Service adhesives Ltd currently employs up to 20% of its workforce on short-term contracts. What effect will this have on the proposed team-based working structure?
Hiring workers on a short-term contract basis will have adverse effects on the proposed team-based working structure. First, it will affect cooperation between contract-based workers and permanent employees. Permanent employees will perceive contract-based workers as a threat to their jobs. There is a possibility that if contract workers succeed to improve productivity and revenue, the company will employ them.
However, this will require the retrenchment of some permanent employees to accommodate them. Second, contract workers may not perform at their best because of poor cooperation and frustration from other employees. In addition, poor performance may result from a lack of employment prospects. Third, there might be communication problems that may hinder the development of effective teams. If workers do not communicate effectively among themselves because of the language barrier, then the proposed team-based working structure may not work effectively.
In considering a transition from a traditional organizational work structure to a team-based work structure, what sort of barriers are service adhesives Ltd like to encounter?
Service adhesives are likely to encounter several barriers in their transition from a traditional organizational structure to a team-based work structure. These include resistance to change, conflict of interest, misunderstandings among employees, increased costs of operation, and poor performance. Many employees resist change because it changes the status quo that many employees enjoy. Employees are likely to resist change in favor of the traditional organizational structure. Resistance to change will result in poor performance because of defiance by employees to embrace change. Employees are likely to work less in an effort to resist change.
A team-based organizational structure might require more funding hence an increase in operations costs. In addition, there is the possibility that misunderstandings and conflicts will arise among employees considering that teams will comprise both permanent employees and contract employees. The long-term effect of conflicts among employees and resistance to change will be poor performance and productivity.
Could a team-based work organization be the answer to the organization’s difficulties? Why do think that previous initiatives at Super Supply had failed?
A team-based work organization could be the solution to the company’s problems. Past initiatives failed because of a lack of cohesiveness and cooperation among employees. In addition, employees were resistant to change. Change is an important factor in the attainment of organizational success. It is necessary to enable organizations and companies to survive in the modern business environment that is uncertain and highly volatile.
One of the most important aspects of increasing organizational performance is the improvement of employee skills. However, Service adhesive’s employees have below-average skills. This could have resulted in the poor execution of initiatives. The new organizational structure could be the solution because it will foster cooperation and promote the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and information among employees. Teams work better and more effectively than individual employees do because of better exchange of ideas, opinions, and knowledge. In addition, teams are better at developing new ways of solving problems than individuals.
Employee empowerment is a key element of team-based working; what difficulties could service adhesives face in implementing empowerment?
Obstacles that the company could face include varying levels of skills and knowledge among employees, conflicts of interest, insufficient training, reluctant managers, and breakdown of organizational structure. Empowerment may create chaos due to inconsistency in the interpretation of messages by employees. Since employees have different levels of skills and knowledge, their interpretations differ too. In addition, different things motivate employees.
It would be ineffective to develop a plan to cater to all employees. Therefore, an established plan may not be effective for all employees. Insufficient training may affect performance because empowered employees are given the freedom to make decisions that affect the organization. Poor decisions may lead to poor performance and productivity. On the other hand, there may be a breakdown in the organizational structure. Empowering employees leads to certain changes that affect the hierarchy in an organization. For example, decision-making is delegated to employees. Employees may make decisions that affect the operations of the organizations.