Re-Engineering Technique of Lightco Company - Essay Example

Re-Engineering Technique of Lightco Company Lightco is a Canadian Company. David White is the president of Lightco Company (p499) Employees were dissatisfied with the way they were being treated and managers were unhappy with the lack of communication and support from Head Office (p499) David made a survey to confirm his suspicion regarding the morale issue among the employees (p499) David met 2600 employees in order to solve this problem (p499) Lightco consists of one head office and six thermal plants (p499) Most managerial positions in Lightco were occupied by engineers who follow an autocratic style of leadership (p499) Morale problems of employees affected Lightco’s efficiency (p499) David asked for a survey through the human resource director (p499) David decided to implement a culture change program as other companies (p499) After a short time, David distributed tenders and hired a consultant firm to set values (p499-501) During the culture change stage, there were mandatory four - day sessions for the managers and one-day sessions for the rest of the employees (p500) They have defined the managers as facilitators for the employees (p500) Some employees did not believe in culture change because there is no any physical evidence indicated to culture change but others believed in it (p500) In 1992 the premier of the province announced that Lightco would be privatized (p501) After the privatization, David and the consulting arm came out with the decision that Lightco would re-engineer processes to meet demand (p501-502) They figured out that Lightco is overstaffed. As a result, they would have to eliminate more than 300 positions (p502) The company was planning to centralize its customer service (p502) After all these events, majority of the employees were looking for job security instead of promotion (p502) Lightco and White have lost the trust of the employees and White is wondering if it is too late to get it back? (p503) 2. Statement of the Problem. A) Employees Dissatisfaction. Since the inception of the Re-engineering technique, the employees were dissatisfied. The employees' morale kept wavering. Once white discovered that he had to get rid of the causes of this quandary, There were three causes that contributed powerfully to employees' morale, Lack of communication, Stress and Inequity. The “Causes of the Problem” section will explain the three causes in detail. B) Poor Strategy Plan. It is obvious that Lightco is facing issues with its planning strategies. Lightco had a weak vision in its future perception. Therefore, this can affect its values and decrease Lightco’s efficiency. 3. Causes of the Problem. I. Lack of communication, was the result of Lightco’s organizational structure. The work was being carried out separately. There was a noticeable problem in communication among individuals of separate departments. As mentioned in the case, the company was divided into six departments. Each department was working separately. Engineers had occupied the executive level, while they did not have adequate experience or sufficient ability to manage people. It was one of the factors that affected the Job performance and the “Leading ability” based on the job performance equation: “Job performance = Abilities X Motivation X Org. Support”. II. Stressful, the relation between stress and lack of communication states that “poor employee communication causes employee stress”. The employees were unaware and worried of the (BPI) attitude towards them; therefore, the employees’ morale went down once again and this time it was at an all time low. The stress affected employees; hence, both the pilot projects had adverse affects on the employees. For instance, by the centralization of the Customer Services processes, 150 employees were worried about their careers. According to Health Magazine, Customer Services was ranked as the eighth most stressful job. Nonetheless, pilot project increased the employees’ stress and made their situation even more complicated. Also, it seemed that the Re-engineering Technique was the major contributor to high levels of stress. III. Inequity, The probability of inequity was a common belief among Lightco's employees. Not only the employees but even White had promised to commit to employment equity. According to the Equity Theory, an employee will usually compare himself/ herself with others. The prejudice is clear in Lightco's situation, as Coral emphasized, "I received a one day training session while manager were getting a four-day training session". She was dissatisfied and believed that it was unfair. She thought that she would be given more attention during the implementation of the culture change technique but this was not what happened. According to the Langton, Robbins, Judge, 2010, Affective Events Theory "employees react emotionally to things that happen to them at work and this emotional reaction influences their job performance and satisfaction"[Page 62]. IV. Lack of Management Skills You can figure out that there are some issues in Lightco's management division since most of the managerial positions were occupied by engineers who did not possess management skills. As a result, Lightco's efficiency was affected because they cared about inanimate recourses and ignored the most valuable thing to the company which was their Human resource. The managers of Lightco were also not clear about the nature of their activities, for example, it is an electric company but they were working in construction. In other words, the employees were facing identity crisis with respect to the organization. Nevertheless, we believe that culture change strategy was set in a short time and the leaderships of Lightco based their judgment over the experience of other companies without knowing and considering that each company has its own circumstances. They did not make sufficient analysis to define and specify whether it is appropriate for Lightco or not. During the re-engineering stage, we notice that the managers were not involved; especially the director of employee development was found to be laid back and inactive. Hence, it was a dangerous decision to give the consultants full authority without monitoring them. 4. Possible Solutions. a) Breaking the contract with (BPI) and letting go of all the consultants should be an immediate solution. Pros: This solution might help regain employees trust. Regaining the employees' trust would not be possible without such a decision. Cons: It might reduce Lightco’s efficiency in the short-run and would cost the company for compensating (BPI). b) Every single employee, regardless of his or her occupational level, has to attend a monthly meeting with managers to judge the employees' understanding of the work procedure and Lightco’s objectives. Pros: it can be achieved in a short period of time. In addition, employees will be motivated and they will have a clear career path and objectives. During the meetings, mangers would get a chance to bring in new regulations which might be accepted by other employees. As it is widely know, face to face communication decreases stress. Cons: It is not a practical if employees go astray. Moreover, Lightco had to adjust itself to be more competitive in the recent market change. This solution would be realistic if it was applied in the early stage. c) Wide variation of the managers' background, gender, age and race would be supportive to build human relationship among employees. Pros: It will build trust among the employees, reduce level of conflict and enhance employee cohesiveness. Cons: Lightco is an electric company. Engineers can run the organization effectively. The variable managerial backgrounds within the organization may not produce desirable results. d) Controlling stress by encouraging proper time management, delegation of responsibilities and clarification of expectations. Pros: Employees will work in a non stressful environment and would be able to achieve more. Cons: Employees who set high expectation may be frustrated in case of not getting what they expected. Every person can set different expectation than others although management may set reasonable expectation for employees. e) Communication will not be practical, if the employee has no knowledge about the work of other departments. Therefore, Lightco should launch a training program called Exchange Employee. This will be implemented as a long term solution. Pros: Employee's performance can be monitored and can be corrected if there is any deviation. Cons: Costly and time consuming. f) White and other managers should prepare a mission which is a set of new strategy plans for the company and determine the priority for each event. Pros: They will have a clear view of what they are going to do and prepared the company to face any rapid change, such as, privatization. Cons: It can be costly to the company and can also take a long time. In fact, it needs to be controlled and monitored in conjunction with its implementation. g) The management division should be involved and participate in the re-engineering stage. Pros: They are aware of the company needs more than others. So, their solutions would be more specific and accurate. Cons: The management employees are mostly engineers who might make their decision based on the inanimate resource rather than human resource, therefore, the president of Lightco must clarify and determine what they are looking for. 5. Solution and its Implementation. Solution (b) was chosen to be implemented in order to solve the problems. Monthly meetings would be extremely useful to enhance communication and reduce stress. The meeting style should be energetic; each employee has the right to ask questions, give proposals and participate as much as the executive manager. Subsequently, the employee would receive a feedback from his\her manger. "Research shows that individuals perform better when they have specific and challenging goals and receive a feedback on how they are progressing towards them"( Langton, Robbins, Judge, 2010, p. 126). Solution (e) was chosen to be implemented as the long term solution. As an Exchange Employee, the employee has to work at each department for at least three months. The employee will be marked from 1 to 5 in each department by the department's manger based upon his\her understanding of the work procedure. Once his average mark is around 4, the employee is eligible to receive a reward. Solution (f) was chosen to create a clear mission which will be formed based on Lightco’s current and future situation. In the case of Lightco, the employees have to be the main objective of the mission, so their opinions have to be taken into consideration. A true mission should go through three stages: Planning Implementing Controlling White would have to establish a new department called “Strategic Unit". SU department would comprise of a range of employees from different departments. The fundamental task of the SU department is to ensure the implementation of the mission. They will also have to adjust the mission from time to time to make sure it is suitable to the statement. Our mission proposal to Mr. While would be 1. Ligthco: Working without Boundaries. 2. Lightco: Our team is there for you. Read More