Managing Business Activities - Assignment Example

Managing Business Activities to Achieve Results Table of Contents Task 3 LO 1. Organizational Culture of ABC Company 3 LO 2. Aims and Objectives of ABC Company 5 LO 1.3. Quality Maintenance and Process Output 6 LO 2.1. Promotion of Goals and Objectives 7 LO 2.2. Alignment of Resources of ABC Company 7 LO 2.3. Achievement of Smart Objectives 8 LO 2.4. Implementation of Operational Plan 8 Task 2 9 LO 3.1. Monitoring the quality standards of ABC Company 9 LO 3.2. Development of Quality Culture for continuous improvement of the organizational performance 10 LO 3.3. Recommendations for achieving a continuous improvement 10 LO 3.4. Implication of the proposed changes in ABC Company 10 LO 4.1. Risk Assessment 11 LO 4.2. Health and Safety Regulations 11 LO 4.3 Practical application of the health measures 11 Conclusion 12 Reference List 13 Introduction The success of an organization is dependent on its proper management of its business activities. The managers must ensure that all the internal activities are in line with the organizational vision. Activities like managing human resources, financial resources and operational processes needs to be optimized in order to make sure that the firm is moving towards a sustainable future with potential opportunities for growth. In the increasingly competitive market environment, it is even more imperative that a firm’s activities leads to improved organizational performance (Smart, Maddern and Maull, 2007). As a result, a proper management of the organizational activities leads to higher competitive advantage. This paper focuses on the management of ABC Company, which is currently in a state of turmoil and poor financial condition. Moreover, the activities have eventually deviated from the organizational vision and the managers have adopted a myopic approach to achieve the short term financial goals. The paper covers all the activities needed to recover ABC Company from its poor and ill managed conditions. Task 1 LO 1.1. Organizational Culture of ABC Company The organizational structure of ABC Company is vertical in nature, where information flows across the hierarchy via intermediates. The organization has been so structured that one level of hierarchy can directly communicate with only its immediately next level in the hierarchical ladder. This system allows each level to focus only in their allocated tasks and is only answerable to their immediate supervisors. Thus, it helps to increase the efficiency of the each department. Figure 1: The Hierarchical Structure of ABC Company. Source: (Created by Author) The figure shown above portrays the organizational structure of ABC Company. The structure consists of four prominent levels of hierarchy and each level is allocated with a particular task which encompasses overseeing the personnel who are immediately below that level. The hierarchy begins with the CEO, who oversees the board of directors and participates in the board meetings. The major decisions proposed by the board of directors are first approved by the CEO before its implementation in the organization. The board of directors constitutes of the individuals with major stock holdings. This allows the boards to be heterogeneous and helps to avoid any biasness in decision making. The board of directors oversees a series of managers allocated to different departments. The managers are answerable to the board of directors for the departmental performances. Each manager is allocated with different teams, like HR Team, Finance Team, Marketing Team and Operations Team. The managers and his teams make up the individual departments. The HR department looks after the recruitment process and the welfare of the employees. The Finance department is given the task of maintaining the books and making budgets for the organization. It is also responsible for the allocation of capital for different activities of each department. The financial performance of the firm is measured by this department and is reported to the CEO and Board of directors. Moreover, any major capital allocation is first approved from the board of directors. The Marketing department is associated with the advertisement and sales activities of the firm, along with monitoring the market trends and consumer behaviour. This department is the mostly responsible for the revenue generation of the firm. Operations team is responsible for the making contacts with various third party companies in order to make business collaborations with them. This department allocates the right candidate for the right job profiles. LO 1.2. Aims and Objectives of ABC Company The organizational mission is to achieve the maximum market share in the existing market and establish a strong brand reputation among the consumers (Keller, Parameswaran and Jacob, 2011). The firm has also planned to achieve higher financial strength which would eventually help in business expansion in the near future (DeAngelo and Masulis, 2010). However, due to increased competition in the market place and owing to some of the wrong decisions of the higher management, ABC Company’s current position has become unstable. The company has faced substantial loss in the recent quarter. The sudden downturn of the company has distracted the company from the organizational mission. The mission of the company had been carefully designed so that all the resources and expertise can be put to optimal use in order to achieve long term organizational success. The objectives of the company have been summarized as following: a) Focus on value creation by customer centric approach b) Proper resource utilization in order to gain operational efficiency and reduction in operating cost c) Focus on creating superior service quality in order create as strong brand equity d) Gain maximum market share in the existing market and e) Achieve employee motivation in order to establish an effective work force. The company aims to attain competitive advantage in the market by strictly abiding by its aims and objectives. The company has also maintained a good performance track record over the past five years. The higher service quality and a close customer relationship made ABC Company one of the leading firms in the industry. The process map shown below highlights the different activities of the operations department. Figure 2: Process Map of Operations Department Source: (Created by Author) LO 1.3. Quality Maintenance and Process Output The process map showed in figure 2 highlighted different activities of the operations department and the interrelation between them. The operational process begins with the procurement of job vacancies from third party companies. ABC Company has made business collaborations with several reputed companies which require human resources. The company maintains good relationship with their business partners so as to avoid any pressure from them. The leads generated by the marketing department are forwarded to the operations department, where the employees carefully sort the candidates’ profile and allocate them to the suitable job profiles. The ABC Company ensures that it can provide the best candidates to its clients. In order to do so the company follows strict regulations goes in to business deals only with companies which operates in an ethical manner and abides by all the workers’ rights. The company, owing to its years of expertise has access to a wide network, which allows ABC Company to market its products through a large number of retailers. LO 2.1. Promotion of Goals and Objectives The primary function of the operations department is to allocate the right jobs to the right candidate. The operations department also ensures that the offered service is of highest quality so that the company gains customer preference and higher brand equity. The production process also aims to attain higher resource optimization so that highest quality is assured in lowest possible cost and time. In order to promote the goals and objectives of the Operations department, it has to abide by high operational standards. Improving the operational processes by installing new information technology requires the approval of the board of directors. The operations department must be in line with the organizational mission. The management should create a seamless information flow across the organization, so that the employees are clearly aware of the organizational objectives. Clarity of organizational goals will help the employees to orient their work flow towards organizational success (Chan and Lynn, 2008). LO 2.2. Alignment of Resources of ABC Company In order to achieve organizational success, the firm needs to ensure that all of its resources are aligned together, so that they can yield higher output. The resources of the organization include human work force, financial capital, technological availability, etc. The following SMART goals will help in proper utilization of skills and resources in order to achieve organizational objectives. Specific: Improve the organizational performance by developing a shared vision among the staffs. The vision should be based on departmental as well as the organizational objectives. Measurable: The employees’ progress needs to be monitored in order to ensure that they are moving towards the desired direction. It will also allow the management to implement a review system which will point out any issues or mistakes in the planning process. Attainable: The goals need to be attainable by the employees, as over optimistic goals will lead to its failure. The plans will be set based on the resource availability and the skills of the employees. As a result, it will help the management to allocate tasks to different teams which can be easily achieved. Realistic: The planning of the strategic goals should be done keeping in mind the primary objective of the organizational vision. This will allow the employees to stick to the proposed plans, and will ensure the success of the organizational goals. Time Bound: The goals need to be designed with a sense of time urgency, so that the tasks are completed within a stipulated time. In case of ABC Company, the organizational performance needs to be improved within the next two quarters. LO 2.3. Achievement of Smart Objectives The SMART objective mentioned in the above section, needs to be implemented properly in order to achieve the organizational goal. The organizational mission needs to be communicated to all the employees so that they are aware of their tasks and responsibilities. This can be achieved by leveraging the technological advancement of the company. The employees can be communicated over email, or conference calls, etc. Moreover, in order to ensure that the activities are progressing towards the desired direction, the managers need to arrange weekly meetings in order to guide their subordinates and gather information about the overall progress of the department. Measurement of activities can be achieved by implementing performance monitoring systems like the Balanced Score card. It will help the managers to measure the efficiency level of the current work force and to make necessary amendment based on the measurement (Kaplan, 2010). It will also allow the managers to assess to motivation and commitment level of their subordinates. Organizational communication acts as a major determinant in the success of the firm. The communication system needs to be redesigned so that the information transfer can take place without any interference from communicational noise (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2011). LO 2.4. Implementation of Operational Plan The activities of each department is different from that of the others, so in order implement the organizational plans in all the departments, different sets of planning process is required. The implementation process can be efficiently worked out by incorporating it with the performance measurement system. As a result, it will help the managers to devise a proper planning based on the current performance level of the employees. The work process will be divided on weekly basis, where the employees will be given a goal sheet for the week, which he needs to achieve within the stipulated time. The weekly meeting will allow the managers to guide the employees on how to achieve their goal sheet efficiently. Moreover, at the end of the week, the employees and managers will be required to fill a review form which will reflect their experience and highlight any issues faced. The company needs to implement a proper knowledge management system, which will help the employees to leverage the existing knowledge of the organization and can utilize the expertise of the experienced senior employees. The organizational improvement is a continuous process, where the feedback system will help the management to identify the current progress of the activities and will enable the managers to make necessary amendments in the planning process according to the feedback received. Task 2 LO 3.1. Monitoring the quality standards of ABC Company Monitoring the activities of an organization is quite vital for ensuring that the entire firm is progressing towards the desired direction. Incorporation of a robust IT system will help monitor individual employee’s activities and their performances. Moreover, the system will also monitor the level of absenteeism and allow the management to have a proper scrutiny of the reason behind the employees’ absence. Other tools like installing cameras within the office premises and implementing smart cards for log in and log out will help the HR department to measure the effective working hours of the employees. The HR department will also implement the Balanced Score card system for assessing the performance of the organization. The balanced scorecard measures the organizational performance on four factors, financial performance, customer relationship, internal business processes and learning and growth. The four parameters are individually measured so as to ensure that the organization is progressing in a holistic manner (Bohlander and Snell, 2009). LO 3.2. Development of Quality Culture for continuous improvement of the organizational performance Based on the feedback mechanism and the performance assessment by Balanced score card system, the quality management of the firm has been designed. The monitoring system incorporated by using the balanced score card system will help the firm to design a proper organizational culture which helps complements the quality management of the firm. The organizational culture should highlight the individual responsibility and make the employees aware of how their effort can help the company to grow. The HR department should ensure that there is a seamless information flow within the organizational ladder and that the higher management are aware of the activities of the lower management teams. This will allow them to device the strategies based on the skills, abilities and the current human capital availability. Drastic measures may meet short term financial goals, but it will eventually degrade the work culture and will negatively affect the long term goals of the firm (Paine, 2009). Thus in order to ensure high quality the management must ensure that the human resources are well taken care off. LO 3.3. Recommendations for achieving a continuous improvement The key to continuous improvement of a firm is a proper organizational communication system. The current communication system needs to be changed which does not allow the individuals to communicate across the hierarchical barriers. A more open and horizontal management needs to be incorporated in the firm. This will allow the employees of the ABC Company to make proper communication with the higher management and make complaints regarding the misbehaviour of the managers. As a result, it will reduce and level of misconduct in the organization. Moreover, the advanced monitoring system will also help the higher management make justified decisions. The sales team needs to be properly guided so that they do not face and hurdles while they are on the field. LO 3.4. Implication of the proposed changes in ABC Company The required changes proposed in the previous sections will eventually lead to improvement of the overall organizational performance. The performance management system will help the management to improve the overall quality of the firm. It will ensure that the organizational activities are in line with the SMART goals of the firm. Thus it will help ABC company to successfully meet their objectives. Maintaining a good relationship between the managers and the employees will help in creating a high motivation level within the departmental teams, which in turn will lead to better performance quality. LO 4.1. Risk Assessment The risks involved in the business operations include internal disputes, failure of operational processes, financial downturn, etc. Since ABC Company is a service delivery firm there are no potential threats of physical hazards of equipment handling. However, ABC Company must implement certain regulations for to avoid ethical issues and provide proper training and guidance to the employees so that any risk of internal disputes can be avoided. The case study highlights that the company is facing a financial downturn, which as a result has forced the higher management to cut jobs. This as a result has led to internal disputes and has also deteriorated the motivation level of the employees. The company needs to streamline its focus on long term improvement rather than just fixing the immediate issues. LO 4.2. Health and Safety Regulations The health concerns of the employees of the ABC Company have been kept in mind before designing the work policy of the employees. The work environment and the departmental activities have been structured so that it does not affect the physical and mental health of the employees (Burke, Cooper and Clarke, 2011). Moreover, the working hours also affects the well being of the staffs. The ABC Company must ensure that the working hour does not exceed 8 hours a day. The work load needs to be distributed properly so that it does not pose any health issues for the employees. The company will also need to abide by the applicable ISO standards to ensure high service quality and safety for the workers (Bohlander and Snell, 2009). Moreover, the office facility also bears approved fire safety measures and the employees have been well guided to avoid and escape a fire hazard. LO 4.3 Practical application of the health measures Incorporating a proper health measure will allow ABC Company to take care of its human work force. As a result, the employees will build trust towards the higher management, which is essential in building up of a good relationship between the managers and their subordinates. Moreover, healthy employees are more productive and are mentally stronger to take any challenging tasks. Taking care of the employees’ health will create a perception of belongingness among the employees and will eventually increase their motivation level and drive them to work harder. Conclusion ABC Company is best known for their service and the quality of it. However, due to the recent financial turmoil, the higher management has adopted certain short term measures to take care of the financial instability which as a result has impacted the employees’ performance and the internal work environment. This situation can be eventually improved by making certain changes in the operational process of the firm. The resource optimization will reduce the operating cost and the implementation of a good knowledge management system will help the company to improve the overall organizational output. Moreover, redesigning the organizational structure to a more open and horizontal one will lead to seamless flow of information across the hierarchical ladder. Thus, the proposed strategies will not only improve the organizational performance but will also ensure long term sustainability and growth of the firm. Reference List Bohlander, G. and Snell, S., 2009. Managing Human resources. 3rd ed. London: Harvester Wheatsheaf. Burke, R. J., Cooper, C. L. and Clarke, S., 2011. Occupational Health and Safety, 2nd ed. England: Gower Publishing, Ltd. Chan, Y. C. L. and Lynn, B. E., 2008. Performance Evaluation and the Analytic Hierarchy Process, Journal of Management Accounting Research, 36(2), pp. 57-87. DeAngelo, H. and Masulis, R., 2010. Optimal Capital Structure under Corporate and Personal Taxation, Journal of Financial Economics, 8(1), pp. 3-30. Hellriegel, D. and Slocum, J., 2011. Organisational Behaviour. Canada: Cengage Kaplan, R.S., 2010. Conceptual Foundations of the Balanced Scorecard. Handbook of Management Accounting Research. 3. Keller, K. L., Parameswaran, M. G. and Jacob, I., 2011. Strategic Brand Management: Building, Measuring, and Managing Brand Equity. 4th ed. New Jersey: Pearson Education. Paine, L. S., 2009. Corporate Policy and the Ethics of Competitive Intelligence Gathering. Journal of Business Ethics, 10. pp. 423-436 Smart, P.A., Maddern, H. and Maull, R.S., 2007. Understanding Business Process Management: Implications for theory and practice. Exeter Centre for Strategic Processes and Operations. 7(8). Read More