview with employees

after making these observations, the Consultant: requested interviews with a cross section of the staff for the purpose of developing a survey to be taken by all employees. Presented below our excerpts from those interviews.

Pat Klausen, Senior member of the technical staff

Consultant: what is it about Electro logic El that gives you the most satisfaction?

Pat: I really enjoy the work period I mean, I've always liked to do research, and working on VF BA is an incredible opportunity. Just getting to work with Steve EL's president and VF BA and inventor again is exciting period I was his graduate student about six years ago, you know he really likes to work closely with his people perhaps sometimes too closely there have been times where I could have done with a little less supervision. Consultant: what's the least satisfying aspect of your job? Pat: probably the fact that I've never quite sure we've been funded next month given the defense budget problems and the tentativeness of our research period I've gotten a family to consider, and this place isn't the most stable in terms of its financial situation. Maybe I'll change once we get more into commercial project production. Who knows?

Consultant: you've offered some general positive and negative about El can you be more specific about day-to-day dealings? What's good and bad about working here on a daily basis?

Pat: you're sure this isn't going to get back to anyone? OK well in general I'm not satisfied with the fact that too often we end up changing horses in the middle of the stream if you know what I mean. And the past seven months, three of my engineers or in fourth of my texts have been pulled off my project onto projects whose deadlines were nearer than mine period now I'm faced with a deadline, and I'm supposed to get to be getting more staff. But I've had to spend some much time briefing them that it might take more sense for me to finish the project myself. On the other hand, Steve gives keeps telling me that we have to be concerned with ELL's overall goals, not just our individual concerns you know we have to be a team player, good member of the family. It's kinda hard to deal with that, though when deadlines are bearing down and you know your butts on the line, team player or not. But if you are going along with this kind of stuff and don't complain, the higher ups treats you well. Still, it seems to me that there's got to be a better way to manage these projects.

Consultant: what are the positive aspects of your daily work?

Pat well, the people here are all great to work with period they know their stuff or can learn quickly. I tend to be a social person and I really like socializing with these people. We play softball and basketball together and do happy hours and stuff. I like that. I've gotten some good friends here, which help get my work orders filled quickly, if you know what I mean.

Bob: Christiansen, members of the technical staff

Consultant: you said earlier that Steve was your advisor for your MS. So, you've known him a long time.

Bob: yes, that's right I've known Professor Morgan- Steve- for about eight years period I've had I've had him for a few undergraduate classes then of course he was my advisor for my 2-year master's program and now I've worked at Electro logic for two years.

Consultant: it seems as if you really if you enjoy working with Steve.

Bob: Oh yeah but I really don't get to work directly with him anymore. I'll see him at meetings and such but that's about it.

Consultant: so, he's not your immediate supervisor?

Bob: no, but for the for the amount of time I spend with my supervisor, still might as well be. My boss and I meet maybe once every three weeks for about an hour to see if all is well. And that's it. The rest of the time, I'm on my own. I used to talk to Steve when I had questions, but he's gotten so busy now that it's hard to see him you need to make an appointment if few days in advance.

Consultant: do you think your supervisor treats all of his staff this way?

Bob: to be honest I've had some I've heard some complaints. In fact, about six months ago the situation was so bad, some people and I had a meeting with him. He's promised that he would be more available to us and was for about a month period then we got involved in a new proposal, so he might he made himself scarce again. So, nothing's really changed. We're coming up on finalizing the proposal now, and it's important that I see him, asking questions period the last few drafts I've submitted to him, he's returned, and rewritten in his own way and, and there's no explanation of the changes. Sometimes I think he treats me like somebody who doesn't know anything, as if I had no training whatsoever. I realized his neck is on the line with this project, but sometimes it seems that he uses being busy to avoid talking to me.

Chris chin, research scientist

Consultant: what kind of characteristics should a person have if he/she wants to work as a research scientist at Electro logic?

Chris well, certainly technic technical knowledge is important period when I interviewed recent college grads for entry level positions, I've always considered with their GPA I'd like to see straight A averages, if possible but for experience research scientist, technical knowledge shows up in their publication record, mostly so I'll read their papers. I also think a research scientist has to be highly self-motivated, not look to others for praise and such. Particularly here. If you want someone to tell you you've done a good job, you'll be waiting for a long time. It's not clear to me that research scientists really get the support we need from the rest of the staff here. Work orders are often lost or put off for one reason or another period senior members seem to get more text than scientists do, and they're certainly getting more attention from Steve. The rumor is that these guys also get higher raises than the scientist allegedly, this is to keep pay for add an equitable rate you know there's supposedly more value to the company period of course everybody knows that most of the senior members are Steve's old graduate students, and so he takes care of them really well. One of the things that really galls me is that I need to keep my publication record to maintain my career options. But publishing is frowned on because it takes time away from your work. I've even been told that my work can't be published because of pro prosperity rights or that the defense department considers the information classified. However, if somebody important is working with me and needs the publication, then it is full steam ahead.

Consultant: you sound pretty dis gruntled with your work.

Chris it's not my work so much. I really very happy doing this work it's cutting edge, after all. The problem is that I've never quite sure where the work is going. I do my-part of a project, and unless I go out of my way to talk to other people, I've never find out the final result of the total project. That's just something you learn to live with around here being a part of the systems that's not a particularly open.

Meg Sanchez, assistant to the head of administration

Consultant: you've only been here a short time, is that correct?

Meg: that's right, just a little over a year.

Consultant: why did you take the job?

Meg: well, I was in my last semester of college and was looking for a job, like most college seniors. My fianc at the time now he's my husband was already working for Electro logic and found out that there was an opening. So, I applied.

Consultant: so, you were a business major in school?

Meg: Oh no I was a history major.

Consultant: do you like your job?

Meg: it has a lot to offer. I get paid pretty well for what I'm doing. And I've learned a lot. I just wish the company would let me take some classes in administration, like accounting. The auditors ask some pretty tough questions period Steve says we should hire that expertise, but I'll still be responsible for supervising the people.

Consultant: is there any particular aspect about your job that you really find satisfying?

Meg: well, let me think. I guess I like the fact that I get to-do a lot of different tasks so that things don't get so boring. I would hate to have to do the same thing, day in and day out. A lot of times, I go to the library to do research on different things, and that's nice because it gets me out of the office. Consultant: what don't you like about your job?

Meg: well, I often get the feeling that administration isn't taken seriously. You know, the engineers could get along without us quite nicely, or some they think so. The whole structure of the department shows that we've had the catch all department if you don't fit anything else, they put you in here. Perhaps some of that is because our department is primary women in fact, I've been told that 95% of all the female employees are in administration. Sometimes it's hard to work with the engineers because they treat you like you don't know anything, and that they always want things to be done their way. Clearly the engineers get the money and consideration and yet, well, we do not contribute quite a lot to the whole team, Steve would say. But words of praise just aren't as impressive as actions. Sure, we get our birthday parties, but that still seems to be a little patronizing. We rarely get to see what goes on in the research area. I've asked a number of engineers specific questions, and they just kind of look at me with a blank stare and get me some really simplified answer period it seems to me if you want to be to build a family, like the president says you can't treat administrations like a bad relation.

PJ Ginelli, technician

Consultant: I gather you just been through your semiannual performance appraisal how did it go?

PJ: like I expected. No surprises.

Consultant: do you find these appraisals useful?

PJ: sure. I get to find out what he thinks of my work.

Consultant: is that all?

PJ: well, I suppose it's a nice opportunity to understand what my supervisor wants. Sometimes he's not so clear during the rest of the year. I suppose he's been given specific goals from higher up before he talks with me, so he's clear and then I'm clear.

Consultant: do you like what you're doing?

PJ: Oh yeah. The best part is that I'm out not at the main building and so I'm not having to put up with the important people, you know? I've heard from other texts that those guys can be a real pain trying to be nice and all but really just being a father. I mean, how can you get your stuff done when the president looking over your shoulder at all times? On the other hand, if the president knows your name, I suppose that's a good thing when it comes to raises and promotions. But my boss sticks up for his tax, we get a fair deal from him.

Consultant: do you think you'll be able to get ahead at electro logic?

PJ: get ahead? You mean being an engineer or something? No, and I really don't want to do that. Everyone around here keeps pushing me to move up. But I all afraid to tell people how I really feel for the fear they'll decide I don't fit into the high-tech environment. I don't want to be the black sheep of the family. I like where I am, and if the raises keep coming, I'll keep liking it. One of my kids is starting college next year, and I need the money to help her out. I get a lot of overtime, particularly when contracts deadlines near. I suppose the rush towards the end of the contract gives some people big headaches, but for me I don't mind. I the work is pretty slow otherwise, and so at least I'm working all the time and then some. When my family wishes my schedule was more predictable. Consultant: do you think you'll continue working at El? PJ: I'm not sure I want to answer that. Let's just say that my ratings on the performance appraisal were good and I expect to see an improvement in pay I'll stay for that.

Chalida Montgomery, technician

Consultant: in general, what are your feelings about the work you do for Electro logic?

Chalida: Well, I feel my work is quite good, but I also feel that I perform rather boring and tedious task. From what my supervisor says, the kind of things I do or what Electro engineers students do in their last year of classes. I gather their final projects is to make a circuit board, and that's what I do day in and day out.

Consultant: what is it that you like to do?

Chalida: Well, it would be nice to be able to offer some input into some of the design of the boards. I know I don't have a PhD or anything, but I do have a lot of experience. But because I'm a tech, the engineers don't really feel I've got much to offer even though I build the boards and can tell from the design which one will do what the designer wants it to do. I also would like to maybe supervise other technicians in my department. You know some kind of advancement would be nice. As if it, a lot of text asked me how to do things, and of course I help, but then they get the credit. Around here, you have to have a piece of paper that says you're educated before they let you officially help other people.

6.1 Using the behavioral guidelines and figure 6.10 as a diagnostic aid, what are the strengths and weaknesses of Electro logic from a motivational perspective?

6.2 What are the high priority action items you would include in a consulting report to Steve Morgan, president of El? Focus on specific actions he would initiate that would better use the ability of the staff foster a more motivating work environment.