Employees’ attitudes to job directly influence their working behavior and performance. As a result, the main task of an effective manager is to create conditions for employees that contribute to their satisfaction, commitment to the organization, and motivation because these aspects lead to the perfect performance (Vaiman, Scullion, & Collings, 2012, p. 926). Referring to the strategies and experience used at the Boston Consulting Group in order to increase the employees’ motivation and performance, it is possible to state that the company is an obvious leader in providing consultancies regarding the effective managerial practices and in implementing the most efficient approaches in organizing the company’s work.
Difference between Job Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment
Although in organizations the ideas of job satisfaction and commitment are closely connected, it is important to focus on differences characteristic for these concepts. Job satisfaction can be discussed as the employees’ positive work attitude and emotions associated with the state of being satisfied with work conditions, rewards, or responsibilities. Thus, job satisfaction depends on the employees’ feelings regarding such dimensions of the work as duties, compensation, promotion, management, and relations with coworkers (Nelson & Quick, 2015, p. 58). In its turn, organizational commitment is the attitude associated with the employee’s identification with a certain company (Nelson & Quick, 2015, p. 61). In this case, an employee does not only satisfy individual needs but also discusses oneself as the part of the organization for which this employee is ready to work effectively. Thus, if the level of job satisfaction influences the employee’s motivation, organizational commitment influences the employee’s performance as the orientation to the further progress in this company.
Focusing on the performance at the Boston Consulting Group, it is important to state that employees’ job satisfaction is the priority for developing managerial practices in the organization because managers of the Boston Consulting Group see the relations between job satisfaction, organizational, commitment, motivation, and performance as a chain (Boston Consulting Group, 2007, p. 4). Therefore, influencing employees’ satisfaction, providing flexible schedules, reasonable rewards, and extensive training, it is possible to increase motivation and contribute to commitment. As a result, the employees’ performance improves because all the employees’ needs and interests are addressed (Shahid & Azhar, 2013, p. 251). From this point, job satisfaction is discussed in the company as prior to commitment, and to affective commitment in particular.
Evaluation of the Company with References to Motivational Theory and Performance Management Principles
The focus on satisfying the employees’ needs at the Boston Consulting Group is supported with the motivational theory developed by David McClelland who identified three basic needs influencing the employees’ motivation and work behavior. According to McClelland’s theory of needs, employees’ work depends on addressing their need for achievement associated with excellence in performance; the need for power associated with influencing people; and the need for affiliation associated with developing warm relations (Nelson & Quick, 2015, p. 76). It is possible to state that this motivational theory is effectively applied to the managerial practices developed for the employees of the Boston Consulting Group because of the specifics of their work. Thus, those persons who focus on satisfying their needs for power are usually selected to take the leading or managerial positions in the company. Furthermore, discussing the work behaviors of consultants in the company, it is significant to note that managers effectively use differences in the employees’ focus on needs for achievement and affiliation. In order to increase the motivation of employees and to contribute to higher performance results, it is important to distribute the responsibilities and clients between consultants of the Boston Consulting Group depending on their high levels of the need for achievement or the need for affiliation. Thus, the approach followed in the company to increase motivation and improve performance can be discussed as rather effective.
The Boston Consulting Group also works to advance the approach to performance management. The effectiveness of performance management depends on the successes in appraising, providing feedback, and in correcting the undesired performance (Nelson & Quick, 2015, p. 93). The managers of the Boston Consulting Group guarantee the validity and reliability of their performance assessments while collecting the information regarding the employees’ work from different sources, including measurements, supervisors’ comments, coworkers’ comments, and focusing on the actual work results. Depending on the quality of the conducted appraisal, managers refer to the idea of flexibility to make necessary changes in the strategy. Responsiveness is the other important aspect because all employees should receive the feedback in order to use the opportunity to improve their performance (Manget, Roche, & Munnich, 2009, p. 5). The 360-degree feedback is the basic system followed at the Boston Consulting Group, but the specialists of the company also developed a range of other techniques to provide the support for their clients in the sphere of management.
Conclusion
Job satisfaction should be discussed as the main factor influencing performance of employees in the Boston Consulting Group. Therefore, managers focus on organizing the employees’ work according to the principles of flexibility and pay much attention to satisfying their specific needs in order to add to job commitment and improve performance. In this case, strategies of performance management serve to identify strengths and weaknesses in the employees’ work and areas for the further improvement.
References
Boston Consulting Group. (2007). The future of HR: Key challenges through 2015. Dusseldorf: The Boston Consulting Group.
Manget, J., Roche, C., & Munnich, F. (2009). Capturing the green advantage for consumer companies. Boston, MA: The Boston Consulting Group.
Nelson, D. L., & Quick, J. C. (2015). Organizational behavior. Mason, OH: Cengage.
Shahid, A., & Azhar, S. (2013). Gaining employee commitment: Linking to organizational effectiveness. Journal of Management Research, 5(1), 250-268.
Vaiman, V., Scullion, H., & Collings, D. (2012). Talent management decision making. Management Decision, 50(5), 925-941.