Strategic workforce planning is a process of identifying, developing, and retaining employees in order to meet the objectives of the organization. It lays down the path that the company will take and articulates considerable program goals that are linked with change.
This planning needs to ensure that employees adapt to change failure to which can lead to the ineffectiveness of the strategic workforce planning, which in most cases, is caused by unproductive behavior of employees.
Unproductive behavior can cause consequences such as a decline in productivity and quality of products and services. Other impacts of unproductive behavior of employees on the strategic workforce planning include absenteeism, reduction in employee engagement, decrease in productivity, performance, customer loyalty, and low reputation of the company’s brand (Schroeder-Saulnier, 2012).
The challenges facing strategic workforce planning can be addressed by integrating the process of planning and involving an organization professional. The professional will need to understand the previous change initiatives by working closely with the leaders and the employees.
Involving the top management or leadership, who are responsible for steering organizational change, and making the strategic workforce planning a necessity for ensuring the alignment of business strategy with talent management strategy, can also serve to help the organization. The organizational professional can also assist the management in identifying employees who might act as champions or potential stumbling block.
The subsequent measure is to map out a change process and construct an effective system of communication. During the process of implementing the strategic workforce plan, the management needs to provide adequate support and development while leading the employees through the change process (Schroeder-Saulnier, 2012).
Effective implementation of this strategy will lead to productive employee behavior, which translates to high levels of job satisfaction, reduced feelings of quitting, and employee absenteeism. This has an impact on the organization’s environment since job satisfaction among employees, results in positive behavior towards customers, which will in turn promote customer satisfaction (Jetten et al, 2007).
Most corporate mergers fail due to cultural conflict; fall in acquisition of firm stock prices, and high turnover. An example of is the merger between Chrysler and Mercedes-Benz which started off well by reporting improved performance, as well as widespread expectations that it would be a success. The two organizations agreed on a fusion of equals where they would in cooperation benefit from each other’s potencies and potentials.
The merger then failed after several months due to cultural conflict as they reported failure in the management and operations because of the different ways of operation between the Americans and Germans. The Benz culture emphasizes on a structured and formal style of management, while the Chrysler culture advocated for a freewheeling and relaxed management style.
These discrepancies lead to amplified dominance, employee fulfillment and performance from the German’s entity. The Chrysler side went through a steep downturn characterized by extreme dissatisfaction of employees, as they perceived that the German unit planned on taking over and imposing their culture on the entire organization (Vlasic & Stertz, 2000).
Mergers are one strategy that various organizations use to increase market shares, cut on costs, and create synergy. However, the ultimate subject, the consumers, is normally kept in the dark on such deals, which has direct or indirect effects on the consumers. In the current times, such information is able to reach the consumers via various sources and this creates varied public perception on the concept of mergers.
From the previous experiences of mergers, there is a perception that most of these mergers are bound to fail. This causes a reduction in the customer loyalty and satisfaction, as well as a potential depreciation in productivity and quality of products or services.
On the other hand, successful mergers report improved quality of products, and good relations between the component organizations of the merger. If the merging companies have different cultures, then the merger is likely to improve the cultural relations, but is also at risk of failure if incompatible organizational cultures and conflicting corporate identities arise.
References
Schroeder-Saulnier, D. (2012). Organizational Effectiveness Preparing Your Workforce for Change. Web.
Vlasic, B., Stertz, B. (2000). Taken for a Ride: How Daimler-Benz Drove Off with Chrysler. New York: William Morrow & Co.