Organizational Behaviour and Development
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SampleOBDAssignment.pdf
Assignment Cover Sheet
Course/Unit Information
Course CIQ Level 7 Postgraduate Advanced Diploma
Unit No. 11
Unit Name Organisational Behaviour and Development
Unit code CIQHR701
Batch OME17-OBD-Bincy Kaluvila-1706
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Full/ Part Assignment Full Assignment
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Date Assignment Due
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I, (Name) hereby confirm that this assignment is my own work and not copied or
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Learning Outcomes and Assessment Feedback
Module
Code &
Title
CIQHR70 Organisational Behaviour and Development
Module Learning Outcomes
LO1 Critically discuss contemporary issues in organizational behaviour
LO2 Understand the relationship between organizational structure and culture
LO3 Understand ways of using motivational theories to develop individuals and
groups/teams in organizations
LO4 Evaluate the validity of management discourse from the perspective of
different stakeholder groups
LO5 Be able to assess the work and development needs of individuals.
LO6 Critically evaluate the role of the global environment on organizational
behaviour
Assessment types Marks
Marks Achieved
Organizational Study – Case Study Analysis
(Project Format)
Organizational Study of chosen organisation
Overall Score
Overall Grade
Date
The following grading criteria will be applicable for the course, Executive Diploma in
International Business Management:
Marks Grade
70 to 100 A – Distinction
60 to 69 B – Merit
50 to 59 Pass
40 to 49 Fail with Resit
0 to 39 Fail with Retake
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Example: John Smith_OBD.
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Assignment Task 1: [70 Marks] – Project Format
Read the following Scenario, and prepare a report with the guidelines provided.
Scenario: Throughout the world, workplace productivity has grown steadily for
more than a decade, allowing standards of living to rise significantly without the
threat of significant economic inflation. With recent technological advancements in
such areas as information systems, manufacturing processes, inventory
management, and service delivery, the current trend of increasing productivity may
extend well into the future. Nonetheless, individual companies sometimes run into
productivity problems. This company currently faces problems as a result of:
Fierce competition in the automotive manufacturing industry Aggressive discounting by domestic manufacturers Attractive pricing by international competitors
CEO William Clay “Bill” Ford, Jr. faces the undoubting tasks of:
Cutting up to $4.5 billion in expenses Updating aging product lines Shoring up falling quality
Student can go through the following videos available in you tube to give them an insight
on the Ford Corporation’s organizational culture. Students can also refer to external
sources for getting for more information in reference to the assignment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOnc1OVSxIA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4aatqMxFnE
The report should include the following:
1. Executive Summary ( 8 Marks)
Ans 1: Executive summary
The Ford Motor Company is a multinational company that is established in
automotive design and various production company. This company has been
trying to shift its company mission and vision statements to make it more
shareholder and customer responsive. During this highly competitive time, ford is
struggling in the face of competition and needs to make many changes to grow.
This report consists a detailed analysis of the Ford employee culture and how to
improve employee productivity when Ford is forced to cut costs and make big
changes just to stay afloat. Ford has recently announced to make 10% of
workforce cuts as a result of share drops of 21% in July 2017. This has clearly
impacted Ford and their employees as well. During this time, it is important to
concentrate on employee development in order to improve employee productivity.
The current situation shouldn’t affect the productivity rates as this is vital for
Ford’s growth. The report does elaborate on many ways that Ford can help
employee productivity. It is made evident that there is a clear connection between
employee motivation with employee productivity. motivated employees are
driven to be more productive for the company. Even though Ford has multiple
ways through which they engage their employees, in the current situation, they
might need to work harder to make the employees more motivated and
productive. The report describes a few new ways that Ford can motivate and
engage their employees.
The Ford culture definitely has various aspects to it that tries to develop their
employees as whole rounded individuals through their out reach programs,
supporting diverse communities, developing leadership skills and even
volunteering for the needy. All these programs do show promise but these events
are not enough to motivate the employees during work. One of the things Ford
need to deal with is their stress filled employees. There is increase in competition
to achieve higher and better, especially now that job cuts are around the corner.
Through the right methods of teamwork and flexibility should be displayed in the
work culture, or employees will stop thinking of teamwork and only fight for
themselves. The report does mention some methods on how to have a healthy
employee work culture that can help Ford.
Even though there are many recommendations from various people regarding how
Ford should run their business, eventually, the CEO should realize how important
it is to actually understand the gravity of the issues at hand. Even though there are
extreme measures taken to rectify the current situation, it is only a temporary
situation because the current CEO isn’t paying attention to the internal issues. The
employees are the core of the company and he must ensure that they are
productive in a healthy manner. If he can listen to the issues of his employees and
attend to their prominent issues, it can cause a big difference in the long run.
These points are further discussed in the recommendations part of this report.
Ford has always had the resources with them to make a successful legacy. If they
just pay attention to what is within the organization, there is no limit to how far
they can grow.
2. Introduction to the Chosen Organizations ( 6 Marks )
Ans 2
FORD also known as Ford motor company is a multinational company that has its
headquarters in Michigan, Detroit. This company was founded by the famous Henry Ford
on the 16th June 1903. Ford is mainly known for selling automobiles and other
commercial vehicles and other luxury vehicles under the Lincoln brand name (Anon.,
2017)
Henry ford is famous was introducing new methods for manufacturing large scale
vehicles and largescale management of blue collar workforce. He used elaborate
manufacturing sequences that were engineered to make moving assembly lines. This
method was coined as Fordism in 1914.
Ford is considered to be the 5th largest motor company in the world. They have
operations that is distributed worldwide, starting from US, Mexico, Canada, UK, China,
Brazil, Argentina, Germany, Turkey, Australia and even South Africa.
In order to achieve their market position, Ford has strong mission statements that help
them achieve all the necessary goals. Ford even has a vision statement that pushes the
company to reach higher in regards to their performance skills and future goals. We can
see how detrimental a good mission and vision statement is to a company’s success. Even
investors and evaluators use these statements to see how the company evolves. (Panmore)
Vision Statement
“people working together as a lean, global enterprise to make people’s lives better
through automotive and mobility leadership.” -Ford
The company also states “Automotive leadership is measured by the satisfaction of our
customers, employees, investors, dealers, suppliers and communities.” The Vision
statement therefore has the following key points:
1. Global leadership: This shows that Ford want to conquer in the international automobile industry. Even though they’re already the 5th largest automobile
company and the 2nd largest manufacturers, they want to be the first in the world
and must work harder at achieving that goal.
2. Emphasis on stakeholders: Ford has upgraded their HR policies and corporate social responsibility strategies for all their employees, investors and customers.
3. Lean business: Ford is achieving lean business through their one of a kind assembly line methods. They need to innovate more ways to streamline their
business (Thompson, 2017)
Mission Statement
“One Team. One Plan. One Goal.”-Ford
This is also called the “One Ford” mission that was created by the CEO Allan Mullaly in
2008. The mission statement can be explained below:
• One Team: “People working together as a lean, global enterprise for automotive
leadership, as measured by: Customer, Employee, Dealer, Investor, Supplier,
Union/Council, and Community Satisfaction.”
• One Plan: “Aggressively restructure to operate profitably at the current demand
and changing model mix; Accelerate development of new products our customers
want and value; Finance our plan and improve our balance sheet; Work together
effectively as one team.”
• One Goal: “An exciting viable Ford delivering profitable growth for all.”
Ford was facing many challenges in the late 2000’s with regards to the market risks
recession and financial crisis and this mission statement was a response to that. Before
this mission statement, ford had to let go many product lines in various markets. With is
new One Ford mission, the organization now concentrates on developing consistency in
their product and service quality. This mission emphasizes the importance of team work
and how to co create synergy within Ford (Thompson, 2017).
3. Explain the organizational culture of the Ford Corporation in detail. (10 Marks)
Ans 3
Ford Motor Company’s Organizational Culture The One Ford plan made by CEO Mulallay in 2008 is what defined Fords organization
culture. As discussed before, the plan entails various ways in which the the firm can unify
the global organization in order to achieve synergy. the Ford’s organizational Culture can
be elaborated as follows:
• F: Foster Functional and Technical Excellence
• O: Own Working Together
• R: Role Model Ford Values
• D: Deliver Results
Foster Functional and Technical Excellence: Ford likes to celebrate excellence in their
culture and highly supports innovation. They have training programs to help develop the
ford culture as they recognize the importance of culture in relation to quality
performance. The employees are encouraged to improve their skills by observing,
learning and contributing to the company.
Own Working Together: Teamwork is considered as an important aspect for the success
of any organization. For recognizes the same and fosters the same. They incorporate and
encourage employee participation which would also emphasize personal development.
Ford is clearly trying to facilitate team work which incorporates individual knowledge
and skill development.
Role Model Ford Values: Ford values initiative, corporate citizenship, courage, quality,
sustainability and safety in all their activities. They believe that their employees represent
the business and what they stand for. This develops integrity and encourages positive
behaviors as a part of their culture.
Deliver Results: This trait is all about how effective the company is in satisfying
customers demands. This is achieved by emphasizing accountability and responsibility
within the employees. This ensures that the results are delivered on time and it also
maximizes financial performance in the organizational culture. This also helps employees
with their career development which motivates them to deliver more to customers and
stakeholders (Lombardo, 2017).
Ford does have a lot to show for their vision and mission statements and their values too.
They don’t just offer products but they also believe that an integral part of Ford is about
“People serving people” and that they show through their global branding “Go Further”.
The following are a few things ford has done for the community:
• Dealing with Global Challenges: Ford is trying their hand at dealing with many
challenges that occur globally. they tried to help issues dealing with economic
development, environmental sustainability and energy security. Ford made a
record for globally reducing the amount of water used to produce each vehicle by
30% from 2009. They were two years ahead of their scheduled target and are
currently setting even better long-term goals (Anon, 2017)
• Enhanced Sustainability Report: Ford has developed a sustainability report that
has a blue print envisioning the future of modern day transportation. In their
report, vehicles are able to communicate with other vehicles and also their
environment to make driving secure, efficient and easier. The vehicles have
reduced carbon emissions and conservative fuel usage. Through this we can
understand that Ford is trying to preserve and enhance the environmental and
social capital (anon,2017)
• Ford Motor Company Fund: This is probably one of the biggest contributions
that ford has done for the community. The ford motor company fund was made
with the sole purpose developing people’s lives and enriching the environment we
live in. In its 65 years of existence, this fund has donated more than $1.5 billion in
the name of community services. Here are few things that the Ford Fund and
community services has achieved over the years:
o Men of Courage Program- this was launched as national initiative for African American men. This program would honor and celebrate their
accomplishments.
o Scholarships and Grants- Ford has donated more than $1.7 million to schools as scholarships and grants.
o USC Shoah Foundation- Ford decided to partner with USC Shoah foundation to help them expand the multimedia program in Detroit called
IWitness (Anon,2017)
o Bill Ford Better World Challenge- This program is made for the future generations to develop their leadership and community service skills. Ford
is investing in the children who can be better leaders tomorrow.
Through these factors we can see how Ford’s company culture is and how they
are striving to be a better organization, by being an asset to the people and the
whole community. Even Jim Vella, the president of Ford Motor Company Fund
and Community Services said “We will continue to focus on education—our
number-one priority—creating and implementing innovative new programs that
cultivate the skills needed to create tomorrow's innovations.”
Ford Extends Commitment to African American Community
Ford Fund Innovative Education Programs
Ford and USC Shoah Foundation Inspire Future Generations
Bill Ford Better World Challenge
4. he
Ans 4. Ford has to make many changes in order to adapt to its everchanging environment.
based on the recent news, Ford has decided to cut down 10% of their workforce because
they have to fight the falling share price and reduce all the costs. Their share prices fell
from 21%since July and 18% in the last year. Ford has an estimate of 200,000 employees
around the world and this poses a huge a risk for all the employees who are currently
employed by ford (Dean, 2017).With the news of job cuts hanging in the air, the
managers need to ensure that ford’s employee productivity does not decrease.
As a manager of a multinational company such as Ford, I would need to ensure that
employee productivity is at its highest. But since Ford had to make many changes like
cutting major expenses, update old product lines and hold up fords quality, it is vital to
ensure that the employees are motivated through the change process. As a manager, the
following are a few ways that can help uplift employee production:
1. Elaborate Training: one of the ways to improve productivity is through proper
training. Even though most companies do incorporate training, it doesn’t mean
that the employees have been provided the right tools to develop themselves. As
a manager, I would ensure that everyone has been given a training within a
positive environment. By giving them the awareness of what is possible in the
company, it sets the tone for the company’s culture and it will motivate the
employees to put their newly learned skills in action.
2. Redesign Job Roles: Employees at Ford have a high risk of doing routine based
monotonous jobs that could leave them uninspired and resentful. This can lead to
decline in employee productivity. As a manager, I would try to redesign their
jobs to make it a little more challenging, stimulating and therefore fulfilling. This
would make the employees develop more interest in their respected roles and
even become motivated to improve their work performance. This will improve
the workforce productivity thereby reducing the production costs (John A.
Wagner III, 2009).
3. Setting Precise Goals: even though redesigning employees roles are important,
setting proper goals would help improving employees focus regarding what to
achieve. Not having clear goals can be a huge threat to the company’s future. By
having highly formulated goals, it will not only help employees achieve their
targets easily but it will also help the company to achieve their goals faster since
all the employees are not wasting time doing useless tasks. This will definitely
improve and streamline employees productivity(John A. Wagner III, 2009).
4. Contingent Payment Program: We know that redesigning job roles and proper
goal setting can improve employee motivation and productivity. Another
incentive could be the Contingent payment program which involves paying
employees based on their performance rather than fixed timely wages. Some
examples can be how sales employees are paid based on their sales commissions,
production based employees can be paid using piece rate wages based on the
current performance and managers can be paid by bonuses that arise through the
firms profitability. It is important to note that this program only changes the way
that the payment is distributed but doesn’t tamper with the amount that is paid
towards the employees (John A. Wagner III, 2009).
5. Encourage Employee Participation: The methods mentioned before are surely
going to contribute to increased employee productivity. This method is used to
enhance and support the same. Giving employees a platform to participate will
help them feel more valuable to the company. By allowing them a little freedom
to make a few decisions in their roles also gives them a sense of authority and
this would help them take up more responsibilities, accountability and grow their
career paths (John A. Wagner III, 2009).
These are some of the ways a manager can try to increase productivity. But we
can see an example through another company that has a set of their own rules on
improving employee productivity. The company Deloitte has 5 rules that they
believe will bring about a great development for the business and their employees
The Deloitte company has five rules which are to make meaningful work, have a hands
on management, ensure there is a positive work environment, provide ample growth
opportunities and have employees trust in their leaders. This shows the importance of
employee engagement and it effects employee productivity (Bersin, 2017).
5. To assess how does Ford focuses on employee productivity through various
motivational techniques(15)
Ans 5. Ford has an intensive employee management team that is focused on the ONE
FORD plan. The plan tries to achieve the goals regarding good workplace environment,
developing an efficient workforce and providing workforce support processes that is
purely “people” related.
The following are a few things that Ford does to achieve employee motivation and
satisfaction:
• Pulse Survey: Every year Ford requests the employees to participate in a Pulse survey. This is used to get a feedback relating to the employee’s satisfaction with
their jobs, people, the company and other dimensions of their work. Ford expects
full honesty as the results are used as a benchmark for improvement. These results
make their way into the business planning meetings and the managers try to
improve the pulse scores every year (yang, 2014).
• Communication: employee engagement and peer connectivity is highly important to ford. They believe that transparency is a vital component in moving
forward and so they have town hall meetings, internet chats,surveys, diversity
councils and management committees. Ford even issues multiple publications like
plant newsletters and Ford magazine which showcases their product information.
Now, Ford has even taken interest in social media and uses platforms like
Facebook to connect with their customers and employees. Open communication
plays a huge role in terms of growth and development for Ford. They are trying to
ensure that their employees are all well informed and can achieve their goals in
every step of the way(yang, 2014).
• Employee benefits: Ford is trying to better the employee environment and their benefits. Ford helps hourly workers by dealing with their unions in order to
develop governance plans in the employee’s operations. There are also joint
management committees that are made at each plant to help employees influence
their workplace. Fulltime salaried employees have been briefed and provided with
a proper code of conduct with policies covering various topics to help them grow
in the company(yang, 2014).
• Employees are Ambassadors: Ford considers all their employees as the face of the company and see them as ambassadors of their ford products. there are
information sessions named “Go Further Employee Event” give a grand
opportunity for employees to learn and test drive the new vehicles. This helps the
employees to see the vehicles from a customers point of view and see how to
meet the customers needs. The employees can in turn help bring in revenue by
advertising the new vehicles (yang, 2014).
• Employee Resource Groups: this group holds many events every year to help invigorate and motivate their employees. This group also has many outreach
programs to engage employees from different communities. There are various
volunteering programs that help employees tend to people in need and this helps
employees build teamwork whilst feeling important and valued at their company,
thereby pushing them to work harder for a company they believe in (yang, 2014).
We can see that Ford has quite a few methods to motivate their employees. But the
following can be a few more things that Ford can incorporate for more motivated and
productive employees:
• Showing Positive reinforcement: Employees do like to be shown appreciation for their hard work and showing more trust makes employees more confident.
they will then try harder to please the manager and the company. Another way is
through delegating more work and even giving them more authority to make
decisions. By giving them these positive reinforcements, employees are definitely
more motivated to work (Pozin, 2017).
• Setting smaller goals: rather than convincing the employees to achieve a certain amount within a year, it would be more effective to gather their focus on weekly
goals. This will keep them on their toes and make the work more challenging for
them (Pozin, 2017).
• Being transparent: Showing trust towards employees in one thing but as we know, trust flows both ways. Employees need to know how the company is
functioning in all aspects.The managers should be transparent about the
company’s goals and what they expect from the employees. This will keep the
employees in the loop and will feel like a part of the company and their future
(Pozin, 2017).
• Motivate individuals than teams: motivating teams is a usual action done by most companies but having designed incentives for each employee is important
too. Showing each employee their stake in the company and what they achieve
can help motivate the individual and make him/her achieve bigger goals (Pozin,
2017).
• Have recognition rituals: showing employees appreciation is vital for boosting their morale and developing their confidence to achieve more. For example , the
management can recognize the best performing employees of each month. This
ensures that most employees get a chance to be recognized and they are motivated
to be picked next month (Pozin, 2017).
6. The role of culture on the organizational/employee behavior of Ford (6 Marks)
Ans When discussing organizational culture, it is important to know what it really
means. Corporate culture is the shared values, standards, attitudes and beliefs that
characterises the members of an organization and frame its nature. The culture is deeply
rooted within the company’s strategies, goals, structure and approaches to customers,
investors, employees and the community. Basically, company culture is a vital
component in every organizations ultimate success or failure(Anon., 2017).In the 21st
century, all organizations need a company culture where the employees and the leaders
Ford has created a reputation for their company culture. The former president and CEO
of Ford, Alan Mulallay was hit with the 2009 economic crisis and was working really
hard to bring the company around from financial ruin. He then decided to create a
strategy among many called One Ford because he realized that not only was the company
trying hard to survive, but also the employees were extremely stressed and the One Ford
strategy should fix the company culture. This strategy was introduced to all the
employees, executives and external stakeholders and it incorporated teamwork,
cooperation and collaboration. Alan introduced the plan to the entire organization in a
graphic format where it contained 3 main defining statements: One Team, One Plan, one
Goal which outlined “people working together”. When Mulallay had introduced this to
people during a time of crisis, he was redefining company culture.
Mulally then went on to elaborate how the company would recover from the economic
crisis by using FORD as an acronym:
• Foster Functional and Technical Excellence
• Own Working Together
• Role Model Ford Values
• Deliver Results
This is the creation of the One Ford strategy that created the Ford company culture and it
was a powerful tool that overturned the tables of bankruptcy at Ford while improving
company value and morale (Pontefract, 2017).
To summarize what the one ford strategy actually encompasses, it would convey 3
important points that lead Ford to cultural growth:
1. One Company/One Team – Ford belied in the value of teamwork and Mulallay believed that everyone was in it together, working towards the same goal.
Teamwork is taken seriously at Ford and they believe that they work in unison,
locally and everywhere in the world
2. Positive Attitude is Encouraged – Attitude matters a great deal when working for success. The ford employees are all motivated to have positive behaviours
such as affinity to team work, commitment, focus and a vision for the future.
3. Aligning company and employee values – employees should have a work style that aligns with the company’s values. Ford values their employees and they try to
align the interests of their employees as they are a valuable stakeholder for Ford
(Irvine, 2017).
The above mentioned were the highlights of the Ford Culture. Ford is really trying hard
to engage and develop employees while deriving most value from them. If Ford needs
another recommendation it would be to adopt flexibility.
Multinational companies have an affinity to have various rules that they impose on
employees. It is important not to impose too many restrictions on them. All employees
need the freedom to make some decisions for themselves and gain ownership over their
job roles (Anon., 2017) .This way employees will be motivated to work harder and take
their jobs more seriously because they are accountable for more. The employees should
be allowed to grow as an individual within a team so that he has an identity of his own.
The flexibility also applies to work timings. Work can be too overwhelming and this can
cause uninspired employees who cant wait to leave work. the CEO should allow the
employees to have more flexible work timings , this can make the employees more
creative and innovative. If Ford can accommodate flexibility, it would add on to their
cultural repertoire
7. Conclusions and recommendations. (5 Marks)
Ans 7.
Ford Motor Company can be said to be a hard working yet struggling company in the
face of the 21st century. Having to face a double digit drop in shares is not easy for a
multinational company like ford. The current issues are already forcing Ford into a corner
and making them cut costs in multiple areas. One of the cost cutting areas unfortunately
is employment. Ford is probably going to terminate 10% of their workforce in the name
of making the company more “lean” and efficient. Despite all these struggles, Ford does
try to make an effort to nurture their employees in order to gain the best out of them. By
having many employee engagement and outreach programs, the company is really trying
to be recognized as a contributing member of the community. All this is unfortunately
overshadowed by their incompetency in the market, thereby making this harder for them
to make a come back.
Ford used the ONE FORD plan where they try to fulfil their vison to create a whole and
full employment plan that would enrich employment productivity. this plan made a huge
impact to the ford culture. The employees did see the changes and it made a difference in
their work habits but it wasn’t enough due to the current looming job cuts that are leaving
them nervous and uninspired. The CEO should not turn a blind eye to the cultural aspect
of ford and try to save it before it becomes a liability.
The CEO really needs to make a change in his decisions. he need to lead as he did in his
prior jobs:
• Listen to his peers and employees
• Empower his company by insisting on accountability
• Make cultural changes to motivate employees and show that Ford still cares
• Let the employees have a proper work life balance. Make them leave early on
some days so that they feel more energized with new ideas. People need to work
in a complete sense, as parents, family and as a community (Baldoni, 2017).
These changes are very simple and deep rooted to the peoples basic needs and wants.
If Ford can focus on these few aspects, the employees will have a better sense of
direction and will soar to new heights.
Assignment Task - 2: [30 Marks] – Project Format
Based on the stakeholder theory concept and practice for a chosen organization. In
case certain stakeholders are not given much preference in the decision making
process explain how each of the stakeholders could be made part of the decision-
making process successfully. The report should also cover how the chosen
organisation identifies the requirements of employee development in the
organisation and what activities are implemented for employee development.
Students have to submit a report based on their understanding of the above said
scenario
The organization that the student chooses can be either a manufacturing
organization or service organization.
The report has to cover the following :
1. Introduction to the organization - (4 Marks)
Ans 1. Enterprise change specialists or ECS is a service industry in the it industry
and was first established in Hyderabad 2008. ECS is known for its IT based
solutions that are created on the Oracle based platform. This company have been in
Dubai for the past 6 years and is constantly trying to get ahead of their competitors.
Being an oracle gold partner helps them get premium services for customers such as
BI, E Business suite, CR, and even Flexcube (core banking platform).ECS’s main
mission is to become one of the leading Oracle supported IT solutions providers in
the world.
ECS is complex solutions company that is capable of providing more than just the
products for the company . they pride themselves in being able to tailor products
based on the customer’s needs and even advise them regarding the right softwares
and services required for their firms. The company having multiple years of
experience dealing with oracle tools, they are confident in being able to assist clients
with any IT based needs (Anon,2017)
Since ECS is an Oracle Gold Partner, they are able to provide multiple services
based on the clients needs. the services provided can be listed as follows:
• IT Consulting
• Upgrades
• Enhancements
• E-Business Suite Support
• Database installation and support
• Implementations and rollouts
• Application Management and support
• Integrations
• Migration
• Custom Developments
• ERP Assessments & Health Check
• Business process Re-engineering
• Process Consulting
2. Assessment Strategy followed by the organization currently for understanding the
employee development and integrating stakeholders in the decision-making process– (4
Marks)
Ans 2. Every company has a strategy that they follow for success. ECS is an IT
company that’s doing business mainly in UAE. The CEO has a very traditional
approach to the business. The CEO following the Autocratic route of leadership where
he has the last say in all the decisions in the company. ECS has 4 main departments in
the company, Sales, IT, HR and Accounts/administration. All these team do have
managers who are mainly in charge of supervising but all the decisions are made by the
CEO. He has implemented a target based system for achieving goals. Employees are
given specific tasks to follow and complete within set deadlines. Most of the targets are
monetary and are usually monthly or yearly depending on the role of the employee. The
employees do have a chance to grow and take over more responsibilities should they
prove themselves. But this results in high workload, stress and long hours of work for
the employees. The employees can be said to be highly strung and tensed to finish their
targets. Appraisals are held half yearly and the increments and performance based.
Every year high performing employees do get recognized and are presented with gifts
and here we can see that ECS does have a set employee development plan that gives
employees something to look forward to. But the high stress environment is keeping the
employees on edge and unmotivated.
In terms of stakeholders, ECS prioritizes their customers and partners as the main
stakeholders. The other stakeholders such as suppliers and employees are secondary in
terms of importance. The other stakeholders are not mapped properly as ECS finds it
insignificant.
3. Evaluation of the effectiveness of the current strategy – (7 Marks)
Ans3. The following is the evaluation of how ECS functions as a business:
• Employee development: ECS does have ways to help employees grow within the company. Employees are given more tasks and authority based on how well their
performance is. This does help challenge the employees to grow in terms of their
experience. The downside however is that that the workload increases
exponentially as the work demands long hours with high targets. This leads to
overworked and stressed individuals who aren’t feeling fulfilled by their lives.
ECS also holds half yearly appraisals and bonuses which are performance based.
This does give employees motivation to work harder and stay longer with the
company. This also creates a competition between the employees to get a higher
bonus every half year. ECS does attempt to develop team activities to help
employees bond with the company and their peers. There is an annual ECS
anniversary party where the employees are invited to enjoy and blow off steam.
Overall ECS is doing a satisfactory job in terms of employee development but they have
a long way to go as the employees are still demotivated due to overwork and huge
targets. ECS must make efforts to lighten the work environment and make it more
positive.
• Stakeholders: ECS has a very straightforward stakeholder list. They believe that their customers and partners come first. Other stakeholders such as employees,
suppliers and the community are not considered as important. This is clearly a
very narrow-minded approach and is not encouraged in the current 21st century.
ECS needs to clearly map out their stakeholders and prioritize them based on their
impact towards the company. They should understand and follow the stakeholder
theory.
• The stakeholder theory states that the main purpose of a business is to create a great amount of value for the stakeholders. If the company wants to successful
and survive throughout time, the CEO and top management should keep the
interest of everyone including the customers, suppliers, employees, shareholders
and communities in line with interest of the company. It is important to find
innovative ways to keep the stakeholders interests aligned rather than trading off
stakeholders against each other. This will ensure that the company creates more
value for the shareholders and other financiers (Anon., 2017).
Stakeholders can be internal or external. Below are ECS’s important stakeholders
identified accordingly:
Internal
• All Employees
• CEO
• Oracle (partner)
• Darvesh (partner)
External
• Ministry of Labor
• Dubai Government
• Clients/Customers (FEWA, Paris Gallery, Sharjah Chamber of Commerce)
• Competitors (IBM, Infosys, Capgemini)
• Media
• Potential Clients
• Public
Once the stakeholders have been identified, they must be charted according to their
importance and then should be approached accordingly. This is will ensure that the
stakeholders are satisfied and it will thereby bring more value to the company.
4. Based on the evaluation of the current strategy provide suggestions and
recommendations to make it better or to continue with the same – (6 Marks)
Ans 4. Based on the evaluation of ECS, they do need to change their ways that they do
business, internally and externally. The first way is the map out all the stakeholders that
ECS has and then figure out how to align their interests to the company’s needs so that
ECS can gain high value. The power/interest grid would be a good tool to map out their
stakeholders.
We have already identified ECS’s stakeholders, now they need to be analyzed based on
their level of influence towards the company. The Power/Interest tool helps us pick pout
and understand the stakeholders that have high power interest in the company and
therefore has a great level of influence.
Power/Interest Grid
Based on the figure above, company’s stakeholders must be categorized in these 4
sections that will help analyse the stakeholders that need the most attention and
which do not. Since employees are also a stakeholder, it is important to mention the
teams that need more attention in this power/interest grid as well.
Once the identifies have been arranged according to the power/interest grid, it will
look like the following figure:
High power and
low interest
Clients
Government
High Power and
high interest
CEO
Sales Team
HR department
Oracle
Darvesh
Low Power and
Low interest
Media
Public
Low Power and
High interest
Potential Clients
Competitors
Rest of the
employees
P
O
W
E
R
INTEREST
The above figure now depicts all the stakeholders based on the influence towards
ECS.
The Stakeholder management strategy for the four categories is as follows:
• High power and low interest: The Clients and the government would
come into this section as they all have a high influence over ECS and the
direction it will take in the future. But they would not have a much of an
interest in their current endeavours. These stakeholders will be functioning
as normal and would not be heavily involved in the decision making of the
company. ECS should ensure that these stakeholders are well informed of
the progress of the company but do not need to be directly involved in the
decision making process.
• High Power and High Interest: The CEO, Sales team, The HR team
,Oracle and Darvesh have been categorized in the high power and high
interest area as they are the core stakeholders involved in the planning,
implementing and supervision of every project as they have a lot of
influence and they do have a lot to lose from the company. They need to
have timely meetings, and discussions regarding the company’s next move,
every step of the way.
• Low Power and High Interest: Potential Client, Competitors, and the rest
of the employees would come in this section as they do have a great interest
in where the company is heading but they do not have a huge influence on
the company. All the stakeholders in this grid need to be kept aware of the
on goings in the company as they might provide value to the company in the
near future.
• Low Power and Low Interest: The media and the public come into this
final grid as they do not have a high influence or interest towards the
company. They are only interested if the company is advertising a huge
change. These stakeholders only need to be informed in the event of a new
project that needs advertising.
ECS can handle their stakeholders better with this tool and can gain more value from
each of them.
Employee development on the other hand is a more of an internal process that the HR
depart at ECS should overlook. Here are a following methods which the HR team and
CEO can implement:
• Allowing work from home: Being in the IT field, most employees are engineers who work off shore and many employees work online and therefore it is possible
to allow them to work from home at least one day a week. This will relax the
environment and the employees will feel more energized and more motivated to
achieve their targets.
• Having small weekly objectives: ECS works on a monthly target, but since the numbers are so huge, it discourages the employees easily. By having small
weekly targets, it is possible to motivate them to achieve better in a short time.
• Fun Lunch Gatherings: ECS has a lunch break of only half an hour since the company is mainly focused on achieving targets. I think that the company should
have lunch break for an hour and enjoy it with all the employees as a team. This
will improve teamwork and trust between the employees and the top management.
The employees will feel like they belong and would be motivated to work for the
company.
• Recognizing more employees: Even though ECS has an annual event where they recognize the best performers, it is better if they could recognize employees every
month. This would give the employees something to look forward to and it would
motivate them to work harder. The recognition doesn’t always need to be
monetary, it can be an ‘employee of the month’ title ,an extra lunch hour or even a
lunch coupon to a restaurant. These little things can excite employees into doing
better for the company.
• Group Trainings: This is probably the most obvious one since all companies need training. ECS should have group trainings rather than meetings because it
would help develop more teamwork. The employees can weigh in with their ideas
for company growth. It will also ensure that everyone has a developed skill set
and are fully equipped to deal with all kinds of adversities in the business. This is
also great to clear out misunderstandings and doubts and ensure that everyone is
on the same page.
If ECS decides to follow these steps for employee growth and development, it can
definitely make a bigger change towards a better company.
5. Tools that can be used to improve their operations strategy – (6 Marks)
Ans 5. Companies need tools that can help them be efficient and effective with their daily
tasks. It would make planning, organizing, implementing and even supervising way more
time efficient. ECS is an IT servicing company and does have a set of electronic tools
that help them with their daily tasks. But since ECS has difficulties in forecasting
,problem solving and customer service, the following tools might be helpful:
• SERVQUAL for service quality: This is a model that is used to measure the quality of service in a company. Ensuring that a company has high quality service
is important as customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and customer retention is
vital for profitability. In order to measure the service quality, a questionnaire will
be sent to the customers in order to understand what their experience and the
expectations about the company’s service was. The questions in the survey are
asked following the dimensions of SERVQUAL called RATER (Responsiveness,
Assurance, Tangibility, Empathy and reliability) which investigates the customers
experiences quantitatively. This survey will successfully identify the gap between
the customers perception and their expectation regarding a particular case. ECS
should use this to understand where they stand as service providers among their
clients. It can help them evolve and change their tactics towards customer service
(Adelekan, 2017).
• Knowledge Tree for competence/forecast mapping: ECS needs to know how technologically competent they are in the in the current market and get a good
knowledge on their strengths as it is used to see if they are capable of positioning
new technological choices. This is viewed through the metaphor of a tree. The
deep roots are the core competences that helps the tree grow, ECS needs to
identify what the core competencies of the company are and what makes them
stand apart from their competitors. The trunk and branches are all the services
and products delivered by the company. Ecs needs to understand how all the
products and services are delivered to their customers and if it is cost effective.
The fruits of the tree are the opportunities that the company can make use of. ECS
needs to identify where these products are being offered in the marketplace and
try to identify the spaces where they can find new combinations to help get a
competitive advantage. ECS can therefore use this tool to identify their
knowledge base and understand where they do and don’t fit in the market (Anon.,
2017)
• Fishbone diagram for problem solving: This is also known as the cause and effect diagram and is a useful method for opening up the thought process in
problem solving. The diagram is demonstrated below:
According to the diagram, the problem is shown as the tip of the horizontal arrow and the
potential reasons are shown as the labelled arrows that are entering the main problem
arrow. There can be multiple arrows that are entering the main arrow as the main causes
which are reduced with the sub factors for the problem at hand. This method will be
effective during brainstorming sessions. ECS should adopt this method to identify what
goes wrong in the services or in their IT implementations. This will help clarify all the
misunderstandings and smooth out the kinks in their implementations (Anon., 2017).
If ECS can use these tools to enhance their operations, it can make a huge difference to
their functions and make processes more smooth and easier to complete.
6. Scope for future sustainability of the strategy – (3 Marks)
Ans 6. ECS is managing to stay afloat in todays market with their current strategies but it
is not enough to move ahead since they are resisting change. The employees are
overworked and the major stakeholders are not impressed by their current progress. ECS
needs to try some new methodologies that can propel them towards success. If the
company decides to adopt the power /interest method for stakeholder mapping, they can
make more progress deriving maximum value from all their stakeholders and therefore
gain success. Should they adopt the tips on improving employee productivity, it can help
them develop healthy, happy and motivated employees. This will push the company’s
productivity into a high drive. These things should be good enough to help ECS get over
their current situation but the using the additional operational tools will also help the
company function smoothly. The tools like SERVQUAL, Knowledge Tree and the
Fishbone diagram will help ECS improve their Customer service, identify and take
advantage of their competencies and figure out the kinks in their current processes. The
company can make a huge difference and the change would be blatantly evident within
the first 6 months itself. ECS definitely has a brighter future using these methodologies
than not.
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