System for Management Project - Case Study Example

System for Management Project Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date of Submission: INTRODUCTION NoGo railroad has failed mainly due to lack of an effective system for management. The failure as presented is due to the low performance of the workers, poor communication methods. That is; the firm has failed due to the high recruiting of family members without sufficient skills to perform their given roles in the organization. It also has a key problem where the employees are rewarded for the hours they work irrespective of the production attained, or not attained. Favouritism is also a key issue that destroys the success and attainment of high profits for the company. Others may include the poor recruitment plans due to lack of a HR department despite the many clerks in the company. However, to implement a management system effectively, the resistance to change the employees have has to be managed and changed. SYSTEMS FOR MANAGEMENT CONCEPT Downward Communication The downward communication presents the flow of messages and decisions through the organization for a downward flow, which refers to the hierarchy structure of command. That is; messages and commands start from the upper level to a downward level. Commands moves down to other bottom levels, while responses move upwards. Communication in the NoGo Railways is very complicated due to the differences in knowledge, experience, authority and statuses. The organizational process is adamant and traditional. Thus, communications are poor due to the prolific in-family promotions and hiring, social and organized loafing. The workers have a low working morale as they are okay with the status quo, which does not involve them working any harder than they do when possible. The company management and employees are tied to past traditions, as they reject change despite the environment surrounding them changing profusely, which brands the company’s organizational culture as challenging. Thus, the downward communication is challenging since the commands rather than following a hierarchy structure are hindered by the prolific hiring systems. Thus, the downward systems do not follow the commands from the upper systems. Everybody works through following the status quo, which includes not making any changes mainly because they will be rejected by the employees. Thus, NoGo needs to improve the downward communication process. Upward Communication It stipulates the process where information flows from the lower systems to the upper business systems. This is the most accepted form of communication in the NoGo Company, which is supported by the traditional systems in the organization. However, the communication presents that the top management listens to the employees without the employees listening to the top system levels. In the NoGo Organization communication is very poor. Communication with external links such as train operators is highly inadequate. The organizational culture is problematic. Problems start at the organizational level through the organizational processes which are ineffective. That is; having an effective upward communication and an ineffective downward communication presents the organizational failure of the business. Communication Direction A system can either be open or closed for management. The open system has effective interactions with the environment through the outputs interacting with the throughputs and inputs (Chapter 2, 2011, 15). A system refers to the very distinct parts of the whole system (organizational departments of NoGo railroad) that make it work effectively as a whole (NoGo Company). Important distinct parts of the NoGo organization include the information management, resources, products, assets and employees. The closed system of an organization is not influenced by the external environment, while the open system of an organization demonstrates that the company is affected by the external environment. The resources of the organization include the performance and efforts of the employees and natural resources. Thus, generally the macro problems at the company include the contract with the telegraph operators and poor communication approaches from the top management. The report provides a system for management that would effectively help manage the macro level issues. Thus, the communication direction of the business is closed, where the external environment does not influence the communication or organizational processes of the business. Thus, it presents that the communication direction of NoGo is biased in both that it does not consider the most important factors that should influence the success of the business. Leadership Subordinate Ideas The subordinates are given high considerations in the organization due to the prolific hiring’s that encourage and consider family relationships over business relationships. That is; the ideas and needs of the family members in the business are more considered than those of the business or its customers. Relationship between Subordinates and Leaders The main relationship that matters in the business is the family relationships. As such, the leaders are unable to make decisions that benefit the businesses if they hurt the employees. That is; the business is full of family relations that are hired without any need of their skills in the organizations, or responsibilities. Thus, the relationship between the subordinates and the leaders is not functional mainly in improving and growing the business. Rewards/ Encouragement Rewarding in the organization is carried out poorly. That is; the business managers and leaders give rewards to the employees for no apparent reason. Whether they work or not they are titled to rewards. It presents a major organizational problem. The problem occur due to the poor management systems in terms of responsibility and authority delegation/ management generally. Also the lack of a HR department policy to manage the hiring, rewarding and other responsibility delegation issues is a key factor. The organization is resistance to change, it experiences unnecessary expenses of the employees through rewarding poor performance such as rewarding an employee for performing their responsibility despite not improving anything. The structure of the organization needs to be changed to accommodate the changes needed for success of the company at the macro level. The system for management to be used at the NoGo Railroad will involve the engagement of the OD (Chapter 1, 2011). The OD occurs as a long-term approach used in continuously developing the organization through focusing on its capabilities and solving problems as they occur. The main role of the OD is to lead, support and ensure the people support the change (Chapter 2, 2011). When the OD is effectively implemented in the NoGo railroad, some of the possible benefits to expect may include the successful completion of change projects, people been engaged in the businesses processes. Increase of morale, motivation, happiness and satisfaction with their work. It will increase the effectiveness and efficiency of the people, the turnover rate improves including the cost and cycle time, it also recognizes the resistances that build on rejecting change and builds action plans to solve the issues (Week 3, 2011, 3). Thus, generally, the success of the company is improved as well as the perception improvement of the company (Week 3, 2011). Policies Policies Understanding The NoGo Company employees do not understand the policies of the organization since there are none to be followed. That is; the policies of the organization include getting to work on time, performing their responsibilities. However, not all employees perform their responsibilities as required, which presents lack of policies that govern the business operations. The rules, procedures and policies in the organization are not available due to the traditional organizational processes. However, some of the unnecessary procedures in the business include the hiring procedures, and the rewarding procedures. NoGo railroad has a very limited competition, which is one of the reason it as maintained the status quo in all of its operations and also largely influenced the occurrence of the macro problems identified above. In such a case, use a pathfinder style is the best strategy for OD since it focuses on the needs of the employees and the organization (Week 3, 2011, 13). Thus, the organization from top to down does not feel or recognize the need for modernizing their operations. Competition has a occurred as a key motivator for the success of many companies, since they are forced to modernize and change as the environment changes. Thus, the bottom line of the company is improved. Without modernization or implementations of change, the company does not grow. Thus, though they still make money, they will remain in the same position for as long as they do not change. Thus, for innovation to occur the company’s structure must change including the implementation of modernized operations. The systems will be broken into several for the right decision to be made on each segment (Chapter 2, 2011, 13). The main problem in making the changes as presented is that the management is poorly organized and has no authority to implement the changes since even the top management appears to be highly resistant to change. The change to be implemented includes the changing of the obsolete policies that the HR uses to recruit including their procedures and practices. For instance, some of the positions in the company that are not necessary could be eliminated. However, the system change does not have to necessarily let go those working in absolute work position but can be trained to engage in other positions that will benefit the people. Thus, to ensure the top management is okay and approves the changes, the report of the systems to be changed in the company will be as follows. The NoGo Company is a company that exists without any set goals or value. Generally, the company has no direction, future plans or any objectives it intends to achieve. The company is just existing and operating since it is the only option available in the market. However, it is important to consider that other existing companies, investors and others may have identified the weakness of the company, and in case they decided to develop a competing company, the NoGo Company would fail (Christensen & Overdorf, 2000, 1). the NoGo Railroad employees are not motivated to work in their set positions or the company. Thus, for the change to development to occur each employee should be assessed personally and in relation to groups to identify when the employee is highly satisfied and motivated to work. Moe importantly, through assessing the employees personally, one can identify where there strengths and weaknesses are, which helps in the delegation of responsibilities. For instance, prior to giving someone a communication manager’s role, one ought to be sure that they have the appropriate communication skills, and knowledge to perform the stated role responsibilities. Therefore, through assessing the psychosocial system of the organization, better HR policies for recruitment and role delegation will be provided while eliminating others such as the nepotism and featherbedding practiced in the company. It will ensure that the output of the employees will increase, more when they start competing with each other. Management Systems and Characteristics of the System for Management The management systems of the organization are given through the organizational development (OD) activities. The poor development of the organizational activities is also a major cause of the macro-economic problems at the NoGo organization. For instance, the diagnostic activities are poor and irrelevant in the company. This are the activities where facts are researched to determine the system’s current state of art, which helps identify the problem status as well (Week 3, 2011, 3). The problem in this case was identified as the application of traditional procedures and policies in all systems of the company. Team building activities help improve the operations success of the system teams while focusing on issues such as how operations are done, skills, relationship quality and performance of the teams. The inter group activities refers to the activities that have to work hand in hand to improve the common output. For instance, the HR department has several inter group activities such as the recruitment process and job responsibilities delegation. Others to consider include the personal and organizational goal setting and planning. The career planning activities of the employees while focusing on the activities that will enable them to reach their goals. Training, organizational transformation and strategic management activities are the key to the development of an effective system for management. Thus, the change will mainly focus on the structure of the organization and the reward systems but through the use of an OD practitioner with a different view point (Week 3, 2011, 6). The report will show the changes to be implemented in all the systems below that are key systems in the management of the NoGo railroad. The company to date uses traditional techniques and procedures for the management and all other operations factors. The main traditional technical system to be addressed is the communication process, which occurs through the telegraph operators where dispatchers and the trains communicate using the telegraph. The communication process is slow and unreliable during any situation that needs urgent communication or brainstorming for solutions. On the other hand, if several responses are needed from the different agents communicating or departments, the sending of telegraphs will take more than necessary for a decision or solution to be made that would have been made within a few minutes of communicating using modern policies, systems and procedures. Management Style (Performance/ Efficiency) Management style of the NoGo Company is chaotic, which stipulates that the employees have total control over the decision making process. The chaotic management styles does not influence the business positively in the business through the efficiency and performance of the business. As explained earlier, the organizations are either open or closed management system. The NoGo railroad uses the closed management system. That is; it assumes that all external environment issues do not affect its production outputs. On the other hand, it may demonstrate that they are satisfied with the existing performance even though there is no growth experienced at any point. It includes considering some factors such as the communication processes of the company, interactions of the employees within the organization and decision making processes of the employees and employers (Christensen & Overdorf, 2000, 2). Thus, change will include changing the management system of the company to open management. It will include improving their activities, systems and procedures to include the impacts of external environment in their operations. More importantly, in implementing the open management system, the NoGo company will be forced to make other changes such as set conditions for promotions, salary increases or positions delegation in the company. Incentives will be used to make the employees want the change and embrace it as it will not only improve the organizational performance, but their performance and growths as well mainly in terms of salary increments. Profitability is highly related to the need of development by companies. Thus, the anticipated future profits that will occur with change from traditional to modern operations and systems. That is; it is okay to be okay and satisfied with where one is at or what they are making. The quality of life and status they maintain may be okay. However, to reach the next level where their life quality is improved and future guaranteed it is important that the people change now. On the stipulation that a competitor occurred today, the company would fail. All the people they tried protecting through stable jobs would be in a state of devastation as they have no skills to work in modern companies. They have no knowledge or anything, thus the quality of living for them would decrease. However, if today the change was to occur, they would not only have what they have now, but a guarantee for better futures. The company is not protecting the family members today by nepotism among other activities of unjust promotions. The image of the company will improve, as well as the output in terms of performance, and productions. The image of a company is key in present and future of the company. Thus, to develop and uphold a supportable corporate image organizational growth is a necessity at the NoGo Company. If the business image is negative or poorly perceived, the performance and future success of the company is not guaranteed. The customers and the external environment indirectly affect the company’s performance. To stand as a successful company, it has to effectively respond to the evolutionary/ environmental changes that occur in the market (Christensen & Overdorf, 2000, 5). The NoGo Company considers the needs of the employees prior to the needs of the customers who are the main shareholders of the company. When the company thinks about the customers first, the management will have the capacity to make decisions responsibly since it will have the needs of the organization and customers to think about. As a result, the business will have positive outcomes in terms of profits, which will improve the lives of the people in the company. CONCLUSION Problems in the organization are due to the failed systems as named above in the organization. The business as presented above should engage in the system changes named to ensure organizational development is experienced. The OD will be beneficial for the people and the organizational given the advances occurring in the environment both internally and externally. The systems improvement includes the managers allowing the capabilities of the company to be advanced while considering the capabilities of the employees in the organization. NoGo has to sustain an implement innovations for effective organizational development. To confront change, the organization needs values, resources and processes to succeed. ALTERNATIVES 1. Training the employees would be also a better alternative since it will ensure the people have all the necessary information and skills, besides any other knowledge impacted to ensure the operations of the business occur smoothly. 2. The second alternative would be the inclusion of a performance appraisal that will be followed effectively. It will ensure everyone improves their performances due to the fear of been let go or having a salary reduction through organizational development (OD) (Chapter 1, 2011, 15). RECOMMENDATIONS For NoGo company changes to succeed and support the business some interventions must be considered. They include the diagnostic activities that are designed to ensure the state of a problem in the company is clearly identified. On the other hand, the organization needs team building activities, which will help improve the operations of the system and teams in the business. It is also recommendable to engage in inter group activities as this will ensure the interdependent groups in the organization for effective outputs when they have to work together. More importantly, feedback activities to measure the improvements and enhancement done should be included in the organization, while identifying opportunities and problems for the NoGo Company. It is also recommendable that the company engages in other activities that involve strategic planning, goals setting and other organizational activities that will improve the business. References Chapter 1. (2011). Organization Development and Reinventing. In R. D. Brown, AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT (pp. Slide 1-31). New York: Pearson Education Inc., Publishing as Prentice Hall. Chapter 2. (2011). Organizational Renewal: The Challenge of Change. In R. D. Brown, AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT (pp. Slide 1-41). New York: Prentice Hall. Christensen, M. C., & Overdorf, M. (2000). Meeting the Challenge of Disruptive Change. Havard Business Review, 1-11. Week 3. (2011). Role and Style of the OD Practitioner. In R. D. Brown, AN EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH TO ORGANIZATION DEVELOPMENT (pp. slide 1-50). New York: Prentice Hall. Read More