Introduction
In today’s business’ competitive environment, organizations are looking for varied means to ensure that their businesses maintain the competitive advantage they have established in the market. This can only be achieved by regularly evaluating business status in the market and conducting employee training and development. Ensuring a good relationship between supervisors and their employees helps in improving business growth. Good communication within departments of an organization helps in ensuring the smooth running of the business. With all these problems having not been addressed in Eastman Sports car company, the company needs to come up with remedies to enable it to gain competitive power in the market (Blackburn & Stokes PP. 44-67).
Communication within the organization
Problems occurring within the business can easily be solved through teamwork discussions. Teamwork discussions refer to an internal meeting held within organizations comprising of staff from various organizational departments. According to business professionals, effective communication within a company acts as a major factor that leads to its development. Eastman requires having effective internal communication for it to succeed. This is as it will help in effective flow of information within the company thus helping each department carry out its respective responsibilities smoothly. However, communication may prove to be complicated for the company due to each department having its own mannerism, biases and capabilities. On the other hand, most of the information to be conveyed to the departments will be intended for particular groups. Therefore, the company needs to take great attention to information intended for particular groups. Eastman Company has various groups ranging from formal to informal. Formal groups are those that have been assigned vital roles by Eastman Company and are established by the management which includes the sales department, managers, administrators and accounting staff. As these departments are allocated in different sites within the company, there is a great need for information flow within them to be ensured for Eastman to attain its goals and objectives (Heathfield Par. 1-3).
Employee relations with their supervisors can go far in helping or hampering the attainment of organizational goals. The workforce, being the ones involved in day to day operation of the company, may identify various areas within the company that requires to be improved. If supervisors within Eastman prove hard to deal with, employees might opt to continue operating the company without reporting any hitch that occurs within the company. This would lead to the company not attaining its goals. In most cases, companies crumble due to poor relationships between managers and employees (Lee Par. 5). With some employees in Eastman admitting that some equipment is poorly managed within the company but they cannot help it as their supervisor is not willing to listen to their suggestions, it implies that the company is likely to collapse. A good relationship between employees and their managers would improve employee motivation leading to an increase in their productivity. There is a great need for Eastman supervisors to ensure that they are always ready to listen to employees’ opinions and work on them accordingly. Commending employees whenever they have done well will also help in improving their morale. In most cases, supervisors try to look for the negative deeds that their subjects commit forgetting about the many good things they do (Schwartz Par. 2-4).
Supervisors have to listen to what their subordinates tell them. This does not mean that they agree with all that is said by their subordinates. Sometimes, employees being the ones carrying out the daily operations of the company may have ideas on how to improve some of the processes within the company such as the development of the cars’ bodies. Failure to listen to employees’ opinions is what is leading to the growth of the don’t care attitude among staff within Eastman company. If not dealt with urgently, it would lead to the company incurring a lot of expenses in purchasing and repairing damaged equipment.
Learning and development
With increased development in technology, business organizations need to regularly conduct training for their staff to improve their productivity. Bearing in mind that Eastman only conducts only technical training for its staff when they are employed, the company requires to conduct training for its staff. To conduct effective employee training and development, Eastman requires being aware of all changes that will result from the training. For it to maintain its competitive power in the market, it needs to impart new knowledge to its employees and not rely on what employees already know. Continuous employee training and education have proved to be a key factor in improving organizational performance. In conducting the training, Eastman needs to encourage creativeness among the staff as it is the major element that will lead to the company gaining a competitive advantage in the market. Training will help in introducing new inventions within the company making it more unique from its competitors (Fairfield-Sonn Par.2-4).
In today’s business environment, the only way for a company to survive is to be innovative. This depends entirely on the level of training being conducted within a company. It does not imply that Eastman has to go out looking for means to impart knowledge to its staff. If knowledge does not bring positive changes to the company it is as good as when the staff is not trained as the company will incur unnecessary expenses. Eastman needs to ensure that it has harmonized its training with its needs, goals, and the goals of its staff. Business training has been faced with opposition from managers who perceive it as expensive and time-wasting. Some claim that training is not fruitful while others term it as for young people who get into companies without knowledge. Eastman managing director may see as if conducting staff training is expensive but failure to conduct the training would prove even more expensive. Studies have shown that empowering employees through training and development has a great impact than investing in machinery and other physical resources (Montana and Charnov 225).
Conclusion
Whereas every employee in Eastman performs a specific task, the company can initiate cross-training. This is where employees are trained on various jobs to ensure regular operations within the company. If an employee’s job ceases to exist in the company or one department happens to require more staff, staff can be transferred to this department without the need for Eastman to employ new staff. This can also assist in expanding the company’s capacities without having to recruit new staff. For instance, cross-training has been said to secrete behind the success of Toyota automaker in Japan. Another type of training that can be productive in Eastman is just-in-time training. This is where employees are trained when the need arises to meet the required skills. This training can be conducted at the workplace and requires a short time hence not expensive for the company (Vemić PP. 209-216).
Works cited
Blackburn, R. & Stokes, D. “Breaking down the Barriers: Using Focus Groups to Research Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.” International Small Business Journal 19.1 (2000): 44-67.
Fairfield-Sonn, James. “A strategic process model for small business training and development.” 2009. Web.
Heathfield, Susan. “Why Employees Don’t Do What You Want Them to Do.” 2009. Web.
Lee, David. “8 Ways Managers Can Improve Morale – Part One.” 2008. Web.
Montana, Patrick and Charnov, Bruce. “Training and Development”. Management. Barron’s Educational Series (2000): 225.
Schwartz, Andrew. “How to Create a Trusting Manager-Employee Relationship.” 2009. Web.
Vemić, Jelena. “Employee Training And Development and The Learning Organization.” Economics and Organization 4.2 (2007): 209 -216.