Leaders struggle with meeting key performance indicators while keeping the values of the company intact. Company A operates as most companies in its industry operate when adding new customers and servicing existing customers. The measure for success in the industry is new service activations. Corporate leadership states that all services should be added, with the customer knowing the services are optional. Corporate leadership provides training to personalize the sale to each customer, offering services the individual customer needs. The leadership also places pressure on adding new services to each transaction. Middle management encourages the employees to include all services in one bundled price while telling the customer that this price includes x, y, and z, which leads the customer to believe there is no option to remove a service.

            This behavior causes customers to leave the corporation because their bills are high. The intrinsic rewards of feeling good about a job by fitting a plan to the customer's needs are not fulfilled. Employees get disciplined and sometimes terminated when customers complain about services, they did not know about that were added to their accounts. Company A has investigations every few years to expose employees who add services that are unknown to customers. Mid-level managers are stuck in the contingent reward management style, where employees are rewarded for adding services and disciplined for not adding enough services, regardless of customer needs (Colquitt et al., 2021, p.1189). There needs to be more consistency between the values the corporate leadership desires and the information the mid-level managers give the employees. 

            Leaders of Company A need to change the disconnect between the values accepted by leadership and the experience that the customers face when they sign up for service or call with a customer service question. Complacency and a lack of motivation to adapt to new behavior patterns hinder change (Hernandez-Mogollan, R. et al., 2010, 2.1). Commonly accepted statements such as the plan is this price. It includes x, y, and z should be changed to explain what x, y, and z are, and x, y, and z are optional. Financial targets for additional services should adjust to a goal that allows flexibility for customer needs. Employees should be rewarded for customer satisfaction and retention. The terms bundling and all-in-one pricing should not be a part of the company rhetoric.

Corporations face scrutiny for poor workmanship in manufacturing, poor customer service, and unethical practices in financial reporting. Leaders face challenges in meeting expectations of production for investors while maintaining the values of the organization.           

References:

Tatesei, J. (N.D.) retrieved on 04/28/24 from Unsplash Jukan Tateisi

@tateisimikito

Colquitt, J. A., LePine, J. A., & Wesson, M. J. (2021). Organizational behavior: Improving performance and commitment in the workplace (7th ed.). McGraw-Hill.

Hernández-Mogollon, R., Cepeda-Carrión, G., Cegarra-Navarro, J., & Leal-Millán, A. (2010). The role of cultural barriers in the relationship between open-mindedness and organizational innovation. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 23(4), 360-376. doi:https://doi.org/10.1108/09534811011055377