LS Travel Retail Pacific - Developing and Managing Effective Teams - Case Study Example

Work Place Student’s Name Subject Professor University/Institution Location Date Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 4 Theory 4 Developing and managing effective teams 4 Practice 9 Effective teams 9 Diversity management 10 Differences 10 Recommendations 11 Conclusion 12 List of References 13 Executive Summary LS Travel Retail Pacific is a retail firm dealing in cultural products with over 90 branches in Australia. Effective teams have common goals that its members work towards achieving them. Diversity management aims at maintaining a constructive work environment. Setting up and managing effective groups are achieved through joint development of strategy for solving problems, establishment of objectives, participatory style and definition of group members’ roles. Effective diversity management comprises of defining diversity, developing a system, practical management responsibilities and availing the appropriate resources. The report will also present the differences between theories on the above areas and the practices of LS Travel. Recommendations based on the differences will also be suggested. Work Place Introduction LS Travel Retail Pacific is a devoted seller of artistic and leisure merchandise around the Asia Pacific area. It has more than 90 outlets that are based in Australia around main airports as well as commuter terminals. A team is a group of individuals working in unison to attain a similar purpose. Effective teams have specific features that enable team members to work more efficiently and productively. Creating and managing efficient teams is a hard task but when it achieved, it is very beneficial to an organization in terms of higher quality production. Management of diversity intends to promote and keep up a positive workplace setting. A productive management of diversity will encourage acknowledgment and respect of personal differences that are found amid a group of workers (Kramar & O'Neill 2008). Theory Developing and managing effective teams Herzberg’s theory affirms that, certain aspects in the job place lead to job satisfaction while another different set of aspects cause dissatisfaction. According to the theory, people are not much concerned with contentment of lower-level desires at work such as those related to minimum wage levels or good working conditions. Instead, people are interested in the satisfaction of high level psychological needs associated with recognition, advancement, achievement and responsibility. Job features that are linked to the nature of job a person do actually have the ability to gratify needs like status, competency and personal worth hence making him or her satisfied. Nevertheless, the lack of such satisfying job features does not seem to lead to unhappiness and discontentment. Discontentment results from adverse assessments of job-oriented aspects such as supervision, company policies, and salary and technical issues (NetMBA 2012). According to Daft (2011), managers should create and manage effective teams in their organizations in order for the firm to fully benefit from the teams. Effective teams have open-ended gatherings and set up active strategies for solving problems which go past discussing, delegating and deciding how to go about some issues. When necessary, the members of a team set aside their activities to help other team members. In an effective group, performance is not assessed based on a person’s capacity to persuade other team members but instead is evaluated directly by assessing the work outcome of the entire team. One of the best ways for a manager to develop an effective group is by establishing objectives in unison with all the team members. The manager should define performance goals with the group and ensure that each and every team member understands the predetermined goals as well as the necessary efforts that will be required so as to achieve the goals. This enables all team members to remain focused and to work hard and together towards the achievement of a common goal (Wheelan 2009). Michaelsen, Knight & Fink (2010), argue that, a team leader should develop and introduce a participatory approach to team undertakings. This can be done by encouraging the employees to propose ways of improving the quality of services and products as well. The leader should also learn to pay attention to the views of team members as well as recognizing their perspectives on different matters within the organization. This acts as a source of motivation and recognition for the employees which enhance the performance of the whole team. The head of a team should encourage the employees to converse on matters and to look for solutions together. According to Duke Corporate Education (2009), for a team to be effective, it must be organized. Roles and responsibilities of team members should be defined collectively. When this is done, every member will have an apparent role; people are less prone to being bothered and will even be more ready to work jointly. Besides, there should be an agreement on the people to take up leadership functions for diverse team activities. This will assist in ensuring that there is good flow of directions as well as accountability in the discharging and completion of team-based undertakings. Productive management of diversity/cross cultures According to Kelly (2012), motivation theory emphasizes on behaviour of individuals being goal-oriented. This implies that, people feel the obligation or drive to undertake something which results to the attainment of goals. Under this theory, a goal is defined as an outcome that people strive to achieve so as to satisfy specific needs. Maslow argues that people are motivated to meet different needs. Some of the needs are more dominant than others. He groups the needs into five categories according to level of importance as self-actualisation, respect, affiliation, safety and psychological needs. Vroom in his expectancy theory asserts that job contentment results in enhanced productivity. For a person to be moralized to do a given task, he ought to anticipate that, finishing the task will result in attainment of his goals. According to Vroom, a person is motivated to act in a particular way because he has an elevated longing for a given task result and a relevant expectation of attaining that result. He also anticipates that such attainment will lead to a reward regarding promotion, pay, job security or satisfaction of personal needs (Kelly 2012). According to Llopis (2011), effective management of diversity is all about setting free the rich and varied potential of the whole workforce. This can be achieved through a number of ways. To start with, the management should define their terms. Each person has a distinct notion in relation to the meaning of diversity. In addition to gender and race, diversity may also embrace though not restricted to considerations on ethnicity, religion, age, mental and physical disabilities, sexual orientation, family background, working style and language. The management should define diversity with reference to their organization because there is no a single definition which is perfect. In addition, senior management should develop a system. Productive management of diversity integrates the basic comprehension that organizations are made up of people. From there, diversity management goes ahead to acknowledge that, individuals come from varied backgrounds, ethnic groups, abilities, fields of expertise and interests. Acquisition of talent involves drawing the best skills from a team of outstanding people with diverse backgrounds. After the talent is attracted, the management must then help them turn out to be a portion of the set culture of the organization. This helps bring about equity as well as a sense of belonging among the workforce (Munson 2012). Based on Kampf (2011 p.27), absorbing all the workers into the organizational culture helps clear any existing differences among the workers and gives them a sense of belonging and helps in attaining the general objectives and goals of an organization. Such a setting also allows teamwork among employees from different backgrounds which in turn lead to increased efficiency and productivity. For instance, a firm with worldwide ambitions should pull multi-lingual expertise of staff who speaks different languages to enter fresh markets. A firm that attempts to augment its market segment in metropolitan markets would engage youth and people from different ethnic groups to give proposals for new merchandise so as to draw urban consumers (Bell 2011). According to Saee (2012), managers should assemble the necessary resources. An organizational cannot achieve its goals not unless it has the correct human as well as fiscal resources at hand. Simply by alleging that an organization wants to be a diverse firm is not obvious that it will be one. Having the required human resources will facilitate training on work diversity among the employees and also the implementation of human resource practices that favor employees from diverse cultures. Human resource executives and other managers are responsible for setting business strategies and programs. Therefore, they should show a serious devotion to diversity through setting up programs that are aimed at educating the employees on the advantages, the necessity and the worth that will be brought by diversity to the firm. Human resource experts should make best use of and leverage each opportunity to integrate and encourage diversity through in-house communication channels including workers newsletters and particular events and particularly in hiring activities. Besides, adequate fiscal resources will enable a firm to carry out advertising on its job opportunities so as to attract employees from different geographical regions and cultural settings (Robbins 2009). Practice Effective teams According to Phillips & Gully (2012, p.111), LS Travel Retail Pacific has different teams of employees depending on the various business functions. In developing and managing its teams, all the company’s strategies for all business functions are centrally developed. This means that, the top management is responsible for setting up all business policies and goals then the policies are streamed down the hierarchy to the managers of different functions and then the subordinate staff. In carrying out group activities, each member is assigned certain duties to discharge and thus in assessing performance, each employee is assessed and compensated separately since the company uses a performance based remuneration package. In most of the key organizational undertakings for LS Travel Retail Pacific, employees take a passive role. Issues to do with product and service improvement are discussed by the sales and marketing management together with top management rarely are employees consulted. However, open forums are organized by the human resource department for employees to air their views on matters to do with working conditions, remuneration, work leaves or training programs. Once this is done, the human resource management discusses the issues independently and then presents their decision on the same to the employees (West 2012). West (2012) alleges that, a team of workers at LS Travel are given certain duties to undertake and the necessary resources availed. The members are then allowed to decide on their own the roles to be undertaken by each member since accountability is important. Normally, a group cannot operate effectively without a leader, so the human resource heads choose one individual from each group to lead it. Diversity management According to Bono (2011), the idea of diversity is not that prominent in LS Travel Retail Pacific. This may be owed to its operations being just within Australia. However, it is a big company and employs people from different cultures, social classes, genders, races and with diverse knowledge depending on a person’s professional specialization. Despite all that, special consideration and definition has not been given to the issue of diversity. Moreover, the firm advertises its job opportunities through the mass media and thus it is able to draw people from all different parts of the country as well as other countries. A favorable organizational culture is presented by the firm to accommodate its entire workforce without discrimination. The top management of firm is exclusively responsible for developing the objectives and goals of the organization. As a result, opinions for employees from different diversities are not included in the making of business goals. Besides, irrespective of the firm’s workforce being very diverse, the human resource department has no programs for informing staff on the importance of diversity. However, all employees are given equal treatment at the workplace (Bombourg 2012). Differences In the creation and management of effectual teams, LS Travel Retail Pacific does not allow open-ended meetings for groups, no joint definition of performance aims and also members do not take part in developing policies for solving issues. The reason behind these differences is that, the management believes that if the workers are allowed to set goals they end up suggesting approaches that only favour them at the expense of the organization’s benefits. In solving organizational matters, the staff is considered to lack the competence to undertake such a task since they have no experience in decision-making and problem-solving (Phillips & Gully 2012). Additionally, a group-based evaluation of performance is not present in the firm since individuals carrying out group-work are assessed differently. The firm sees such a policy as a way of discouraging lazy workers who hide among their group colleagues and fail to cooperate in undertaking group-based tasks. Moreover, employees are not involved in services and product matters simply because managers believe that employees are not core beneficiaries of the products or service like the customers (Saee 2012). In diversity management, LS Travel Retail Pacific has not set definition for diversity. The reason for this is that, the management their favorable culture will accommodate and neutralize all the prevalent differences among the employees. The firm’s human resource division does not have programs in place for tackling the issue of diversity. Such programs are seen as unnecessary costs for the firm (Llopis 2011). Recommendations LS Travel Retail Pacific should allow time for group meetings and involve its employees in defining the goals to be achieved by the group. It should also encourage participative problem-solving where the staff puts across approaches that they consider correct for solving issues. It ought to adopt group-based performance evaluation on group tasks which will promote effective teamwork. Usually, employees are also consumers of a company’s products so their ideas on products and services should be taken into consideration. LS Travel Retail Pacific should also have a definition of diversity that matches its organization set up. In addition, its human resource unit should devise a curriculum for educating the employees on diversity aspects. Conclusion An effective team is developed and managed through establishing objectives jointly, adopting a participatory approach to organization activities and collective definition of members’ roles and tasks. Productive diversity management should involve specific definition of diversity, setting up of an accommodating system, being practical in management roles and assemblage of the necessary resources. LS Travel Retail Pacific practices centralized decision making and individual evaluation of group performance. The firm does not have diversity related programs in its human resource practices. List of References Bell, M 2011, Diversity in organizations, South-Western College Pub. Bombourg, N 2012, January 23, Global Airport Retailing: Market Size, Retailer Strategies and Competitor Performance, Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/global-airport-retailing-market-size-retailer-strategies-and-competitor-performance-137875503.html Bono, SD 2011, Managing cultural diversity, Maidenhead, Meyer & Meyer. Daft, RL 2011, Understanding management, Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage Learning. Duke Corporate Education 2009, Building effective teams, Chicago, Dearborn Trade Publication. Kampf, Jb 2011, Seven Steps to Effective Diversity Management, Diversity Journal , 27-35. Kramar, R & O'Neill, GL 2008, Australian human resources management : current trends in management practice,Warriewood, N.S.W, Business & Professional Publishing,. Kelly, J 2012, Motivation Theory, Retrieved May 18, 2012, from http://www.goal-setting-guide.com/motivation-theory Llopis, G 2011, June 13, Diversity Management Is the Key to Growth: Make It Authentic, Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2011/06/13/diversity-management-is-the-key-to-growth-make-it-authentic/ Michaelsen, LK, Knight, AB & Fink, LD 2010, Team learning : a transformative use of small groups, Westport, Praeger. Munson, C 2012, Effective Management of Diversity in the Workplace, Retrieved May 16, 2012, from http://www.ehow.com/about_6683459_effective-management-diversity-workplace.html NetMBA 2012, Herzberg's Motivation-Hygiene Theory, Retrieved May 18, 2012, from http://www.netmba.com/mgmt/ob/motivation/herzberg/ Phillips, J & Gully, SM 2012, Organizational behavior : tools for success, Mason, OH, South-Western Cengage Learning. Robbins, SP 2009, Organisational behaviour : global and Southern African perspectives, Cape Town, Pearson Education South Africa. Saee, J 2012, Managerial competence within the hospitality and tourism service industries:global cultural contextual analysis, London, Routledge. West, MA 2012, Effective teamwork : practical lessons from organizational research, Chichester, West Sussex, John Wiley & Sons. Wheelan, SA 2009, Creating Effective Teams:A Guide for Members and Leaders, London, SAGE. Read More