Introduction
Managing a business is a complex process. The complexity can only be broken down by the virtue of adopting several strategic practices. Strategies can help in simplifying the sub-processes of management in order to attain an accomplished organization of the business.
Starting a business is a strategic move that should not be greatly based on the desire of an individual, but it has to be founded on the basis of the assessment and the understanding of the factors in the environment in which one wants to establish a business.
Failure to conduct an assessment of the business environment and the subsequent development and sharing of the vision and mission of the business can result in a number of hitches as the business begins operating (Certo & Certo, 2012).
A number of issues of management that can be termed as the causes of a stalemate in the management of the firm that was established by Amanda have come out in the case. This paper discusses the case and the recommendations.
The development and sharing of a mission
Missions are the key guiding basis for the operation of any organization, whether it is for profit or not-for-profit. Any organization must, thus, begin by developing a mission that acts as the basis on which the firm operations and activities are grounded. The failure to establish a mission at the start of a firm is one of the indicators of problems in the management of the firm.
This is one mistake that was done by Amanda when establishing the accounting firm. She crafted the missions of the firm hastily. The other critical thing about the mission of a firm is that it has to be owned by the organization. The communication of the mission of the organization is, therefore, another vital activity in the management of a firm.
Failing to communicate a mission amounts to putting the operation of the organization to jeopardy. In the case of the accounting firm, the mission was not shared and communicated to the employees.
One critical factor of organizational cohesiveness and organizational performance is the endeavor of the organization to operate by fulfilling the attributes of the organization, which are embedded in the mission (Rao, Rao & Sivaramakrishna, 2008).
The mission is like the heart of the organization and the center that controls all other developments in the organization. Failing to share and communicate the mission of the firm to the employees is like operating an organization without a mission. The mission of an organization is critical to the development of strategic goals and objectives for the company.
It also encourages the development of individual goals and initiatives. Strategic goals are the pillar upon which the discharge of roles and functions in the organization are molded, thereby realizing the fulfillment of the aspirations of the company. Business expectations are also molded by the mission of the firm (Rao, Rao & Sivaramakrishna, 2008).
Strategic human resource management
Human resource management and especially strategic management is a critical exercise as far as the sustainability of the work in any firm is concerned. It is important for any business manager to ensure that there is a proper organization of employees and other resources in the firm.
The belief that each employee in the firm has a responsibility to sort out his or her own problem is no longer a desired notion in strategic human resource management.
Strategic human resource management, which is one of the critical functions in business organization and management, embraces the consideration to give care and support to all the employees of the organization as a way of steering the organization towards achieving its goals. The performance of the employees must always be a critical concern for a business manager (Dhar, 2008).
This is what Amanda failed to observe and a factor that resulted in errors in the tax returns that had been submitted by the employees. Checking on the employees’ progress helps an organization in two ways. One is the detection of the difficulties in discharging work of the employees, thus making it easy to detect anomalies in the work and rectifying the anomalies when they have not reached lethal levels.
The second point is that it is one way of motivating the employees. It makes the employees feel that their work matters in the organization (Williams, 2001).
Training is a critical exercise of managing employees in the organization. When the organization is designed, it is important to design work practices in the organization through the development of job positions and the description of the positions. There is, therefore, need for the accounting firm to carry an assessment of the organization and design jobs since the company had not done that in the first place.
This can easily give the organization a foundation on which to discharge other human resource functions, like performance management. The design of jobs in the organization helps in the identification of gaps human resource management, thereby making easy for the management to fix the gaps (Dhar, 2008).
Human resource planning and business expansion
There is also poor organization of human resource practices in the organization, more so the manner in which the company dealt with the issue of human resource development. Human resource planning is a critical exercise in as far as the desire to attain profits in a business is concerned.
Human resource planning entails the measure of the amount of work in the organization against the number of employees in the organization who are supposed to discharge organizational functions (Williams, 2001). It is evident in the case that the company was possessed with the results and did not look into the aspects of work planning in the organization, which is a key ingredient to the attainment of desirable business outcomes.
Human resource planning entails the assessment of the scale of work in the organization and the possibility of developing and implementing the staffing exercise to balance work amongst the employees in the organization. There was no serious consideration of such an exercise in the organization.
The increase in the workload in the firm was, therefore, not accompanied by an increase in the number of employees to perform the work, thus creating pressure on the employees in the firm (Certo & Certo, 2012).
When there is more work in the organization, the organization ought to consider increasing the number of employees even if it is on a short term basis. This is because work pressures arising from workload can easily result in heinous mistakes in the discharge of work, which may taint the work outcomes and the reputation of the organizations with its clients.
As long as business organizations work on minimizing costs and maximizing profits, there are certain boundaries that must often be checked, failure to which the organization loses its competitive ground in the industry and the market (Certo & Certo, 2012).
From the discussion, a number of issues come out, which denote gaps in the management of the firm. The organization is designed poorly, which causes gaps in the implementation of business and human resource practices. The improvement of the organization’s management must start with crafting and sharing of the organization’s mission, followed by the application of strategic human resource management.
References
Certo, S. C., & Certo, S. T. (2012). Modern management: Concepts and skills. Boston, MA: Pearson.
Dhar, R. L. (2008). Strategic human resource management. New Delhi: Excel Books.
Rao, C. A., Rao, B. P., & Sivaramakrishna, K. (2008). Strategic management and business policy: Texts and cases. New Delhi: Excel.
Williams, R. S. (2001). Managing employee performance: Design and implementation in organizations. London: Thomson Learning.