Service Adhesives Ltd employs up to 20% of its workforce on short-term contracts. What effect will this have on the proposed team-based working structure?
The article reveals that the workforce comprises of migrant workers from Poland and the Czech Republic, which means that they are unskilled in their job description. The company would have difficulties in carrying out a team-based strategy. Migrant workers are unskilled; they work for their living and cannot comprehend the quality of work needed for the change. Thus, the management has to fire the entire 20% of migrant staff if it has to work as a team. The job description of the organization requires that each employee should be specialized in the position assigned to him or her. This would enable the organization to carry out the desired change.
In considering a transition from a traditional organizational work structure to a team-based work structure what sort of barriers will Services Adhesives Ltd likely to encounter? Think about formal structures and informal structures.
A traditional organizational work structure is similar to a team-based structure because the two structures require a strategic plan and the coordination of daily activities. However, the transition from the traditional work structure would encounter obstacles such as competence test. In a team-based structure, every employee is assigned to a job based on his or her competence regardless of how much time the individual had worked with the organization. Thus, some employees would lose their jobs in the process of change. The informal structures such as communication would be strengthened because the workforce would be motivated to succeed in their departments. The transition from a traditional structure to a team-based work structure would require a systematic approach (FAO Corporate Document Repository, 2003).
Could a team-based work organization be the answer to their organizational difficulties? Why do you think that previous initiatives at Super Supply had failed?
The organization has to overhaul all the causal staff that are unskilled; the use of unskilled labor is the reason for their failures. The level of education would influence the level of cohesion among the staff of the organization. The quality of communication among the workforce would improve when there is cohesion among them, and it depends on the organizational structure and influence by teamwork. The initial strategy as Super Supply failed because of the quality of the workforce. They were unskilled and could not meet up with the competition of similar firms. The cost of production must be reduced; this would affect the price of the products that could be a competitive advantage for the organization.
What difficulties could Service Adhesives face in carrying out empowerment?
When you allow an employee to make decisions in his or her field of study, the employee has been empowered. Empowerment motivates the workforce, it could be monetary, decision making, and promotions. However, some obstacles could limit the strategy, this includes individual arrogance, security breach, the risk associated with decision making, and the quality of output of the individual (Management Study Guide, 2008).
References
FAO Corporate Document Repository. (2003). Management of Agricultural Research: A Training Manual. Web.
Management Study Guide. (2008).Employee Empowerment-Good or Bad. Web.