Business Competitive Strategy of Oaktree Mills Company - Case Study Example

? Business Competitive: Oak tree Case Study Background and Problem ment Oaktree Mills remains committed to its company policies of providing our customers with the best quality meat products and values any concerns raised by the customer in regard to our service delivery and any safety concerns. Moreover, the company has a deep-rooted culture of corporate social responsibility as depicted by our respect for the environment and the overall safety of our customers. The company also maintains good working relations with our employees through effective communication and dedication to safeguarding employee welfare and concerns. Despite our commitment to delivery of quality products, the company has recently been faced with safety challenges following the meat poisoning incident in Saskatchewan, Canada which was traced back to the company’s meat products. This incident led to temporary closure of the Winnipeg processing plant by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the management has fully cooperated with the authorities for a revision of cleaning protocols at the plant. However, the closure led to cutting of working hours for some of our employees who were seemingly not pleased with the move. The company’s communication office has been closely monitoring the situation with an aim of assuring the public of our continued commitment to safety issues, and most importantly to avoid any further panic which would greatly affect our operations and overall profitability. In doing so, the Director of Communications has continuously monitored reporting of the incident by the media and keeps a close scrutiny of both employee and customer comments and reactions regarding the incident. This led to the discovery of unpleasant commentaries on one of the social media sites regarding Oaktree’s commitment to safety and customer concerns. This report, prepared by the joint participation of the Director of Communications Office and Human Resource Department outlines strategies of how to address the situation and gives out solutions to be implemented in order to uphold the company’s commitment to employee concerns and general welfare. The objectives of this report are to identify the best practice solution that will serve as a long-term strategy to crisis management and in particular to address issues of employee communications and responses towards internal organizational crisis. However, it is important to note that the recommendations given here are subject to various internal and external constraints including but not limited to budgetary issues that may hinder financing of a proposed strategic solution. In addition, methods of aligning mentioned recommendations with the overall company strategic plans and objectives, and government regulations on human resource engagement with employees. Situation Analysis The above illustrated situation qualifies to be termed a crisis and its management involves pre-established activities and guidelines for adequate preparation and response to incidents that may damage the company’s integrity and reputation. It is therefore essential that human resource managers establish a collaborative work culture with to-down commitment to ensure that effective solutions are in place. This important role of the human resource function of the organization ensures that organization problems are sufficiently diagnosed. The above situation has never been experienced before which calls for development of a new strategic plan into the overall company strategic plan. It is however important to note that any plan recommended for implementation might be met with some degree of negative response from especially the employees as it will imply newer channels of working in the company. One of the internal factors that has been identified as influencing employee behaviour is the actions of colleagues which calls for development of an internal culture that will see to it that the company’s integrity is upheld at all times in order to ensure increased productivity. External factors such as technology and customer demands are also elements that influence how the strategic plan recommended is going to be implemented. Being a non-unionized organization and in view of the idea that unions limit management flexibility in terms of decision making and issuing prerogatives, the company should take advantage of this situation and directly engage employees. Possible Solutions In view of the situation that has been described above, there are various strategies and methods that can be adopted by the company to address the issues at hand. One such plausible solution is the establishment of a crisis management team working under the human resource department to deal with any issues concerning employee conduct both within and outside the company. It is proposed that the Crisis Management Team consists of a team leader who will be a senior executive with the authority to make effective decisions on behalf of the company and a security director whose main tasks will be to facilitate the development of a plan in terms of crisis, train employees and serve as the primary information officer reporting directly to the Communication officer any information that may be of importance to protecting the company image and avoiding further damage. The team will also have a Legal Counsel whose duty will be advising the team on any possible legal ramifications on recommended actions devised by the team. Lastly, the team will have a Human Resource Director charged with getting all the information regarding the affected employees and reaching out to them to discuss any issues which they may raise (Lockwood, 2005). However, we are of the opinion that this is a reactive strategy which implies that the Team will only come into action when a crisis has already developed. This is in contrary to a jointly held view that the strategy to be implemented should be a long term one that will ensure that such situations as the one concerning our employee following the Saskatchewan incident are avoided. Another solution is the development of a social media policy that will entail guidelines on how employees engage on social media in regard to issues that concern the company and facilitate employee behaviour on issues regarding the company on media outlets. Even though it is acknowledged that social media can have many benefits such as enhanced brand awareness and better customer relations, social media can also irreparably damage the image and integrity of a company especially if content posted is coming from an employee at the company. It is essential to acknowledge that business companies have a moral and legally-binding duty to safeguard employees, employee ethical conduct on matters regarding the company and its reputation and integrity (Lockwood, 2005). Moreover, it is important to note that business continuity planning is a vital In this regard, it is imperative to incorporate the policy in the current employee work ethic. While enacting the social media employee policy, it should be noted that certain factors need to be taken into account such as employee response to the new guidelines and any legal implications the guidelines might have on the company. Lastly, the company management can decide to take disciplinary action against the employee or any other employee who posts materials on social media sites that might damage the company’s reputation or the integrity of any other staff at the company. However, before the management decides to take disciplinary action, it is critical to consider all other ramifications the decision might have on the organization and policies should be followed so that the employee is afforded procedural fairness. Recommendations and Implementation After a comprehensive analysis of the possible solutions to the situational problem encountered by the company, it is recommended that enactment of a social media policy is the most plausible strategy to be adopted by the company. This decision has been informed by the fact that enactment of the policy will help in resolving not only the current problem but also any future crisis that might emerge as a consequence of employee behaviour on social media. Other benefits that have been identified for enactment of social media policy include an increase level of engagement by Oaktree and its business partners and employees (Lovett, 2011). The company should especially take note of legal issues and company requirements such as company privacy and employee participation on other sites which have the potential of impacting on their use of social media tools. However, in order to arrest the current situation, it is recommended that top-management including the human resource manager and the Chief Executive Office (CEO) reach out to the concerned employee on a platform where they can listen to the immediate concerns of the employee. This is critical as it not only shows the company’s openness to solving problems but most importantly the presence of the CEO would convince the employee of the company’s continued commitment to upholding good work relations with its employees. In order to maintain a good work environment where employees feel safe and have high regard for the products we deliver to our customers, it is important to ensure sound management visibility and leadership (Manion, 2011), accountability at all levels and openness in sharing of information. It is further recommended that the company utilizes its strength as a committed organization to safeguarding employee and customer safety and interests and use this opportunity to develop a long-term strategy aimed at tackling any future crisis of this kind. The social media policy to be enacted should particularly remind the employees of the need of familiarizing with the job agreement policies and guidelines. The policy should also emphatically state that postings on social media should not be a disclosure of any information that may be confidential or have the potential to cause any negative publicity on the company’s image. However, care should be taken when others may interpret enacting clauses that forbid employees from posting material that may damage the company’s reputation or defame anyone who is affiliated to the company as this as an infringement on the rights of employees (Meiners, Ringleb and Edwards, 2000). It is recommended that a social media interactive training course be posted on the company’s intranet in order for employees to familiarize with the social media policy and have an insight into what is expected of them in their engagements on the internet. The training course should be spread over a period of three months and the IT department should be consulted about in order to evaluate the company’s capability of supporting the social media strategy. Compliance with the social media policy will be monitored by the Chief Information Officer or the Company Spokesperson while the Office of IT will be responsible drawing of its blueprint, and provision of web technology services training, and any other technical assistance that might be required by various departments of the company. After successful enactment and implementation of a policy, monitoring and management of employee engagement on social media is critical in ensuring compliance and effectiveness of the policy. The management can be done though include clear communication to the employees of the consequences of breaching the policy, drawing the attention of the employee to any posts that might be found damaging and reminding them that such actions are contrary to policy, and regular evaluation of the systems and policies in order to keep up to date with the ever changing social media scene. References Manion, J. (2011). From Management to Leadership: Strategies for Transforming Health Care. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, Meiners, R.E, Al H. R, and Frances L.E. (2000). The Legal Environment of Business. Cincinnati, Ohio: West Legal Studies in Business, Lockwood, N. R. (2005). Crisis Management in Today's Business Environment: Hr's Strategic Role. Alexandria, VA: Society for Human Resource. Lovett, J. (2011). Social Media Metrics Secrets. New Jersey: Wiley, Read More