Organizational Behaviour

Understanding employee needs

About this module

In this experiential learning module on Understanding Employee Needs, the learner will take on the role of team lead for a cross-functional team at Verden, a mid-sized media company. For the past year, Verden has been transitioning its offer away from paper-based publishing and physical products to digital products delivered via a subscription model. As a result, the company has begun to move many of its employees to a remote work environment.

The cross-functional team has assembled to evaluate how the transformation to a remote work environment has affected employees at the company. They will be asked to review an engagement survey that was completed before the switch to a remote workspace and identify themes that arose in the employees’ responses. From there, the learner and their team will contact a sample of employees to understand how their responses to the survey may have changed due to the shift to remote work. Ultimately, the learner will be responsible for looking at all of these results and proposing a recommendation on how the company should continue to operate.

Subject Matter Expert

The Ametros module was developed in collaboration with:
Dr. Deborah Hurst
Associate Professor of Work and Organizations,
Faculty of Business, Athabasca University

Learning objectives

Throughout this learning module, the learner will:
  • Identify the emotional challenges caused by the remote workspace
  • Analyze employee needs and determine whether they are being met
  • Ensure organization decisions are aligned with employees’ needs and perception of culture
  • Demonstrate an awareness of bias and openness to learning about one’s blindspots
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the impact on employee needs due to a shifting culture

Skills experienced and assessed

  • Leadership
  • Problem identification
  • Gathering Information
  • Emotional intelligence
  • Audience awareness
  • Challenging assumptions
  • Active listening
  • Reflection

Learning outcome

In this module, the learner will focus on developing their leadership skills in a transformative environment. They will learn how to gather relevant information, understand the perspective of their intended audience when creating messages, and demonstrate emotional intelligence.

Duration

The learning module will take learners 2 to 3 hours to complete.

Implementation options for higher education

Ametros modules can be easily integrated into an existing course or program via LTI 1.3.  Modules can be implemented in several ways including the following:

  1. The module can run asynchronously on-demand without instructor involvement.
  2. The module can run asynchronously with instructor involvement. The instructor can choose to provide additional student feedback at an interaction level.
  3. The module supports an optional instructor-graded assignment that is assessed using an easy-to-use, editable, integrated rubric. Feedback at the interaction level is optional for the instructor.