Symptoms and Sources of the Problem of Cransten Business - Case Study Example

Case Study Analysis Student’s Name Course Professor Institution City Date Background to the problem Cransten Business services is a business and accounting firm that offers advice to a variety of small and medium businesses. It was founded by Johanna Cransten 15 years ago and she managed it single handedly. 3 years ago, the running of the business became overwhelming due to the huge growth it was experiencing. She decided to hire an administration manager, a customer service marketing manager and a workflow scheduling manager to oversee the running of the business. The role of the administration manager is to manage the day to day operations of the firm and to create a more corporate environment. The customer service marketing manager is tasked with engaging with prospective clients and gaining new business. The workflow scheduling manager is concerned with providing quality and timely services to the clients. In the recent times, the administrative manager has made significant changes in the way the business operates and this has called for the implementation of new policies which call for more reporting and an increased workload for certain departments. These changes have not been taken kindly both by the employees and other managers. This is particularly so because of the freedom that existed under Johanna Cransten’s leadership and this has caused significant conflict, issues of power and influence within the team. Symptoms and Sources of the problem One of the symptoms that there is a problem in the business is the decline in quality of services offered to customers. The firm had a good reputation of being timely and efficient. However this is not the case currently and this is leading to lack of customer satisfaction. This may be caused by employee dissatisfaction and conflict among them. The administration manager has increased the reporting command and in involving himself in all the departments of the firm. Specific to the customers, he follows up on the customer complaints a duty of the workflow schedule manager. His interference in these processes makes the manager demoralized due to his lack of freedom and passes down the pressure from the top down to his employees. Once the employees are not satisfied and are not working as a team with their same level colleagues and their seniors, the ultimate result is a decline in the quality of service offered to clients. The inability of the business to make new business by getting prospective clients and not being able to meet the set targets is another symptom of the existence of a problem. The administration manager has made the working conditions impossible for the customer sales marketing manager, Anita, to meet her targets. This is because, her work requires her to be out of office most of the time so that she is able to meet her prospective clients and make new business with them. The administration manager has however set a mandatory minimum 30 office hours per week and this does not give her enough time to meet her clients and therefore the set target of 5 new clients per week cannot be achieved. She is well skilled and her personality would allow her perform even beyond the expected target but the work conditions do not allow. The conflict between the managers themselves as evidenced by the lack of respect for Robert, the administration manager, by Lindy, team leader customer service. This is due to the lack of clear designation of power. The managers tend to encroach the duties of the other and this causes demotivation, dissatisfaction, and reduced productivity among the managers. Analysis of the Symptoms and their Sources As indicated, one of the major causes of the problems the business is facing is employee demotivation. One of the major causes of this demotivation is poor relations with the managers (Sirota, Mischkind and Meltzer, 2006). How managers deal with their employees is very key in analyzing whether they will be satisfied or not. Managers who lead by being overly zealous with what each team member is doing brings a lot of discontent as it is perceived as lack of trust in other people’s abilities. Employees need to feel a sense of independence as they work so that they are able to perform as per their capacity and abilities. Other causes of employee demotivation are; having rules that just do not work dependent on the expectations of the circumstances that the rules have been set. As much as each organization needs rules, they should be realistic and accommodate the team members. How the managers communicate and treat their employees is very important. Employees should not all be treated equally but equitably. Team leaders being treated same to all other employees demotivate them a lot (ArunKumar, 2014). The ultimate result of employee demotivation is declined productivity of the employees. Key signs of a demotivated team that are present in this case scenario are reduced productivity and not wanting to improve their services. Another symptom highlighted was conflict among the different managers and the employees. Conflict is majorly caused by poor communication and lack of a clear designation of duties (Ringstad, 2005). Conflict arises where one person takes up the duties which have been assigned to the other and tries to control them. From the case scenario, the evidence of conflict in the organization is low productivity and lack of respect for other people which is being caused by an interference of other peoples duties. Possible interventions Some of the possible measures that can be put in place to help ease the situation at the firm. Some of these measures are; ensuring the employees are well motivated by making them feel they are part of the organization. They should be involved in the running of the daily operations and this duty not only left to the operations manager of the firm. The work environment could also be made more conducive for the employees to function by ensuring the policies and rules that have been set accommodate them and make the working conditions favorable for the entire team. There also needs to be a clear delegation of duties and a distinction in the powers of the others. This will reduce the issues of interference of others duties and disrespect. Success of previous interventions Employee motivation plays a key role in the performance of a firm since a well-motivated employee is very productive and efficient. There are many ways of motivating the employees but the best form of motivation in this case would be involving the employees in the management. This has proven to be a success previously as it gives the employees a sense of belonging to the firm. The managers’ relationship with the employees is also key in motivating them (Shanks, 2007). Managers should also be part of the team work which they advocate. They should lead by example and avoid being very dictatorial. When they take up their roles as leaders and guide their employees on the tasks, the employees will be motivated to work rather than when they are directed from a distance (Rooke and Torbert, 2005). In regards to the working environment, the Fredrick Herzberg theory of motivation explains best the need for a good working environment as a great source of employee motivation. It explains that employees are able to function best when the working environment is conducive (Dartey-Baah and Amoako, 2011). A good working environment is characterized by favorable policies, a good pay and a good general environment. Managers who have followed this theory have been able to provide an environment for their employee which has seen their effectiveness maximized. Besides the working conditions, the employees need to be given a chance to better themselves and also be given a chance to do things as they please at times. To reduce the conflicts and issues of power, delegation of duties and adopting a collaborative approach when designing policies (Corcoran, 2005). All the powers should not be vested on one person. The idea of delegation of power has helped in that it gives each leader a specific role and hence the limits of their power. This ensures there is not much interference (Zhai, Feng, and Xu, 2007). It also gives a huge sense of independence and superiority which every person need to feel. With this satisfaction, the leaders will be more productive in their area of functioning. Where adopted, this idea has proven to be very successful in reducing the conflicts that arise from power and the leaders are found to be more efficient and productive. Recommended Action Plan As seen above, there are various issues that need to be addressed and there are also various ways to address them. This section will recommend an action plan that will effectively handle the problems in the firm. First is training the leaders on how to manage the firm. One of the challenges is the autocratic leadership of the operations manager. He needs to tone done his leadership become a little more flexible and allow a voice of opinion of the other people in the organization. All the leaders should be trained on how to handle the employees as this will greatly help in improving their relationship with the employees. The policies need to be reviewed to favor the work requirements. The compulsory working hours for the customer service manager should be reviewed downwards in order to give her ample time to be outdoors to meet her prospective clients so that she is able to meet the set targets. Policies on the reporting chain should be reviewed to see the chain is not so long. This will reduce the workload for the managers giving them better time to concentrate on their departments. Each manager is deemed well competent to handle the affairs of the department and the reporting should therefore end there. The operations manager need not involve himself in micro- managing all the departments. Evaluation of the Recommended Action Plan The training of the leaders will improve how they handle the employees and improve their relationship with them. This will reduce the conflicts that are currently there between the leaders and the team members. This will result in team work and the firm operating with the care and concern of a family unit right from the top. This will make all the parties comfortable and will have nothing holding them back from effective productivity. A review of the policies to be more favorable will give the employees an environment where they are comfortable to work and achieve their targets. Summary The study case scenario is of Cransten Business Services. A firm that has experienced great growth over the past 15 years. Single handed management became overwhelming for the owner and 3 years ago, she decided to higher three managers, operations manager, customer service manager and the workflow schedule manager. The operations manager who is seen as an autocratic leader was given the role to run the day to day operations and create a corporate environment. He has since come up with policies which have made the working environment very unconducive. This resulted to lots of conflict among the team and the employees were demotivated. However recommendations that will help ease this situation have been given and it is expected that when the action plan is implemented, the firm will regain its productivity and the performance of the employees will improve. References ArunKumar, S., 2014. An Empirical Study: Relationship between Employee Motivation, Satisfaction and Organizational Commitment. International Journal of Management and Business Research, 4(2), pp.81-93. Corcoran, J., 2005. Building strengths and skills: A collaborative approach to working with clients. Oxford University Press. Dartey-Baah, K. and Amoako, G.K., 2011. Application of Frederick Herzberg's Two-Factor theory in assessing and understanding employee motivation at work: a Ghanaian Perspective. European Journal of Business and Management, 3(9), pp.1-8. Shanks, N.H., 2007. Management and motivation. Fonte: http://www. jblearning. com/samples X, 76373473. Sirota, D., Mischkind, L.A. and Meltzer, M.I., 2006. Stop demotivating your employees!. Harvard Management Update, 11(1), p.1. Ringstad, R., 2005. Conflict in the workplace: Social workers as victims and perpetrators. Social work, 50(4), pp.305-313. Rooke, D. and Torbert, W.R., 2005. Seven transformations of leadership. harvard business review, 83(4), pp.66-76. Zhai, Z.D., Feng, D.G. and Xu, Z., 2007. Fine-grained controllable delegation authorization model based on trustworthiness. Ruan Jian Xue Bao(Journal of Software), 18(8), pp.2002-2015. Read More