Mega Food Store Business Case and Environment Analysis - Dissertation Example

?(Methodology was not a part of the instruction) Critical Evaluation and Analysis Business case and environment Mega Food Store is a small and medium scale food retailer situated in Canada. The company is five years old and is situated in Canada. The company mainly provides groceries, food products, and ready to items. The company presently has one shop only at Calgary. The company has an HR and admin, marketing and sales, Finance and systems department. There are only two dedicated staffs belonging to the HR department. One of them looks after operations where as the other employee looks after recruitment and selection. However, the HR related works are still scattered across the various departments in the organization. However, the CEO of the company has other bigger and better plans. (As the next section says the plans referred tot he expansion plans. Please have a look. ) The CEO wanted to expand the company. The expansion is supposed to happen both in case of product line as well distribution, as the top management plans to open two more retail shops in the country; one in Calgary and another one in Toronto. Therefore the organization needs manpower both in case of quality and quantity. So the organization is going through a transformation phase. However, it is to be added that the employees of the company has not yet been informed about the proposed idea of change. In order to achieve the organizational objective the management has hired some new experienced faces. One of them happens to be the HR manger. This section of the study would look to analyze the way the HR manager dealt with the problems, solved them and effectively implemented the organizational change would be discussed. Data Collection The data collected happens to be secondary in nature. The main reason for such choice is the fact that the secondary data collection method is the best to gather quality and relevant data within a short period of time in a cost effective fashion. Also it is to be added that the secondary collected is primarily qualitative in nature. One of the main challenges faced by the HR manager was the integration of the HR department. As mentioned earlier the HR department had two staffs only looking after recruitment and operations. Also the HR works were scattered over the other departments. Therefore the HR manager realized that it is important have all the HR activities under one umbrella. Hence the HR manager decided to recruit some HR executives so that the HR functions can be integrated. Each of the HR executives was given responsibility to look after the HR issues related to issues of each department. Each of the executives will act as a touch point to the departmental heads. Each of the executives would be reporting to the HR manger. In this way the manger would be able to be in touch with the different departmental heads and also the HR department would become integrated in nature. The next area of focus for the HR manger was the employee morale and productivity. After analyzing the past employee records the manger found out that the average age of employees in the organization is six to eight months. This needs to be changed if the organization plans to achieve growth. Therefore the manager asked the HR executives to carry out an organizational research to find out the key pressure points. Based on the findings of the survey the manager found out that there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the reporting relationships and job security in the organization. Also many of the employees were not properly sure about the job description. Add to that the manger also found out that since the HR organizational did not have a fully operational HR department activities such as the performance appraisal, salary increments were quite fragmented in nature. Therefore the manger decided to create Key result areas (KRA) and job descriptions for each of the designations. This would most certainly help the employees understand the roles in the organization. The employees can understand what is expected of them and also the organization can judge the employees’ performance based on the predefined parameters. The manger also proposed a yearly performance appraisal system for all the employees. Another factor that the manger took into consideration was the reward and recognition process. Based on the findings of the survey the manager had found out that the employees were not happy with the present employee motivation schemes. Therefore in order to increase the rate or employee retention the manger decided introduce a formal employee incentive scheme that included both monetary and non monetary rewards. Another unique and creative strategy introduced by the manger was the employee stock option or ESOP. During initial process the manager had identified certain people who are likely to a major role in success of the organization. Hence it is important that the organization retain such employees. Hence the manager developed a communication plan to communicate how the targeted employees can be benefited from the ESOP plans. During the interactions with certain managers and executives the manger had figured it out that customer service training is required. Also it is to be remembered that organization is going through a process of change. Hence training and development can act as an effective tool in a way to communicate the change to the employees. Also it would be a great way to furnish the technical and interpersonal skills of the employees. The manger proposed that the company can outsource the training to another experienced group of consultants. The training was proposed to be carried out in pilot batches. In order to communicate the proposed plan the HR arranged a meeting with the CEO and all the other departmental heads. And after a long discussion the plan was approved keeping the long term objectives in mind. From the above analysis the role of the HR manger can be analyzed by using the IPMA model of HR roles. The manager played the role of a strategic partner, Employee champion, leader and change agent. The manager played the role of a strategic partner as the manager showed excellent organizational awareness by researching about the company background and interacting with key employees. The manger played the role of a leader as the manager was able to identify the key problems, chalk out a plan, and communicate the plan effectively and the get the approval of others. The manager proved to be an employee champion as he was able to understand the needs and psychology of the employees. In order to explain the role of the manager as a change agent Lewin’s three step models can be used. Kurt Lewin had proposed a three step-model to implement the process of change successfully in an organization. The proposed three steps are unfreezing, Movement and refreezing. Unfreezing is the process where the organizational members are made aware of the proposed change process. Here, the manager played very cautiously. Rather talking to the employees directly the manager respected the organizational hierarchy as communicated with the CEO and the departmental heads to get the approval of the plan. The plan was SMART in nature and hence it was accepted. Hereby it is to be mentioned that by this stage the manager had identified some of the key factors that can act as the forces against the change. Although there are various forces that can act against the changes in these can the manager had identified three main forces. Those forces were the fear of the unknown, lack of effective communication and fear of failure in new path. All the reasons were psychological. Now, the manger decided to move to the next phase, i.e. the movement phase. The main objective was to make the employees aware of the change that was going to happen. The HR manager met the employees of each department in pilot batches in the presence of the departmental heads. Here the manager first of all communicated the expansion plans of the company. Next the results of the organizational survey were brought about. And the plan that has been proposed was communicated. This acted as brilliant move as it removed the communication gap and made employees aware the benefits of the change. The last phase of the process is refreezing. Here the plan was successfully implemented. It included another meeting with employees in the presence of the CEO and the departmental heads. Here the Job descriptions and the KRA were communicated as well the employees were made aware of the new reporting mechanism.  Data Interpretation (As it has been said before the data collected is qualitative and secondary in nature. Hence inclusion of graphs and charts would not be necessary) As mentioned before the data collected has been secondary in nature. In February, 20010 BC Human Resource Management Association had carried out a survey on the current HR trends. Special focus was given to the organizational change and role of HR in the change. The results also indicated that in the upcoming financial years the job responsibilities of the human resource professionals would be focused on achieving change and making major impact and influence key areas to ensure that the organizational members understand the reason for change and respond to the changes as far as role needs and realities are concerned. Some of the key issues that are likely to emerge are going to be leadership development, training and development, performance management, employee engagement, manpower panning and succession planning. During the survey both local as well firms operating on international basis were considered. Here it needs to be mentioned that all the respondents belonged to the HR department one way or the other. Here are the brief of the results. Organizational Change & Re?structuring Focus Among the respondents 26% believed that organizational change and restructuring had been added to the job responsibilities (Figure 1). (These are the findings of an individual research and analysis and therefore would be a part of the interpretation part) Areas HR is focused on & Seeking to Change According the respondents over the course of the next twelve months or so the main areas of focus for the HR department is going to be economic fluctuations, organizational growth, leader capacity and arranging targeted training and development activities the reduce the gap between required and existing skills (Figure 2). (These are the findings of an individual research and analysis and therefore would be a part of the interpretation part) The respondents also believed that most of the time as well as the financial resources to be invested over the course of the next one year or so are going to be areas such as employee engagement and empowerment, staffing, labour relations, training and development (Figure 3). Implications for HR Professionals According to respondents the core areas on which the job responsibility of an HR professional would be focused upon includes needs for the change, initiating the process of change, providing leadership and guidance during the process of change and make sure that there is increase in the capacity of the organization to ensure that the talent pool of the organization will be best suited to respond to present and future organizational objectives. At the same point of time challenges and opportunities of organizational change and corporate restructuring are among the main issue of the human resource departments. Among the respondents 31% said that the organization has gone through organizational change in the last 12 months, 25% said the organizational management plan to go for change in the next 12 months, 35% said that organization has not gone through any changes, and 9% of the respondents said that the organization has not gone through any changes but the organizational management is planning to introduce change over the course on the next 12 months. In simple terms according 65% of the respondents, the respective organizations have gone through change in the last 12 months and (or) likely to go through change in the next 12 months.  (These are the findings of an individual research and analysis and therefore would be a part of the interpretation part) The respondents also felt that in order to assign time and resources the HR departments of respective organizations should have clear understanding of the strategic goal of the organization to indentify change requirements, understand potential and current skill level related to the probable change in leadership. The Hr professionals’ should also take appropriate measures to narrow down the gaps if required in order provide support to the management. The Hr departments should understand the talent pool of the organization and respective leadership needs. Thereby the company should look to develop a pool of talent that may have to lead the organization after the organization hoes through the process of change (Figure 4). Discussion (As per the instruction the discussion part should be used to ‘discuss the objectives in light of the results of' the data evaluation and analysis and in relation to the academic literature you reviewed”.) In order to achieve the objective of the study a food retail named Mega Food Store has been selected. This part will provide discussion and findings basis on the project objectives and analysis. The organization is currently operating with only one shop. The company has an HR and admin, marketing and sales, Finance and systems department. There are only two dedicated staffs belonging to the HR department. According to the CEO of the organization, the business objective of the organization is to expand their business area. They are tending to expand their organization in terms of product line and distribution. The HR related works are still scattered across the various departments in the organization. Therefore the organization needs manpower both in case of quality and quantity. So the organization is going through a transformation phase. Before implementing change, the organization should aware their employees about their change. The organization expansion and change should create some positive framework within the mind of employees, but unfortunately the employees of the company has not yet been informed about the proposed idea of change. The HR manager of the organization is currently facing major problems like integration of HR department. As it is discussed earlier that the HR works are scattered over the department, therefore, the manager decided to recruit skilled HR executives in order to integrate the HR functions. Each of the HR executives was given responsibility to look after the HR issues related to issues of each department. Moreover, they may act as a touch point to the departmental heads. It will surely boost the motivation level of the executives. After recruiting the executives, the managers keeping focus on the morale and productivity of the executives. After reviewing the records of pat employees, it is feasible that average of each employee in this organization is not more than one year. Based on the findings of the survey the manager found out that there is a lot of uncertainty regarding the reporting relationships and job security in the organization. Also many of the employees were not properly sure about the job description. It is the responsibility of the manager to overcome the HR related issues in order to extract the positive outcome. Eventually the manager proposed a yearly performance appraisal process for all the employees. Moreover, the manager took the initiative to conduct several training period in order to make the employees understand about the job role and the purpose and several objectives. Therefore in order to increase the rate or employee retention the manger decided introduce a formal employee incentive scheme that included both monetary and non monetary rewards. Another unique and creative strategy introduced by the manger was the employee stock option or ESOP. During initial process the manager had identified certain people who are likely to a major role in success of the organization. Kurt Lewin had proposed a three step-model to implement the process of change successfully in an organization. The proposed three steps are unfreezing, Movement and refreezing. Unfreezing is the process where the organizational members are made aware of the proposed change process. In terms of implementation of Levin’s Force Field Theory, the manager had controlled the matter very consciously. Rather talking to the employees directly the manager respected the organizational hierarchy as communicated with the CEO and the departmental heads to get the approval of the plan. The plan was SMART in nature and hence it was accepted. Here the manager have identified three major forces in order to implement change, such as fear of the unknown, lack of effective communication and fear of failure in new path. The results from the data collection have indicated that in the upcoming financial years the job responsibilities of the human resource professionals would be focused on achieving change and making major impact and influence key areas to ensure that the organizational members understand the reason for change and respond to the changes as far as role needs and realities are concerned. Several issues, such as leadership development, training and development, performance management, employee engagement, manpower panning and succession planning are likely to emerge. It is feasible from the data collection method that organizational change and restructuring process had been added significantly to job responsibilities. Employee motivation has become an important element of organizational change in present competitive world. Moreover, it has been also found out that the fissure between necessary and existing skills may be reduced by the impacts like, leader capacity, arranging targeted training and development activities, economic fluctuations and organizational growth. Employee engagement, strong employee relation with the organization management, training and development and staffing are the necessary factors for organizational change. Several respondents have several views over the topic. Major of the respondents have argued that core areas on which the job responsibility of an HR professional would be focused upon includes needs for the change, initiating the process of change, providing leadership and guidance during the process of change. It will make sure that there is increase in the capacity of the organization to ensure that the talent pool of the organization will be best suited to respond to present and future organizational objectives. Moreover, at the same point of time it has found out that significant opportunities and challenges of corporate restructuring and organizational changes are among the main issue of the human resource departments. Conclusion and Recommendations Against a background of growing workforce knowledge, drastic and rapid technological development, and shifting towards work practices, change has become a key feature of organisational life. However, while several organisations appreciate the organisational change, 70% of the organisation change programmes do not achieve their expected outcomes. There are different types of organizational change, such as, Development Change, Transitional, Change and Transformational Change. The HR mangers are usually responsible for recognizing the areas of change, influencing change and developing a system to ensure adaption of change within an organization and among all these it must be made sure that the moral of the employees is not negatively affected by the change or else the performance of the organization can be compromised. Development change takes place when an organization tends to improve their current business process. Transitional Change is more invasive comparing to the developmental change. It replaces existing procedures with something, which is completely new to the organization. Transformational Change takes place after the transition stage. Transformational change may develop both transitional and development change. Moreover, it has been also found out that the fissure between necessary and existing skills may be reduced by the impacts like, leader capacity, arranging targeted training and development activities, economic fluctuations and organizational growth. It is common for transitional and transformational and transitional change to occur in cycle. Kurt Zadek Lewin is a renowned psychologist is known as the founder of Social Psychology. He has proposed the Organization Force Field Theory of Change. It comprises three stages in change, such as, Unfreezing, Motivation and Refreezing. Unfreezing is the process where the organizational members are made aware of the proposed change process. Second stage is Motivation. Within this stage new practices and ideas are used to learn significantly. Refreezing means the learning of integrated practice in actual practice. The objective of this step is to be successful on OJP. IPMA Model of HR Roles helps to assist the HR professional to renovate the HR functions. This particular model has reputable a competency model. IPMA HR Model used to implement in order to significantly adopt the organizational change. This particular model is effective for HR training programmed, developing competencies for HR success. It helps the HR professionals to become Business Partner, leaders and change agents within the organization. The results from collected data have indicated that in the upcoming financial years the job responsibilities of the human resource professionals would be focused on achieving change and making major impact and influence key areas to ensure that the organizational members understand the reason for change and respond to the changes as far as role needs and realities are concerned. Several respondents have several views over the topic. Major of the respondents have argued that core areas on which the job responsibility of an HR professional would be focused upon includes needs for the change, initiating the process of change, providing leadership and guidance during the process of change. Employee engagement, strong employee relation with the organization management, training and development and staffing are the necessary factors for organizational change. Finally it can be recommended that significant opportunities and challenges of corporate restructuring and organizational changes are among the main issue of the human resource departments. Depending upon the conclusion of the study, few effective recommendation plans have been provided below. The human resource function should commit to the evaluation process, in collaborating with the major stakeholders as it will help to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the organization change process. The planned thinking competencies of every member within the human resource management team need to be analyzed annually. The administrative experts should use a benefit understanding process to investigate the quality and cost aspects of existing human resource system. The change agents should contribute more actively in the business unit’s conflict management. Last but not the least; the human resource functions need to be re-evaluating annually in order to adopt an effective change process. References Maylor, H. and Blackmon, K. 2005. Researching in Business and Management. London: Palgrave Macmillan Ridley, D. 2008. The Literature Review: a step by step guide for students. London: SAGE Publications Ltd. Robson, C. 2006. How to do a Research Project: a guide for undergraduate students, 1st ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Sekaran, U. and Bougie, R. (2009) Research Methods for Business: a skill building approach, 5th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Senscombe, M. 1998. The good research guide for small scale social research projects. Oxford: Open University Press. Simons, R., 2011. Human Resource Management: Issues, Challenges and opportunities. Florida: CRC Press. Walliman, N.S.R. 2004, (reprinted in 2009), Your Undergraduate Dissertation: the essential guide for success. London : SAGE Publications Ltd Appendices Figure 1: Challenges Having the Biggest Impact on HR in 2012 Figure 2 Challenges Having the Biggest Impact on HR in 2012 Figure 3: Largest Increase in Time or Spending in 2012 Figure 4 Organizational Change over the course of last and next 12 months Read More