Managing Organisational Design and Change - Assignment Example

Managing Organisational Design and Change Term Two Individual Assessment 25% of Module Assessment Please submit a hard copy to Business School Reception and an electronic copy to Turn-It-In via Uni-Learn Submit a portfolio (a minimum of 1500 words) of answers to the first six seminar questions form term two. Student name………………………………. Grade……….…. Introduction Introduction A methodical approach to the management organizational design and change is valuable when change needs individuals in the entire organization to learn newer skillsets and behaviours. Through setting formal expectations, utilising instruments that will enhance communication and proactively looking for ways of reducing distortion of information, the shareholder will have a higher likelihood of buying into change initially while remaining committed to bringing changes in all the discomforts that are linked to it. Q1: Session Thirteen: individually Assessed Seminar Question “One page maximum and 12-14 point text size Question: When analysing scenarios and using them as a strategic planning tool , why, is it beneficial for planners to rank scenarios and identify commonness in possible futures and potential pathways? Scenario planning is an approach that is used to assess credible, opposing futures founded on indecision concerning the drivers of change. This assessment provides people as well as organizations to increase their capacities and abilities of making robust decisions. Scenario planning is based on a qualitative approach, which is in contrast with quantitative forecasting tools, which typically consider the predicted futures. Scenario planning is traditionally considered as useful for the identification of threats and opportunities in the future and even though organizations may not have an ability to discern the accurate nature of a specific threat, they will have a better position in the navigation of eventual outcomes if they consider an uncertainty from more than one view. This is better than taking the word from one pundit, or the extrapolation of a specific trend line as being the most probable future in the process of discounting other perspectives. Scenario planning does not entail forecasting the future; instead, it tries to make a description of what may be possible. The outcome of a scenario analysis is a set of distinct futures, which are all plausible. The main challenge that arises involved dealing with each of the possible scenarios but there are benefits of scenario planning. These benefits include manager being obligated to leave their standard view of the world thereby exposing blind spots, which might then be unnoticed in the more generally permissible forecasts. Additionally, decision makers have an enhanced ability to acknowledge a scenario in its early stages in case it actually unfolds. Another benefit is that managers will get a better understanding of the source of disagreements that typically take place as they envision various scenarios without their realization. Q2: Session Fourteen: individually Assessed Seminar Question “One page maximum and 12-14 point text size” Question: What are the issues for managers when preventing strategic drift? Strategic drift takes place when an organization regardless of its level of success reacts too slowly to changes occurring in the external environment and maintains the strategies that initially worked well. This is notwithstanding the fact that the organization is increasingly getting out of touch with the external trends in its operating environment. There are numerous examples of organizations which continue depend on their initially successful business models when there is clear evidence that the model has become inappropriate in regards to future trends. Among the main causes of strategic drift is a change in the technological setup especially the role played by the internet and other applications. Strategic drift remains a key challenge that is experienced by strategists with numerous case histories that demonstrate that successful companies may find themselves trapped in established approaches of doing things that progressively become the main rigidities instead of being the main capabilities. Additionally, the evidence is that for most organizations, changes in their main strategies take place only after this form of drift and a resulting downturn in the performance of the company. In dealing with strategic drift, most organizations usually encapsulate themselves in a false sense of security when they develop a strategic plan in regards to their future. Strategic plans that are created at any particular time should not be seen as foolproof devices. Strategies are developed based on the information that is available at that particular time, is in most cases founded on a number of assumptions and expectations, and may not have the ability to weather future storms. However, most of the companies are not ready to invest in new strategies as they do not want to believe that their initial strategies have become obsolete. Q3: Session Fifteen: individually Assessed Seminar Question “One page maximum and 12-14 point text size” Research on Quality Dell’s Quality Control Since good quality control is essential to maintaining low costs, and at Dell, teams of three employees usually collaborate on when working on a PC. As every person is given a specialized task, training become faster and simpler, the time to assemble a machine is reduced and the finished products are less prone to errors. All the teams include a tester who is responsible for quick testing the products to make sure that all the completed machines is wired in the correct manner and works properly. The machines that have been finished must be passed through inspection and be subjected through more extensive testing, however, the quick testing at the assembly line is supposed to ensure that teams at this stage catch any defects before the machine pass this phase. Additionally, Dell has a rapid response structure that links all the suppliers, managers and customers to its value chain in regards to ordering for parts, manufacturing of products and outsourcing of computer modules as well as coordination of assembly and distributing products to the customers. The managers use this system for all the HR functions, quality control and sequencing along with distribution processes. Dell tracks each of these activities and develops performance profiles together with report cards that will provide immediate feedback to various stakeholders including suppliers, employees and workers concerning how they have been performing. Furthermore, online training is conducted to enhance the skills of the stakeholders and train them on better coordination activities. Ultimately, the real-time communication system for Dell’s value chain sets the threshold for superiority in regards to reaction time as well as the quality of the product in the industry (Cushman & King, 2003). Q4: Session Sixteen: individually Assessed Seminar Question “One page maximum and 12-14 point text size” Quality gurus: Supplement this week’s module materials by conducting a review of literature concerning the work of the quality gurus we have discussed. Then select one of the gurus, provide a summary of their work. Discuss its relevance to the quality of products and services today and the performance of the organisations that provide them. Among the earliest theorists was Frederick Winslow Taylor who began the scientific management movement and together with others, were the first to study the process of working in a scientific manner. Their study considered how work is perfumed and how this influences the productivity of the workers. The philosophy developed by Taylor emphasized on the belief that individuals work as hard as they can is not as efficient as the optimization of the work that was done. The Principles of Scientific Management was published in 1909, in which Taylor suggested that through optimization and simplification of jobs, productivity could be enhanced. He also developed the idea that workers as well as their managers had to work in cooperation with each other, which differed from the manner in which work was often done in businesses before. At that time, a factory manager spent a limited amount of time with the workers after which he left them to produce the required products on their own. Standardization did not exist making staying in employment the main motivation for the workers, which meant they were not incentivized to work quickly and effectively. Taylor had the belief that all the workers got their motivation from money and thus came up with the idea of “a fair day’s pay for a fair day’s work”, which implied if a worker could not attain enough in one day, he did not merit remuneration equal to another worker’s with a higher level of productivity. Taylor’s interest in efficiency was associated with his mechanical engineering background, and while working at a steel manufacturer, he came up with workplace experiments that were meant to understand optimal performance level. His studies led him to the conclusion that particular people had the ability to work more efficiently than other people did and these were the best people to hire for specific jobs. This meant that selection of the right people was a critical aspect as far as workplace efficiency was concerned. Q5: Session Seventeen: individually Assessed Seminar Question “One page maximum and 12-14 point text size After conducting a review of the academic literature concerning Total Quality Management answer the following question: Why might some major organisations, who were world leaders in adopting TQM, now be moving their organisational focus and investment away from TQM and other formal quality frameworks? There has been a high success rate associated with TQM and numerous companies have reported that is has resulted in considerable improvements in the quality of products, which has consequently increased market share, profits and the reputations of the companies. However, there is also evidence that has demonstrated that TQM has not lived to its full expectations, as it has not brought the benefits that are proportional to its investment. This has been the main reason as to why the companies that formally supported and adopted it are continually abandoning the approach in favour of other approaches. In order to achieve any improved quality from adopting TQM, the costs of implementations must also be included. Another reason why TQM is losing favour among the companies that initially supported this approach is the fat that managers do not prefer the approach as well as a lacking of clear support for the program (Werner & DeSimone, 2009). However, in some of the cases, the management may be willing to support the program while the lower level employees remain cynical while resisting to get involved in TQM since they consider it as a top down approach created by the top management. The organizations that employ TQM so that they can achieve organizational renewal are of the view of achieving organizational renewal have the view that TQM efforts have to be linked to the learning principles of the organization in order for it to be successful. Q6: Session Eighteen individually Assessed Seminar Question “One page maximum and 12-14 point text size After conducting a review of the academic literature concerning Performance Management and the Balanced Score Card: Answer the following questions and discuss the issues. What is the balanced Scorecard? ? Why is it different to traditional performance management systems? A balanced scorecard is a structure used for strategic planning and management employed broadly in businesses and industries, governments as well as non-profit organizations all over the world in the alignment of business activities to the strategy and vision of the company. Balanced scorecards are central to the improvement of internal and external communications as well as the monitoring of the performance of the organization in comparison to the critical goals. The balanced scorecard has gone through evolution since its early adoption as a basic performance measurement structure to a complete strategic planning and management structure. The balanced scorecard changes the strategic plan of an organization from being passive and attractive into the main pillar for the daily activities of the organization. It develops a framework that avails performance management while assisting planners to identify what is to be done and measured. The balanced scorecard allows executives to exercise their strategies while retaining he traditional financial approach. However, the traditional financial measures focus on the past occurrences, which is adequate for industrial era companies where investment in long-term capabilities and relationships with customers were critical to the success of the business. This financial approach is insufficient for the guidance and evaluation of the journey that companies in the information age must go through towards the creation of value through investing in their workers, procedures, suppliers, technology and innovation among other aspects. Conclusion Effective management of change obligates the organization to shift from its present state to the state that it desires in the future at minimal costs to the company. Changing a company successfully needs a high level of wisdom, energy, persistence as well as education and training in various aspects including communication and the manner in which a company can incentivise correctly. Leaders must strive to successfully lead and manage change so that the company can maintain its responsibility for its executives. Therefore, the companies that are not willing to change or lack the capacity to change have a grim future as the industry is constantly changing and will not sit back and wait for them to keep up. References Cushman, D., & King, S. (2003). Communication best practices at Dell, General Electric, Microsoft, and Monsanto. Albany: State University of New York Press. Werner, J., & DeSimone, R. (2009). Human resource development. Mason OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Read More