Group Trust

As an employee, being able to trust management is a key component of job satisfaction and success. When employees become wary of management, can they ever believe in that organization again? Right now, the automotive industry has made drastic employee cuts in Michigan. How can the remaining employees carry out their job responsibilities effectively and work together in this type of distrusting environment? Many feel that the wealth of management is not being shared fairly among the companies' many workers.

I believe it will take a great deal of time for Michigan workers to begin to trust this industry enough to aspire to join it again. While cutting jobs will temporarily ease financial burdens, what these companies have ultimately lost is much more costly. The have sacrificed the morale of the very people who believed in these companies and who, through innovation and collaboration, could have potentially helped them move forward.

One way to measure organizational satisfaction is by designing assessments. Our group was given the task of creating a method for evaluating our satisfaction with our colleagues as well as our product. We decided that having a rating system as well as an open-ended comment area allowed us to both quantify our success and draw upon specific examples to cite successfulness as well as failure. In order for these types of results to be helpful, team members must be honest. Their answers should not differ whether the survey is anonymous or not. While anonymity can sometimes ensure honesty, I think it is best for each team member to take ownership of his or her opinions and observations. We should establish a safe space so that team members feel comfortable openly expressing their individual group observations. It is only through this type of interpersonal communication that a group can begin to become a team. It can also foster the type of collaboration and innovation that could possibly save an entire industry.