Introduction
The current global organizational changes threaten to make yesterday’s managers outdated. However, the awareness of the changes and how to take advantage of them offer tomorrow’s manager’s countless opportunities. Even though the nature of managerial function varies across organizations and changes continually, one general thread pervades nearly all managerial activities. Therefore, the behaviors of people and management processes in firms are closely intertwined (Lee and Shah-Hosseini 24). Besides, changes that take place in all organizations are globally recognized phenomena.
What is the model of change that Natrajan has followed to bring success at Zensar?
Natrajan used the McKinsey 7S model in bringing changes to Zensar. The concept applied was universal and covered several essential traits of the corporation. From the case study, it is evident that the seven aspects including skills, staff, style, systems, structure, strategy, and shared values were covered in bringing change to Zensar. Natrajan ensured that the employee welfare was catered for in all operations and opportunities provided an appraisal system for the ideas from junior staff. Natrajan also reduced the number of staff by 20% to get rid of the incompetent staff and at the same time acquiring fresh talents. This covers the first two aspects of the model namely skills and staff.
Natrajan incorporated the steps of formulating an organizational mission and vision that gave a roadmap on what the organization aimed to achieve. Natrajan came up with several strategies to ensure that the goals of the company including the short-term and long-term goals are achieved. Amongst the strategies applied were the channeling of ideas and thinking of the employees to be in line with that of Natrajan. Besides, the use of innovation in growing and expanding the company became apparent in the management strategy. The strategy as applied by Natrajan was meant to help the company penetrate the markets that the 5-giants in the IT sector already had controlled.
The CEO ensured the adjustment of the systems and structures to make them favorable and very effective during operations. For instance, the corporate structure for Zensar was adjusted to be in line with its corporate strategy. The CEO ensured that the environment became inclusive by getting ideas from all employees. The structure of the human resources department was modified to come up with another functional employee relations department. The last department ensured that there were adequate interactions between the HR and employees (Thenmozhi 5).
How did the CEO reposition the role of the HR within the organizational structure?
The CEO repositioned the human resources department in a way that ensured the work environment was performing and people-based. HR had to go through a process of transformation so that it could be able to cater to the needs of the employees. HR ensured that there were efforts geared towards developing various groups and bringing together people within teams by ensuring regular undertaking of training and simulation activities. These were in addition to compensating the employees based on their performance, implementation systems to manage employee performance, and ensuring that the career of each employer is planned.
HR had the role of identifying the key result areas among the employees to evaluate and appraise each employee easily and effectively. The creation of the functional employee relations department helped in bringing the HR and employees very close. Some core functions of the HR were transferred to the employee relations unit to ensure that they are handled well during local and international operations. The employee relations had a duty of ensuring that the grievances of the employees were addressed to avoid losing competent staff due to discontentment. The unit ensured that the company gathered feedback from employees on their aspirations, discontentment, and satisfaction with the company. The strategy was in addition to ensuring that the needs of the employees are taken care of always.
Should Zensar consider becoming a tier 1 company or should it stay with tier 2 status?
The current global markets are very competitive. Thus, to become competitive, Zensar should work towards becoming a tier 1 company. Having many employees will enable Zensar to outsource their services to other companies across the world since it will have enough workers with varied skills. As result, there will be the incorporation of more departments that bring with them additional talents. On the other hand, an increase in the revenues will ensure that the company can expand in terms of its physical reach. The strategy will help Zensar in acquiring more infrastructures and technology to be used in improving its efficiency. If these strategic goals are realized, the organization will be productive and profitable in the end.
The size of Zensar has not enabled it to competitively bid for some tenders. However, if the company expands and reaches tier 1, it will be able to win the most competitive tenders. The justification is that the company will have skilled personnel and enough resources hence making the company be in a position to handle any kind of tender.
How can the company retain its culture and expand?
The first important consideration that Zensar should have is ensuring that the center of its culture is not altered as the company expands. Each business has its core values upon which their growths are based. These have to be singled out and upheld irrespective of the situation the company faces. Some of the core cultures of Zensar that it should ensure are not lost are the 5F-work culture including fun, friendly, flexible, focused, and fast. Such basic culture aids in the growth of employee attitude at Zensar and should not be lost.
Conversely, the focus should be put on the principal aspects that have brought success for Zensar. The cultural aspects that should be added are those that will help in achieving the organizational visions and missions. Any change that is taking place should be reviewed to gauge how it will fit and aid the culture.
The top management should also ensure that they interact with people in the company and enquire from them if they are effectively handling the issue of culture. Besides, diverse opinions should be sought from employees who have been with the company through its growth process. Besides, understanding the foundations in the organizational cultures and seeking the involvement of employees will help the top management in creating a way forward in the processes by not leaving the core cultures behind (Lee and Shah-Hosseini 3).
What kind of leadership model would be appropriate in the future for Zensar?
Consultative leadership has proved efficient for Zensar and would still aid the company in the future to advance and become the market leader. In this leadership model, the leader possesses the authority of making the last decisions, but still has the willingness of hearing the different views from the team players. As evidence from the case study has shown, this kind of leadership helps the top leader to get the views and opinions from the team on the ground. Thus, the model helps the managers to come up with decisions that have the organization’s best interests. A consultative model of leadership ensures the retention of employees involved in determining the future course of the company. The strategy will ensure that Zensar cuts down on turnover costs (Thenmozhi 9).
According to Thenmozhi, one of the benefits that would make this leadership model suitable for Zensar in the future is that the employees of the company usually accept decisions and policies that considered their involvement. The involvement usually helps in fastening the implementation process of new policies and fastening the processes of an organization. In turn, this will ensure that no processes are slowed down at Zensar. The feeling that they are listened to emerges as a source of motivation for employees. The employee morale remains on top given that they take personal responsibility in ensuring the success of the organization (Lee and Shah-Hosseini 27).
Participative leadership also promotes creativity. The creative ideas from several employees provide the management with the necessary options in providing solutions to the problems that the company may be facing. As a result, the company will be efficient in its operations.
Conclusion and recommendations
In the innovation field, the existing theories have suggested that organizational culture affects the capacity of a corporation to innovate. Most organizations have been unable to innovate given the prevailing culture that inhibits the propensity of the workforce to generate and effectively use new ideas. Thus, from the case study, it is recommended that for Zensar to survive in the current competitive technological market, it must adapt regularly to meet the changing environmental demands. The company must embrace consultative and participative leadership styles to enable all employees to work towards meeting the organizational goals. Workers should be involved in the decision-making processes to feel a sense of belonging.
Works Cited
Lee, Soo and Susan Shah-Hosseini. “How Does an International Company Ensure that its Culture Remains Intact while also be Flexible Enough to Cater to Local behaviors”. Student Works-ILR Collection 2.3(2013). Print.
Thenmozhi, Mathirajan. “Approaches to Management”. Department of Management Studies, Indian Institute of Technology Madras 5.9 (2010). 1-17. Print.