Improving Rozas Situation - Managing Organizations - Case Study Example

MANAGING ORGANISATIONS Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Managing organizations is an important aspect for any organization which wants to excel in the competitive market. When an organization is well managed, it will be easier to implement any change in the organization. Change can be instituted in an organization by first assessing the need for change and the best way to provide a solution to the change (Wheatley 2004). The stakeholders of the organization should be involved in implementing any change in the organization. In this discussion therefore, the main emphasis which is discussed is how organizations are managed and how to develop various alternatives for the better performance of the organization. Part A a) It is important to clarify what the problem is before finding a solution to it because it helps to provide information which is relevant, so that the solution to the problem could address the real problem (Quinn 1996). Understanding how the problem starts is also important because it helps the problem provider to find the root cause of the problem so that when weighing the alternatives for providing a solution to the problem the solution will be able to address the root cause of the problem and could not occur again in the organization. b) When providing an idea for improvement, the advantages and disadvantages should be considered because this will help to ensure that the idea has more advantages than disadvantages and could help to improve on the situation being addressed (Wheatley 2004). It is always important to do this as it will help to provide the best idea among many. Without considering the advantages and disadvantages, wrong idea may be selected hence it is important to consider the benefits of each idea available. Part B Instead of printing and distributing out a hard copy of the minutes of the staff meeting, email them instead. Idea Advantages Disadvantages Consequences: positive (√)and negative (X) Instead of printing and distributing out a hard copy of the minutes of the staff meeting, email them instead. Emailing saves the organization from paper work. Emails are faster when compared to distributing copies. Emails can be retrieved anywhere from the computer unlike copies. It is cheap to email employees than sending copies. Same email can be sent to many people at the same time than copies which need to be photocopied. The email can only be accessed when there is internet access. Email attachments can easily spread the computer virus and destroy the message being passed. It is not guaranteed that the recipient can read the email immediately until he or she opens the email address. The positive consequence of email is that it can improve the attendance of the meeting as each employee is reached by the email. The negative effect is that only employees who have accessed the email can attend the meeting hence the attendance may be low if less people use their emails frequently. Part C It is important to talk about new ideas of improvement with other people in the same work area because of the following reasons; First, it helps to enable other people to understand the need for the idea for improvement. The other people in the same work area will understand how the idea will help to improve the organization (Scholtes 1998). Another reason is to ensure there is no resistance when implementing the new idea. The people will support the idea once they understand how the idea will improve the operations. In addition, it will help to motivate other people. This is because they will feel part of the idea once they are consulted and will develop a positive attitude towards the idea. Finally, talking with other people about a new idea will help to improve the relationship between the people in the same department hence they will work together in a teamwork spirit. Part D a) The advantages of a better duty roaster are; First, it will help to motivate the employees. This is because the employees will have time to rest and feel fresh hence they will be motivated to offer better customer service (Maxwell 1998). Another advantage is that it will break the monotony of work among the employees. When the employees break for some time, they will refresh their mind and this will help to break the monotony of their work. Finally, having a break every after three hours will enable the employees to improve the service they provide to their customers as they will enjoy their work as they will not get tired. The disadvantages of having a break after three hours are that it leads to a waste of time (Maxwell 1998). There will be much time that will be spent taking breaks. The breaks will also lower the speed at which the customers are served. This is because as some employees are on break the remaining staff cannot serve all customers at once, hence leading to more time spent when serving customers. The consequences of this idea are that the department will be able to provide quality services to the customers and also the employees will develop positive attitudes towards their jobs as they will be satisfied with their job (Maxwell 1998). Moreover, this effective duty roaster will help to attract other employees to the department as they will admire to work where effective duty roaster is and which allows for some breaks . b) If the roaster system does not work well does not meet everyone’s approval, another option could be to work in shifts. This is where the employees work in shifts where they work for two days for example and while others rest (Wheatley 2004). After taking a rest of one day, they will resume their work while others take the rest. This implies that the employees after working for long hours they will have one day rest and this will improve their customer delivery services. c) In communicating this idea to the supervisor, the other team members should support the idea first. The idea should be discussed with the team members and after coming into agreement, the idea can then be communicated to the supervisor (Maxwell 1998). Upon authentication of the idea, the supervisor will be served with a copy of the agreement and then invited to a meeting to discuss the issue. The idea will then be discussed in the meeting with the supervisor and he or she will give most appropriate opinions. d) If there many opinions from the feedback of the team members, the feedback will be useful to construct the most important opinion from the many given by the team members. The feedback will be considered and the most appropriate according to the team members selected upon considering its advantages and disadvantages. Part E a) What is Roza’s problem and why is it a problem? Question Answer Why do we want to change? What is wrong with the current situation? The change is wanted because it will help to make work easier for Roza. This will help the receptionist to serve the customers better by responding to the calls of the customers answering where the employees are. The current situation does not serve the customers better as they do not get the feedback they want when they inquire about somebody from the organization. What is it we want to change? The issue which needs the change is that Roza does not know the whereabouts about other employees due to flexible working conditions where some can work partly and from homes while some spend most of the time with clients. This is the situation which implies that change is needed so that the receptionist will be able to know whereabouts of the employees. How can we generate and explore a range of ideas and options for improvement? In order to generate new ideas for improving the situation, a consultant will be hired to analyze and find solution to the problem. Alternatively, the employees will be asked about their opinions on how they can improve the situation in the organization. The ideas are then collected and analyzed and the best solution will be selected to improve the situation in the organization. What restrictions will be placed on solutions we come up with, e.g. budget, time, and availability of personnel? While finding the solution for the situation in the organization, the restrictions to be considered include the budget. The solution should be within the limits of the organizational budget. The solution should also consider the time constraint implying that the solution should be the one that can be implemented within the time limit available. Finally, the solution should be implemented by the human skills available in the organization. The organization should have adequate personnel skills to implement the solution. Will there be a need for technological support? There is a need for technological change as it will help to manage the people easily. By applying technological support, the employees will be detected if they are in the office or not. This will make work easier for Roza. How will a change benefit the organization? The change will benefit the organization by improving the customer service. This is because the customers will get the right feedback once they make calls to the organization inquiring for a certain personnel. The change will also improve the relationship Roza and the other staff. b) In order to improve Roza’s situation, the employees should be made responsible to communicate where they are to Roza. The advantages of this idea are that Roza will be able to track where each employee is and the employees themselves will learn to respect the work of Roza (Maxwell 1998). However, the disadvantages of this idea are that the employees will feel working under pressure and could lower their morale and also affect the relationship with Roza. Despite the advantages and disadvantages of this idea, the consequence is that the customers will get better services from the organization. Another idea is that the employees should work on full time employment terms (Richard 2004). This will imply that they will have to report to work on a daily basis as the policy of the organization states. The advantages of this idea are that Roza will be able to know where the employees are and the customers will be able to access various services of the employees when they visit the organization unlike when they work on a part time basis. However, the negative of this kind of situation is that the employees may take time to adapt the new idea and they may lower their morale and also they will work for long hours. The consequences of this idea are that the organization will provide better services to the customers while the work for Roza will be made easy. c) Roza is one of the employees of the organization and she has the right to be regarded equally like other employees. Her work is to receive calls and attend the customers as well as showing direction for new customers. However, her task as a receptionist has been hard because the policies of the organization allow the employees to work partly and can spend most of the time outside the office either at their homes or attending clients (Richard 2004). In this regard, it is difficult for Roza to identify where the employees are so that she can respond to client queries effectively and this makes her work difficult. There are many options which can be taken to improve Roza’s situation. First idea is to change the organizational policy to ensure the employees work for full time and report where they are to the receptionist. This will help to improve the working conditions for Roza. Discussing these ideas helps one to understand why there is a need for change in the organization and how it will take place. d) The best idea to improve the situation for Roza is to advocate for changing the organizational policy for the employees to work on a full time basis. In order for Roza to influence the implementation of the change, she will request meetings with the management of the organization and discuss the issues affecting her work as a receptionist (Richard 2004). After holding the meeting with the top management, the management can then invite the employees and discuss the issue and together they will reach an agreement for the change in the organization. In consultations with other employees and the management, the change will be implemented with less resistance. Part F a) The main resources the company might have needed include the human resources skills. These are the skills which are needed to manage the increasing number of employees of the organization. Another resource the company required is the financial resources to cater for the rising needs of the organization (Richard 2004). The company also needed the premise, which can accommodate the rising number of employees. Finally, the company needed to have adequate management skills. b) It was important for the company to develop the timeline for the move because as time went by the organization grew implying that the employees increased tremendously. For any organization to succeed it must have time limit so that at the end of the time the organization will assess itself if it managed to achieve its objective (Richard 2004). Without setting the timeline for the move, the employees could have become too many and the premise could not accommodate them all hence they could have sought for more accommodation elsewhere which could be costly. c) As the organization grows, the roles of management become more complicated. The Briony’s roles changed as he organized for the organizational move. He had to find to find, the better premise to move to, negotiate for the new premise and allocate responsibilities to employees under his control. Briony also changed to management roles where he could organize for the move to the new premise. d) Providing clear and accurate advice during proposed change in the workplace is important as it helps to make viable decisions. It will also make the implementation process simple and easy (Quinn 1996). Further, the information will help to set clear objectives which should be achieved at the end of the change. It helps the management of the organization to understand and select the best way to implement the new change in the workplace without affecting the morale of the employees. e) The consequences of providing inaccurate information for change in the workplace will lead to resistance to change. It will be hard to implement the change if the advice given is inaccurate. Inaccurate advice will also lower the morale of the employees because they will find out that the change will not benefit them and also puts them under pressure (Quinn 1996). Vague advice will lead to poor performance of the organization after the change has been implemented instead of increasing the productivity of the organization. Finally, inaccurate advice will lead to misuse of resources of the organization. f) Three organizational requirements that might affect proposals for change include financial resources. The change should be implemented with the available financial resources in the organization so that the organization cannot strain implementing the change. Personnel skills also limit the proposals for change in the organization (Quinn 1996). For instance, if its technological change, the organization should have adequate skills to manage the technological change to be adopted. Government policies can also limit the proposals for change at the workplace. Any change should be done according to the government regulations. For instance, if the policy of the government is that there is no outsourcing of some skills the organization should observe that so that it cannot breach the national regulations. Part G a) The risks associated with the change of moving the premises to the suburbs are operational risks. The company might face risks of operating in the suburbs like some employees not being happy with the move. Another risk is the financial risk. The company might spend more than it expected if it could not calculate its costs well. Finally, there is the competitive risk. The clients might move to other organizations instead of going to the suburbs for the services of the organization. b) The benefits of moving to the suburbs include lower operational costs like the cost of paying rent for the premises. There will also room for expansion to accommodate the growing number of employees and finally availability of cheap labor. Part H When the study centre starts to offer online courses rather than face to face teaching, the students will be able to access the courses without having to attend classes (Quinn 1996). Another benefit of online courses is that the students’ tight schedule will be taken care of as the students will have to suit the online programme with their work. Further, students who come from long distances will also be able to learn as the students who are taught in class. The resources which will be needed by the students include the computer and the internet while the study centre will also need be equipped with computers which are internet enabled and Information Technology experts to transmit the online courses (Quinn 1996). The new responsibilities that the teachers and the students have is that they all need to practice learning online learning and be punctual for each activity for example the time of submitting assignment. They will also be expected to be responsible on how they use the online resources so that the programme can be successful. The time frame for changing over to online programme is one year. This is enough time to ensure all stakeholders are aware of the change and can readily accept it. The ways of communicating this change to students can be done through holding meetings with the students and also through sending out emails to all students and also through the notice boards in the study centre as well as through the internet communication (Quinn 1996). In order to get feedback from the students, teaching staff and administration staff, there will be score sheets which will be filled by both stakeholders concerning the satisfaction they get from online courses. The management will also be conducted some interviews to determine the success of the online programme and the response will indicate how online courses are working. The change will fit into the study centre by offering equal opportunities for all students, advertising the new initiation so as to achieve the business goals of attracting many students and using the system which can be operated within the financial capacity of the study centre. Part I The organization is proposing to introduce an online ordering system. The resources needed to make this change a success includes; Human resources skills- the human resource skills will be used to source for the suppliers and develop systems to communicate and expedite for the orders. Equipment resources will also be needed like the computers and access to the internet. This will make the online sourcing effective (Quinn 1996). Another resource needed is financial resources. The financial resources will be used to purchase the equipment and install online ordering systems. The roles and responsibilities of the staff will also change. The staff will change to offering computer courses so that all the employees will be conversant with computer systems. The roles will change from processing paperwork to online document preparation. The most appropriate time for the change is one year. The time will be adequate to communicate the change to the employees and also to the suppliers. This will prepare all stakeholders involved on the importance of changing to online ordering and also buying the necessary equipment requirement required (Quinn 1996). There are also potential risks which are involved in this change and they include operational risks. The management may make a wrong decision of online ordering which might not work out well. Another risk is the financial risk. Online ordering might cost more than the expected budget, hence the organization may have to spend more. There is also the risk of system failure. The system might fail and this affects the operations of the organization. Part J Cassia will have to invite her team members and inform them about the new organizational structure. She will be open to invite their opinions on how they think they can work together with the new team on the from the hospitality section to work together creatively (Maxwell 1998). Through these meetings, Cassia will try to advise her team members on how they can incorporate the new members into their group. The types of changes that will, take place in the new team include change of roles and change of management policies as well as the roles played by the administration team. Part K a) The kind of technology that will be used to manage monthly newsletters to customers is the development of a company website. This will enable customers to access the newsletters and also provide feedback. In order to manage information of telephone numbers, the organization should apply automatic retrieval technology. This is where the organization will access and record all the information which is conveyed during the telephone conversations. c) Managing information about fire emergency plan, there will be a system of fire fighting tool kit. This is the technology where the people working under the fire section will be able to communicate effectively and coordinate their operations well. The system will record their operations and the information. Part L a) Activities that will encourage people to cooperate when preparing for change include inclusive of all people during the discussions for change. This will help to reduce resistance to change. Another activity is to consult al the stakeholders (Maxwell 1998). This will help to improve their participation in the change process. Another activity is to reward the people. Rewarding best performing employees will encourage other employees to cooperate and finally, delegating responsibilities to each person so that they will encourage cooperation. For instance at Elfin Sports car manufacturer, the employees undergo training every after six months. Through this refresher training, the employees improve their skills and this helps to improve the performance of the employees and also accept change in the organization. b) The activities which could be done to support team members once the change has been introduced, include training the team members so as to adapt the new changes, rewarding the employees to motivate them and conducting job rotation (Maxwell 1998). Job rotations will enable the employees to gain new skills in different areas and finally enabling the employees to work in teams and this will help them to share new ideas and improve their skills. Part M The amendments that could be made to improve the operations of the administration assistants is that they could be advised to collect the mail at designated times like during lunch break and tea breaks. Further, the mails could be delivered to each office and this could make work easier for administration assistants and they could spend less time collecting the mail (Maxwell 1998). In addition, the mails should be put in their right pigeons so that the administrators will spend little time finding the mail for the respective section. The support that could be given to the staff is the training on how they can sort the mail for their respective section. If the mail could be collected from the single mailroom, there should be one person who will sort the mails and put them in their right pigeons so that it will be easy for administration assistants to collect the mail and deliver them in time. Conclusion Managing an organization could enable the organization to implement change easily. The reason why organizations implement changes is to increase the quality of services they provide to their clients. In order to effectively implement change, all the stakeholders of the organization should be considered and involved in the whole process of making the change. Before implementing a certain idea, the advantages and disadvantages should be considered and only an idea with more benefits will be considered for implementation. It is therefore important to manage an organization effectively so that it can be able to achieve its goals and objectives set. Works Cited Maxwell, John. The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership: Follow Them and People Will Follow You. Thomas Nelson, 1998. Print. Quinn, Robert. Deep Change: Discovering the Leader Within. London: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1996. Print. Richard Schoenberg. dimensions of management style compatibility and cross-border acquisition outcome. New York: Emerald publishing group, 2004. Print. Scholtes, Peter. The Leader's Handbook: Making Things Happen, Getting Things Done. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1998. Print. Wheatley, Margaret. Leadership and the New Science: Learning about Organization from an Orderly Universe. London: Berrett-Koehler Publications, 1994. Print. Read More