Understanding Data Protection
Over the past few months the topic of “data breaches” has become commonplace on the news with companies such as Home Depot, Target and Sony being victims of data breaches by unknown groups of hackers. It is based on these activities that the company has decided to institute greater levels of data protection and security. These practices will involve knowing how to safeguard your computer from unauthorised access, what methods hackers normally utilise in order to get into computer systems and how internet browsing can actually lead to a computer terminal being compromised. Through the training that will be implemented, it is expected that employees of the company will be better equipped to deal with potential threats to data breaches and respond accordingly.
Understanding who is breaking into our Systems
The term “hacker” has been connected by popular culture to mean someone who infiltrates into secure systems for the purpose of sowing chaos and mayhem for their own purposes. They have been described as individuals who steal credit card numbers, create computer viruses, attempt identity theft and all other manner of illegal behaviour. What must be taken into consideration is the fact that the term “cracker” is more eponymous to the descriptions attached to the hacker culture rather than what popular culture dubs hackers to be. “Crackers”, as they are aptly named, are a sub-culture within the hacker culture that use their skills to achieve criminal gain either through subverting secure online systems or by stealing user information for identity theft. It is based on this that it can be seen that constant vigilance is necessary in order to prevent individuals such as these from accessing our systems since this is the only way that we can safeguard the data of our company and clients.
The task can actually be resolved rather easily, first 2 department managers will attend the module sessions with half of the data input clerks on Monday till Tuesday while the second batch of two department managers will attend the Wednesday till Thursday class. For the subsequent weeks of training, the batches will be divided into 4 equal parts and each will be assigned a training day on an interval basis. For instance, on Monday it will be the first batch of data clerks, on Tuesday it will be two managers, on Wednesday it will be the second batch of data clerks and so on and so forth. Each batch of either the managers or the workers will complete their training schedules on the assigned interval basis with a “leap day” being included due to the training suite not being available on Thursday or Friday on week 5. This interval training, wherein there is a switch between the data clerks and the managers, helps to ensure that at least half of the group has received all of the training for a module at any given time instead of all of the group having only some of the training. It is anticipated that through the given scheduling, an adequate method can be devised which should help in resolving all of the training issues that have been identified thus far.
Evaluating the Impact of the Training Schedule
When going over the training schedule of the various workers and managers, it can be stated that this will have a significant impact on the work schedule of the company resulting in a drop of at least 25 to 30 percent in workplace productivity. The reason behind this is connected to the fact that in order to meet the deadline of the company, at least 25% of the workers and 50% of the on-site managers will be training at any given moment. This would of course hamper the company’s operations in that specific division during the course of the training. One potential way around this issue would be to schedule the training during a month where the company has a slowdown in operations due to lower consumption of its products and services. This can help to lessen the adverse impact that the training would have on the performance of the company as a whole.
Tools and Methods for Developing Solutions to the Issue
When going over the methods that are being utilised in order to train employees, the most obvious flaw that was noticed was the fact that the employees in question needed to be taken away from their desks and from their time at work in order to properly accomplish the training. While this method was appropriate in the past given the limited amount of technological capability that was available to organisations at the time, at the present online methods of teaching and training have become synonymous with technologically adept corporations. Fortune 500 companies such as Convergys often have online or in-house based applications where they train employees during their downtime while they are at their desks. The process works by assessing periods where employees have the least amount of work at any given period and having them take the necessary training while they are at their desks.
Through this method, the company is able to maximise the efficiency of the training while at the same time minimising the operational losses sustained through extensive training sessions. This particular method shows a lot of promise as an alternative to the current training method since it is far more cost effective to have employees take their necessary training at their desks as compared to having them do so in another room. It should also be noted that after an examination of the training topics in the modules, it was assessed that topics can be taught through online tutorial software and videos just as effectively as compared to having to hire a trainer to do so in a room. Overall, the proposed changes should considerably help the company in the desired task of training employees while minimising issues in relation to losses as a result of a decline in operational performance.
Comments regarding strengths and areas that are in need of improvement:
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Development plan of the employee:
Based on an examination of all the indicated factors that have been mentioned, it can be stated that I meet the criteria of “Substantially Exceeds Expectations” on every single factor. However, after going over everything, there is of course still some room for improvement. One of the areas that I need improvement in is related to how I perceive different types of employees. In order to become an effective leader within an organisation, it is important to take note of both the positive and negative aspects of the types of employees that you manage. For example, while older employees may not be as adept when it comes to modern day technology and consumers, they have a vast amount of knowledge regarding the various processes and methods that have proven to be effective in resolving problems that they have come across in the past. On the other hand, while younger employees lack the experience of older employees, they make up for it through their ability to adapt to new technologies as well as having a better understanding of how modern day consumers think. As a newly promoted leader, I need to be able to understand the nuances behind this aspect of leadership so that I can properly lead those that have been assigned to me.
Based on an evaluation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and Herzberg’s factor theory, the main conclusion that can be drawn up after evaluating both is the fact that employees have certain needs when it comes to their job. This comes in the form of their work environment, salary and general satisfaction with the job itself. By determining where in the spectrum of needs the employees of a company fall under, the company can increase its alignment with the aforementioned needs and help to retain talented employees instead of losing them due to employee churn (i.e. the amount of employees that leave a company as compared to the amount that enter into it).
The stages of team development can be summarised as consisting of the formation of the team, the initial brain storming (i.e. sharing of ideas), the normalisation of performance and lastly the performance of the team itself. Overall, it is usually the case that team dynamics is at its lowest during the first stage and it’s highest during the last stage (Rauniar and Rawski 941). It should be noted though that this differs considerably from groups in a workplace since with assigned positions in a team and the level of collaboration and cooperation involved, there is a greater “group dynamic” at play which results in higher levels of cooperation resulting in more efficient levels of performance.
After examining the issue, it became abundantly clear that the origin of the problem was the fact that the CEO of the company refused to take “ownership” of the product and merely delegated the responsibility behind the launch. Aside from this, the delegation of responsibility was done in bad faith wherein the CEO was not truly committed to the launch of the smart phone and was instead focused primarily on protecting his own reputation. As explained by Canals who examined the impact that the behaviour of CEOs had towards the success of the company, CEOs are more than just executives in charge of a company, they can be considered as “beacons” when it comes to development, production and innovation (Canals 487).
Latham states that CEOs that are “vibrant”, “energetic” and show a considerable amount of zeal for the products and services that a company sells has a spillover effect on workers wherein they too begin to exhibit the same amount of faith, energy and zeal towards what the company does. This translates into better working environments, greater levels of innovation, the development of a sense of “team spirit” as well as better performance overall within the company (Latham 19). Examples of this can be seen in companies such as Facebook, Apple, Google and various other tech firms wherein it is the attitude and zeal that the CEO brings to the job that is often the catalyst behind the success of the company. When comparing the zeal and faith of the CEOs in the examples given to the CEO in the case, it becomes immediately apparent that the smart phone launch was doomed to failure since the lack of excitement and faith in the product from the CEO adversely affected the other workers within the company which inevitably resulted in the failure of the product launch.
Another factor that should be taken into consideration is the fact that at the onset of the product launch the CEO did nothing except rely entirely on the product manager in order to sell the product. While it is true that there are leadership styles that advocate for a CEO to allow a certain level of independence for the employees under them, the complete nonchalance depicted by the CEO in the case study reveals a form of behaviour that does not seem to care for the company at all. It is the job of CEOs to facilitate the success of a company through their leadership and ideas on how the company can take its next step forward, however, when the leadership that the CEO was supposed to provide is simply not there, then the problem is not in the company or its product, rather, the fault lies completely in the style of leadership that the CEO utilises as well as their ideas on how the company should be taken to the next level. When examining the data from the case, it becomes clear that the best alternative would have been to completely replace the CEO since it is primarily his fault that the launch failed.
However, barring such an act, one way in which the team members could have successfully completed their tasks would be if there was a greater sense of unity among the team. This aspect is often influenced by the internal business culture within a company which can result of individual teams working independently of the main branch of a company in order to achieve a goal. This capacity for unity that is independent from the main branch of leadership of the company can often be seen in the call centre industry wherein workers are often divided into different teams with each team being led by a team leader. Under such a setup, regardless of the attitude of the CEO regarding a particular product or service launch, the team itself is unaffected since they rely more on each other to coordinate and facilitate activities rather than on the executive branch of the company. A similar process can be implemented within the company in the case wherein creating a series of project teams for different types of products and service launches would be better as compared to the current organisational setup that is being utilised.
Works Cited
Canals, Jordi. “Global Leadership Development, Strategic Alignment And Ceos Commitment.” Journal Of Management Development 33.5 (2014): 487-502. Print.
Latham, John R. “A Framework For Leading The Transformation To Performance Excellence Part II: CEO Perspectives On Leadership Behaviours, Individual Leader Characteristics, And Organisational Culture.” Quality Management Journal 20.3 (2013): 19-40. Print.
Rauniar, Rupak, and Greg Rawski. “Organisational Structuring And Project Team Structuring In Integrated Product Development Project.” International Journal Of Production Economics 135.2 (2012): 939-952. Print.