Top Managers and Human Resource Management

The main issues and HRM problems in Part I

The findings of the study indicate that the top managers are conservative, and thus they are reluctant to accept changes in organisational structure. Moreover, the top managers block the innovative, fresh, and educated middle-level managers who can drive the organisation towards achievement of its objectives. Moreover, the communication channel in the management system is unreliable and the management team does not factor in the customers and employees’ voices. Thus, the employees are unsatisfied with the management’s strategy in terms of workplace conditions, remuneration and salaries and response channels, hence putting the future organisational performance at risk. In addition, three business units of the organisation are losing money, because the management’s strategy is to lay off employees in order to reduce costs. In fact, the management retrenched experienced, corporate, and educated managers who had the full grasp of the organisational leadership, employee relations and customer satisfaction. Consequently, the company has a management gap to control and balance the consumers, the employees, and the management. Bureaucratic management system results in unsatisfied employees and consumer dissatisfaction coupled with poorly designed organisational structure, thus leading to poor decision-making (Prosek 2011).

SWOT analysis

Strengths

Diversification and specialisation of resources

The organisation has four functional business units, which perform different functions. Such diversification and specialisation of different business units keeps the organisation in business (Webster, Lambert & Beziudenhout 2008). Therefore, the organisation relies on the revenues and returns raised from the financially performing business units to cover the production and marginal costs.

Monopolistic history

The organisation has thrived from monopolistic business benefits. Monopolistic organisations determine the price and control market fluctuations. The monopoly position in the market helped the organisation survive despite serious managerial and financial crisis. Due to established customers’ trust to the organisation, significant profits are obtained.

Ready expertise and skills

The junior managers educated in business and MBA degrees are in the management system. Presence of educated, young, and energetic managers gives the organisation a competitive edge to go forward. The managerial, corporate, technical and leadership skills are readily available for the organisation. For instance, the presence of professionally qualified accountants and engineers provides the strategies for business survival in harsh economic times.

Organisational dominating bureaucratic culture

The historic predominant leadership and customer relations culture is the organisational focus. The organisation has already established strong customer relations culture, which boosts its positive consumer behaviour. The management has a self-focused management team in a bid to forecast the organisational future like the need to observe consumer loyalty.

Weaknesses

The organisation has poor HR management system with stubborn and conservative HR leaders. This aspect limits further development of the organisation and changes in corporate culture. Secondly, the organisation does not recognise or appreciate the junior managers with skills and ambitions to take the organisation further. Moreover, the senior management does not build a good communication system in the workplace. Fourthly, the senior managers do not focus on employee motivation. Lastly, the organisational management does not recognise the effects of consumer behaviour on the business. Due to lack of trust in the management channel, the customer trust may be affected, thus leading to sales decrease (Kotler & Keller 2006).These weaknesses are dragging performance of the organisation behind its actual productivity level.

Opportunities

The organisation has several opportunities, which can be utilised wisely to improve the financial position of the organisation. The Monopolistic nature of the organisation can act a strengthening tool. If well utilised, the monopoly can help regain customer trust by catering for consumer tastes and preferences. Baldwin (2006) asserts that the monopolistic nature of a company is an opportunity due to the strong customer dominance in the market.

The availability of skilled and specialised employees can be used to help in solving current issues. For instance, the accountants and engineers can help in solving technical operations under proper governance. In addition, junior and middle-level managers with business and MBA degrees can push the organisation forward given their energy and knowledge. Highly skilled and willing employees drive any organisation to achieve its main objectives (Akar & Topcu 2011). This aspect is an opportunity because the organisation has all required skills to move the performance to a higher level (Bratton &Gold 2012).

The presence of experienced HR managers in the system acts as an opportunity for future prosperity. Skilled and experienced HR managers can help the organisation to move forward and become competitive.

Finally, the organisation has four functional units, which act as supportive elements in business. The organisation can use this opportunity to expand the business units to gain more customers. The segmented business units can be used as a pivot to diversify risks (Dundon & Rollinson 2011).

Threats

The threats of the company are new competitors, who can eliminate monopoly in the market, retrenched experienced and skilled workers from the organisation, middle level managers talking of leaving, three business units losing money, and market share decrease. These threats will affect performance of the organisation in the long term, unless monitored strategically.

Major issues highlighted in Part II and their impacts

After the poor performance of the business entity, Sally Yew, the new CEO, has been appointed. Plans are underway to restructure business management and leadership. Moreover, the external business environment is on the watch and specifically the customer relations culture change. Leadership is taking a new shape with transparency and recognition for employee motivation. In addition, the new management has introduced new strategies for boosting the employees’ performance by introducing contractual engagements. The introduction of contracts will incorporate performance appraisal to motivate employees by financial incentives for hard work. The contracts will detect lazy and stubborn full-time employees that will help increase productivity with individual employee performance. Moreover, the organisation is considering outsourcing to cut down management and production costs. Moreover, a team of experts and skilled HR consultants has been recruited to implement changes in corporate culture that drag the company down. Moreover, plans of re-considering of business and work ethics are underway to change the old management culture for increased productivity.

The Probable objectives, changes and HR practices for use as HR consultant

The probable changes and practices possible for changes in the organisation would be in the management system, customer relations, workplace and business ethics, employer-employee relationships, communication channels, and employee motivation as Summers and Smith (2006) recommend. Every organisation with an aim to make continuous profits and increase shareholders wealth, should balance external, and internal business forces. For instance, factors like organisational structure and the customers with respect to legal business requirements are crucial. The organisation must balance the employee and the employer relations in terms of recognition, pay and wages, motivation, employee voice, communication channel. In addition, the decision-making process should incorporate the employees’ views and opinions (Rose 2008). Furthermore, the organisation’s management culture should be replaced with new, digitalised, focused, and expertise workforce. In addition, work performance ought to include performance evaluation techniques for performance appraisal and financial motivation for employees.

How the Changes identified can be implemented

The changes identified can be implemented by establishing a reliable communication channel in the management system. The communication channel should cater for the quality of decisions in the workplace. Moreover, the management system and hierarchy system should clearly be outlined with the distinct allocation of responsibilities and accountability (Burchill 2008). This move will ensure that the management systems work perfectly in the decision-making process for better performance. In addition, monetary employee motivation should be based on the hours worked and overtime coupled with target achievement of financial appreciation.

Conclusion/Recommendations

In conclusion, it is crucial to recommend some adjustments that will steer the company towards excellent performance. For instance, the management leadership style should be changed to matrix leadership and management style. A good example of a thriving company with this kind of leadership is the IBM Company, which highly values financial motivation strategies. The ultimate goal is to ensure that a mutual benefit exists between organisation and employee towards quality products for consumers (Armstrong 2012). Furthermore, employees’ opinions and decisions should be considered in order to improve performance (Dundon & Rollinson 2011). The organisation needs to replace the stubborn managers with new flexible individuals. With all these implementations in the workplace, employees will experience job satisfaction, the customers will get quality products, and the employer will increase revenues while maximising the shareholders’ wealth.

Reference List

Akar, E & Topcu, B 2011, ‘An Examination of the Factors Influencing Consumers Attitudes towards Social Media Marketing’, Journal of Internet Commerce, vol.10, no.1, pp. 35-67.

Armstrong, M 2012, Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice, Kogan Page, London.

Baldwin, S 2006, Organisational Justice, Institute of Employment Studies, Brighton.

Bratton, J& Gold, J 2012, Human Resource Management: Employee Motivation, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Burchill, F 2008, Labour Relation, Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke.

Dundon, T& Rollinson, D 2011, Understanding Employment Relations, McGraw-Hill, Maidenhead.

Kotler, P & Keller, K 2006, Marketing Management, Pearson, Upper Saddle River.

Prosek, J 2011. Army of Entrepreneurs. Create an Engaged and Empowered Workforce for Exceptional Business, AMACOM, New York.

Rose, E 2008, Employment Relations, Prentice Hall, Harlow.

Summers, J & Smith, B 2006, Communication Skills Handbook, Wiley, Milton, Queensland.

Webster, E, Lambert, R & Beziudenhout, A 2008, Grounding Globalisation, Labour in the Ageof Insecurity, Wiley-Blackwell, New Jersey.