Communications and Solving Problems for Team Building - Assignment Example

 Communications and Solving Problems for Team Building 1.0. Introduction Organizations and Management is an important subject area. Through the subject area, it is possible for us to see the effect of organisational structure and design on employee or group member performance. It is also possible to see how values, organisational culture, and mission can contribute to the overall performance. In this work, we assess two organizations from the perspective of the science of organisations and management. As we make the assessment, we identify some of the most useful lessons from the module. The objectives of this work are as follows: 1. Compare two firms and use concepts and perspectives from the science of organisations and management that are useful for comparing and assessing the firms. 2. Analyze firm operations using perspectives from organisations and management. 3. Apply the relevant concepts and perspectives from organisations and management in forwarding recommendations on the how problems and situations articulated on the two firms can be addressed. In the discussion, we use a report rather than an essay format. In our analysis, we are also informed by the theories discussed in Module BB115007S conducted by Ms. H. McIntosh of the Anglia Ruskin University. 2.0. Overview on the Firms Being Compared 2.1. The two firms being assessed and compared in this work are Watsons Engine Components and H&M Consulting. The two business organisations are disparate. 2.2. Watsons Engine Components is a family-owned company engaged in mass-producing parts for car engines. Its plant is in northeast England. The firm employs 200 people, comprising of 125 semi-skilled production workers, 15 clerical workers, 20 technical staff, and 40 managers. The plant is “highly unionised” with one union for the manual and clerical staff. There is a long history of poor relations between the union and management marked by industrial actions. Watsons has been described as successful in maintaining market share in the last several years. However, car manufacturing firms who are Watsons’ customers are in a highly competitive environment and have the option to get their supplies from abroad. Watsons is encountering the following challenges: order times are getting short, contract prices are becoming lower, and quality standards are becoming higher. Despite the ability to maintain a market share, maintaining its market share is a continuing challenge for Watsons in a globalized market. Watsons plant is small and “relatively old-fashioned”. Yet, at the same time, the firm is described to have “sufficient capital” to replace some of its machinery and technological systems. 2.3. Meanwhile, H&M Consulting is “a large global management, engineering and development consultancy.” The company has grown through merger and acquisitions. At first, H&M was established from the merger of two consultancy firms. Later on, H&M purchased several companies in the Romania, the Netherlands, and the USA. H&M Operations now cover 120 countries employing 13,000 staff. The company is in transport, energy, buildings, water, the environment, health, education, and communications. H&M Consulting caters to clients in both the private and public sectors. 2.4. A part of the explanation on why the two firms differ in their management and organization is in their business orientation: one firm is global and the other tends to transact with local clients and belongs to an old industry in the United Kingdom. Of course, this does not mean that all firms oriented to the local market are managed along traditional lines. Students of management are exposed to various schools of modern thought. Unfortunately, some of the leadership of the older firms may not have been exposed to new ideas on management and organisation in the same way as the younger ones. 2.5. All data on the two firms are from the Introduction to Organisations and Management (2011a, 2011b). 3.0. Organisational Design and Structure 3.1. Organizational Flexibility In contrast with the fixed family-owned structure of the Watsons, H& M Consulting has been highly flexible with regard to its structure, including with its ownership profile, employee profile, scope of operation, and probably business focus as well. Originally, the H&M Consulting was built in 1989 when two consulting businesses merged. In 2007, H&M purchased an educational consultancy in Romania, an environmental firm in the Netherlands, and a power engineering firm in the USA. Although the documentation pointed out that the purpose of the purchase was to strengthen the core market sectors of H&M Consultancy in these sectors, it is easy to see the mergers and purchases affected H&M employee composition, skills structure, variety of operations, and the cultural and ethnic profile of its employees as well. It seems that the company is keenly aware of the changes in company profile, as the company purchases have taken place as documentation on the H&M Consulting explicitly pointed out that the company is recruiting staff in various fields and acquiring existing businesses. 3.2. Organisational Design As every project of the H&M Consulting requires a different set of skills, a set of skills are mobilised based on project need. H&M has a networked structure of project teams. Each team is comprised of people with the relevant skills from different parts of the organisation who can work together autonomously on a specific project within a period. According to the documentation on the H&M Consulting, the arrangement “resulted in minimal hierarchy and central direction.” However, another way of interpreting the arrangement is that the project team approach is an organisational design because each project requires a different set of skills. As each team is composed of a specific set of skills, each team will have to be led autonomously and must be less dependent on the central leadership. The requirement also imply that the whole organisation does not require a strong hierarchy but rather minimal hierarchy so each team can operate autonomously and respond quickly to the specific needs of a project and along the skills required by a project. Once a project is finished, the specific project team for the finished project is “disbanded and members of the team go on to the next project, often with different team members.” Most likely, the teams discussed by Robbins (2005, as cited by McIntosh 2011c) apply. As McIntosh (2011e) pointed out, structure can be a source of comparative advantage. 3.3. Dealing with Unions for Harmony Perhaps one organisational agenda for Watsons is for one of its key personnel to focus on the union and its labour force. This can be a job for the Human Resource Manager, James Bacon. Alternatively, other personnel from the HRM may have to establish good relations with the union. The union need not be an enemy of management and the company may have to discuss the volatile industry situation with them, pointing out at the same time that unreasonable union demands can lead to firm bankruptcy or going behind the competition, an event that is harmful to employees’ welfare. Of course, wage adjustments can be an agenda in manner that competitiveness is not lost and employee retention is promoted. Management can have productive dialogues with the union to identify not only the appropriate rewards that would increase the motivation to work but also to identify the working conditions that would increase the intrinsic satisfaction from work as well as the social relationships that can promote productivity (Mullins 2010, as cited by McIntosh 2011f). 3.4. Improving Organisational Structure One of the personnel with good ideas is Production Manager Ahmed Khan. However, ideas that seem to be good are not necessarily the ideas that are feasible to implement and that can make the firm adequately address the relevant problems confronting the business. It is therefore imperative to build a committee that can undertake periodic review of firm technologies that can be presented to a management committee of the business. Related to the matter, it may be important to build a management committee within the family-owned company of Watsons. The powers of the management such management committee for Watsons can be recommendatory or it may be substantial, depending on the inclination of family members. As observed by Ahmed Khan, there is a lack of effective communication channels between different functions of business. Perhaps, a company task force or unit may be assigned the chore of assessing interdepartmental and employee-management communications in the company and propose suggestions on how to improve them. The work of the task force can be done in a participatory manner and the task force should also be tasked to enlist the suggestion of employees on the matter. 3.5. Ageing Employees and Employers and New Blood as Organisational Design One of Watsons’ problem is not only to attract new orders but also to maintain current ones. Unfortunately, the priority of Gordon Watson seems to be on his retirement and not on the future of his company. To survive better in the competition of the 21st century, either the younger ones from the company must take the leadership or that the leading role in the company be given to a management board composed of a mix of people who are young as well as old people who have the long-term future of company in mind. 3.6. Minimizing Hierarchy in the Organisation Can Work The need for minimal hierarchy in H&M Consulting is highlighted by this fact: “at any one time, H&M Consulting works on thousands of projects around the world”. This fact would prevent the practicality of strong centralized leadership in H&M Consulting that would require second-by-second, minute-by-minute, hourly, daily, or even weekly guidance from a leadership. Consequently, with a strong centralized guidance or leadership inappropriate to the business, the hierarchy that would develop would be minimal and the company would have to strongly promote corporate values such as partnership and teamwork rather than emphasise obedience to a central authority. Most likely, the values that would be emphasized pertain to initiative, autonomy, independence, partnership, teams, and teamwork. 4.0. Teams and Teamwork 4.1. Problem of Teamwork In the case of Watsons, there seems to be no notion of team and teamwork. For instance, the Marketing Department rarely speaks to anyone in the Manufacturing Department. At face value or on the surface, the root cause for this is that it is the firm’s procedure for interdepartmental liaison to go through the Directors. 4.2. Improving Communications and Solving Problems for Team Building The firm has been described to have a number of personnel with good ideas. Tapping employee ideas must be an important organisational agenda for Watsons. One key agenda that can present an opportunity for developing teamwork in Watsons is the need to review company technologies and update them. For instance, there is the need to upgrade firm technology with regard to improving mobility in the shop floor. There is also a need for modern technology to be tapped so work can be distributed equitably among personnel but the matter is also an agenda that goes beyond technology or technological upgrades. The firm description for Watson says that ability to process orders is hindered by a lack of flexibility in the shop floor and, as a result, some people are over-worked while others are over-burdened. 5.0. Approach to Leadership and Management 5.1. Leadership and Management: Based on Shared Goals and By Example The available documentation on H&M Consulting indicates that the organisation implements a leadership style based on missions and values. As Buchanan and Huczynski (2010, as cited by McIntosh 2011a), an organisation is “a social arrangement for achieving controlled performance in pursuit of collective goals.” More than however, this, the company through the leadership of Theo Wolf is also implementing a brand of corporate leadership based on example. Documentation available on the H&M Consulting indicates that H&M Consulting CEO Theo Wolf is considered as a role model because Wolf is considered as highly respected and “inspirational” by his staff. A viable interpretation of the company documentation on H&M Consulting is that Theo Wolf is an example of what a member of a company should be: dedicated to a set of corporate values and professionalism based on those set of values. Wolf’s leadership style is consistent with the 1978 ideas of Burns on leadership (Introduction to Organisations and Management 2011c). In a sense, the leadership style of Wolf combines classical and human relations approaches in management as described by Mullins (2010, as cited by McIntosh 2011c). In the classical approach, there is an emphasis on purpose (Mullins 2010, as cited by McIntosh 2011c). However, instead of emphasizing on formal structure and hierarchy, Wolf emphasized on human relations, particularly on the satisfaction of individual needs through groups at work (Mullins 2010, as cited by McIntosh 2011c). In identifying a mission for H&M Consulting, Wolf is more than a manager as he performed the role of a path finder for the company (Rajan 2000, as cited by McIntosh 2011g). 5.2. A Leadership that is Divorced from the Situation and Personnel In the case of Watsons, there are clear symptoms that management is leading the business organisation in a manner in which the leadership is divorced from the situation of firm: 1) Managing Director Gordon Watson rarely ventures to the shop floor; and 2) Good ideas are not listened to and there is no forum for the discussion of good ideas. 6.0. Organisational Culture 6.1. The organisational culture being promoted in the H&M Consulting involves a notion of “empowerment”. There are several notions of empowerment but H&M Consulting’s notion of empowerment is closely linked with the notion of empowering the staff so “they try new approaches and develop innovative ways of managing each project on which they work.” The documentation on H&M Consulting points out that autonomy, initiative, and innovation has been embedded in the organisational culture of H&M Consulting. 6.2. The organisational culture that was apparently established in the H&M Consulting revolves on the company mission of consumer satisfaction, professional excellence, commercial success and employee fulfilment. When corporate mission is defined this way, the managers and the workforce establishes consumer satisfaction as one of the primary criteria for corporate success. Defining professional excellence as one of the corporate mission establishes an ethic on which every person in the company has to live by: becoming professionally excellent in whatever they do. Defining the corporate mission as commercial success ensures that corporate acts must be one that provides profit to ensure commercial viability and sustainability. Finally, defining the corporate mission as one of “employee fulfilment” ensures that the search for profitability is done in a way that employees feel fulfilled. In short, the corporate mission of the H&M Consulting was crafted in way that the company has a mission or set of objectives shared by all of the management and staff and which becomes the basis for organisational culture that can ensure success. 6.3. H&M corporate values revolve around PRIDE: progress, respect, integrity, drive, and excellence. The corporate values promote cohesion, professionalism, communication, and respect that can make the communication sustainable. With the corporate emphasis for drive, both initiative and the desire to satisfy consumer expectations are simultaneously addressed. 6.4. In Watsons, we observe a weak organisational culture. We see absences averaging at 9% across the company. Despite the ability to maintain a market share, the company is unable to keep its technical and managerial staff at long periods, given a turnover of 35-40%. Company personnel are reported to be have been poached by competitors offering better terms and conditions. Recall that the union has been frequently at odds with management and the conflicts have led to industrial actions. Unfortunately, Human Resource Manager James Bacon perceives that the task of motivating employees is the task of supervisors. Supervisors are supposed to “motivate and man-manage (sic) their staff.” This reflects a poor notion of HRM James Bacon on the nature of his task and role in the company. 6.7. Worst, the mind-set of HRM James Bacon is now anachronous to how managers should manage their personnel in the 21st century. In dealing with a complaint of topless photographs of women in various workstations of the shopfloor, he was heard to have belittled the complaint. This attitude no longer fits with the organisational culture that firms must build in the 21st century. The schools have been increasingly concerned with “male-chauvism” and “sexual exploitation of women”. A large section of the labour force is usually young and has been exposed to the mind-set and concerns of gender equality and “male oppression”. HRM James Bacon attitudes in trivializing complaints from women (and potentially also from men) on the concern does not speak well of an organisational culture that motivates employees to work. While working organisations deal with work, working organisations are also systems of social relations (Mullins 2010, as cited by McIntosh 2011h). As a social relationship, there can be issues involving power, race, and gender. 6.8. Organisational culture can be a powerful tool for promoting retention as people are motivated by factors other than money (Introduction to Organisations and Management 2011d). As pointed out by Robbins (2005, as cited by McIntosh 2011d), organisational culture is “a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organisation form other organisations.” Organisational culture is also “a shared, often implicit assumption beliefs, values, and sensemaking procedures that influences and guides the behaviour and thinking of organisational members” (Martin and Fellenz 2010, as cited by McIntosh 2011d). Organisational culture must help create the conditions for success of an organization given and organizational environment. The organizational environment is “anything outside an organisation which may affect the organisation’s present or future activities.” (Kew and Stredwick 2008, as cited by McIntosh 2011i). 7.0. Conclusion The conclusion that we offer in this work is that content of Module BB115007S has been useful in our analysis. For instance, the course content of the module allowed us to see the options on approaching leadership and management issues as well as the options for designing or structuring our organization so communication can flow better and leadership can be exercised better. The course content allowed us to see that minimising hierarchy in organisations can work, an organisation can do its tasks through teams or groups, teamwork in organisations is important, and essence of organisation involves shared goals and values. In the latter, the implication is that we can lead and manage our organisations better if uphod share goals and values within organisations. Shared goals and values and the extent these goals and values are imbibed by group members will lead an organisation to work better and be productive. In order to build organisations that share a set of goals and values, we learned from the module that it is important to build and nurture a corporate culture in the organisation. This corporate culture can be very important in improving organisational productivity and performance. From the course, we learned that leading and managing are different and, yet, management can acquire some of the characteristics of a leader to be better managers and this can help a lot for employees to be better satisfied as employees. The course has also emphasized that leadership can be acquired and suggests that managers can also acquire leadership skills. At same time, through the work of Buccanan and Huczynski (2010), the module reminded us that leadership styles can be designed according to the context of our business organisation. References Introduction to Organisations and Management, 2011a. Case study 1: Watsons Engine Components. A handout. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. Introduction to Organisations and Management 2011b. Case study 2: H & M Consulting. A handout. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. Introduction to Organisations and Management 2011c. Definitions of leadership. A handout. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. Introduction to Organisations and Management 2011d. Human relations movement: Hawthorne studies. A handout. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011a. Introduction to the module guide. PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011b. Approaches to organisation and management. PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011c. Groups and Teams at Work. PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011d. Organisational culture. PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011e. Organisational structure and architecture. PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011f. Motivation. PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011g. Leadership (1). PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011h. Power. PowerPoint Slides. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. McIntosh, H., 2011i. Organizational environment. Module BB115007S. Cambridge & Chelmsford: Anglia Rushkin University. Read More