Justification of the Organizational Structure - Example

Heading: Organizational Structure Your name: Course name: Professors’ name: Date Executive Summary John’s business is involved in supplying boilers and supplying workers to the mines adjacent to his business. The business is different by different risks that face a new enterprise as it is growing. The growth has led to establishment of organizational structures and even hiring of business coaches to try and solve business problems. This report establishes whether John’s business is running using a good organizational chat while establishing weaknesses that exist within the organization. The report looks at the mode of communication and structure of the business as the basis of analysis on the business. The SWOT analysis was performed to establish weaknesses, threats, opportunities and strength that exist within the business. The report details the different challenges John’s business is facing and the ways to tackle them. The business seems to have an organizational structure that is not fitting to the business models. Solutions to some of the problems that the business is facing are provided to improve on communication and production. Proposal has been made on different areas that the business can carry out cost cutting measures in case of financial problems. The report has established lack of a detailed channel of communication which has been hampering John’s business success. Some proposal of communication modes are like establishment of an informal form of communication. The proposed forms of communication have been researched over the internet by reading business journals that shows how they have been applied. Research on different organizational structures led to need of proposing of a new business model in John’s business. Weaknesses in the business were established by reading literatures within the business and interviewing the different workers. This model will eliminate some positions which are irrelevant while creating the role of the secretary who acts as the coordinator. The coordinator will inherit some administrative duties that were being carried out by the managers leaving them with the duty of minding production and growth of the business. Establishment of the need of business coaches as a means of advising workers or motivating them is looked into. Business coaches have been seen to provide encouragement to workers and management of the business leading to increase in productivity. Contingency plans for the business are elaborated to cater for unforeseen risks that might lead to closure. The analysis showed the business might face contingencies of fire, strike by workers and injuries to workers while carrying their business activities. Some of the measures proposed include taking insurance covers and developing agreement that would allow outsourcing of production. Research on books that provide details on different risks faced by business and precautionary measures to be taken led to the proposing of these contingency measures in John’s business. Table of Contents 1.0 Introduction 6 2.0 Justification of the organizational structure 6 3.0 Ways to improve communication 7 Develop an informal communication channel 7 Establishment of information centers 8 Use of short message service 9 Establishment of an organizational Intranet 9 4.0 Areas of the organization overstaffed 9 5.0 Benefits of Employing Business Coach 13 Motivate workers 13 Increase in profitability of business 13 Help in developing team strategies 14 Provision of time management coaching 14 6.0 Contingency plan for a business 15 Insurance 15 Outsourcing production 16 Leasing machineries 16 Establishment of minimum stock policy 17 7.0 Conclusion 17 8.0 Recommendations 18 References 19 1.0 Introduction The report was carried out with authorization of John, who wanted to know why his business was not growing while he had good managers. The report is supposed to establish weaknesses in the business organization and try to establish some corrective measures to the problems identified. Limitations that existed in producing the report were minimal but were overcome eventually. Some of the limitations were establishing whether the acquired information was correct or had been falsified by the management. Time constraint was a factor in preparing the report because of the many activities that had to be carried like interviewing workers to establish why they were dissatisfied with the management of the organization. The information used to write down the report originated from business related journals and texts. These journals provided information on already tried problems and solutions to them. Their creditability was good because they had been reviewed and information in them seen to be true. The report will first provide a proposal on a new business organizational structure to John business detailing need of the new structure. It will then look at the benefits accrued by employing a business coach and finally look at the different contingencies that might face the establishment. 2.0 Justification of the organizational structure John’s organization structure is not good because there is a breakdown in the communication within the organization. The production team which is headed by Ted seems to work without any coordination. The structure had not provided good job descriptions of the different members in a clear way or clear grouping. Clear grouping of jobs would bring a structure where there would be no conflict in activities between the different parties working in the organization. The business faced challenges where workers would receive instructions from multiple heads. This would lead to conflict in instructions received. 3.0 Ways to improve communication Communication in business ensures that each person in the business has the accurate information at the precise time. Communicating certain issues late would lead to a situation where decisions are delayed or making decisions that would cost the business some money. Lack of effective communication would bring about conflict of ideas and interest among workers in the organization (Gail et.al 2009, p. 249). Some of the proposed measures of improving communication in the organization would be:- Develop an informal communication channel The informal communication channel is where people in the lower ranks or in the same rank can discuss any information without following the laid down formal structure. The laid down formal structure in this organization is where information originates from Ted on different quotation then to Matt and Dave. The workers at the bottom of the organization will wait for information to reach to them from the two supervisors which might be distorted or never passed at the end. The informal communication channel is supposed to encourage dialogue where the boiler makers can confirm an issue from their boss Matt. The informal communication will develop a form of mutual trust between all employees where they will see that their opinions are taken into consideration. Some of the means that informal communication can be encouraged is having meetings with all the employees and trying to brief them on the missions and business deals the business is working. Stacey (2012, p. 21-25) tries to show how informal form of communication will allow information to reach intended parties even when the formal type of communication has a breakdown. Informal communication would still eliminate situations where workers in the organization acted on rumors that were unconfirmed. Establishment of information centers There is need of the organization establishing offices or electing people who are supposed to gather information from all the groups and disseminate it to all the other individuals. The person can be a secretary who is charged with debriefing and briefing Ted on any information concerning quotes. The secretary, once he/she get this information will send it to Matt and Dave upon request or at stipulated times of the day. The establishment of this post will also eliminate a situation where Matt and Dave have to wait on Ted’s availability to pass information to them. Ted’s claim of being so busy might hamper his ability to keep on briefing the two groups on different issues. The secretary’s role would be coordinating the two groups by making sure he/she is always sure of what Ted is working on and what Matt and Dave need to work well. The secretary would also be available within the office premises all the times making it easier for any confirmation to be made on progress on anything by the two groups. This office will act as hub of information may it be historical or present information (Ricky et.al 2010, p.200). Use of short message service Modern day workers own devices that can support receipt of short text messages, and even access internet. Utilization of this form of communication will reduce the cost of communication while improving on the quality of information delivered to the recipients of information. Any issues concerning the different parties can be sent to them through text messages eradicating need of waiting for a meeting to be set up. The case where Ted is late to inform Malt and Dave on the different quotes might be because; when quotes are confirmed Ted has to wait for a meeting to be set up. If Ted would have phone numbers or an established channel of sending text messages to the workers when quotes are confirmed the delay would be eliminated. Establishment of an organizational Intranet An intranet service can be established within the organization where each worker has login credentials and some level of access rights. Once critical information that needs to be shared is received, it is disseminated within the intranet to allow those parties that have access right to view it (Lawrence et.al 2008, p.170). The intranet has an advantage of maintaining history of information where a person will view past and recent posts. Ted would have reminders set within the intranet that will keep informing him what time he is supposed to provide what information. The intranet can also provide a platform where workers are allowed to give their suggestions on the workings and improvements they need carried out within the organization. 4.0 Areas of the organization overstaffed John’s business seems to be overstaffed in the areas of managerial position, mostly in the workshop hire. The business has multiple supervisors for the different working groups leading to situation of some playing the role of passing information. The management of all the hiring can be combined under one role with each role reporting to one manager. In the workshop, the role played by Matt and Dave can be combined to one. The business is supposed to have one manager with two supervisors. One supervisor handling the workshop and the other one handling the labor hire role. The business would then establish an office for a coordinator who will see that each group receives the information it requires at the right time. Justification of combining the role of the workshop supervisor and supervisor offsite worker is on the basis on the number of workers. The two groups have eleven workers who would be supervised by one person with a lot of ease. The co-ordination of each group would be established be electing a group leader who will air their grievances and even sometime give more accurate feedback on their jobs. The group leader will be cheaper to employ than appointing supervisors who are not part of the workers. Justification on transferring the role of ‘manager labor hire’ and ‘workshop hire’ to one position is brought about by the roles that Craig plays within the organization. The roles carried out by Craig are executed by the assistant manager labor hire. Craig’s main job is to collect reports from Louise on the hiring issues which could be easily handled within the workshop hiring managerial position. The new organizational structure of John’s business:- Figure 1.1 New business organizations The new business organization structure reduces the number of managers while adding one more job position. The managerial job is consolidated to one position under a manager who will be reporting to John while leaving the administration job to the business secretary. The role of the business secretary will be administrative where the different supervisors do not need to report directly to the manager. The secretary will help the managers in collecting and disseminating information to the different people within the organization (Ellman et.al 2010, p. 300). The business secretary will act on behalf of the manager on any issues whenever the manager is not physically available in the office eliminating situations of a power vacuum. The labor hire assistant manager will provide data on the number of workers needed in the mines and to the business secretary who will compile the report for use by the business manager. 5.0 Benefits of Employing Business Coach Motivate workers The business coaches are more likely to be trusted by workers while airing their grievances or giving suggestions. The reason they are trusted a lot is because they are seen to be sovereign from the administration of the organization that might victimize workers when they give their views. They motivate workers by giving them guidelines on the way forward to overcome different challenges that they face on their working areas. The business coach will help the worker in discovering their objectives and thus help them to labor towards them. Wendy (2010, p21) states that business coaches act as mentors to workers while working towards their dreams. The business coach has a responsibility of training workers on good attributes of a businessman. Once workers are equipped with certain skills from the coach, they are likely to feel more ready to take challenging activities within the business. Workers will not shy away from decision making claiming they do not have the right information to support their decisions. Increase in profitability of business Businesses that got their workers satisfied and appreciated by the management tend to make profits and prosper. This comes up because the business coach after discussing issues with the managers and different workers will tend to discover loopholes in the business model. Once this loop holes are sealed production increases and the business tend to improve its image. One of the problems that the business manager might learn exist within the organization might be lack of a proper communication channel within the organization like what existed in John’s business. The weakness in communication might lead to a situation where goods ordered by clients are not delivered at the right time or in the right quantity. The business coach upon learning of this problem is supposed to coach the employees on a way to establish good communication means. Help in developing team strategies The expansion of the industry depends on the harmonization factor within the organization and how effective it is. John’s business lacked team strategies and that is why conflict kept arising between Matt, Dave and Ted because the job of quoting belonged to Ted. Making Matt and Dave participate in the quoting process the conflict would be eliminated because they would take it their responsibility to acquire the right information at the right time. The team coach will develop team strategies by advising the management to provide workers with a platform of sharing ideas. Once the team strategies are developed each and every worker within the organization will work towards it. Provision of time management coaching Matt felt overwhelmed by the quoting process which might be realized by lack of proper management of time. The coach will provide training to Matt on the different means he can improve on his time management skills. The time management skills gained will help him in delivering details to the different supervisors on timely basis. The coaching on time will increase on efficiency and timely delivery of the job. The timely delivery will have a positive image to the organization productivity eventually leading to profits. 6.0 Contingency plan for a business The business contingency plan is supposed to deal with future unexpected happenings that might face the operation. Some of the unexpected issues that can arise include fire, strike from workers and bad debt form clients. The taking place of this event requires the management to come with ways to revive the critical functionality of the organization. Some of the critical operations would be supplying preordered commodities to clients or trying to meet the fixed costs of the business during the time of crisis (John 2012, p. 53). Some of the contingency plans in a business include taking insurance covers, outsourcing production, and hiring of equipments. The weaknesses that exist within the business tend to bring down the business during the time of crisis like economic crisis. Insurance Businesses will take insurance covers to protect their assets in case of things like fire, floods and any form of natural occurrence (Simon 2008, p.14). John’s business is hiring workers who are working in highly risky position. Those workers working in mines and the boiler part of the organization might get injured on their working hours. Once this has happened the business is supposed to take care of their medical bills and sometime pay any loss they incur. As the human resource manager in the organization, I will take a medical cover to take care of illness faced by any worker while they are transacting business on behalf of the organization. Workers will have their bills paid without any need of business incurring more costs to cater for their needs. An insurance cover for the business premises to cover them against risks like fire. This cover is supposed to provide capital in building the business incase total or partial destruction takes place. The insurance cover will make sure the business does not close for a long time without resuming operation. Outsourcing production The business might face a risk of strikes from workers or lack of enough labor while the demand of the products is high. A plan has to be put in place to overcome such a situation by signing agreements with companies producing similar products. Once our business is not able to cater for the client needs the partners are supposed to provide the finished products to our clients on our behalf. The agreement will state that when we resume production we are going to continue dealing with our clients. Leasing machineries The business equipments might fail because of mechanical problems or vandalism. This risk will leave the business without any means of production. Closure of production might lead to loss of clients or loss of workers. Solution to this problem would be having agreements with companies that use similar equipment on plans of hiring their equipments in case of failure of the machineries. The companies might be a competitor or a business that specializes on leasing out machineries. Leasing of machineries will provide equipment incase accidents happens within the organization. The lease might include a clause of using the machineries from their site. This comes into play where may be the business cannot resume its location because of things like floods or fire. In this case, John’s business might lose the machineries used in making boilers leading to the need of leasing the machines from outside. Establishment of minimum stock policy Businesses might get to a situation where production cannot continue because of a strike by the boiler makers. This would mean that customers who are making orders cannot be executed at that moment. To cater for the time of the striking workers a warehouse is to be established that will have a stock of goods to last for a minimum of two weeks. The stock of boilers will ensure that clients’ needs are met even when production has been shut down by the striking workers. The two weeks periods will allow for deal to be reached between the organization and the workers. 7.0 Conclusion Research on the business model employed by John towards his employees has shown that it is not effective. Some of the weakness has been the establishment of positions within the organization that are redundant. The business has been seen to lack of a clear line of communication between the different parties within. This is seen where workers are not sure from whom they are supposed to take commands or report to. These challenges have been seen to be the main cause of dissatisfaction amongst workers and may be leading to dissatisfaction to clients because of the quality of goods delivered. It has been recognized that the business did not have a contingency plan. This means in case of the unforeseen things taking place, the business would eventually close down. The SWOT analysis has been able to identify some of the weaknesses that existed in the business like lack of insurance covers. Solution to these weaknesses in the business would lead to more satisfaction among workers within the organization. 8.0 Recommendations Recommendations on eliminating some posts in the business have been made. This will cut down on costs incurred on running some of those offices. The business should also hire a secretary who will offer an administrative role and coordination. The secretary should be charged with the responsibility of posting memos to workers to inform them of any changes taking place within the organization. The business should also take up technology as a means of sharing information among its workers. The cheapest of it would be taking the short message service where workers are informed of anything no matter of them being away from office. Recommendation on the business taking insurance covers as a form of contingency plans to do away with some risks. The cover should include a workmen compensation scheme where workers are compensated for losses incurred while carrying business activities. The contingency plan should also include the business signing agreements that would allow it to continue producing even when its physical location is closed down. References Ellman, M, & Paul P 2010, Organizational Structure, Communication, and Group Ethics, American Economic Review, vol. 100, no. 5, pp.300. Gail, TZ & Jackie, L 2009, The central role of communication in developing trust and its effect on, Journal of business communication, 46: 287. John, G 2012, Risk management: what's in it for the Executive suite, Disaster Recovery Journal, vol. 25 no.3, pp. 50-55. Lawrence, J & Carl, M 2008. The Future of Business: The Essentials, South-Western College Pub, California. Niamh, M 2012, The Investor Model Underlying the EU's Investor Protection Regime: Consumers or Investors, European Business Organization Law Review, vol. 13, pp.169-193. 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