Managing Operational Performance Essay

Acquire Physical resources

It is arguably evident that physical resource acquisition is vital in ensuring business growth and expansion. In addition, valuable resources play an integral role in helping the business to establish competitive advantage over its competitors (Alkhafaji, 2003). This implies that businesses should constantly revise their physical resource acquisition methods in accordance with the business level strategies, business goals and the available financial resources at the disposal of the firm.

This helps in eliminating instances associated with financial constraints on the organization primarily due to asset acquisition. The business should strike at maintaining a balance between the finances used in the acquisition of the physical resources and the working capital of the business. In addition, the firm should categorize its critical resources that are essential in ensuring business continuity and growth in the long-term (Bartol & Tien, 2008).

Currently, the methods used for the acquisition of physical resources within The Office Assistant include purchasing, finance lease, operating lease and rent, which have been chosen depending on the type of physical resource. Finance lease, sometimes referred to as capital lease, is an instance of commercial arrangement that businesses can use to raise the finances required to acquire physical assets instead of using a genuine rental.

In this context, The Office Assistant selects a physical resource, which is then purchased by the lessor or the finance company (Daft & Marcic, 2010). As such, The Office Assistant uses the acquired physical resource during the lease period and makes subsequent installments regarding the use of the physical resource.

In the end, the financing company recovers a significant portion of the cost of the physical resource and the interests due to rentals incurred by The Office Assistant. The Office Assistant on the other hand has the alternative of acquiring ownership of the physical resource depending on the agreements through payment of the last rental and the bargain option purchase price (Drucker, 2007).

An operating lease on the other hand serves to acquire the physical resource for short duration of time; however, The Office Assistant will not have any ownership rights over the physical resource. The alternatives available when the duration of operating lease ends could be equipment renewal, restoration and purchasing the asset at its present market value.

Purchasing as an acquisition method implies that The Office Assistant has full ownership rights of the asset. Renting on the other hand involves payments for temporary use of a physical resource that is owned by another party (Durbin & Doerscher, 2010). The following Table 1 shows an analysis of the different types of physical resources and the recommendations on whether to change or not to change the acquisition method.

Monitor and review operational performance

Review strategy

Performance evaluation of the operational plan is needed in order to determine the effectiveness of the plan in meeting the business goals of The Office Assistant and facilitating the strategic business expansion of the enterprise (Grant, 2005). The operational plan is in line with the strategic business growth of increasing its sales services by 10 percent in the following years and to introduce new services such as graphic design (Hubbar & Beamish, 2011).

The operational plan to be reviewed also outlines the additional physical and human resources required for the expansion of the business in the following year. The Key Performance Indicators identified in this operational plan include mileage of the delivery van that should be analyzed on a daily basis to assess the extent of sales delivery.

This serves to eliminate potential cases associated with misuse of the firm’s resources by the employees. Another Key Performance Indicator outlined in the operational plan is the frequency of equipment hire for out of office business operations; this will entail an analysis of the volume of usage of the printing and photocopying papers (Nigel & Kraemer, 2004).

New market penetration is also another key performance indicator that will serve to evaluate whether the additional physical and human resource is justified in accordance with the strategic plan to expand the business in the following year.

The volume of work for the graphic designer, the number of calls that the business receives from its existing and new clients and the profit margin are also part of the Key Performance Indicators since they are used in evaluating whether the business has attained goals and objectives after the implementation of the operational plan to expand the business in the following year (Parmenter, 2011).

The review of the operational plan should be conducted after its implementation and should be done periodically in order to monitor the specific key performance indicators that are being met, those that are not, and their respective trends.

This approach plays an integral role in adjusting the operational plan to meet the business goals and objectives. As a result, the review will significantly entail gathering information from the employees of The Office Assistant and reviewing its performance in accordance with the already established business goals and objectives of the operational plan (Sampson & Daft, 2009).

Consultation strategy

Consultation strategy has the principal objective of gathering relevant information to facilitate the review and monitoring of the operational plan that was developed. It is important to take into consideration the fact that the consultation strategy should involve employees in the firm who are directly related with the outlined key performance indicators.

A comprehensive review will involve gathering information from all the employees at different organizational levels after the implementation of the operational plan (Thill & Courtland, 2011).

The sales representatives will be consulted in order to determine if there are any changes in the sales volume of the firm’s key products after the expansion of the business by 10 percent. An increase in the sales volume implies that the operational plan was effective in meeting the business goals and objectives of the expansion.

The employees who are responsible for administering services associated with photocopying, printing, packaging and posting services and equipment hire will be consulted in order to determine whether there is an increase in the service activities. This serves to evaluate their performance against the objective of increasing services delivery by 10 percent during the following business year by June 2012 (Williamson, 2003).

The employee in charge of the vehicle operations will be consulted in order to determine whether the delivery van is playing its role in enhancing service delivery as outlined in the operational plan to enhance services growth by 10 percent. The senior management team will also consulted in order to evaluate the core aspects of business performance such as changes in the profit margin, detailed reports concerning the productivity of the newly hired employees to enhance services section of the firm.

The management will also be consulted to produce a report detailing the consumption of business resources such as printing papers and inks, the trends in the sales and whether the introduced service of graphic design would have a positive reception by the potential customers (Wheelen & Hunger, 2008). The review of the operational plan will also consult with the implementation to determine the scope, risks and milestone achieved.

Reporting template that could be used to report on the performance of the operational plan

1. Tracking the achievements of the milestones regarding the time variable
   1. List the milestones achieved and those that have not been achieved
   2. Risk assessment of the milestones that have not been achieved
2. The budget scope of the operational plan
   1. The physical and human resources that have been acquired in time
   2. The physical and human resources that have not been acquired in time
   3. Risk assessment associated with the physical and human resources that have not been acquired in time
   4. Physical resources that may be needed during implementation and were not detailed in the operational plan
3. Completion of the milestones according the plan detail
   1. Acquisition of physical resources
   2. Acquisition of human resources
   3. Effective use of the physical resources
   4. Productivity of the human resources
   5. Achievement of the business goals and objectives
4. Achievement of the Key Performance Indicators
   1. Profit margins
   2. Mileage of the delivery van to assess the volume of service delivery
   3. Successful market penetration
   4. The volume of work for the graphic designer
   5. The number of calls that the business receives from its existing and new clients
5. Evaluations of how the physical and human resources are used in the organization.

Recommendations

The identified areas of non-performance in the operational plan for The Office Assistant include ineffective use of the firms resources; non-productivity of the employees; and poor personnel management and workforce planning. Non-productivity of the employees is evident in the case whereby the customer feedback forms have been developed and not implemented.

Poor work force planning and personnel management is evident for the case of where the budget wages are constantly overspent to cover the wages of the staff when attending induction. In addition, most of the employees under Karen are part time and casual work and only work during the afternoon, weekend; they therefore cannot attend the session (Bartol & Tien, 2008).

Recommendations to address the identified areas of non-performance

Ineffective use of the firm’s resources

Resources are central to the success of the organization; in fact, they facilitate the execution of every business processes and contribute towards the effectiveness of the functional units of the business such as sales management, marketing and distribution. Owing to the fact that the operational plan relies significantly on the addition of both human and physical resources to the firm, strategies should be devised to ensure that the only the resources that are needed to meet the business requirements are acquired (Bartol & Tien, 2008).

In order to ensure that resources are used effectively within the firm, it is recommended that periodic reporting to be undertaken by the employees who are left in charge of the resources. With this regard, the employees who deal with equipments such as the printers, photocopiers, motor vehicles and computers are required to submit periodic reports regarding the status of the equipments and any cases of upgrades that are needed.

Resource consumption should serve to reflect the levels of profit margins for the firm. It is also recommended that the senior management should set policies aimed outlining the consequences associated with ineffective and unproductive use of the firm’s resources.

Potential consequences could range from suspension of the employees, salary cuts to recover the losses imposed and job losses for employees who have been caught engaging in an unproductive consumption of resources. This approach serves to ensure employee accountability and responsibility towards the resources that have been allocated to them (Daft & Marcic, 2010).

Another strategic recommendation that can be used in ensuring that there is economic, productive and safe use of the firm’s resources is to ensure that physical resources are only approved for use by the senior management.

Business cases associated with the hiring of equipment should only be approved by the senior management, who have the responsibility of resource allocations, after which the employees using the resources are accountable and submit reports regarding how the resource was used and the need for upgrades and maintenance practices.

Accountability and responsibility should be of ultimate importance when using the firm’s assets. As such, the use of the organizational resources should be aligned only with the achievement of the business goals and objectives of the firm (Grant, 2005).

Non-productivity of the employees

Productivity is primarily concerned with the management of resources towards the achievement of the objectives in a timely manner without compromising on quality and quantity. This implies that it is evaluates the output relative to the input, implying that the productivity is mainly determined by the efficiency of the operations that aim at transforming the input to output.

Basically, productivity is a measure of the efficiency of production. Employee productivity should be reinforced using efficiency. The applicability of efficiency in driving productivity focuses more on the effective and timely use of the organizational resources in order to produce output (Drucker, 2007).

Time management plays an important role in the prioritization of organizational resources towards goal-oriented actions; this helps in increasing the output and ensuring that there is optimal usage of the input resources such as labor, capital and so on. In addition, efficiency through time management means that goals and objectives are achieved within the anticipated time frame, hence eliminating any bottlenecks that may be a hindrance in the effective undertaking of the business tasks.

In the present business context, process efficiency and automation are one of the most vital elements that organizations can deploy in order to ensure that they remain competitive. Process efficiency and automation are core organizational tools that can be used to foster productivity during the execution of the business level and corporate strategies.

Automation and process efficiency plays an important role in ensuring that business processes are executed in an effective manner that does not impose time constraints and ensures that the input resources are mainly used for their intended purpose (Durbin & Doerscher, 2010).

Personnel management and workforce planning

Personnel management and workforce optimization are also aspects of management that are directly related to organizational efficiency. Personnel management can be viewed as the process of acquiring and sustaining a productive workforce. It is an important aspect of management and is primarily concerned with the planning, organization, assimilation and maintenance of an organizational workforce for the principal purpose of fostering productivity.

The main objective underlying personnel management is to establish a productive labor force and allocate production resources in order to form a production process that is efficient in terms of cost, scale and technical efficiency. Personnel management is directly related to workforce planning, which primarily entails the allocation of input resources, time and labor in accordance to the desired goals and objectives in order to ensure that there is increased productivity within the organization.

This will eliminate instances associated with understaffing, unavailability of input resources and lack of employee productivity. In addition, workflow optimization and personnel management are vital tools in ensuring that there is workflow and process efficiency (Daft & Marcic, 2010).

Coaching plans

Coaching is increasingly becoming an important business process aimed at enhancing employee performance and retaining talent. In the context of The Office Assistant, coaching plans primarily serve to develop the skills of the employees (Drucker, 2007). The following paragraphs denote the core elements that make up the coaching plan to develop the skills of an individual.

Conduct an assessment of the individual that is to be coached

This mainly involves carrying out a comprehensive assessment on an individual’s strength, capabilities and any weaknesses relating to communications skills. The instructor can assess the individual using structured interviews, a written assessment that makes use of the question-answer approach, personality tests or using all of the above methods.

Ensuring that the individual has an understanding of what is expected out of her position

This is involves a review of the job descriptions and specifications for the job position that the individual has in the organization. It is also important to inform the individual the reasons why he/she is undertaking the coaching program, with a particular emphasis on the coaching need identified. The instructor has to establish the goals of the plan together with individual being coached in order to outline what is expected of both the instructor and the person who is undertaking the coaching program (Daft & Marcic, 2010).

Making sure that the individual holds commitment towards the coaching program

In this phase, collect the data regarding the individual’s commitment in reaching the goals of the coaching program identified. It is vital for the instructor to ascertain that the individual is willing for the coaching to be fruitful. Commitment is reinforced by:

1. Adopting a learner-centered approach, whereby the individual participates actively in most of the coaching process.
2. Constant evaluation of the progress of the coaching program towards the achievement of the established goals and objectives of the program
3. Persistent practical assessments to monitor improvements and the interests in undertaking the program

Develop an action plan that has been customized to address the identified coaching needs

This entails the development of an action plan, together with the individual being coached on the specific areas that he/she must work on during the course of coaching. Address the identified coaching needs one after the other and not in a simultaneous manner which may turn out to be ineffective (Thill & Courtland, 2011).

Concrete steps and evaluation should be established basing on unit timelines so as to determine the phase of the coaching progress. At the end of each step, an evaluation of the goals is undertaken to see the progress before moving on to the next step of the coaching process. It is important to note that the individual cannot be allowed to move to the next stage if the goals of the previous stage have not been met. A step by step approach and evaluation is preferable if the coaching program is to be fruitful.

Week 1:

Coaching need: interpersonal communication skills.

Goals

1. The individual should be able to introduce and express oneself without fear
2. The individual should demonstrate excellent interpersonal communication skills and interpersonal relationship skills such as negation and conflict resolution.

Week 2:

Coaching need: presentation skills.

Goals

1. The individual should be able to make presentations relating to his job position in the company in a group of at least 10 individuals without notable difficulties
2. The presentations made should be precise and lacks ambiguity
3. The individual should be able to defend his propositions regarding the concerns that are raised in his/her presentation.

Week 3:

Coaching need: efficiency in task performance.

Goals

1. The individual should be able to make timely submissions of tasks assigned to him/her
2. The individual should be able to complete the tasks assigned to him/her without simple errors and in time.

Week 4:

Coaching need: decision making skills.

Goals

1. The individual should have mastered core concepts of rational decision making at the individual level
2. The individual should be able to participate actively in group decision making.

Establish strategies that are used in measuring the progress

This is done through setting up discrete goals that are evaluated after the completion of each phases of the coaching process. Variables that can be used include test scores, change in behavior and an increase in efficiency.

The individual under coaching should be accountable for maintaining contact with the instructor and consulting with other parties if needed. Outsider involvement should be as minimal as possible and should only entail issues that are related to coaching process. Privacy of the individual should be maintained at all times when possible.

Establish a reward scheme for achievement of goals

Rewards and punishments should be developed as a motivator for the individual involved in the coaching program. This entails working the individual’s personality and encouragement of the potential benefits to his/her career after achieving the goals outlined in the coaching program.

Rewards scheme could include aspects such as better working environments, increased working conditions and potential benefits such as career enhancements. Punishments could range from the risk that the individual places himself in when he does not undertake his tasks in an efficient manner.

References

Alkhafaji, A., 2003. Strategic management: formulation, implementation, and control in a dynamic environment. London: Routledge.

Bartol, K. & Tien, M., 2008. Management, A Pacific Rim Focus. New York: Mc Graw Hill.

Daft, L. & Marcic, D., 2010. Understanding Management. Kentucky: Cengage Learning.

Drucker, F., 2007. Management challenges for the 21st century. New York: Butterworth Heinemann.

Durbin, P. & Doerscher, T., 2010. Taming Change with Portfolio Management: Unify Your Organization, Sharpen Your Strategy, and Create Measurable Value. Texas: Greenleaf Book Group.

Grant, R., 2005. Contemporary strategy analysis. New York: Wiley-Blackwell.

Hubbar, G. & Beamish, P., 2011. Strategic Management – Thinking, Analysis, Action. 4th ed. Australia: Pearson.

Nigel, M. & Kraemer, K., 2004. Review: Information Technology and Organizational perfprmance: an integrative model of IT business value. MIS Quaterly, pp.282 322.

Parmenter, D., 2011. Key Performance Indicators: Developing, Implementing,and Using Winning KPIs. New Delhi: John Wiley & Sons.

Sampson, D. & Daft, R., 2009. Fundamentals of Management. New York: Cengage Learning.

Thill, J. & Courtland, L., 2011. Excellence in Business Communication. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.

Wheelen, T. & Hunger, D., 2008. Strategic Management and Business Policy: Concepts and Cases. New York: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Williamson, D., 2003. Strategic management and business analysis. New York: Butterworth-Heinemann.