Ngahi Tahu Organisational Performance - Case Study Example

IMPROVING NGAHI TAHU ORGNANIZATION PERFORMANCE STUDENT NAME COURSE LECTURER SCHOOL DATE Introduction An organisation refers to a group of people who come together to fulfil a certain purpose. Therefore, organization performance refers is a measure of how well the organised group is able to achieve its functions. Organisation performance entails existence of unified strategic direction, proper allocation of resources, creation of organisation values and culture, existing reward structures to reinforce good performance, development of organisation culture and development of organisational performance measures among other aspects. Organization performance is also based on how well the organisation is able to plan itself against contingency factors (Gabarro, 1992; Holbeche, 2012). This essay will analyse Ngahi Tahu design of contingency factors and provide recommendations on the best approaches to improve its organisation performance. The first section will present Ngahi Tahu as a development enterprise, its purpose and leadership structures. The second part will present the design of Ngahi Tahu contingency factors while the last section will present recommendation on how to improve its performance. Description of Ngahi Tahu Enterprise Ngahi Tahu is a development enterprise based in New Zealand. It was developed in 1988 after government apologised and honoured its land sale agreement, which was cancelled in 1800’s. Thereafter, Ngahi Tahu was created through law, hence enabling its people to pursue a common identity and develop their future. Currently, it has 56,000 members with a median age of 25 years (Sang, n.d.). The main aspiration of the group is to protect the natural environment, enhance cultural identity of its people, social development, education, organisation development and promote public participation of its people. It has a mixed vertical and horizontal governance structure whereby members elect 18 representatives to the top decision making council called Te Runanga Ngahi Tahu. The council is responsible for high level decision making, appointment of directors in addition to being responsible for all agreements involving the enterprise (Sang, n.d.). Below the council the office of the council and Ngahi Tahu Holdings Corporation. The office of the council is responsible for the governance, lobbying and representation of members, day to day running of programs that involve member and coordination of all political and governance issues. The Ngahi Tahu Holdings Corporation is responsible for investments. It is ran by a semi-independent boards and has subsidiary companies and investments under its oversight (Sang, n.d.). Ngahi Tahu enterprise has common values that influence how its stakeholders interact and conduct their businesses. Among its values are respect, development and maintain of important relationships. Members are urged to pursue knowledge and protect environment, culture, language and enterprise resources. Taking care of the elderly and disadvantaged is also highly valued. Most importantly, personal integrity and upholding of individual ethical behaviour is highly emphasized (Sang, n.d.). There are diverse policy that govern Ngahi Tahi including investment policies and shareholder agreement policies. It has put measure to promote common vison and goals among the members. For the last three years, there has been a sharp increase in the number of shareholders. It has been able to diversify its businesses in addition to investing in human resource that upholds values, brand culture and recognition in addition to its profitability (Sang, n.d.). Analysis of Ngahi Tahu Contingency Factors Performance A contingency is a likely event that has a possibility of happening but cannot be fully prevented. Contingency factors are the issues that influence the development and implementation of companies’ strategies. They are influential in growth, profitability and sustainability of a company. The main contingency factors are human resource, Technology, Size and age of an organization, strategies and environmental uncertainty (Cole, 2004; Martin, 2006). Strategic human resource management is vital in matching effective human resource with the appropriate organization environment and strategies. Employees need supportive structures to be able to maximise their efforts that lead to improved productivity and achievement of organisation objectives (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014). Ngahi Tahu is committed to investment in human resource that will enable it generate revenue but more so promote adherence to values, the organisation brand as well as promotion of the organization culture. Its appointments to the board are based on not only merit qualifications but also possession of the right values and behaviours that match with the organisation expectations and aspirations. It has strong core values that guide the employees conduct. Decision-making is done through representatives who make a council to make shared decisions. The management boards also comprise representation from members of Ngahi Tahu who influence maintenance of cultural and ethical values in activities and decisions of various boards. Employees have the freedom to work in areas of their interest to develop self-growth as well as enhance their satisfaction (Sang, n.d.). Technology in an organisation is defined as the unique methods, skills and tools that are used to make outputs out of inputs. Therefore, technology can be viewed as part of organisation resources that enable it to have competitive advantage. Technology is key in guiding rational decision-making process of the organisation (Daft, 2012). Ngahi Tahu is a diversified organisation that requires good technology to coordinate activities of the subsidiaries. Moreover, technology is required for formalization of the organisation whereby work roles are structured. Ngahu Tahi recognises the role of technology in its business as evidenced by partnership with the Lincohn University and technology experts in its farming project. Ngahi Tahu values technology in its work activities (Sang, n.d.). By teaming up with experts, it aims to scan the environment and adopt technology that will match today and future needs of the business community thereby reduce uncertainties brought about by technology changes. Strategy is a master plan that is made to achieve an aim. When a strategy changes, the organisation design is affected. Strategies are classified as corporate level strategies, business level strategies and functional level strategies. Business level strategies used are partnership strategies that enable projects such as farming project to collaborate with skilful partners to promote growth and profitability (Steiner, 2008). Ngahi Tahu has applied various strategies to promote structural design and success of the organization. Among them in the diversification strategy. Through a diversification strategy, the organisation has set up several subsidiaries such that failure of one of them or poor performance of one subsidiary has immaterial effect on the overall performance of the entire firm. It has used leadership strategies where leaders are chosen based on merit and expertise even when they are representatives of the Ngahi Tahu Members (Sang, n.d.). The organisation has also adopted functional level strategies in the human resource department where employees undergo capacity building. Skills acquired from the skills development program serve as a motivating factor to employees and improve efficiency in performance of organisation goals. Innovative strategies are also adopted in ensuring the projects adopt top-notch projects that will guarantee profits. Employees who have received training on leadership roles stood a chance to be promoted to managerial roles. The organisation took time to design and test its programs before launching them. For example, the farm project was to be piloted before adoption if it met desired objectives. Size of the organisation is a contingency factor because large organization differ from smaller organizations based on human resource requirements, structure, policies, procedures and regulations. They differ on structural design of the organisation (Cole, 2004; Daft, 2012). Ngahi Tahu is a diversified organisation with a mixed up horizontal and vertical leadership structure which can predispose it to poor performance. The council is the main decision making body on Ngahi tahu Holdings Corporation that several subsidiaries and investments. Hence, oversight role of the council and the process of making corporate level decisions can be weakened by the long vertical leadership structure. Ngahi Tahu continues to diversify in seafood, agriculture, tourism, property development and rural conversions that require established policies to run then concurrently (Sang, n.d.). Ngahi Tahu has reached midlife scale since it has grown in terms of the number of shareholders and it has development multiple products and investments. It has established policies to determine how it is governed. For example, it has developed numerous investment and shareholding policies such as inter-generational investor policies and planning, approval and reporting framework policies respectively. In its midlife stage, it has specified roles of various employees. For example, the Ngahi Tahu board is responsible for selection and appointment of subsidiary directors and boards. Businesses operate in uncertain environments. What is stable today has the potential to be unstable the following day. Therefore, business environment is influential in an organisation’s rational decision-making. The environment can be both internal environment and external environment where the latter refers to factors influencing the business outside what is regulated the company. They could be political, legal, natural environment, cultural or competition from other businesses in the same field. Internal environment would refer to issues within the influence of the organisation such as resources, skills, inputs, production processes or designs that influence how an organization is doing business (Martin, 2006). Ngahi Tahu internal environment scanning reveals presence of resources as the land that is acquired under a statute; culture that instils organisation values, human resource of 56,000 members, established structure of doing business and existence of brand name that can be relied to influence growth of new subsidiaries. The external environment analysis showed some of the projects were legally unpopular such as use of forestland for dairy farming. There is no mention of competing farms but it is hoped other communities might adopt a similar approach to compete with its products. The office of the council is tasked to coordinate political activities and the eighteen representatives are tasked to lead in advocacy and representation of members on political issues in addition to guarding the statute that honoured Ngahi Tahu Enterprise (Sang, n.d.).. Recommendations to the Senior Management The first recommendation is to develop an organisation code of conduct where all employees will take oath to abide by it. A code of conduct is the agreed rules that define proper conduct among the organisation members. Therefore, a code of conduct for that will be used in all its subsidiaries and investments will instil the values and culture of the organisation leading to better performance of the organisation (Collins, 2009). Ngahi Tahu enterprise is a very diverse organisation, which is a challenge to proper oversight and supervision of all its employees. An organisation code of conduct should specify the role of managers, employees and the external regulators of ethical behaviours such as the society and government. The code of conduct will enable the organisation members differentiate the right or wrong, enable them to act in integrity and to be team players in addition to making decisions that abide by the organisation ethical values. This will protect the organisation retain its customers, make earnings for the shareholders, fulfil government obligations and improve on the welfare of the employees. Organisation members will be able to identify ethical dilemmas and manage them through rational decision-making. Ngahi Tahu has very strong ethical values that should not only be documented but also propagated to the younger generation for ensuring sustainability of high ethical culture of the organisation. for the continuity. The globalization and the subsequent interaction with employees from diverse cultures require guidelines on the organisation code of conduct. A key component of the code of ethics is the implementation strategies that the organisation can apply. Implementation would entail on-job training seminars, adoption of ethics articles in the organisation periodic magazine and establishment of ethical committee to review adherence to code of conduct. A reward system for proper conduct would be essential to reinforce good ethical behaviour and ethical decisions made by employees (Collins, 2009). According to reinforcement theory, behaviour that results to a positive feeling will be repeated. The theory suggest that people work to obtain intrinsic and extrinsic rewards (Miner, 2015). Therefore, the code of conduct should set aside extrinsic rewards from Ngahi Tahu for employees whose conduct is exceptionally recognised by the ethical review committee. For example, an employee who refuses to make a corrupt sale, although he/she had an opportunity should be rewarded. The second recommendation is to disenfranchise Ngahi Tahu Holdings Corporation to set up separate independent organisations that are able to report to the assembly of the eighteen representatives. As the organisation is enlarging, Ngahi Tahu Holdings Corporation Board supervisory work will be overwhelming due to high number and size of its subsidiaries and investments. Some of the subsidiaries should be registered separately and report directly to the assembly. This initiative will reduce time and bureaucracies involved in long vertical decision-making process. In addition, the subsidiaries will be under direct supervision by the assembly hence reducing risk of poor performance. Ngahi Tahu supports the idea of self-development and self-determination. The subsidiaries should be developed to undertake their individual mandate. The directors and workers of individual works should be assigned individual goals, hence motivating them through job promotion, and through the challenge of achieving goals that are more demanding. As organizations age, they became rigid to change and decision making is limited to existing structures. Reducing the decision making channels make it easier to adapt to the environmental changes more efficiently. According to goal setting theory, goal are supposed to be challenging but achievable. People work to achieve certain goals and the opportunity to give feedback is vital. The separated companies will be reporting to the assembly on individual basis (Miner, 2015). For example, different corporation should be set based on the scope of the organisation. There should be independent Corporations on the following areas, Tourism, Property development, Seafood, Investments and Rural Conversions. Bringing them closer to the council will enhance sharing of mission, vision and goals, which are essential to profitable and sustainable enterprises. The third strategy is formulation of a marketing strategy for Ngahi Tahu entity. Ngahi Tahi should leverage on the existing brand name to develop a marketing strategy for its investments. It has diversified its operations that enable it to maximise on economies of scale to market them. One of the approaches that it can use to market and increase its market share is the wide use corporate social responsibility. Ngahi Tahu should set up programs that give back to the societal. A core value of the organisation is social development of its people. This initiative will likely improve the moral rating of the enterprise, and improve liking of its products. The culture of caring for the people and upholding values is more valuable than the financial rewards. Moreover, through corporate social responsibility activities such as building hospitals, water supplies and schools for its community, Ngahi Tahu will reap back through increased customers to its investment and development of workforce that will has a positive image of the enterprise. The fourth recommendation is to seek mergers and expand partnership with other companies that have a skill, equipment or quality to share. Mergers will lead to better quality products, reduced market prices that will result to higher consumption and profit making ability. Ngahi Tahu should scan the external environment to identify partners who can be of great value and support to its endeavours. The open systems theory proposes that the growth of an organisation is dependent on its relationship with other organisations (Cole, 2004). Therefore, it is important to cultivate healthy relationships with competitors, strategic partners or government entities to influence performance of the organisation positively. For example, the dairy farming partnership with Lincoln University is laudable. Other projects should emulate the steps taken in the dairy farming project to promote high performance. The fifth strategy is development of a strategic plan for the next five years. A strategic plan is a series of actions that are intended to give an organisation a competitive advantage over the others. Strategic plans can be of varied period of time. It considers the organisation internal strengths, external opportunities and develops a plan to exploit them while exterminating its weaknesses and reducing threats. A strategic plan should encompass all strategies adopted in various functional levels to provide a common goal for the entire organisation to follow (Steiner, 2008). Conclusion Organisation performance is used to measure achievement of objectives in an organisation. Ngahi Tahu enterprise in new Zealand has demonstrated design of contingency factors such as technology, age and size of company, strategies, human resource management and environmental factors to establish a profitable organisation. However, the entity needs to disenfranchise the only Ngahi Tahu Holdings Corporation to improve performance. Other measures recommended are establishment of a corporate social responsibility as a marketing strategy, establishment of mergers, establishment of the code of conduct and lastly the establishment of five-year strategic goals for the corporate, business and functional level areas to provide common direction for its diversified investment. References Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers. Cole, G. A. (2004). Management Theory and Practice. Cengage Learning EMEA. Collins, D. (2009). Essentials of Business Ethics: Creating an Organization of High Integrity and Superior Performance. John Wiley & Sons. Daft, R. (2012). Organization theory and design. Nelson Education. Gabarro, J. J. (1992). Managing People and Organizations. Boston: Harvard Business Review Press. Holbeche, L. (2012). The High Performance Organization. Routledge. Martin, G. (2006). Managing People and Organizations in Changing Contexts. Amsterdam; Boston: Routledge. Miner, J. B. (2015). Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge. Retrieved from https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=YXOsBwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=theories+of+motivation&ots=3A8Qay5afd&sig=8FMJ2EWCwuv7y8xELNiKk8MkIGk Sang, M. (n.d.). How we are structured and how we operate. Steiner, G. A. (2008). Strategic Planning. Simon and Schuster. Read More