Importance Of Mentoring Organisational Behaviour: Analyzing New Zealand’s Management Challenges

Identifying relevant Thesis Statement or Question from the article

Discuss about the Importance of Mentoring Organisational Behaviour.

The article contends that executive managers in large organizations are tasked with the responsibility of guiding employees and departmental managers. They are also expected to report directly to the board of directors and lead the organization into achieving its strategic objectives by reacting to the threats and opportunities in their external environment. For this reason, the authors of the article examined what chief executives in New Zealand not-for-profit, public, and private sectors consider the most crucial aspects of their current environment and their impact on management skills.

Identifying relevant Thesis Statement or Question from the article

The central questions that the article aims to address are:

• What are the greatest challenges that New Zealand chief executives are facing?
• What are the implications of these challenges for management skills?
• Given the current business environment, what managerial capabilities are essential?
• How can human resource management support their development?

Thesis Statement: The article points out that the productivity problem in New Zealand is attributable to lack of management capabilities caused by high turnover rates.

The article is well written and easy to understand. The author uses various themes to help readers in understanding the content of the article. Some of these topics include New Zealand organizations and management capabilities, the public sector, private and not-for-profit sector. Likewise, the author’s provide in-depth analysis of the country under discussion by comparing it to others in the same region as well as the management challenges it faces. For instance, the author’s contend that as a small economy, New Zealand has 4.5 million people and is remote from the global markets. The only industry that is performing well is the dairy sector. Accordingly, in 2011, none of the country’s company featured in the Global Fortune500 whereas Australia had eight and Singapore two (Hutchinson & Boxall, 2014: 25).  Despite the fact that a majority of multinational companies have their subsidiaries in the country, a small percentage of New Zealand staff provides their services in the company.

The country is characterized by various manufacturing companies such as semiconductors, aerospace, and automobiles. However, these companies are very few limiting opportunities for individuals who might wish to specialize in these areas. A majority of consumer and business service are owned by foreigners, especially the banking sector and some parts of the distribution and the retail sector. For all these reasons, it is common for managers in New Zealand to pursue advancement opportunities in other countries with large economies. Besides, lack of advancement opportunities and lack of a specialized role in New Zealand makes it difficult to recruit and retain managerial talent (Hutchinson & Boxall, 2014: 38). Regardless these challenges, organizations in New Zealand firms are less bureaucratic and provide their staff with job autonomy and enhanced quality of life. The type of management style practiced in the country is the empowering type because organizations are more informal and smaller. However, a majority of managers are shifting from this country to Australia where they have achieved great success in the labour market.

Analysing the Strengths and Weaknesses of the Article based on the Thesis Statement

The strength of the article is that it provides recommendations to New Zealand Chief Executive officers on what they should do to enhance their organization’s productivity. For instance, the article points out that the biggest challenges that  New Zealand Chief Executive Officers face include managing renewal and uncertainty, managing resources and people, and managing partners and stakeholders(Hutchinson & Boxall, 2014: 38). For instance, the article advocates that human resource managers should take part in the design of processes and systems that nurtures and identifies management talent. Additionally, the system should permit managers to create teams in a more uncertain environment. The major weakness with the article is that it fails to analyse the management issue from a global perspective. On the contrary, the article primarily focuses on comparing New Zealand with its neighbouring countries such as Australia. Accordingly, the article does not provide its target audience with measures being taken by the country to address the managerial challenges it is currently facing. However, it makes recommendations on what senior managers should do to retain managerial talent.

The article points out that lack of advancement opportunities and lack of specialized role in New Zealand makes it difficult to recruit and retain managerial talent. This is not true because there are various strategies that human resource managers can utilize to reduce turnover and retain employees. Larson et al.(2008: 43) argue that organizations must listen to the needs of their employees and execute retention strategies that will engage and value them. The implementation of these strategies can exhibit a positive and significant impact on the firm’s turnover rate.

Allen and Bryant (2012: 115) outline various reasons that cause employees to leave a company in pursuit of better opportunities. Some of these reasons include employees feeling that their workplace or job does not meet their expectations, or there are minimal feedbacks and coaching. Other causes include mismatch between the person and the job, few advancement and growth opportunities, and employees feeling unrecognized and devalued (Lyons & Pastore, 2016: 13). Loss of confidence and trust in senior leaders or overwork can also be a major cause of high turnover in New Zealand organizations. High turnover is quite expensive because organizations are forced to use the extra cash to recruit and train new employees. In fact, it costs three times more to replace someone compared to paying an employee (Johnston, 2013: 35). The increase in cost is because of lost opportunities, lost productivity, severance, and recruitment.

My View Point of What I Believe

According to a study conducted by Soundarapandiyan and Ganesh (2015: 10), it was evident that approximately 50% of newly employed staff leaves their position after two years. Accordingly, 70% of companies argued that high turnover exhibits a negative impact on their financial performance because of the cost of training, hiring, and recruiting a replacement employee. Besides, the current employees have to work overtime until the vacant position is filled. Based on the impact of high turnover on the organization, Fiatte (2015:14) encourages organization to design a retention plan to reduce turnover and retain employees. Example of effective retention methods that organizations in New Zealand can utilize to avoid their managers from seeking opportunities in the neighbouring countries include:

Organizations should integrate their mentoring programs with a goal-oriented feedback system. The primary objective of doing this is to provide managers and other employees with a structured mechanism to develop healthy relationships and boost employee’s growth and retention (James & Mathew, 2012: 80). Through the mentoring program, inexperienced individuals are paired with the experienced people in a similar discipline with the primary objective of providing performance feedback, developing certain competencies, and creating a personalized career development plan (Ruginosu, 2014: 300).

Employees training enhance their sense of value in the organization. Equally, through training, employees are helped to realize their goals as well as develop a solid comprehension of their work requirements (Tandung, 2016:55). Regarding instilling a positive culture, an organization should focus on establishing a comprehensive range of values that acts as a foundation for their culture including teamwork, respect, attitude, excellence, and honesty. Creating an excellent culture helps in keeping and attracting competent employees.

Regardless an organization size, communication is paramount in maintaining and building credibility. An organization should, therefore, put open communication channels where organizational staffs can share their opinions, suggestions, and grievances. It is also essential for the staff to recognize that they are being listened to by their employer.

It is important for organizations to provide their employees with software, workshops, and other tools that will help them in comprehending themselves and their career objectives. Equally, employees should be provided with enough job challenges to enhance their knowledge in their area of specialization (Memon et al., 2014: 207). Employees who are provided with growth opportunities commit themselves to an organization that channels its attention on developing their career and investing in them.

According to the article, managers in New Zealand seek new opportunities in other countries because of better remuneration and other benefits. Therefore, to increase retention and reduce turnover, organizations must offer their staffs competitive salaries, health and pension plans, bonus programs, and tuition reimbursement to recognize the important role they play in enhancing the performance of the organization (Nawaz & Pangil, 2016: 28). However, organizations need to ensure that the rewards they offer to their employees are meaningful.

I do agree with the article thesis statement that productivity problem in New Zealand is attributable to lack of management capabilities caused by high turnover rates.  The article clearly states that managers in New Zealand often explore advancement opportunities in larger economies or to international offices. It is normal for employees to seek opportunities in organizations or countries that will provide them with a platform to grow and advance themselves career wise.

Conclusion

In conclusion, an organization should invest in strategies that help them in reducing turnover and retaining talent. Therefore, it is important for organizations in New Zealand to take into consideration motivation-building approaches in their corporate culture. The involvement of these activities helps in creating an environment that stimulates and motivates employees. Additionally, it is important to provide staff with competitive remuneration and helping them in developing their careers. Applying these strategies will reduce the high turnover among managerial staffs in the country.

References

Allen, D.G., & Bryant, P.C. (2012) Managing Employee Turnover : Dispelling Myths and Fostering Evidence-based Retention Strategies, New York: Business Expert Press

Braddock, D.L., & Bruiniks, R.H.(2008) Staff Recruitment and Retention: Study Results and Intervention Strategies, Washington, D.C: American Association on Mental Retardation.

Fiatte, T.L. (2015) ‘Become an employer of choice: strategies to attract and retain manufacturing employees’, Plant Engineering, no. 5, p. 14.

Hutchinson, A., & Boxall, P. (2014) ‘The Critical Challenges Facing New Zealand’s Chief Executives: Implications for Management Skills’, Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, vol.52, pp.23-41

James, L., & Mathew, L. (2012) ‘Employee Retention Strategies: IT Industry’, SCMS Journal of Indian Management, vol. 9, no. 3, pp. 79-87.

Johnston, M.P.( 2013) ‘The Importance Of Professional Organizations And Mentoring In Enabling Leadership’, Knowledge Quest, vol. 41, no. 4, pp. 34-39.

Lyons, V., & Pastore, D. (2016), ‘Tools for a Formal Mentoring Program: A Guide Every Mentee in Coaching Can Use’, Physical Educator, vol. 73, no. 1, pp. 1-14.

Memon, M.A., Salleh, R., Baharom, M.R., & Harun, H. (2014) ‘Person-Organization Fit and Turnover Intention: The Mediating Role of Employee Engagement’, Global Business & Management Research, vol. 6, no. 3, pp. 205-209.

Nawaz, M.S, & Pangil, F. (2016) ‘The Effect of Fairness of Performance Appraisal and Career Growth on Turnover Intention’, Pakistan Journal of Commerce & Social Sciences, vol. 10, no. 1, pp. 27-44.

Ruginosu, A. (2014) ‘The Importance Of Mentoring In The Knowledge Based Organizations’ Management’, Management Intercultural, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 297-302.

Soundarapandiyan, K., & Ganesh, M. (2015) ‘Employee Retention Strategy With Reference To Chennai Based Ites Industry- An Empirical Study’, Global Management Review, vol. 9, no. 2, pp. 1-13.

Tandung, J.C. (2016) ‘The Link between HR Attributions and Employees’ Turnover Intentions’, Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business, vol. 18, no. 1, pp. 55-69.