Motivation

Key factors that were crucial to Google’s early success can be attributed to the following:

• Partnered with right companies such as AOL & Yahoo spring boarded the company in success with more than 100m search enquiries per day paving the way for subsequent successes.
• Had the right products such as Adwords, which had 4x more click-­through rates than competing products. The company followed up with Google toolbar that further penetrated the market and expanded into the right area of search for mobile devices.
• Quickly expanded relevant services such as Google news, finance, book search, gmail, calendar documents etc. It also includes strategic acquisition of YouTube & Picasa that provided users with majority of Internet services and it increased stickiness to users achieving the results of 62. 4% for searches by December 2007.
• Mesh organizational structure ensured shares responsibility and teamwork by enabling all parties involved to work together in the case of AdSense. The non-­? departmental segregation increased teamwork and primed the organization for success.
• Fast expansion outside of US enabled he company to operate in a global scale that in turn boosted its revenue with more than half generated outside US. About 40% of total headcount was outside US indicating aggressive expansion plans.
• Googleplex promoted community building and was a platform for people from various business units to meet and mingle. This encouraged cross-­pollination of ideas and more importantly fulfilled the purpose of providing social interaction and intimacy that would make working with someone you already knew easier.
• Operate as market-­based company that listened o the needs of users. This is manifested in the number 1 of Google’s ‘Ten things’-­ ‘Focus on users and all else will follow’. Beta test versions allowed feedback from public that enhanced features before general release.
• Decision based on consensus ensured that all opinions are equally respected and taken into consideration before a decision is made. A consensus meant everyone understood and agreed with the best decision, which reduces resistance later in the project.
• New hires provided with training and induction into the company that bolstered their apabilities and reduced their learning curves, enabling them to hit the ground running at the shorted possible time.

As evidenced by the above, the 5 Words to describe Google’s culture are:

• Fast-­moving environment
• Community environment
• Innovative spirit
• Training as a way of continuous improvement and
• Consensus-­based decision-making process.

To effectively retain the Google culture, I would suggest the following:

• Continue to employ people with the culture and values close to the company’s values. Alternatively, take in young graduates s interns to spruce idea generation in the company.
• In tackling geographical expansion, Google can promote externships that encourage employee exchange to other locations. This will aid them in meeting colleagues from other parts of the world; promote cross-­border learning and import good practices to their local offices.
• Continuously develop new products and services that perpetuate innovative spirit. Having more products and services gives employees variety of thought that could ensure continuous flow of ideas that can be self-­reinforcing.

Introduction

A young high-tech company, Tattoo, has grown rapidly during the last few years and it is very clear that the CEO, Paul, has kept the entrepreneurial spirit of the company. Due to the rapid growth, there has been a restructure of the company with now three managers in three business units; although, the managers are in charge of applications, communications and Internet solutions, Paul is still the single point of contact for all staff and has the final say in most decision, making it very difficult for the managers to do their job.

In the recent months, Paul has notice that the employees are not motivated and are loosing the passion and enthusiasm they had shown for the firm in the past, furthermore, a few people have left the company already. In a recent case, one of the Java developers had expressed dissatisfaction with his salary and although Paul Increased his salary, the employee decided to leave anyway. An action Is needed and drastic changes have to be made on Human Resource (HRS).

Marc’s Case Apparently, there must have been something wrong which led to a result where Marc decided to resign anyway although Paul had offered him a raise in salary for 15%. One of the possible reasons would be because Marc felt that Paul did not pay enough attention to his case. Paul did not handle Marc’s situation promptly and held it for few days. Marc might have felt that he was again being neglected and had lost his trust for Paul.

The second reason is that Marc’s manager, Lisa, did not pay attention on the condition of her subordinates wellbeing, which might have caused by Pall’s decision to take all the human resource Issues directly into his own hands. Lisa did not even notice Marc’s intention to leave the company and also has not had a anger-subordinate talk with Marc for a long time since she has been busy focusing on business development work. There Is no a proper human resource management and salary system in the company so that employees performance could easily be overlooked or unnoticeable.

However, Paul should prevent of losing Marc because the situation states that it is very hard to find an experienced Java- developer in the market. He could start by having a sincere talk with Marc, in person, and try to figure out the real reason behind Marc’s resignation, whether it was only because of unsatisfying wage. Was this a sole case or general issue? Paul could also try to find some feedback from Marc about the him/company/the managers. They could figure what to do next by firstly clarifying the above Issue.

Next, Paul should delegate the department’s people issue to Its manager. Lisa should be able to focus her work not only on the tasks but also on her team’s people Issue. Low Employee Morale As described previously with Marc’s case, It Is obvious that the company’s reporting lines are not formalized, this creates a little friction between Paul and the unit need the approval of Paul. Those managers might feel that they do not have enough impact on the organization’s performance due to the over-controlling nature of the CEO.

As companies grow, it is very important to set in place a plan where the newly developed business units have managers that are autonomous and able to manage projects, personnel and budgets, but not without a proper guidance and performance evaluations. Since there is no clear role for RE in the company, it is very difficult to identify the changes of personnel internally and externally. For example, it is known that there has been unhappiness and denomination among employees, but body does a real enquiry about what is really happening.

On one hand, there are some internal issues like the interactions of Paul with the staff and how the staff is feeling less in touch with management; on the other hand, a few employees have complained about their remuneration, but no one has done a research about the changes of the local IT Job market and make an adequate adjustment. As employees feel that they are not being recognized by their work, not Just monetarily, but when they feel neglected and unappreciated, they will show denomination, a loss of their ensue of belonging and loss commitment for their company.

A Mid-Term Plan

We are playing a role as a consultant in this case. We would suggest and help TATTOO or Paul to improve his company system, which would benefit himself and the whole company, using Engagement Principles:

• Introduce and socialist the company’s vision, mission, and goal to the employees as often as necessary to create an understanding for the employees about their employer and company. Let the employees embrace the broad picture of the company and help plant a sense of belonging towards the company. What is Tattoo meaning?
• Create a system where the company and employees would be able to keep track on employees’ performances. The company should be able to know how capable and competence their employees really are, also to give proper support to the employees skill improvement, if necessary. The employees need to be able to feel that they gain adding value by working in Tattoo. Set up an effective performance evaluation system for employees. E. G, Marc and other employees should be able to know and feel that their works are appreciated and rewarded.

Implement a feedback chem.

Tattoo will benefit a lot from getting the employees’ feedback. Tattoo needs to encourage and motivate the employees to give feedback or suggestion about their company, could be by giving incentives for the special effort. E. G, Today’s employees would feel their voice are heard by the feedback scheme. Tattoo would get some good insights, which could help improve the company. 4. Set up a clear organization structure and Job description. Once Tattoo came up with a fix organization structure and Job description, they must be consistent and committed to it.

It involves a total Job delegation will stimulate initiative taking within clear boundaries. It will create a sense of discipline among the workers and also enable people to make an informed choice. E. G, Lisa and other managers should be able to handle their team issues and tasks without Pall’s full interference. The above are the core ingredients to create and manage engaged employees. Engaged employees will lead to a better and healthier working environment. It would also help to improve the Tattoo company system by having an HRS person or, better yet, better organized.

Abstract

This report introduces a practical model of training and development needs assessment to reduce redundancies stress on employees after merger and acquisition. The proposed model is competency-based, which allows for the incorporation to reduce redundancies in post merger situation. When redundancy is the only route available, employers invariably feel obliged to assist those affected with positive planning measures for what, at the time, can seem an uncertain future.

However, this is not an easy task. Redundancy can be a difficult ordeal, hitting hard both mentally and emotionally and unless professionally implemented, employers will invariably fall short of having done enough‘ to really help. Everyone deals with redundancy in a different way. Being made redundant can provoke a range of emotions at different times, including shock, anger, loss, fear, denial or acceptance. Redundancy after M&A is a risk to all employees, and needs careful handling and counselling.

Less recognised are the needs of those left behind. On the analogy of major disasters, they too demand meticulous attention to avoid deleterious effects both to themselves and to their organisations. The management of restructuring, redeployment or redundancy is important, not simply to be humanitarian, or for good public relations, but also because the effectiveness, vision and mission of the organisation that survives is at stake. Survival tips for both the individual and the organisation are indicated.

Introduction

Since the late 1980s, the total number of mergers and acquisitions (M&As) has far surpassed the number that occurred throughout the 1960s. Whereas the M&As throughout the 1960s were mainly due to unions between conglomerates, the 1980s and 1990s has witnessed an increase in M&As between firms of different sizes and different industry types, Merger and acquisition would have corporate strategies directed at gaining competitive advantage and satisfying customers? eeds always have human resource implications, and tactics such as job redesign, multi-skilling, redeployment, training, paying for performance, layoffs and downsizing should be specifically directed at implementing the human resource strategies of organisations. Unfortunately, however, the strategic considerations which should accompany the use of these tactics are often absent. The primary purpose of merging and acquiring new firms is usually to improve overall performance by achieving synergy, or the more commonly described as the ? + 2 = 5? effect between two business units that will increase competitive advantage (Weber, 1996). Recent research indicates that these M&As have a negative impact on the economic performance of the new entity because of human resource implications mostly redundancies (Tetenbaum, 1999). Therefore, although M&As are usually extremely well planned out in terms of financial and legal aspects, the conclusion that has to be drawn is that these poor results have come to be attributed to poor human resource planning.

Redundancies after M&As can be a difficult ordeal, hitting hard both mentally and emotionally and unless professionally implemented, employers will invariably fall short of ? having done enough‘ to really help. Redundancy is probably the most evocative and fear inducing form of organisational change for many workers. Each year in the UK, there are over 200,000 notified redundancies. What is perhaps of more concern is that many organisation merger and acquisition change programmes have relied heavily on redundancy even though they have been articulated as downsizing or, more euphemistically as rightsizing or business process eengineering (Champy, 1995). 4 The essence of research is to explore how well human resources are being managed within organisations and better to understand the impacts of organisational change in different sectors and at levels in the organisational hierarchy after merger and acquisition. Have pre-existing human resources strategies to cope with redundancies after M&As would reduce the stress on employee and also on organisation.

Human resources strategies like open up consultative and participative organisationwide discussion to seek out possibilities that minimise redundancies, establish sound two-way means of communication which permit employees to freely vent their feelings, with a guaranteed right of reply from the organisation, communicate constantly and effectively, actively evaluate impact, exercise effective leadership from the top, ensuring that the pain is shared, provide a clear reconciliation of the market and financial situation, offer immediate counselling and assistance to all those identified for redundancy set up a mutual support network for those made redundant and continue to offer human resources help where required are the core tools which can organisations should implement after redundancies in merger and acquisition situation. Mergers are not without their downsides.

They can consume an incredible amount of time and money, legal and tax complications, and problems with mixing corporate cultures and last but not least the redundancies. It has been estimated that fully 50 percent never achieve the initial financial and market goals projected. Decisions to merge assume that synergy will develop between two organisations that combine resources and talent and achieve economies of scale and integrated technologies. Whenever two separate organisations merge, they want synergy. Each side hopes to benefit from the merger and initially willingly attribute benefit to the other. However, synergy does not occur easily or without effort.

A merger may change the name of the company and management, but the real benefits occur when people ascribe to merged goals and ideals. There were more than 36,700 transactions with a combined value of more than US$3. 49 trillion (Thomson Financial, 2001). The number of jobs that these mergers impacted on has not been estimated, but conservatively it must run into the hundreds of thousands. For instance, at least 130,000 finance jobs have 5 disappeared in western Europe alone as a result of mergers and acquisitions in the 1990s (International Labour Organization, 2001).

Motivation

Post-merger depression begins the day top executives declare that the merger, of which the most obvious is losing one‘s job. But redundancy after M&A can be an opportunity for positive change.

Time could be spent on self discovery and re-focusing e. g. advancement new people and forming new working opportunities, meeting merger is done. Employees often expressive many fears they are confronted with following a relationships, learning new skills, getting over the pain caused by the merger, and setting new goals as well as creating an organisation that is better than the two original separate organisations. Building on valuable training, experience, skills, talents and past achievements. While accommodating new work / life balance considerations and identifying new and as yet unrealised opportunities that only a fresh start can afford.

Explores redundancy after M&A as a significant and pervasive outcome of organisational change. The need to manage the redundancy transition has provoked the development of new HRM policies and practices. Highlights interventions such as redundancies are often used by companies with little rigorous evaluation of their utility or benefit, yet their continued proliferation would suggest that they appear to have assumed essential credibility and value. The pervasive and complex nature of current changes dictates not only the need for a better understanding of the practices that exist but also an exploration of how HRM theory of redundancies can contribute to and enhance that understanding.

The complexity of the situation for the survivors of redundancy after M&As means that no simple formula exists. The variables at play are diverse. It is often difficult to provide cause and effect data, reflected in an overall lack of evaluation. It appears that there have been few reported successful attempts to implement intervention strategies which support and assist the framework of organisational change after 6 redundancies due to M&As and personal transition for both those leaving and the survivors of a redundancy experience. One prime example is BBC model to deal with redundancies, considering that everyone’s future at the BBC was uncertain during the 2004, including members of the HR department.

BBC worked to build in the flexibility to provide as many courses as were needed and to ensure that those you were going to made redundant had sufficient clarity about their own careers first, to help them to provide the objectivity that those they were working with would need. Suggestions for managing redundancies would be to encourages organisations to develop strategies which reduce, avoid or limit redundancy after M seeks to ensure that if redundancy occurs, it is handled in accordance with the law seeks to raise awareness of strategies which assist those affected to retain self-respect and enhance employability. Redundancy is one of the most traumatic events an employee may experience. Announcement of redundancies will invariably have an adverse impact on morale, motivation and productivity. The negative effects can be reduced by sensitive handling of redundant employees and those remaining.

If possible, it is preferable for an organisation to establish a formal procedure on redundancy after merger. In many organisations a formal agreement may have been negotiated and agreed between management and trade union or employee representatives. Some organisations deal with redundancies by an informal arrangement with a practice which varies for each redundancy or they may only start to consider the appropriate procedure for the first time when a redundancy situation arises. At the very least in order to plan and implement a redundancy situation properly, the following stages will be followed in most redundancies:

• Planning
• Invitation of volunteers
• Consultation, both collective and individual
• Use of objective selection criteria 7 Compliance with all three stages of statutory dismissal procedures
• Advance notice of individual consultation meeting
• Permitting a colleague to be present at consultation meetings
• Opportunity to appeal
• Allowing seeking of suitable alternative employment
• Statutory or other redundancy payment
• Relocation expenses
• Helping redundant employees obtain training or alternative work.

Of course the exact procedure varies according to the timescale and size of the redundancy after M. Mergers and acquisitions (M) are increasingly prevalent, powerful and risky corporate events. The resistance or support of people in the integration of two previously separate organisations plays a key role for their success or failure. As merged‘ corporations integrate previously separate organisations, they can often dis-integrate individual careers with lay-offs, reduced advancement opportunities, upset or changed career plans, and other resistance-generating changes.

This is the poorest means of mobilizing motivation, experience, commitment and competence, all of which are usually seen as critical justifications for M in the first place. Organisations face opportunity to select new combinations and integrate work in ways that individual careers can be re-integrated into the goals of the M with the goals and motivations of participants affected by it, by recognizing and effectively supporting different motivational and competence profiles. Senior management who had been involved in M identified talent retention as their biggest challenge in leading a successful merger or acquisition, followed by making the deal generate long term value.

Less skilled firms in the art of M also focused on talent management but failed to create the fundamental climate of ownership that recognised the value of staff. 8 Managing and developing talent will prove instrumental for organisations to retain their competitive position and deal with the twin challenges of leadership and growth. According to new research by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, France, the Netherlands, and the UK have the worst redundancy pay. Based on minimum statutory paid notice and severance pay for a white-collar employee aged 40, made redundant after 10 years on a salary of 20,000, the average redundancy pay across the EU was 11,163.

But using the same comparison the redundancy pay would be just 5,000 in France and the Netherlands and 5,128 in the UK. In Spain and Italy the payment would be 25,464 and 18,276 respectively, and 15,000 for both Belgium and Austria.

Rationale

The rationale for M activity is a key value-added role that the board can and should play. A value-based analysis can be strategic rationale of a deal, revealing its true underlying economics. For an acquisition to deliver improved financial performance, it must enhance the strategic position of the acquirer‘s businesses or the target‘s businesses. More precisely, it must improve either market economics or competitive position of the business units.

No brainer deals that provide great returns by simply eliminating redundancies, achieving a lower cost of capital or lowering tax rates are virtually a thing of the past. So mergers and acquisitions must be justified through the strategic benefits that will be realised. Signs of human stress are present in all combinations, even the friendliest and bestmanaged ones. Manifestations of the merger syndrome appear in all varieties of corporate combination, be they mergers or acquisitions, friendly or hostile, domestic or international, involving companies of similar or different sizes and so on. Personal involvement in organisational mergers and acquisitions has served to foster an awareness of the various symptoms of the merger syndrome.

Twelve such indicators are preoccupation; imagining the worst; stress reactions; crisis management; constricted communication; illusion of control; clash of cultures; we vs. 9 they; superior vs. inferior; attack and defend; win vs. lose; and decisions by coercion, horse trading and default. (Schweiger et al. 1987) cite job security as the most important factor for employees during a merger, followed by pay and benefits, work autonomy, and performance feedback. Research has also indicated that the organisational change process in mergers is usually tightly controlled by management and decisions on job losses are driven solely by the need to reduce numbers. Thus employees are commonly concerned not only with job security but also with how selection decisions are made.

Related to this, a number of researchers have shown that perceptions of procedural fairness are a key factor in determining staff attitudes to, and experience of, merger change. In particular, the perceived fairness of redundancy procedures is reported to impact significantly on the attitudes of the staff that remain in the organisation. A number of organisations using a compulsory approach to redundancy selection made the point that once change is known to be about to occur there is more to be gained in terms of gaining the commitment of key players than in leaving these employees in the dark.

One organisation held briefing sessions for all its senior managers before the advent of a redundancy programme in order to provide reassurance, and to talk through strategic plans after the redundancies, with all main board directors present to field questions. This was designed to be open in nature so that these managers could in turn return to their staff to counter any doom and gloom suggestions. Managers such as these have been used as the ears of the organization in order to feed back issues which arise during this period of uncertainty so that a response can be made by the organization in order to minimize any adverse effects. In spite of these benefits, other organisations stated that they did not reveal plans to anyone outside a very select planning group, fearful that leakage of such information might have more significant negative effects.

However, these particular organisations tended to be the ones who bypassed any prior, general notification about intended redundancies, thereby moving to ? phase two? , which is the actual notification of 10 those affected. The disadvantage of this closed and compulsory strategy is the type of situation referred to at the start of this article. Indeed, this particular organisation did not repeat its experience when it faced the need to undertake a further round of redundancies: this time it declared the need to make further workforce reductions, requested volunteers and stated that it would only declare compulsory redundancies if there were insufficient volunteers.

Reactions related to disbelief, betrayal, loss of motivation, lower morale, mistrust, uncertainty, insecurity and lower commitment to the organization and so on are undoubtedly more pronounced where there is no announcement or indication before the actual notification of those to be made redundant. To summarised the rationales of this report would be, Job redundancies are common phenomena in post merger, lack of secondary data, there is no support, continuity or implementation of the programs like this in any organisation, Collecting information in real time from both participating and non-participating employee groups after redundancies is a challenging task, the mono-method bias is another limitation of this study and last but not least the time limit.

Literature review

Author Year Bob Moore 2002 Surviving Title Authors Evaluation Report Evaluation a to compulsory redundancy and Several factors contribute to A number of organisations Thriving During successful M. The first is using a Merger or instilling a positive mindset approach Acquisition among all employees – and this selection made the point can only start at the top. Senior that once change is known management alignment and to be about to occur there is partnership sets the tone, as more to be gained in terms employees managers look for to their of gaining the commitment and of key players than in direction assurance during this important leaving these employees time. Getting people and the dark. One organization processes to work together is held briefing sessions for all the only way to make the new its senior managers before company work. A successful the advent of a redundancy management evaluate team should programme in order to each company‘s provide reassurance, and to personal best practices and talk through strategic plans incorporate them into the newly after the redundancies, with combined organization. all main board directors Although 75 percent of M present to field questions. don‘t reach their stated goals of greater financial results, there is a formula designed to encourage success.

Attention, time and financial resources must be applied to employees and their work processes, so the new company ends up with a motivated, can-do workforce. Christiane Demers 1999 Merger acquisition and Communication‘s critical role in Poor communication and in the implementation of change is mergers often cited in the literature. intensifies acquisitions stress for announcements as corporate wedding narratives Communication is presented as organisational a tool for diffusing members top because of the uncertainty their future. The management intentions and for about preparing context of minds action to a new communication strategies Managers serve to reduce uncertainty, egitimate change to encourage in which both management employee commitment to and employees can voice their opinions, and concerns, provide imminent transformations. Adrian Furnham 2006 Deciding on One of the occasional tasks of a Senior management who promotions and manager is to decide on who in had been involved in M redundancies their reporting staff to promote identified talent retention as as well as, where applicable, their biggest challenge in who to make redundant. In large leading a successful merger organisations guidelines factors there may be or acquisition, followed by concerning to take which making the deal generate into long term value.

Less skilled some firms in the art of M also on talent both consideration. Further organisations keep records on focused performance designed to which reduce are management but failed to the create the fundamental subjectivity in these sorts of climate of ownership that decisions. Nevertheless this is recognised always because a of difficult the decision staff. and the value of many powerful consequences not only for the individual involved, but also his/her working colleagues and the organisation as a whole.

A successful merger is all in head-count, or redundancies, about cost savings, right? ave become commonplace in Wrong. The most important many industries worldwide. In thing is making sure that the practice many downsizings fail valuable talent from both to achieve desired long-term companies doesn’t simply results. Presents results of a march out the door. survey among large Canadian Managers behind the most firms which suggests Examination management some successful mergers and reasons. strategic of acquisitions spend as much of time addressing “people” downsizing reveals weaknesses issues such as integrating of both planning and cultures, managing talent, knowledge and implementation. management of Effective sharing human retaining key people as they esources is a prerequisite but do on cost savings, merging failures often arise from processes, technologies and inattention to other important divisions. aspects of organizational change. Suggests that a wellthought-out strategy should be accompanied innovation, by process re-business engineering and organizational learning.

Bob Moore 2004 Surviving and Several factors contribute to Suggestions for managing Thriving During successful M&As. The first is redundancies would be to a Merger or instilling a positive mindset encourages organisations to strategies avoid or which limit M&As that if is among all employees – and this develop can only start at the top. Senior reduce, management alignment Acquisition and redundancy after ensure artnership sets the tone, as seeks to employees look to their redundancy occurs, it managers for direction and handled in accordance with law seeks of to raise assurance during this important the time. Getting people and awareness strategies processes to work together is which assist those affected the only way to make the new to retain self-respect and company work. A successful enhance management evaluate team each employability. should Redundancy is one of the company‘s most traumatic events an personal best practices and employee may experience.

Although 75 percent of M&As have an adverse impact on don‘t reach their stated goals of morale, motivation and greater financial results, there is productivity. a formula designed to encourage success. Attention, time and financial resources must be applied to employees and their work processes, so the new company ends up with a motivated, can-do workforce. Adrian Thornhill 1995 The positive For those organizations which Redundancies after M&A management of declare redundancy survivors: issues lessons redundancies without can be an opportunity for prior warning, the effect may positive change. Time could come as a shock to all be spent on self discovery re-focusing e. g. nd employees – those who are not and to be made redundant as well as advancement those who are to go. This has opportunities, particularly been the case in meeting new people and non-unionized organisations forming new working where there has not been the relationships, legal requirement to undertake learning new skills, getting prior consultation. One financial over the pain caused by the 15 services organisation stated that merger, and setting new this led to a period of shock for goals as well as creating an 24 hours during which work organisation that is better effectively ground to a halt. The than the two original management of the organization separate organisations. hen had to work quickly to overcome this effect, through company-wide communication and by demonstrating that those to be made redundant would indeed be fairly in treated. unionized prior However, even organisations, where consultation occurs, there may be the feeling that little attention has been given to the survivors of redundancy. There is a growing awareness Human resources strategies handle redundancies among business leaders that the like open up consultative way an organisation handles and participative redundancies sends out a very organisation-wide strong message about its discussion to seek out corporate ethics and values. possibilities that minimise redundancies, establish ound two-way means of communication which permit employees to freely vent their feelings, with a guaranteed right of reply from the organisation, communicate constantly and effectively. This report excellence, employees‘ the training and and introduces a development needs assessment: more practical model of training development to needs reduce on a education becomes imminent. In assessment organisation redundancies practical model contemporary for institutes partner information stress dissemination by employees after merger and itself leads to little or no results. acquisition.

It is the ability to that of the model is competency- organization knowledge disseminate based, which allows for the leads to incorporation to reduce employees‘ skills and abilities redundancies in post merger development. What matters is situation converting technology through people into better organisational performance. One thing which is true about the twenty-first century is that the development of human resources is no longer an option but a must. Job losses that are the result of A number of organisations mergers, sale of a company, using restructuring, and downsizing as approach organizations profitability in struggle a a to compulsory redundancy or selection made the point highly that once change is known competitive corporate world are to be about to occur there is common. The reduction process more to be gained in terms forces organisations to employ a of gaining the commitment variety of exit strategies as they of deal with the most key players than in difficult leaving these employees in aspect of downsizing – the the dark. reduction of personnel from their organisation as a means of rapid reduction of expense to the company. Considers some employee-sensitive strategies exit Bryn Jones, 2001 How Redundancies Worsen Inequality Collective redundancy (CR) is The complexity of the erhaps the most central but situation for the survivors of acknowledged employment factor redundancy in means formula that after no M&As simple The are Social least shaping contemporary Britain. exists. at play The ease with which employers variables can execute CR allows not only diverse. It is often difficult to fairly rapid and to and also of far-reaching provide cause and effect business data, reflected in an overall working lack of evaluation. It changes organisational practices, restoration but prompt appears that there have few reported to companies‘ been financial deficits, as well as successful changes in the skill and implement of strategies attempts intervention which support demographic workforces. profiles nd assist the framework of organisational change after redundancies due to M&As and personal transition for both those leaving and the survivors of a redundancy experience.

Research methodology

The primary data would be collected through, principally involving in-depth questioners and interviews with senior human resource practitioners and staff those who made redundant after M&As in the organisations. Before interviews occurred, these practitioners were supplied with a list of the questions. The ranged from the reasons for redundancies after M&As through to the impact of redundancies on organisational survivors, and organisational learning points for the future management of redundancies.

A comprehensive assessment after redundancies can reveal how a company has emerged from the combination and how ready it is to achieve future goals. Secondary data would be collected by using publicly available information, public domino, Newspapers, Articles on Redundancies after M&A and International Journals on this topic.

Further evolution

The need to reduce costs is an opportunity critically to review current ways of doing things, to make major improvements using new technology or better methods and build strengths for the future. Reasons for the design of existing work flows are often buried in history and reflect yesterdays crises. Many organisations have found that simply the exercise of mapping their major business processes can suggest dramatic improvements.

Redundancies, duplications, inefficiencies and disconnects are common in most processes or systems which have been in operation for a while. Massive reductions after M&As radically change managerial and workforce attitudes. Individuals no longer trust organisational commitment to long-term employment and morale has suffered in many cases. Corporate psyches have been forced to confront the possibility that growth may not return, and decline may be inevitable. Dealing with these issues effectively is the difference between a company that will continue to suffer the redundancy hangover long after the event and one that can 19 move on swiftly.

Companies that manage the process of redundancies after M&As well in terms of being fair and transparent and in terms of giving a level of support to the employees when they‘re leaving, create an environment in which the people who are left behind say: Well, at least they treated them fairly, and it had to happen for a business reason – at least they looked after them and didn‘t just shove them out the door. The high level of consultation required makes good management sense. Two things: once the decision has been taken, how an employer conducts himself after that is going to be critical. It‘s about being responsive to employees — giving them an opportunity to have discussions; making sure information is available to them.

All of that will be seen by employees who remain behind as well. Secondly, the communication process for those who remain is important, making sure they‘re not ignored or sidelined just because they‘re not part of the programme. They may well feel left out. To this end the following are some of the approaches that may assist:

• Have pre-existing human resources strategies to cope with such a situation. These should be open and transparent, subject to widespread consultation, and equitable.
• An organisation needs to provide a career management structure which enhances self-directed skill development. The opportunity to learn the transition skills necessary to career change are thereby created.
• In facing an experience, an organisation has to consider the impact on the symbols it has previously used to motivate staff, particularly its sense of mission.
• The management of restructuring, redeployment or redundancy is important, not simply as a humanitarian gesture, or for the sake of good public relations, but also because the effectiveness of the organisation that survives is at stake.
• Open up consultative and participative organisation-wide discussion as soon as danger signs appear. Seek out possibilities that minimise redundancies after merger.
• Establish sound two-way means of communication which permit employees to freely vent their feelings, with a guaranteed right of reply from the organisation. Communicate constantly and effectively, and actively evaluate impact.
• Exercise effective leadership from the top, ensuring that the pain is shared, such as through voluntary salary cuts and the non-awarding or take-up of bonuses.
• Provide a clear reconciliation of the market and financial situation, options for amelioration, and the need for job cuts within this.
• Use clear and published criteria to determine the basis for redundancy, arrived at through consultation.
• Set up a mutual support network for those made redundant after M&As and continue to offer human resources help where required.
• Offer immediate counselling and assistance to all those identified for redundancy.
• Organisations should always attempt to avoid redundancies in post merger situation.

Ways of doing this include

• Natural wastage
• Recruitment freeze
• Stopping or reducing overtime
• Offer early retirement to volunteers (subject to age discrimination issues)
• Retraining or redeployment
• Offering existing employee‘s sabbaticals and secondments

 Conclusion

Handling redundancies after M&As is a difficult task where decisions have to be made as to numbers, timing and criteria. The detail should be fully discussed with employee representatives, with the objective of getting agreement about the way matters should be handled. A successful merger is all about cost savings, right? Wrong. The most important thing is making sure that the valuable talent from both companies doesn’t simply march out the door or made redundant.

Managers behind the most successful mergers and acquisitions spend as much time addressing “people” issues such as integrating cultures, managing talent, sharing knowledge and retaining key people as they do on cost savings, merging processes, technologies and divisions.

References

1. Furnham, A. (2001), Management Competency Frameworks, CRF, London.
2. Greenberg, J. (1996), The Quest for Justice on the Job, Sage, London.
3. Sessa, V. , Taylor, J. (2000), Executive Selection: A Systematic Approach for Success, Jossey-Bass, New York, NY.
4.  Lynch, J. G. , Lind, B. (2002), “Escaping merger and acquisition madness”, Strategy & Leadership, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 5-12.
5.  Anderson, H. A. 1993), Successful Training Practice: A Manager‘s Guide to Personnel Development, Basil Blackwell, Oxford.
6.  Hoke, W. (2002), “What’s your exit strategy? “, The edge, pp. 5-12.
7. Business Week (2002), ? Exit strategies discussed?.
8. Fowler, A (1993), Redundancy, Institute of Personnel Management, London. 22
9. Charlesworth, K (1996), Are Managers Under Stress? , Institute of Management, London.
10.  Nathan, R. (2007), Colleagues turn counsellors in BBC’s pioneering program Human Resource Management International Digest, Volume 15 Number 5 pp. 11-13.
11.  Kanter, c (1986), Managing HRM risk in a merger, London.
12. Business Week (1994), “The pain of downsizing”, Business Week.
13. Doherty, N. Horsted, J. (1995), “Helping survivors to stay on board”, People Management, No. 12 January, pp. 26-31.
14.  Institute of Personnel and Development (1996), The IPD Guide on Redundancy, IPD, London.
15. Schlesinger, L. (2002), UK offers worst redundancy pay in Europe, Financial Director.
16.  Yehuda, B. (2000), ? Survivor syndrome? – a management myth? , Journal of Managerial Psychology Volume 15 Number 1 2000 pp. 29-45, Emerald.
17.  Steven, H. (2000), Anatomy of a merger: behaviour of organizational factors and processes throughout the pre- during- post- stages, Management Decision, Volume 38 Number 10 2000 pp. 674-684, Emerald.
18.  Noeleen, D. 2005), The role of outplacement in redundancy management, Volume 27 Number 4 1998 pp. 343-353, Emerald.
19.  Shay, S. (2006), Downsizing and the impact of job counselling and retraining on effective employee responses, Career Development International, Volume 11 Number 2 2006 pp. 125-144, Emerald.
20.  Stephen, A. (2001), Downsizing to Improve Strategic Position, Volume 32 Number 1 1994 pp. 4-11, Emerald. 23
21.  Gerald, V. (2002), Counselling remaining employees in redundancy situations, Volume 7 Number 7 2002 pp. 430-437, Emerald.
22.  Al-Khayyat, R. (1998), Training and development needs assessment: a practical model for partner institutes, Volume 22 Number 1 1998 pp. 18-27, Emerald. 24

Typically, and that is as simple as looking at a local company in any country, Human Resource (HR) managers are the people who oversee the activities of others and who are responsible for attaining goals in organizations. HR managers get things done through other people. They make decisions, collect information from organizations and institutions outside their own, allocate resources, and hiring, training, motivating and disciplining employees. Essentially, they plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control (Gilley and Eggland 1998).

But the corporate trend today points to developing more critical skills than such basic managerial functions. Technical, interpersonal, and conceptual skills are still sought for but when looking for competent international HR managers, the broadened forms of such skills are important to have (Young and Nie 1996). Managerial and decision-making abilities are highly required, particularly when a manager is operating under conditions of isolation or physical distances from the center of decision making in the home office.

A global manager must have the ability to appreciate and respect beliefs, values, behaviors, and business practices of individuals and groups from other cultures. In fact, even a home-based national HR manager must be culturally sensitive. Early anthropologists thought of societies and their cultures as fully independent systems. But today, many nations are multicultural societies, composed of numerous smaller subcultures (Libicki 2000). Indeed, the intensity of today’s global economy challenges corporate executives to compete successfully with anybody, anywhere, and at any time.

More companies are looking to overseas markets for growth, and there’s a high demand for people with international expertise. Indeed, human resource management has been elevated to a more ambitious level, to quality management (Keeley, 2001). The emphasis of quality management is on trying to predict and influence the future rather than on responding and reacting by the seat of the pants. It is also a results-oriented philosophy of management, one which emphasizes accomplishments and results. The focus is generally on change and on improving both individual and organizational effectiveness (Robbins and DeCenzo, 2000).

One of the world’s known enforcers of such management philosophy is McDonald’s. The original founders of McDonald’s, and the fast-food concept, were brothers Dick and Mac McDonald. From the introduction of a limited menu of just nine items, and by focusing on efficient production and service, the brothers were able to halve the price of their hamburgers to 15 cents. McDonald’s is now the international market leader for fast food, and has been ever since its pioneering first restaurant was launched in San Bernardino, California in 1948.

The finest building block of the McDonald’s franchising business is standardization model, and this has been prescribed for businesses looking for a model to follow. However, since standards vary across cultures, it is the impact on society as a whole that a business must consider before adopting a similar code of practice (“The McDonald’s”). The early successes of the McDonald brothers in their San Bernardino fast-food restaurant in the 1950s combined strong elements of both technical and administrative innovation and quality management. Read about 

McDonald’s quality assurance.

Initially, the McDonald brothers sought technical innovations designed to save labor and speed up the process of delivery to the customer. They began inventing the essential tools of the early fast-food industry such as the hand-held stainless steel pump dispenser which required just a single squeeze to dispense the required amount of ketchup and mustard evenly on a bun, a variation of this device is still in use in McDonald’s burger bars today.

Boas and Chain claimed, “Each innovation made the service more uniform; each refinement served the cause of standardization, volume and profit. Speed constituted the essence of Hamburger Science” (“The McDonald’s”). During the 1960s, McDonald’s invested a great deal of capital into advertising and marketing campaigns. In 1962, the golden arches were adopted as its corporate logo, with the introduction of Ronald McDonald as its mascot arriving the following year.

In 1965, McDonald’s Corporation went public, and by 1966 was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In 1967, its first restaurants outside of the United States were opened in Canada and Puerto Rico. 1968 saw the introduction of the company’s flagship product, the Big Mac. In 1989, McDonald’s became listed on the Frankfurt, Munich, Paris, and Tokyo stock exchanges (“The McDonald’s”). Thanks to quality management that began with the McDonald brothers, McDonald’s can also boast that it is the largest retail property owner in the world.

McDonald’s has very close relationships with their suppliers, even making sure that their different suppliers communicate with one another regarding procedures, and the introduction of new technology, in order for the McDonald’s corporation to maximize its profits through efficient operations. Only the largest corporations can exert this amount of power over its suppliers, and therefore most companies could not adopt the McDonald’s model regarding its relationship with suppliers (“The McDonald’s”).

It is a corporate practice that after creating a picture of the market, McDonald’s management’s analysis of the potential business venture and plan of action will be structured as to avoid losses and to find the most profitable scenarios (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990). Several environmental factors play a key role in driving an organization to arrive at the right mix of marketing elements. To assure industry leadership at the domestic or global level, organizations are making headway to analyze the business, consumers, the trade, competition, and most especially the employees or what used to be called the assistant managers and crew.

McDonald’s is indeed one of the preeminent testaments to this successful technique of quality management (“The McDonald’s”). The success of McDonald’s quality management can be attributed to efficiency, calculability, predictability, and control. McDonald’s uses optimum methods of production, and also has an effective body of rules and regulations, which ensure highly efficient work. McDonald’s also states “it provides the best available way to get from hungry to full” (“The McDonald’s”). The attitudes of managers toward their people are of primary importance (Goleman, 2001).

Employees should be able to trust the motives and integrity of their supervisors. The managers in an organization are forced and driven to be cautiously appreciative of their people’s contribution that flows from high performance. They are expected to recognize that rewards must be psychological as well as financial, and strive for an atmosphere where each of their people can share the adventure and excitement of working at the company. It is the responsibility of management to create a productive environment where the organization’s values flourish (Blauner, 1999).

Thus, the McDonald’s management recognizes the basic needs of the employees, and will take a systematic program to build the skills of the full-timers and part-timers alike, and eventually help them grow to full potential within the company. The primary means of accommodating this is through understanding the each of the employees’ personal objectives. Naturally, what specific activities ought to be staff depends on the company’s mission, objectives, and strategies. Structure follows strategy. Differences in objectives lead to fundamental differences in which structure is most appropriate (Reeves and Hoy, 1993).

Besting the competitors is part of the formula of quality management. The fluctuating market environment is an all-encompassing area of concern for organizations. Included in the analysis of the market environment are numerous factors that may have an immediate effect on the fortunes or failures of an organization. Some of these factors are changing demographics, life cycles of various products or services, ease of entry into the industry, income distribution of population, and extent of rivalry in the industry.

Generally, the analysis of various market factors enables management to fine-tune its strategies and reposition the firm against its competitors (Brown, 2002). The strategic management of the boards and other principal stakeholders distinguish a deliberate precedence to develop a people-centered organization. A significant command progressing from this plot is to concentrate on improving the quality of professional life of their workforce. In order to attain objectives effectively, the manager clearly must both coordinate work and get people to perform it (Miner, 2002).

Managers are popularly referred to as executives because the mainstay of their role is to ensure that the work of the organization is actually executed. Managers translate decisions into actions through the essential managerial function of motivating. In its present managerial context, motivating is the process of moving oneself and others to work toward attainment of individual and organizational objectives (Rue, 2004). The management creates a climate conducive to constructive working environment.

This includes encouragement, active involvement of the employees in some of the minor decision-making phases, a supportive attitude on the part of the manager, and a willingness to answer questions (Levine 1995). Organizational decisions may involve the strategic direction of the organization or might simply deal with the day-to-day activities of employees. Decisions might be made after months of information gathering and deliberation or be made in an instant with little or no consideration.

Decisions might be made by individuals alone, through consultation with relevant organizational members, or in participative groups. Decisions will always vary in their level of effectiveness. To carry effective decisions out, strategic management entails the performance of activities by means of selecting, designing, operating, controlling, and updating production systems (Gilley and Maycunich, 2000). Decisions regarding the company’s operation systems should be made from a strategic quality management (Peterson 1993).

This focus requires management to translate the organization’s objectives and strategies into a set of operation system decisions and policies. For instance, if the company is to modify its product and product lines to adapt to rapidly changing customer demands, its operation system will be flexible enough to shift gears to the required modifications (Sullivan 2000). This activity would also involve instilling a systematic management development approach by nurturing a culture that encourages learning from the outcomes of its past strategic decisions (Peterson 1993).

Learning from the past enables a company striving for quality management to improve its strategic direction and strengthen its professionalism with respect to competitive management. The unremitting success of a company shall indicate an ongoing management effort to learn from the past and anticipate the future. Under a competitive executive’s hands-on, competent leadership, it becomes a corporate practice that after creating a picture of the market, a company’s management’s analysis of the potential business venture and plan of action will be structured as to avoid losses and to find the most profitable scenarios (Samansky 2003).

The next challenge faced by quality management is to determine whether or not the firm has the internal strengths to take advantage of environmental opportunities as well as to identify internal weaknesses that might compound the problems of external threats. The process by which an internal diagnosis is conducted is the management audit. The five recommended functions to be included in the audit are marketing, finance and accounting, operations, human resources, and corporate resources (Gilley and Eggland 1998).

To assure industry leadership at the domestic or global level, organizations are making headway to analyze the business, consumers, the trade and competition. Through industry analysis, the manager can create an environmental threat and opportunity profile. The profiling includes both a weighing of the factors and an assessment of the impact of the factor in the organization (Morden 1995). Once this process is complete, management must be able to evaluate the organization’s quality management.

True to HRM’s competitiveness principles, a strategic successful manager is the one who is aware of internal organizational capabilities and deficiencies as well as crucial external and internal concerns in the industry (Peterson 1993). As a supervisor, it will also be important to relate general objectives to specific jobs assigned to the employees rather than to more general performance standards that might not be important for certain tasks. It will also be a part of the manager’s course of action to do potential appraisals, which outline an employee’s projected upward path (Rue and Byars, 2000).

Specifically, an Employee of the Month rewards system will be imposed to make this scheme tangible, evident, and truly motivating. The assistant managers and crew alike shall also receive feedback on their performance and positive reinforcement for learning. This can come in the form of praise and recognition from the manager. Or, as some of the new computerized teaching systems permit, immediate, direct feedback when a program has been solved correctly (Rue and Byars, 2000). McDonald’s management will similarly be designing and holding more frequent training sessions to make employees more comfortable with the workplace culture.

The company accepts the fact that the manpower must be made to understand more full how they are expected to interrelate and envision their upward mobility (Green and Butkus, 1999). Such understanding requires full knowledge of company goals, and there is a general corporate maxim saying that the goals can be set only when a company has a sense of its own history. Together with the manpower planning staff, the manager exercises quality management by echoing theoretical emphasis on getting employee views of the company (Rue and Byars, 2000).

People’s perceptions are reality to them and their actions will be guided accordingly. If enough people feel the same way about certain issues, problems, and circumstances. After all, such feelings are generally indicative of what’s really happening (Sawyer, 1979). However, to bridge the part-timers’ goals with those of the full-timers’, adapting the corporate objectives to the part-time employees may not be necessary at all and when enforced, may be costly in the long run. The manager acknowledges the reality that part-timers have a proactive role that they play in the operations management process.

The part-timers are seen as more than passive followers of McDonald’s objectives. Instead, it is believed that part-timers actively seek information that will help them adapt to their adaptive roles and the norms and values of the organizational culture (Rue and Byars, 2000). It is for this diversity reason that the company impresses upon every full-time and part-time employee the long-range objectives that encompass the entirety of the staff, and in fact, of the company. These objectives may be formulated for persons on lower levels in descending order on the chain of command.

Assistant managers should also actively participate in the formulation of their own objectives. This could be accomplished by a closed-door meeting in which subordinates discuss the unit’s objectives and projects for the coming year. Based on the information obtained, each assistant manager would prepare a set of objectives for his own work unit. Then the owner or any superior manager would discuss these subunit objectives with each subordinate and ensure that they are mutually supportive. The following will be the durable principles and objectives of McDonald’s: 1.

Market-driven strategies are better than product strategies. The company aims to meet the needs of the communities rather than market their services. 2. Market knowledge is critical for a regional fast-food chain. The company develops a strategy, which takes advantage of their strong competitive position in their regional markets, utilizing their knowledge of the specific market and their customer base. 3. Decentralized organization supports a market-driven strategy. The company will not pursue a statewide market segmentation strategy but will utilize decentralized management in order to respond to individual markets.

4. The company is a fast-food provider. They will aim to continue being the maker of quality meals and foods. They are proud of being in the food industry and intend to enhance the services that fast-food chains can offer. 5. The company takes long-term outlook. The company focuses on long-range profitability and, from time to time, implement actions that might not be in the best interest of short-term profitability. McDonald’s positions itself to adapt to the changing competition and environment of the fast food industry. 6. The company prefers more business to new business.

They offer services first to existing customers and build upon their present customer base. 7. The company provides only high-quality service. They do not engage in services that they are not capable to do well. They do try to be all things to all people. The company continually extends itself to please its three constituencies: employees, customers, and shareholders. The food business is a big circle; pleased employees means pleased customers, pleased customers means fair returns to shareholders, pleased shareholders means more pleased employees (Brody and Ehrlich, 1998). No one can halt McDonald’s progress.

The chains are well-located and low-priced. They have name value and a recognized product. However, since standards vary across cultures, it is the impact on society as a whole that a business must consider before adopting a similar code of practice. For instance, people in developing countries are starving, purely so that our developed society can be provided with excess food. Chemicals, necessary for the uniformity of its products, are destroying the environment and putting lives at risk due to increased nitrate levels.

This way, McDonaldization of society wouldn’t make the world a better place, as it will simply turn into a bigger breeding ground for exploitation, pollution, and concealment (Ritzer, 1996). Moreover, the US government should be motivated for economic as well as political reasons to encourage American firms apart from McDonald’s to seek opportunities in the countries worldwide. It seeks to create a favorable climate for overseas business by providing the assistance by providing the assistance that helps minimize some of the troublesome politically motivated financial risks of doing business abroad (Dunning, 1999).

Merely selecting a course of action for quality management is of little value to an organization like McDonald’s. To resolve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity like market expansion, the decision must be implemented. The degree to which decisions are effectively implemented can be increased if they are accepted by the people affected like the unions in McDonald’s (Mckern, 2003). Acceptance is seldom automatic even when the decision is clearly a good one. Usually, though the decision maker must sell his or her point of view to others in the organization or to the prospective stakeholders.

Some managers regard having to sell decisions as being a waste of time, but taking the attitude that, “I’m the boss, right or wrong,” is generally not effective in today’s world of educated workers. A good way to win acceptance of a decision is to execute a participative decision making procedure (Kuratko, et al. , 2001). The success of the multinational corporation lies on the shoulders of its management. Measuring a potential business venture has many aspects, which the manager must be aware of in order to convey the correct information back to the decision makers (Gilley and Eggland 1998).

Being ignorant to any of the aspects can lead to a false representation of the project, and hence an uninformed decision being passed. In order for a business to survive it must grow. For growth to be optimal, quality management requires the executive department to identify the most attractive prospective leads. The first step is to use secondary research to find out what the sales potential is in a given market. The second step is to conduct primary research that outlines the specifics of the potential market that directly pertain to the product.

In the third step the team should be properly placed and instructed. In the fourth and final step the product of the feasibility study should be properly communicated to the decision-making management (Gilley and Maycunich 2000). The last step in the problem-solving model is measurement and evaluation of the decision’s consequences: what actually happened. By obtaining feedback, which is historical data on what took place during and after implementation, decision makers can compare actual results with what they expected to accomplish with the decisions.

This is a basic step in any problem-solving process because of its enabling insight to evaluate success of decisions and if necessary, change them before serious harm is done to the company (Levine, 1995). One survey found that over 90 percent of companies have some type of appraisal system, but several factors determine whether performance appraisal is effective (Rue, 2004). To begin, most often a subordinate’s performance is evaluated by his or her manager. Therefore, this manager must be capable of evaluating performance accurately and not base appraisal on personal feeling toward the subordinate.

In theory, the control process involves setting standards, measurement of results to determine deviation from standards, and corrective action, if needed (Woodside and Pitts, 1996). Similarly, performance appraisal requires managers to gather information on how effective each individual is at accomplishing delegated duties. Communicating this information to subordinates enables them to know how well they are doing and to correct less than acceptable behavior. Performance appraisal also permits management to identify the outstanding performers and in effect raise their performance standards by promoting them to more challenging positions.

Performance appraisal is also needed to provide people with information about their relative level of performance (Green and Butkus, 1999). When done correctly, the individual will learn not only whether his or her performance is acceptable, but also specifically what strengths and weaknesses he or she has and which areas could be improved. By identifying strong performers, management is able to reward them fairly with praise, pay, and promotion. Consistent, positive reinforcement for behavior associated with high performance should lead to similar behavior in the future (Gilley and Eggland, 1998).

Quality management of course is primarily undertaken to ensure that managers have the skills needed to attain organizational objectives. Management development can take place through lectures, small group discussions, case studies, seminars, role-playing, and training programs. In terms of global management like that of McDonald’s, there are basically four considerations (Gilley and Eggland 1998). First, in terms of leadership, top management must have a true commitment to diversity. The commitment must go beyond sloganism and include the commitment of human, financial, and technical resources.

Second, managers and employees alike must receive both awareness training and skill-building training. Third, research should be conducted to identify problem areas in the organizational culture and build appropriate educational programs. Finally, the culture of the organization must be audited to reveal ways in which diverse members could be hampered by current organizational values (Gilley and Maycunich 2000; Peterson, 1993). Quality management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation.

Occasionally some specific actions may not result in immediate and perceivable improvements, but in the long run they may influence other activities and initiatives positively. Responsibility for managing organizational changes is with management and executives of the organization; they must manage these organizational changes in a way that employees can cope with it. Without adequate adaptation to potential future situations, no organization can optimize its future performance and achieve success (Griffin, 1993).

Quality management is necessary in all systems, processes, methods and individuals, especially in top management and middle management. All employees play significant roles in transformations and other enabling activities (Braun, 2002). The quality management approach indeed is necessary because it enables managers to evaluate and be evaluated on the basis of results, rather than personality traits. For instance, telling a subordinate he has little initiative is not a very useful form of feedback. It is not specific enough for the subordinate to use for correcting performance deficits.

In contrast, telling a subordinate that his output was 10 percent below the objective established six months ago provides a clear frame of reference, standard, for controlling performance and discussing what problems seem to have occurred and what can be done to improve future performance. Therefore, every manager must certainly establish specific performance objectives and the means of attaining them in conjunction with his or her immediate superior. After a set period of time, the manager and employee could assess actual performance in comparison to these established objectives (Mourdoukoutas, 1999).

By and large, quality management, according to business connoisseurs, is a much more comprehensive process than just formulating a specific, nonetheless complex, issue such as the best strategy to drive a firm to desired success. In particular, it is concerned with the development of specific strategies designed to help the organization achieve its objectives, determining the opportunities and threats, and formulating the corporate objectives and strategies of the enterprise in light of this corporate assessment and the internal audit of the enterprise’s strengths and weaknesses (Mourdoukoutas, 1999).

The key to the future depends greatly on whether there can be a broader move toward shared responsibility between the business and the employees, which is a quality management principle. It is a shared responsibility that involves greater decision-making power and job security for workers. Those of us, as enforcers of quality management in the company, who want to see a high-morale, highly motivated employees, in addition to see more economic and social justice in America, must be willing to take risks and try new approaches.

As we attempt to develop a more progressive employee-management relations, we shall not forget that those who insist in making cooperation impossible make confrontation inevitable (Hamel and Prahalad, 1990). Furthermore, there is no doubt that the international marketing process of McDonald’s does face a large set of variables as it take place over different countries and it does act in different environments. Apart from quality management, another most determinant environment to the success of the international marketing process is culture, which holds the reason for many human acts and behavior.

Reaching to that point McDo’s marketer should study deeply culture treaties of a country the company is planning to act in. so that special amendments in the organization overall plans and actions is made to act in accordance with the new market variables. Bibliography Braun, Patrice, 2002, “Digital Knowledge Networks: Linking Communities of Practice with Innovation,” Journal of Business Strategies. Brody, Paul, and David Ehrlich, 1998, “Can Big Companies Become Successful Venture Capitalists? ” The McKinsey Quarterly. Brown, Caryne, 2002, “Business Busters,” Black Enterprise.

Dunning, John H. 1999, Governments, Globalization, and International Business, Oxford University Press. Gilley, Jerry W. , and Steven A. Eggland, 1998, Principles of Human Resource Development, Addison-Wesley. Gilley, Jerry W. , and Ann Maycunich, 2000, Organizational Learning, Performance, and Change: An Introduction to Strategic Human Resource Development, Perseus Books. Goleman, Daniel, 2001, Business: The Ultimate Resource, Maine.

Perseus Publishing. Green, Thad B. , and Raymond T. Butkus, 1999, Motivation, Beliefs, and Organizational Transformation, Quorum Books. Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C. K. , 1990, “The Core Competence of the Corporation”, Harvard Business Review, vol. 68. Keeley, Timothy Dean. 2001, International Human Resource Management in Japanese Firms: Their Greatest Challenge, Palgrave. Kuratko, Donald F. , John C. Goodale, and Jeffrey S. Hornsby, 2001, “Quality Practices for a Competitive Advantage in Smaller Firms,” Journal of Small Business Management. Levine, David I, 1995, Reinventing the Workplace: How Business and Employees Can Both Win, Brookings Institution. Libicki, Martin. 2000, Who Runs What in the Global Information Grid?

An Essay on Criteria for Determining Global and Local Responsibilities, Rand. Mckern, Bruce. 2003, Managing the Global Network Corporation, Routledge. Miner, John B. , 2002, Organizational Behavior: Foundations, Theories, and Analyses, Oxford University Press. Morden, Tony, 1995, “International Culture and Management,” Management Decision, Texas: Gulf Publishing. Mourdoukoutas, Panos. 1999, The Global Corporation: The Decolonization of International Business, Quorum Books. Peterson, Richard B, 1993, Managers and National Culture: A Global Perspective, Quorum Books.

Reeves, Carol, and Frank Hoy, 1993, “Employee Perceptions of Management Commitment and Customer Evaluations of Quality Service in Independent Firms,” Journal of Business Management. Robbins, Stephen P. and David A. DeCenzo, 2000, Fundamentals of Management: Essential Concepts and Applications, Prentice-Hall. Rue, Leslie W. , 2004, Supervision: Key Link to Productivity, McGraw-Hill. Rue, Leslie W. and Lloyd L. Byars, 2000, Management: Key Link to Productivity, 8th ed. Irwin Professional Publishing Company. Samansky, Arthur W, 2003, “Successful Strategic Communications Plans Are Realistic, Achievable, and Flexible,” Public Relations Quarterly.

Sawyer, George, 1979, Business and Society: Managing Corporate Social Impact, Boston Houghton Mifflin Publishing. Sullivan, Rawlie R, 2000, “New Trends in Business-to-Business Sales Require Interdynamic Integration,” Review of Business. “The McDonald’s History. ” Accessed 18 November 2005. Available: <http://www. mcdonalds. com/corp/about/mcd_history_pg1. html>. Woodside, Arch G. , and Pitts, Robert E. 1996, Creating and Managing International Joint Ventures, Quorum Books. Young, Scott T. , and Nie, Winter, 1996, Managing Global Operations: Cultural and Technical Success Factors, Quorum Books

Wireless Technology in the Workplace The utilization of wireless technology in the place of work, especially in government or public sectors has been escalating at a swift pace. There are a number of reasons behind this detonation. Adopting this technology at workplace enables an organization to benefit from uncountable advantages the technology encompasses. The benefits of using wireless technology in the workplace are measurable, significant, and clear (Seely and Duguid, 2000).

Each and every day more and more sectors both in public and private are realizing these adorable benefits, not only for Information technology departments, but similarly for office based staff as well. The major advantages of utilizing wireless technology in the workplace include cost reduction and augmented productivity due to great mobility and flexibility. Expanding or installing the wireless network is easy and fast. It avoids the cost, time, complexity, as well as disruption of cables pulling through ceilings and walls.

Moves, add, and transformations within an organization using wireless technology becomes less costly and timely (Paul-Lin, 2004). With this technology at workplace fewer resources are spent on reconfiguration of organizational offices. The technology is very productive when used in the workplace, as employees are able to access the required information for their respective jobs and at the time they require such information. It enables the field and remote workers to connect as soon as they reach at workplace. Since individuals stay in network connection, they are able to enter official information while moving (Paul-Lin, 2004).

In this way it facilitates the productivity of employees at the workplace and thus enabling the organization to achieve their set objectives and missions to the public. Installation of wireless technology in the workplace gives the employees the freedom to move anywhere and anytime at their place of work or in a multi building while connected to the real time information (Staurt, 2002). PDA and laptop users in the workplace are able to access services of broadband internet, email as well as corporate network any time they desire to be online.

Furthermore, with wireless technology application in the workplace, meeting rooms, public areas, and office space becomes extra flexible than when using wired technology. Workers can use the space in the way they choose to and whenever they require it. Hot spots are easily created anywhere an individual places a laptop (Axelrod and Cohen, 1999). Therefore, wireless technology or network provides more capacity immediately needed in the workplace. Ad hoc groups, projects teams, and others employees that might require temporary network can be contained instantly by this technology.

While the individual experience of wireless technology application for work tends to be advantageous one, skilled or knowledge employees do encompass several concerns regarding its repercussion for their employers. The grave implication of this technology on an organization is alleged to be an increase in the amount of communications and information that employees have to encounter with. Few skilled employees say that they find it quite hard in determining which work related communications to focus on.

Other drawbacks of using this technology in the workplace comprise the constant necessity to keep up to date with each and every latest technology, system malfunctions, and printer overuse plus associated paper wasting (Staurt, 2002). References Axelrod, R. , & Cohen, M. (1999). Organizational Implications- Scientific Frontier. New York; Free Press. Paul-Lin, B. (2004). Future Scenarios of Wireless Industry. Journal of Technology Management. Vol (9):101-128. Seely P. , & Duguid, J. (2000). The Social-Life of Information. Illinois; Harvard School of Business Press.

This report was produced to look at the management and motivation methods hat are used in McDonald’s fast food restaurants, and was requested by the Senior Executive of McDonalds. The main findings were that there are influences of the theories of F. W. Taylor and George Ritzer and was concluded that upon observation of the activities in McDonalds, there are evident uses of scientific management used in McDonalds restaurants, and that this does have a knock-on effect on the motivation of staff there. The recommendations of this report are that the managers need to engage the staff and try to ‘revamp’ the processes that they have in place, and give them a more direct motivation as to the rewards that they receive.

Terms of Reference

This report is has been requested by the Senior Executive of McDonalds in September 2010, in response to a claim made by Wilson (2010). Wilson suggests that there are close links between the scientific management principles and the strict routines and procedures found in McDonald’s fast food restaurants. This report will look into scientific management principles and to see if they do actually have an effect on the management principles that are used McDonalds fast food restaurants and will briefly look at the motivation methods of McDonald’s employees, and will include observations of these methods.

The basic problems found in the observation of staff, was that the observation was limited, and only observed the activities of the ‘front-line’ employees, serving the customer, and was not able to extend this to the ‘beginning’ of the process to where the food is made on the premises. This report has been compiled by an independent researcher, who will consider through observation and research whether Wilson’s suggestion does support the daily routines a customer would find when visiting such fast-food restaurants.

Procedure

The following procedures were undertaken in order to analyse the case study organisation.

Primary Research:

The primary research undertaken was to observe the staff of various McDonalds restaurants, these were observed from September 2010 to December 2010 to try and obtain a more varied view of the procedures staff at McDonalds use. This is found under section

Secondary Research:

The secondary research undertaken was through websites, books and online articles.

This research was used for the use of theorists used in the Findings section of the report.

Findings

Scientific management is a theory that was initially developed by Fredrick Winslow Taylor and this theory was published in 1911. In his publication, ‘The Principles of Scientific Management’, Taylor addresses the “importance of the larger question of increasing our national efficiency’ (Taylor, 1911). His theory sets out to ‘Prove that the best management is a true science, resting upon clearly defined laws, rules and principles as a foundation’ (Taylor, 1911).

Taylor believed that workmen would do as little work as possible, and would produce one-third to one-half of their ability, and believed that this was universal, yet he wanted to counter this and increase the productivity of workers. Taylor suggests through his own research that many jobs, including skilled professions can be broken down into smaller tasks, meaning the less need for skilled craftsmen to complete jobs, and make their own decisions. He conducted this research in the steel industry with Time Studies; he observed worker’s sequence of motions to determine the best way for jobs to be performed.

The drawbacks of this method, although it does increase productivity, are that it de-humanises the job role, and doesn’t allow for any thought of the worker to be involved. The four main principles of Taylor, also known as Taylorisms, are:
1. Replace ‘rule of thumb’ work methods with methods based on a scientific study of the tasks.
2. To scientifically select, train and develop each worker rather than leaving the workers to train themselves.
3. To co-operate with workers to ensure that the scientific developed methods are being followed.
To divide work nearly equally between management and workers, so managers apply the scientific management principles to planning and the work, and the worker to actually perform the tasks. These principles were adopted mainly in factories and industrial settings, including Henry Ford’s car production factories. McDonaldization is a term that was created by George Ritzer based on the findings of Max Weber’s theories of bureaucracy, in his publication ‘The McDonaldization of Society’ (1995).

George Ritzer explains that the fast food restaurant is an extreme example of rationalization process, where the main focus is that of efficiency and predictability. Ritzer’s four main principles of McDonaldization are:
1. Efficiency – The fastest method of completing a task.
2. Calculability – In terms of McDonald’s customers, this means to serve the customers a large amount of food in a short period of time, in terms of McDonalds staff, it is the quantity of work they do and not the quality in that they do it.
3. Predictability – Meaning whatever McDonalds restaurant a customer will go to, they would know what to expect, this applies to the product and the service that they receive.
4. Control – This is the control over the employees, everything is standardized and wherever possible, human interaction is replaced by technology.

Individual Investigation

On conducting an investigation into what a customer would experience upon visiting McDonald’s restaurants, it was found that the experience does support the views of Ritzer, and Taylor’s scientific management principles can be applied.

On being served, a customer is asked the same routine question, and the customers answer will be, again, another script-written question, i. e. What drink would you like with that, would you like to have a large meal? The employee that is serving will then either collect the order that the customer has placed, or there will be another member of staff there to carry out that particular task, so that the person ‘stationed’ at the till can go on to serve the next customer, whichever may be more efficient, with tasks being broken down.

This experience alone can cover three of the four principles used by Ritzer, quite clearly; efficiency, fastest method of completing the task, calculability, serving customers with large amounts of food in a short time and also the quantity of work that they do. The third principle of Ritzer is supported by visiting a few various McDonalds restaurants, the customer will know what to expect, as stated earlier with the ‘script-written’ questions upon ordering food, to knowing the McDonald’s ‘menu’ and what you will get.

The fourth principle of Ritzer’s, control, from going to McDonalds has been perceived from this observation that the managers will control the staff, ensuring that tasks are carried out correctly, as when observing the activity behind the counter, there is always a manager present, constantly going back and fourth between points, and ‘checking over employees shoulders’.

Motivation

To look at the benefits that may motivate a McDonald’s employee, it has been researched on what promote the vacancies that are available in McDonalds. From accessing the McDonald’s website www. mcdonalds. co. k, the company advertises that the vacancies are not just short-term jobs, but the opportunity offers great training and development schemes from apprenticeships to foundation degrees, yet, they do not move away from the actual realization of the job. A very brief breakdown of a crew-members role is stated as, customer service – expected to provide customers with a quick and accurate service. The website also promotes the ‘rewards and benefits’ of being a McDonalds employee, these are; 28 days paid holidays, free private healthcare (after three years service), stakeholder pension scheme, an employee is able to exchange ? 10 directly from their pay to childcare vouchers, saving on National Insurance and Tax, and also appealing to possibly single parents, and also discount cards for large retailers, including HMV and Marks & Spenser’s. However, although all these rewards and benefits may seem appealing, there is also a short video clip on the website, titled ‘Think Again’. This is a short video, where a McDonalds employee has approached people ‘off the street’ to ask their views on people who work in McDonalds.

Some answers given are that McDonalds employees are uneducated, people ‘filling in between real jobs’ and that a job at McDonalds is a last resort, however, the employee who was conducting the short ‘interviews’ was a university student, currently studying law, when this was told to the people who she was talking with, mostly all of them looked surprised, and afraid that they had offended her, but it further backed her point, of ‘think again’, not all McDonalds staff are what they appear to be, and the majority of them are studying in university for degrees.

This video is a realistic view of what McDonald’s staff are considered to be, and McDonalds have tried to turn this in their favour, yet, it will be off-putting for some to apply for these jobs, and from visiting McDonald’s restaurants, the staff do not seem entirely enthusiastic and motivated, and seem to find it a struggle to offer ‘service with a smile’. 4. 0 Conclusion In conclusion, Wilson’s suggestion is a true statement of the management techniques and working procedures that are used in McDonalds.

From researching the scientific management principles, and observing the activity in McDonalds, it can be seen that these principles do apply; the tasks are broken down into small tasks, to enable efficiency. All staff are trained on the job role that they are doing, and are trained to the method that fits best with the structure of the restaurant and environment that they will be working in, and managers are constantly overseeing what the employees are doing.

The findings have also shown that Ritzer’s views of McDonaldization are again, quite true, and again from observation of staff working at McDonald’s, have fitted with the principles that Ritzer claim McDonald’s function on. 5. 0 Recommendations The recommendations that are found from the findings of this report are that there needs to be a more direct motivation for the staff at McDonalds. As said under the findings, the staff seem to lack an enthusiasm for the job that they are doing, even though the training and development opportunities and the rewards available are quite impressive.

However, this lack of ‘awareness’ may be to the mundane and repetitive processes that the organisation have in place, and if so, McDonald’s managers need to look at this again. The processes that are in place do offer efficiency, which is essential for a fast-food restaurant, but they need to get their staff more engaged and offer more variety in the way that these processes are carried out, and while doing this, possibly include the staff that are carrying out these ‘processes’ to share their input into what they feel can be done etter, this will then have a ‘boost’ factor to the way that they feel they are valued in the organisation.

Reference list

1. “importance of the larger question of increasing our national efficiency’ (Taylor, 1911, Introduction, The Principles of Scientific Management)
2.  “Prove that the best management is a true science, resting upon clearly defined laws, rules and principles as a foundation” (Taylor, 1911, The Principles of Scientific Management, Pge 3)
3. both accessed from forgottenbooks. org

Bibliography

1.  www. mcdonalds. co. uk (9/12/2010) * www. netmba. com (8-11/12/2010)

According to the evidence found in the case, Alex Sander is a very hard working and goal-oriented person. However he is lacking the ability of working together with other people as a team. Sam Glass, his boss has to face a crucial situation, and has to make a decision regarding on how to convince Alex that his leadership skills have to change dramatically. If Alex realizes his leadership issues, and he modifies his behavior and attitude towards co-workers and colleagues, the company and he will benefit enormously.

For that reason Sam should use all the evidence that he received from the feedbacks given by the people related to Alex, and make him take in consideration what needs to be done in order to asses the company’s future projects. In other words, Alex needs to get involved with people and start working with them proficiently, other than ignore or humiliate them. Environmental Analysis Avant-Garde has acquired Landon Care Products and has given Alex the opportunity to shine. The new French company has allocated $25 Million on a new skin care product to be marketed in Europe and the United States.

After Alex’s previous success on rebranding two other skin care products, it seems like Alex will be a key player on leading the product team in the development of the big marketing and sales strategy of the new product. One of the issues was that Alex showed off every time he could and took all the credit on the great results obtained before. I assume that this was a big project directed by him, but with the effort and hard work of other people working at Landon at the time. Unfortunately, Alex was convinced that the result was only because of his competence, ignoring the rest. The rest of the staff felt underestimated by Alex, and the atmosphere at the office was negative because (in some way) nobody wanted to work with Alex.

There is no doubt that Alex has the ability to overcome any obstacle (up until now), he is very smart and self-confident, but his arrogance hasn’t let him be a people’s person. Although Sam realizes that this happening everyday and yet he received the feedback from some employees about Alex, the case does not show any evidence of Sam doing something about it.

For instance a department meeting or a quality circle, where everybody needs to contribute with some arguments about the situation. It seems to me like Sam is only having this conversation with Alex because he needs to perform the 360o evaluation. With that said I could conclude that Sam is also part of the problem, because he hasn’t done anything in order to maintain the team bonding. Furthermore they are not focusing completely in their job, but in the conflicts that they are dealing with everyday.

Sam Glass has the challenge on his hands in turning this situation around so that the company can succeed in the new project. Also he needs to try to save the office atmosphere and make his star player (Alex) become a team player. Sam has to turn into a sports coach, where he has to manage the weaknesses and strengths of his team. Sam is facing that the rest of the team is rejecting the star player, and now he has to find the way in convincing all the participants in being part of the solution instead of part of the problem. Objectives

The three objectives that I will propose in order to give a solution to the problem must match accordingly to the organization’s goals. In my opinion, prioritizing the order of the objectives should be: First Objective: the new project consists in launching a new skin care product (Nourish) needs the whole team’s attention. This product will be marketed in Europe and the United States. The company has invested $25 Million and there are high expectations on good results. I believe that today this new project is the most important thing for the company, and a big opportunity for Alex.

Second objective: In order to maintain people’s motivation and willingness to do their best effort to accomplish the organization’s goals, improvement in the working environment is urged. Even if that means that they would have to either move Alex to another position or fire him. There will be more projects and it is essential to have the right people for the right reason. Third Objective: If the organization sees Alex as a long-term Asset, they would really like him to realize that change in his relationship with other people is needed.

There is a direct correlation between his attitude and the company’s results. Sam sees him as his star player on his team, so Sam needs to take into consideration to work as a mentor and guide him towards the improvement of his behavior. Alternatives There are three alternatives that I am proposing in order to find a solution to this problem, which has to take into consideration, that the effort should come from Alex, even though I believe that he won’t be able to overcome this weakness by himself, but with the support of Sam and his co-workers.

In other words, team effort is the key success factor in this matter. First alternative: I am a 100% confident that the organization is not willing to fire Alex because of his talent and competence in the division. If Alex does not want to change his attitude, the organization might need to consider in moving him to a different position where the interaction with other people is scarce. Second alternative: Sam needs to take the “steering wheel” of the situation and needs to get his department closer.

In order to do that he will need to schedule weekly or biweekly meetings with his team. This way he will be very well informed of what I going on between its members and if it seems to be a problem, address it and solve it right away. There is no need to wait until the last minute. Make people aware that if they change, Alex can change. Third alternative: Sam should invest part of the department’s budget to hire a Leadership specialist (some sort of team motivator) in order to get Alex to become what the team needs him to become, not what he thinks he needs to do.

This might have a negative reaction with Alex but I think is worth trying. Decision The final decision that I will make after the weighed evaluation on the consistency matrix would be the second alternative: Scheduled team workshops and quality circles. Action Plan Sam needs to get involved in getting to know people better in order to be able to guide his team in achieving common goals rather than just personal. He becomes the key player and motivator. Probably he can get HR involved to be part of his team’s meetings to get a different perspective.