Case study
Sara is a 29-year-old woman who worked at ABC hospital as a Mental Health Technician (MHT) for 1.5 year. In the beginning, Sara felt that the job was interesting and informative, but as time went on, the job and its environment began to affect Sara negatively. As an MHT, Sara was not given the opportunity to use the skills and knowledge she had acquired over time from her Associate of Arts degree, from her Family Development Credential, and from her 6.5 years of experience in Social Services. Initially, in the MHT position, Sara was permitted to chart on patients, which allowed Sara to engage in therapeutic conversations with the patients. These interactions with patients helped Sara to feel like she was making a difference.
After her first year however, a policy changes prohibited MHTs from charting on patients and mandated that such duties be done by licensed staff only. This restriction cut into the therapeutic aspect of the job substantially. MHTs responsibility of doing patient groups was also cut down to one community group in the mornings, a group meeting whose purpose was to go over rules and regulations. The new MHT position as a result of the change consisted of nothing more than observing patients and documenting their location every 15 minutes. This affected Sara greatly, as she felt the need to use her skills and experience and felt very overqualified and under-utilized in her position.
Sara’s compensation was also an issue. The hospital system that oversaw the mental division did not recognize educational milestones in Sara’s position. The AA that Sara already held had no bearing on her pay rate. Sara had also found out that when she would have obtained her BA in December, there would be no pay increase as a result. Yearly raises had also been minimal, with employees being told that they “should be thankful to have a job in this economy”, yet the hospital continued to make expensive aesthetic improvements to the hospital.
Sara’s supervisor was also someone who was hard to deal with. Known for having minimal people skills, the supervisor maintained a distance with staff members. She was difficult to talk to, intimidating, and hard to approach with personal or work concerns.
Sara had noticed that most of the time her attitude towards work had become negative. She dreaded getting up in the mornings to go to work and almost never smiled while she was there. Her affect at work was often that of boredom and disdain. She resented organizational rules and policies and how they were conducted at the hospital. She found that her stress level and negative attitude had started to spill over into her personal life. Also, where Sara was once a model employee on her performance review, with zero absences and zero tardiness, she now found herself not caring whether she was on time or not, or what her supervisor thought about her job performance.
About six months ago, a job offer for a Counselor-In-Training opened up at a nearby clinic. Although Sara wasn’t really looking for a change until graduation in December, she decided to interview and fortunately she ended up getting the job. Almost immediately, Sara’s stress levels stabilized, and her normal, pleasant affect returned. She also regained her positive attitude and began to once again care about her work. She became once again motivated to perform at her best.
In the new job, Sara was able to have one-on-one sessions with patients and she also learned to work with a new computer system. She really felt that her intelligence and skills were being utilized. This was extremely important to Sara The pay was a bit better, but Sara found out that she would be getting a substantial raise once she obtains her BA in Psychology. The administrator, Sara’s supervisor, was also kind and easy to talk to. Sara immediately felt comfortable there and felt that she could really begin to build her career at this organization.
Instructions:
· Read the case provided below that demonstrates issues and factors related to employee’s motivation and satisfaction.
· After reading the case, write a report (500-1,000 words) including the following:
1. A summary of the issues Sara was facing in her first job.
2. Explain the consequences of the changes made on Sara’s first job.
3. Discuss the factors that made her comfortable and satisfied with her new job and the consequences.
4. In your opinion, recommend five strategies that organizations should use to reduce turnover.
5. Cover page
6. The answers must be in your own words.