management

Introduction

To effectively transform organizations, managers are charged with the role of making sure that employees are fully empowered at the workplace. It is vital to mention that employees who are empowered and involved in the process of running the daily operations of an organization are usually deemed to be very productive. When employees take part in the management of organizational affairs, it is tantamount to democratizing functions at the workplace.

Nonetheless, most organizational theorists are still in a state of bafflement since they have not identified the best models that can be used to implement employee empowerment and participation at the workplace. Although managers mutually agree that effectiveness and performance are improved when employees are empowered, there is still a growing discourse on the major structural issues and elements.

This essay offers a critical and incisive look at some of the pertinent issues that emerge from employee empowerment and participation at the workplace. A brief discussion on how employees can be empowered is also included in the analysis.

Employee empowerment and participation

It is a fact that managers in organizations usually grapple with the desire to derive the most from employees. In other words, the productivity of workers is the most crucial contributing factor towards the success of any business entity. Therefore, this calls for a serious human resource team that can sufficiently select, hire and boost the capacity of employees.

As a matter of fact, the style of functioning adopted by an organization should be largely democratic and participative (Sharma and Gurvinder 7). Nonetheless, employee participation should also be restricted to certain areas of decision making processes because the key management functions cannot be transferred to the subordinates.

The potential of employees can be realized when a well structured decision making process is adopted. Regardless of the technique used, employees should feel empowered and valued before they can add value to an organization. It is vital to recall that empowering employees is also the best approach for motivating the workforce.

Perhaps, it is vital to mention that when duties are delegated to junior employees in the workforce, it amounts to empowerment. However, this should be executed in a structured manner as already mentioned above. In addition, the various levels of an organization are supposed to share information that can aid the smooth running of processes (Sharma and Gurvinder 9).

The ability of an employee to demonstrate commitment at workplace and also feel liberated to carry out certain functions without a lot of restrictions is also part and parcel of the empowerment process. Therefore, employees who are empowered are equally motivated and enhanced to discharge their duties.

From the above views, quite a number of vital perspectives can be discussed. To begin with, a systematic and structured style should be adopted by organizational managers who wish to empower their workforce. This implies that the empowerment efforts can only yield the best outcomes when executed in the right manner.

Second, the empowering efforts and the expected results should be measured or appraised on a regular basis bearing in mind that the process of empowering employees is psychological.

Moreover, managers should be able to differentiate between workplace participation and empowerment because each of these practices requires a different approach in order to attain the best results. They are similar ideologies with different perspectives or approaches altogether.

Although several research perspectives acknowledge the fact a proactive and positive role can be discharged by organizations in empowering employees, there is still lack of a common agreement on how the same can be executed. Most of the past studies have largely focused on basic organizational practices that can empower the workforce (Sharma and Gurvinder 10).

Nonetheless, the basic analyses of employee empowerment have equally gave the way forward on how workers can be empowered and motivated at the place of work. These have been discussed in the following paragraphs.

First, the nature of the supervisory style adopted by the lead management is important in the process of empowering employees. Although employees should be supervised when discharging their roles, it should be noted that the style used can either propel or act as a setback to the progress of an organization. For example, exercising a very high level of control over employees is not necessary.

Managers who are authoritative in their style of leadership may not motivate or empower employees. In other words, autocratic style of leadership is highly likely to yield negativism at workplace. Close supervision of employees should never be encouraged especially when self responsibility among workers is desired. There are few circumstances when close supervision may be required even though it should be limited to specific and well understood cases.

Second, employees should also be rewarded at workplace so that they can gain a sense of belonging and worth. There are myriads of reward systems that can be used by the human resource managers. For example, arbitrary reward allocations that are non contingency can be employed.

Rewards can also be classified as low incentive values. In addition, employees who are not competent enough at workplace can be uniquely rewarded through additional capacity building and training programs. An organization should never be too quick to release an employee from workplace before attempting the various reward systems.

Third, job design at workplace should be made clear to each employee. Clarity of roles to be played by each employee should be vivid in the job description. When an employee clearly understands his or her roles, it becomes rather easy to meet the objectives set by an organization. There are also instances when the job design may require additional technical support and re-training of employees.

Hence, organizational managers should be in a position to identify departments or levels that are poorly performing and consequently discharge corrective measures. It is possible that an employee’s skills can be outdated due to the adoption of new technologies. In such a case, the employee can be empowered by retraining and undergoing periodical technical support.

When goals are being set for each department and also for the entire organization, it is crucial to involve all employees. Goal setting session provides the best opportunity for organizational managers to seek and integrate the input of the entire workforce. In addition, employee participation comes in handy when mutual participation is exercised in goal setting.

There are several instances when managers have come up with unrealistic goals just because the employees were not part and parcel of the process. Needless to say, goals to be adopted by an organization are supposed to be specific in nature. Also, they should be time-bound. Alternatively, they can be classified as short, medium, and long term goals. Moreover, goals should be attainable and meaningful.

Low task variety tends to limit the full empowerment of employees. As much as the job design might be limited to specific tasks or duties, it is highly encouraged for employees to break the boredom by engaging in various tasks. Switching from one department to another, especially when an employee has the requite skills is vital.

Low task variety creates monotony at the workplace and it is also a major de-motivating factor that managers should address at the workplace (Sharma and Gurvinder 9).

Optimum participation in organizational programs is yet another empowering factor for employees. For example, employees should be encouraged to attend workshops, seminars and regular meetings that can directly boost the performance of their duties.

When employees are allowed to take part in most programs pertaining to the growth and development of an organization, they tend to familiarize themselves with the overall objectives and corporate culture of a firm. These are important entities of organizational growth.

Appropriate and necessary resources should also be put in place in order to empower and boost the productivity of workers. It is not possible for employees to remain productive in the absence of necessary factors of production. For instance, the adoption of latest technological platforms and tools is necessary in cases where manual applications are no longer effective.

It is pertinent to mention that competition from other market rivals is rife and therefore, resources should be available so as to manage the stiff market competition. Significant investment in terms of resource allocation to employees is required so that workers can be empowered. Resource allocation can also be considered alongside proper compensation of workers through wages, salaries, and other work-related benefits.

Poor contact between junior employees and the top management is a serious limiting factor when it comes to employee empowerment and participation at the workplace. If employees and senior managers are not in a position communicate and share information regularly, then communication breakdown can take place (Sharma and Gurvinder 10).

Most of the past managerial failures have been attributed to poor communication within organizations. Indeed, operations take place in organizations only after effective communication.

When the entire human resource cannot exchange information freely, it may culminate into serious loss in the productivity of employees. It is actually the sole role of the senior management to create an enabling and safe working environment where employees can contact each other as well as the top management with a lot of ease.

On a final note, the role played by rewards and incentives cannot be ignored in this discussion. In most instances, the first step in employee empowerment is initiating a reward and incentive system. When specific employees perform beyond expectations, they are supposed to be rewarded (Sharma and Gurvinder 12).

Personal competence is reinforced when rewarded based on performance. Furthermore, individuals should be rewarded when they take part in the process of decision making. In particular, the ability to implement such decisions should be considered the epitome of such reward systems in organizations. It is not just adequate to come up with decisions without taking the same decisions to the implementation phase.

In conclusion, it can be seen that the empowerment of employees at the workplace remains as one of the core managerial duties of modern organizations. The marketplace competition is stiff. Therefore, it calls for optimum empowerment and participation of employees at the workplace. In any case, the productivity of employees has a direct proportionality to the overall performance of an organization.

Works Cited

Sharma, Manoj and Kaur, Gurvinder. “Employee Empowerment: A Conceptual Analysis.” Journal of Global Business Issues 2.2 (2008): 7-12. Print.

Introduction

The objective of the paper is to highlight the extensive practice of assessing stress risk and managing it within the organisation context. Employers and employees must work together to bring out psychological risks and solutions for minimizing the risks in the workplace. Stress at the organisation refers to the hostile reaction to excessive pressures and demands placed on people. Work-life balance policy compliments the stress management policy because it allows employees to reduce their work burden and recalibrate their life routines to keep up with both work and personal life demands (Banfield & Kay 2008).

The paper aims to show that work related stress and work-life balance requirements depend on organisational contexts (Ananthram 2013). Management of the two human resource issues depends on personal characteristics of employees, the work, and the department within the organisation. Administrative practices and policies, and any contradictions of the organisation with societal norms all contribute to disharmony at the individual and organisational levels in various ways (Briscoe et al. 2012).

Organisation change is one of the critical stressors for employees because it disrupts routines and renders many aspects of policies irrelevant. Therefore, it is important for management to shift employee welfare orientations accordingly and swiftly to ensure that employees do not lose any of their non-monetary work benefits without earning equivalent replacements (Baruch et al. 2013).

Stress management policies help to attend to quality of work issues, which are now the conventions of organisational behaviour research. Although that has been a number of researches done on aspects of employee health and welfare, the research findings, theoretical underpinning on stress and its management either take a general sense, or they are too specific to an organisation such that can only be partially applied to other related situations (Brewster et al. 2014). The essential method of dealing with stress in organisations is by coming up with precise varieties of stress and their consequences (Bratton & Gold 2012).

Stress management policy

Burnout relates to stress reaction whose dominant characteristics are exhaustion and cynicism. These usually arise when there are chronic organisational stressors. Burnout often leads to job dissatisfaction, employee turnover, and decrease in quality of work. It may also show up as unwanted behaviours such as alcohol and drugs misuse or unwanted health conditions like physical and mental disorders. When the work related stress is too much, it ends up manifesting as emotional exhaustion.

After identifying the types of stress in the organisation and their possible solutions, the next task is to highlight barriers for reducing work related stress for subsequent correction. Organisation change and lack of organisation capability are the biggest barriers to implementation of stress management policy.

The stress management policy recognizes employee as the most important assets of the organisation. In addition, the well-being of employees dictates their ability to provide the high quality service. The policy’s objectives are to monitor and access all stress indicators and then manage effectively the return to work for all employees who have missed work, or attended to work assignments half-heartedly. Every aspect of the policy leads to an action that reduces pressures, which caused stress. The interventions can be by the organisation on behalf of staffs, or it could be by the staffs themselves (Boella & Gross-Turner 2011).

The responsibility of the policy falls on the company, but its implementation requires the cooperation of all department heads, line managers and employees. Department heads have to implement the policy for all employees that are under them in the organisation structure. The heads conduct risk assessments periodically and bring out any stress related issues to the management board meeting (Grande 2008). The heads also work with the company leader to ensure that mechanisms for prevention, control and reduction are working as intended. Each department requires work practices and designs that slow down stress formation in employees and it is the duty of department heads to oversee the employee involvement in work and stress management interventions.

Line managers ensure good communication exists between management and staffs. They also address all issues of harassment and bullying in their discretion and may refer to their superiors and other company policies for guidance. Line managers access the level of training for staffs to ensure it matches their job responsibilities. They ensure that staffs are taking their full holiday entitlements and address work problems caused by staffs that have stressors arising from outside the work environment. Line managers recommend staff development opportunities to department heads and they nominate staffs in the selection process.

On their part, employees give managers advice on the stress policy and they assist in implementation by presenting the required information about absenteeism, sickness, job attitudes and other stress manifestations. The employees’ responsibility is to accept the opportunities for assistance related to stress, such as counselling. They have a shared responsibility for identifying stress and raise issues promptly.

Coordination of the policy improvement and implementation falls in the jurisdiction of the continuous improvement team that consists of nominated staffs from various departments and ranks in the company. The team secures resources, identifies priorities, monitors, evaluates progress, and benchmarks results of the stress management policy.

Work-life balance

Generally, the employer does not have to provide work-life balance to employees, but it is essential to provide the support needed by employees to find their personal work-life balance. Good employment choices lead to recruitment and retention of the best talent in the labour market. The work-life balance policy does not explicitly dictate what employees have to do. Instead, it provides avenues for fitting personal responsibilities within the available work hours. It is upon employees to plan their times appropriately and use the available avenues to generate as much free time as possible for their personal needs. The policy has limits that prevent customers from abusing its provisions.

The work-life balance applies to all employees as long as the policy is applicable to their job assignments. The policy offers employees the ability to manage their life responsibilities and other activities in addition to their work. It works through schemes that cover both family and personal circumstances. The policy implementation has to take place consistently for the organisation and its employees to realise full benefits.

Employees are free to request career break as long as they demonstrate they will be back at work as agreed. However, each application for a career break depends on its particular case and the operation or business needs of the company. The break does not exceed a year, with the minimum time being two months. On their part, employees have to give management a three-month notice. The second scheme of the policy is about flexible working patterns. Here, the company uses a flexible work schedule for employees. Employees have to ensure that they finish their assignments in time without disrupting the workflow of their colleagues and the company’s operations. However, staffs must also demonstrate the number of hours worked for them to qualify for hour-specific wages and other benefits. Employees are entitled to compressed hours where they squeeze their duties into shorter times and create additional free time for their personal responsibilities. The company only allowed up to five hours of compressed time and not less than that because it would conflict with the company’s stress management policy.

The compression of hours and other optional workflow arrangement to employees must be compatible with client needs. However, department managers must also ensure that client needs do not infringe on the ordinary workflow schedules for employees. When employees are returning to work from extended leave, they may ask for special return to work arrangement where their workloads are adjusted to give them time to fit into the organisation company once again. Under employee health and wellbeing, the policy is committed to the provision of support systems that promote employee health. Thus, there are adequate provisions for allowing sickness absence without discrimination (Bratton & Gold 2012). The company extends its medical cover for employees to their immediate families and allows employees time off whenever their children or spouses are admitted to hospital.

Monitoring of the policy happens consistently through various feedback tools such as the collect of information about absence from work, requests for special work arrangement and complaints about any aspect of the policy. Review of the policy takes place after two years and involves a general survey with all employees as participants.

Summary/Conclusions

Both stress management policies and work-life balance policies are essential for an organisation to maximize employee input at the most affordable cost. Stress in the organisation mainly arises from unreasonable demands by job assignments, management and employees who are over-estimating their personal abilities. In handling stress, management must realise that it cannot address all kinds of stressing situations effectively, thus the principle of the stress management policy is to reduce the overall stress level for employees, and not necessarily eliminate it. On the other hand, work-life balance policy must have limits to the provisions available to employees so that they do not end up neglecting work or personal life responsibilities.

The work-life balance policy works together with the stress management policy and any other human resources policy in the company. Therefore, the policies must not contradict each other. In addition, the extent of their applicability to specific situations will depend on the rank and job description of the affected employee and the needs of the organisation. In the case of the stress, management policies, employees have an obligation to participate in the stress-relieving interventions provides by the firm. On the other hand, under the work-life balance policy, the employees must use up a minimum number of opportunities within the policy to ensure that they are not overworking themselves.

Review of policies must happen periodically and should rely on learned best practices and feedback from all the stakeholders. Success in policy implementation arises when there is voluntary participation and commitment by all employees. In this regard, management benefits most when it engages all employees in awareness programs about the policy intentions and the objectives of the organisation. Having explicit aims and principles of the two policies and their subsequent communication to all the involved parties is one of the best approaches to use for any firm.

Recommendations

The new employees must involve the employee’s trade union when formulating and updating the work-life balance policy and the stress management policy. Issues relating to the union directly affect employees and their ability to concentrate and fully commit to their work assignments. It would be helpful to also look at external factors to the business and their impact on employee performance and then use the objectives of the firm to decide whether they are opportunities to harness or threats to avoid.

• All policies used by the company must work harmoniously to ensure that the organisation reaps the maximum benefits. The best way is to evaluate all policies using the same team and at the same time to realise any inconsistencies and correct them.
• In addition, the new employers must identify the most prevalent stressors in their organisation before coming up with a stress management policy. Failure to do this might lead to the formulation of a policy that is out of touch with the predominant human resource needs.
• It may not be possible to have a policy that matches all departmental needs in the company; thus, management should consider having a new policy that is an amalgamation of several policies for related departments.

Reference List

Ananthram, S 2013, ‘Challenges and strategies for global human resource executives: Perspectives from Canada and the United States’, European Management Journal, vol. 31, no. 3, pp. 223–233.

Banfield, P, & Kay, RK 2008, Introduction to human resource management, Oxford University Press, New York, NY.

Baruch, Y, Dickmann, M, Altman, Y, & Bournois, F 2013, ‘Exploring international work: types and dimensions of global careers’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 24, no. 12, pp. 2369-2393.

Boella, M, & Gross-Turner, S 2011, Human resource management in the hospitality industry, Routledge, Oxon, OX.

Bratton, J, & Gold, J 2012, Human resource management: Theory and practice, 5th edn, Palgrave Macmillan, New York, NY.

Brewster, C, Bonache, J, Cerdin, J-l, & Suutari, V 2014, ‘Exploring expatriate outcomes’, The International Journal of Human Resource Management, vol. 25, no. 14, pp.1921-37.

Briscoe, D, Schuler, R, & Tarique, I 2012, International human resource management. 4th ed., Routledge, New York, NY.

Grande, F 2008, The intranet and human resources: internal employee communication, University of Nebrasaka Press, Omaha.

When speaking about the critical success factors for a BPM project, I have to point out that each project is considered to be unique. So, let’s consider each factor in detail. Leadership is recognized to be one of the critical success factors. Generally, leadership combines numerous other meanings, including attention, support, psychological approaches, etc. However, one is to keep in mind that the most important constituent of leadership is time. Of course, this variable is of great importance, as each project requires a certain time frame.

The second critical success factor for a BMP project is recognized to be BPM experienced business project manager. While speaking about the experienced manager, one is to understand that I am talking about the leader of the team. In other words, a leader means a skilled person who is ready to make complex decisions and who is not afraid of responsibility. BPM experienced business project manager is, to be honest, competent and forward-looking. The leader’s beliefs, values, skills, and traits are to be obvious.

Linkage to organization strategy is the third critical success factor for a BMP project. While speaking about the strategy, one is to understand that the objectives of the company, as well as its strategies, are of primary importance. Organization strategy is based on the tactical solutions of the company.

The fourth critical success factor is process architecture. Simply speaking, this constituent includes the basic principles of a BMP project.

A structured approach to BPM implementation is the fifth factor. First of all, I would like to point out that this approach is based on organization strategy. Moreover, important behavioural aspects should also be considered, as the success of BPM implementation mostly depends upon these aspects.

People change management is the sixth factor, which is related to the responsibility of the employees. In other words, it depends upon the employees who execute the processes whether BPM implementation will be successful or no.

People and empowerment is the seventh factor, which is to be considered. Thus, the factor determines the role of people in the organization and the duties they are to perform.

The eighth critical success factor for a BMP project is project initiation and completion. This factor determines the success of further projects. In other words, some aspects of previous projects can be analyzed and used in new projects.

Sustainable performance is the ninth critical success factor. The main purpose of the factor is to define the efficiency and effectiveness of the process.

Realizing value seems to be the last factor. So, the importance of the project is defined.

When speaking about the absence of these factors, I would like to touch on the so-called potential consequences. So, without leadership, it would be impossible to create a high-quality project. The absence of leadership could cause a great deal of confusion, as there would be no opportunity to control the time of project performance, etc. The absence of experienced business project manager means serious contradictions in the work of the whole team, as there is no leader who must coordinate the employees’ actions. The absence of organization strategy could lead to idle time and uncertainty concerning the main purposes of the project.

Without process architecture, no fundamentals of BMP project are available; so, there is no project. The absence of a structured approach to BPM implementation means the failure of the project. So, you see that all factors are interdependent. Of course, it is difficult to imagine BPM implementation without such factors as people change management and people and empowerment. In simple words, if there are no employees who can perform certain tasks – there is no project. Still, if there is no project completion – there is no result. Finally, without realizing the value of the project, it is difficult to estimate the meaning and importance of the project. In other words, if there is no main goal, the importance of the project will be neglected.

Barriers to imitation are always needed if you are a good entrepreneur can appropriate value from an innovation

Competencies in science, technology, and engineering are usually required to facilitate the invention of new products and processes; this implies that the underlying technological prowess that facilitates innovation is not adequate for entrepreneurs to profit from their innovations (Baron & Shane, 2005). Even though invention forms the initial phase of innovation, in most cases, it is not enough to facilitate commercial success (Allen, 2006). This means that entrepreneurs usually fail to appropriate the profits of their respective innovations.

An inference that can be made from the above observation is that the protection of the returns associated with innovation forms a strategic challenge for entrepreneurs in industries that are mostly technology-intensive. Innovations that have unbeaten commercially have relied on the creation of impermanent monopolies, this has facilitated the extraction of transitory Schumpeterian rents. In highly technology-intensive industries, entrepreneurs have to engage in persistent innovations to establish a competitive advantage that is sustainable (Baron & Shane, 2005). The basic argument is that the performance and business continuity of an entrepreneur or a firm is solely determined by their ability to appropriate the values from their respective innovations.

This poses the need to protect one’s innovation using the different types of barriers to imitation. There are diverse high-profile instances whereby entrepreneurs lost the value of their innovations mainly due to imitators. Examples of entrepreneurs who lost their innovation to imitators include RC Cola, who invented the diet cola and lost to coca-cola and Pepsi; Ampex, who invented the video recorders and lost to Matsushita; and MITS, who invented the PC and lost to Apple and IBM. This is attributed to the entrepreneurs failing to appropriate the returns of their innovations. Therefore, it is arguably evident that barriers to imitation are required if a good entrepreneur must have the ability to appropriate the value from innovation. Having discussed the need for barriers to imitation, the following section highlights the different types of barriers to imitation that entrepreneurs can use to protect their innovation (Leonard & Rayport, 1997).

There are diverse types of barriers to imitation that entrepreneurs have used to protect their innovation. One of the methods of barriers to imitation is the use of patents. Governments usually offer 20 years for patent protection towards innovators with the prime objective of serving as an inducement to encourage innovation and address the threats imposed by innovation (Marco, 2008). The underlying argument is that in case imitators copy the innovation without difficulty, there is a likelihood that the increased competition will serve to reduce the level of profitability associated with the innovation such that the innovators will not benefit from their worthwhile efforts. A prime setback associated with using patent protection is that the underlying technology behind the innovation has to be disclosed (Nussbaum & Berner, 2005).

The second type of barrier that entrepreneurs can use to protect their innovation from imitators is to use the resource-based view, which focuses on the exploitation of the core competencies of the firm. The resource-based view emphasizes superior access and exploitation of the firms’ input resources and its customers. A business enterprise that has the capability of obtaining high-quality inputs has the capacity of sustaining business advantages associated with costs and quality that other business enterprises cannot copy (Ulwick, 2002). Superior access to input resources by a firm is attainable by having control of the supply source using long-term contrast and ownership. The resource-based view also facilitates superior access to the customers hence increasing the value of innovation by the entrepreneurs. Also, having admission to one of the most effective distribution channels and the productive retail spaces will serve to enhance competitive advantage and hence increase the value of innovation. Controlling the scarcity of inputs is also another strategy under the resource-based view that businesses can exploit to protect their innovation (Ulwick, 2002).

The third type of barrier to imitation that entrepreneurs can use to protect innovation is the use of market size and making use of the scale economies. Imitation is also barred using a large minimum efficient scale compared to the demand in the market, and securing the largest portion of the market. This implies that the economies of scale can play an integral role in limiting the number of business enterprises that can fit into the market and impose a potential barrier to entry. The use of scale economies can also be used in discouraging small enterprises that are already in the market to expand and imitate the scale economies and the associated cost advantages of an enterprise that has already secured a large segment of the market. There are also intangible types of barriers to imitation, which include casual ambiguity, social complexity and reliance on historical state of affairs. Casual ambiguity is a scenario whereby the firms capacity in value creation are obscure and lacks precise comprehension by the competitors, and exploits the use of tacit knowledge (Kim & Mauborne, 1997).

It is impossible to create a new value curve for established companies

The value curve is a graphic representation of how a firm or an entire industry configures its operations with its customers; this implies that the value chain serves an effective tool for the creation of new market spaces (Baron & Shane, 2005). The value curve usually depicts the present state of affairs in the acknowledged market space, which provides a framework through which the firm can understand the existing trend of competition and the underlying factors that influence the state of completion about product and service delivery (Kim & R, 2005). To change the value chain of an established company, the firm should first reorganize its strategic focus from the existing competitors to analyze the current alternatives. Also, the firm should rearrange its focus from its customers towards its non-customers within its industry.

For established firm to pursue the aspects of value and cost, it must refrain from the conventional approach of benchmarking competitors in the current market space and choose between business level strategies that entail product and service differentiation and a cost leadership strategy (Kim & R, 2005). When the firm is changing its strategic focus from the present status of competition to the available alternatives and its non-customers, the firm must have an in depth analysis of the present state of the industry. This entails a redefinition of the problem that the industry lays emphasis on and then reconstruct the elements of the buyer value that outside the boundaries of the industry. An outcome of such an approach is that the firm is likely to provide better solutions to the existing problems in the industry compared to its competitors. An inference from the above is that it is possible to create a new value curve for an established company. The following section discusses how the Red and Blue Ocean strategy emerges and value innovation occurs when an organization can develop a new value curve that is different from the one that is traditionally used in the industry that it competes (Morris & Kuratko, 2002).

Competition in industries that are already overcrowded makes it difficult to establish a sustainable competitive advantage. This implies that the solution to such a dilemma is the creation of blue oceans that serve to create a new market space that is uncontested (Kim & Mauborne, 1997). Red oceans usually denote the existing industries, which have definite boundaries and that firms are deploying strategies to outperform their competitors to increase their share of the market. An increase in market crowding implies that profitability is reduced due into increased competition. Blue oceans on the other hand refer to industries that are non-existing, which represent the market space that has not been identified and has no competition. This implies that firms operating in blue oceans can create demand rather than fight over the existing customers for their share of the market. The blue oceans strategy is a potential business strategy for growth and increase profitability in a competitor environment (MacMillan & McGrath, 1997).

In contrast to the generic strategies established by Porter, the Blue Ocean strategy consents that differentiation and low cost strategy can be attained simultaneously. According to the Blue Ocean strategy, the actions undertaken by the firm usually imposes an effect on the structure of its costs and the value creation to its buyers (Morris & Kuratko, 2002). In the creation of a new value curve under the blue oceans strategy, costs are reduced significantly because the factors of competition are eliminated. Buyer value is also enhanced through the creation of the industry elements that were not in existence. With time, scale of economies implies a further cost reduction because of the increase in the volume of sales and the increased buyer value to the buyers that the firm in a blue ocean creates. This serves to facilitate the process of value innovation, which is facilitated the by the position of the firm in a blue ocean (Kim & Mauborne, 1997). This depicted in the figure 1 below.

The development of a new value curve for an established organization implies that the firm has managed to establish a market space that is not contested, thereby increasing the irrelevance of competition. Also, the creation of a new value chain for an established firm implies that the firm has the capability of creating and capturing a new demand and breaks the trade-off that exists between buyer value and costs, implying that the firm can achieve both differentiation and the low cost strategy at once (Baron & Shane, 2005). The basic inference from this observation is that the creation of a new value curve by a firm results to the emergence of the Blue Ocean Strategy. This is mainly because the creation of a new value curve is due to a reduction of the factors that are below the threshold of the industry standards, elimination of the factors that the current industry takes for granted, creation of factors that the current industry has never provided and increasing the factors are above the present industry standards.

A key “innovation issue” that an entrepreneurial organization needs to address to be a commercial success

It is arguably evident that the establishment of sustainable competitive advantage is a significant element of the business level strategies for firms across all industries and economies. The Research and Development strategy, which is an important business level strategy, primarily focuses on product innovation and process improvement. Also, it deals with the assessment of internal development, external acquisition, role or technology in organizational growth and other factors that may revolutionize the way an organization operates (Kim & R, 2005).

An organization can opt to be a technological leader, in the sense it aims at innovation, or it can be a technological follower, in the sense that it imitates other innovations by other firms. Depending on the option that the organization undertakes, it can attain product differentiation or a reduction in the production costs. Such an approach places innovation at the core organizational success as an element of strategies for organizational growth in competitor growth. As a result, a key issue in innovation that emerges is how organizations can makes use of innovation to foster competitive advantage. This section discusses the use of innovation for competitive advantage as a key innovation issue, with a specific concern on the effects of innovation on profitability and growth in a competitor environment (Von Hipple, 1999).

Innovation is diverse and can be implemented at various levels within the firm through the development of new products and new processes, establishing new ways aimed at creating value for buyers and a renewal of the organizational process. This implies that innovation can be product-oriented, process-oriented or a change in the firm’s position and paradigm of operations. All these approaches when effectively implemented within the business enterprise lead to the establishment of competitive advantage and foster business growth (Ulwick, 2002).

One of the notable outcomes of innovation is the emergence of the Blue Ocean Strategy, whereby firms create a new value curve with the main objective of tapping the unidentified market that has no competition. This results to the aspect of value creation, which in turn means that the firm can make use of the increased buyer value and cost reduction for business growth. An inference from this is that innovation serves as an effective business level strategy that a firm can exploit to establish a sustainable competitive advantage and foster growth in a competitor environment.

With the economic downturns becoming common phenomena in the market place, innovation comes in handy as a solution to the business challenges imposed on the market. The bottom line is that business innovation is increasingly becoming a central element of the business level and corporate strategies (Marco, 2008). Also, innovation is becoming a business requirement due to the increase in the product development cycles and the perception that innovation can be exploited as a strategy for growth in a competitor environment. Innovation has also been applied to attain commercial success in emerging markets. In the recent past, emerging markets has presented a potential opportunity for global manufacturers, imposing the need to devise appropriate methodologies that can be applied to guarantee success in emerging markets.

This mainly entails addressing the dynamism in the customer requirements and demands, government regulations and cultural diversity. This implies that business innovation can be applied by global companies to help them adjust their strategies in human resource, products and service delivery and their supply chains. As a result, innovation in emerging markets helps in the addressing the challenges associated with gaining entry in such markets such as establishment of new value propositions, globalization of research and development, strategies used in talent management and complexities associated with global value chains (Kim & Mauborne, 1997). All these strategies can be deployed to foster competitive advantage using innovation at the various levels within the business including its operations, processes, technologies products and functions (Kim & R, 2005).

A key issue in using innovation for strategic growth in a competitor environment is ensuring that the business enterprises benefits from the potential advantages associated with the innovation. This implies that the business must protect its innovation from imitation to make its business value worthwhile and make significant contributions for strategic growth. Also, the business must constantly re-innovate to be ahead of its competitors (Kim & Mauborne, 1997). Therefore, innovation is increasingly becoming a key focus for the businesses that plays an integral role in differentiation and business growth. As a result, innovation should be integrated into the business and corporate level strategies for growth and competitive advantage. When a business enterprise can implement continuous innovation and adjust its corporate and organizational culture to accept innovation, this serves as the onset of developing sustainable competitive advantage in the present day business environment.

References

Allen, K.R., 2006. Launching new ventures : an entrepreneurial approach. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Baron, R. & Shane, S., 2005. Entrepreneurship : a process perspective. Mason, Ohio: Thomson/South-Western.

Kim, W. & Mauborne, R., 1997. Value Innovation:The Strategic Logic of High Growth. Harvard Business Review, pp.89-95.

Kim, W. & R, M., 2005. Blue Ocean Strategy: From Theory to Practice. California Management Review, 47(3), p.105.

Leonard, D. & Rayport, J., 1997. Spark innovation through empathic design. Harvard Business Review, Boston, p.145.

MacMillan, I. & McGrath, R., 1997. Discovering New Points of Differentiation. Harvard Business Review, pp.89-101.

Marco, C., 2008. Approptiating the Returns from innovation. Economic Growth, 18, pp.11-34.

Morris, M. & Kuratko, D., 2002. Corporate enterpreneurship: enterpreneural development within organizations. Fort Worth: Harcout College Publishers.

Nussbaum, B. & Berner, B., 2005. The Creative Future. Business Review Weekly, pp.58-62.

Ulwick, A., 2002. Turn Customer Input into Innovation. Harvard Business Review, Boston, pp.102-03.

Von Hipple, E., 1999. Creating Breakthroughs at 3M. Harvard Business Review, Boston, p.105.

Introduction

Knowledge management begins with an understanding of what people are doing and why they are doing it. Thus, the idea of managing knowledge presents the question of whether an organization knows what its members are doing and whether there is the collective knowledge of why they do what they do (Collison & Parcell, 2004).

Unfortunately, much of the knowledge management discourse has insisted on defining knowledge and developing a thesis based on the accepted definition. A better approach is to consider the implications of managing knowledge and not managing it, with the core idea of knowledge being the “knowing” part.

Organization of knowledge

Therefore, talking about knowledge does not mean that professions that deal with the handling of explicit knowledge as a product are the only ones that need knowledge management. All organizations need knowledge management because they rely on “knowing” to make strategic choices. Since knowledge rests in people, its management is different from the management of other factors or production. Instead of providing rules of governance, knowledge managers provide avenues to increase the collective knowledge (Liao, Chang, Hu, & Yueh, 2012).

When applied to an organization, it will imply that knowledge managers will also be subjects of their work, as much as they seek to manage other employees’ knowledge. People create new knowledge when they interact with existing knowledge. They are both consumers and creators. The best way to ensure there are more creation and consumption is to improve sharing.

The essence of knowledge management in firms is to ensure that the management makes decisions based on what works at the bottom of the organization. It aims to limit occurrences whereby the management forces subordinate staff to work on strategies and operational routines that rely on obsolete reasons (Collison & Parcell, 2004).

Organizational environments change, both internally and externally. Therefore, the knowledge pool must be used to make decisions about the organization and those affecting the organization. Thus, instead of packaging information and then distributing it as knowledge, it is important to allow the packaged information to change to reflect the discussion around it. Resultantly, those who use the packaged information are also able to contribute to it or apply it selectively (Frappaolo, 2006).

Sharing of knowledge

Where technology aids knowledge management, there is a need to be careful to ensure it does not replace the human attributes that are necessary. Members of an organization should not be put in a position where they see the introduction of technology as a way of making their work easier and to provide information about what they do in a structured form to comply with what the management needs. In such as case, knowledge collection is taking place for subsequent use in informed decision-making, although “knowing” that sharing among employees is missing. Such arrangements make the management smarter but do not make an organization smarter than it presently is.

The appropriate approach is not to insist on either knowledge or its management as isolated subjects because that approach loses the need to ensure that the organization gains from the process of the understanding. An understanding that goes on to inform the emerging practice of knowledge management is the activity theory. The theory looks beyond the affairs of one actor or user. Instead, it focuses on actions from an entire scope of systems or work. This would include an entire team, group, institution, or organization. With the broad outlook, the theory examines environments, histories, cultures, roles, motivations, and other contextual information. While looking at the context, the activity of an actor remains the basic unit of analysis (Gorelick, Milton, & April, 2011).

While looking at an activity as a basic unit of the activity theory, it is also important to note the dynamic nature of the activity and its influence on other observable parameters. The objective is to ensure constant learning (Moritz, Waibel, Koch, Ott, & Henneke, 2010). This comes with the realization that it is difficult to transfer knowledge, as defined by what someone knows, from one person to another. Some elements can move, but the entire knowledge remains unique to a person, as it depends on individual experiences and other contextual circumstances.

Therefore, in managing knowledge, the focus is on the collective “know-how.” Instead of going with the first version of knowledge management, where social interaction is the emphasis of study, together with its complexity, or going with the second version where data or information is a requirement for making good decisions, creation and sharing should be the main points of concern (Faraj, 2011).

Concluding remarks on knowledge management

Organizations first look at what they are doing in terms of work practices and operations management and then learn why they are doing it. Learning will include the organization of people to create and share what they know most effectively. This would then inform decisions about the management of what the organization is doing. Organizing could take a collective approach, where people work together but handle different parts of assignments and then share what they do. However, they will also need to share knowledge about what they do in the process. The other way is to do things collaboratively, where people help each other and decide things together so that sharing happens simultaneously. Moreover, there is no need to have a separate system to move knowledge from one actor to another.

References

Collison, C., & Parcell, G. (2004). Learning to fly: Practical knowledge management from leading and learning organizations. Mankato, MN: Capstone Publishing.

Faraj, S. (2011). Knowledge collaboration in online communities. Organization Science, 22(5), 1224-1239.

Frappaolo, C. (2006). Knowledge management. Minkato, MN: Capstone Publishing.

Gorelick, C., Milton, N., & April, K. (2011). Performance through learning: Knowledge management in practice. Oxford, UK: Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann.

Liao, S.-H., Chang, W.-J., Hu, D.-C., & Yueh, Y.-L. (2012). Relationships among organizatioinal culture, knowledge acquisition, organizational learning, and organizational innovation in Taiwan’s banking and insurance industries. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(1), 52-70.

Moritz, E. F., Waibel, C., Koch, M., Ott, F., & Henneke, C. (2010). SkiBaserl — Knowledge management in high performance sports. Procedia Engineering, 2(2), 2581-2586.

Introduction

Many organizations in the world are “using teams as a powerful business strategy” (Kricher, 2008, p. 1). Such teams have the potential to improve productivity, increase customer service, and reduce operational costs. The presence of teams in an organization increases the level of morale and fulfillment. Such teams encourage more employees to make appropriate decisions, acquire new competencies, improve their performances, and embrace more responsibilities. These practices make it easier for many organizations to achieve their potentials. Businesses should use the best drivers to create powerful teams. Managers should be ready to identify and address the barriers affecting their organizations (Delarue, Hootegem, Procter, & Burridge, 2008). This essay gives a detailed description of a team-based organization. The concepts and ideas discussed in the paper can make every organization successful.

Content and Analysis

Research on Team-Based Organizations

Teamwork is a useful concept in every firm. Team-based companies have different organizational structures depending on the targeted outcomes. Such organizations have competent teams that focus on the best objectives and goals. Teamwork in a given organization increases the level of collaboration. Some of the major characteristics of team-based organizations include “goal setting, accountability, shared vision, positive leadership, empowerment, autonomy, and trust” (Kricher, 2012, p. 1). The concept of collaboration is common in every team-based organization. Members of the same team focus on the targeted goals or objectives. Such employees also exchange their views to achieve the targeted outcomes. This format makes it easier for many workers to achieve their potentials.

Managers should use powerful strategies to develop successful teams. Organizational leaders should train their employees and encourage them to form new teams. They should promote certain practices such as collaboration, innovation, and communication. Organizations should support their teams through continued decision-making and collaboration (DuBrin, 2013). Open communication makes it possible for the targeted organization to acquire the best goals. A team-based structure in an organization produces the best practices and values.

Motivating Others through Recognition

Successful business organizations promote the best relationships between different coworkers. Kricher (2012) believes that “intentional recognition produces new aspects such as accountability, team-relationship, motivation, and confidence” (p. 4). Every employee wants to be supported and praised. Managers should always recognize the actions and performances of their employees. The decision to empower and motivate different workers increases the level of productivity. The targeted workers will focus on the best organizational goals. They will also empower their workmates and promote the concept of teamwork.

Managers should ensure their employees are engaged and motivated. They should be empowered and praised after achieving the targeted goals. Recognition also encourages more employees to work as teams. This practice improves the level of peer accountability. The recognition technique should focus on the best organizational outcomes. For instance, every employee should be part of the targeted vision. Employees “should be aware of the performances and achievements rewarded by the company” (Delarue et al., 2008, p. 142). Managers should interact, recognize, and mentor their workers. This practice will improve the level of interaction. Every worker will feel appreciated and energized. The approach will also encourage more workers to form new teams. Such teams will focus on the best organizational goals. Managers should ensure their employees understand the targeted goals. They should also empower their teams using the best incentives and recognition techniques.

Recommendations

Business leaders should create powerful teams that can support the targeted long-term outcomes. The first approach towards having successful teams is having competent leaders. These leaders should value, empower, mentor, and support their team members. Such members should also be rewarded using the best strategies. The decision-making process should focus on the needs of different team members. Leaders should reward their workers using the best incentives. Team leaders should communicate effectively with different employees (Delarue et al., 2008). Competent team leaders are usually strong. They possess powerful competencies and skills. They always empower their teammates in order to get the best goals.

Teams should be aware of the targeted goals. The team should be ready to embrace new changes depending on the targeted goals. Organizational leaders should allow their teams to function independently. The approach will ensure every team focuses on the targeted business objectives. The members of the team should also be recognized to support the targeted goals (Delarue et al., 2008). These recommendations can make it easier for many teams to achieve their long-term business outcomes.

Conclusion

The success of every organization depends on the skills and goals of the manager. Team-based organizations have the potential to achieve their profits within the shortest time possible. Managers and team leaders should motivate their employees through continued recognition (DuBrin, 2013). They should use their skills to mentor and support the needs of their employees. Every team should get the best organizational support. This practice will ensure the team achieves its long-term goals. Managers and business leaders should use the best skills in order to make their teams successful. The above discussions and recommendations will make many teams successful. Managers should, therefore, produce team-based organizations in an attempt to achieve their potentials.

Reference List

Delarue, A., Hootegem, G., Procter, S., & Burridge, M. (2008). Team-working and Organizational Performance: A Review of Survey-Based Research. International Journal of Management Reviews, 10(2), 127-148.

DuBrin, A. (2013). Leadership: Research Findings, Practice, and Skills. Boston, MA: South-Western Cengage Learning.

Kricher, L. (2012). Best Practices of Team-Based Organizations. Development Dimensions International, 1(1), 1-8.

Employee motivation

In the management of an organization, one of the structures that should be put in place by human resource management to enhance the achievement of organizational goals is employee motivation. The employees need to be motivated to boost their morale for the work they are doing. In addition to motivation, their working environment should be structured in a way that it creates conducive avenue for all the employees (Whetten and Cameroon 48).

This can be enhanced by giving employees some freedom and adequate breaks that can allow them to socialize and break the monotony of work. Whenever employees work hard, their efforts need to recognized through giving them some rewards not only in form of monetary rewards but also other non-monetary rewards. Employees may be motivated by increasing their wages, promoting them or even through oral appreciation.

In the provided case study, it is so surprising to see how employees are being treated taking into account that employees from other organization who are in the same level of education and qualification are being accorded fair treatment. Upon the enquiry of the reasons behind demotivated, the reasons cited are not genuine.

The situation needs to be adjusted to accommodate the interests of all the employees. This can be achieved by giving them relevant motivational needs and giving them the freedom, they deserve (Whetten and Cameroon 81).

Measuring employee’s performance

It is important the performance of employees be constantly monitored, evaluated and measured to see if they have met the set targets. Besides portraying good characters and being obedient in their places of work, the employees should be hard working enough to achieve what has been set (Whetten and Cameroon 100). Though having precise measurement parameters for employees might be a problem to some extend, it is good to put some systems that will differentiate the poorly performing employees from good performing ones.

Using a balanced score card and measuring the achievement of set targets against the achieved targets are some of the measurement criterion that can be adopted to measure the employees’ performance. An appropriate action need to be taken against any employee who does not deliver the expected results. In the given scenario, an assistant manager though gaining support from the other employees is not delivering what is expected of him to the organization.

What the top management should do to such an employee is putting strict deadlines that he has to meet to ensure that he brings about positive impact to the organization. The organization should be more concerned of performance not the employees’ character since this is so significant as far as the performance of the organization is concerned. However, the approach to be taken against the manager should be friendly not to damage positive feelings employees have towards him.

Armand need only to be advised on the importance of being social enough to the other fellow workers and no big action should be taken against him while on the other hand, Ken has to be subjected to available performance parameters as well as being advised of why his performance is important to the existence of the organization.

Selling or presenting a business idea to the area of interest

The most successful business entities have made it through incorporation of modern and more efficient ideas that are increasingly replacing the traditional ways of doing things. However, sometimes managers may be too old fashioned such that they cannot recognize the significance of such ideas (Whetten and Cameroon 54). In the case provided, the person who is presenting the idea has some level of proof on how it has worked successfully in many businesses.

Since there seems to be some difficulties in adopting the idea, the employee needs to convince the manager using considerable tangible evidence. Provision of possible benefits that might accrue to the organization after absorption of the idea is important to convince the manager accepts the idea. In the second case, it involves presentation of an idea to strangers that is aimed at benefiting the presenter.

In the presentation of the idea, the person should be precise and objective in what he plans to do in future and how the success of his career would benefit other people apart from him. He should also state given the opportunity how he is going to explore his music talent. The person should not be too vague otherwise, his idea might be rejected. Besides, the best language has to be used to communicate the message well to the interested parties.

Adapting leadership style to a new situation

Amongst the good characteristics of leaders is flexibility. Leaders need to adapt to the changing environment since we are living in a dynamic world (Whetten and Cameroon 48). In the given scenario, the particular branch has been having troubles partly because there has been mistrust and respect on the part of outgoing manager. That is the reason why even employees are happy of his exit. The newly created manager needs to restore the trust within the branch.

The manager should start by creating an avenue where all the people’s opinions and grieverances are heard and make sure that the employees are involved in some decision-making processes.

The manager ought to maintain the existing relationship with the associates who he has been interacting with before the promotion. The past poor financial performance may be attributed to mistrust and disrespect that has been existing and therefore boosting of employees morale through building good relationships might improve the declining performance.

While managing more than one group of people, a manager needs to use different approaches since different groups of people require different management styles (Whetten and Cameroon 48).

To solve a crisis like one presented whereby there is some dissatisfaction on the part of the employees, the manager need to identify the cause of the crisis and apply the appropriate methods to the scenario in question ensuring there is fairness in their treatment. The two conflicting groups need to be brought together, identify who might be causing the problem and then solve the problem jointly while reminding each group of its responsibilities.

How to make teamwork perform

One of the reasons why organizations or groups fail to achieve is the failure to define their roles, goals and objectives (Whetten and Cameroon 48). A team may comprise of competent people but lack appropriate direction to get them ahead. In the case of an organization that has the right people but it is not achieving anything an appropriate action is required.

To solve this problem, the group should sit down, reflect on why the organization was formed, lay down the duties and obligations of each, the goals that to be achieved within a specified period of time and how the goals would be achieved. There ought to be specialization in the group such that each group member can perform what he/she is best.

In the second case where the leader has been assigned a group that seems to be in the dark since nobody seems to contribute on how the team should get started, it is the role of the leader to ignite the team and present a comprehensive list of goals and objectives to be achieved to the group. This will open up discussion forum for all the members to participate in giving their own opinions on how the goals should be achieved.

Resolution of a team dispute

One of the responsibilities of a good leader is the ability to solve conflicts within an organization or group (Whetten and Cameroon 123). In the given context, there seem to be a heated debate between two of the group members that has led to the adjournment of the meeting. The manager has to look for the best ways of solving such a crisis. To maintain the productive spirit of the team, the team leader should get to the bottom of the burning issues and determine what the main problem was.

In addition, the leader before calling for joint meeting to solve the problem, should first approach the person who triggered the trouble who in this case is Pat in the meeting and kindly explain to him that the approach he used was wrong and that was not the best way of solving a problem. Then the second person to be approached who is in this case Jordan should also be informed that the response he used was wrong and is not acceptable at all.

After these two initial approaches, the two persons should be brought together for reconciliation and then the problem be solved collectively where the two parties are briefed of the importance of working in harmony to maintain the status quo of the organization. Then finally, a joint meeting of all the members is called to allow the offenders to apologize and get the organization moving.

Conversion of Organizational problem into an Achievable change Initiative

Whenever a leader takes up leadership position in an organization or group that is having troubles, he/she is faced with a challenge since he/she is supposed to convert the situation into an achievable thing (Whetten and Cameroon 156). The newly appointed president of the professional business fraternity is required to lift an organization that is in a mess since even new membership is not being often witnessed.

Firstly, since lack of motivation seems to be one of the principal causes for declining membership, the newly elected president should come up with programs that will motivate the existing members to prevent their exit and attract new members from outside. The president should also appoint a committee that will oversee the analysis of the problems that have been troubling the organization. The formulation of lasting solutions that will help solve the problem is the next step.

In a move to initiate motivation that will see the increased registration, the members need to be convinced of the benefits of being in the organization. The rate at which the new members will have joined the organization will tell how successful the president is at the end of the year.

Work Cited

Whetten, David and Cameroon, Kim. Developing management skills. London: Harper-Collins, 1991. Print.