Chapter four provides an overview of the people as technology (PT) model and the five common values between people and technology. Location value represents power of position, power to generate revenue, power to leverage resources, and power to serve as a catalyst for change. Use value is created when leaders motivate employees to use their knowledge, skills, and abilities to help organizations succeed. Use value relates to the quality factor in a worker's productivity. Employee maintenance value is expressed through a combination of training and development, motivation, and health and wellness. Modification value of people looks at how employees grow and change through activities that employees use for self-development including education. Time value is often directed but not measured accurately relative to cost for the organization or the individual. The COVID-19 pandemic made it abundantly apparent that employees are indeed the most important asset in organizations and understanding their values matters.
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The vastly different workforce that has emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic has made it imperative that organizations understand the value of each individual employee. The myriad of generations in the workforce from Gen Z to Baby Boomers has required that positions become more flexible and suitable for each employee. When this was not occurring prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many workers simply tolerated the situations. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic and the many forced adjustments, workers have begun to take control of their own careers. They are resigning as a part of the Great Resignation of 2022, they are quiet quitting by only doing the minimum required of them on their jobs, they are becoming entrepreneurs and contributing to society as a part of the GIG economy, or they are retiring as early as possible to enjoy their lives. Some workers are working remotely from home or anywhere that allows them the technological access to complete their work.
Adequate and accurate feedback through performance appraisal systems in the workplace influences employees’ options for enrichment, vertical movement, lateral movement, realignment, relocation, and exploration of other potential location options. Stakeholders’ ethical decision making should not include the use of unreliable systems on employees who expect their leaders to make trustworthy and dependable choices for their career success.
According to Pfeffer (1992),
organizations have career systems in place that tend to reward and encourage activities and skills more generously than others…Therefore, those who rise to positions of influence and who benefit from this career system have a particular set of skills and have engaged in a particular set of activities – those favored by the system” (p. 318).
Employees must be cognizant of the organizational culture and seek to build and develop relationships within the organization’s career system. Are the culture and career systems ethical? Employees are essentially interdependent and rely on each other more in today’s work environments where teamwork is required and expected. Are the processes of determining team members ethical processes. “It is critical that one be able to diagnose the relative power of various participants and comprehend the patterns of interdependence. One needs to know and understand not only the game, but also the players” (Pfeffer, 1992, p. 49). These concepts are being challenged by the COVID-19 pandemic regarding where the employee needs to be to develop or maintain interpersonal relationships. Software such Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Webex have made virtual communication more accessible. Employees no longer need to be physically with each other in the workplace to communicate and develop interpersonal relationships.
Some organizations expect employees to work in teams and become a cohesive unit; however, the many personalities of team members require that motivation is sometimes needed to influence team unity. Definitions of motivation have three common denominators.
They are all principally concerned with factors or events that energize, channel, and sustain human behavior over time. In various ways, contemporary theories of work motivation derive from efforts to explicate with increasing precision how these three factors interrelate to determine behavior in organizations. (Steers et al., 2004, p. 379)
How do organization teams ethically energize, channel, and sustain team members’ behavior? According to Steers & Porter (1979), a generalized model of motivation requires needs or expectations, behavior, goals, and some form of feedback. Banks’ (2006) model incorporated all these elements and stressed that individuals address their personal goals and expectations.