Busi 642 Discussion Board 3

Discussion Board 3

BUSI 642

Discussion Board 3

Part 1—Question 2

        In order for companies to be able to progress and develop over time in order to maintain a competitive advantage, organizations must invest in the growth and development of the employees. A vital part of employee growth and development are the conversations that management has with employees about goals and performance.  However, in order for the employee growth and development process to be effective, management must also be skilled in managing and developing their employees rather than simply having the technical knowledge necessary to be skilled in a certain field. Management must be able to identify their employees’ skills and motivations in order to determine how they can be used to achieve organization objectives. In order to do this, management must be able to clearly outline organizational expectations of behavior and performance, consistently monitor and assess employee performance, give constructive criticism and feedback regularly, implement action plans to correct poor performance, and encourage employees to take on new challenges as they master their current roles (Gillen, 2007).

In many cases, technical managers are naturally introverts, so it may take a great deal of training to develop the people skills necessary to truly be an affective manager; however, the investment in that training can increase management’s knowledge of the development process. Increased knowledge of the development process can help employees develop their skills and knowledge to further help achieve organizational objectives (McLoughlin, 2007). The investment that employers must make in ensuring that technical managers also have people skills can be equated to 2 Corinthians 9:6 (ESV), which states, “The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully.”

Part 2—Question 1

Employers are implementing policies that require employees to adopt healthier lifestyles because there can be benefits to both the employer and employee. According to Mello and Rosenthal (2008), 91 percent of employers believe that encouraging employees to adopt healthier lifestyles can reduce health insurance costs. Employees that live unhealthier lifestyles are more likely to incur health problems and high medical expenses, which in turn increases their employers’ health insurance premiums. Moreover, employees with health problems are more likely to be absent from work, which may decrease employer productivity and increase costs related to paying other employees overtime for having to cover for absent employees. Johnson & Johnson has benefited from a wellness program that was introduced in 1979, which provided employees with financial rewards for completing annual health-behavior surveys and reducing their health risks. Before the incentive program was implemented, only two out of ten workers completed the annual survey, but between 1995 and 1999 after the program had been implemented for a while, employees reduced their health risks and the company was able to reduce annual medical expenses by $225 per employee (Finkelstein & Kosa, 2003).