Effective Team and Performance Management

Effective Team and Performance Management

This article is intended to evaluate the case study on Electron Corporation and highlights main key points pertaining to team building as well as enhancing the effectiveness of team productivity, established team environment and performance. Building of teams and effectiveness of team performance can be derived from various primary attributes (Zaccaro & Klimoski, in press). Teams are firstly needed to successfully contribute their individual efforts because their certain needs and responsibilities will form the basis of the collective success of the team. Secondly, since teams need to operate in complicated and ever changing organizational environments, they need to tackle multiple organizational team characteristics such as conflicting agendas, load of greater information, swift changes in the situations as well as enhanced dynamic changes (Zaccaro, Rittman & Marks 2001).

A small overview of the company includes; Electron is a small manufacturing organization established in 1997 in North of England. It manufactures components for telecommunication division. It employs 150 people along with 90 people in the manufacturing division. It was originally a department of a huge telecommunication organization and the Electron’s team bought the component manufacturing section as a portion of an outsourcing plan presented by the parent company in 2007. Electron has acquired both full time and part-time employees. In 1990s, its management realized that the company was striving for increasing competition and innovation in the industry. So in order to enhance their competition in the market, they have found the need of a more proficient and effective production procedures while emphasizing on enhancing organization’s culture, customer services, improved performance and responsibility and loyalty towards teamwork.

However, the subsequent sections of the assignment involve literature review which will cover the benefits and dysfunctions of teamwork. The Tuckman’s (1965) model of team building is also been employed in relation to the case study which demonstrates how teams must be efficiently formed. Whereas, the last sections will demonstrate the conclusion of the study as well recommendations on how to enhance the team performance more effectively and the steps that need to be taken for creating a subtle team environment.

Literature Review

The use of teams seems to provide several advantages; they may not be the most appropriate tactic for all types of organizations and not all of the organizations face similar and all challenges imposed by the teams. The influence of teamwork (both optimistic and pessimistic) is dependent upon several features such as company’s culture and environment, efficiency of team leadership, company’s efforts etc. Primarily, a team can be described as a small group of people along with a set of performance objectives, who are responsible to a common goal and the attitude they carry themselves mutually responsible (Katzenbach & Smith 1993). This definition explains that organizational teams should be of a manageable size and all of the team members should be accountable to achieve the shared team objectives. Moreover, all of the team members should be mutually responsible towards their activities and the results of those activities.

The Enticement of Working with Teams

The power of team work roots from several factors particularly when teams are employed. Various researchers demonstrated that teams are increasingly being employed as a response to ever increasingly global marketing competition (Heap 1996; Roufaiel & Meissner 1995; Sundstrom, De Meuse & Futrell 1990). Because of this increase in competition, it is also viewed that catering niche markets is also a growing concern. Since, electron emphasizes on enhancing organization’s culture, customer services and improved productivity; as a result, Electron manufacturers not only need to compete on cost but also strive to compete on innovation by establishing distinctive goods and services that could not be countered by the other rivals in the market. However, this will originate a problem where the company is not supposed to rely on mass production as well as economies of scale in the industry.

Most organizations still believe that working with teams is the only answer to this problem (just as Electron did). In their view teams are the source to optimize company’s innovation as employees have increased self-sufficiency, increased involvement and autonomy for making decisions (Harvey, Millet & Smith 1998). The employees no longer need to be guided about what is required to be done. In fact, they are provided with the objectives or develop objectives along with their team leader and then give autonomy to choose the best way in order to accomplish those objectives. Additionally, organizational innovation can also be optimized if teams are able to provide other enticements to the organization the situation in which they operate.

For instance, firstly, teams can optimally utilize human resources since they permit companies to achieve access to a person’s knowledge and capabilities (IRS Employment Review 1995). Albeit, the enhanced intricacy of the companies means that not all the managers know everything regarding each and every facet of the company’s operations. In this circumstance, it is important to utilize knowledge and capabilities of the employees/teams. Secondly, teams can be utilized to optimize company’s learning as employees are capable to design best strategies being suited to their work objectives (Wageman 1997). Thirdly, Teams are also capable to enhance individual’s performance levels and his/her efficiency, thereby establishing a synergy (Katzenbach & Smith 1993). Finally, team work is greatly associated with various numbers of objectives, tasks and additional accountability for each member of the team, which in turn resulted in enhanced job satisfaction, employee motivation and more work commitment. This will also result in lower employee turnover and absenteeism, thus, decreasing company’s costs and enhancing company’s knowledge base (Kirkman & Shapiro 1997).

Dysfunctions or Challenges Accompanied Teamwork

The employment of teams is primarily a change to an organization as well as a developmental procedure. Thus, teams can be easily affected to any challenge that might emerge during an organizational change. Particularly, resistance among employees may occur when they are needed to work along with other employees who are unfamiliar to them. In this way, teams are more likely to have broken established social relationships. This has already done in the Electron when huge number of new employees was hired and was integrated into one of the Electron’s teams. Those workers were new to their team’s values and consensus where they exerted greater challenge to the already existed relationships among the older employees.

In accordance to Bettenhausen (1991), one way to cope this problem is by forming teams. Building of teams will enhance group productivity by enhancing communication, minimizing conflicts and establishing greater bonds and commitment among all the working team members. Resistance among employee can also occur as a result of other factors. For instance, teamwork may need job enlargement where each team member is required to perform his/her conventional role along with his/her team role (IRS Employment Review 1995). In this circumstance, it is essential to minimize their certain responsibilities or to change the structure of their rewards or compensation.

Besides job enlargement, team work is also coherent with autonomy, ownership and additional commitments. Managers frequently perceive that employees must participate in decision making instead of simply being directed of what needs to be done. However, this might be true for certain situations but not for all situations. This will, in turn, may resulted in employee job dissatisfaction, increased employee turnover and/or reduced work productivity. The similar case is also viewed in Electron, when it hired new employees on temporary basis and let the managers to decide who must be hired on as full-time employee. Those workers initially were also unfamiliar with the team procedures and were expected by the managers to know the team’s values and conform and act accordingly to their team’s norms. Teams at Electron started exerting their concertive control over the new individuals which as a result new employees began controlling themselves and those norms and values become rationalized rules for the new members. There is no simple solution for catering such problem; however, training or changing positions can be probable within the company.

Other associated problems with “empowered teams” originate when there is a lack of trust in the team when they are no longer trusted enough to participate in decision making. This will result in teams and organizations losing full potential to accomplish their desired objectives. The situations in which teams are needed to seek consent before executing any idea or timeliness, ownership is likely to reduce. Organizational innovation will also decrease as teams are compelled to suggest ideas that will be likely to accept (Nahavandi & Aranda 1994). Moreover, team members may also perceive that their management is paying insincere respect to their proposed ideas of teamwork which will certainly result in reduced employee morale.

It is also viewed that when teams are involved in making decisions, they take more time than the system they reinstate. This is also needed where team coordination is required and where team members are independent. This issue can be partly cope by the formation of the team, but this also requires continuous training and development of groups teams. Such kind of training can be specifically appropriate for the new hired staff as there may be no established procedures for them to follow. Also, for effective teams, there must be strong coordination among them (Harvey, Millet & Smith 1998). Similarly, the lack of participation in decision making and coordination among employees for building of more strengthened team culture is seen in Electron’s eight teams (red, blue, white, green, silver, aqua, purple and yellow). This is due the fact that the older and long tenured employees have tried to impose strict concertive rules and procedures to conform to the group norms.

In case of organizational environmental changes and developmental initiatives, culture of the organization and environment must also be considered. It must not be perceived that the objectives and values of the individuals are similar to those of their management or congruent even across the entire organization. The attitude of individuals towards teams will demonstrate the success of those teams. If teams need to be executed more successfully, the extension of already existed values must be there (Carr 1992). Therefore, Electron when working with teams also demand shift in attitudes that a company may turn to it when it wants to accomplish a cultural shift, for instance, when it becomes more quality or customer oriented (IRS Employment Review 1995).

Five Team Development Phases as Proposed by Bruce Tuckman

This model as proposed by Bruce Tuckman (1965) tends to highlight and guides the areas where teams can be successful and/or become failure to achieve desired team goals. For forty years, Tuckman’s classical model of team development delivers ease and new perceptions to managers to either charge to run a team or attempt to function within a team while assuring each member that they are not alone and that the uneasiness is a normal part of the team journey towards an efficient and pleasant unit. Tuckman speculates that these stages are essential and unavoidable. In order for the Electron teams to grow, to face the hurdles, to cope up with the problems, to search for solutions, to organize work and to deliver desired outcomes; these five phases can be elaborated as follows.

Phase One: Forming

In this first phase of team building, Electron teams must be formed. Where the attitude of the individual is driven by the desires which are likely to be accepted by the other individuals and prevent any controversy or conflict. Solemn problems and attitudes are prevented and people are required to concentrate on their busy work routines. Individual members also try to gather knowledge regarding each other, regarding the scope of the task and how to reach it. This phase is considered to be an easy stage but prevention of controversies and conflicts mean that not much objective is actually accomplished. The teams will together meet and learn about various opportunities and confront and then agree on objectives and start to tackle the tasks and objectives. Members of the team will quite behave autonomously.

Each team member must concentrate on his/her team leader by accepting the leader’s guidance and authority while maintaining a respectful distant association with other individuals. At this phase, the leader must open two way communications and be ready to reply any of the queries that may come on his/her way; limitations, potency and vulnerabilities must also be tested including those related to the leader.

Phase Two: Storming

Each Electron group then will enter into the next stage where different ideas for competition are considered. The teams address distinct issues such as what kind of problems they need to solve, how they must function autonomously as well as mutually with each other and which leadership model they must accept to follow. Each team member will have the privilege to confront others’ ideas and perceptions. In most cases storming is solved more quickly while in others, most of the teams never leave this phase (this depends on the maturity of the team). Most team members concentrate on the ins and outs to dodge the problems. This second phase is essential for the teams to grow which could be controversial, distasteful and often excruciating to the team members who are opposed to the conflicts. Tolerance of each team member must also be emphasized because without patience, teams will likely to fail.

This stage can be proved destructive for the teams if they are permitted to go out of control. Managers/supervisors of the teams might be more accessible but need to be directive in their professional and decision making attitudes. The teams therefore, will solve the problems and differences and contribute more comfortably with one another. In this way, they cannot be judged and can share their stand points and ideas easily with each other.

Phase Three: Norming

At this phase of team building, Electron managers will set one objective and one mutual plan for the team to accomplish. Some of the members will be motivated to give up their certain ideas in order for the team to effectively function. At this phase, each team member feels his/her commitment to the team and has the aspiration to work towards the success of the team’s objectives.

Phase Four: Performing

It is probable for certain teams to reach to this stage. The high performing teams can be able to work as one unit as they able to identify best approaches to get their job done mutually, comfortably and without irrelevant controversy or the requirement of any external management because they become motivated and knowledgeable by this stage. When the members of the Electron teams are now skilled, independent and experienced, they can tackle the process of decision making without the burden of any supervision (however, supervisors are also directive and participative at this stage but team make more appropriate decisions). The Electron teams must pass through this stage several times because of the global and organizational dynamic changes.

Phase Five: Adjourning (and Transforming)

This stage involves un-forming the groups which sometimes create a sense of loss often feel by the team members. This stage will include ‘dissolution’ which leads to the end of the Electron team members’ roles and responsibilities, the accomplishment of objectives and minimization of reliance. This procedure can be traumatic specifically when the dissolution is not planned. Thus, team members must be acknowledged at this phase that at the successful achievement of the productivity levels and outcomes, teams will be dissolved and that new teams will emerge for new targets.

Conclusion

In order to execute and sustain teams to operate effectively within the organization, sufficient organizational changes are required to be considered as well as various issues required to be catered. Those changes not only influence team members but also the responsibilities and commitments of the supervisors and managers, the organizational framework, work procedures and techniques and employees’ social bonds. That’s why due to the dynamic environmental changes, Electron manufacturers also face multiple challenges which occur as a result of teams’ implementation. However, it is also evident that in case of teams’ implementation, various organizations will not opt for going back to their prior organizational frameworks (IRS Employment Review 1995). Consequently, it is also seen that teams, in spite of the emerging challenges, are capable enough to offer several advantages to firms in the long run.

In case of Electron manufacturers, new hired team members were unknown of the team’s values, norms and consensus that proved greater challenge to the already existed relationships among the older employees. Moreover, managers were also expecting that each new member must be familiar with the procedures and norms of the groups to act accordingly and conform themselves to those groups. However, besides the implementation of their concertive procedures and motivating employees (by providing them rewards), Electron teams still lacking certain key aspects which formed the basis of a strengthened team. Such as two way communication, participation of employees in decision making, lack of trust among team members, sharing of opinions and ideas among each other to resolve any critical issue regarding production and enhancement of work performances and employees’ morale.

Thus, as a result of this, Bruce Tuckman’s (1965) model of team building is employed in the context of Electron manufacturers. According to his model, teams are to be developed step by step by ensuring performance effectiveness in each team building phase. This model consists of five stages i.e. forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning. This can be concluded as Electron must forge its eight teams in a manner such that each individual must know his/her accountability, change his/her attitude according to the organizational culture so that teams will effectively function with minimum conflicts and controversies (forming). Second, teams must be encouraged to share their wide scope ideas and opinions and can confront the other’s ideas for making better decisions and improved productivity (storming).

Third, Electron managers must establish one objective and direct the team to mutually accomplish the objective which enhances the members’ sense of responsibility towards the team success (norming). Forth, when Electron’s team members become more experienced and capable enough, they will be able to make decisions without any supervisor which in turn, gives employees more autonomy, understanding of each other’s roles, increase employee social relationships, enhance their morale as well as enhance work productivity (performing). Finally, when the production target is successfully achieved, teams will be terminated at the final stage so that new teams will be developed to achieve new production targets with the passage of time and make the organization subtle to dynamic industrial changes with the help of new teams’ formation.

Recommendations

Following are some of the recommendations that can be further considered for making organizational teams more strengthened and intensified.

  • In accordance to Tuckman’s strength deployment inventory (SDI) model, employees must be nurtured with the help of managers without directing rewards in return. They must be motivated to enhance their self-worth by accomplishing tasks and other significant orders.
  • Fulk, Bell & Bodie (2011) also employed Tuckman’s five stages of team development to enhance team performance. According to them, the first stage ‘forming’ must also involve hiring and selecting right individuals at the right time who also possess the qualities of solving critical problems, controversies, communication gaps, decision making, setting of plans and goals and organizing tasks within teams.
  • At the second stage ‘storming’, managers must anticipate to unexpected events that are likely to lead the whole team to the conflicts which are likely to arise as a result of differences in opinions, styles of working and priorities. The managers must be vigilant to take all those conflicts into consideration and encourage teams to take appropriate and productive actions towards mitigating those conflicts.
  • The third stage ‘norming’ must involve working with teams with specific as well challenging goals and those goals must be present in writing. Here team performance can be enhanced if teams revisit their initial goals, clarification of the goals and the commitments towards those goals.
  • At the fourth stage ‘performing’, managers must monitor their teams ‘objectives and their feedback on a regular basis in order to enhance teamwork. That feedback must be timely basis as well as concrete to be acted upon.
  • At the final stage ‘adjourning’ the team members instead of felling a sense of loss, team members must be expected to enjoy their success resulted in successful completion of the task.

Bibliography

Bettenhausen, K.L. (1991) ‘Five Years of Group Research: What Have We Learned and What Needs to be Addressed’, Journal of Management, vol. 17, no. 2, pp. 345-381.

Carr, C. (1992) ‘Planning Priorities for Empowered Teams’, Journal of Business Strategy, vol. 13, no. 5, p. 43-47.

Fulk, H.K. (2011) Team Management by Objectives: Enhancing Developing Teams’ Performance. Journal of Management Policy and Practice, 12(3), 17-26.

Heap, N. (1996) ‘Building the Organisational Team’, Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 28, no. 3, pp.3-7.

IRS Employment Review (1995) ‘Key Issues in Effective Teamworking’, no. 592, pp. 5-16.

Katzenbach, J.R. & Smith, D.K. 1993, The Wisdom of Teams, McKinsey & Company, New York.

Kirkman, B.L. & Shapiro, D.L. (1997) ‘The Impact of Cultural Values on Employee Resistance to Teams: Toward a Model of Globalised Self-Managing Work Team Effectiveness’, Academy of Management Review, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 730-757.

Nahavandi, A. & Aranda, E. (1994) ‘Restructuring Teams for the Re-engineering Organization’, Academy of Management Executive, vol. 8. no. 4, pp. 58-68.

Performance Coaching Training (2010) Bruce Tuckman’s Forming, Storming, Norming & Performing Team Development Model.

Roufaiel, N.S. & Meissner, M. (1995) ‘Self-Managing Teams: A Pipeline to Quality and Technology Management, Benchmarking for Quality, vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 21-37.

Sundstrom, E., De Meuse, K.P. & Futrell, D. (1990) ‘Work Teams: Applications and Effectiveness’, American Psychologist, vol. 45, no. 2, pp. 120-133.

Teambuilding Solutions (2011) Strength Deployment Inventory (SDI).

Wageman, R. (1997) ‘Critical Success Factors for Creating Superb Self-managing Teams, Organisational Dynamics, vol. 26, no. 1, pp. 49-60.

Zaccaro, S. J, Rittman, A.L & Marks, M.A (2001) Team Leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 12, 451-483.

Appendix A

Performance Management
Performance Management
Effective Team
Effective Team

View Performance Management Dissertation Here

Strategic Planning

Strategic Planning Explained

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Title: Strategic Planning – When we travel we usually have a clear destination in mind. We know what mode of transport we want to use, how long it will take to get there, who is travelling with us and what route we are going to take. This is because we have spent a bit of time beforehand planning our trip.

You would not simply turn up at an airport with no luggage or ticket and expect to end up at your ideal destination (although some more adventurous people might argue that is the best way to travel). Instead you would have to waste time with last minute paperwork, have limited options, you may end up going to a less desirable place or even have to go home and start again.

The same can be said of strategic planning a business or organization. If there is no clear plan then the owners or management have no way of knowing what outcome they want to achieve or how to get there. Successful organizations use strategic planning to map out the best way to achieve their desired outcome.

A strategic plan is a document created specifically for an organization and clearly states the core values, mission statement and objectives. It covers the available resources such as staff, supplies and technology and states how these are to be used for the advancement of the overall business. It is a valuable tool that can be used to measure progress at any stage and to determine when all the objectives have been met. Strategic planning is the process used to create a strategic plan.

This post will look at the following points.

  1. Who uses a strategic plan?
  2. What are the key elements or features?
  3. Why use a strategic plan? What are the benefits?
  4. When to use strategic planning?
  5. How to use strategic planning effectively?
  6. What are the potential problems?

Who uses a strategic plan?

These days businesses both large and small use strategic planning. While it is not essential to have a strategic plan in place when starting a business it is certainly advisable. It is important to note at this stage that it is not a business plan. A business plan is generally focused on facts and figures such as budget forecasts, prospective markets, products and the like. Simply put, a business plan outlines the ‘who’ and ‘what’ of an organization. A strategic plan looks at the ‘how’ and ‘why’. It involves the creation and implementation of strategies to shape and guide how all resources are best used.

A plan can be created by a single person, outsourced consultants or by a dedicated committee over a period of time. The larger the organization, the more beneficial it often is to involve a greater cross-section of relevant people. For example a national software development company may choose to include staff from upper and middle management, sales, research and development, marketing, accounts, production and dispatch. The owner of a small chain of bakeries may find it more beneficial to use the experience of a business advisory service either on a once-off or an ongoing basis.

What are the key elements or features?

Strategic planning is a process, not a one-off action. The process involves a series of discussions or meetings between interested parties in which key ideas and concepts such as corporate culture and common goals are brainstormed and analyzed. As with planning a holiday, strategic planning looks at:

  • “Where are we now?”
  • “Where do we want to go?”
  • “Why do we want to go there?”
  • “How are we going to get there?”
  • “How do we know when we have reached our destination?”

Through this process a document is created that communicates all the values, goals, strategies, procedures and desired outcomes at every level of the organization.

After a series of drafts the plan is laid out in a final document that then becomes a valuable resource for management, employees and anyone else connected to the business. The final format may be unique to the organization or based on one of the numerous templates available. The completed strategic plan is often produced as a printed booklet and also as an online resource.

Why use strategic planning? What are the benefits?

The starting point

The use of a strategic plan benefits an organization in many tangible and intangible ways. The main benefit is in the process itself. The ongoing analysis and reflection through a series of steps allows for organic growth and development. Those with a clear, proactive plan are more likely to achieve an outcome that meets their specific goals and once implementation begins they have a clear pathway to follow.

Many businesses fail within their first few years due to lack of careful strategic planning. If they do manage to keep going, they may find the rate of growth disappointing or they may move from obstacle to obstacle without being able to see way ahead. They may waste a lot of time and money ‘putting out spot fires’ simply reacting to unplanned situations as they arise.

Trailblazing corporations such as Google and Apple not only know where they stand in the world market now, they know where they intend to be in 5, 10 and even 50 years time. Their strategies would be flexible enough to allow for changes in technology and the market conditions.

Shaping the future

To begin with, companies need to establish how they want to be positioned in the marketplace and what themes will form the backbone of their corporate culture. Defining these core ideals will shape the whole nature of the resulting plan.

A very successful company with unique and readily identifiable ideals is The Body Shop. Founded by Dame Anita Roddick in 1976, Anita’s first store was initially set up as an income source for her family but her personal experience and beliefs set the scene for the company culture that followed. She had travelled widely and was interested in the different ways in which women around the world looked after their bodies. Growing up in post war Britain also influenced her thoughts on recycling, giving value for money and on general consumer culture.

“Anita believed that businesses have the power to do good. That’s why the Mission Statement of The Body Shop opened with the overriding commitment, ‘To dedicate our business to the pursuit of social and environmental change.’ The stores and products are used to help communicate human rights and environmental issues”.

More than 35 years later, The Body Shop now has an outstanding global reputation. The ongoing commitment to the original core values such as recycling, sustainability, ethical trade, and community involvement have benefited many thousands of people across the world.

“There is no doubt that The Body Shop and Anita have always been closely identified in the public mind. Such was the inspiration she provided, that The Body Shop has become a global operation with thousands of people working towards common goals and sharing common values. That’s what has given it a campaigning and commercial strength and continued to set it apart from mainstream business”.

Visions, missions and values

One of the key benefits of the strategic planning processes is that it creates an opportunity for an organization to carefully consider why they exist in the first place. “Why are we doing this?”

They can break this concept down further into vision, mission and value statements.

A vision statement portrays the ideal future that the organization would like to achieve. In the case of a not-for-profit group this statement would depict the ideal outcome for the community whereas the vision statement of a corporation would naturally be more focused on growth and profits. In either case, this kind of statement serves to establish the purpose of the organization.

While it may be tempting to write a long, flowery vision statement that would look good on an inspirational poster, it is far better to keep it simple and relevant to the company. The following vision statement for technology giant Samsung is short but very well focused. It clearly shows the desired outcome for both the company and the people it serves.

“Samsung is dedicated to developing innovative technologies and efficient processes that create new markets, enrich people’s lives and continue to make Samsung a digital leader”.

Mission statements relate more to what will be done. It takes the vision a step further and briefly outlines the core approaches that will be used to allow the vision to be fulfilled. McDonald’s needs no introduction as a corporation. They are not only an internationally recognized brand, but they are also an outstanding example of how having a well constructed mission statement impacts on every aspect of the company.

“McDonald’s brand mission is to be our customers’ favourite place and way to eat and drink. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to Win, which centre on an exceptional customer experience – People, Products, Place, Price and Promotion. We are committed to continuously improving our operations and enhancing our customers’ experience”.

A carefully considered value statement becomes a valuable tool for all employees to refer to as a guide when making complex decisions. While some organizations may not take the time to create this third type of statement, in reality they make value-based judgements constantly. Whenever they have to make a choice to establish what is more important to them that are a value based decision. For example; when deciding what area of the market to focus on, where to base their production or what to include in a staff development program they need to reflect on their core values. If these are clearly stated and easy to access, then that decision becomes much easier to make.

The Coca-Cola Company uses a handful of value statements but they are extremely efficient and effective.

“Our values serve as a compass for our actions and describe how we behave in the world.

  • Leadership: The courage to shape a better future
  • Collaboration: Leverage collective genius
  • Integrity: Be real
  • Accountability: If it is to be, it’s up to me
  • Passion: Committed in heart and mind
  • Diversity: As inclusive as our brands
  • Quality: What we do, we do well”.

One thing all of these successful brands have in common is that their branding is uniquely identifiable. They stand out from all their competitors and ensure their market position because they knew their destination from the outset and they have maintained their focus ever since.

On the other hand, businesses that have not given thought to how they can offer a unique experience to their customers run the risk of getting pushed out of the market by more pro-active competitors. They may manage to stay afloat with a steady turnover but it is very unlikely that they will grow significantly in the long term.

Drafting the map

The next step in the strategic planning process is to carefully map out how the company’s goals will be implemented. This stage is beneficial in a number of ways.

The plan helps to define how all the available resources can be used most effectively to achieve these goals. This includes employees, raw materials, production equipment, initial capital and much more. These are no right or wrong answers when it comes to making these types of decisions. Individuals have their own preferences and biases so in order to avoid successive board members or employees making decisions that move away from the original company goals it is vital for them to have clear cut guidelines to follow.

An example of this would be if the organization had a very strong environmental emphasis in its’ value statements, then the person responsible for managing the company car fleet should consider things like fuel types and efficiency, materials used and possibly other more sustainable methods of getting the employees to work. It would be counterproductive for them to order fuel-guzzling SUV vehicles for inner-city travel even though they are generally cheaper than electric or hybrid cars.

Having a strategic plan does not mean that the resulting procedures have to be rigid and mapped out to the last minute detail. Imagine having a travel itinerary so strict that it doesn’t allow for interesting detours or changes in the weather. Having broad guidelines and boundaries enables an organization to respond to changes in both internal and external conditions as they occur.

The Global Financial Crisis unfortunately saw the demise of many organizations across countless industries. Some businesses have products or services that have gone out of fashion or have become more automated. There are many reasons why a business that was doing well suddenly faces an unforeseen roadblock that can cause everything to grind to a resounding halt.

The ones that survive are those who have people who think ‘outside the square’ and come up with new areas to focus their attention. The printing industry used to be very labour intensive with staff needed to set the machines or create the lino cuts by hand. Computers have rapidly changed many of these processes to the point where the majority of printing is now produced digitally.

Modern printing businesses now offer customized products such as books, calendars or posters in small quantities that would not have been feasible with the large manually operated presses. They have found new paths that are still compatible with their original goals even if the goalposts have been shifted slightly. The companies that did not have the desire or flexibility to keep up with the changes in technology have now largely gone out of business.

An intangible benefit of the strategic planning process is the increase in job satisfaction for those involved at every level. Knowing that their contribution is valued and appreciated encourages people to participate more fully and gives them the confidence to put forward new ideas.

This is true not only for businesses but for other organizations such as community groups and local councils. Whenever there is an open and clear communication pathway and people can see that their ideas are well considered they are far more likely to step up and take ownership of their proposals.

To refer back to the values of The Coca-Cola Company above, “If it is to be, it’s up to me”.

“Are we there yet?”

While the strategic planning process is usually ongoing, organizations do need to periodically review if they are still on the right path. Using the previous holiday analogy, imagine that you are in your car with your family, you have all your luggage well packed and are driving along the same highway your parents used to take so you don’t consult the map. Slowly you realise that you don’t recognise the scenery and the signs don’t make sense. You’ve missed a turn off and now face some choices. Continue on the same road and just ‘make do’ when you get somewhere that could be ok to stay? Turn back and keep trying different roads that look as though they might be right? Or do you pull out the map (or consult your GPS), work out where you went wrong and find your way back to the original route?

When organizations start showing signs of losing their path, those that continue anyway will most likely end up in a position they don’t really want to be in. That could be a poorer financial position, they could have missed some great opportunities or they could have drifted away from their original goals and values. The same could be said of those that do attempt to address the problems but not in a cohesive or organized manner.

By having a well focused plan and referring to it regularly an organization can determine when the goals have been achieved and whether the plan has been successful. The desired outcomes can be measured using Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) and other measures. These could include indicators such as increased profit, more patronage or participation or faster turnover.

The following flowchart shows how all these planning factors interact.

Strategic Planning
Strategic Planning

When to use strategic planning

The nature and size of an organization usually determines how often strategic planning should be carried out. New companies or those in rapidly evolving markets may need more frequent planning reviews than other, more stable organizations.

A brand new company would develop a strategic plan at the same time as their business, marketing and financial plans. The original plan would require more time and effort than subsequent reviews.

More established companies or organizations should review the progress of major strategies quarterly, however most areas could be reviewed annually. They could then do a new strategic plan every 3-4 years. The faster an industry or focus area is changing, the more often the plan should be reviewed or re-done. The key is to keep the plan fresh and relevant to the current situation.

A new plan should be developed at the start of a new venture or development stage. This could include opening additional stores, adding a new department or moving into a new community or market.

Strategies can also be altered when internal feedback shows a definite need. If an aspect of the plan is clearly not working at ground level then the employees or other parties should be able to communicate this to the decision makers. Communication is a two-way process so an effective plan would have provisions in place for receiving feedback and responding to it accordingly.

Most people would be familiar with the classic board game Monopoly. The stages of this game make a good analogy for the stages of strategic planning. At the start of the game (the opening of a new business or venture) the players move in a fixed direction with known resources and pathways. As the game progresses, players have to make decisions about how to use their resources. They may choose to widely invest or to hang onto their capital according to their personal strategy (or lack of one).

Passing ‘Go’ could represent the end of the financial year or the end of a project. At this stage the players (competitors) have changed the status of their finance and assets. Some may have even ‘gone to jail’ or collected bonuses along the way. This is a time to review their initial strategies and to alter them as needed in order to win the game. Regular review and changes to strategy leads to more profits and a stronger enterprise.

How to use a strategic plan effectively

People power

Initiating a strategic plan needs planning in its own right. The key decision makers (business owners, board members, etc) need to decide who to involve in the planning process and how and when it will take place. Ideally they would include people with established skills in areas such as group facilitation, meeting management and conflict resolution. These people may already be part of the organization or they may be external consultants or facilitators.

If the right people exist within the organization already it is very beneficial to include them in the planning team as they are more likely to be passionate and focused. It is more meaningful to them and gives them a sense of ownership and belonging.

Inviting people from different departments or with varied experience has many advantages too as it helps them see situations from different perspectives. For example an accounts person may not understand why a higher priced piece of equipment could be more beneficial to the company until an engineer shows them that it generates more units per hour or is safer to operate.

The team members participating in the meetings may vary as each meeting will have a different agenda and desired outcome. If there is uncertainty as to whether to include a specific person in a meeting it is generally best to invite them anyway. They may not have much to say but they could also put forward the best ideas of the day.

Outside knowledge

Hiring a professional planner as a facilitator also has many advantages especially if their experience is related to the industry of the organization. It would be similar to the choice between planning a holiday yourself online and seeking the services of a travel agent.

Of course there will be costs involved but as with any aspect of business, utilizing resources that will ultimately lead to increased profits is always a sound investment

The level of involvement a professional consultant has can vary greatly from several meetings with an individual consultant to a series of meetings over several weeks with a dedicated team. This would be influenced by the size of the organization and the amount of time and capital they have available.

Using an impartial moderator in meetings may help to manage conflicting ideologies and personalities. They are generally trained to consider all points of view with respect and to present them to the group without bias. They can keep the group on track rather than going off on tangents not relevant to the core strategies.

A professional consultant also has the advantage of being able to look at the whole organization objectively and provide a fresh perspective. They should have a strong working knowledge of current industry trends and be able to accurately compare similar organizations.

Getting started

Having the right people sitting around the table does not guarantee a successful planning meeting. They need a purpose and a pre-planned agenda to follow. This is where the vision, mission and value statements come into play. These can either be read aloud, given as handouts or be visible on a large screen or board. They don’t have to be discussed in great detail but they should be available for quick reference. These statements will set the scene for the meeting and provide a focal point whenever a decision on important matters is required.

In the first meeting one of the vital tasks the members need to undertake is a SWOT analysis. This stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats and it is used worldwide as a key tool in assessing the current status of any given group or organization.

SWOT Analysis

Strengths
Quality staff
Positive corporate culture
Strong market position
Unique products
Research and development

Weaknesses
Lack of training
Supply Chain gaps
Poor cash flow
Not enough staff
Outdated systems

Opportunities
Niche markets
New technology
Competitors weaknesses
Change in tactics
Production capabilities

Threats
Sustainable finance
Location issues
Government policies
Loss of key contracts
Economic conditions

The first two components, Strengths and Weaknesses, assess the internal aspects of the organization. Planning team members use a variety of discussion techniques such as brainstorming to produce a list of what they perceive to be the major factors in each of these two categories. Some factors may be immediately apparent but others may not come to light until the discussion process starts. This is especially true of weaknesses as people can be uncomfortable with talking about any flaws and may take them personally.

For example the sales team might have doubled their new customer list but deadlines for outgoing orders may have been missed due to insufficient stock being supplied.

Data showing the external factors that influence the direction of the organization can be sourced from various reports, economic trends, patterns and customer feedback. This data is often collected by internal staff but professional planning consultants can also provide valuable information on the status of the industry.

A SWOT analysis brings together all the components that make up the picture of what is currently happening in the organization. What it doesn’t do is make recommendations on how to act on that information. That step comes later in the planning process.

Setting priorities and themes

Before moving on to strategy development, the planning team needs to review all the information gathered through the SWOT analysis and decide which areas need the most urgent attention.

Collecting the data can be a major time consuming exercise in itself. It would generally include reports on areas such as sales history and forecasts, industry trends, research and development and customer feedback. This information would need to be gathered and collated well before the planning meetings start. It may take the form of spreadsheets and charts, surveys and reports.

These days that process can be made faster and more efficient through the use of compatible or fully integrated database, accounting, sales and workflow applications. Automated data collecting applications are readily available and could save lots of time and money.

Deciding priorities can be a challenging exercise as it is influenced by personal opinion. A useful approach can be to ask team members to prioritise the lists generated in the SWOT analysis individually and then poll the top responses. Some weaknesses may call for urgent action before anything else can take place such as the purchase of new applications to manage the incoming data.

The planning team also need to refer back to the original vision, mission and value statements and break these down further into several key areas or themes. The factors listed in each section of the SWOT analysis can be grouped under these themes.

Strategic themes form the link between the organization’s vision and the actions required to achieve them. The themes can be used to develop a strategic framework by forming the pillars or pathways. Each theme can be given its own set of aims and desired outcomes as shown in the previous strategic planning flowchart. Examples of strategic themes could include:

  • Organizational outcomes
  • Customer outcomes
  • Working together
  • Capable and engaged people
  • Embracing change

It is important not to have too many themes on the table at the same time. Generally two to five themes are manageable. Undertaking more can create too much pressure for the team and not allow each theme to be tackled thoroughly. Less urgent themes can be handled in future strategic plans.

Action time

This stage of the planning process creates the guidelines for implementation within each strategic theme. It maps out the steps that need to be taken, who will be required to take those steps and how their progress will be measured.

For example, the theme of ‘Embracing change’ might cover the acquisition of new equipment and the hiring or training of staff to operate it. The steps involved would need to include the selection of a person to manage the entire process with a team to support them. They would need to research types of suitable equipment, how many operators would be required, what training they would need and then create budget forecasts for the accounts department.

The strategies generated though this process should be measurable and have a reasonable due date for completion. Using a variety of Key Performance Indicators (KPI’s) at this point is a way of measuring and evaluating if the strategy aim has been successfully achieved. KPI’s could include:

  • The purchase of new equipment within budget and before the due date
  • Satisfaction ratings given by customers at the conclusion of a sale
  • Having all the required staff trained within a set timeframe

Mission accomplished

The final strategic plan does not need to be a huge document but it should be clearly communicated throughout the organization and be readily accessible (not locked on one computer or sitting on a lonely shelf). Everyone involved should be aware of their individual responsibilities and the strategies they need to use to achieve the desired results.

There is never an end to the strategic planning process. Once the goals of the initial themes have been reached they should be reviewed periodically and new plans put in place as required. An organization that regularly reviews its strategies and takes action on them is one that will ultimately be very successful.

What are the potential problems?

Ideas vs strategies

If the leaders and the planning team are not clear on the difference between the abstract visions or goals and the concrete strategies required to achieve them then they run the risk of creating a plan with no real substance. They could create a lovely looking document with poetic vision, mission and value statements but without clear cut strategies to achieve them the goals will always remain floating somewhere just out of reach.

Ignoring the finished product

For a strategic plan to be an effective tool then it needs to be utilized and updated constantly. Why spend all that time, money and effort creating the plan and then not use it?

The people and their roles

Selecting or hiring the wrong people to develop the plan is a real gamble. Leaders may like the power that comes with their role but they may not be effective communicators or delegators.

Leaders must be willing to make the tough decisions and follow them through. They must always be conscious of the organizations’ goals and adhere to them at all times in order to keep them on track.

If responsibility is delegated then it must be followed though. There is no point in assigning a key task to someone and then not checking on their progress. This could potentially cause major gaps in the whole process and make it less likely to succeed.

Other members of the planning team may lack the commitment or motivation to participate fully. For example they may feel their ideas are not seen as being valid or they may not have a clear understanding of what the organization is trying to achieve.

Ideally the team should consist of the same core group of people for as long as possible or as new people are introduced, some of the original members should still be involved. This not only ensures a sense of continuity but those involved will retain a sense of ownership of their tasks.

Too much, too often

Planning too frequently uses up valuable time and resources. It can take many days or weeks out of the teams’ regular work times which can be very disruptive. The resulting stress could become a deterrent for them to be involved in future planning activities.

Too little, too late

Not scheduling planning sessions frequently enough could mean that opportunities are missed or that people are drifting away from the desired pathway. Getting the timing right allows planners to respond to changes in the internal or external environment with relative ease. It also means that if some individuals or groups are not on track they can be guided back to the path without losing too much time or money.

Ignoring the signs

Not being aware of potential roadblocks or economic fluctuations could stop planners in their tracks. They need contingency plans so that when the first signs of a problem appear they can take appropriate action. Avoiding these potential problems through proper planning and forethought gives an organization a much greater chance of achieving success.

Summary

Strategic planning helps organizations to clarify and understand their philosophical goals and gives them the tools to develop these goals into clearly defined business strategies.

By having targeted approach to planning an organization creates the opportunity to increase market share and profits.

When run properly it gives all those involved in the planning process a sense of belonging and purpose. It is important to remember though that a system is only ever as good as the people who use it. Plan ahead and plan well and everybody benefits.

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Strategic Quality Dissertation

Strategic Quality and Systems Management

The report on strategic quality identifies how organizations like Chery Motors Company can plan their strategic quality change and respond to market environments for their successful implementation. It also evaluates the strategic quality change of the concerned organization with effective planning to improve the performance of the organization, defining resources, tools and systems helpful in business processes and implications of planned strategic quality within an organization. The research work on strategic quality is also focused to identify the various systems essential to implement strategic quality change in an organization. It identifies the design of systems used to monitor the implications of strategic quality change, their ability to respond changes in market environments, embedding a quality culture in organizations for continuous organizational improvements and monitoring implementation of strategic quality, and identifying outcomes of a strategic quality change in the concerned organization.

Organizations should adopt continuous planning and implementation of strategic quality change either they are public or private organizations. Every quality management initiative must be tied up with their main business process performance indicators to make a real impact on the productivity and continuous growth of their respective organizations. However, strategic plans are rarely transferred into quality management strategies that are essential to make sure overall performance improvement gains. Cherry Motors Company, founded in 1997 in the Chinese province of Wuhu achieved considerable growth in the automobile production industry due to their effective strategic management policies. In 1999, they started their operations in automobile production using SEAT Toledo chassis system and improved their production quality by successfully founding a research and development institute. They also recruited large numbers of Japanese automotive consultants to get their assistance in achieving six sigma or lean process standards to their Wester/Japanese competitors. Cherry Motors improved aesthetic design of automotive parts production and made a contract with AVL Australia to get assistance in continuous production of 18 new engine models to integrate them into new models.

Ability to Plan Strategic Quality Change in an Organization

Plan of Strategic Quality Change in Improve Performance of Organization

Plan of strategic management quality to implement change within an organization is highly essential to improve performance in an organization. It improves the competitiveness, departmental quality and successful implementation of of their strategic quality change to make quick fixes into the realm of solutions. It leads them to the successful development of strategic management qualities and achieving their business objectives in competing with others. Planning strategic quality change in an organization of international reputation like Cherry Motors is possible if management successfully executes their strategic plans and deliver their desired changes in project through effective communication with their partners and stakeholders and effective management of their people (Crawford 2013).

The process of strategic quality plan starts with what an organization mean about their strategic quality management process to get competitive edge over their competitors. It identifies the process of defining quality to make sure the continuous process of developing quality standards along with creation of quality and translation of vision into a series of quality strategies. Quality strategic plans are associated with review of organizational strategic plan or imperatives, identification of strategies that have been used in the past, understanding the voice of their customers, engaging employees to get their feedback with continuous commitment to quality, creation of quality vision, development of the statements of quality standards, identification of quality strategies and development of effective and result oriented strategic implementation plan (Crawford 2013).

Chery Motors have always focused to achieve their customer satisfaction by adopting effective strategic quality management plans to enter into the market and establishing their business goodwill. They have successfully implemented the strategic plan to compete well with their business rivals and to continuously improve their products quality and standards. They have also improved the design and networking of their business processes by achieving a secure retail license after breaking international competitive barriers. They have taken all necessary steps in planning a strategy quality change to ensure consistent growth in their Foreign export, Sales growth, Production growth, increasing for the next several years. Policymakers at Chery Motors Company has given key importance to effectively plan strategic issues with the interpretation of information in predictable ways (Dutton and Duncan 2004).

Defining Resources, Tools and Systems to Support Business Process

Resources, tools and techniques are considered to be highly effective in meeting strategic quality plans and supporting business processes. Organizations that are interested in developing new products or want to improve their existing products or services depend largely on innovative tools and techniques used in strategic quality management systems. Businesses can be developed with the generation of new business ideas by listening to their quality management teams, or by measuring customer satisfactions. Benchmarking, strategic quality management teams, and the measurements of customer satisfaction are the resources, tools and systems that are used in quality management and recognized to be highly supportive of the management of innovation (Bossink 2002). Some quality tools have also become essential part of a most successful business organization in the recent times. These tools and systems are used in mainstream management to effectively control their manufacturing processes like Fishbone diagram that is quite specific to the engineering as well as to manufacturing disciplines. These resources, tools and systems have a strong focus in Kaizen, Lean management and other useful techniques most successfully used in various organizations like Chery Motors Co. (Thomas, Corso and Pietz 2013).

Strategic quality tools are referred to as tools and systems that are used to support Kaizen and other quality improvement standards within different organizations. It helps them to get a competitive edge and customer satisfaction in successfully enhancing the quality of their introduced products and services to their customers. These tools and systems are mainly based on statistical and manufacturing process tools, and quality tools that are most effectively used in organizations. Typically these resources, tools and systems are used to analyze Kaizen work within organizations, team analysis and review of business activities and uncover of inefficiencies. Chery Motors have successfully adopted these resources, tools and systems like Poka-Yoke, a Japanese term, that means ‘mistake-proofreading’ and it is lean manufacturing process used to help the equipment operator to overcome their equipment operating mistakes. The main objective of this tool and system is to get rid of product defects with successful correction, prevention or drawing attention on human errors. 5-S –S is another successful method used in quality management standards and it is based on five Japanese words including seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu and shitsuke. They represent housekeeping, workplace organizations, clean up, standardization and sustaining discipline in manufacturing organizations (Andersen, Savik and Lawrie 2004).

Implications of Planned Strategic Quality in an Organization

Strategic quality management with effective planning can make a considerable impact on public or private level organizations. It can make a significant impact on their customers as well and increase their competitiveness among others. In this way, organizations can make timely and more effective decisions with the aim of managing limited resources in a rational way along with improvements of their services to achieve greater satisfaction from their customers (Salkic 2014). Strategic approach to management has made considerable impact on various organizations in the recent years and it has improved their quality and customer services more significantly. It has gained more and more popularity due to the increased complexity of organizational environments, technological developments, globalization and shrinkage of economic resources at global level. The central focus of strategic quality planning is associated with the efforts of internal and external decision makers that work together in solving various issues and making the organizational achievements more effectively by crafting and implementing new strategic quality services. Furthermore, strategic planning focuses on the achievements of three C’s like cooperation, collaboration and coordination that can be operated to create a highly supporting culture and leadership system within the organization (Asghar 2011).

Strategic Quality
Strategic Quality

A planned strategic quality change could affect the strategic goals of the organization and enhance its productivity, competitiveness and customer satisfaction. Strategic quality change within the culture of an organization can impact the entire vision of the organization and thus improve every aspect of business process. These changes could also impact the managerial and personal staff working within the organization. Change can even create confusion in the operational processes of the organization, but it can even alter the clarity and stability of various roles and relationships that can even create chaos. It needs the realignment and renegotiation of formal patterns of business relationships and policies. But strategic quality management can improve the performance of an organization and increase productivity despite chaos or instability in roles and responsibilities of management. Strategic quality planning is useful in developing a link between organizational strategy and organizational performance, particularly in terms of their business quality. High level of strategic quality is also useful because it creates the potential of pursuing both differentiation and cost leadership strategy with a market where that organization operates and offers its products and services (Prajogo and Sohal 2006).

Design of Systems to Monitor Implications of Strategic Quality Change

It is the main responsibility of senior management is to come together to review, discuss, challenge, and finally agree on how effectively the components of strategic quality plans are used. The genuine commitment from senior team members is essential to make sure the successful implementation of strategic quality planning in a business organization like Chery Motors. Furthermore, strategic group members should be well aware about their purpose and intention to make changes, and pushing for consistent operational definitions that each member of the team agrees on. The strategic quality management is useful to prevent differing perceptions or turf-driven viewpoints effectively. A carefully selected team of professionals is highly essential to overcome business processes, group dynamics and interpersonal issues. An organization can know about their strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities through conducting a SWOT analysis. It helps them to identify them to know about their strengths and core capabilities, products, resources, and maximum facilitation of their customers. In this way, organizations like Chery Motors can know in which areas they are best and why they are in this business and how effective can compete with their competitors (Finlay 2000).

It is the core responsibility of top level management to develop and design systems to monitor the impacts of strategic quality change in organization of internal and external business environments. In their internal business environments, organizations like Chery Motors should monitor work environments, use the latest technologies to improve productivity, improve warehousing and logistics and give rewards and promotions to the best performers. They can review external business environments to know about different opportunities and growth possibilities or market conditions. They should evaluate whether or not these opportunities corresponds to their organizational strengths. Business managers can even evaluate critical changes in the marketplace over the next one to five years, the position of their organization for the anticipated market changes and need for greater innovation or change needs to occur in the organization to be successful (Peljhan and Tekavcic 2008).

Ability to Respond Changes in the Marketing Environment for Implementation of Strategic Quality Change

Implementation of Strategic Quality Change in an Organization

The implementation of strategic quality change within an organization is possible through the successful adoption of benchmarking. It is known as the best strategic process of identifying ‘best practices’ adopted within an organization like Chery Motors in relation to their products and processes. Using strategic quality change implementation, products are created and developed using innovative technologies, best available resources, tools, techniques and business systems. The search for best practice can be interrelated to a particular industry and also be applied to other industries to increase their productivity and customer satisfaction. The main objective of benchmarking is to understand and evaluate the current situation of a business where it stands with its strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities. Benchmarking involves identification of performance improvement techniques that can be used within a successful business organization. They identify how others have achieved their performance levels that they can also adapt to get benefits of available business opportunities. In the application of benchmarking, four key steps are involved, including an understanding of current business practices, analyzing business processes of others, comparing business performance with the business performance of others and implementing necessary steps to close performance gaps (Pfeifer 2002).

Embedding Quality Culture in Organization ensuring Continuous Monitoring

Embedding a quality culture in an organization is developed within an organization to make sure continuous monitoring and development of their business processes. Every successful business organization has their own organizational culture depending on their past beliefs, values and norms. It is highly due to various reasons. Organizational culture is effective to increase employee commitment and loyalty due to their emotional attachments with their organization. It is highly useful in enabling an organization to achieve their strategic goals as Chery Motors have successfully achieved their business goals after successfully planning, and implementing their strategic quality plans into business processes. The success of any business strategy relies heavily on their existing organizational culture. It is also effective in reducing disagreement in between different organizational departments and facilitates decision makers in developing their business policies (Malhi 2013).

Continuous improvements in organizational culture help them to achieve the commitment of their employees, delight their customers and build added value to their developed products and services. To build continuous improvements within a business organization, it is necessary to implement a quality culture in that organization. Culture is defined as the arrangement of things, norms or values on the basis of which organizations operate. It identifies the personality of the organization of what employees do with shared beliefs, behaviors, attitudes and assumptions acquired over time. Attitude shows the outlook and thoughts by which work habits emerge and related to qualities stem applications. Vision, mission, values, goals and strategies of the organization work as guideline principles of an organization and its culture is culminated from them (Bertels, Papania and Papania 2010).

Monitoring Implementation of Strategic Quality Change in an Organization

An organization can never win the battle by simply developing an effective strategic plan. But getting it implemented is generally tougher and complicated task to do. Monitoring, controlling and successful execution of strategic quality is highly important for the success of a business organization. Monitoring the strategic business plans is important due to several reasons as they are highly effective in meeting business needs. Strategic quality plans help to assure that business efforts are aligned with their strategic quality plans. It helps to make sure the results Chery Motors or a successful business organization can achieve aligned with their quantified objectives. Business monitoring and controlling help organizations to take corrective actions by fine tuning their business strategies and planning their business processes. Monitoring is a part of control process that is useful to encourage improved business performance by knowing it will considerably improve performance of their workers. Monitoring offers essential link in between their written business plans and their day-to-day business operations to manage their businesses, according to their plans (Daft 2003).

Evaluation of the Outcomes of a Strategic Quality Change in an Organization

Outcomes of Strategic Quality Change

Strategic quality change that is aligned with the goals of the organization needed to improve the quality of their products and services and enhance customer satisfaction. The processes of organization are redefined to make sure efficient and effective steps to ensure the quality maintenance throughout all the processes of the organization before the final product is produced. Strategic quality change is useful to assist the increased efficiency within an organization as achieved by Chery Motors by eliminating all the wasteful tasks. It is helpful for a successful business organization to better manage their available resources by implementing a system of quality control to make sure cost-effectiveness and to meet expanding customer needs. Overall, outcomes of strategic quality change are helpful to various organizations to get competitiveness and to achieve sustainability and satisfaction of their customer needs by eliminating unhealthy tasks (Lyon and Sullivan 2007).

Recommended Areas for Improvements to Strategic Quality Change Aligned with organizational Objectives

It is highly recommended that an organization should implement a balanced scorecard to make sure each and every department of the organization has achieved considerable improvement. The balanced scorecard is the strategic planning of the organization aligned with business activities to the vision and strategy of the organization. It is highly effective to improve the internal and external communications, coordination and successful monitoring of organizational performance against their strategic goals. The balance scorecard gives a framework of providing performance measurements to help planners that should be effectively done and measured. It enables business executives and top level management to successfully execute their business strategies (Hillier 2004).

Conclusion

Strategic management can help in implementing the strategic plan. Appropriate measures show the strategy is important for the leaders, provide motivation, and allow for follow-through and sustained attention. By acting as operational definitions of the plan, measures can increase the focus of the strategy, aligning the workforce around specific issues. The results can include faster changes (both in strategic implementation, and in everyday work); greater accountability (since responsibilities are clarified by strategic measurement, people are naturally more accountable); and better communication of responsibilities (because the measures show what each group’s primary responsibility is), which may reduce duplication of effort. Creating a strategic map (or causal business model) helps identify focal points; it shows the theory of the business in easily understood terms, showing the cause and effect linkages between key components. It can be a focal point for communicating the vision and mission, and the plan for achieving desired goals. If tested through statistical-linkage analysis, the map also allows the organization to leverage resources on the primary drivers of success.

References

Bossink, B., A., G., (2002). “The Strategic Function of Quality in the Management of Innovation.” Total Quality Management, Vol. 13, No. 2.

Andersen, H., V., Savic, N., and Lawrie, G., (2004). “Enabling Quality Management: How Strategic Context is Needed to Drive Effective Application.” 2GC Working Paper, 2GC Limited.

Thomas, C., Corso, L., Pietz, H., (2013). “Evaluation, Performance Management, and Quality Improvement: Understanding the Role They Play to Improve Public Health.” Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, CDC.

Salkic, I., (2014). “Impact of Strategic Planning on Management of Public Organizations in Bosnia and Herzegovina.” Interdisciplinary Description of Complex Systems.

Asghar, Z., (2011). “New Approach to Strategic Planning: The Impact of Leadership and Culture of Plan Implementation via the three Cs: Cooperation, Collaboration and Coordination.” ASBBS Annual Conference, Las Vegas.

Prajogo, D., I., and Sohal, A., S., (2006). “The Relationship between organizational strategy, total quality management (TQM), and organization performance – the mediating role of TQM.” European Journal of Operational Research.

Finlay, P., (2000). “Strategic Management: An Introduction to Business and Corporate Strategy.” Financial Times, 1st Edition, London.

Lowson, H., R., (2002). “Strategic Operations Management: The New Competitive Advantage.” Routledge, 1st Edition.

Peljhan, D., and Tekavcic, M., (2008). “The Impact of Management Control Systems – Strategy, Interaction on Performance Management: A Case Study.” Organizacija, Volume 41.

Pfeifer, T., (2002). “Quality Management Strategies, Methods, Techniques.” Hanser Fachbuchverlag, 1st Edition.

Malhi, R., S., (2013). “Creating and Sustainability: A Quality Culture.” Malhi, J Def Manag 2013, Defense Management.

Bertels, S., Papania, L., and Papania, D., (2010). “Embedding Sustainability in Organizational Culutre.” Network for Business Sustainability.

Daft, R., L., (2003). “Management. – Sixth Edition” Thomson Learning, South Western, Ohio, USA

Lyon, E., and Sullivan, C., M., (2007). “Outcome Evaluation Strategies for Domestic Violence Service Programs Receiving FVPSA Funding.” National Resource Center, Harrisburg, PA.

Hillier, F., (2004). “Introduction to Operations Research.” 8th Edition, McGraw.

Thompson and Martin, (2010). “Strategic Management.” 6th Revised Edition. ClExcl Vacation.

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Business Process Modelling

Business Process Modelling

Business process modelling plays a major role in determining important occurrences in the running of an organisation. Enterprises use business processes as a tool of getting the end product from inputs. The knowledge of tools for modelling, analysing and designing business process is critical for any enterprise to achieve its goals. One of the most important tools used in business process is known as the Enterprise Architect 11.1 (Sparx systems 2014).

This report was chosen as it uses a version that applies the Unified Modelling Language (UML), which is standard all over the world. Its process is shown below.

Business Process Modelling
Business Process Modelling

Adapted from (Sparx Systems, 2014)

Methods, tools and techniques used for process identification, modelling and redesign

The most important step to take is selecting the right model design to come up with the right methods for process identification (Zhang, 2014). The design process entails the definition of available methods, and business goals, the development of ideas followed by prototype, then evaluation, and lastly the implementation of the design. This report was chosen as it is applicable in most process identification, modelling and redesigning procedures, and it entails the use of five steps:

  1. Define
  2. Idea
  3. Prototype
  4. Implement
  5. Evaluate

Appropriate methods, tools and techniques to model and interpret ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ process models

There is the need to realise appropriate procedures that helps one in modelling and interpreting process models, both in the ‘as-is’ and the ‘to-be’ state (IT Skills, 2011). One thing to look at is the model business processes and functions. The next process entails understanding of the value chain for the organization, the business context for the available models and the business rules. This report was chosen as it focuses on both the current and future states of an organisation. The ‘as-is’ state of the organization entails focusing on the creation of a complete model for the business, prototyping and evaluating it in order to determine the level of performance.

Organisational change issues that may arise owing to implementing new business processes and propose solutions

The main cause of change in the business environment is the need to improve performance on the market (Mason, 2014). Increase in competition makes it important for new business processes to come up all the time. There are various things that come with change in an organization such as layoffs and resistance to change, which may negatively affect business processes.

This report was chosen as it focuses on various process changes such as repackaging, creation and assembling may meet rejection from the market, leading to slow growth. However, this can be controlled by carrying out proper market research before, during and after the process change.

Evaluate current research literature in business process modelling

The business process modelling sector has been receiving a lot of focus in terms of research in the past few years (Recker, 2014). This is due to the improving global economy, which brings with it the need for process change in various commercial sectors.

This report was chosen as it shows the significance of research in business process modelling. Literature business process modelling focuses more on physical business fields, more than online businesses. This leaves a lot of work for future research in the field of online commerce, and makes it necessary for researchers to consider focusing on the online sector.

References

e-Skills UK, 2011, ‘Business Change’, 20, February, 2011.

Mason, 2014, ‘Managing Change’, Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd Ed.

Recker, J, 2014, ‘Stage Two Research Proposal (IF49IT)’ Evaluation and Adoption of Process Modelling Grammars.

Sparx Systems, 2014, ‘Tools for Business Process Modelling using the BPMN’ 14.

Zhang, L, 2014, ‘A Study of Fabrication Methods and Design Outcome’ video, 16 January, 2014.

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Organizational Structure Types

Traditional Organizational Structure

Traditional organizational structure is a strategy for the organization of a company or person in what is known as a hierarchy or a top-down structure. With this approach, the processes of allocation and management of activities on a vertical structure defines a rigid chain of focus command.

Organizational Structure  1
Organizational Structure 1

Hierarchy organizational structure is mainly developed to organize huge number of organizations including non-profit organizations and small business. On the other hand traditional type of organizational structure can often be effective when competent people are in positions of authority, and often there are also potential pitfalls with this model, which include the lack of checks and balances. The creativity of the organization may be limited in this type of business structure, because the ideas of ​​a relatively small number of people who are actually involved in the overall operation.

There are two basic types of this organizational structure. First is a Line approach, this strategy is supported by a very well-defined and rigid chain of command that ultimately bear the responsibility and decision-making problems at the highest level of the structure. In little organizations, this strategy needs to be developed, since the company is consisted of one owner and more than one worker. This model can be problematic with the growth of organization.

A certain difference compared to the traditional organizational structure is known as the line and staff method. There is a well-defined chain of command, but the owner or CEO decides to delegate some of the responsibility for a small group of people, usually managers or supervisors. While the ability to cancel the decisions taken by the staff, the owner is usually solve issues that are of greater importance than, while human resource managers are needed to deal with other problems.

Over time, alternatives to the traditional organizational structure together. While the owners still get full control of a company, they tried to change the design so that employees indicated more input. The delegation of responsibilities to employees of great repute, announcing committees and other processes that can help in developing quick and easy communication between all levels organization all can enhance the productivity of the company and organization. At present, traditional organizational structure can deal at broader level with latest trends that can bring more chances of productivity of an organization.

In decision of choosing the organizational structure for the company, no doubt management will decide to choose the one that can bring parts of organization together with best coordination to make it effective and well efficient unit.

This is no doubt a very important and serious choice by the management. This is because the whole infrastructure will be based on the decided organizational structure. Some groups lead to a well-defined and mechanistic.

Before knowing more about traditional organizational structure it is very important to know about the types of traditional organizational structure.

Functional

This type of structure related to organization mainly groups people on basis of typical activities for maximum business – marketing, finance, human resources and production – then further subdivide them. This results in a vertical hierarchy.

Organizational Structure  2
Organizational Structure 2

The advantages: efficiency and clear authority, responsibility and communication. Workers easily coordinate and communicate within their departments. Unfortunately causes a priority interdepartmental communication and coordination to suffer. Hierarchical levels mean ideas for change must be a bureaucratic chain of command. Functional structures are controlled and mechanized, but also less flexible and adaptable to changes in their environment.

Divisional

This structure actually groups company’s workers, depending on geography, product line, or customer. Each division operates as an independent company, complete with all the necessary functions, even if the management controls a couple of times more functional areas such as finance.

Organizational Structure  3
Organizational Structure 3

Duplication of functions is one of the disadvantages of this structure, as it means less efficiency and economy. In addition, the rivalry between divisions and poor communication and coordination between the units can be derived. However, the divisional structure allows each product line excel, to better respond to customer niche and capable geographical and cultural differences.

Matrix

The matrix structure operatively connected to substructures, including the benefits of both. Everyone has heard before a department, such as the production, reporting to a boss. Each person responds to a project team or business unit.

Organizational Structure  4
Organizational Structure 4

To qualify teams for the functional competence of the members, while the functional hierarchy exerts a degree of control and responsibility to society. The downside, of course, is that each of us has two bosses with possible conflicts of interest and loyalty.

Team

According to the team structure, the group of people has same goals. Every team has the goal of achieving accountability for performance results. The participants of the group are in power. The company does not lose levels of government, for the horizontal and vertical directions.

Organizational Structure  5
Organizational Structure 5

No chains of command decisions to be made quickly, and the company is adaptable and move freely on the market. Meanwhile, make the employees motivated with top performance. The risk of that structure is the need to monitor employees. Workers must be trained to meet the challenges.

Network

Instead of hiring employees for all business functions, a company only uses networks for better communication. The network companies are able to hire some workers, and enjoy the scope, performance and functionality of a large company. For example, you can connect external manufacturers to produce their products.

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Organizational Structure 6
Organizational Structure  7
Organizational Structure 7

The network structure reduces the costs and gains flexibility because it uses outside help as needed. Starting a business, but this is losing control of the network that all business processes delegated to others.

A critical success factor for organizations today is ability to adapt their structures, systems, and existing process to win and develop new markets. A key factor in the strategy is the use of right organization of design. This article highlights the strategic importance of organizational planning for entrepreneurs and suggestions on how organizations can find the useful and most suitable designs for the success of their business.

After the choice of organizational structure the next step is to choose organizational design.

Organizational Design

Organizational structure refers to the type of image that a company uses for the flow of information on the organization of power and authority, roles and responsibilities. After the organization has elected its structure, they can go to the selection of designs. Organizational design is the process of review by the Management Company, the duties, functions and objectives of the company. Decisions about how people come together, to go to the best and most effective way to achieve their goals are very important.

The six most common approaches to organizational design is simple, functional, divisional – Team Matrix and network designs. A company is to choose its organizational structure, depending on their needs. The project is based on the organizational structure that is aligned with the economy at a given time. Mainly due to the organizations they are living, they will never be able to, as a matter of course, the best structure organization at the first attempt. Rather manager is the best structure through strategic assessment and reassessment of the tasks and groups of employees. Combinations must be developed in order to achieve the objectives and tasks of reorganizing these groups completely.

To define a better understanding of the concept of organizational design we will discuss the three best designs, also known as the traditional forms of organization, including the design of simple structures, functions and industries.

Simple Design Structure

The first type of traditional design is simple. Simple structure is a fundamental structure of organizational design with low departmentalization, little specialization of labor, wide spans of control, the central authority (usually the owner has most of the power), and little or formalization of the rules that operate on government . Organizations use a simple structure, usually are flat, because there are many levels of the hierarchy.

Organizational Structure  8
Organizational Structure 8

The simple structure is very common, with a few employees and an owner who manages and controls the majority of business functions. Since there are a limited number of employees of the landscaping company, it is necessary that each employee different functions in different areas of the organization, creating little, if any, departmentalization. Policies, procedures and rules are limited in the simple structure of the variety of taxes and limited specialization of labor. Of course, if the landscaping company expands, it will probably be too large to navigate design and simple to a more complex structure.

Functional Design

You can select the next type of organizational design that is the traditional functional structure. Functional design focuses on the specialized practice, similar or related occupational specialties (also known as departmentalization known).

Organizational Structure  9
Organizational Structure 9

Departmentalization groups of workers with similar tasks in work units on the basis of a product or service, carry out the activities of employees, skills and know-how, resources or types of customers. Title of work explicitly, can the chain of command, hierarchical relationships, and a communication channel well defined in these specialized units are working to maximize its functionality.

A functional organization is a strong hierarchy. With the idea of ​​departmentalization, the organization in the individual departments, where each department has a specific function and all departments work independently to carry out organizational goals are shared. If you find a functional structure, you can see how the departments, such as sales and marketing, finance and accounting, customer service, human resources, planning and construction and maintenance, are grouped specialization. The design of the functional organization is more suitable when a company working on a single product or service, such as landscape. As a result, these devices can operate independently as sales and marketing, finance and accounting, customer service, human resources, design and construction, maintenance, and, every hour, on a specific task, manufacture and sale of packaging of that product or service.

Long-Term Planning

A partial structure design offers large businesses the ability to separate the majority of the division semi – autonomous or departments. These groups are self-managed and focused on a narrow aspect of the business with the objectives to be achieved. Examples of such divisions may be divided for providers who are covering the same geographic location or designers on the same product line.

Unlike departments, divisions have more autonomy from the rest of the organization, as they often have their own manager who manages the operations of the department. This autonomy allows managers, in particular on their individual unit to focus its resources and its results. Many believe that their leader is the thing to get success, because it ensures that a person who has the authority, power and resources are available at all times.

Globalization and the economic crisis is dating constant over the last three years that have forced companies to rethink their strategies and change their way of working. From what I understand, there was a lot of “up” with the companies put their focus on competing products or markets, rather than looking at the big picture. This can be a large number of initiatives bring gradual rather than trying the whole concept of organizational change.

For organizational changes in strategy, structure, roles and functions should be revised with new goals. This is not always the case, so that responsibility can not be ignored, the staff may not be enough working against each other.

There is a little more than a flattening of the traditional hierarchy, perhaps expanding into a matrix structure in parts of the organization. Often, however, remains the hierarchy in the “new” structure, which can be cut in all its power and leave people confused. Worse, organizations, to show people how rarely work in a new facility that can also affect performance.

Wrong choice of design and organizational structure results in a tangle of contradictions in the grove between the roles, the lack of coordination between functions, the lack of sharing of ideas and decisions of managers slow to bring unnecessary complexity, stress and conflict. Often those at the head of an organization are not aware of these problems.

Conclusion

Let’s review. Organizational design is the process of review by the Management Company, the duties, functions and objectives of the company. Decisions about how people meet are the best and most effective way to go to achieve their goals there are different forms of organizational design.

For the success of any organization it is necessary for it to to work out on specific structure and then make its organizational design on the basis of organizational structure. Organizational structure and organizational designs are both for the progress and success of the company and organization. It is up to the organization that its management chooses which structure and which design for the success of business.

Industry consolidation to large multinational companies through alliances and other types of cooperation between the authority’s efforts to create harmony, and the need of right organizational structure in the twenty-first century has become increasingly important. Sub-organizations of all sizes are thinking of manager’s influence on their organizational structure. One can not deny the importance of organizational structure for the ultimate success of a companies and organizations.

References

Brews, Peter J., and Christopher famous book “Exploring the Structural Effects of Internetworking.” Strategic Management Journal 25, published in 2004

Hansen, Morten T., and Nitin Nohria’s “How to Build Collaborative Advantage.” MIT Sloan Management Review

Ticoll, David’s “Get Self-Organized.” Harvard Business Review 82

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