Introduction to Management

Question: Discuss about the Introduction to Management Downsizing issues. Answer: Introduction From the given market analysis, it has been found that executives of a global company have completed their annual review. Two major issues had been analyzed from this report. They are such as decline in sales and increase of operational costs. The CEO does not want to haste into any decisions at this point. Hence, he had approached the management team to analyze the condition and address areas that might be changed. He had asked to come up with recommendations to modify each department and overall operation. The HR manager of the company, David Oliver had identified that the company will need to either downsize or restructure. Hence, a report has to be developed to analyze the impact of these two options on employee engagement and their motivation. In addition best strategies have been recommended for the company to move it forward. Strategies to improve condition of the company From this case study, there are two major strategies can be found to improve the business performance of the organization. They are such as downsizing and restructure. These two strategies have different impact on the employee motivation. They are mentioned below: Downsizing Manson (2014) stated that downsizing can serve as a way for a company to maintain profitability. However, it often causes negative impact on workplace as well. Neves (2014) stated that employees who leave an organization are not only affected. The remaining employees also feel negatively after downsizing takes place. They feel insecure about their job, which can reduce their productivity and creativity as well. Majority of the remaining employees prefer to move to different company (Van Dick et al. 2016). Hence, it can reduce competitiveness of an organization as well. Restructure On the other hand restructuring also has some issues related with employee motivation. Kohl et al. (2013) stated that restructuring of an origination includes closure, mergers, privatization or change of ownership at the time and after the process. It can also lead to issues such as change management (Ruigrok and Van Tulder 2013). There are employees within an organization, who do not support restructuring due the fear of losing promotions, power and benefits they presently receive from the company. Recommending one strategy to help the company to move forward After analyzing the impact of both these strategies on employee morale and motivation, it has been decided that restructuring process can be used. As downsizing can affect the employee morale more severely compare to restructuring, it cannot be used. There are some recommendations have been given below, in which the restructuring can be done within the company. They are discussed below: Strategy to improve sales performance The management of the company has to analyze the issues and concerns of the consumers. The company has to conduct survey and interviews to find out the personal requirements of the clientele. The company has to consider customers as the most valuable asset. They have to adopt customer centric marketing approach to increase customer engagement with the organization. Balassa (2014) stated that 45% of the companies in U.S. have implemented customer centric marketing approach and increased their sales performance. The management team has to use different software and tools to automate all the new methods. It includes different software such as Marketo, Pardot, Eloqua and Aprimo. Strategy to cut down the operating cost of the organization There are various software programs and online systems exist in the market that can reduce the operating cost. These software can provide benefit from services and programs that reduce operating cost efficiently. In addition, the company can shift addition jobs like packing and moving to another business or consultants. They can enjoy the benefit of outsourcing for advertisement and marketing. It will help to save lot of time and money of the organization to develop advertisement Maroofi et al. (2017). The company also needs to replace its traditional/ inefficient equipment with power saving equipment. Employees must try to reduce the usage of paper and use electronic medium as much as possible. In addition, it had been found that many vendors provide discounts to companies that make their payment early. It can help the company to reduce the operating cost approximately by 2-3%. Strategy develop effective change management It has been found that most of the employees within an organization resist to any kind of change within the workplace (Kavadis and Castaer 2015). They have the fear of losing their jobs, position, power. It can become a major issue for the organization while implementing the restructure. Hence, it becomes a major responsibility of the management department to make employees understand that rationale behind this change. They have to make employees assure that their jobs are not at stake and all the changes initiated within the organization is beneficial for both the company and its employees. Responding quickly to all the issues faced by employees and developing effective communication system can help the management to resolve these issues. Solving issues of employees for this restricting process It is the responsibility of the human resource management team to identify the issues faced by workers during the restructuring process. It will help the company to develop the support service to deal with all these issues. They can provide training to employees to improve their technical capabilities. In addition, stress management procedure can also be applied in order to make employees relaxed. Developing effective communication system about the change method Once the plan for restructure is completed, management team needs to understand how this restructuring can affect different stakeholders. At the next stage, the management team needs to develop effective and transparent communication system to communicate with employees about the restructuring process. They have to conduct frequent meetings to make employees understand the significant of the restructuring. Making employees aware can help the management team to implement change within the working environment. In addition, this communication process has to be continuous throughout the year. Conclusion Finally, it can be mentioned that after analyzing the condition of the company it has been found that the company has issues related with sales and operating cost. It has also been analyzed that there are two ways in which the organizational performance of the company can be improved. They are such as downsizing and restructuring. It is required to mention in this context that downsizing is not appropriate in this scenario, as it can have negative impact on employee morale. Hence, it has been recommended to the organization to implement the restructuring method. References Balassa, B., 2014. Development Strategies'.International Economics and Development: Essays in Honor of Ral Prebisch, p.159. Kavadis, N. and Castaer, X., 2015. Who Drives Corporate Restructuring? Co?Existing Owners in French Firms.Corporate Governance: An International Review,23(5), pp.417-433. Kohl, A., Rief, W. and Glombiewski, J.A., 2013. Acceptance, cognitive restructuring, and distraction as coping strategies for acute pain.The journal of pain,14(3), pp.305-315. Manson, B.J., 2014.Downsizing issues: the impact on employee morale and productivity. Routledge. Maroofi, F., Ardalan, A.G. and Tabarzadi, J., 2017. The Effect of Sales Strategies in the Financial Performance of Insurance Companies.International Journal of Asian Social Science,7(2), pp.150-160. Neves, P., 2014. Taking it out on survivors: Submissive employees, downsizing, and abusive supervision.Journal of occupational and organizational psychology,87(3), pp.507-534. Ruigrok, W. and Van Tulder, R., 2013.The logic of international restructuring: The management of dependencies in rival industrial complexes. Routledge. Van Dick, R., Drzensky, F. and Heinz, M., 2016. Goodbye or identify: Detrimental effects of downsizing on identification and survivor performance.Frontiers in psychology,7(4), 90-100. Introduction to Management Question: Write report on "an external consultant completing a report on the situation". Answer: Introduction The culture of the company determines a lot about the productivity of the industry. So the culture of the company should be given great importance by the management in order provides a healthier environment for the employees to work. Human resource management plays the major role in keeping the situation in control between the employee and the organization. How the Management works and standards which they maintain in the organization forms the basis for the survival of the company in this fast paced competitive market. Human resource should follow the structure of their working in such a manner, as they have to secure the working environment in the following ways for the employee: 1) Working conditions for all the employee has to be impartial, 2) The employee should never feel being biased, 3) The system should be transparent in its working and recognition. HRM should always keep the safety measure prime to be considered. The employee should feel safe and protected at the work place. The health of the employee should also be considered as one of the prime concern issues by the organization, as the healthy employee yields more productive as compared to the diseased. The company should follow equality at the time of recruitment and also at the time of appraisal. The system should not be biased on the basis of gender, race, religion or nationality. By (Hogan et al in 1994) it was stated that in traditional management systems, leader was having the complete control upon the organization not only this he was the person responsible for planning and supervising the functioning of an organization. Now the scenario has changed. During the conventional period, it was more of the one man control, commanding, dictating and looking after and taking decisions for the organization (Townsend, 2005). Now the working of industries has changed, it has become more about the service delegation industry; the leader has to look after more by motivating and galvanizing its team members, so that employees have a more positive attitude towards their work and toward organization. The organization should now focus more towards the construction of employees emotional intelligence. As for any company to prosper, its employee should be emotionally strong and they should feel comfortable working in the environment. Emotional intelligence has started gaining more importance as now company has started thinking in broad aspect (Wood Bandura, 1989). The manger or the person who is leading the team for a particular task, his work has become more arduous and complex has now his duty is not limited to just delegate the job, rather he has to manage and has to supervise them critically. Each and every member of the team is observed exclusively for their accomplishment and growth by the leader. He should be a keen observer to anticipate the need of the junior when an employee can be delegated to less or more demanding task. Research According to Cooper in todays evolving world where every field is evolving to some new heights leadership qualities have also taken the new role they have to keenly observe the subordinate in order to perceive their emotional intelligence and their capabilities associated with it. With this changing scenario where emotional intelligence is taking all together new turn in the organizations there have been various researches which are conducted on relationship of emotional intelligence and leadership quality (Villalonga, 2000). Haygroup has concluded that in one of the research it was claimed that for top leaders 85 percent of phenomenal performance which is because of their emotional intelligence. These researches should not be given much importance. Sosik has stated that for the current situation of the organization the variable which is becoming more popular these days is the competency of the leaders, which compose the base of emotional understanding. Emotional intelligence has become one of the very important aspects to be understood in order to understand the capabilities of the employee as to understand how efficiently each one can tackle the situation emotionally (Harris, 1999). According to Yammarino, the leader should have the capability to keenly supervise emotions of the subordinate according to individual concerns. For individual concern specific attention is required by the leader in the performance and growth of the subordinates (Yamin, et al., 2015). According to Muller et al. by the various testimonies it can be concluded that cohesion is now shifted more of work performance instead of social cohesion. Effective work teams is group cohesiveness What is team cohesion: It is the intensity with which the members of the team know each other, how they interact within the group, at what level each group integrate among themselves. Team cohesion has proven to be positive in team bonding and for the group achievement and satisfaction (Martin Dowson, 2009 ). During conventional period cohesion was seen like the false concept for the organization. Festinger explained team cohesion as the force which keeps the team member together in the group. These forces which were seems to be responsible for keeping the team members together were either attractive or of the repulsive nature of the either the group or of the members (Chenhall, 2002). Cohesion is basically seen operational as an attraction within the group and it is assessed by taking feedback from the group members as how much the group members like one another, do they wish to stay in the group about their being comfortable in the group. With the change in industry scenario, the cohesion has also changed its view with time to time. According to Zaccaro, all that cohesion is not just interpersonal attraction, but it also focuses on commitment to the particular task by the member, how much the employee is dedicated towards their assigned job. According to various testimonies it can be co ncluded that cohesion is now shifted more towards work performance instead of socially cohesive. For the organizational working culture, task cohesion should be differentiated from the interpersonal, social, mutual cohesion for the practical significance. Also the major thing to be understood for the team cohesiveness is that instead of focusing about the group members liking for each other it should be more of target behavior towards the task assigned to each member for the particular project (Deegan, 2002). Analysis Whenever there is the delegation of the role or duty from one person to another, it should be complete not just formal. A detailed handover is mandatory by the person for the constant efficient functioning of the organization. A detailed handover includes even the minute details about the persons behavior, the type of environment one feels comfortable where he is able to give his maximum so these minute details matters a lot (Sanchez Mahoney, 2014). Otherwise within no time its employees start feeling suffocated as when they feel neglected by the new authority in person and it will result in the downfall of the company very soon (Casimir Waldman, 2007). Conclusion A company should always look for the employees need, even when the work is appointed to other staff at higher or at any level, detailed information should be transferred in order to have a smooth functioning as earlier. Team cohesion should always have to be given consideration for proper functioning of the project. Recommendations For any situation, firstly it should be studied in detail. From the time when the problem has started occurring, how it was before, what all changed from the earlier time. Each and every aspect should be studied carefully to handle the situation before reaching to the conclusion. For any situation which have changed, and the problem starts rising, the new staff should not be blamed all together as he/she might not be aware of the new functioning situation. Neither the employees who have started behaving weird all of a sudden should be blamed on the report of the new officials; rather the situation should be studied thoroughly to yield the conclusion. Cohesion among the team members is very necessary for the efficient working of the team. In a current case study where Jenny has taken up the role of Dharma was unable to satisfy her role completely of team building because of which problems have started occurring. Here if we put direct blame on Jenny the problem will not solve, rather t he situation should be handled carefully. Here in this situation we have earlier member also who was informed of the damage in the team, which is really a good sign. Now she has to come up in between the Jenny and other team members as well the volunteer to recreate the confidence among them as it was earlier between her and its team member. Also Jenny should be trained that she should never insult the team member in the public. Also, she should understand that negative feedback should be given in person and in a polite tone, so that the person should not feel offended. These all points will help in rebuilding the healthy team. Bibliography Casimir, G. Waldman, D. A., 2007. A Cross Cultural Comparison of the Importance of Leadership Traits for Effective Low-level and High-level Leaders. International Journal of Cross Cultural Management, April, Volume 1, pp. 47-60. Chenhall, R. H., 2002. Management control systems design within its organizational context: findings from contingency-based research and directions for the future. Accounting, Organizations and Society, October, 28(2-3), p. 127168. Deegan, C., 2002. Introduction: The legitimising effect of social and environmental disclosures a theoretical foundation. Accounting, Auditing Accountability Journal, 15(3), pp. 282 - 311. Harris, J. K., 1999. Efficient consumer response (ECR): a survey of the Australian grocery industry. Efficient consumer response (ECR), 4(1), pp. 35 - 42. Martin, A. J. Dowson, M., 2009 . Interpersonal Relationships, Motivation, Engagement, and Achievement: Yields for Theory, Current Issues, and Educational Practice. REVIEW OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH, March, 79(1), pp. 327-365. Sanchez, R. Mahoney, J. T., 2014. Modularity, flexibility, and knowledge management in product and organization design. Modularity, flexibility, and knowledge management in product and organization design, 20 May. Townsend, K., 2005. Electronic surveillance and cohesive teams: room for resistance in an Australian call centre?: Blackwell Publishing Ltd . Villalonga, B., 2000. Privatization and efficiency: differentiating ownership effects from political, organizational, and dynamic effects. Privatization and efficiency, May, 42(1), p. 4374. Wood, R. Bandura, A., 1989. Social Cognitive Theory of Organizational Management. Social Cognitive Theory of Organizational Management, 01 July, pp. 361-384. Yamin, S., Gunasekaran, A. T. Mavondo, F., 2015. Innovation index and its implications on organisational performance: a study of Australian manufacturing companies. Innovation index and its implications on organisational performance, 17(5).