Organization Management: Changing Nature of Work - Case Study Example

Organization management Name Course Tutor Task Introduction Changing nature of work In the current working society the work nature is changing rapidly in organizations and companies. Management and employees negotiate working conditions to suit their preferences. Individuals have been given the luxury and freedom of choice between working full-time or part-time jobs in their quest to experience the constant change and entrepreneurism. Every worker wants to work at their own time however they want to depending on what suits them. Some would prefer working part time in order to take care of their personal businesses or to juggle two jobs at the same time. Some workers are more effective and at certain times of the day as that is when they are most alert and hence more productive (Mc Shane, 2009). Some organizations find ways to adapt to these conditions without affecting the success and productivity of the company. This however might prove to be a difficult task, as in the attempt to meet both the needs of the company and the employee’s needs one entity might end up straining or suffering. This will be true especially for companies where hands on work is required, as it will be unfair when some workers have the freedom of working part time while others cannot. This will cause a relationship strain between the employees and their supervisors. Some organizations however, allow, within defined parameters, or prior approval flexibility of employees provided deadlines are met and quality work is done. More and more firms are offering flexible working conditions and many people are also considering jobs that have some sort of flexibility (Wheeler, 2010). Organizational structure According to the Collins dictionary, management is the process of guiding, directing, handling and controlling efforts of organization members to achieve stated goals. Managers are the people who oversee and give direction to a company towards meeting its goals. A company is owned by shareholders who elect a board of directors. The directors in turn appoint a managing director who has the overall responsibility running of the company. It is a manager’s responsibility to establish that company’s objectives have been met and ensure a framework of communication has been established within their department. He is also responsible for the motivation of employees and for setting out the arrangement for their responsibilities. He also oversees the activities of people and gives them direction while ensuring good and efficient use of company materials and time (The Times, 2009). Organizational behavior A supervisor’s responsibility is to ensure a smooth workflow. He is expected to make the necessary adjustments to ensure more effective techniques to get work done through the workers. He is the middle person as he is the one who connects the workers and the management. He gives instructions correction and training to the workers and is the face of management to workers. He presents the workers cases and problems to management and on the other hand also presents the demands and expectations of management to the workers. Therefore a supervisor maintains a connection to both, which can also be a strain, since workers will always expect fairness and help on their jobs while management will expect loyalty and exercise of authority for maximum productivity. A good supervisor therefore ensures a balance and coordination such situations (Jossey-Bass, 1995). Case study analysis With this foundation in mind, taking the case of Paul Sims who moved to an organization where he found working conditions that did not please him as a manager. As the acting manager of Ancol’s Sheppatton plant it is his mandate to oversee and direct the activities of employees and ensure their motivation. He saw it fit to make necessary changes that he believed would ensure productivity to the company. He ordered the removal of time clicks which meant that the company would assume that all employees did their work on time and in their required time frame. According to The Times report in 2009, companies that offer employees flexibility are the most sorts after. People prefer to do their work at their own pace in their own time. Paul Sims offered such freedom in his company which seemed to work for a while. The employees were satisfied for and seemed to work diligently for a while but as time passed a percentage of employees took advantage of this freedom. As the article in The Times predicts, this flexibility affects either the company one way or another. In this case, the productivity of the company deteriorated (The Times, 2009). This also caused a strain in the relationship between the supervisors, the workers and management. As it came to management’s attention that productivity had deteriorated, it had to take necessary action. As it is the structure of the organizations management is connected to the employees through supervisors. Paul Sims asked supervisors to observe and record when the employees came or want and to discuss attendance problems with those abusing their privileges. .But the supervisors did not have prior skills or experience for such a task which led to a strain on each supervisor. As the problems got worse he hired other supervisors to help out which led to confusion in the finance department (Emma, Christopher and Mike, 2006). According to William and Mary (2001) article, a supervisor is the constant reminder of management and he has to be authoritative to ensure productivity and profit. Constant ordering and reprimand can cause a relationship strain between the workers and supervisors as was evident in Acol. The supervisor will also tend to feel helpless when unrealistic expectations are placed on him. This kind of working environment affects the company as a whole. The survey conducted by the international federation of journalists on the atypical work in the media industry in Asia and Latin America states that employment is becoming more intense and less secure. More workers are employed on personal contracts and younger graduates are hired and slowly replacing the older more experienced journalists. Atypical employee’s salaries are set by the employers according to the story and their conditions are totally different from those of permanent employees. Freelance workers operate mostly on a verbal contract which is a disadvantage to the employer employee relationship since these jobs mostly cultivate poor pay and offer difficult working conditions (Beckhard, 1969). The IBS Center for management Research did a case study on the performance management and rewards system of Scotrade Inc, a financial service company. Scottrade’s performance was reported to be exceptional and this performance was credited to the management reward system. Objectives were set by the senior officers and employee reviews were done according to the category of the specific job. Management offered special training programmes as a reward system and also invested in unique internship programmes which leading to a strong manpower and provided constant learning environment in the company. Bonuses were awarded according to the improvement of performance of employees. This kind of management helped grow the company as employees are satisfied and work diligently in order to be rewarded for their good efforts. Good employer- employee relationship translated to good customer relationships and response hence company productivity was phenomenal. Another case study by the IBS Center for management Research on the restructuring of India’s Coca Cola Company exposes the managerial extravagance in their quest to gain quick profits and outdo their arch-rival Pepsi. The managing director of the company over employed bottlers and offered huge salaries and extravagant accommodation for executives and foreign trips for bottlers. This proved to be a financial suicide when Coca Cola Company had to write off its assets in India worth up to US $ 405million. Due to these losses the hard decisions had to be made. The company was forced into a merger which meant that the number of employees doubled. Coca cola had to go into a massive restructuring exercise focusing on the human resource in order for a smooth acceptance of the merger where a new organizational structure had to be put in place (Charles and Ware, 2004). This merger caused laying off of a number of employees and others into retirement. The managerial structure had to be reorganized ant Coca Cola Company had to put in place new strategies in place that would help create stronger employee management relationships. Workers were taken oversees for training and internships, and in order to inculcate a feeling of belonging the company gave flowers and cards to employees during their birthdays and major festivals and holidays. This also proves that managerial decisions can affect the performance of the company, the job securities of employees and the management and employee relationships as in this case trust and faith in the manager was lost (Miles & Snow, 1992). Possible solutions & recommendations In view of the above cited problems in the case study taking the situation where the workers were experiencing a strained relationship between them and the managers of the company, can be solved by the manager taking the initiative to ensure to incorporate bonding activities periodically in the organizations schedule as this is a role that should be played by the manager (The Times, 2009). The manager may organize team building activities which can be an ally through which they can mend their relationship. Team building activities help the employees and the managers to experience each other in a relaxed forum where they are able to interact and regain their confidence in each other. They may also consider having forums where they can engage in social activities and get to learn each other like having organizational parties where the barriers between the two parties are reduced immensely. In the case of workers experiencing little or no freedom in their place of work, which was the case in the case study, it is important to ensure the best working conditions for the employees as this is a motivational factor to their performance at work. This is based on the fact that it gives the employees a sense of mental freedom where they can work more efficiently due to the ability to think and hence work without limitation., an improvement in the rate of flexibility which gives workers more flexible environment to work in can greatly improve their performance and demand for the job offers available. This is because more and more workers are looking for more flexible jobs (Wheeler, 2010). For the sake of employee motivation, awards to improved and progressing employees are encouraged. Awards in form of bonuses give employees the zeal to work harder and be more productive as they are assured their efforts will reap harvest. This also creates competition among workers which benefits the company as the more competitive the workers the more productive they will be. In the case of Acol, Paul Sims could introduce bonuses as a reward for workers who improve in their work and introduce overtime pay. This would partly solve the problem of workers who take advantage of removal of time clocks. They take advantage instead of the overtime hours in order to get more pay out of it and the competition for bonuses would motivate workers to input more time in their work Employee training, sponsored and funded by the company is also another way to motivate workers as they will always look forward to gaining more knowledge and skills in order to elevate and better themselves career wise. The more experienced a skilled the employees are, the more efficient they are to the company. Skills gained in areas such as communication, social interaction and negotiation, organization skills etc, will help employees, supervisors and management relate better and create a more conducive working environment. In the case of Paul Sims, he could consult the management team to introduce training programs for workers and supervisors. With this implemented, he will avoid the problem of supervisors not having know how of handling problems and issues that need basic knowledge (Emma, Christopher and Mike, 2006). Management should also be ready consulting other directors before making major decisions that would affect the company’s performance. The manager should be able to get ideas and discuss the consequences of all possible actions with the board before making any major decisions. Consultation and exchange of ideas helps the management get a broader perspective and a gain more understanding on contentious issues. This helps avoid rush decisions that jeopardize the performance and productivity of the company (Robbins & Judge, 2007). Paul Sims as the manager should have consulted his fellow directors before making any major decisions in the company. Having consulted his fellow directors, he would have been given the purposes of the time clocks and their importance. Discussions would have been held and predictions made according to human behavior and previous performance trends. This would have led to more discussions on other efficient ways of improving management employee relationships (IBS centre for management research 2002). In conclusion, all companies and organizations face problems and challenges one way or another. A company’s performance and strength is judged by how well they handle organizational problems, both internal and external. When facing such challenges, a company must put into place problem solving strategies and processes that will help them better the productivity and the efficiency of the company. A simple problem solving structure is a five step approach that can be used. First step is to identify and define the problem. This helps to eliminate any ambiguity and confusion about the issue and discuss in detail what had occurred. The second step involves devising plans and strategies to determine what happened. This aid the implementation of the third step which is the listing of possible strategies that determine how they would proceed and choosing that which will best fit the problem. Consequently, work the strategy that was chosen in the previous step to determine if the cause was identified. At this stage if the cause has been found then it makes it easier to proceed. Continue to measure the problem and if the team has accomplished the goal then the strategies that were devised can now be implemented. This will help companies and organizations improve in their internal relationships and also provide stiff and healthy competition with rivals externally. References Beckhard, R 1969, Organization Development: Strategies and Models, New York, Sage. Charles, G and Ware, J 2004, Demographics and the Changing Nature of Work, New York, Sage. Emma, W, Christopher, W and Mike, D 2006, The changing nature of work, International Federation of Journalists, Switzerland. IBS centre for management research 2002, “Performance Management and Rewards system of Scotrade Inc”, IBS Center for Management for Research. Jossey-Bass, 1995, The Jossey-Bass social and behavioral science series, San Francisc. Mc Shane 2009, “Communication in teams and organizations”, Sydney. Miles, RE, Snow, CC 1992, Causes of Failure in Network Organizations, New York, Management Review. Prahalad, C and Hamel, G 1990, 'The core competences of the organisation' Harvard Business Review. Robbins, SF & Judge, TA 2007, Organizational Behavior, 12th ed, New York, Pearson Education. Robbins, SP 2004, Organizational Behavior - Concepts, Controversies, Applications, London, Prentice Hall. The times 100 2009, “Theory Strategy” United States of America Wheeler, K, February 28, 2010, “The Changing Nature of Work: The Labor Recession will outlast the Economic Recession.” Retrieved from http://www.byteeoh.com/the-changing- nature-of-work/ William and Mary 2010, “HR restructuring” accessed from http://www.wm.edu/offices/hr/restructuring/index.php Read More