Business Analysis Report For Thrive Consultancy

Business problems

General Introduction

Thrive Consultancy is a consultancy company, which provides Human Resource consulting, advertising/ marketing consultation and strategic planning, with the help of a team of 50 members, unequally divided in these three departments. This business analysis is a detailed description of the problems, which the company is currently facing, and the problems are verified with the help of job demand resource theory. A qualitative analysis is also done, and the results are also discussed here along with the recommendation for the betterment of the company in the near future and the conclusion obtained through all these.

Business problems

The main business problems, which the consultancy company is currently facing and may result in the declination of the company are as follows: –

• The staffs are leaving company due to lack of moral support and the performance is low because of strict working hours of 9Am to 5P.M on every weekday and sometimes the company asks them to work of weekends without getting extra payment.
• The company has taken steps like paid coffee, tea, milk or biscuits for staffs, which was earlier free in order to save the company’s money.
• The company lacks premium data backup system, which creates problem for staffs to make a perfect backup and also creates problem to access one staff’s work by another to discuss a topic. Due to this, staffs are resigning from the company.
• Another main reason for staff resigning is the force created by the company authority to make superficial report of any company based on previous works or telephonic interview as they are not allowed to go out of office in office hours or a leave will be marked.

Relation of business problem with empirical work

In the year 2016, a survey done in the US and it was found that due to low morale and poor performance in the office, almost 68% of the companies are facing financial losses and, in some cases, the loses are so huge that the company either declined or the company was bought by another company. According to a report by Rasskazova, Ivanova and Sheldon (2016), most of the companies declined due to lack of support and privileges by the company to the staffs. In this case, the company has done cost cutting by making tea, coffee, milk and biscuits paid for each and every staff with strict working hours every day without giving them freedom to work from home. However, according to the data provided by Smith (2015), the staffs should be given good environment and support from the company, so that the company can advance, and the staffs can do their work at their will.

In the case of this organisation, the company is pressurising the staffs to make superficial report with strict working hours and this will lead the downfall of the company in the few coming years.

Overview of theory to identify business problems

Job Demand resource theory

Firstly, there is relation between job demand and resource and according to this, job demand will be created if the job giving organisation provides good and sufficient resources for the people who are applying for the job. Secondly, as per Bryson et al. (2016), Dual process, which proposes that people will take the job seeing that how the company is motivating the individual who are currently working under them. Thirdly, underlying mechanism, this defines the physiological states of the staffs and the environment in which they are working in and these effects the demand of the job. Fourthly, flexibility, which defines how much flexibility in working environment, working hours and other can company give to their staffs and this creates job demand and comes as a relation between job demands and job resource (Bin, 2015). Lastly, levels, in which staffs are given priorities depending on their work, capability and other features which are determined in different levels.

Relation of theory with this business problem

According to the first element, the job demand depends on the job resources and in this case, the company is lessening the number or resources provided to the staffs and results in the lessening of the staffs’ day by day. According to second element, the job demand will be created depending on the motivation provided by the company and in this case, the company is pressurising the staffs to create superficial reports without taking real surveys. According to third element, the physical state of the staffs and their working environment creates job demand and in this case the company is not providing good environment and is strict with job hours and this is de-moralising the staffs and creates poor performance (Lee, An & Noh, 2015). According to fourth element, the staffs should be given flexibility like working from home, holidays, when required and in this case, the company is strict with business hours and doesn’t provide work from home facility with extra work on weekends without extra fees. According to fifth and last element, staffs are given priorities based on their work but in our case, company management is unable to provide basic tea, coffee and snacks and the priorities are still dream in this condition (Cappelli & Tavis, 2016). As all the points of Job demand resource theory comes as negative, these also comes as major business problems to the company.

Literature review

Research objectives and research questions based on the literature review 

The main objectives of the research are as follows: –

• To find out the reasons behind the low morale as well as the poor performance of the staffs in the organisation.
• To realise the effects of the cost-cutting done the company management on the staffs.
• To find out the demands of the staffs in order to make their morale as well as performance high.
• To provide recommendation for the company to advance towards higher profit.
• To find out reason of staffs leaving the company.

The main research questions based on the literature review are: –

Why there is low morale and poor performance in the staffs?

What are effects of cost-cutting done by company management on the staffs?

What are the demand of the staffs to work?

What should the company do for advancement?

Why the staffs are leaving the company?

Introduction to Qualitative Analysis

Qualitative analysis is the analysis of securities which makes use of subjective judgement based up on unquantifiable data, for evidence management expertise, labour relations, and industry cycles and so on. Qualitative analysis, in contrast to quantitative analysis concerns to intangible and inexact contexts obtained from social as well as experimental settings (Goodrick & Rogers, 2015). The factors which are depicted through qualitative analysis positive association related to one brand, management of trustworthiness, satisfaction of customers, competitive and strategic advantage of the business firms, shift of company culture and so on, which are practically impossible to depict through passive stats which are analysed for quantitative analysis (Graue, 2015). People are the most important assets of qualitative analysis. The sources of qualitative data are also different from that of quantitative data. Data which is accumulated from structured, moderately structured or even unstructured interviews involving focus groups, audio clippings, transcripts or sets of questionnaires is a primary source for qualitative analysis.

Adopted method of data collection

In case of the strategic analysis of the Thrive Consultants, qualitative analysis of firs hand company data have been accomplished. In order to accumulate data for the qualitative analysis of the Thrive Consultants, detailed interview with 5 selected employees of the organisation was conducted. Each of the employees were faced to a common set of questionnaires and after every question, a follow up set of discussion occurred. Interview session with each of the respondents went on for approximately 20 minutes.

Findings

Question	Respondent 1	Respondent 2	Respondent 3	Respondent 4	Respondent 5
What is the tenure of your service in this organisation?	Over 5 years	About 3 years	About 10 years	8th month of internship	12 Years
According to you what is the level of employee-management interaction in the company?	High	Very High	Moderate	Quite High	Moderate
How effective do you find the workplace rules or regulations for enhancing employee engagement?	Very effective	Quite Effective	Nearly Effective	Very Effective	Nearly Effective
What percent of employees agree that the company’s rules are easy to follow and favour them?	Less than 50%	50%	Less than 20%	More than 80%	Under 30%
Do you feel satisfied with the tactics of cost management that have been undertaken by the company?	No	No	Absolutely Not	Nearly	Absolutely Not
Do you feel employee morale is low in Thrive Consultants?	Somewhat	Yes	Yes	Somewhat	Yes
Do you feel the reason is negligence or dissatisfaction with organisational management?	dissatisfaction with organisational management	dissatisfaction with organisational management	dissatisfaction with organisational management	Both	dissatisfaction with organisational management

Analysis

The first question confirmed the tenure of the employees in the company. The answers reflect that all levels of employees, including experienced, moderately experienced and inexperienced employees have been selected so that various angles of perception of employees in the context of the questions can be utilised for replying to the questions asked.

3 out of 5 employees replied that they felt that effective communication between the employees and management is only moderate. The most junior employees only replied that the level of interaction has been high.

The major number of respondents replied that the management communicated with the employees to clarify their organisational goals only. The managers seldom discussed the issues that arise in the company with the employees. The respondents also felt that the mangers should converse more with the employees to understand the issues they face while working and what can be done to provide better working conditions to the employees. The voice of the employee forum is also ignored by the management.

There have been mixed responses recorded when the employees were asked how effective they found the regulations of the management. The most senior employees opined that many employees find it difficult to adjust with the employment norms. The comparatively new employees only showed positivity towards the regulations.

Methods and Results

In response to the question to depict a percentage of the number of employees who felt that the rules of the company are easy to follow, none of the staff reported a percentage above 50%, other than the apprentice staff. However there was unison among the staff regarding their dissatisfaction with the cost management techniques of the management. The staff also accumulatively opined that the employee morale is actually low. However the employees also identified the reasons for the low employee morale.

Firstly the company have to recognise the disparity in the perception between the employees and the mangers in Thrive Consultants. The managers that best outcome for the clients can be achieved only by following the stringent rules that have been set by them. They force the employees to form focus groups for passive analysis of the workplace issues. They feel that the employee’s waste time in on-field work and thus they meet the client deadlines. However they employees of Thrive Consultancy have till now set personal goals for the fulfilment of the organisational objectives. Hence the management have to conduct an informal survey to understand the personal goals that the employees set for their work and later make in depth analysis for the depiction of the reasons why the personal goals of the employees falls short to meet the clients demands. A training session can also be arranged to indicate the limitations of the personal goals of the clients.

Secondly, the managers should make more clear declarations of the client deadlines. The employees suppose that the managers deliberately set tight deadlines for them. In this context, the managers have to take sessions to determine why the deadlines are important for the clients. The managers have to make the employees realise that the clients can lose resources if they do not get timely solutions.

Another strategy that can be recommended is that for effective cost management, the management have to plan their projects properly. Excess resource is invested in observatory frameworks according to the senior employees of the company. Hence the management should fix individual project budgets so that the fiscal balance can be maintained.

Conclusion

In the course of this report, a detailed analysis of the management issue have been identified. The analysis leads towards the conclusion that there is acute communication gap between the employees and the management. Besides, analysing the responses of the clients it can also be concluded that there is resentment among the employees regarding the fact that the managers do not consult the executive level employees during making the strategic framework for the projects. That is why, recommendation to conduct an informal survey have been provided. The Job Demand Resource theory have also ben utilised in the literature review to identify the ways in which the limitations of the management is causing problems for the company.

References and Bibliography

Rasskazova, E., Ivanova, T., & Sheldon, K. (2016). Comparing the effects of low-level and high-level worker need-satisfaction: A synthesis of the self-determination and Maslow need theories. Motivation and Emotion, 40(4), 541-555.

Smith, J. C. (2015). Pay growth, fairness, and job satisfaction: Implications for nominal and real wage rigidity. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 117(3), 852-877.

Bryson, A., Clark, A. E., Freeman, R. B., & Green, C. P. (2016). Share capitalism and worker wellbeing. Labour economics, 42, 151-158.

Bin, A. S. (2015). The relationship between job satisfaction, job performance and employee engagement: An explorative study. Issues in Business Management and Economics, 4(1), 1-8.

Lee, C., An, M., & Noh, Y. (2015). The effects of emotional display rules on flight attendants’ emotional labor strategy, job burnout and performance. Service Business, 9(3), 409-425.

Cappelli, P., & Tavis, A. (2016). The performance management revolution. Harvard Business Review, 94(10), 58-67.

Dawson, K. M., O’Brien, K. E., & Beehr, T. A. (2016). The role of hindrance stressors in the job demand–control–support model of occupational stress: A proposed theory revision. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 37(3), 397-415.

van Woerkom, M., Bakker, A. B., & Nishii, L. H. (2016). Accumulative job demands and support for strength use: Fine-tuning the job demands-resources model using conservation of resources theory. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(1), 141.

Bakker, A. B., & Demerouti, E. (2017). Job demands–resources theory: Taking stock and looking forward. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 22(3), 273.

Wang, W., Yin, H., & Huang, S. (2016). The missing links between emotional job demand and exhaustion and satisfaction: Testing a moderated mediation model. Journal of Management & Organization, 22(1), 80-95.

Graue, C. (2015). Qualitative data analysis. International Journal Of Sales, Retailing & Marketing, 4(9), 5-14.

Goodrick, D., & Rogers, P. J. (2015). Qualitative data analysis. In Handbook of practical program evaluation (pp. 561-595). Hoboken, NJ, USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc..

Palinkas, L. A., Horwitz, S. M., Green, C. A., Wisdom, J. P., Duan, N., & Hoagwood, K. (2015). Purposeful sampling for qualitative data collection and analysis in mixed method implementation research. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(5), 533-544.

Lewis, S. (2015). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Health promotion practice, 16(4), 473-475.

Karadag, H. (2015). Strategic financial management for small and medium sized companies. Emerald Group Publishing.

Kothari, S. P., Mizik, N., & Roychowdhury, S. (2015). Managing for the moment: The role of earnings management via real activities versus accruals in SEO valuation. The Accounting Review, 91(2), 559-586.