A management action research for improving the attendance monitoring of Aqua 2000 Water Refilling Station - Don Quijote Branch

• Main Author: Fabila, Maria Kathleen Eula M.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Industrial management; Supervision of employees
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_masteral/5829
• Institution: De La Salle University

In this action research paper, I focused to address the issue in our family business which my family and I collaboratively identified which is the lack of adequate and proper monitoring of attendance. Manifestations of lack of adequate and proper monitoring of attendance include: frequent complaints of employees about committed errors (under or overstated) in the computation of their salaries, frequent tardiness of employees resulting to customers complaints concerning late delivery of orders specifically those that are scheduled for delivery in the morning, erasures, missed, late and incomplete attendance logs. This action research was developed with the objectives to aim such as, (1) to generate an accurate, reliable and complete attendance record as basis in the preparation of payroll of employees; (2) to avoid errors in the computation of salaries; (3) to improve the monitoring of attendance; and (4) to decrease the frequency of tardiness of employees and customer complaints to achieve on-time delivery of orders to customers. Our goal is to achieve employee compliance on attendance policy and provide better customer service. As an insider action researcher, data generation comes through active involvement in the day-to-day organization process relating to the action research project (Coghlan and Brannick, 2014). In this action research, I applied the triangulation of data such as informal talks, meetings, telephone conversation, and attendance records. In addressing our issue, we were guided by the Internal Control Framework by Chow (2005) as adapted to the Internal Control Integrated Framework by COSO to come up with our interventions. We also used the Lewins Change Model to effectively initiate the change in our business. In this action research, we completed two action research cycles and implemented two set of interventions that addressed our lack of adequate and proper monitoring of attendance, namely: (1) Establishment of Control Mechanisms and (2) Strengthening the Established Control Mechanisms through Automation. For these two interventions, we were able to come up with activities such as division of duties and responsibilities among the management team, assignment of additional task to an employee, meetings/huddle/briefing/discussion, use of the biometrics and inspection or evaluation. These activities were successful in achieving the objectives and highlighted the importance of control and commitment from everyone in addressing the issue. This action research made me realized that having adequate monitoring of all areas in our business is a must in order for our business to ensure efficiency and maintain productivity not just in the operations but also in the administration. In this regard, control is established and objectives are achieved.