Introduction
Ford Motor Company has been in the business of selling commercial vehicles and automobiles since its incorporation in 1903. Globally, it is the fifth-largest automaker after VW, Toyota, General Motors and Hyundai-Kia (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016). Presently, the company’s core products include luxury vehicles, automobiles, automotive parts, and commercial vehicles. Besides this, the company is also involved in the provision of services such as vehicle service, vehicle leasing, and automotive finance. By December 2017, Ford Motor Company had an employee base of 202,000 spread across its facilities and plants worldwide (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). This paper seeks to highlight a professional development program for consideration by Ford Motor Company CEO. In particular, the proposed plan will detail how emotional intelligence (EI) and new incentive program will help foster teamwork, strengthen international relationships, enhance communication, and increase overall performance at Ford Motor Vehicle.
EI and Motivation
According to Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, (2016), emotional building blocks are the crucial basic emotional skills of an individual that can help build up emotional intelligence capability. Therefore, for the management at Ford Motor Vehicle to enhance employee performance and boost job satisfaction, then the emotional building blocks are vital for the attainment of this course (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). Emotional self-awareness, self-perception, self-actualization, and self-regard are the crucial building blocks that should be explored by the company to enhance the performance of their employees and subsequent job satisfaction.
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In this essence, it should be noted that self-actualization entails the ability of a person to significantly improve themselves and at the same time be aware to pursue important objectives and goals. Whereas self-regard is manifested in the ability of a person to accept his/her weakness or strength, emotional self-awareness outlines the ability of a person to be aware and understand their feelings as well as the subsequent impact (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). On the other hand, self-perception and leadership depict the ability of a person to comprehend their leadership capabilities and self-image. These are the crucial building blocks of emotional intelligence that should be considered by the Ford Motor Company management to enhance performance and job satisfaction of their employees.
Based on this analysis, emotional intelligence plays a crucial role when it comes to motivating employees. This is attributed to the fact that the success of an individual is inherently influenced by essential personal qualities such as self-control, perseverance and the appropriate skills of getting along with others. It is for this reason that workers with high emotional intelligence can work comfortably in teams, flexible and able adjust to changes smoothly. Irrespective of academic qualifications, lack of certain emotional intelligence qualities may hinder the success of such a person (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016). For the case of Ford Motor Company, enhancement of emotional intelligence qualities will be crucial in the entire framework adopted to motivate its employees. As the automotive industry continues to evolve, it is expected that new technologies and innovations will characterize the routine operations of the company. In this regard, it will be increasingly crucial for the Ford Motor Company to adjust to such changes and compete favorably in the automotive industry if it employees have essential emotional intelligence qualities (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). This implies that in all approaches adopted to boost job satisfaction and performance of employees, the Ford Motor company should emphasize on the building blocks of emotional intelligence such as emotional self-awareness, self-perception, and leadership, self-regard as well as self-actualization. For instance, the company can boost job performance among its employees by setting goals and objectives to be attained at the end of a given period. In the course of carrying out its routine auto manufacturing operations, the Ford Motor Company can also create self-awareness among its employees for them to understand their feelings and the impact to the performance of the company (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016). Such an approach will help in ensuring that the employees recognize the crucial role they perform in a company and the perception of the company towards them. Similarly, the Ford Motor Company can also encourage practices and roll out programs aimed at encouraging employees to accept their weakness and strengths, thus boosting their motivation and subsequent job performance and job satisfaction.
Based on the conducted research on motivational theory, positive reinforcement can be used as a motivational tool for the purpose of rewarding individuals upon doing something good. In the workplace environment, such a motivation tool can be utilized by the management when the employees perform excellently beyond the expectation of a company (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). On an additional note, positive reinforcement motivation tool can also be utilized by the management to encourage the performance of tasks allocated to a group of employees. Therefore, it can be used by the management to promote the spirit of competition among its employees. For instance, the Ford Motor Company can utilize positive reinforcement to motivate its employees by giving them bonuses upon completion of certain tasks in the routine auto manufacturing operations conducted by the company.
Besides this, negative reinforcement is another motivation tool that can be utilized by the management. In this case, it is characterized by penalizing employees for doing a specific task poorly (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016). In the workplace environment, negative reinforcement can be utilized by the management to motivate the employees who may be performing poorly in their respective duties. Similarly, it can also be utilized among employees who are reluctant to carry out the expected compulsory duties in their place of work. Alternatively, negative reinforcement as a motivation tool can also be used among employees when they break procedures and policies laid down by the company. For instance, the Ford Motor Company can utilize negative reinforcement by penalizing its employees who report late to work.
EI and Social Skills and Decision Making
Emotional intelligence is characterized by the ability and attributes of an individual to influence, communicate, accept change and initiate change. In particular, such core building blocks responsible for this include self-confidence, self-awareness, commitment, and integrity, as well as self-control. In this regard, conducted studies have established that emotional intelligence has a direct impact on the leadership ability of an individual. As the key dimension of emotional intelligence, self-awareness has unique behavioral attributes since it helps a person in gaining their confidence and focusing on self-assessment (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016). For the case of self-management, it primarily focuses on trustworthiness, self-control, innovation, and adaptability. On the other hand, motivation will help in ensuring that all the set goals are fulfilled. In this case, motivation entails aspects such as commitment, achievement drive, optimism and initiative (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). Empathy is another key dimension of emotional intelligence. In this case, it is characterized by the ability of a person to understand the feelings, desires, and needs of others. Alternatively, social skills on its case help in effective interaction with others and also maintaining good relations.
The highlighted core concepts of emotional intelligence have the capability of enhancing decision making efficacy as well as social skills of any given management team. In this case, self-awareness, self-management, motivation, empathy and social skills will help enhance decision making efficacy and social skills of the Ford Motor Company management team by helping the management team to cope with the arising stressful situations in the course of running the routine operations of the company (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). This is because the outlined core concepts of emotional intelligence will help the management team in navigating through such situations by specifically taking care of their body mentally and physically, thus ensuring that they are in the right mindset to successfully solve all the emerging stressful situations. Furthermore, the outlined core concepts of emotional intelligence can also enhance decision-making and social skills of the management team by influencing their perspectives towards life. In this regard, aspects such as empathy, self-awareness, motivation, and self-management can help the management team comfortably cope with different situations arising in the work environment such as depression, anxiety, and mood swings. In normal circumstances, dealing with such situations will require an individual to have a positive attitude for amicable resolution of such cases that may be faced by the management team in the course of carrying out their routine duties and responsibilities. However, having positive attitudes on the individual level among the management team will depend on their high levels of emotional intelligence (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). Additionally, core concepts of emotional intelligence such as empathy, social skills, motivation, self-awareness and self-management will enhance decision-making efficacy and social skills among the management team at the Ford Motor Company by helping improve the communication process between them and other employees working in different departments at the company (Magnano, Craparo, &Paolillo, 2016). Therefore, through such improved communication, the management team will be better placed to manage and understand emotions. Such kind of understand exhibited between the management team and the employees will play a crucial role in building a strong relationship and even improving on the scope of interaction between the company’s management team and other employees.
Emotional intelligence aspects such as empathy, self-awareness, and social skills can help enhance the scope of decision making and even social skills by improving the company’s management team understand the feelings and the needs of others (Shekar & Suganthi, 2015). For instance, a stronger relationship will be built between the company’s management team and the employees once the management shows concerns to the needs and feelings of the employees. Such a framework of interaction means that the employees will be free to approach the management whenever they have any pressing issue that needs to be brought to the attention of the management team. As a result, this will mean that both the management and the employees are entirely to socially relate with each other freely in the course of undertaking their respective duties and responsibilities. Furthermore, emotional intelligence also plays a crucial role by helping in the revolution and avoidance of conflicts (Njoroge, &Yazdanifard, 2014). This is attributed to the fact that it enhances understanding the needs of others. For instance, by understanding the needs of company employees, the management team will be in the pole position to avoid conflict with them and also even craft the appropriate framework of resolving the conflict that may occur in the course of their interaction. This is primarily attributed to social skills and decision-making efficacy developed by the management team due to their higher emotional intelligence (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016). Furthermore, emotional intelligence can also enhance decision making efficacy and social skills among the management team at the Ford Motor Company by acting as an internal motivator, thus increasing self-confidence among the management teams. In this essence, the management team will develop confidence and make the right decisions aimed at achieving the targeted goals at the end of a given period.
In this regard, it is important to note that emotional intelligence is an important social skill that will be required by the management team to hand and effectively influence the emotions of others (Njoroge, & Yazdanifard, 2014). As such, the highlighted core concepts of emotional intelligence can be utilized by the management team to enhance their respective social skills and even the efficacy of the made decisions. Therefore, they are of great importance not only to the management but also to the employees and the company altogether to improve its performance.
Effective Teams
Good leadership, focus on results and goals, organization, diverse membership and effective communication are the core attributes of an effective team. In this case, a team will be required to set goals based on the results and outcomes. As such, adopting a clear plan will play a key role in ensuring that the team can achieve the set goals and objectives. On the other hand, diverse membership is another core attribute of an effective team. This is attributed to the fact at individuals are unique, and the diversity of their experiences will be crucial in enhancing the performance of a team (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016). Nonetheless, good leadership is a key ingredient of an effective team. In this case, a good team should have an effective leader who is respected and trusted by all team members. Furthermore, encouraging communication in a team will facilitate the sharing of ideas, thoughts, and opinion among team members. In this regard, such an approach is crucial to ensure that the team members work efficiently together.
On the other hand, the definition of roles and responsibilities is the core strategy that will be employed to develop team dynamics (Shekar & Suganthi, 2015). As such, this will be enhanced by creating a team cheater defining the objectives, mission, and responsibilities of every team member. Furthermore, focusing on communication is another key strategy that will be deployed to develop team dynamics. In particular, this will be achieved by ensuring that every person communicates clearly with other team members.
Reward Systems
Facilitating professional development an appropriate reward system that should be considered by the organization. Besides being used as a show of reward by the company to its employees, it will also help employees to expand their knowledge and skills, thus being able to serve the company better. Furthermore, the organization can also provide an appropriate path for employees to monitor their progress independently (Magnano, Craparo, & Paolillo, 2016) . Such an approach will help boost autonomy and self-responsibility among the employees.
References
Magnano, P., Craparo, G., &Paolillo, A. (2016). Resilience and Emotional Intelligence: which role in achievement motivation. International Journal of Psychological Research , 9 (1), 9-20.
Njoroge, C. N., &Yazdanifard, R. (2014). The impact of social and emotional intelligence on employee motivation in a multigenerational workplace. Global Journal of Management And Business Research .
Shekar, S. C., &Suganthi, L. (2015). Evaluation of workplace training: the role of emotional intelligence, self-esteem, motivation and achievement. International Journal of Business Excellence , 8 (6), 798-816.
