Johns Organization - Assignment Example

Analytical Report Customer name Subject Name Here Instructor’s Name Here 30th August, 2012. Executive Summary The purpose of this report was to respond to the questions in regard to the case study of John’s organization. The research of the report included an insight as to wther the organizational structure of the company is justified, ways in which the communication between the organization’s staffs could be improved using examples that are distinct to the organization and an answer as to whether the company can be considered overstaffed that included identification of the deficiencies in the organization. In addition a sample organizational structure that can work in the organization with an envisaged chain of command of the organization. Other areas that the report touched on included; an insight into the benefits of employing an external coach and the contingency plans could be implemented in the company. It is obvious that John’s company is experiencing problems with its structure, communication among others. In the report, a conclusion is given on the general situation of the organization before laying out the recommendations that will see the company improve in future. Contents Executive Summary 2 Contents 3 Introduction 4 Question 2 6 Communication 6 Question 5 10 Contingency plans 10 References 13 Introduction The analytical report presented below has been commissioned by our course coordinator Denise Tomlin with a view of helping us to relate to the course learning outcomes of our course. There were minimal challenges faced in coming up with this comprehensive analysis of management and organizational structures in the real world with reference to the case study highlighted on pages 455-6 of the 3rd edition of Managing Human Resources by Raymond stone. The report analyses the organizational structure highlighted in this case study and provide the thoughts of whether this structure is justified or not with supporting evidence. The report also provides suggestions that could help improve the communication between employees in the workshop department of the company as well as providing a new chain of command organizational diagram that highlights efficiencies made during harder economic times. The report also highlights the benefits of hiring an external coach before finally looking at some contingency plans that a human resources practitioner would implement in this company. The report reaps the benefit of extensive research from books and articles and has a detailed description of the case study highlighting examples from situations in the real world as the writer heavily relies on external material to further support the arguments brought forward. Question 1 Proof that the organizational structure is not justified An organization structure is the framework that highlights an organizations approach to allocation of duties and responsibilities, establishment of communication links and the chain under which authority flows. According to Pleshko L (2007) the purpose of a company’s organizational structure is to successfully meet such set goals as the allocation of tasks, coordination of employee’s efforts in order to meet a common goal and supervision that aims at continually improving on performance with a view set towards near perfection. The organizational structure can also be deemed successful based on the satisfaction of the concerned stakeholders (Enayati G & Ghasabbbeh MS 2012); in this case the employees, the managers and John himself. A perfect organizational structure has clear pathways through which communication occurs and clarifies the relevant authority and relationships under which the employees report. John’s company has an organizational structure that is successful in some of these tasks but fails in others. This is an indication that the structure is not justified and some corrections need to be made upon it in order for it to be deemed a success. As highlighted in the paragraph above, one of the major purposes of an organizational structure is devolution of tasks (Raymond 2010). The organizational structure in question has a problem when it comes to allocation of tasks to the employees in the workshop hire of the company’s arm. Ted, the manager in charge of this department is responsible for all the employees in the workshop and is also required to quote the tasks for all the employees. Ted is renowned for putting in long hours at work and yet he is not able to successfully quote the tasks for all the employees always. This problem is passed down to the other two managers. Matt is in charge of the day to day work in the workshop and Dave is in charge of off-site tasks. Employees at times find themselves with no work to do, or find them allocated work in the workshop and off-site simultaneously. This highlights a problem in the organizational structure due to a failure in job quoting. The structure for the labor hire department responsible for the supply of labor for the mines also had problems with a workload imbalance. Craig, the manager of this department rarely has any work to do as all the work is handled by his assistant Louise, who has no complains about having too much work to do. It seemed as though this department is able to run under one central head as opposed to the two that the organizational structure has set out to manage this department. There is a lack of clear communication pathway in this organizational structure and this contributes to John’s decision to hire a coach in order to iron out the problems in the communication chain. Based on the satisfaction of the employees, managers and John the owner, the organizational structure seems to be partially incompetent. Craig and Louise are happy with their work and the employees under them are happy to work under them. However the two assistant managers under Ted in the workshop hire department seem to think that Ted is incompetent and is making their work complicated. The employees in this department are also left frustrated at not knowing who is really in charge. They have orders coming from Ted, Matt and Dave. John also feels left by the company’s organizational structure and is not content at only reaping the benefits from his company. He wants to take some control as he feels left out of the day to day operations. This highlights a problem and a need to change this unjustified organizational structure. Question 2 Communication From the analysis of the case study, lack of communication is not only cited between the three workshop managers but also between the managers and the auxiliary staff under them and between the workshop managers and the general manager for clear facts exists to show that the general manager is not always involved in the control of the day to day business activities (Ince 2011). Communication is an important tool in the organization for with communication, problems where workers are not sure of the work that they are supposed to undertake, frustrations between the quoting manager and the manager who is supposed to organize for the company’s work, and the supervisor who is to take the workers offsite to the places of work would not occur. One of the ways through communication in the organization can be improved is through communication following all the lines of communication in the organization (Bell & Martin 2008). For instance, the organization should implement the downward and upward communication whereby, the general manager, the supervisor managers are able to communicate to the junior most employee in the organization and vice versa. For instance, the general manager is in a dilemma of how to take back the control of the organization in light of the tough times that are anticipated in the organization. If there was the upward and downward communication, the GM, would not have a problem taking the control of the organization for he would be accustomed to all the employees in the organization (Raymond 2010). Communication breakdown in most of the departments in the organization is as a result of poor internal communication between the workshop supervisors, managers and the staff. This includes official communications like procedures, memos, guidelines and policies among others and also communication which is not official that goes around other staff in the organization like opinions and exchange of ideas, personal relationship development and the conversation (Johstone & Joyner 2005). Lateral communication is another way the organization can improve communication. This is communication between staffs that are serving in the same degree in an organization. This improves the decision making in an organization because staffs will not wait for information to come from the manager. Managers are supposed to set clear lines on how the work should be conducted to avoid conflicts. Like in the case study, lack of communication between the three managers and supervisors in the workshop has led to frustrations in the whole organization. Ted (strategic human resource manager) never communicated to Mat (workshop supervisor) about the burden of arranging the job time table. Lack of communication between Mat (WS) and Dave has led Dave to think that there are no jobs in the workshop and took the employees to work offsite. In future, the organization should implement lateral communication to avoid communication conflicts between the managers in regard to work and to enhance good communication in every level in the organization (Kalla 2005). Monitoring communication in an organization is another way of making sure that communication networks within the organization are working. Managers are supposed to make sure that all the information received by the staff is satisfactory. In the case study, the strategic human resource manager was supposed to tell the supervisors about the burden of arranging job time table to avoid misleading the employees (Bolat 2010). After conducting any meeting, managers should ask for feedback to assess the views and options of the employees in regard to what was communicated. Questions about communication should also be raised by the same staffs to know whether they are heading in the right direction and to seek clarification in the instructions where the staffs are not certain. Question3 Overstaffing As much as John’s business is improving due to inclusion of staff that can assist him in daily running of business, there is still understaffing as one manager is exposed to many activities that need to be done at the same time. Take the example of the workshop side where Ted who is responsible for the workshop staff and is still expected to do all the quoting for the job. This makes him concentrate more on the demanding side of quoting for jobs while taking little time to know the concerns of workers under him. Matt is also having a lot of work in organizing how activities will be ran throughout the day and since there is no coordination, Dave takes some employees who are working in the workshop to go and work at the off-site. These managers are frustrated as there is no proper planning and lack of good communication which is as a result of being overwhelmed by many activities (Raymond 2010). On the labor side, Craig is responsible for supply of the right labor in the mines and developing the business as a whole as he ensures that there is a continuous growth in the organization. Due to too many tasks being given to him, he concentrates more on hiring staff and abandons the upkeep of the organizational name to Loise who is left with all work that concerns administration. The owner of the company: John should make a point in which he should recruit more staff to help him in managing his organization. With this, the staff will be more motivated as they will be handling tasks in an easy yet effective way and this will improve staff morale. During harder economic times, there will be inefficiencies on the hiring side where some of the workers will be retrenched due to a drop in demand for the goods or lack of materials for production. To caution this effect of reducing the number of workers in harsh economic periods, there is the need to incorporate workers who are skilled in several areas and with this they will have a competitive advantage over those who will be specializing in only one activity. Question 4 Benefits of hiring an external coach Coaching is said to be a strategy adopted by organizations in order to motivate their staff hence room for creativity in the department that they are working in. Coaching in an organization improves the team spirit helping better performance of a business (Higgins M C and Kram K E 2001). A coach influences the level of participation of individuals in the organization and increases positive attitude in a team. Leadership coaching is among the best in training staff as these kinds of coaches have the right skills that allow staff to efficiently work on their abilities in an effective way. There are several advantages of sourcing an external coach as compared to having an internal coach. Having an external coach is beneficial as he is not familiar with any individual and so it is a good experience to see a person through development from low performance to high performance. The coach encourages the staff in an equal way without bias on any side (Ladegard G 2011). Through these employees are motivated to be accountable for their actions as they will be working independently when the coach is not around them. An external coach has different skills that can be implemented in an organization because he is exposed to many other organizations that are struggling with the same management situations. Due to being exposed to different working situations, an external coach can incorporate different yet effective methods that have been proved to work for other firms and can be applicable to this firm (McDermott M, Levenson A, & Newton S 2007). By working with different employees, an external coach is able to make assessments based on real facts and this helps employees to know their developmental stages and know on the areas to improve on. Since an external coach is new to the organization and has no interest in their operations but rather on the employees performance, they can carefully analysis the strengths and weaknesses of each leader and with fair consideration and judgment, coaches can freely discuss with individuals on where their best qualities lie and focus on how to correct areas that frustrate people under their power (Rocereto J R, Mosca J B, Gupta S F and Rosenberg S L 2011). An external coach has a wide variety of experiences gathered from the many firms he has trained thus he has the ability to brainstorm staff of the company with ideas that can easily work and this can go a long way in changing their commitments towards the business. Since the external coach is not common in the organization, he has the skills of being compatible as in all talks and discussions, an external coach is able to comfortably relate to individuals and this makes him to be approachable for any questions or suggestion of ideas because he is able to speak openly (Mohsan F Nawaz M and Khan M 2011). Compared to an internal coach, an external one acts with all the professionalism that is required hence makes sure that he brings in all the knowledge and skills that an organization needs in order to make the staff succeed in their daily performance. There is a fresh perspective that is brought into the organization. An external coach can act as a good source for noticing the talent in particular individuals hence can connect various patterns that can be of importance not only to the individual but also the company. An external coach represents the public at large as he only comes to correct and he does not replace the roles played by the top managers. He therefore gives opinions on how the company is viewed by the public and with the high energy motivation, staff and leaders start building strong foundations on personal development (Higgins M C and Kram K E 2001). An external coach acts as a bridge in communication of unspoken problems in the organization as employees feel more okay when they talk of an organizational problem with external people sent by the top management as through them they do not have to undergo through harsh criticism. Question 5 Contingency plans Question 5 Contingency plans Team organizational structure in the workshop hire process will be more effective in solving the problems encountered in the current organizational structure present in John’s company (Guzzardo EM 2010). In this type of approach, the employees under this department will be split into two teams one under Matt and another under Dave. Matt and Dave will then have to appoint team leaders who will act as a communication link between the teams and the two managers. Information will easily flow from Ted to both Matt and Dave to the two team leaders up to all the employees and vice-versa. This will help solve the problem of a breakdown in the communication chain while also establishing a clear cut hierarchy of authority for the employees and managers likewise (Harvey S Millett B Smith D 2006). With the introduction of a team based organizational structure, Ted, Matt, Dave and the two team leaders will have to be involved in the devolution of duties and job quoting. The two team leaders will give a daily feedback on the progress of their work and the amount of work remaining from previous job quotations. This feedback will then facilitate Ted, Matt and Dave to determine the amount of jobs to quote for each team. This will help to reduce the workload of Ted while also reducing the likelihood of the employees being without work or having too much work at any one time. The size of either of the two teams can then be varied depending on which task, between the off-site and workshop tasks requires the most labor. This type of approach will provide greater dynamic response as well as autonomy as opposed to the current organizational structure. In the labor hire department, the problem of workload imbalance between the manager, Craig and his assistant Louise highlights a case of overstaffing. Louise is comfortable with all the responsibilities she is entrusted with and this renders Craig residually unemployed. The organizational structure can function just fine with either one of the two. Companies nowadays implement Zero-layoff policies due to the benefit job security has on employee performance and the need to cut on costs that are accompanied by layoffs such as pension payoffs (Doh-shin and Shapiro 2006). In relation to this up and coming trend, the solution would be to conduct a job analysis in order to solve the problem of work imbalance between Craig and Louise. This will help in the delegation of duties and responsibilities between the two. Another appropriate measure that should accompany this plan will be the reduction of additional work related benefits due to the apparent reduction in the amount of duties that each manager is in charge of. This will be appropriate in order to cut on the operational costs of this department (Gandolfi F and Littler C R 2012). With regards to the problem of involving the general manager in the daily running of the company, John should take up a part time managerial course that will help him improve his leadership and managerial skills seeing that he is untrained in such skills. Such knowledge will be vital if he is to provide the necessary leadership that will guide the company towards higher levels. Once fully trained, he will be qualified enough to head a company aiming to offer high quality products and compete with other companies in the same line of business. He will have the vision to come up with long term goals aiming for future growth and development of the company. He should from time to time offer his expertise to the apprentice workers in the workshop as he started out as a laborer himself. This will go a long way in helping to motivate them towards improving their manual skills. Conclusion Following the above report it is now evident that just having a team of workers working together to achieve a certain organizational goal is not an easy task. It is accompanied by making sure that the team working has the right qualifications and the necessary skills that are to be incorporated in an organization. It is also advisable to involve a trainer or a coach once in a while so as to keep the morale and team spirit working in all employees. In every organization, the owner should come up with strategies to be adopted when the business is not in its boom period and consider involving workers that have various skills and by these they will not suffer when it comes to cutting down of employees due to shortage of work in organizations. Recommendations In the above report I recommend that in the management of every organization, there must be strategies and approaches that should be adopted to run the business. Business owner should take into consideration that effective management is attributed to reasonable staffing of employees, regular training of those vested in managerial positions and also motivation. Good and effective methods of communication should be maintained to ensure that information is given at the right time and in the right manner. In the responsibility, staff should only be given a reasonable number of employees who are going to be answerable to them as this will reduce the effects of an individual being overwhelmed from many tasks. References Anand, A., & Daft R.L., 2007. What is the right organizational design? Organizational dynamics [e-journal] 36(4) pp.329-344 available at www.sciencediirect.com [accessed 28th august 2012]. Bell, R. 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Raymond, S 2010 Managing Human Resources. New York, John Wiley & Sons. 3rd Ed. pp. 454 – 455. Rocereto J R,Mosca J B ,Gupta S F& Rosenberg S L 2011.The Influence Of Coaching On Employee Perceptions Of Supervisor Effectiveness And Organizational Policies. Journal of Business and Economic Research.vol.9, no.6, p.78.Retreived at http://journals.cluteonline.com/index.php/JBER/article/view/4375/4462.viewed on 28th August 2012. Appendices Organizational chart Read More