Journal Of Policy And Development Studies - Discussion On Sunflower Foods

Six stage model of team building

Discuss About The Journal Of Policy And Development Studies.

 The report is prepared for addressing the issues that is currently faced by Sunflower foods. Sunflower foods are a manufacturing plant that manufactured bakery items that is sold in different parts of country through large supermarket chain. It has been ascertained hat in the current scenario, the key areas that is seeking attention is the internal culture of organization and low motivation and low staff morale. The reason that is attributable to lower productivity is lack of motivation among employees. It has been sought by the management of organization that morale and motivation among employees can be increased by building a team based structure. The report has been presented into three different themes focusing on the current organizational situation. In the first theme, the advantages and disadvantages of using team structure and recommendation of such structure as the potential strategy for organization has been discussed. In the second theme, different approaches that should be used by organization for improving the motivation and morale among employees have been elaborated. The last theme incorporates discussion about key elements that would be bringing strategic change within the organization in light of strategy that are identified.

The given case study depicts that Sunflower Foods is experiencing lower productivity because of lower employee morale as well as motivation. It is therefore required by the management of organization to formulate appropriate strategies for enhancing the productivity in light of the issues being faced. It is suggested by the chief executive officer of Sunflower to undertake a team based structure that would be a contributing factor in increasing productivity by way of increasing motivation and morale (Mertel & Brill, 2015).

It can be seen that teamwork is spilling out across national and international boundaries and many manufacturing organizations form team with their employees and suppliers in an attempt to assure continuous improvement, boost quality, increase productivity and reduce cost. While building a team based structure, an organization is require to gain an understanding of its benefits and value. Team based structure in organization can be built by employing six stage model.

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The introduction of team based structure within an organization can be done by the implementation of this model that will provide a guidance to build an appropriate team.

Deciding on team based structure- Sunflower Foods before forming the team based structure is required to have an understanding of the culture, structure and extent of team working and hence implementation of such strategy should be done by plan development.

Pros of team based structure

Support system development- An examination of support system that is relevant to the team based building should be done by organization and such support system includes communication, reward system, training, making plan to adapt to such structure and inter team relations (Rodell et al., 2016).

Team member and team leader selection- There should be established criteria for selection of team member and team leaders and implementation of appropriate selection ad recruitment process.  It is required by team leaders to make them well equipped with necessary skills, knowledge and attitude.

Effective team development- The process of team development should be well understood that comprise of communication process, clarification of roles and objectives and process of decision making. 

Sustaining and reviewing team effectiveness- In this stage, criteria’s are set by coaching team for making required changes to make improvement and evaluation of performance of team.

Reviewing of team based structure- In the final stage; contribution of team to the effectiveness of organization is evaluated and making changes for bringing optimal and continuous change in organization.

Pooling of resources- Organizations are provided with variety of human resources management with experiences and from different background. Pooling of resources provide wide range of benefits to the team that would make effective decision making in organization. 

Elimination of delays- The traditional scalar chain of command causing frustration and delays among workers is eliminated by organizational structure that is team based. Concerns to management can be effectively raised by team without opening themselves as individual to management repercussions or without appearing to be disgruntled (Chandani, 2016).  

Organizational enhancements- A move is resulted from improvement in team from a directive culture and hierarchy based to a culture that is team based that results in increased creativity, innovation and flexibility within the overall organization. It is generally indicated by research that organizational structure based on hierarchy is outperformed by team based organizations in terms of less absenteeism, products and service, quality improvement, overall satisfaction of job and flexibility of workers (Al Mehrzi & Singh, 2016).

Employee benefits and improved performance- A sense of control, work identification and human dignity is provided by team that provides a sense of fulfillment and sense of self worth. Many forms might be taken by teams within organization in terms of customer service, improved service and product quality.

Conflicts of strong team- During the life cycle of team, conflict is inevitably experienced. Team development involves one of the most classic model in which the storming stage requires the members to work out the differences between ideas and opinion. Conflict is considered as one of the particular issue that can lead to breakdown and errors in overall performance of organization. Conflict within team can either be relationship based or team based. Process conflict is regarded a third dimension which refers to the conflict about delegation and division of responsibilities and tasks among team members (Archibald, 2016).

Cons of team based structure

Flow of communication- There can be difficulty in communication within a group of individual working a team and one of the leading sources of preventable error is the breakdown of communication. Performance of team is effectively dependent upon team communication significance. If the flow of communication between the team is not effective, then the aspects of critical teamwork such as conflict and coordination are difficult to get influenced.

Some other benefits attributable from team based organization includes improved effectiveness, increased innovation, cost reduction, employee commitment, customer involvement, utilization of skills and flexible response to change. An empowered team will be able to reduce scrap by lowering the claim of worker compensation and lower turnover and absenteeism rate.

Most of the organizations would like to have their employees motivated and it is required to have an understanding of the factors that truly motivates employees. Employees are motivated for two reasons that include organizational and personal goals.

It is believed by Maslow that people are motivated or the motivating factor of people is to fulfill their own needs. The bottom of pyramid forms the basis of initiation of every person and wants to achieve the goals to the next level. Until the first level is met, an individual is not willing to go to the next level. Physiological needs are the basic need that is required by individual in order to survive. Security level is the next need which indicates that the person or his family should not be threatened by their surroundings. Security is also in the terms of financial security which means that there is financial stability in future (Zhang et al., 2017). Such stability is achieved by securing a good job, creating insurance or retirement package. Affiliation is a feeling to be loved or sense of belonging and esteem is the forth level which means their view that one has about themselves. A person should encompass self respect in order to have high image for themselves. Self actualization is the stage of hierarchy of needs where there is a complete utilization of talent of person (Jung & Yoon, 2016).

This theory intends to identify the internal factors that motivate the behavior of individual and helps in motivating the unfulfilled needs. If an employee is satisfied or if the needs of employees are satisfied working in organization, then they would be willing to satisfy their other needs. This would further motivate them to contribute to the organization that is well aligned with their different needs.

Approach used for staff motivation to improve morale and motivation

The McGregor theory X and theory Y is a theory that is introduced as a contribution to understand the nature of human at workplace. It is presumed by theory X that responsibility and work are inherently avoided by employees and while performing their job, employees require close supervision. In addition to this, it is also said that the tools for improving the performance of employee at workplace is punishment and threat as it will enable them to get the work done by employees.  On other hand, it is prescribed by theory Y that workers need to do work and self motivated and they are required to do work and seek responsibility. It is said that there are two fundamental approaches for managing the people at workplace. Therefore, it is indicated that there are two ways to manage employees at work and one is considered as negative and other is considered as positive. Implementation of this model in organization requires that employees at workplace must be directed, controlled, threatened, coerced and punished to improve their performance (Lindebaum & Geddes, 2016). In light of theory, motivation of employees can be improved by adopting the scientific management principles if the assumption of theory Y holds true.

Participative management- If the employees are consulted in the process of decision making, it provides them with creative capacity and working environment being control. Sunflower Foods can implement the strategy of participative management for motivating and improving morale of employees.

Delegation or decentralization- Managers will have more subordinates if the number of management level is reduced and control is decentralized by firms. This will force delegation of some responsibility in the decision making process by employees (Daft, 2015). In order to motivate the employees of Sunflower Foods, the level of management should be reduced by way of decentralization.

Performance appraisals- The approach for evaluating the performance of employees also goes a great way to motivate them. Process of evaluation should be participative and there should be a set objective for evaluation process. 

Job enlargement- The ego ends of employee are satisfied by providing them with opportunities and variety in their job. This can be done by broadening the scope of working of employees.

Employees within the organization can also be rewarded by the implementation of compensation plan that would be rewarding successful team work. Several approaches can be used by company to reward team based structure and improve the motivation among employees. Such approach involves recognition, incentive pay, gain sharing and profit sharing. There is increased emphasis on team based work in organization and one of the factors encouraging cooperation within team work in organization is team based pay.

Employee’s morale within the organization such as Sunflower Foods can be improved by adopting the three stage approach that involves listening, communicating and recognizing. Organization is required to take a pro active approach from listening to employees to getting and addressing their concerns.  Issues of employees must be acknowledged by leaders along with taking efforts to make improvement in motivating them.

It is of utmost important for any organization to listen to employees and encourage the employee feedback by way of publicizing it and their ideas should be valued by organization. The deployment of listening activities should be decided by messages by using them on consistent basis. It is required to be known by organization when morale of employees are less and gaining assistance to address such issue. Morale of employees can be increased by proper listening and addressing the issue of lower morale. Managers are required to be approachable, visible and well briefed along with supporting all the activities of listening (Wheelen et al., 2017). Some of the listening activities that can be employed by Sunflower foods include employee survey, management discussion group and employee discussion.

Communication is the next step where the manager’s focus on addressing the concerns that employee expresses. A shared understanding of future of company comprising of business issues and substantive solutions should be undertaken by organization. Specifics efforts should be undertaken by managers to communicate the outputs and opportunities should be created by for dialogue and discussion. This would lead to generation of higher level of employee engagement. Willingness should be shown by the employees to share solutions and help employees feel comfortable. Some of the communication activities that can be employed by organization involve electronic media, one to one dialogue and public forums (Uzoamaka & Kingsley, 2015).

Recognizing the accomplishment of employees is the third stage that focuses on success stories and quick wins. This will help employees to keep morale level as high as possible. Some personal issues of employees often exacerbate negativity outside the workplace. Recognition and success is sought by managers along with thanking employees for their contribution to the organization. Some recognition activities that can be employed by sunflower foods limited involves informal gestures, formal initiatives and public recognition.

The morale of employees of Sunflower can be lifted using this three stage approach model out of the bottom of change curve along with making some ongoing adjustments as required.  Workplace can become more empowered by providing training to employees when do not have easy access to some traditional tools of motivation such as bonus, promotion and rise in pay.

For the survival of organization, implementation of key strategy is considered to be successful and despite having proper formulation of strategy, it is difficult for organization to sustain their competitive advantage. Customers and other stakeholders of organization are guided through the execution and management of organizational change. In an effective implementation of strategy plan, an important role is played by human resource management. With regard to strategy implementation, it is required by employees and organization department to be enthusiastic. The implementation strategy will be positively influenced by having a motivating reward system and getting people involved (Penger & ?erne, 2014).

There exist a meaningful relationship between implementation of strategy and culture of organization. A considerable impact is witnessed in the process of strategy implementation by the culture of organization. The application of development program of organization influences organization to make change in their culture and high quality of products are produced at lowest price by adaptable employees and flexible procedure and structure (Lu et al., 2016).  

The important resource for success of strategy or bringing strategic change in organization is effective and strong pool of skills. It has been found that one of the obstacles faced in successful strategy implementation is poor leadership. All the other factors are outweighed by the poor leadership in organization. Some of key leadership responsibilities regarding strategy implementation include alignment of organizational structure, process streamlining, coordination activities and keeping employees committed and motivated (Mertel & Brill, 2015).

A positive correlation exists between reward structure of organization and culture of organization. A visual explanation is provided by organizational structure relating to things that include allocation of resources and decision making process.

The organizational change in context of Sunflower Foods is driven by internal forces that are related to managerial behavior and human resources. This would entrust organization with the implementation of new system of communication, new structures, new work process and improved reward system. Communication is regarded as one of the integral parts of the process of change. Change within an organization can be under forced by the use of media, one on one discussions, organizational newsletter and presentations. However, the implementation of change within organization can be faced with various forms of resistance that are demonstrated through complaints, immediate criticism, non agreement, sabotage, silence and other malicious intent (Owan, 2014). Therefore, it is required by organization to adopt appropriate methods for implementing the change.

Furthermore, implementation of change process within organization might require changing the way employees conduct their responsibilities and roles. The approach that are used for understanding the change are considered as cyclic and this requires the formulation of approach of change management, making sense of change, change evaluation, undertaking necessary action for change implementation and sensing change outcome (Rana, 2015).

Sunflower Foods is required to implement the appropriate model of motivation in order to encourage their employees toward increased commitment. This would help in improving the motivation and increasing morale within organization that will lead to increased productivity. Morale of employees can be increased by adopting the three stage approach that will involve both the management and staff at middle level and lower level management.

Conclusion: 

The report is prepared for addressing the issues that are faced by sunflower food regarding the motivation and morale of employees. It is required by organization to employ a structure that is team based as it contributes in improving the motivational aspect of employees along with increasing overall organizational effectiveness. However, the team based organizational structure has some of its drawbacks that should be accounted for when adopting such structure. Analyzing the literature review, it has been ascertained that implementation of motivational models such as Maslow’s hierarchy of needs and McGregor theory X and theory Y would help in increasing the effectiveness of employees by motivating them and thereby increasing the productivity.

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