Effective Strategies for Continuous Improvement and Stakeholder Communication

1.    You work for an organisation that does not actively encourage its employees to participate in decision-making processes, and to assume responsibility and exercise initiative as appropriate. What would you say to convince the organisation’s management that they should actively encourage employees to assume responsibility and initiative? Write a transcript of what you would say. (100-150 words)

2.    Do you consider group decision-making to be a valuable tool that will aid in encouraging employees to participate in decision-making processes, and to assume responsibility and exercise initiative? Explain. (100-150 words)

3.    Your organisation has changed the way it accepts payments from customers/ clients to make the process easier for clients/ customers. What would you do to ensure that the organisation’s continuous improvement processes are communicated to all stakeholders? (75-100 words)

4.    Define sustainability and outline why organisations should develop workplace sustainability policies. (75-100 words)

5.    Research environmental management issues for the workplace and state why these issues should be taken into consideration when planning and managing an organisation’s operations. (100-150 words)

6.    Your organisation has asked you to develop effective mentoring and coaching processes to ensure that individuals and teams are able to implement and support the organisation’s continuous improvement processes. What would you do to achieve this? Explain how you think coaching or mentoring can contribute to encouraging employees to participate in continuous improvement processes. (100-150 words)

7.    What strategies can be used to capture and share information? List at least six.

8.    Consider an organisation that would benefit from capturing and accessing insights and experiences from business activities. Discuss the current situation and how a knowledge management system can be implemented to meet the organisation’s needs. (100-150 words)


9.    An organisation uses a knowledge wall. The wall contains a whiteboard, and employees use Post-it notes to post information for other employees use.
a.    Is this a knowledge management system?

b.    What are the main disadvantages to this system?

c.    What are the advantages?

10.    You have been asked to develop strategies to ensure that systems and processes are used to monitor operational progress and to identify ways in which planning and operations could be improved. In particular, your organisation wants you to determine whether processes currently carried out by employees are as efficient as possible. How would you do this? (100-150 words)

11.    You have determined that adjustments should be made in your work team. Changes need to be made to the way customer complaints are recorded and dealt with. How would you communicate the need for change to strategies to relevant stakeholders? Give examples.

12.    Your organisation has implemented changes to the way in which goods purchased to customers are delivered and the time within which they are delivered. The feedback you have had from customers suggests that they are more satisfied with their dealings with your organisation and would be more likely to purchase goods from your organisation in the future. Why is it important to establish processes that will inform employees of the outcomes of their continuous improvement efforts in this area? How could you communicate outcomes to employees? (100-150 words)

13.    Create a check sheet that could be used to record data of work team performance to aid the identification of further opportunities for improvement in the scenario.


14.    You are counting the number of defects on a production line that is turning out gadgets. There are three main types of defect. These are: misshapen gadgets, undersize gadgets and oversize gadgets. You will collect data for three 12-hour shifts, but need to be able to separate the data for each of the shifts.

15.    Give at least four examples of aids/ tools that can be used to document the data from a checklist.

16.    Why do graphs and charts provide a good representation of data?

17.    You have been asked to consider areas identified for further improvement when undertaking future planning. What are some of the areas that organisations need to take into consideration when planning for future improvements? (75-100 words)

18.    What is continuous improvement? (75-100 words)

19.    What can you do to support improvements now and in the future? (100-150 words)

20.    What processes might be used to ensure that team members are informed of outcomes of continuous improvement efforts? Why is this necessary and how will this contribute toward further improvements? (100-150 words)

21.    How can an organisation’s continuous improvement processes be communicated to all stakeholders and how can individuals and teams be encouraged and supported to embrace it? (100-150 words)

22.    Having made a decision about what to do to improve an organisation’s processes, what should you do to plan for the implementation of that change? (100-150 words)

23.    In approx. 150 words for each explain how each of the following can be incorporated into business systems:
A.    Continuous improvement models.
B.    Knowledge management systems.
C.    Quality systems.
D.    Sustainability principles.

24.    Write a 3,000 word paper explaining what continuous improvement means in the context of organisational success. Explain how the concept can and should be applied. Explain how it is possible to lead continuous improvement systems and processes and how opportunities for improvement can be managed to provide benefits for an organisation.

Outline how you, as an organisational leader, would gather information about continuous improvement needs and would contribute to and implement continuous improvement initiatives.

Consider also customer service and feedback from customers that might contribute to identification of improvement opportunities.
Include reference to the impact of change on individuals and groups within an organisation, risk assessment, risk management and techniques for successfully managing the different types of change. What actions would you take to ensure that employees in the organisation understood the need for improvement and were able to cope with the accompanying changes?

Use examples or scenarios to support your theories and to demonstrate the need for effective continuous improvement processes. Tables, graphical diagrams, charts or statistical information can be included to help you explain and support your work.
You will need to utilise works by several authors to develop the basic ideas. The ideas presented in your paper need to be logically sequenced, relevant to the topic and should provide evidence of wider reading. Quotations and references should be correctly cited in the text, with a complete reference list, in alphabetical order (Harvard referencing system) supplied at the end.

Statements should be justified, supported and explained using evidence from writers who are considered to be authorities on the subject, using real examples or by demonstration of your own ability to prove their validity.

25.    If you are currently employed, to assist with assessment, and if you can verify that these are entirely your own work, you might submit any of the following:

•    written reports on continuous improvement analyses, idea development, plans and plan implementation

•    a portfolio of evidence showing a range of continuous improvement activities in which you were involved, and their outcomes.

•    third party workplace reports of on-the-job performance—to show that you participate in continuous improvements, communicate and collaborate with others, encourage input from employees, understand the risks associated with innovation, can conduct a cost–benefit analysis and can implement, monitor and review improvement plans

•    performance review results relevant to participation in and management of continuous improvement

•    notes and electronic data related to presentations you have made, informing other staff about continuous improvement initiatives

•    documentation relevant to training, coaching or mentoring processes that you have utilised in order to help staff participate in continuous improvement—you will need to show understanding of adult learning needs and of different learning style preferences

This documentation must provide valid, reliable, and in combination with the other assessment results, sufficient evidence of your ability to:

•    develop and use of a range of strategies and approaches that improve work outcomes or organisational functioning, using continuous improvement models

•    monitor performance

•    monitor and evaluate customer service

•    use effective communication skills to communicate opportunities for improvement

•    coach and mentor staff, using a range of methods to cater for different learning styles

•    use innovation and lateral thinking skills to design better ways for achieving work outcomes

•    use planning skills to establish and monitor systems and process for continuous improvement

•    act in a leadership (or as team leader) role to gain the confidence and trust of others

Your assessor will determine how well the documentation you submit meets the assessment requirements and will ask you a series of verbal questions relating to the continuous improvement.

Answer of question 1.

It is necessary to include the company’s workers in case of the decision making process. In order to convince to the employees to participate in the decision making process, the management of the company require to provide employee reward program, so that they get the interest in the participation. By doing this, the trust and faith of the employees will be developed. In addition, it can be stated that they feel special and will try to increase their productivity. On the other hand, Reich and Benbasat (2013) opined that the management of the organisation will be able to receive several ideas and thoughts of the staffs. Among these ideas, the management will choose the best and ideal one. Hence, it can be mentioned that the communication between the workers and the managers will be improved. The relationship will be strong, which will be important for the growth and development of a business (Oestreicher-Singer and Zalmanson 2012).

Answer of question 2.

As per the statement of Haley and Haley (2013), it can be stated that group decision making process make stronger the relationship between the managers and the staffs. The workers will be encouraged to take responsibility for increasing the quality of the productivity. As a result, the workers will be able to identify the opportunities for the improvement of the business. Moreover, it can be added that the workers will be capable to take new challenges in order to achieve the business goals. The individual performance of the workers will be improved. In the words of Reich and Benbasat (2013), group decision making process will enhance the implementation to success. On the other hand, it can be stated that group decision making is helpful in order to motivate the self monitor and self improvement. The reason can be discussed that the employees believe that their ideas and their thoughts are valuable. Therefore, they will try to contribute toward the success of the business. Klettner, Clarke and Boersma (2014) added that group decision making is able to take best solution in order to solve the arise problems. In this connection, the range of creativity, ideas, and innovation skills of the workers will be effectively increased.

Answer of question 3.

According to Hoejmose, Brammer and Millington (2013), in case of making of greater performance, the organisation requires to focus to the vision process. This will effectively develop the long term relationship with the stakeholders. The integrated system of values will be developed. In this connection, it can be mentioned that development of the performance measurement can identify that significant communication is the success of the organisation (Oestreicher-Singer and Zalmanson 2012). On the other hand, good communication among the internal stakeholders includes to develop the greater workplace by reducing the stress.

Answer of question 4.

As per the opinion of Higgins, Omer and Phillips (2015), it can be stated that business sustainability is a specific approach, which creates a long term workers and customer value. In addition, it can be stated that business sustainability policy refers to an evolution, which can highlight the ethical social responsibility (Wittmann and Reuter 2013).