Strategic Initiatives of New Zealand Customs - Essay Example

Strategic Initiatives of New Zealand Customs Background The New Zealand Customs is a company with arich history of border security in terms of protecting the country from illegal shipments and imports. The history, which dates back to the late 19th century has always given the organisation a reputation that can only be gained through experience and integrity. To achieve this reputation, the organisation has for a long time used employees who are fully committed to delivering integrity in their work and who do not live double life (Platt 2012). It has been a tradition of the company to regard themselves as a family in which integrity is a virtue and to which every member is obliged to act in accordance. A breach of this value is considered a betrayal to the whole family (Martin et al. 2009). With the increasing changes and dynamics in the business environment today, there are great challenges in securing a committed workforce. It is, therefore, no wonder that the organisation had until recently depended more on the old members of the family to run its operations (Weiner 2009, p. 67). The changes in workforce demographics resulted to the inclusion of young natives who worked in the organization. Being from a poor background and having a less strong connection to the organization and the family, they are easily lured into activities that betray the whole customs community. The case of Puata is just a single example of this. In an effort to ensure that a similar case is not witnessed, the organisation has come up with strategic initiatives for its recruitment and selection process. The aims of these initiatives are to ensure that the organisation brings aboard employees who are ready to propagate the long-held reputation of the organisation and the concept of family. The initiatives foster, besides the enhanced performance, the virtue of integrity to new recruits in an effort to have them ready to join the customs family where values are maintained in and out of the workplace. This essay will evaluate the strategic initiatives of New Zealand Customs concerning recruitment and selection. The recruitment and selection strategies An effective, dedicated and competent workforce starts from the recruitment. For this to have positive results, an organisation needs to source talents and competences far and wide to ensure that the candidates who report for interviews represent a wide range of possible choices. The organisation realised the importance of this and used advertisements all over the country in different media to attract applicants. For only 60 slots, more than 2000 applications were received. It is possible from such a large group of qualified personnel to obtain a group of 60 people who can easily be assimilated into the organisation. This initiative perfectly aligns with the requirements of theory O strategies which are focused on building a corporate culture through enhancing positive employee behaviour, attitudes commitment and capabilities (Burnes 2005,pp. 73-90). The organisation is, therefore, making use of the lessons learnt from its previous experiences and looked forward to enhancing success. The old versus the young workforce Loyalty to an employer is mostly associated with experience that is arguably directly related to age (Martin et al. 2009, pp 95-107). The concepts of family, company loyalty and commitment are associated with employees who have remained in an organisation for long enough to perfectly identify with it. It is not surprising to note that none of these old members of the New Zealand Customs has betrayed the company. The cases always involve the young and newly employed members who feel that they are less bound to the family and can, therefore, risk betraying the loyalty. However, an organisation must have a future, and to have a future and propagate the traditions of the organisation will require the integration of the young into the family. A recruitment strategy that enforces these values into the employees is undoubtedly a perfect initiative. It ensures that the employees that the organisation will bring aboard can work well in the organisation and are ready to remain loyal to the family. Having this implemented from the first day enhances the loyalty from many of the employees who will be depended upon over time to propagate the traditions to another generation. This initiative is also a demonstration of theory O in practice. The organisation seeks to have complete participation of all its employees (Kezar 2001, pp. 25-56). By having them undergo the intense training on what is expected of them, the managers want to get them physically, intellectually and emotionally committed to the delivery of Customs services in line with the organisational goals. This does not only enhance performance but also build a feeling of responsibility and accountability (Pryor et al. 2008, pp 1-20). Aligning with the changes The current changes in the global business have resulted to organisations seeking to make internal changes that are meant to make them part of the modern world of business (Morris et al. 2012, pp 1-27). The New Zealand Customs, as an organisation has depended so much on the old members of the Customs family. However, with the changes experienced in the technology and work domains performance and the relevance of an organisation may be adversely affected if new and young blood is not felt. It is for this reason that the current recruitment strategy is focusing on young people who after being taken through the intense training on the requirements and integrity of the job are getting absorbed in the organisation. This is a change from the previous cadet-system that required new employees to first work under probation before being offered contracts. It was observed that this was possibly the reason many young people opted to walk away from the organisation. The changes in the global economy have also brought a new challenge to the organisation. There are currently many illegal syndicates that are always seeking to bring into the country or exports controlled commodities. Since these deals involve a large amount of money, the danger is that not many of the customs workers will reject a big offer from the syndicates unless guided by a strong desire to serve and by integrity. The training is, therefore, focused on making the employees as accountable as possible within and out of their workplace. However, since a breach of this integrity has happened before, there is a possibility that there are still people within the company who would not hesitate to cooperate with the criminals. For this, the organisation has little control over. Their initiative only provides protective measure hoping that the supervision provided will help detect such an activity (Mansell et al. 2006. pp. 84-107). What does the organisation expect from the initiative? The focus on recruitment and selection process is expected to improve performance in several ways. First, by having intense training of the recruits before selection, the organisation aims at targeting only the fully committed personnel who will adapt well to the requirements of the organisation and to the family. This means that the process is focused on losing the unprepared and the weak candidates. Second, the inclusion of young workers in the employee pool is aimed at having a group that can run the organisation with its current traditions and customs to the future. These are the people to whom handing over is expected. Third, the organisation hopes that the initiative will improve performance in terms of having new blood and members of the family who can easily adapt to changes in the technology while still maintaining loyalty to the family. The objective of this is to reduce or prevent incidences that may expose the organisation as lacking in integrity (Cavana & Clifford 2006). Theoretic evaluation of the initiatives The described initiative puts the organisation perfectly on the exercise of theory O of change. This argument is based on several observation from the strategy and the case study. First, the leadership of the organisation is based on the participation of all the members who refers to themselves as a family (Burnes 2005, pp 73-90). All the employees are, therefore, required to be committed to the common goals of the organisation and demonstrate loyalty towards this all the time. Secondly, the initiative is aimed at building the organisation in terms of propagating a culture of integrity and positive attitude in all the employees. The culture of family is expressed by the fact that everybody in the organisation feels betrayed by a single person’s disloyalty. Thirdly, the process of the change is seen as driven by all employees in their various capacities (Battilana et al. 2012, pp. 381-398). It is based on the realisation that change is necessary and not on any forms of incentives to the employees. However, the application of this theory has its own limitations. First, the desire to remain as a family presents a managerial challenge when it comes to making tough decisions. The CEO of New Zealand Customs was not comfortable with the questioning of Puata after his arrest. This is because, with the family concept, the professional relationship between them had been weakened and replaced by the family oneness (Beer & Nohria 2000, pp 133-141, 216). In a family, it is normal to expect loyalty. This, therefore, means that it is unlikely that an organisation that upholds the ideologies of family will exercise strict control of actions and strict responses to problems with conduct. It is in this line that the organisation may find it hard to get rid of other employees who cooperate with the syndicate. It is in the culture of a family to conceal each other’s flaws. References Battilana, J., Dimitriadis, S. & Gargiulo, M., 2012. Change agents, networks, and institutions: A contigency theory of organisational change. Academy of Management Journal, 55, pp.381–398. Beer, M. & Nohria, N., 2000. Cracking the code of change. Harvard Business Review, 78, pp.133–141, 216. Burnes, B., 2005. Complexity theories and organizational change. International Journal of Management Reviews, 7, pp.73–90. Cavana, R.Y. & Clifford, L. V., 2006. Demonstrating the utility of system dynamics for public policy analysis in New Zealand: The case of excise tax policy on tobacco. System Dynamics Review, 22, pp.321–348. Kezar, A.J., 2001. Theories and models of organizational change. In Understanding and facilitating organizational change in the 21st century: Recent research and conceptualizations: ASHE-ERIC Higher Education Report, Volume 28, Number 4. pp. 25–56. Mansell, A., Brough, P. & Cole, K., 2006. Stable Predictors of Job Satisfaction, Psychological Strain, and Employee Retention: An Evaluation of Organizational Change Within the New Zealand Customs Service. International Journal of Stress Management, 13, pp.84–107. Martin, J., Martin, A.J. & Tootell, B., 2009. Research Note: Retention Factors for New Zealand Graduate Customs Officers. New Zealand Journal of Employment Relations (Online), 34, pp.95–107. Morris, J. et al., 2012. Theories and models of behaviour and behaviour change, Platt, T., 2012. “The New Zealand Customs Service: recruitment, selection and integrity” ANZSOG case study. Pryor, M.G. et al., 2008. Challenges facing change management theories and research. Delhi Business Review, 9, pp.1–20. Weiner, B.J., 2009. A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation science : IS, 4, p.67.  Read More