How Can Leadership Solve the Problems in Organization - Coursework Example

Running header: Introduction to Management Student’s name: Name of institution: Instructor’s name: Course code: Date of submission: Introduction to Management Executive Summary Working in today’s economy can be a very challenging experience. In today’s workplace, organizations have become very complex due to various reasons such as the fact that the economy today is networked and global. Managers have had to change the process of management so that they can keep up with current business trends. Issues such as diversity, globalization and generational differences have taken the fore front in many business management issues. This has seen many organizations and departments within these organizations face a lot of challenges as a result of the continuous expectation to excel. This organization has been faced with a lot of problems that mostly arise from the fact that most employees are of different generations. Each employee from a different generational group has had a few complains about the organization. The baby boomers for example have complained that the generation Y employees are lazy and not committed to the organization. The generation Y staff on the other hand are at pains in balancing their home and work life and they complain that the management is not sensitive to their need. Lastly, the generation X employees are not satisfied with working at the organization because they feel that they do not have opportunities to grow their careers. This report is aimed at pointing out these problems in the department and explaining how the management can lead the department to resolve all these problems and issues. The report will also give recommendations about the way forward for the organization because of the numerous problems that it faces. Introduction As a department manager at this organization, it has come to my attention that there are a number of problems being faced at my department as well in the entire organization. These problems have been affecting the employees’ output and the quality of work that they do. I have received five direct reports and two hundred indirect reports from leaders of various sections within this department. The reports prompted an analysis that was undertaken in the department to find out if the problems that had been reported are indeed true. After the analysis was completed, a report was submitted to the CEO detailing the problems that the department was facing. One key area that a problem was reported in was that the generation Y staff were not satisfied with working for the organization because they did not feel as though they were given opportunities to grow their careers. The same group of workers has also complained that the staff are not friendly and that work can become very monotonous and boring sometimes. Another problem that was reported was that it was difficult for the generation X staff to balance between their home life and work life. This group of employees did not feel as though they were given enough opportunities by the organization to balance their work and hone life. The generation of workers that was made up of baby boomers did not feel as though the generation Y staff are very lazy and do not show any sign of commitment to their work. They also feel that the generation Y employees do not adhere to professional work ethics because most of their time is spent on their mobile phones and on facebook. This has made them to be very slow and unproductive. Generally, most staff at the organization complained of being stressed and overworked. They also complained that the organization had very poor communication strategies that made them not to have access to information at the right time. This has been because their input has not been sought most of the time when the organization has been making decisions. They would want to be more involved in the decisions made by the organization because they feel that they are part of it and need to be consulted. The baby boomers had nothing to complain about when it came to this because they believe that the procedures and ways of operating that are there in the organization are there for a reason and no one should interfere with them. They should not be changed or altered. In the organization, excellent and efficient data entry and record keeping is very crucial. This is because the organization needs to maintain information about its customers and some of its operations so that it can offer its services as required. This needs to be done in a timely and accurate manner because the data in question is very pertinent to the operations and success of the organization. These sectors therefore need highly professional and well trained staff to be able to execute these duties. The data entry needs to be done with staff who are competent and experienced so that they can realize the expected results. The records also need to be managed by staff who are professional so that they can effectively use them to benefit the organization. However, there have been a lot of data entry mistakes and a high number of record keeping errors recently. This has caused a lot of inefficiencies in the operations of the organization. The organization has also begun to receive a lot of complaints from the customers in regard to the quality of services that are being offered to them. This is a clear indication that there are very many problems being faced by the employees at the organization. The customers can hardly be satisfied if the employees who are serving them are not satisfied. Generally, through the analysis, it was evident that many of the staff of the organization were very apathetic and most of them lacked motivation. The organization needs to achieve its goals and objectives so that it can be effective and successful. For this reason, these problems need to be resolved and addressed so that the organization can remain successful. This can only be achieved if the department is led and managed effectively towards ensuring that these problems are resolved and dealt with permanently. There are a few recommendations that the organization can take into effect to ensure that the problems are resolved and that the situation is different (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). Recommendations The employees are known to represent the intellectual capital of the organization (Allen 1995). The different generations of workers at the organization have different talents, skills and competencies (Allen 1996). The greatest challenge with this has been to integrate and combine these talents and skills of the very many employees so as to achieve significant and unified results (Brownell 2003). Such as situation can be improved if the organization has a talent recognition and management department. Such a department should be charged with the responsibility of searching and scouting for all the unique talents that the employees possess (Buzzanell 2003). Once the talents of all the workers have been identified, the organization can ensure that they are put to good use. This can be done by ensuring that each worker is assigned duties and responsibilities that are in line with their skill, competencies and talents. This is one sure way of ensuring that the talents are combined and integrated in an effective manner so as to help the organization realize its goals and objectives (Cockburn 1989). There can be a section under the human resources department that is charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the talents of the employees are identified and put to good use. The organization should recognize and appreciate the talents of the employees as this will motivate them and make them to be committed and loyal to the organization (Harvey & Allard 2012). This improves the performance of the organization and ensures that every member of staff works towards ensuring that the organization realizes its goals and objectives. According to Herzberg’s theory of motivation, when workers feel appreciated and recognized, they are more likely to be effective at executing their duties and responsibilities (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). Through the analysis, it was discovered that the workers were not happy with the communication strategies that were used by the organization. Most of the generation Y and generation X employees felt that they did not receive adequate and timely communication. They also complained that they felt left out in most of the decision making processes before communication was done. These problems can be resolved by ensuring that the organization seeks the opinions and viewpoints of its employees before making any decision (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). Communication is very crucial for the effectiveness and efficiency of any organization. Communication should be enhanced and improved so that all the employees can have access to adequate, useful and timely information (Fine 1996). This is one sure way of ensuring that the employees make informed decisions pertaining to the organization. This is likely to improve the performance of the organization (Glyn 2006). There needs to be a clear pattern of how communication flows throughout the organization. The organization should choose a single model of communication and stick to it as this will eliminate discrepancies and reduce confusion. The organization can use top-down communication where information flows only from the top management to the rest of the employees in a hierarchical order. One way of ensuring that communication is effective within the organization is to use technology to enhance the communication (Harvey & Allard 2012). Information technology can be used to enhance communication at the workplace in a number of ways. This has to begin by ensuring that all the employees are computer literate because information technology is all about computers (Jones 1980). With information technology, services such as instant messaging (IM) and peer to peer file sharing are made possible (Brownell 2003). The employees can also receive communications in form of emails. Generally, information technology can ensure that the transfer of information is made so much easier and efficient (Page 2007). Workers can send and receive messages instantly and be in a position to make the best decisions as pertaining to the affairs of the organization. Instant messaging for example can ensure instantaneous communication between employees who are online at the same time (Schuman & Scott 1989). This also provides the opportunity for instant and immediate feedback. Peer to peer file sharing ensures that personal computers of the organization are connected to each other over the internet (Fine 1996). This will ease and facilitate the flow of information from one employee to the nest or from one department to the next. This creates a new level of efficiency and reliability in terms of communication (Steger 2003). There have also been a lot of data entry errors and mistakes in record and file keeping. The organization has had to deal with the fact that data entry has not been effective and the processes of record keeping have also not been effective (Willetts 2010). This problem can also be resolved using information technology. This information technology has to be used together with professional and well trained staff (Wolf 2004). The organization needs to ensure that all the employees who work in the data entry section and those charged with record keeping responsibilities are highly trained and educated so that they can be able to do their work well as expected of them (Schuman & Scott 1989). These workers need to be trained on the proper record keeping procedures together with information technology skills so that they can be effective and efficient in their work (Harvey & Allard 2012). The organization needs to ensure that all its data entry employees and record keeping staff are trained on the basics of information technology so that they can use it to enhance their skills and competencies and do a great job (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). Files and records can be stored using technology. The organization needs to ensure that it gets rid of the traditional methods of filing and record keeping because they have proven to be ineffective. This can be done by ensuring that information technology is applied to record keeping and its procedures (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). The organization also needs to invest in computer software that can be used to check and verify the accuracy of data before it is stored (Harvey & Allard 2012). The computer software can be used together with other professionally trained personnel to verify the authenticity and accuracy of data before it is stored into the database of the organization. Having seen the importance of data and information to the organization, it is important that the organization takes these recommendations into consideration so that it can avoid having data entry mistakes and errors which reduce its performance (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). Information technology can be used to break a lot of barriers in the organization in issues such as customer relations, partnerships, outsourcing and the supply chain. The company can therefore use information technology to ensure that these sectors are improved. For example, customer relations can be improved by ensuring that the customers have constant access to the organization wherever they are (Harvey & Allard 2012). The organization can have a website that has all the information that people may want to know about it. This can enhance the level of performance by ensuring that people are aware of the existence of the organization and what it does. This increases the chances of the organization being profitable and successful because a lot of people will be aware of its existence, hence increasing the likely hood of them doing business with the organization. Another problem that faces the organization is the differences that arise as a result of generational gaps. The organization comprises of employees from different generational groups. For example, there are the baby boomers, the generation X and the generation Y. These three generations of workers all have different skills, competencies and knowledge. They reason differently and have different ways of making decisions. This means that there are challenges in harmonizing the three generations of workers to work together peacefully (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). This problem can be resolved by ensuring workplace diversity management. The organization should ensure that diversity is managed well (Harvey & Allard 2012). Diversity comes about from the fact that the employees are men and women of different ethnicities, races, religions, educational qualifications, experiences, backgrounds and generations. All these factors have contributed to the diversity that is seen at the organization (Cockburn 1989). This diversity has been seen to bring differences among the workers because each group of workers has its own unique characteristics that may not auger well with the other groups. Most staff at the organization complained of being overworked and stressed. Such a problem can be resolved by changing leadership strategies. Organizations are changing and leadership needs to recognize this fact. By doing this, they can ensure that the management creates opportunities for the employees to be innovative and creative (Harvey & Allard 2012). The stress and overworking may be as a result of lack of innovativeness and creativity. The organization needs to appreciate the value of employees and reward them with motivational factors such as promotions and pay hikes to ensure that they are motivated to work for the organization (Cockburn 1989). Other recommendations that can be implemented in the organization include the implementation of e-commerce to deal with problems related to the customers (Wolf 2004). Every employee needs to be made aware of all the ethical issues so that they can be in a position to adhere to these ethics. These employees should be made to understand their social responsibilities so that no one will have an excuse of doing the opposite (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). The communication process should also be improved by identifying all the parties that are involved in the process such as the sender, the receiver, the message and the channel among many others (Cockburn 1989). Information technology can be used to reduce the stress and overworking of the employees. Most of the employees at the organization are stressed are stressed and overworked because of the bureaucracy and rigidness that the organization has been said to have (Cockburn 1989). The management of the organization should deal with the rigid procedures and ways of operations so that the employees can be relieved of stress that comes from too much work. The overworking arises from the manual ways of data entry and record keeping (Harvey & Allard 2012). Information technology can be used to solve this problem by ensuring that data entry and record keeping is done by computer aided means. This will not only reduce stress but will also ensure accuracy and reliability in the data and records that are generated and stored by the company (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). The employees also need to be more involved in the operations and decision making process of the organization (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). By doing this, the level of stress and overworking can be greatly reduced since the employees will be part of making the decisions that affect them (Harvey & Allard 2012). They need to be made part of the communication process because any information that is communicated affects them in one way or the other. The generational differences also need to be addressed by ensuring that the workers are given work in accordance to what they prefer so as to avoid conflict (Eisenberg, Goodall & Trethewey 2010). Conclusion In conclusion, the organization is faced with numerous challenges that arise from different factors such as the management itself, bureaucracy, generational gaps and the fact that the organization is very large. The organization can ensure that it follows the above recommendations so that it can improve its performance. The management needs to conduct further analysis from time to time so as to ensure that such problems are discovered early enough and dealt with in time. Many organizations may face similar problems but the ones that have emerged successful are those that have been able to deal with their problems effectively. These problems are synonymous to a lot of organizations but this organization needs to follow the above recommendations so as to effectively resolve these problems and remain successful in its operations. References Allen, B J 1995, ‘Diversity and organizational communication’, Journal of Applied Communication Research, vol. 23, pp. 143-155. Allen, BJ 1996, ‘Feminist standpoint theory: a black woman's review of organizational socialization’, Communication Studies, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 257-271. Brownell, J 2003, ‘Developing receiver-centered communication in diverse organizations’, Listening Professional, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 5-25. Buzzanell, P 2003, ‘A feminist standpoint analysis of maternity and maternity leave for women with disabilities’, Women and Language, vol. 26, no. 2, pp. 53-65. 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Steger, M 2003, Globalization: a very short introduction, Oxford University Press, Oxford, New York. Willetts, D 2010, The pinch: how the baby boomers took their children's future and how they can give it back, Atlantic, Bantam Books. Wolf, M 2004, Why globalization works, Yale University Press, New Haven. Read More