Clue Fund Services Case Study For Varsanis And Grigoriou: An Essay.

Alternative leadership development practices Clune Fund services could adopt as they grow their leadership talent

Discuss about the Clue Fund Services Case Study for Varsanis and Grigoriou.

Clune Fund Services organization is an Irish owned and based on the IFSC. The organization was established in 1998 and it has sixty workers. Over the last two years the organization has had a sizeable growth when it comes to the number of funds which were under the administration and the workers number had increased by fifteen percent.

Clune Fund Services organization is encountering challenge of lack of leadership from the leaders. The leaders who are employed in various department of the organization do not posses any leadership skills and there are numerous errors which are occurring in the workplace (Belias, Trivellas, Koustelios, Serdaris, Varsanis and Grigoriou, 2017).  The leadership situation in the organization is costing them and this has been due to lack of an effective coaching and support to the new leaders.  The promotions in the organization took place due to urgent requirement in the business and individuals were promoted because of their technical expertise and the ability to review the fund reports with no references to their interpersonal and communication skills (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm and McKee, 2014). To ensure that the organization is employing leaders to their full ability they need to address these issues which are impacting their business and costing them a lot of funds. Therefore they need to develop alternative leadership development practices to grow their leadership talents. 

The following are the practices that they could use which are most effective to address the issues.

One of the practices is using strategic imperative.  According to Alldredge  et al. ( 2004) highlighted that in cases where program were created without any links to the organization strategic imperatives, even if the organization is outstanding and action learning built in, the resulting program in some degree generate no more than great smile sheet evaluations (Lockwood, 2018).  The leadership development process need to be effective part to any change process, it should be aligned to the strategic objectives of the company (Chaudhuri and Bartlett, 2014). The build future leaders in an organization it needs to be rooted to the strategy of the business. The HR professionals should link the strategic imperatives to the leadership development process.  They need to make an effort to ensure that this linkage in the designing the leadership development are well developed (Chaudhuri and Bartlett, 2014). Additionally, the HR professionals should link the strategic imperatives to the workplace. Actions and not the goal should be the best practice leadership development process, and in most of the time the real time business are used in the learning and the development of the organization. All the leaders should regard the relevance of the workplace as a crucial element in impacting effectiveness of the leadership development.

Suitability of outsourcing various learning and Development practices to external providers for the company

Define tailored leadership competencies: to enable Clune fund services developed an effective leadership development plans which are dependent on the identified competencies they could should isolate and acknowledge upon the leadership competencies that are crucial to the business (Day, Fleenor, Atwater, Sturm and McKee, 2014). This will allow the company has a foundation to the leadership development along with a succession planning, career development along with other talented related processes. The high impact plans usually are developed on the more developed leadership competency models. A good example they might utilize Aetna leadership curriculum during their coaching training that has 3 distinct levels of leadership. All these training level generally concentrate on a particular competencies and builds on the level before it (Avolio, Avey and Quisenberry, 2010). These types of levels are fundamental, advanced and the mastery (Lockwood, 2018). The foundation level usually has level managers content which focuses on the leadership competencies in the areas of the engagement and the performance (Northouse, 2018). For instance, engagement and the development of the individual as well as creating of the accountability. The advanced level, is for the middle level manager curriculum which targets the leadership competency areas of the discipline of the business, this entails the execution of the strategy and at the same time working effectively across the units of the business (Mendenhall, Osland, Bird, Oddou, Stevens, Maznevski and Stahl, 2017). The next level is the mastery which is focused on the senior level managers within the organization. This level usually builds programs which the leadership competency areas of the creation of the value such as driving change for the innovation.

Application of all-inclusive learning approach: There is absolutely no sound leadership development program which comprise exclusively on an instructor led training event (Neves, Almeida and Velez, 2018). An effective program should include the developmental assignments, 360 degree assessments, case studies, external education, meeting with the global counterparts and wide variety to the e-learning as well as other media to give the leaders complete experience (Neves, Almeida and Velez, 2018). Individuals learn to lead other through doing it, so the best and ideal leadership development programs should focus more on the experiential learning.

Integration with the talent management: To develop on a sustainable leadership pipeline, Clune Fund services organization need to implement plans to evaluate the leadership potential- which entails the performance management practice, identifying successors to the pre-existing leaders as well as place these individuals to the right development applications that is section of the organization regular business practices (Northouse, 2018). The initial leadership development program is usually a couple of established practices together with a corporate culture which promotes development via the enterprise.

Based on the finding discussed in the alternative practices discussed above, I think the best approach to address the situation of the organization is to utilize the comprehensive learning approach (Gagnon and Collinson, 2014). The organization lacks any training and coaching of the leaders who have been promoted and to help build on their competencies they need to be taught on the leadership aspects through experimental approach through experience by doing what they are told.

Organization usually responds to the challenges and demands for greater performance with numerous programmes which are designed to overcome obstacles and at the same time enhance the performance of the business (Gagnon and Collinson, 2014).  One of the responses is outsourcing and the attracting of undertaking this to the organization. This is an outsourcing human resource functions which should be given realistic view to what could be attained through outsourcing (Kouzes, 2014). The aspect of outsourcing is contingent on elements like focus on the core competencies of the organization. For various reasons, outsourcing would help reduce on the cost as well as freeing of the human resource professionals’ duties and they would focus on more strategic efforts.  The HR functions in Clune Fund services should utilize on this function and outsource the services since it would be an appropriate solution to the business and a guide to the organization (Moe, Šmite, Hanssen and Barney, 2014). The training development strategy of outsourcing has been considered an effective management strategy, particularly in organization for example Clune Fund services that is operating in definitely competitive international business environment (Gagnon and Collinson , 2014 ) . However, studies have demonstrated that the amount of training and development outsourcing could be increasing, and there could be considerable variation in how the organization utilizes the HR practice (Khoreva, 2016). This organization when they utilize this function they could achieve positive outcomes from the outsourced training. Training outsourcing is viewed as value creation activity which brings cost savings as well as operational flexibility (Khoreva, 2016). To make the right outsourcing decision the organization need to utilize four step outsourcing framework in order to ensure that the organization succeed in the right decision in terms (Khoreva, 2016). These elements are what to outsource, which entails what the organization is prioritizing and in the case to this organization it is on coaching and training of the workers, the next element is engaging the right providers to undertake the activity, the selecting and putting the measures in place to build trust and at the same time maintain a strong, trusting, and an effective relationship (Li, Barth, Garman, Anderson and Butler, 2017). The aspect of trust has gained much attention when it comes to maintain and managing relationship between the two parties involved in the outsourcing (Khoreva, 2016). Moreover, when it comes to perceptions towards outsourced training, in most of the time employers could seem more have diverse and perhaps contradictory opinions when it comes to the advantages of the in house and outsourced training (Chaudhuri and Bartlett, 2014). There is certainly much evidence that the employers have an improved perception that the utilization of the outside service providers is far more economical and less expensive compared to maintain full service of the in-house training and the development facility and programme (Klenke, 2016). Moreover, some employers believe that the outsourced training providers have the knowledge and the competencies that could not exist in-house.

Outsourcing services would certainly support the measurement of value to the human resource of Clune Fund services and this come through the needs for the services agreements and fundamental performance indicators with a much concentrate on the satisfaction of the customer (Chaudhuri and Bartlett, 2014). This would allow the organization to focus on the activities which represent their core competencies through creating competitive advantage while at the same time reducing on the cost (DeRue and Myers, 2014). The decision to outsource is made with the view of reducing on the cost, improving on the quality and improving on the delivery and reliability, and gaining access to the resource while focusing on the core competencies and reduction in the size of the specialized skills and knowledge that are required for the operations (Northouse, 2018).

The leadership development practices might be assessed in numerous approaches and at various levels based on what the organization would like to highlight (Northouse, 2018). As the leadership development are accessed utilizing this objective, the overall level of the leadership effectiveness on this organization might be complicated to resolve comprehensively. The metric to utilize in this case would be holistic assessment since the human behaviors might be complicated and at the same time dynamic (McCleskey, 2014). When this used it will help capture various aspects of the leadership. This could entail including questionnaires, interviews, and references (Cole, 2017). The holistic assessment metric could help in development of the leadership program. For example the combination of the MBTI AND CLI might be effective tool to use in determining steps that can be carried out to improve on the leadership development practices. Consequently, while utilizing different assessment tools for example the diverse tests and the methodologies synthetically could help get us to have an extensive understanding of overall understanding to the leadership effectiveness of this company (Klenke, 2016). This would be met by a lot of resistance by the managers and the supervisor but through guidance they would embrace on the importance of this aspect and long term benefit to the organization.

The traditional evaluation centers generally evaluate the leadership competencies via observing the leaders in multiple demonstration exercises. This technique has physical locations, with the multiple leaders and various assessors who display for the periods starting from one to several days. This process might be expensive and cumbersome (Hezlett, 2016). The advisable metric to the traditional assessment center which incorporate on the components that could make the traditional assessment centers to be justifiable and behaviorally rich.  There are some employees who might not agree with them, but these would provide guidelines to the training and coaching HR professionals on whether the workers have understood the aspect or the areas which need improvement.

Apart from conducting on the real time assessment via the direct observation, conducting on the survey to the employees is the ideal way to judge on the leadership and the development practices (Cole, 2017). Through the surveys, the organization will be able to develop questionnaires which could reflect on the characteristics of the business by the means of the workers participation. In the process of generating the questionnaires, there needs to be variety of just a couple workers that have had good records in the enterprise performances and the relations to the other co-workers. The answers that are provided in the questionnaires should be summarized and analysed (Ardichvili, Natt och and Manderscheid, 2016). This approach might produce vital behavioral items that could possibly reflect on the leadership and development practices performance. These types of the items and their associated definitions are used in the construction of the scale necessary characteristics for the leadership and development practices. The more the value that is obtained on any given item, the much greater fundamentally is the item for the leadership performance. To examine which item are legitimate and valid, a few of the statistical analysis have to be necessarily and needs to be conducted. The organization particular questionnaire from the employees’ participation could highlight the overall leadership effectiveness of the business through investigation of all the essential items.

Clune Fund services organization has been encountering issues related to the leadership. The organization has been doing well over the years and this has made a rapid promotion of people to take up the different roles. This has been as a result of the urgent requirements of business needs and some individuals have been promoted based on their technical expertise they have and their ability to review on the funds reports with no references to their interpersonal as well as communication skills. Due to this it has resulted to poor leadership skills from these individuals who cause costly errors made due to the lack of an effective coaching and support.

To address on these issues the report has addressed on the alternative development practices which could be utilized by the organization to enhance growth in their leadership talent. One practice is through strategic imperatives, defining of the tailored leadership competencies, utilization of a comprehensive learning approach and the integration with the talent management. Based on the information this has been provided from these alternatives the most efficient which they could utilize on the comprehensive learning approach. This approach would provide the workers first hand training where they would enhance on their competencies through practical practices where they learn before the application to the business aspects.

The case study has also discussed on the sustainability of outsourcing numerous learning and the development practices to the external provider just as the case of this organization. There are numerous benefits which have been highlighted in regards to outsourcing and the research has recommended that the organization need to employ this Human resource function to their organization.  On the last part on the research has discussed on the methods which could be used to evaluate on the leadership development practices. There are also different metrics which could be used in utilizing to demonstrate on the return of the investment and the resistance the organization could meet and how they would overcome them.

References 

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