Workforce 2020 Executive Report - DHSOS - Assignment Example

? Workforce 2020 Executive Report - DHSOS Table of contents Summary 3 Introduction 3 2. DHSOS – Presentation and analysis of key organizational trends 4 2.1 Organizational structure 4 2.2 Workforce diversity 5 2.3 Market/ customer diversity 5 2.4 Communications technology 6 3. Future trends – forecast 6 3.1 Economic, social, demographic, and workforce parameters that are expected to be in the U.S. in the year 2020 6 3.2 What are the general trends in leadership/management that are impacting your organization? 7 4. Recommendations – changes needed for the future in order for the organization to meet the expected challenges of 2020 8 4.1 Leadership actions that the organization should take 8 4.2 Competencies that will be needed 9 4.3 What does the organization need to do to be prepared? 10 References 11 Summary The standardization of organizational performance in the long term is a challenging task. Firms that tend to perform high on annual basis may face periods of downturns; this phenomenon has been related to problems in the organization’s internal environment, especially in regard to the leadership style and the workforce structure. Managers in DHSOS, a medium-size firm of the US computer industry, face the following dilemma: should they try to support the firm’s existing leadership practices or they should promote major changes in regard to the firm’s leadership style and workforce structure? The first choice has been considered as rather risky; the second one, i.e. the emphasis on changes on the specific sectors has been chosen. The particular plan can secure, at higher level, the limitation of a series of organizational problems that would result to severe delays in the firm’s performance up to 2020. 1. Introduction The ability of an organization to survive in the modern market is depended on certain criteria. Issues, such as the organization’s leadership style, its workforce diversity but also the quality and the level of communication are critical for the long-term success of the organization in its industry. On the other hand, in high competitive industries, the challenges for organizations of all sizes can be significant, at least compared to less competitive industries. DHSOS is one of the most promising firms in the computer industry in USA. The firm focuses on the provision of IT consultancy services in large firms. The firm was first established in New York in March of 2009, i.e. about 3 years before. During this time, the firm has managed to develop its customer base at least by 80%, a fact that it is quite promising for the firm’s performance in the future. Currently, the firm’s employees are estimated to 540, across the firm’s branches in New York, Chicago and Illinois. Up to the end of 2011, the firm’s performance seemed to be continuously developed, with no sign of a potential downturn. However, during the first half of this year, the firm seems to be unable to control employee performance, which tends to change unexpectedly leading to important losses, as compared to the same period of last year. A careful review of the organization’s key trends, such as its structure, its leadership style and its workforce characteristics leads to the assumption that a series of changes need to be made in regard to the particular organizational sectors. These changes are highlighted in this paper, which can be used, as a manual for the firm’s workforce needs by 2020. 2. DHSOS – Presentation and analysis of key organizational trends 2.1 Organizational structure Since its establishment, DHSOS has been a highly centralized organization. In fact, its leadership style can be characterized as autocratic. The leader of the organization sets the key criteria on which workforce structure and employee performance would be evaluated. Moreover, the promotion of team – work within the organization is rather limited. Tasks are assigned to individuals are need to be completed by them, usually without cooperation with other colleagues. This practice has resulted, in many cases, to delays in the completion of organizational projects. In the past, at least up to the end of 2011, this practice had proved successful, despite its weaknesses. Individuals could promote their own ideas but only periodically; following the organization’s rules and respecting organizational hierarchy have been two key trends in regard to the organizational structure. It should be also noted that the firm’s branches in Chicago and Illinois were under the close monitoring of the firm’s central unit, in New York. This practice has often led to conflicts due to the existence of different views in regard to the firm’s daily operations. 2.2 Workforce diversity The lack of workforce diversity has been considered as one of the firm’s major problems, as related to the reduction of employee performance in all the firm’s branches since January of 2012. Indeed, individuals with specific characteristics/ demographics seem to be chosen in the organization’s hiring process: male individuals, between 25 and 32 years old, of high educational background, meaning a degree in a well known US university, represent about the 95% of the organization’s workforce, a fact that can be considered as the firm’s disadvantage. Indeed, the limitation of the organization’s profits by 12% in the first half of 2012, as compared to the same period of 2011, has been related to the workforce inefficiencies of the organization, especially the lack of workforce diversity. It should be also noted that native – born Americans represent the highest percentage, about 98%, of the firm’s workforce. 2.3 Market/ customer diversity Another important disadvantage of the organization has been related to its low market/ customer diversity. As noted before, the firm currently operates in the IT consultancy industry. However, it has limited its market/ customer base through the following practice: the firm supports only large firms, possibly considering that few contracts of high value are preferable from many contracts of low value. However, this practice has resulted to the limitation of the firm’s potentials to expand; also, customer loyalty in regard to the firm’s existing customers seems to be limited, another fact that has been related to the reduction of the firm’s profits during the first half of 2012. 2.4 Communications technology In terms of communication, the organization can be characterized as quite successful; the firm has developed an advanced social networking scheme which is used both internally and externally, i.e. for the firm’s internal and external communication needs, meaning especially the firm’s communication with its customers. In this way, customers’ requests and complaints are handled within an extremely short time period. This practice can be considered as the firm’s key advantage towards its competitors, most of which have not yet developed, at least not fully, such communication schemes. 3. Future trends – forecast 3.1 Economic, social, demographic, and workforce parameters that are expected to be in the U.S. in the year 2020 By 2020, important changes are expected in regard to the demographic, economic and social characteristics of USA. In a relevant research, it has been proved that by 2000, the country’s population reached’ the 281 millions and is expected to be increased by 50-80 million by 2020’ (US Census Bureau 2002). In terms of the country’s social life, the following fact should be highlighted: the social characteristics of USA by 2020 are expected to change since the number of foreigners in the country will be increased, resulting to the development of foreign cultures across USA (US Census Bureau 2002). As of its economy, USA is expected ‘to dominate the world economy by 2020, at the same level as currently’ (David, 2005), a fact that guarantees the high performance of the country’s industries, at least compared to other countries worldwide which are less capable of keeping the competitiveness of their economy high. Emphasis should be given on the trends in regard to workforce in USA by 2020. According to Altman (2002), ‘between 2000 and 2020 the rate of increase of workforce in USA will be just 16%, while for the years between 1980 and 2000 it has reached the 50%’ (Altman 2002). Moreover, it seems that ‘the number of native-born workers between 25 and 54 will not be increased between 2000 and 2020’ (Altman 2002). The above findings lead to concerns in regard to the promotion of diversity in the workplace, justifying partially the practice of DHSOS to prefer native – born Americans than foreigners. 3.2 What are the general trends in leadership/management that are impacting your organization? In its current form, the leadership style in DHSOS seems to be aligned with the McGregor theory, which ‘assumes that there are people who dislike work and they need to be continuously controlled’ (Pardeep 2010, p.475). Indeed, in DHSOS the treatment of employees seems to threaten high employee performance: it is made clear to employees that the leader need to continuously control their activities and performance, so that the firm’s performance is secured. However, this practice has led, as explained above, to the opposite result. On the other hand, the current leadership trends in the US computer industry, as also in most industries across USA, seem to promote the following practice: the leader supports employees in regard to their daily tasks. In other words, in modern firms, leaders and workers cooperate so that organizational goals are achieved. The specific trend is reflected in the theory of Fiedler who supports that leadership style can be either ‘relationship motivated or task motivated’ (DuBrin 2012, p.144). The criterion in order to decide whether a leader belongs to one of these categories is the following one: the way in which a leader characterizes an employee with whom ‘he would least willing to cooperate’ (DuBrin 2012, p.144). If a leader characterizes an employee, who considers as ‘least contributing in organizational performance, positively, then the leader is characterized as relationship motivated’ (DuBrin 2012, p.144); otherwise, he is considered as ‘task motivated’ (DuBrin 2012, p.144). At this point, reference should be made to the market’s decision – making models, as related to the decision making model used in the particular organization. One of the most important decision making models used in organizations operating in the modern market is the rational decision-making model, in the context of which decisions are based on the findings of research rather than emotions, as the irrational decision making model accepts (Niu, Lu and Zhang 2009, p.5). Another decision-making model, also used in modern firms, is the ‘bounded rationality model’ (Badenhorst-Weiss et al. 2009, p.47) in the context of which the leader chooses the option that it is first found to meet the criteria set’ (Badenhorst-Weiss et al. 2009, p.47). In DHSOS the decision making process seems to promote rather the rational model of decision making aiming to secure the appropriateness of the decisions made, as they can highly affect the organizational performance. Thus, in regard to its decision making process the organization would not need to proceed to changes. 4. Recommendations – changes needed for the future in order for the organization to meet the expected challenges of 2020 4.1 Leadership actions that the organization should take As noted above, in most organizations worldwide, a trend for leaders to be relationship motivated has appeared, a fact that necessarily impacts all industries, including the computer industry. Stakeholders in DHSOS should take into consideration this fact. The organization’s leadership style should be alternated accordingly so that the organization’s leader to become relationship motivated, a fact that would lead to the increase of cooperation and communication across the organization. In any case, the firm’s leader should be effectively supported so that risks in regard to his decisions are minimized. Reference is made in particular to the following problem: it is possible for risks in regard to certain organizational tasks to be increased by introducing a new leadership style (DuBrin 2012). Indeed, decreasing control in regard to employees’ tasks could result to the increase of risks in regard to daily organizational tasks. Still, the promotion of cooperation and communication would help to keep the above risks at low level taking into consideration the fact that in the context of cooperation potential failures of daily organizational tasks are easier to be identified (DuBrin 2012). 4.2 Competencies that will be needed In order for the organization’s practices to be alternated, meaning especially the firm’s leadership practices, as influencing its workforce-related strategies, the following competencies would be required: a leader more willing to support cooperation and communication across the organization should replace the firm’s existing leader, at least in case that the firm’s current leader would not be willing to change its leadership style accordingly. Also, the firm’s HR strategies would be alternated. Reference is made specifically to the criteria used in the firm’s hiring and selection process. The firm’s current hiring process has led to the limitation of workforce diversity, a fact that negatively influenced employee performance during the first half of 2012. In regard to the firm’s hiring process, emphasis should be given on the ability of candidates to support cooperation and teamwork. Also, communication skills would highly support the improvement of employee performance. Employees would be allowed to cooperate and communicate while developing a project; isolation of employees in the context of organization even if it offers employees the chance to take initiatives can guarantee neither their personal development nor their satisfaction. In this way, the firm’s performance tends also to be problematic, being exposed to unexpected changes in employees’ performance. 4.3 What does the organization need to do to be prepared? As explained above, the achievement of the organizational goals in the long term is related to the incorporation of certain practices. These practices would help the firm to standardize its performance in the long term, at least up to 2020. One of the firm’s major weaknesses seems to be its inability to control the performance of its employees, despite the autocratic leadership style, as promoted in regard to all the firm’s activities. The use of the practices suggested in the sections 4.1 and 4.2 above would help the firm to control risks and improve its performance by 2020; however, it would be necessary for the following trends to be also incorporated: a) the firm’s strategies would become more flexible, being open to changes; in this way, it would be easier for managers to promote changes, when they are considered as necessary; b) the role of employees in DHSOS should be re-evaluated; employees should not be treated only as individuals responsible for the completion of specific organizational tasks; they should be rather treated as coordinators in the achievement of organizational goals. The increase of employee value in DHSOS and the reduction of limits in regard to organizational changes would require the alteration, or else update, of the firm’s culture, even gradually. In this way, the organization would be more prepared to face the market challenges and more willingness to promote changes, which seem to be unavoidable for the standardization of the firm’s performance in the long term, at least up to 2020. References Altman, D. (2002) Blunt Portrait Drawn of the U.S. Work Force in 2020. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2002/08/30/business/blunt-portrait-drawn-of-the-us-work-force-in-2020.html [Accessed at 17 June 2012] Badenhorst-Weiss, H., Nieuwenhuizen, C., Rossouw, D., Brevis, T., and Cant, M. (2009) Business Management: A Contemporary Approach. Capetown: Juta and Company David, J. (2005) In 2020, America Will Still Dominate Global Economy. Available at http://www.watchingamerica.com/lefigaro000043.html [Accessed at 17 June 2012] DuBrin, A. (2012) Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Niu, L., Lu, J. and Zhang, G. (2009) Cognition-Driven Decision Support for Business Intelligence: Models, Techniques, Systems and Applications. New York: Springer. Pardeep, S. (2010) Administrative Theory. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. U.S. Census Bureau (2002) Population growth and demographic change, 1980-2020 - Statistical Data Included. Available at http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3765/is_1_25/ai_89882329/ [Accessed at 17 June 2012] Read More