Strategic Management Of Furniture Company: Enhancing Energy Efficiency (70 Characters)

Evaluation of the Problem

Question:

Case Study on "Continental Furniture Internationals".
 

The concept of strategy can be defined as a full proof plan for achieving some prefixed desire in a course of action. Recently this term has been adapted by the business industries around the world. This study has been focusing on the strategic management of an organization based on a case study provided in this context. The scenario of the mentioned case study can be described in the course of the study as it explains the present situation of a furniture company namely, continental furniture internationals (CFI) and what new strategies they are employing in order to enhance the possibility of saving energy efficiency (Ceglińska and Cegliński, 2015). In this context few questions have been answered in order to provide solution to the problem that has emerged recently due to the practices of data collection process aided by technical pilot. The main problem has been generated by the drivers working under CFI in Omaha who protested against the practices of technical informatics project method which has been employed in order to get information regarding the activities of the truck drivers that would help in forming strategies on energy saving. But the drivers took in other way and called for a strike as these activities of the energy informatics team have delivers wrong impacts about the behaviour the drivers are being detected through such technology implementation. Hence, the problem need to be dealt with delicate interventions and are being discussed in the following manner.

In this section the problem has been evaluated from its inception that explains how it occurred and in what context it has taken a serious form that has posed a threat to the reputation and development of the furniture company and also to the informatics team in terms of the suspension of their intended project (Chen, 2010). The problem occurred due to the initiative adopted by Alan CEO of continental furniture internationals (CFI). Alan has given the responsibility to Joel who was responsible for collection all types of data that are beneficial for the company and to deliver those data to the Alan in order to keep a track of the market movement. Alan has formed an informatics team including IT professionals that is responsible to gather information on the present situation of the company in order to generate strategies for saving energy and promoting great green projects within the organization. As the team consists with their IT professional along with other VPs of the company Alan has announced Joel  to lead the team as he has several years of experience in such field and has delivered huge profit to his prior  company named UPS by his great leading and strategic skills. The informatics team has decided to adapt technological piloting system as this would help in accumulating information about the activities of the truck drivers that they are exercising in their route map along with the data regarding seatbelt after , oil consumption and leisure spend that might help in saving energy. In this context one of the team members sue has introduced to the idea to incorporate GPS chips in the trucks in order to get the information in details. Everything was set to go and was moving smoothly until the team have received the news of the truck drivers opting for strike in the Omaha depot due to the misconception that the behaviour of the truck drivers are being detected in this manner.  Hence, it can be realised in this case the action of the informatics team has delivered a wrong impact on the employees as this could be taken as an unethical practice in the part of the truck drivers.

Corporate Employee Relation Aspects

Here the corporate employee relation aspects could be employed in order to deal with such problem. The informatics team should have taken some precautions regarding the practices of collecting data. However, it has been observed from many previous researches that it is the accountability of a leader to look after the matter that no unethical practices can make strong grip within the industrial structure (Lin, 2009). But in this case it is clear, that the employee has acquired a wrong message about the action taken by the company for the future development. Therefore, according to the theories of human resource management and employee relationship management the company must invest its interest in the enhancement of the policies of employee relationship management as employees are the main source of delivering efficient performance that can ensure the growth of an organization (Hoogervorst et al. 2010). 

In order to adapt new effective strategies regarding the fact of saving energy the furniture company has employed an informatics team which intends to investigate the way in which the strategies can be generated to save energy. In this regard the company has initiated a project called great green project. In this regard the team has developed a strategy in order to reduce energy consumption within the organization. The energy has been used in many forms like, electricity, water and heating or cooling processes. The team initiated a great green challenge in which each building under the authority of CFI are being assessed based on the utility bills that has been delivered to  the company through electronic mode. Hence, the employee of the company will have to participate in a challenge that encompasses the act which helps in reducing the energy consumption in comparison to the records of last three years. To fire up the interest regarding this new strategic plan within the employees the team has decided to provide prizes to the winners.  This plan has worked as a magic and the project has achieved a great success in this regard. But on the other hand, the next project that the team intended for the purpose of saving energy is to collect information through implementing telemetics pilot system failed due to a huge misconception of the employees. The data collection process includes set ups of GPS chips in the trucks that are travelling in order to deliver goods. But the drivers took it other ways and believed that this act was undertaken in order to detect their behaviour during the course of delivering goods.

In this regard the lessons that has been obtained by the team can be cites in terms of organized human resource management and employee relation management. In this context the general IT strategies can be explained in order to provide a general insight about the do’s and don’ts regarding the implementation of IT strategies in an organization (Leszczynska, 2009).  Any strategic plan related to the IT strategy includes an interrelated project that can be managed independently but the projects will be closely connected and will be explaining that the standard information technology or data regarding this has been installed.  Therefore, in this context a lesson has been delivered to Joel and his team that they should have notice the other side of their strategic practices which can be taken in a negative sense and along with this they should have investigated upon the employee relation status of the company that is what aspects have been attended so far regarding the issues and complaints of the low grade employees of the company. Before initiating such act the team must look into the status of HRM practices and how much attention has been given so far to the needs of the drivers as they are also an important part of the economic structure of the company (Kaptein, 2008).

Initiative for Saving Energy

The concept of telematics in the emerging age of industrial competition and it has been divided in three different layers. First the services delivered to the end user, secondly, the infrastructure that enables supplying those services to the user and finally the authority that adapts the infrastructure for such services (Pohthong and Budgen, 2001). In this regard it can be suggested that the stakeholders of CFI must understand the industrial value in relation to the implementation of telematics in order to save energy. The plan that Joel and his team have developed, addressing the goal of saving energy through the employment of telematics strategies. But it failed in the due course. In order to make the plan unsuspended Joel and his team needs in the first place to detect the reason behind such misconception adopted by the truck drivers. Then the team need to exercise some of the employee relationship policies as such situation may occur due to dissatisfaction among the drivers that has been preserved for a long time. The employee relationship policies may address in this regard various issues and must deliver their solution at this point. After detect the core of the issue the team needs to focus on the educating the employees about telematices practices as this is the only process through which the misconception o the drivers can be destroyed (Rezende et al. 2014). According to the employee relation policies each individual employee need to receive individual attention of the employers in order to generate the sense of importance and accountability towards the organization. As a leader of the informatics team it is Joel’s duty to take the action.

Therefore Joel could organize a meeting with the truck drivers of Omaha depot in order to convince them about the reality and reliability of telematics project and can explain the future strategies of the company that has been adopted for saving energy which is able to deliver great profit to the company as well as to its employees. Such action can be considered as the employee involvement in accordance with the employee relation and HRM management policies. Therefore, Joel can be able to make the project unsuspended through such practices as this project can evidently deliver huge amount of profit to the company in terms of energy saving and reducing the consumption of materialistic aspects in this regard (Sandberg and Vinberg, 2000).

Telematics as a vehicle monitoring technology with location detector has changed the scenario of many industries through the effective practices of telematics. By installing the telecommunication device into the trucks CFI will be able to detect the driver’s safety measures, consumption of liquid material as well as the driving habits and road maps. This information could be used in relation to the implication of energy saving and drawing benefit to the company (Xie and Hayase, 2007). 

Conclusion

To conclude this study it can be asserted that the above discussed case study has delivered information about two different aspects of corporate strategies but with two different results. On the first hand the great green challenge that has been introduced to one section of the employees obtained successful results in respect to energy saving ,but on the other hand the implementation of the telematics projects has failed due to awareness of the employees about such area of practices. This shows that regarding this company the employee relation policies need an immediate review and new strategies need to be employed in this context. Therefore, it has also delivered the importance of ecosystem generation and implementation of telematices in order to deliver huge profit to the company. Therefore, this study has successfully highlighted the issues in the context of the given scenario and provided a solution or project plan in order to remove the suspension over the telematics project. This delivered a sense of responsibility towards the organizations facing the same problem to pay attention to the unattended issue of the organization in order to avoid messy situation that can pose a threat to the security and profit of the organization.  

References

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