A CASE-STUDY OF EMPLOYEES’ PERCEPTIONS ABOUT ORGANIZATION, LEADERSHIP & TEAMWORK

Abstract

It is often said that perceptions are stronger than reality. How people perceive things affect their actions, behavior and decision-making process. There may be a gap between how things are and how people view them. Emotions, personality, environment, culture and numerous other factors shape one’s acuities. Perceptions are loosely defined as the way people understand and interpret things around them. In the context of organizations, how its employees view their leadership and peers, affect their perception about the performance of their organization.

The aim of this study is to assess employees’ perceptions about leadership and teamwork and whether or not, these perceptions affect their views about the performance of an organization. Performance of a team largely depends upon its leadership. The underlying assumption is that if the leadership is good, the teamwork is good. If the teamwork is good, the performance of an organization is also good. Our hypothesis is to see if there is a significant relationship amongst all three:, teamwork, leadership and organizational performance.

For the purpose of this research, Shaheen Air Port Services (SAPS) was chosen as the company of interest. It provides ground handling services at the major airports of Pakistan, catering to the needs of national and international airlines. The company was established in 1981 as a subsidiary of Pakistan Air Force (PAF), for the welfare of its retired employees. Almost the entire workforce is recruited from the PAF. Officers are employed at the managerial (leadership) positions, whereas the technicians are taken in the technical and skilled cadre. Company’s activities are divided into core functions and support functions. Ramp, Cargo and Operations fall under core functions, whereas: Accounts, Administration and Quality Assurance (QA) come under support. Although this division is not a formal setup, this is how company’s working philosophy has evolved overtime. During the administering of the survey tool, it was attempted to have equitable representation from all the functions. A combination of both quantitative and qualitative research types were chosen to undertake the study. Quantitative part was used to acquire personal data of the employees, while the qualitative-research was meant to gauge their perceptions. A three-part, closed-ended questionnaire was designed on the basis of Likert-scale. The questionnaire was administered in a single sitting to all the core and support departments. Convenience-sampling was done, and a sample-size of 5% was chosen to represent the target-population. Since the furnishing of personal data was optional, no one chose to reveal their identity. The format of the questionnaire was kept in reverse order. That is, first the respondents were asked about their views of the company. Then the second portion was aimed at finding how they felt about the leadership and that if the leadership is responsible for the company’s success or failure. The last part was meant to reveal employees’ views about the teamwork. The idea was to connect the dots backwards. That is, whether or not there is a connection between organizational performance with leadership, and the effect of leadership on teamwork.

SPSS Tool was used to analyze data. Frequencies, One-Way ANOVA and Correlations were applied to find out about: employees’ views, their relationships with departments and experience-levels, and the link of three parts of the research focus with one another. Findings from the frequencies revealed that majority of employees viewed positively about organizational performance, leadership and teamwork. Recommendations are made at the end of study. From One-Way ANOVA it was revealed that core departments had a more positive view of all the three focus areas, whereas the support departments had an overall divisive view. So there is a direct relationship between all the three areas. If feedback is positive about one aspect, views about others are also positive, and the converse is true as well. Correlations testing have shown that there is significant and direct relationship between all the three groups. Hence the hypothesis that there is significant relationship between organizational performance, leadership and teamwork holds true.

Human resource is a strategic asset for the company. Organizations which understand the importance of this asset also yield higher dividends. At the same time, dynamics of teamwork and expectations from the leadership can also make this aspect equally challenging. The target company may utilize this study to sharpen its focus where it’s needed and positively reinforce where it is strong. Findings of this study may also be utilized for subsequent studies.