MGT701 Leading and Managing Organisations: Study of FAT Group

Case Study Overview

After a recent re-structure three business units that operate in a large government organisation have been merged. The departments previously operated independently and now will report to you (your team) replacing the previous Group Manager. The three areas merged are:

• Facilities Management (30 staff)
• Acquisitions (45 staff),  and
• Transport services (22 staff) have been merged.

The new group (FAT) is structured as part of the Corporate Services Area of the organisation. The FAT group collectively has an important role in supporting the entire Organisation to achieve its strategic goals and vision.

You have recently reviewed a consultant’s report that was commissioned due to significant conflict that exists between the department managers. The conflict is particularly negative between the Facilities and Acquisitions managers. The conflict has become so significant these managers no longer speak to each other and both have received counselling and have made complaints about each other to Senior Management and Human Resources. The transport services manager is also challenging and there is no love-loss among this management team.  

Answer:

Introduction

The modern-day organizations are complex entities which function in an increasingly competitive environment. There are multiple business units, entities, departments and employees that function simultaneously in an organization (Dunning 2013). The proper management of the organization determines the success or the failure of the business systems. Due to the increased ease of the business operations and increased profitability, there are instances of business restructuring in the modern-day organizations (Dunning 2013).The organizational leaders are often finding it necessary to reform the unit structure or the operational structure so that the changing department priorities can be accommodated (Schultz 2014). These can range from new programs, new management team, new partnerships, modifying financial changes and thus enhancing the organizational effectiveness. It is important that the successful organizations plan and prepare for the different innovative programs so that they can advance towards the fulfillment of the organizational goals (Dunning 2013). This gives rise to effective workplace communication and planning.

The given case scenario would be studied in detail and the underlying organizational problem would be identified. The ultimate aim of devising a suitable strategy for this organization would be the increase of the operational efficiency in the next 12 to 18 months. Focus would be given to two most important KPI’s namely customer satisfaction and employee engagement. The factors of team work, change management and employee motivation would be critically evaluated in the context of the given case scenario.

Background on Case Study

The case study revolves around the company restructuring of a government organization, which had significant impact on the smooth functioning of the company. There has been merging of business operations of three areas of operation namely facilities management (F), acquisitions (A) and transport services (T). This new group has been designated as FAT group, which plays an important role in fulfilling the strategic vision and goals of the company. However, there is an increasing unrest between the Acquisition department managers and the Facilities manager. This has hampered the communication between the team members, which has ultimately affected the way of business functioning.

 There are stress issues with the management team which often results in blaming others from small mistakes. There are issues with the company management and the managers displayed autocratic style of leadership. In the organization, there were high levels of inefficiency, which forms the basis of the management issues. There were issues with workload and the poor resourcing functions of the firm. The organizational culture is perceived to be negative, which is detrimental to the employees of the organization. There were great deals of criticisms from the internal clients of the acquisitions department. This paper would determine the various management issues of the organization and connect it with the theoretical aspects of the concepts. The recommendations would comprise of the ways of improving the management scenario of the company within duration of 12 to 18 months.

Analysis of Managerial Team

Alana – Supervisor Facilities

Alana has a range of positive leadership attitudes which can fulfill the high standards of the organization. The positive attributes of the supervisor facilities was that that the employees had positive orientation towards the manager of the company. There was an open door policy of the organization, which was very encouraging. Alana was responsible in providing feedbacks in a supportive way. The negative attributes of the management style of Alana was that the manager can be overly aggressive in dealing with the people and there are possibilities of the people issues.

Organizational Culture

The organizational culture was affected by negative attributes such as poor group leadership, red tape and bureaucracy. The company believed in a generalized approach for all the operating areas, which was obviously not suitable for many operational areas. There were issues with the organizational transport. The positive attributes of the organizational culture was that the organization was termed as one of the good places to work and employees had positive work life balance. There was an increased job security and there was positive perception of the brand. However, there were instances when the employees have shared that they have unmanageable workload and there were shortage of manpower in some areas of the organization. The overall organizational culture was pretty negative and the employees had lack of motivation. They were resistant to change and they were often defensive. The employees have issues with trust and they were unable to trust their team members. This hampered the inter-departmental coordination and there was significant reduction in the organizational productivity.

Transport Services

The transport services of the department had several examples of good customer service in terms of customer handling and customer servicing. The positive aspect of the transport department was that the company worked hard to improve the customer satisfaction levels by giving value added services to the customers. However, there are certain negative aspects of the transport services department such as negative culture prevailing in the department. There were instances that the employees were avoiding their areas of responsibility, which is hampering their organizational goal achievement.

Strategy implementation based on theoretical concepts

It is important that the organization takes adequate steps to solve the prevailing issues of the management. This would not only enhance the inter departmental coordination but would also help in better fulfillment of the management goals.

Teamwork

The teamwork is a dynamic process in which there is involvement of multiple professionals with diverse backgrounds sharing common goals (National Research Council 2015). The basic requirements of an effective teamwork are the adequate team size, clearly defined objectives and high level of motivation as well as cohesion (National Research Council 2015). The definition of roles between teams is highly desirable and there should be effective allocation of resources. The team performances is said to be a series of input, process and outcomes, which are defined by the goal oriented activities. The action phases focus on the activities that are related with the achievement of goals (Klotz et al. 2014). On the other hand, the transition phases emphasize on the evaluation or the planning of the various activities meant for accomplishment of goals. As opined by Klotz et al. (2014), there are ten inherent processes of team work that can b segregated into three broad categories such as transition process, action  process and interpersonal process.

The organization should try to emphasize more on developing the team work in the organization. The Star Team Model focuses in the attributes that the organizational leaders need to focus on (Hu and Liden 2015). It is important to focus on the individual strengths aligned with the attainment of the goals. The leaders should emphasize on developing the strengths of the people and making of good relationships with employees (Hu and Liden 2015). There should be accumulation of strengths along with team work, which would help the company to gain results.

Staff Motivation

As commented by Barrick et al. (2015), the motivation is considered as the level of commitment, energy and creativity that the employees contribute to their jobs. The company should find innovative ways to motivate the employees which can be done through greater employee involvement. Motivation can be compared to the intrinsic enthusiasm to accomplish activities related to the work. The Hertzberg’s two factor theory emphasizes on two important factors namely motivator factors and hygiene factors (Jansen and Samuel 2014). The motivator factor usually deals with the satisfaction levels of the employees which lead them to achieve higher levels of motivation. This motivation process would lead to hard work of the employees. The employees of the organization should be recognized for their hard work and there should be career progression of the employees (Jansen and Samuel 2014). This would make it possible for the employees to gain higher levels of motivation levels in the organization and hence give optimum performance. The organization should also pay attention to the hygiene factors that lead to greater level of dissatisfaction among the employees (Pillay and Cardenas 2015). This leads to the fact that the employees would be demotivated. There can be various parameters that can propel the employees to be dissatisfaction in the workplace (Jansen and Samuel 2014). There can be issues with the company policies, compensation and benefits and various conflicts in the workplace.

The organizational motivation levels should be enhanced across all the departments. The employees should be supported and appreciated for their good works. They should also be given standard compensation packages that would help them increase their motivation levels (Hou 2015). For example, there was a relatively quick promotion level of Peter, which implied that he was sufficiently having high levels of motivation, which made him to perform his work duties well (Jansen and Samuel 2014). However, he should receive more support from the group leader which would provide him with high degree of motivation.

Change Management

As commented by Hayes (2014), the change management process is aimed at increasing the standardized methods as well as procedures so that there is a enhancement of the service quality of the organization (Cooper 2015). The change management process is concerned with the redirecting as well as redefining of the business processes, operational processes and the budget allocations. The Burke-Litwin model is helpful in understanding the drivers of change and understands the reasons why change occurs in the organizations (Cooper 2015). This model helps in elaborating the different change drivers and the different factors that are responsible for changes in the organization. There are different drivers that affect the organizational change dynamics such as external environment, leadership, mission and strategy, organization culture and employee motivation (Cooper 2015).

The new department formed should take into account the new change management process in the organization (Cooper 2015). It should deal with the external environment such as legislation markets, competition, economy and others so that the organization can deal with them effectively (Hornstein 2015). It should also focus on the effective leadership strategies of the organization so that the strategy is developed in the light of the change in the environment (Cummings and Worley 2014). It is also important to enhance the organizational culture and provide a match between the expectations and behaviors in the organization. It is important for the organization to understand the different stages of changes and implement them accordingly in the organization.

Employee Engagement

The employee engagement is concerned with the happiness of the employees in a professional work environment and providing of enriching organizational culture so that the employees can give their maximum output to the organization (Crawford et al. 2014). The engaged employees are enthusiastic about their job role and they can take positive action regarding the interests of the organization and the brand reputation. The employee engagement fosters high amount of involvement among the employees of the organization and there is an involvement of the high-performing production systems (Crawford et al. 2014). There is also an increased commitment as well as increase in productivity of the employees, where they have high degree of engagement (Crawford et al. 2014). It is important to understand the different engagement drivers such as trust, fairness, employee empowerment, communication, self-discipline, leadership, management behavior and support from the organizational culture (Crawford et al. 2014).

As defined by Breevaart et al. (2014), there are different drivers of employee engagement in the organizations. These drivers should be implemented by the merged department also. The employees should have positive perception regarding the importance of the job that they are performing. The employees should have clear understanding of the job expectations (Crawford et al. 2014). There should be sufficient career enhancement opportunities where the employees are able to get the big picture (Crawford et al. 2014). The employees should also be given regular feedback and there should sufficient interaction between the juniors and the seniors (Crawford et al. 2014). There should be an increase in the quality of the working relationship between the superiors, peers and the subordinates.

Customer Satisfaction

The customer satisfaction is one of the most important reasons for survival of every business entity, since they are the sources of income for a company. As defined by Bienstock Mentzer and Kahn (2015), the customer service is important since this is a tool or metric that helps the organization to manage as well as enhance their business. The reasons for enhancing the customer satisfaction are that it is a leading indicator of the consumers-purchase intentions, which is a reorientation of the customer loyalty (Crawford et al. 2014). The customer satisfaction provides a point of differentiation as well as there is reduction in the customer churn. There is a significant decrease in the negative word of mouth, which also enhances the brand reputation (Crawford et al. 2014). It is cheap option to retain the existing customers rather than acquiring new ones. According to Storey and Larbig (2017), the theories of assimilation states that the consumers engage in cognitive comparison between the different expectation regarding perceived product performance and product expectations. This can be dealt with distorting of expectations.

The customer satisfaction should be enhanced and this may bring in probable changes in the organizational structuring (Crawford et al. 2014). There should be more communication between the external and internal customers of the company (Crawford et al. 2014). It is important to be responsive to the external needs of the customers. The understanding of the customer requirement is essential for the purpose of delivering unique products to the customers. Since the FAT group displayed a poor customer service, it is imperative to focus more on improving the customer service aspects.

Inter-department Coordination

The coordination level between the multiple departments of the organization is important for achieving the organizational objectives (Qin and Fan 2016). The modern day organizations are gearing up for embracing the greater level of coordination (Dubey and Singhal 2016). The modern day organizations have multiple departments and hence it is important to determine the exact communication modes between them so that there is greater work efficiency (Dubey and Singhal 2016).

The communication channels should be enforced between the departments of the organization so that the employees are aware of each other’s work functions (Dubey and Singhal 2016). There should be framework for mutual work understandings which would help in better achievement of the organization’s goals.

Recommendations

The FAT group should undergo rich structural as well as functional changes so that there is greater operational efficiency of the organization. Alana has potential qualities of a good leader but there are times when she displays aggressive behavior. It is important to have control on the personal emotions of the managers so that they are able to understand the entire picture and take decisions accordingly. Alana has too much work responsibility and there are instance when there are workload, which makes her to lose her temper. There should be proper work segregation that would allow the manager to keep her temper and avoid any sort of disagreements with the team members. Alana should be counseled regarding following a flexible style and listen to her team members as and when required.

Dave was known to start good things but unable to follow with them till the end. This needs to be modified as the company needs to display efficient leadership tactics. The leaders should emphasize on the employee engagement activities and there should be minimal groupism in the team. The leaders should have an objective approach and they should be able to understand the team issues so that they can give solution to them.

There should be significant improvement in the organizational culture. There should be greater flexibility of the management and the employees should be given flexible work options so that they can give more output to the organization. This would also make sure that there is greater work life balance of the employees who would be able to devote time to both professional as well as personal life. This would enhance the work quality of the employees. The organizational culture should be made positive with good interpersonal relationships between the employees of the organization. There should be harmonious working relationships between the employees of the organization so that there is an increase in the inter-departmental conflict. Focus should be given so that there is minimal interpersonal conflict as it leads to loss of productivity. There should be more focus on the training and development of the employees so that they are able to update their skills from time to time. There should be division of labor in the organization which would prevent the employees from having workloads. There should be fun activities in the organization on every Friday so that there is a reduction of the stressful work environment. It is also important to focus more on improving the customer service as it would lead to higher profitability of the firm.

Conclusion

The proper management of the modern day organization is important since the organizations are complex entity. The given case scenario is understood in detail and a detailed recommendation has been provided for improving the key performance indicators. There should be more emphasis on the customer satisfaction. The report focused on the employee engagement activities and the various methods of enhancing the customer satisfaction measures. The case study analysis was used as first point of evaluation. The analysis of the managerial team has been done which would help in better understanding of the case scenario. The supervisor facilities of Alana were focused along with the loopholes in the current organizational culture of the organization. The transport services of the company were also discussed with focus on the customer servicing and the customer handling. The strategy was formulated based on important parameters such as teamwork, staff motivation, change management, employee engagement, customer satisfaction and inter-department coordination. The last part of the report comprised of the recommendations for improving the current situation of the company.

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