Development Strategies Implemented by Thomson Reuters - Case Study Example

People and Organisation Development Executive Summary Organisational development has emerged as an important element in strategic management. It helps in the optimally using financial, human and technological resources which further develops a better understanding of the organisational purposes and helps in achieving desired output in performance. The concept of organisational development focuses on achieving goals related to progress in management, culture and employee satisfaction. Therefore, it is important to understand the concept of organisational development and its impact in changing the organisation as well, which is the chief objective of this paper. This paper discusses the various organisational development strategies implemented by Thomson Reuters. Table of Contents People and Organisation Development 1 Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 About the organisation 4 Objectives 5 Literature Review 6 Findings and conclusions 10 Recommendations 14 Reference 14 Introduction About the organisation Thomson Reuters Corporation is a leading information provider to professionals and businesses all over the world. The company has two major divisions: Professional and Markets. The Professional division of the company focuses on the businesses of the company in areas such as tax and accounting, legal and healthcare and science sectors. The Markets division focuses on the media and financial businesses. This division provides financial services and helps corporate professionals worldwide. Further, Reuters Media helps in servicing professionals and the consumer media market. The Markets division also disseminates important information, supports infrastructure and technology growth to a varied consumer set as well. This division has the Investment & Advisory, Sales & Trading, Enterprise and Media businesses. The corporate headquarters of the company is being located in New York and has most of its operations in India, the United Kingdom, Minnesota and Eagan. The company acquired Round Table Group in March 2010 and Highline Financial in November 2010. David K.R. Thomson is the Chairman of the Board and also the Non-Independent Director and Thomas H. Glocer is the Chief Executive Officer and Non-Independent Director with Reuters. The company employs more than 50,000 people and operates in over 100 countries. The shares for the company are listed on the New York and Toronto Stock Exchanges. Objectives Thomson Reuters believe in understanding the employee perceptions towards their business and conduct surveys from time to time to understand the commitment levels of its employees as a result of certain business decisions. It has been found that these surveys helps the company to find out whether the commitment levels in the employees have grown or not, especially after the mergers that have been taken place in the recent past. These surveys focus on finding out the impact of the management style, the leadership decisions and decisions by the executive committee on the motivation levels of the employees and even those who are in the senior positions. Although, surveys help in understanding the employee perceptions, it is important to translate them and develop these as well to suit the requirements of the employees. Thus, the business leaders in Thomson Reuters focus on developing various organisational development strategies that are not only sustainable for a long period of time but are also people oriented. As a part of this program, the organisational development strategies help in providing the human resources with various tools for handling the employees in a better manner. The tools that the company utilises include online tutorials, presentations and sessions during the office hours to help them understand the importance of such surveys that are conducted and not only this, it also make them understand the method to analyse it and compare them to the results that were attained in the previous years. Thus, it can be stated that organisational development has emerged as an important element in strategic management, which focuses on ensuring changes within the organisaition in a smooth and seamless manner. Organisational development strategies helps in the optimal use of financial, human and technological resources that nurtures to develop a better understanding of the organisational purposes and hence helps to give the desired output in performance. The concept of organisational development focuses on achieving goals related to progress in management, culture and employee satisfaction. As a part of organisational development, the management would be able to support the managers, staff and other members to achieve their goals and objectives by the help of the organisation’s infrastructure in terms of their performances and their development. It also includes the growth of culture and the perfection in their output (Burke 2002). Therefore, it is important to understand the concept of organisational development and its impact in changing the organisation as well, which is the chief objective of this paper. Literature Review The key element that has emerged in the strategic management of change that is also providing a focus for the organisational and cultural change that are needed for the constant improvement, the supporting systems, and the cultural activities that are needed for the purpose of organisational goals is the ‘organisational development’, it also helps in the optimal use of financial, human and technological resources that nurtures to develop a better understanding of the organisational purposes and hence helps to give the desired output in performance (Gladwell 2000). Organisational development means to help the organisation to achieve its goal and help it to progress in its culture, management and to keep the staff satisfied. Supporting its managers, the staff to achieve their own goals and objectives by the help of the organisation’s infrastructure in terms of their performances and their development, they are all parts of organisational development (OD), it also includes the growth of culture and the perfection in their output (Lurhans and Peterson 2003). OD is also about the importance of planning before taking any vital steps, to create a working environment that helps the staff to work more efficiently that ultimately helps the organisation its desired objectives. It is not only about the people working inside the organisation but also to the investors’ welfare and goodwill. Both ‘Hard’ and ’Soft’ issues are taken under considerations of the term organisational development. Strategies & policies and structures & systems are referred to as the hard issues while developing suitable skills, behaviours and attitude, leadership qualities and understanding the culture that helps the organisation to deliver the best output are the soft issues of the organisational development. The confusion between the need and goals should be cleared to both the hard and the soft issues (Lurhans and Peterson 2003). There are certain activities that helps to create an environment for development, they are The sense of direction Good leadership and, Emphasis on the issues that are among the staff that includes performance management and the importance of learning development creativity and bringing something new to the organisation are very essential and similar are the feedbacks and share of the ideas throughout the organisation assessing the progress are equally important including the community (Seifert et al. 2003). Therefore to ensure the maximum strategic benefit organisational development should be included in the culture of the organisation. The requirements to adopt OD are, the skills should be identified that are needed to build the capacity of the organisation and planning to be done as to how they can be developed. Every institution should make its own decision but their differences of functioning are needed to be bridged if they if the OD is required to deliver the desired outputs. Linking OD with corporate objectives, to find staff with the appropriate skills that helps to the healthy working of the OD within the organisation that motivates in the growth process of the staff and the other stakeholders of the organisation. The making in this direction from the initial stages will make sure that the changes are supportable to the people management considerations in the process (Seifert et al. 2003). The success of an OD can be very hard to achieve as it involves issues that can be hard to resolve that are related to the change and service improvement. In order to make OD function in a better manner, a common platform should be made to generate the coordination and support for the organisation l development activities. It should be ensured that OD should get fitted to the organisation structure firmly. It should be flexible enough so that the OD fits into the organisation. Also, steps should be taken to shape proper organisational skills and capacity. Further, a steady pace should be maintained. OD should also be introduced in employee communication, staffing, teamwork and at other such important aspects of the organisation (Paton and McCalman 2000). If done properly the organisational development can be helpful by enhancing the problem solving calibre of the organisation, supporting the effective management of the organisation culture and helping work efficiency of the teams and individuals to grow. OD is directly connected to the organisation’s environment and culture that includes the rules and regulations, the values, the power structure as well as the organisational change. Further, to achieve the corporate goals management and staff development is necessary. Together with upgrading of the performance culture, OD, wherever applied should help in improving the effectiveness of the organisation (Kates and Galbraith 2007). In strategic management of change Organisational structure is the active element. It helps is wiser use of resources and develops a sense of responsibility that helps the staff to coordinate and do the best for the organisation’s goodwill. When you need to manage the changes in the strategy, culture, restructuring organisational development can be a good help. Other qualities of OD includes it trains the staff with better skills so that they can easily meet the tough situations and keep on improving that part. More and more of information can be brought to utility because of its flexibility. It also works as a relationship counsellor between the staff and the organisation. It is so helpful to an organisation that it can do a makeover to the concerned organisation and give it a shape from where it can continue its growth. The OD is so focused towards its objective that it can mould itself into every aspect of the business of the organisation for the wellbeing of its goals and strategies (Kates and Galbraith 2007). In many cases the organisations change their fundamentals to meet their goals but still it gives a feel that the change is done for the sake of few but does bad to the many in the organisation, hence this becomes a reason for the failure of the organisation. To avoid such damages what can be done is that employees from the core level of the organisation should be involved to make the change process a success (Brown 2010). OD is a well-planned method to grow the organisation’s effectiveness as well as in terms of individual terminology so that they can live in the situation of current scenario. It is acceptable that many of the ODs focus on the staff and the role that they play but the only problem is that it hinders the development of the project. This means to us that the OD should give consider both staff and the in the environment they work. This defines some particular levels such as the target of the organisation, organisation values, management style in the current phase and organisational structure now and desired (Brown 2010). Findings and conclusions Many well-known organisations like Thompson Reuters conduct surveys at uniform intervals at the core level to see their commitment and their impact on the outcome of the business, but it is not necessary that they might be inter-related to each other. The commitment levels grew of the employees of the Thompson Reuters after a year of complex merger when there was a fall in the level on engagement of the employees around before a year. The organisation could understand as to how their departments contribute to the profit of the organisation and their desire to give-in more efforts for the welfare of the organisation up-to around 90%. The main motivations that drive the commitment levels like the executive committee, the effect of leadership, the management style even at the senior levels also improved. The response of the employees also grew by 10% than the previous year (Towers Watson 2010). The factor that makes Thompson Reuters stand apart from the crowd is that the OD coordinates well with the HR partners and the business leaders who are spread across 90 countries with a workforce of around 55,000 to find out as to which part of the organisation needs more attention and develop steady and strong planning. In Thompson Reuters, business leaders the OD helps them to formulate strategies that are people oriented and helps them to form such a strategy that lasts for long. As part of this program the OD provides the HR with different tools to handle the situation including online tutorials, presentations and sessions during the office hours to help them understand the importance of such surveys that are conducted and not only this, it also make them understand the method to analyse it and compare them to the results that were attained in the previous years (Towers Watson 2010). They also make the business leaders understand as to why the survey participation is important through “engagement 101” presentations. As part of this program the business leaders are also motivated to coordinate with the frontline managers who can actually control the participation rates in the surveys. It is also important to make these frontline managers understand the importance of such surveys. Some of the other critical issues where the OD team works up-on are identification of the priorities and implementation of plans (Towers Watson 2010). The role of the HR of the Thompson Reuters has shifted widely since the last 10 years as to strategic partners from benefit administrators. Methods to improve employee surveys to increase commitment included preparing key stakeholders three weeks prior to the commencement of the survey, making them understand as to why the survey is important and how beneficial it cane if they can understand the results and asking them to motivate the employee participation, and clarify their doubts and take action steps to the issues that might need attention (Towers Watson 2010). One thing that has to be kept in mind that it is made sure that the frontline managers are also present during the explanation of the reasons as to why the survey is being conducted and they should be made to understand the importance of their presence because many times they feel that they were called there for no good reasons. Announce the results, and find ways to spread the results to every part of the organisation. Respond and take actions immediately after the results are being announced. Focus only on a few areas where you can make huge impacts and keep the results simple. Keep the action steps simple and measurable as well (Towers Watson 2010). The action steps should be communicated like for e.g. if improved career development tools are needed, indicated in the survey, the feedbacks should be referred when the tools are to be launched. People should be reminded that the survey can impact on them throughout the year if key initiatives are introduced in response to the feedback. To help the HR leaders understand the OD provides them with information that help them to understand as to which areas need more engagement with the help of the results and helps them to design strategies that help improve only those parts that needs attention (Towers Watson 2010). The OD works with the HR apart from the business to improve its own functioning. Let us consider the example of the results of 2008 in which it is stated that the employees of the HR market division do not feel that they are connected to the HR leadership team of the Thompson Reuters. And as a result it has recorded low engagement levels related to communications. As a result the HR asked for the OD’s help to look into the matter with the help of a team and find solution and create a time frame to implement the solutions. The team comprised of both senior executives and junior level employees of the HR team from both remote and global locations. The cause for such response was studied thoroughly by the team members and after a few meetings the HR visibility was also improved which helped create a better community and increased the rate of participation in meetings and developed clear focus on the areas that needed actions (Towers Watson 2010). The plan stressed on some particular actions to encourage giving more time to the site visits for the HR professionals and the HR leadership and also to any formal launches, town hall meetings, or informally after the work period at the office just to keep up the team spirit and pride. Moreover, one of the HR leaders took it so seriously that he called for meetings that encompassed non-direct reports, and any one bearing the management responsibilities. The team also introduced the system of video conferencing and created new time slots for global calls and placed greater emphasis on the context of specific strategies to improve the communication and the HR participation. These efforts showed improvements by 8 points in the survey of Thompson Reuters in 2009 in the HR market division apart from the 5-4 point increase in the overall employee engagement (Towers Watson 2010). Whenever something needs to change the OD gets itself involved and helps out the change process. The results of employee surveys help resolving problems, and welcomes new methodologies to improve the functioning of the organisation. For example, many times the surveys conclude that a team is not able to perform good as it can. In that case, the company conducts some team-building workshops. The company’s goal is not just to help employees to become a part of the team but also to help them understand into their individual working style as well as others’ working style. This would help the team to manage any conflict situation in a better manner, together with improving their working relationships as well. The OD can work from the core level in any of the organisation by the process of strategic design and executes for the sake of many major change initiatives. The staff’s openness regarding change helps the organisation develop employee engagement (Towers Watson 2010). Recommendations The above case study focuses on the fact that business leaders play an important part in engaging the employees and motivating them to perform. Thus, it is imperative for the frontline managers to understand the importance of organisational development and employee surveys. The leaders should be there to help the employees understand about the surveys as well and help them undertake it by providing them reasons behind conducting the survey and the importance of the survey in their development as well. The organisation should also find ways to spread the results of the survey to every part of the organisation. The management should also respond accordingly to the results and take prompt actions after the results get announced. The results should be kept simple and the focus should be only on a few areas. Further, the steps that the management decides to take should also be measureable. Reference Brown, D. (2010). Experiential Approach to Organization Development (8th Ed). Prentice-Hall. Burke, W.W (2002). Organization change: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. Gladwell, M. (2000). The tipping point: How little things can make a big difference. Boston: Little, Brown. Kates, A and Galbraith, J.R. (2007). Designing Your Organization. Jossey-Bass. Lurhans, F. & Peterson, S.J. (2003). 360-degree feedback with systematic coaching: Empirical analysis suggests a winning combination. Human Resource Management, 42, 243-256. Paton, R and McCalman, J (2000). Change Management: A Guide to Effective Implementation. Sage. Seifert, C.F., Yukl, G. & McDonald, R.A. (2003). Effects of multi-source feedback and a feedback facilitator on the influence behavior of managers toward subordinates. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88, 561-569. Towers Watson (2010). Organizational Development Drives Employee Engagement at Thomson Reuters: A case study. Retrieved March 7 2010, . Read More