Employing a strength -based approach to developing employees

 

Executive summary

The research below summarizes the techniques that are used in employing strengths- based approach of developing employees, it also contains details about theories of organizational behavior, information concerning GSF is also contained in the research. Lastly, information concerning faith integration and the worldwide implication of employing a strength-based approach of developing employees. It is important and significant because it discusses and sheds light on a practice that organizations and companies worldwide are using to improve the knowledge and skills of their employees thus increasing the output of the employees which in return increase the profit margins of these organizations and companies.

According to the research, job rotation, job shadowing, mentorship, steward leadership, stretch assignment and job enrichment are important tools that contribute to achieving a strength-based method of developing employees. These findings can be applied in a real-life situation by companies who want to achieve the strength-based approach of developing their employees. Lastly the research was undertaken in order to gain more insight on the topic of “employing strength-based approaches in developing employees”

  

Introduction

Employing a strengths-based approach to developing employees is important for any business in supporting the long term and short-term professional goals of the organization. Every leader should invest in employee development methods, these methods will help their employees develop into effective team players of the business. Employing a strength-based method to developing employees will help these employees make great strides in their knowledge and skills which in return will benefit the company and it will be launch into new territories successfully. A strength-based approach of developing employees allows employees to increase their productivity in everyday performance. This approach ensures that the efforts of employees are not wasted instead, they are valued. Gallup in his research’s answers questions of how leaders of an organization can learn how to use a strength-based approach to develop their employees. Mentorship, job rotation, stretch assignment, job shadowing, job enrichment, and steward leadership play an important role in employing a strengths-based approach of developing employees of an organization. Organizational Behavioral theories such as the theory of division of labor and contingency theory are elaborated. Brief details of GSF are also discussed. Feedback is an important tool in developing employees; therefore, it should be utilized. Lastly, the faith integration of the strengths-based approach of developing employees is explained. The business world is an evolving world, therefore management should employ strengths based approaches of developing their employees for them to thrive in the business world.

The role of mentorship in employing a strengths-based approach to developing employees

Mentorship is the guidance provided by a mentor to the workers of a company, a mentor has to be an experienced person. Mentorship plays an important role in employing a strength-based approach to developing employees. Supervisors are people with more experience than the employees, therefore, they should mentor and empower employees to discover and grow their strengths. In an organization, only a small number of employees actually feel like they are using their strengths, while a vast majority feel that their strengths are neglected (Gagliardi, Webster, Perrier, Bell, & Straus, 2014).  Many employees also feel like the supervisors ignore their strengths and focus more on their weaknesses which do not promote growth but leave them feeling useless. It is the role of leaders to mentor their employees as they work towards achieving a strength-based approach of developing employees.

One way to mentor and empower your employees as a leader is by encouraging them to grow their strengths by furthering their education, the leaders should take time to discuss with these employees their skills and strengths. If the organization is fully committed to mentoring its employees it should offer flexible working hour that will enable the employees to have time to work and further their education, which is for the benefit of the company (Gagliardi, Webster, Perrier, Bell, & Straus, 2014). The organization can fund their tuition fee in exchange for their services, an incredible way to mentor and empower them.

 When it comes to mentoring and coaching it doesn’t matter whether the company that is planning to employ a strength-based approach of developing employees has a formal mentoring program or not. The company can start small and as it progresses enlarge its mentorship program.  Mentoring and coaching provide demonstrated benefits of good quality work and skills of problem solving (Gagliardi, Webster, Perrier, Bell, & Straus, 2014).
The role of job enrichment and job rotation in employing a strengths-based approach of developing employees

Job enrichment is a common motivation that has been used by companies many times to give their employees greater satisfaction in their work. Job enrichment involves giving an employee responsibility that was reserved for their managers or a person in a higher rank than them, this provides an employee with an opportunity to increase and knowledge without necessarily getting a promotion. Job enrichment is one of the factors that help to increase the productivity of the employee, and increasing the productivity of the employees is the main role of employing a strength bases approach of developing employees, therefore, job enrichment plays an important role in establishing a strength-based approach (Umstot, Mitchell, & Bell,1978).

To increase the productivity of employees pertaining a certain post, potential changes relating to the post have to be made, these changes include; introducing new and difficult tasks that were not previously handled are introduced, assigning individuals specific tasks according to their strength in that field and granting these employees additional to employees in as they overcome the new unhandled tasks (Umstot, Mitchell, & Bell,1978). These will help employees find their strengths in fields they had not explored. Job rotation which is changing the working departments of the employees is also important in helping these employees identify their strengths in other departments (Juneja, n.d).

The role of stretch assignment in employing a strength-based approach of developing employees

A stretch assignment is a specific task to develop the expertise or experience of an employee outside their comfort zone. When employees undergo these assignments, they meet new challenges that help in increasing their knowledge and skills which is the aim of employing a strength-based approach of developing employees. Stretch assignments play an important role in developing strength-based employees. Pushing an employee to work out of their comfort zone creates a good condition that facilitates the growth of skills and knowledge of the employee. These stretch assignments are cost effective, many companies spend a lot of expense in training and hiring new employees instead of engaging in a stretch assignment which is cost saving and a good way of developing strength-based employees (Ternynck, 2015).

 The process of using a strength-based approach of developing employees helps to identify emerging leaders thus increasing the resiliency of the company in times of planned and unplanned changes. These employees with leadership skills and knowledge are easily identified by using stretch assignments, they allow an employee to develop skills that are necessary for a certain managerial leadership position. Part of increasing the strengths of the employees is ensuring that they are put through tasks that enhance their retention. Stretch assignments are a way of showing employees are valued thus creating an environment where there is a flow of ideas. For stretch assignments to be completely used as a tool of developing a strength-based system of developing employees it has to be correctly implemented (Ternynck, 2015).

            The first step of implementing this tool that helps in the employing a strength-based employees’ system is Identifying individual, companies tend to choose the same individuals over and over again increasing the knowledge and skills of the same people thus overlooking the potential of other employees. The second step of implementing this tool is selecting an assessing, the scope of these assignments should be broad. The third step is considering the organizational goals and, in this case, the goal is to help in employing a strength-based approach of developing employees. The last step is assigning the employees a mentor, mentors also act as a tool in developing this strength-based approach of developing employees (Ternynck, 2015). Mentors play the role of providing immediate feedback to the employees after they asses the stretch assignments they have been assigned.

The role of Job shadowing in employing a strength-based approach of developing employees

Job shadowing is an on the job training or career development. It involves employees with a different experience shadowing another in order to teach them what they know, it is an important tool in employing a strength-based approach of developing employees. Shadowing allows for the development of expertise, skills, and knowledge which is important in developing a strength-based system (Ternynck, 2015). Job shadowing provides the employees with a chance to learn critical elements of other jobs while still developing the critical elements of their line of work. Job shadowing also offers employees the chances to explore their strengths in other career opportunities while still in their job. Job shadowing is an important in developing a strength-based approach of developing employees.

The role of steward leadership in employing a strength-based approach of developing employees

 Steward leadership is a trend that is defining many organizations, it can be interpreted as the act of leaders realizing they are servants of others and strive to meet the need of others. Steward leadership is also an important tool in developing a strength-based approach to developing employees. When leaders focus on the needs and identifying their strength and weaknesses then they are likely to help them work on their weaknesses which will help better their strengths (Ternynck, 2015). A steward leader struggles to achieve important characteristics such as empathy and healing, persuasion and conceptualizing. Leaders play an important role in encouraging the strengths of their employees; therefore, steward leadership becomes important in developing the strengths of the employees

Theories of organizational behavior

An organization is defined by the employees and the goals that the employees work towards. Two of organizational behavior theories are; Division of labor and contingency theory. Division of labor is the specialization of labor in specified tasks and roles. Division of labor has been found in the culture of organizations for many years. This theory can be applied in any field, it can apply to the difference of work done by different genders in an industrial plant (Cultural Reader, 2014) This theory holds the concept that dividing labor increases efficiency, many scholars have encouraged and discriminated it one Adam Smith criticizes it by saying it leads to mental mutilation (Berry, Paganelli, & Smith, 2013) According to this theory specialization of workers on a single task results in them acquiring great expertise in that field, it also results greater productivity.

Summarizing research done by great scholars’ application of this theory has its advantages and disadvantages. These advantages include; it is efficient in terms of saving on time. It also reduces the time needed to train employees since their tasks are simplified into subtasks, concentrating on one task makes the employee acquire expertise in that field, no time is wasted since minimal time is spent moving in between tasks. The last advantage of the application of this theory is the quality of the work produced will be improved. The disadvantages of application of this theory is that it lacks motivation and the interest of the employees in their work decreases, a break in the production chain will cause a problem to the entire production team due to the dependency attached to the division of labor. Lastly, it limits the knowledge of the workers since they are confined in performing the same subtasks over and over again (Cultural Reader, 2014).

            Contingency theory is an organizational behavior theory that claims there are no best ways to organize or lead an organization, therefore, the only solution is to have a contingency plan in place that they can depend on in case of external or internal crisis. This theory was influenced by two researches that were conducted with the aim of pinpointing good, effective leadership. The researches were conducted in the 1950s at Ohio State University. Gareth Morgan describes the main ideas that form this theoretical approach; organizations and companies are open systems and careful management should be put in place to satisfy  the internal demand of the company, this management must be highly concerned with achieving good fits for the organization and lastly different types of organizations and companies are needed in different environments (Morgan, 1998).

            According to Fred Fiedler’s definition of the contingency theoretical approach focused on the contingency model of leadership in a company or organization. Fiedler described this theory into three dimensions; leader -membership relationship, it is  high if the leaders are respected and their leadership accepted by the employees, the degree of the task structure which is high if the task is effectively structured and the leaders position of power which is high if a lot of authority is attributed with leadership (Fiedler, 1964). This theory can be seen as the most dominant paradigm of all organizational behavior theories. It can be concluded that this theory approaches the issue of the effectiveness of the leaders in charge of an organization.

Role of feedback in developing employees

Giving feedback is one of the tactics that should be used by organizations to develop employees. Providing feedback will keep them involved and increase their chances of remaining with the organization. Feedback back does not include; disapproving or criticizing, feedback given to these employees must be constructive. Feedback should include recommendations that these employees should put in place to continue increasing their productivity. Feedback responses should be given regularly such as weekly or monthly, it should be accompanied by data and examples such as performance metrics. Feedbacks are important and guide an employee in his/her professional career. Employees always want to know the progress they make in their work and chances of losing interests if they do not get feedback are high (Kettner, 2017). Feedback should be a tool for growth for and recognition but not a tool of discouraging employees.

Feedback is a tool for motivation, continuous performance evaluation with feedback increases the output of the employees. To ensure that the employees are working towards the goals of the institution managers have to relay feedback to the employees constantly.  Through managerial observations conducted on employees they can be able to gain an insight on their weaknesses and strength and find the motivation to work on improving their weaknesses, many employees take negative feedback as criticism, but then it is well constructed criticism. In providing feedback managers have to be confident and provide unpleasant feedback when a need arises (Kettner, 2017).

Feedback can be a two- way street, it is not necessarily that the managers are the ones giving feedback, employees can also give feedback to their supervisors. Providing feedback this way helps the juniors and seniors succeed in their work. Giving managers and supervisors helps shed light on how they are hindering or promoting the work of those working under them. Feedback has also been known to elevate engagement, in the process of delivering feedback the juniors and seniors engage in conversations with that typically connect them and when these conversations are done right, they motivate the employees to perform better in order to maintain the good communication (Kettner, 2017).

Strength Finder

Gullup was responsible for introducing the first online version of the Clifton StrengthsFinder, which is now responsible for helping millions of people discover their top five talents. The book contains many strategies for applying one’s strengths. After the first version of StrengthsFinder Tom Rath wrote StrengthsFinder 2.0 to pick up where the first book left off.   The online test is designed to asses a total of 34 strengths and talents. These strengths measures are defined as naturally reoccurring pattern of thoughts. The feedback provided by the test argues that those who are at the top of their achievement apply those tasks in their jobs (Hodges & Clifton, 2004). The main goal of this test is to encourage people to encourage their strengths rather than always working on their weaknesses.

The GSF has been so far translated into 24 languages and has been taken for over 3 million times. The test is used for work and academic testing. All psychometric information concerning the GSF comes from internally produced report from the developers.  Despite the fame, it has experienced this online version has faced a number of criticisms an example is that the definition it gives of strength slightly differs from the original definition given by the authors (Hodges & Clifton, 2004).

As a leader of an organization identifying your strengths and the strength of your employees is important. Knowing these will help everyone in an organization focus on the efforts that are brought forth by their strengths. GSF has been designed to help employees uncover their strengths and utilize them to their own advantage.  When leaders in an organization identify their leadership strengths, they will be able to apply them to their leadership style.  The test provided by GSF evaluates the taskers of the test by rating them according to how they view a specific question (Hodges & Clifton, 2004).

People who have already used GSF and identified their strengths are able to focus on one singe tasks instead of multitasking. Those who maximize their strengths are always looking for guidance from specialists when seeking answers to questions arising in their line of work. Employees with input strengths often crave knowledge and are in constant use of academic language. Employees with strengths inputs are often gathering information that can be used to elevate the business to another level, these employees also find satisfaction in passing their knowledge to other people (Hodges & Clifton, 2004).

 

Faith integration: Implication of a worldwide view on employing a strengths-based approach in developing employees

To achieve success the world must draw from the most important resources which are skills of the workforce of an organization. To maintain competitive advantage also strengths-based approach of developing employees must be developed.  Companies have greatly adopted methods of employing strength-based management practices, it is a practice that has been well received by the world at large (Toolkits, 2015). Employing these strength-based approaches to developing employees will have no impacts on their faiths.

The strengths-based approach is something that has been embraced by the church.  The Salvation Army church confirms that every person has a special gift that should be recognized and put into use. In their approach to start a faith-based facilitation, they start by appreciating the many resources and gifts that individual people have. They use the faith-based facilitation to identify the existing strengths and resources among the members of their community. And if there is a gap they try and fill it by finding people with those strengths and resources (The Salvation Army, n.d). The church has embraced this method and therefore the business should also embrace this method to develop their employees.

Conclusion

Employing a strength-based approach to developing employees is important for any business in supporting the long term and short-term professional goals of the organization. Tools such as mentorship where employees are mentored to increase their productivity and focus on their strengths, stretch assignment where employees are given assignments that are beyond their comfort zone and job shadowing where they are allowed to explore other careers while still in their current employment play an important role of developing strength-based employees. Two theories of organizational behavior are discussed above, contingency theory and division of labor. Feedback plays an important role in developing this strengths-based approach. Feedback is a motivating factor and is also important because it allows employees to discover their strengths Ans weaknesses, feedback should be a two-way street, where even the employees are allowed to give feedback to their supervisors. GSF is an online version of StrengthsFinder where individuals can measure their strengths and talents, its tests are used for work and academic testing. Despite its global recognition, it has faced few criticisms. To achieve success the world must draw from the best. This strengths-based method has no impact on the faith of the employees and, The Salvation Army has embraced the use of this method and the businesses and organizations should embrace the use of this method to rip full benefits from the strengths of their employees.

 

 

 

 

References

Cultural Reader. (2014). Division of labor theory: Smith, Marx and Durkheim-summary. Retrieved from; http://culturalstudiesnow.blogspot.com/2014/06/division-of-labor-   theory-smith-marx-and.html

Fiedler, E. F. (1964). Contingency model of leadership effectiveness. Retrieved from;                            https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0065260108600519

Gagliardi, R. A., Webster, F., Perrier.L., Bell, M. & Straus, S. (2014). Exploring mentorship as a                     strategy to building capacity for knowledge translation research and practice: a        scoping systematic review. Retrieved from;    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25252966

Hodges, T. & Clifton, D. O. (2004). Strength-based development in practice. In A. Linley & S.    Joseph (Eds), Handbook of positive psychology in practice. Hoboken, New Jersey:           John Wiley and Sons, Inc.

In Berry, C. J., In Paganelli, M. P., & In Smith, C. (2013). The Oxford handbook of Adam Smith.

Juneja, P. (n.d). job rotation-meaning and objectives. Retrieved from;                           https://www.managementstudyguide.com/job-rotation.htm
Umstot, D., Mitchell, T., & Bell, C. (1978). Goal Setting and Job Enrichment: An Integrated       Approach to Job Design. The Academy of Management Review, 3(4), 867-879.   Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/257940

Kettner, G. (2017). 4 Reasons Why Giving and Receiving Performance Feedback is Important.    retrieved from; https://www.govloop.com/community/blog/4-reasons-giving-             receiving-performance-feedback-important

Morgan, G. (1998). Images of organization. San Francisco: Berrett-Koehler.

            Retrieved from; https://www.salvationarmy.org/fbf/tool2_6

Ternynck, J. (2015). 7 High-Impact Approaches for Employee Development. Retrieved from;                     https://www.google.com/search?q=4+approaches+of+employee+development&sa=                       X&ved=2ahUKEwj7oqCwgM_hAhWnx4UKHfSeCPoQ1QIoA3oECAoQBA&biw                    =816&bih=678

The Salvation Army (n.d). Identifying Strengths and Resources.

Toolkits. (2015). Accommodating Religion, Belief and Spirituality in the Workplaces. Retrieved   from; https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-  samples/toolkits/pages/accommodating-religion,-belief-and-spirituality-in-the-            workplace.aspx