Introduction
Organizational interventions are efforts employed by companies to enhance the effectiveness and viability of employees and the entire company. A company achieves organizational interventions by employing changes within the organization. Effective organizational interventions lead to improved employee performance, which increases productivity. The first step in planning for an organizational intervention is identifying the problem (Cummings & Worley, 2008). In this case, analysis of the problems in Tasty Farms is essential. Tasty Farms introduced a new information management system to manage client orders.
The system facilitates accurate and on-time delivery of products. Moreover, Tasty Farms experienced increased processing and production capability, which forced the executive team to approve an expansion of the Packing and Shipping workforce. The workforce is to double within the next nine months and then from nine to eighteen workers. However, a hypothetical interview indicates that the Packing and Shipping department employees are poorly prepared to handle the system. The employees possess poor communication skills and they lack the basic teamwork skills. These problems call for organizational interventions. Therefore, this paper develops a proposed approach to address one of the key issues facing the Packing and Shipping department of Tasty Farms.
Description of the key issue: poor communication network
The key issue at the Tasty Farms is the existence of a poor communication network. The managers, the executive team, and the supervisors have a poor communication network. The workers are poorly prepared to handle a new information management system introduced by the managers and the executive team. This means that there was no effective communication between the workers and the managers before the purchase of the machine. Furthermore, the executive team has approved the expansion of the Packing and Shipping workforce to double the number of employees within the next nine months without consulting the employees. To address these issues, there is a need for the company to employ the following organizational interventions.
Eliminate Hierarchical Decision-Making Procedure
Tasty Farms should adopt new changes in the decision-making procedures. Whenever Tasty Farms plans to make developmental changes, all the employees should take part in the decision-making process. Every employee should give suggestions, criticisms, and any relevant information about the developmental changes. Lowly ranked employees could possess useful suggestions on the developmental changes (Rafferty & Griffin, 2001). If Tasty Farms had employed this strategy, all employees in the packing and the shipping department would be aware of the new machine and would have been prepared to handle it.
Focusing on Departmental Groups
A collection of departmental groups forms an organization. Therefore, any form of developmental change needs precise communication within the groups. The departmental heads should communicate efficiently with their employees to ensure that they understand the developmental changes in the organization. Effective departmental level discussions about any developmental changes should come before managerial level discussions. There is a need to strengthen interdepartmental relationships, which enhances the strong relationships of employees from the various departments. Departmental supervisors should not rule the employees, but lead and provide support. They should discourage unnecessary competition between departments. In actual sense, healthy competition helps in motivating employees. However, unhealthy competition within the departments leads to hatred. The spirit of collaboration is encouraged to foster teamwork and strengthen the communication network.
Trust and Investing in Employees
With the evolving world, new technologies arise from time to time. The introduction of new technologies into the market makes the technological knowledge of employees obsolete. Therefore, the company needs to trust their employees and invest in them. Trainings, seminars, and incentives motivate employees, and thus a form of investment that companies provide. Tasty Farms need to invest in training the employees from the Packing and Shipping department. The company benefits from the skills employed by the duly trained employees. Developing the skills of employees is a sense of appreciation that enhances their sense of well being (Schein, 2004). The provision of educational opportunities to employees benefits the organization and offers the employees with the opportunity of promotion. Some companies distrust their employees because they feel insecure, as employees may opt to resign after obtaining the education (Ratcliffe, 2007). While this would be a worthwhile reason to reject educational opportunities, companies should breed mutual trust in their employees.
Rationale for the Recommendations
The rationale for the above recommendations lay in the belief that poor communication network is the base of all problems in Tasty Farms. Therefore, enhancing the communication network within the Packing and Shipping department of Tasty Farms will solve the key issues. In leading and managing the change process, I will be the overseer. I will offer advisory services and foster projects that meet the needs of the employees and the company. The managers and company leaders will implement and manage the projects.
Conclusion
As evident from the discussions, communication networks are very important systems in any organization. The managers and top officials should work towards enhancing communication. They should encourage active participation by employees in all decision-making procedures because it is the best strategic intervention an organization can employ.
References
Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2008). Organization development and changes (9th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.
Rafferty, A. E., & Griffin, M. A. (2001). Expanding organizational diagnosis by assessing the intensity of changes activities. Organization Development Journal, 19(3), 3-15.
Ratcliffe, A. (2007). As nature intended: The ecology of complex changes. Training Journal, 16(1), 47-49.
Schein, E.G. (2004).Organizational culture and leadership (3rd ed.). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.