Creative Problem Solving - Coursework Example

? Creative Problem Solving Table of Contents Problem situation summary 4 List of all stakeholders in the problem situation plus the roles chosen 6 Background for the stakeholder role 7 Answers to interview questions in stakeholder role 8 Interview questions (as consultant or analyst) 9 Individual maps (drawn by consultant) 11 Rich picture of the problem situation 12 Conceptual Model 13 Comparison of Model 13 Possible Changes 15 An ideal or relevant system from each stakeholder’s viewpoint 15 Merged map (drawn by consultants/ analysts) 16 Negotiation / discussion in workshop between stakeholders 17 Summary map 18 Recommendation/ strategy (consultants) 19 References 20 Problem situation summary The case study on veterinary science reflects some potential problems which are being faced by the veterinary doctor Peter Harrison and his son Joe along with the other associates while carrying out the work process. Joe unlike Peter reflects a passion whereby he desires to expand the veterinary activities owing to a considerable rise in demand for such. In this regard the business situation has led to the growth of six potential problems which can be underlined as follows. Problem1 One of the main problems faced by the veterinary doctors Joe and Peter is the rise in work pressures for the staffs working in the veterinary firm. The rise in demand for the veterinary services has led to the growth in client flow in the firm. It is found that the existing base of hospital staffs feel difficult to sustain the growing work load for which requirement is rising for the recruitment of more number of people. Problem 2 Veterinary doctor Joe also finds that with the growing level of competition and demand in the external world the need to develop the veterinary medical facilities is increasingly cropping up. Joe finds that to counter the growth of competition the veterinary firm not only needs to be expanded but in total the infrastructural facilities need to be vastly improved to help render improved services to the client base. The firm needs both to be technologically improved both in terms of laboratory and information technology systems and also additional space needs to be created for helping the pets to be admitted and looked after during the night. Problem 3 Another main problem that the partners to the veterinary firm Peter and Joe are increasingly facing is the lack of understanding between them. The two partners in this case are found to possess distinct set of ideologies. Peter being old does not feel interest in the profit generating and expansionary activities while for his son Joe the need for business expansion and profit generation counts significance. This growth of conflicting ideologies leads to increased tension between the partners. Problem 4 A significant problem which the veterinary firm is facing is the rise in frustration levels among the staffs of the veterinary firm. The management body of the veterinary firm owing to the rise in conflicting ideologies among them failed to render focus on improving the productivity of the staffs by rendering enhanced training. This lack of training leads to loss of productivity and rise in the working pressures. Increase in pressure from the clients made the staffs misunderstand and underestimate each other’s work leading to the growth of conflicts. Problem 5 The veterinary firm owing to the prevalence of low infrastructural facilities faces a heavy problem which emerges from the point of disturbance in the flow of potential communication from the upper to the lower hierarchy levels. Further the disturbance in the flow of communication between the internal team leads to rendering misinformation to the clients leading to loss of business and goodwill. Problem 6 The veterinary firm owing to the lack of potential infrastructure faces another significant problem. It is found that the veterinary firm greatly depends on the old process of maintaining manual records rather than taking resort to use of computers. A single computer prevalent in the office premises is often used for maintaining official correspondences rather than for helping the patients. This recalcitrant approach led to the distortion in the process of maintaining the patient records. List of all stakeholders in the problem situation plus the roles chosen The different stakeholders that are involved in the above situations can be counted along several aspects. In the first problem highlighted the stakeholders identified are the main partners of the firm viz. Peter and Joe. The stakeholders identified face significant impacts owing to the current problem situation where the work pressure started rising evidently in regards to the growth of external competition. Further another group of stakeholders that face the impact of the problem situation is the nurses and allied medical community involved in the veterinary hospital. Again the client base of the veterinary hospital i.e. the pet owners contribute to be another significant group of stakeholders of the veterinary firm. Another group of stakeholders that come into question involves the accountants, bankers and the tax consultants to whom the organisation needs to furnish its reports. Misinformation percolated along the organization leads to the creation of potential problems along the stated quarters. The shareholders and investing community of the veterinary firm also would get affected with the loss of productivity and thereby revenue of the veterinary firm. Non-operating staffs like receptionists in the veterinary firm get largely affected owing to the rise in demand for the veterinary services in the external sphere. The number of consultants involved in the operational process in the veterinary firm can also be taken as the stakeholders to the problem situation. These stakeholders who render consulting services to the clients by rendering visits to the houses in regards to reduction in the staffing parameters of the firm are found countering increased pressures. Background for the stakeholder role The stakeholders identified along different groups like operations, support, financial, the clientele base, and the owner groups have some significant role to play in regards to the problem situation. The stakeholders identified for the operations part involving the consultants, the veterinary doctors and the nursing community have to work accordingly to counter the pressures of the problem situation involving the huge rise in demand for the services offered with lack of infrastructural facilities. Similarly the stakeholder groups for the non-operating units like the receptionists fail to deliver better services to the clients owing to reduced time periods and surmounting job pressures. Again the financial stakeholders to the veterinary firm consisting of accountants, investors, shareholders and other auditors and inspecting communities also face surmountable trouble in the problem situation due to lack of proper information. Speaking of the external stakeholders like the customers or the clientele base of the veterinary firm it is found that in regards to the problem situation these groups failed to gain the advantage of better services. Finally the stakeholder community consisting of the owner groups involving Peter and his son Joe reflect a conflict among them owing to ideological problems which disturbs their partnership and further strengthens the problem situation. Answers to interview questions in stakeholder role The consultant in question appointed by Joe to redesign the veterinary firm to help fulfil the future objectives can be underlined as follows. In this regard the consultant follows the soft system approach based on which adequate questions are prepared to help gauge the potency of the problem situation and find relevant solutions. Q.1. Does the increase in demand for veterinary services become a problem situation for the veterinary firm? A.1. In this regard based on the soft system approach it is found that the veterinary firm owing to the poor infrastructural facilities failed to counter increased pressures of the changing external environment where demand for veterinary services were increasing largely. Further the prevalence of low skilled and reduced manpower in the veterinary firm further alleviated the effect. Q.2. Who is the major stakeholders to the business problems? Based on the CATWOE process according to the soft systems methodology the different potential stakeholders can be identified. Here C denotes the clientele base who visits the veterinary firm for their pets. ‘A’ denotes the role players both operational and non-operational like the nursing, reception staffs and other accounting and financial stakeholders who focus on availing the customers the benefits of the change. ‘T’ denotes the process through which the transformation would be enabled i.e. by expanding the units and taking more productive staff. W’ denotes the universal view over which the model proposed can be tested to understand its practicality. ‘O’ denotes the owner community consisting of the partners like Peter and Joe. The significant constraints in the business environment are signified by ‘E’ like potential competition (Williams, 2005, p.2-7). Q.3. What kind of steps is desired to be taken by the potential stakeholders to address the problem situation? The stakeholders like Joe who desire to bring about transformation in the services framework endeavour to work on activities like rendering expansion to accommodate more people, incorporation of better resources both technological and human and enhancing the training and communication paradigms. Q.4. What is the feasibility of the steps taken by the stakeholders to mitigate the effects of the problem situation? A.4. The feasibility of the steps taken by the stakeholders like owners can be studied against the larger availability of space that would become available. This large amount of space would help gain a huge footfall of clients. Gaining of large number of clients would help the firm improve on its revenue productivity. Interview questions (as consultant or analyst) The set of questions and answers framed above can also be represented through a cognitive map as follows. The cognitive map would help highlight the significant steps taken to render solutions to the problem situation. Taking the views of the different interest groups both operational and support for helping in addressing increased Need for business expansion to counter increased competition Conflict between the different stakeholder groups like between partners and also among other staffs Problem in time management and passing of wrong information leading to rise in pressure Need for skilled and productive labour Infrastructural Pressures on the veterinary firm Increase in demand for veterinary services Individual maps (drawn by consultant) Need for improving service qualities need for training and development of staff Delays in the work process Improper Work Relationships Errors and Mistakes in work Lack of Training, lack of time Lack of finance Increase in pressure on the staff Increase in treatment costs Demand increase for veterinary services Rich picture of the problem situation Being part of the soft systems methodology, the following Rich picture is provided which provides a detailed mechanism for defining the problems in a systematic way using different symbols. The picture reflects the different aspects of the situation which would be beneficial for the stakeholders to make an in-depth understanding of the problem and for finding an effective solution for the same. The Rich picture would demonstrate the perceptions and experience to the given problems in the company from the point of the view of the consultant. The picture is developed ensuring that it would be easily interpreted by others. Figure 1: Rich Picture Conceptual Model Comparison of Model Column 1 Column 2 Column 3 Column 4 Streamlining activities Chaotic work activities and unsystematic work processes Improper work activities result in delays in work smooth running of activities and delays in works can be reduced and Improving work relationships Pressure of work creates less communication and interpersonal relations Lack of communication and mis- communication creates hassles, backlogs and unnecessary complications Smooth running of activities, punctuality and hassle free environment Implementing training and development programs Lack of training, skills shortage and funds shortage Poor work quality, dissatisfied customers, dissatisfied management Enhanced quality of work, satisfied customers and enhanced demand for services, enhanced revenues Possible Changes An ideal or relevant system from each stakeholder’s viewpoint From the point of view of staff, recruiting some extra staff and enlarging the existing workforce would solve the problem of extra work pressure on the staff. The alternative way would be to increase the salaries of the staff for the extra work efforts that they would put in to meet the extra work pressure. The clients would want the same quality of services at the same costs. However, they would not accept a falling service quality. As per the viewpoint of the stakeholder’s systematic delivery of services from the staff at the existing costs would be an ideal system. According to the viewpoint of the management, a proper system of training and development would be effective in enhancing the productivity of the staff which would reflect through the organizations performance against the growing demand for veterinary services. Training and development coupled with increased administrative practices with the proper streamlining of activities would be viewed as the best possible system of efficient functioning of the organization. The possible changes envisaged by the two potential partners Peter and Joe were regarding expanding the space of the veterinary firm to help invite more number of clients to the firm. This change factor was planned to be implemented to help the firm accrue more amount of revenue and organisational productivity. Further the enhancement of the accountability dimension of the employees along with the different stakeholders both internal and external was also focused by the organizational managers through the implementation of the change process. Accountability and motivation of the organisational people enhanced would help the concern earn relevant productivity. Merged map (drawn by consultants/ analysts) Following is the merged map developed by the consultants or analysts. Approval from the investors Need for improving service qualities creation of training modules and development plan for the staff Developing reports Delays in the work process Discussion with the management and staff Improper Work Relationships Errors and Mistakes in work Lack of Training, lack of time Lack of finance Increase in pressure on the staff Increase in treatment costs Demand increase for veterinary services Negotiation / discussion in workshop between stakeholders With the increase in veterinary services, there were an increasing number of clients requiring the service of the organization. This increasingly created pressure on the staff to cater to those services. This was accompanied with increase in the treatment costs. The clients demanded better and fair services, which the staff could not provide. There was pressure on the staff to cater to the increased demand for the service which deteriorated their quality of work. This led to delay in delivery of services, errors in the work processes and unsystematic process of activities. The management would negotiate for better equipments for training of employees; however, the managers would try and accomplish the enhanced level of service within the available equipments. This is because arranging for new equipments would involve greater costs which would be effective in generating profits only in the long run. It would not be able to yield immediate gains for the company. Investors would not be keen in making any extra investments and would try and get the revenues as per their original investments. However, the staff would not be keen on working extra hours to uplift their performance. They would negotiate for higher salaries for the contribution of extra efforts. Summary map The summary map produces the summary of the merged map. Created during the time of negotiation and discussion it reflects the primary links between the main concepts of the different parts of the merged map. It demonstrates the main root behind the problem in the organization. The problems which have been identified are improper staff training, inadequate workforce, lack of proper equipments and facilities and improper administrative and system of activities. The focus is to develop a system which would satisfy all the stakeholders including the clients, staff, management, investors, trainers, owners etc. A plan has been developed to expand the current workforce in the organization which would reduce the pressure on individual staff members and also improve the service quality. Moreover implementation of a proper staff training system was considered inevitable for improving productivity and utilizing the efforts of the staff in the best possible way. Recommendation/ strategy (consultants) Being a consultant, it is identified that the most important challenge in front of the management is to cater to the increase in demand for veterinary services and at the same time maintaining the service quality toward clients. Thus it is recommended that improving the skills of employees would be effective in tackling the problem to a considerable extent. Increasing pressure on the employees would eventually result into deteriorating their performance and generate lower productivity. It would help to satisfy the clients in terms of the services quality that was provided. The idea of expanding the workforce is also recommended in this context as this would be successful in generating profits in the long run. This would initially cost a significant amount for the investors and the management; however, it would help to attain long term benefits for the company. References Williams, B. (2005). Soft Systems Methodology. [Pdf]. Available At: http://users.actrix.co.nz/bobwill/ssm.pdf. [Accessed on June 1, 2011]. Read More