Introduction
So as to be able to achieve organizational goals and objectives, it’s important for the organization to embrace effective interventions. Organization development interventions are aimed at increasing the performance and output of the organization. So as to be successful, organization development interventions should affect the whole organization and should go down to the individual level.
The interventions should be sponsored by the head of the company and should be supported by the organization’s staff. Interventions that should be implemented in this case should involve respect for employees and the administration, having a working administration in the organization, having trust and open channels of communication between the administration and employees.
The interventions must be able to support open confrontation of problems that are facing the organization. Major stakeholders in the organization must also participate actively in the interventions. This will somehow give the interventions a bit of weight and seriousness Dustdar (2006).
Management
For any company to prosper, proper management should be implemented. Management is defined as the act of leading and directing all or part of an organizational structure through the deployment and use of resources; human, financial, material intellectual or intangible.
It involves providing guidance and letting others follow through. Poor management often leads to chaos and confusion among workers in a particular company or organization, leading to misuse of available resources and hence low production Dustdar (2006).
Problems noted
Bladetech Australia is a manufacturing company that after a while of being a productive company has seen its growth rate dwindling. It is noted that the company has began failing due facing direct competition from the Korean Manufacturing of windscreen wipers and as a result causing the Australian government to reduce its tariffs.
As much as the tariff reduction would help consolidate the global competitiveness of Australian companies as a whole, it also makes them four to five percent less competitive than other economies in the world. Bladetech therefore may suffer a great loss to the Korean company.
Bladetech a need to have better use of support functions and resources involved in new product development. This is an issue noted that has led to the inflexibility of the structure and service operations such as engineering and design.
The lack of flexibility in a manufacturing company, or any company for that matter should be an issue of concern as it may lead to dysfunctional relationships between different departments in the company and miscommunication. This leads to failure in the company as a whole because it is the departments that make up the organization.
Another problem facing Bladetech is the lack of proper and aggressive marketing. Marketing is an important aspect in the development and growth of a business venture.
It is through marketing that a company attracts its potential customers and investors more so advertises its products creating new opportunities for market expansion. Badetech has failed in actively trying to expand its marketing horizons leading to it having limited access to its products.
Bladetech has poor structure and the lack of co-ordination among the departments. The general manager is viewed as the overall overseer of the three departmental heads; operations, sales and marketing, and human resource management, under which operation and sales and marketing managers are concerned with the departments of engineering and design, manufacturing and distribution.
Apart from having a disorganized structure, there is weak managerial competence and training at all levels of employees in the company. This has led to disunity between the various departments due to unconstructive criticism and comments towards each other.
The efforts employed to initiate several training and change programs have seemed futile due to the negative attitude from the affected parties which has as a result provided almost no solution.
The manager operations points out that the marketing and the HRM fields are at fault. He notes that the marketing field engages in expensive marketing that he implies might not be necessary because he probably does not seem to see its results, whereas HRM involves itself in training and development courses. The major problem here however is the issue of pointing fingers.
This particular manager blames his failures on his fellow colleagues without acknowledging any efforts that might have been put out by them towards the improvement of their firm. He further fails to concede that one of his teams a need attention to achieve improvement Spedding (2008).
The main constraints affecting the operations group is the lack new ideas and innovation, the time taken to implement the ideas and the time it takes to come up with new products Williamson (2004).
This has been greatly fuelled by the lack of proper technological assistance and the slow adoption of the latest technologies and current management practices. These management practices have been characterized by the head of operations who actually maintains that a need for an expert in organizational development is merely a waste of financial resources!
According to the manager of sales and marketing, the major issue facing his field is the lack of proper rewards to him and his subordinates who often are dedicated to lengthy working hours Nuthall (2010). This has led to loss of productive force hence poor production. He further comments that his proposals for improvement have been met by strong rejections from the other fields.
The lack of support of the various departments is seen as the problem here that has hindered the development of the company. It can be concluded here that each department is after individual benefits other than the general growth of the company Bates (2005).
The problems affecting the accounting and financial field as mentioned by its manager is bombardment of too many changes in the field in a short spun of time. It the lacks the newest system of financial technology that might be useful in updating its financial records and is not welcoming to future changes in its operations Burrow (2008).
Unfortunately, management in this department does not exhibit the confidence and assertiveness that is key to any employee that hold an important post. She avoids one on one discussion about the issues affecting her field and prefers to communicate via email. The issue with this kind of communication method especially when dealing with important matters is the information might be missed or not clearly understood.
In general, the key problems facing the company are as listed:
- Poor organizational structure.
- Poor communication channels among the departments in the company.
- The lack of proper marketing strategies.
- The lack of incentives for workers.
- Presence of incompetent employees.
- The lack of new and improved technologies.
- The lack of new ideas for innovation.
In order for Bladetech Company to move forward in their quest for improvement, there is a need for providing probable solutions to the problems that are affecting them by evaluating each individually and noting their roots Statt (1999). Bladetech structural organization might not be viewed as a strong one in that there is only one overseer that is supposed to manage and direct operations of the other heads.
This problem might be taken care of by introducing assistants to all levels of managements. This improves the chances that the head is overwhelmed by too much work hence losing track of the activities of the subordinates North (1997).
Bladetech needs to work as a unit in terms of communication. Listening skills need to be used to facilitate better relations between the fields. Heads of department should try to hear each other out and try to understand the challenges that face individual fields before disregarding their opinions and wishes. This will generate better working environment comfortable to each employee Jeston (2006).
Recommendations
The company should improve its marketing strategies. This can be done by looking for ways to expanding market for their products, looking at the current competitive pricing of the product in the available market and try to regulate their prices that is being fair yet competitive.
Bladetech sales and promotion field should try to look for better opportunities outside and view this venture positively, not as a cost but as a means of creating awareness of their products in the global market Thomas (2011).
Orientation is the most important part of the first day of an employee at a company and must be done effectively so as to ensure that new employees easy find and identify a place for themselves at the organization. There are however some improvements that the company can make to the program so as to ensure that the new employees are well oriented.
The company should have extended the time that is allocated to employees for the orientation. This would give employees more time to get used to their jobs. This can help foster productivity. The orientation process should also be made broader.
Instead of having a board room meeting the company should organize a number of activities for orientation. This is because people learn best from processes that allow them to see, feel, touch and be one with whatever they are being oriented into. This will also promote productivity and faster settling in by employees.
Incompetent workers should be dealt with accordingly. First of all, uncooperative behaviour should not be condoned as this contributes to poor work ethics. Individuals exhibiting such behaviour should have their terms or contracts terminated with immediate effect.
The company’s discipline system recruitment rules to guidelines that are in the form of company policies which dictate what employees are allowed to and what they are not allowed to do. The rules are enforced in all departments of the organization. This has increased awareness of employees towards disciplinary measures that the organization takes Thomas (2011).
The discipline program also contains a number of steps that are geared at correcting wrong employee behaviour. The system has two types of warnings and reprimands that an employee could receive for any form of misbehaviour. These include verbal and written reprimands.
The discipline system contains elements such as suspensions without pay where by the reprimanded employee is supposed to take some time off their work without pay and serious offenses may invite a direct dismissal of the employee.
This system is effective because it keeps all employees in check and ensures that they are all well disciplined at work. Relevant training sessions and courses should be offered frequently to maintain the credibility of the human resources and to keep up to date with the current technological know-how Barrile (2007).
The company also needs to update all its technological equipments so that they may be at par with their competitors Stokes (2006). Management should understand that technologies are bound to change frequently and should therefore work to enable their fields to quickly adopt these sudden changes Longenecker (2006).
This involves greatly the financial sector which is prone to breaking under these sudden changes. Bladetech need to improve management of its financial sector by introducing aggressive individuals who are up to date on the newest forms of technologies Bates (2005).
The company must integrate new individuals with new ideas into their work force. This will provide ideas on the improvement of their products and their performance hence better products. It requires these individuals to research other companies’ products in order to find new ideas in producing their own improved version of the products.
This may also alleviate competition which was seen as a major hindrance towards the development of the company Drucker (2007). This intervention improves the productivity of the company by modifying the existing organization structures.
So that the organization can be able to achieve its goals it is important that it changes its structure. By changing the structure the organization will be able to regain control of management and employees as well.
This will increase the organizations efficiency and performance Spedding (2008).The implementations of these interventions require a dedicated process. As it may be costly to integrate new forms of technology, financial back ups are needed. This also requires agreement and support of each individual in the company.
They should be ready to accept and implement the changes that come along with the implementations for the overall benefit of the company’s productivity. Bladetech management should incorporate the government in its dealings overseas. This will help promote its products and increase its marketing options.
Employee diversity is also a major setback to employees working together. Therefore the organization should be able to harmonize all its employees so as to be able to achieve its goals.
Employee relation intervention would be very important when there are many conflicts at the work place, when there is recruitment of new employees and low employee morale. The organization could implement this on the individual level and also on a personal level. These include:
Individual coaching and Counselling: the organization could choose to hire a professional to coach and counsel individuals in the organization. Individuals could be coached on the importance of working together with their colleagues. Counselling may also offer a chance for individuals to voice their complaints about the work place.
Mentorship Programs and Visionary Leadership: the organizations top brass for example, the CEO should have a mentorship program for the organizations employees. Management should lead the other employees towards meeting the organizations goals. Leadership and mentorship should be by example.
The company should also address employees as a group. The organization should resolve all conflicts that exist between employees. The organization must encourage dialoguing and an open communication line between employees. The organization should encourage team building and offer incentives for teams that have good performance Barrile (2007).
It is also important to increase employee performance so as to increase the overall performance of the organization. The organization’s goals offer the reference to performance. The organization should clearly state its objectives and the progress to the goals must be monitored regularly.
The organization should have a feedback system that tells employees hoe close or how far they are from the organization’s objectives. So as to be able to meet this objectives employee performance is critical Barrile (2007).
The first step to performance management is the statement of the organization’s performance goals. The organization must have clearly stated and defined goals. Employees should be made aware of these goals. The next step would be coming up with a performance plan.
The company must routinely monitor and track this plan. The organization should evaluate performance and reward where due. The performance plans of the organization should be open to development. They should allow for improvement.
Morale Boosting and employee Motivation: the organization can use incentives and gifts to motivate employees. The organization should propose a system which offers employees financial incentives which are pegged on the profits made by the company. This will increase work input and output. This will in turn increase the company’s profits.
Employees participating in the scheme directly affect the company’s profits. The organization must ensure that the scheme motivates the selected employees to be more productive. The goals and ambitions must be realistic and attainable. The organization must spell out goals that can be achieved. It would be best if the goals were based on the history of the company. If the goals are set too high it would demoralize employees Barrile (2007).
The organization should provide a suitable climate for the development of employee careers. Promotions should be given upon merit not based on years of service. This will enhance career development for hardworking employees. It will also act as a motivating factor.
The organization must also plan for leadership and management. Only qualified employees should be promoted to leadership and management positions. This will ensure that the organization has competent leadership and thus increase the company’s productivity Williamson (2004).
Benefits are offered by employers so as to make the employee’s stay at the company comfortably and will be more inclined to staying at the company. Other benefits that are offered by employees are so as to enable employees to be able to balance their work and social life outside work. This allows employees to have time for their family, friends or whatever they is important in their lives (Ivancevich, 2010).
The main intention of these benefits is to make sure employees are highly motivated and have the morale to work. This is because the benefits are out to make employees happy and if employees are happy at the work place they will increase their work input as well as their work output.
The benefits are also beneficial to the company since they ensure the company retains its critical employees. By being able to retain critical employees the organization remains strong towards the path of reaching its goals and objectives.
Work life programs help to bridge the gap between work and the personal life of an employee. These programs create a balance between work and the personal lives of employees. This leads to an increase in productivity and work output and creates a better place for employees to work in.
There are various options of work life programs for example adjustable work arrangements, salary bonuses and discounts foe employees. Good work life programs highly motivate employees to work better and to love their jobs.
Conclusion
Organization Development interventions require a leader who is actively participating in the in the interventions. The organization should not implement the above discussed interventions without a good leader. It will negate the need to implement them. A leader is needed to guide and inspire the change required in the organization. The leader should be a visionary.
As discussed early they should commence from the apex of the organization. They should start with the CEO and go all the way down to the lowest employee. The organization should also constantly reward employees who embrace the interventions. This will motivate all employees to embrace change Williamson (2004).
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