Managing Activities to Achieve Results - Essay Example

Managing Activities to Achieve Results Introduction The most important component in any business process management and its implementation in practice is the management of organizational change and the associated people impacts. This means the people in the organisation and their involvement in all steps of implementation are instrumental in that the process of business process management would involve a holistic approach in meeting the people aspect, which represent the structure and cultural aspect of managing within the organisation is crucial. Importance of business processes within organization to deliver competitive product/services to its customers to achieve business goals and objectives In this context, the concept of process factory must be brought in. Any organization that has a back-office operation that processes a large volume of throughput and has a large number of hand-off points could be referred to as a process factory. The key to the business process management is engaging people, and the key to engaging people is leadership from their line managers (Bate, 1994). Here, for this assignment, this author has chosen the example of a pharmaceutical manufacturing industry, where these themes are equally applicable. Pharmaceutical industry is highly competitive, and every step of functioning in this industry is governed by business process management to improve products and services to the customer with maximal efficiency. An efficient system must be usable, and people must be convinced about the usefulness of it. Thus the developmental journey must be people centric, where the trench people must not feel excluded. They need to be consulted, listened to, trained and communicated with on a regular basis. They must understand the business process and its benefits. Conviction of people about the reasons of the process change, the necessity of it would promote them to take ownership and responsibility. The organisational structure would enable that. The organisational structure and culture are important parameters and preconditions for fostering an environment where people would understand clearly what is expected of them and how they are significant in the new structure and process (Morrill, 2008). There are many components in the structure and culture. The components are logically connected in such a way that there is a meaningful concept of fitment among the different components of organisational structure and the cultural settings. In the stated organisation, the decision makers implement change processes interpret and utilise the environmental culture to shape the organisational structure. Sometimes depending on the situation, a double-loop change process is utilised where within the organisational structure, the members of one culture impose their favoured structures on organisational members coming from different cultures. Sometimes, again depending on the situation, the organisational hierarchy utilises the naturally socially constructed organisational structure and culture (Walsh, 2004). Mission and Aim of Organisation and Effects on Structure and Culture The objective and aim of the organisation has important impacts on its culture and structure. If by organisational structure we mean formalisation and centralisation and if organisational culture means participative decision making, support and collaboration, and learning and development, both must interrelate. The aim and objective of this organisation is to produce innovative pharmaceutical products, and thus it means technological processes, administrative control, and product manufacturing. Studies by Jantan et al. (2003) have shown that both participation in decision making and support and collaboration and learning and development have demonstrable positive effects on administrative innovation. Although structural variables appear to be unaffected, they may affect the cultural variables (Jantan et al., 2003). Bate et al. (2000) highlights the role of aims and goals of an organisation in shaping the structure and culture of it. If the goal and aim of this organisation is to achieve result oriented, productivity driven process management leading to delivery of competitive products and services, then interventions designed to accomplish transformational change in people and policies and hence structure are indicated. This would lead to a fusion of culture and structure through the "warp and weft" of the processes deployed by the leadership. A culturally sensitive method to structure the organisation becomes important in order for it to be acceptable and practiced. If all people are dedicated to implement it, the organisational design may change in such as way that the aim of organisational development may be fulfilled. Without these the organisation may be gridlocked in such a way that its steering capacity would be lost. Collective dialogue and debate is the essence of culture and the structure of the organisation must permit this freedom. If the mission, aims, and objectives of the organisation permit it, the inter-relations between the culture and structure would enable people to see their meanings, aspirations, and assumptions. Any redesign of organisation is driven by context and specific to its aims and objectives, and any change model must accommodate the delicate reframing of the structure and culture in the organisation (Bate et al., 2000). This also means the model of change in structure and culture of an organisation is based on the business process change directed by the aims and objectives (Latta, 2009). The people change-management components of projects need to address the organizational culture and modify it towards a new set of management behaviours that will translate into the behaviours of the people they manage. To support the drive to implement cultural change, management incentives need to be aligned with the management information available, the process goals and organisational strategy (Schein, 2004). Definition of Methodology to Map Processes to Organisation Objectives and Functions: Evaluation of Output Processes; Quality Gateways Strategic choices are important for definition of methodology to map the processes to the objectives and functions of the organisation, so a tool may be created for evaluation of the outputs of the process and to analyse the quality gateways. According to Tracy and Wiersma (1977), the organisations choices were one or more of the three, the produce the best total solution for the customer, the best form of operational excellence through the best of total costs, and the best product which would provide a competitive edge through product leadership (Tracy and Wiersma, 1977). It is difficult for any organisation to achieve or aim all the three, and hence the organisation must make a choice to determine its directions and output analysis parameters which serve as a quality control framework (Porter, 1980). Methodologically, the main choice would impact the business process maximally, and hence there must be a clear understanding on the part of the organisation to define its choice, and the choice would direct the methodology. Processes are defined as making the right choice to achieve the desired output through the chosen strategy. A clear formulation of the strategy would make clear about how the processes would lead to the desired output. Lack of clarity would inconsistencies at the lower management levels and would thus prevent the higher management to steer in the direction of achievement. In order to do that a strategy map is a useful tool. As suggested by Kaplan and Norton (2004) mapping of processes can connect strategic objectives in explicit cause and effect relationships in the four areas of organisational objectives, namely, financial, customer, business process, and learning and growth. This methodology involves the same method of formulation of strategy and measurement of its success through a Balanced Score Card Approach. This methodology enables perception of organisational objectives, realisation of targets, and organisation to plan, act, measure, and evaluate work (Schalm, 2008). How organization structure & culture assist in implementation of operational plans Development of plans that promote goals and objectives for own area of responsibility: Ensure plans are consistent with legal, ethical, and regulatory requirements. The organisational structure and culture helps the individual projects to be successful in compliance with the organisational standards and methods. These organisational standards become important with involvement of more people and with increasing number of projects associated with the projects. If the organisational structure and culture do not support these programmes, there is a high chance that initial successes would not be repeated and scaled upwards (Morrison, 2005). As the manager of medical services in this organisation, the aim is that all the programmes controlled must achieve and preferable exceed their objectives. The process architect must ensure that various processes must meet standards. The process quality assurer must guide the processes through coaching on the job. This author is a process modeling and management tool administrator (Mcadams, 1995). Plan The functional manager will be responsible for respective part of the whole process who will be reporting to a functional manager responsible for the end-to-end process. Aim To develop a new product based on research findings which will be cost effective, acceptable to customer, easy to use, and cheaper than the competitor Objective The objectives of this business plan and process management is to offer the customers a unique combination of price, product, and ease of use in such a manner that the total cost in money, time, and effort will be minimal in comparison to the value obtained in terms of product and service that the customers receive. To this end, certain inputs will be necessary. These are copies of organisational strategy book; a collection of existing information on organisational mission, vision, and values. For ready reference, a collation of organisational chart will be necessary to identify the main internal stakeholders. The new product ideation should be contemplated and brainstormed based on the existing product portfolio mix of the organisation to determine the main products and gap therein (Stensaker et al., 2008). Understanding the customer needs is an important aspect, and a list of key customer groups and brief analysis of their needs would be a key driving force for product planning. Strong market research is embedded in the system of this organisation, and a prior market research helped to determine the market segment for entry so there is a consistent demand for the upcoming product in the market. Since it is a pharmaceutical product, there are certain legal, ethical issues, and regulatory clearances necessary for the product to be launched in the market. Appropriate planning and documentation for these requirements would be a parallel process which is embedded in the system of the organisation. Finally, the business model will be reviewed and assessed further to ascertain the main external partners (Schalm, 2008). Deliverables There are certain organisational deliverables at par with the vision, mission, goals, strategic intent, and objectives of the organisation that would fit to the context. The business model including identification of customers, their type and volume would suggest this. The plan would also include specification of services and the product. In the next step, the listing of suppliers and partners will be done. The suppliers in the organisation are connected to the system with an automated billing system. The prospective suppliers will be identified and a communication process would be generated. For the product, the key differentiators would be needed to be identified. Resource identification is important for the manufacturing launch pad activities. Finally a timeline would be needed to be generated based on consensus (Altenstetter and Bjrkman, 1981). Development of Business Plan For the development of the business plan, to start with a questionnaire will be developed that would relate to various aspects of the new product, its manufacturing, and the marketing. This would be mainly done through brainstorming and ideation within the team. It would be evident, to accomplish the main aims and objectives, there would be need for change in the process. The system of the organisation is resilient and flexible enough to accommodate changes, and the culture of the organisation favours this. There should be a clear understanding of the implications and magnitude of the change on the process, people, and structure of the organisation. All people including the managers must express their views on the capacity of organisational change and its impact (Creegan et al., 2003). The teams will have views on the capacity of organisational change and its impact, and they need to be recorded in a spreadsheet to get the idea and perception clear. All these views need to be weighed against reality. All the findings are presented to all team members so they are able to discuss the outcomes and consequences and are able to take decisions on their own for actions to be taken (Barki and Pinsonneault, 2005). Plan of action The plan of action will be subdivided into different portfolios. One person or manager in each team will be assigned ownership and responsibilities for actions divided into parts or processes. The teams will collect and present research findings that support the new product; find out market competitors, their performances and weaknesses; assess organisational strength in supporting and marketing the product; assess, identify, and plan for legal, ethical, and regulatory requirements in collaboration with internal stakeholders of respective departments; identify suppliers and resources both internal and external; in collaboration with sales and marketing develop marketing and sales plans; calculate cost implications and possible profits; collaborate with production for product details and discusses timelines and productivity issues respectively. The chief manager will overview the project and its parts and in collaboration with higher management and will finalise the plan. He with quality control will decide the quality parameters of the action plans. He will also decide the team meeting frequency and measures progresses and quality gateways and directs acceptable targets (Fleury et al., 2003). Team: A collaborative implementation plan decided and action started The throughput time of the end-to-end process would be minimum possible time. The higher management would centrally manage the end-to-end customer process. Market research would play important roles, and the process would be consistently customer need oriented. The standard process would use rapid development cycles. The quality control would ensure minimal process errors. The marketing process would exploit the process and services. All these activities are standardised with a separate research and development wing dedicated to offer new and innovative products. The higher management allocates substantial budget for these activities. The planning is centralised with a top-down structure with development of a new product is a top organisational priority with embedded processes (Erasmus and Gilson, 2008). There are guidelines and manuals for each activity, and hence the manager-wise responsibilities are established and clear to the managers and their teams with extensive freedom in a broad context. Processes pass through many checks, and there is a scope of continuous adjustments to new products, projects, services, and concepts. This is possible due to a straightforward structure of the organisation. Culturally, our people are motivated, and system helps them to avoid mistakes and they are also open to new ideas. The organisational systems reward creativity, efficiency through remuneration. Every person has concerns for reducing costs and they are very efficient from the time of recruitment. The management control ensures prevention of deviations from the standard that are ineffective and inefficient (Moldoveanu and Bauer, 2004). In the phase of implementation, the initial implementation strategy from the launch pad phase will be brought in with inputs of knowledge and information needs. A list of agreed process goals will be brought in with detailed plans for new process models and relevant documentation. The capacity planning information will be analysed. The process gap analysis data will also be carefully considered for plan implementation. The people capability matrix for new processes would be considered to implement possible changes. A refined and optimized benefit mix must be constructed. People are important instruments for the implementation of plans. The people strategy must be clearly documented with new roles being described in detail for each individual (Heneman et al., 2001). Goals should be created so role measurements can be done. Detailed performance measures would be documented and people would be made aware about those. While considering people's core capabilities, a gap analysis would be necessary. All these would contribute to the redesign of the organisational structure. The HR policies may need to be updated. The training must be intensive and documented. The benefit details must be defined. The results will be perceived through deliverables. The staff will be trained and motivated. The marketing programmes will be devised, and an implementation strategy will be worked out. Improved or new processes that work satisfactorily according to identified stakeholder requirements will be implemented, and all the solutions will be implemented. The finally defined benefit details and other details will be communicated to the stake holders (Pennings and Gresov, 1986). What are the systems that have been used to ensure quality of product and services The sustainable performance and embedded quality system in the organisation are the hallmarks of the systems that ensure quality of product and services. The objective was to ensure ongoing sustainability of process specifications as per organisational quality standards and make it a part of the usual business (Abdul-Rahman and Berawi, 2001). The basic theme of quality management is delivering the customer's value perception and designing organisational strategy and processes and implementing them in action. When the specific objective is quality, the processes and performances must be continuously managed to achieve them. The quality parameters will be decided by evaluation of project results in comparison with standards set up in the initial business case (Testa and Sipe, 2006). The parameters are time required to execute the plan; assessment of errors, rework, and backlogs; efficiency of performance; improvement of customer satisfaction, improvement of employee satisfaction, overall cost-benefit analysis of the project; and assessment of expected flow of benefits. There would a system to continuously make necessary changes in the structure of the plan to correct any shortcomings. Quality is a reflection of performance measure. In this plan, the measures that were included were comparative measurements within the industry, against competitors, and outside the industry, where sensible measurements can be made and meaningful actions can be taken. The quality parameters in terms of efficiency of performance and stakeholder satisfaction in terms of fulfillment of requirements were documented and it was made sure that the process owners understand those in detail (Yarborough, 1993). All process owners get a written job description. The people change management process must ensure empowerment of people for the change to happen. There will be a central monitoring of quality in detail to ensure that quality is achieved through the strategy of continuous improvement. The established performance measures would be evaluated continuously, evaluated, adjusted, and the information disseminated leading to change and application of change in the way of measuring. A benchmarking approach to quality will be taken by recognition of customer expectation parameters and embedded in the system across the unit and organisational levels (Johnson, 2000). There will be periodic internal assessments and external audits to discern the compliance with organisational quality goals and customer expectations. If there are any gaps, a plan would be develop to close these gaps and the plan will be implemented. If necessary, adjustments in organisational structure, strategy, and culture through people and process management will be implemented. There will be a reward system for achievement of quality and efficiency (Blair et al., 1993). Describe the health & safety policy of the organisation. The occupational health and safety management system is integrated in the organisational systems and processes. This is in concurrence with commitment from the senior management, development of health and safety policy, identification of components from a risk assessment and risk treatment plan and incorporating the corrective actions in the management programme, implementation and review of the programme, and integration of these programmes into the strategic plan of the organisations (Bennett, 2002). The components would include the essential elements of the health and safety management system and are in identity with Health and Safety Work Regulations leading to effective health and safety arrangements that cover planning, organisation, control, monitoring, and review. The areas needed to be worked on were risk assessments involving workplace precautions, risk control systems, hazard profiling, and compliance to regulations. The design, reliability, and complexity of the risk control systems are proportionate to the particular hazards and risk. The safety limit has been set in collaboration with regulatory authorities, legal requirements, senior management, and line management. Prompt control of risk to below the agreed limit is rewarded. Risks exceeding agreed limit would be investigated by safety officer through analytic techniques and fault tree analysis. Respective responsibilities are defined and documented and understanding ensured. Line management justifies risk control expenditure to achieve desired limit (Dyjack et al., 1998). The senior management advocates rationale for the agreed risk limits to regulatory authorities and employees. The system also incorporates continuous improvement in safety with planned reduction in the risk limits. Proactive risk assessment and risk control activities are embedded in the process. The proactive risk control activities are audited by the safety offices independent from the line managements (Donoghue, 2001). What are the measures that have been taken in the organisation to achieve better organisational performance To ensure better performance there are managed and improved processes. There are certain elements in them. There is a mechanism of evaluation of the results in comparison to initial proposed plan and the target achievement analysis in terms of achieved outcomes. The parameters are already set and agreed upon. Therefore, there is a continuous assessment of timelines, errors, back logs, efficiency of the process, improvement of customer satisfaction, improvement of employee satisfaction, favourable cost-benefit analysis reports, and dissemination of benefits (Claus and Hand, 2009). There is also a system in place which would incorporate monitoring, evaluation, correction of shortcomings, and inclusion and implementation of lessons from the organisational strategy. The development and fine-tuning of sustainability of performance strategy through monitoring and analysis of the way that the new process will be working is and embedded phenomenon in the process. Thus there is a continual optimisation and management process established within the project, which takes care of the change in needs of all the stake holders over time (Harper and Vilkinas, 2005). There are several formal mechanisms that ensure that the accepted process suits the operating environment with assigned ownership for all the elements in the process. This also means the organisation continues to reassess the relationships between the business and process stakeholders and the organisation's evolving strategies and plans and understand the emerging gaps with an existing process to handle the change management arising out of these gaps. Processes are managed through clear descriptors of roles and responsibilities. People are rewarded for their contributions in the processes and performances (Kaarsemaker and Poutsma, 2006). Continuous measurement of performance parameters in turn helps managing the processes. Measurement and monitoring are linked to higher level process objectives and organisational goals in order to ensure that performance improvement processes are geared towards and evaluated by their contributions to the objectives. 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