Managerial And Behavioral Approach Management

Analysis of the case study

Discuss about the Managerial and Behavioral Approach Management.

John Tomey, the business manager at Wesfarmers had been facing a number of issues related to Human Resource Management in the organization. It has been understood by John that he lacks certain capabilities and requires skill set that would help him to build a better relationship with the employees of the organization that would directly help in improving the performance of the business.

As commented by Shafritz et al. (2015, p.42), organizational performance is the practice of actively utilizing the resources of the organization. These include the core competencies as well as the strength of the employees working in the organization. In order to achieve the targeted goals, it is important to undertake best suitable practices as business strategies for the organization. In this respect, Shafritz, Ott & Jang, (2015, p.62) commented that by improving the performance of the employees, the organization will be able to cut costs and would increase efficiency of the organization. From the case study it has been evident that the staffs that John inherited do not make the numbers in their performance and some of them do not live the values. Therefore, it is evident that focus has to be made on improving the performance of the staffs as well as the managers of the organization.

As stated by Naylor et al. (2013, p.32), business strategies vary from one organization to another depending on the capability and the availability of the resources in the organization. The management of the organization is responsible for framing the organizational strategies. Thus, it completely depends on the managers at the higher authority to frame the best suitable strategies for the particular organization. In case of Wesfarmer, it has to be said that since, the organization is involved in a number of activities it requires support from the employees at a continuous basis. Therefore, it is important to frame organizational strategies focusing on building positive relationship between the managers and the employees of the Company.

The best fit or best practice organizational strategies that the managers can adopt that will lead to the growth of the business are by motivating the employees. It has to be understood that the several divisions of the Wesfarmers and it is a large conglomerate of mixed business. Therefore, it is required to come up with certain organizational strategies that would influence the employees to participate in the workplace activities. A number of performance improving best-fit organizational strategies can be mentioned here.

Best-fit or best practices

The HR practice can be based upon performance pay. It is advised that performance based pay option can be easily adopted as one of the organizational strategies. As commented by Shafiee, Lotfi & Saleh, (2014, p.5096), performance based pay is the most practical application that the HR management of an organization can apply to improve the efficiency of the employees. The employees should be given some extra pay for their performance, for instance, if they work over time or more than their target. As pointed out by Hoque, (2014, p.50), that money always attracts employees and compel them to work more efficiently. Therefore, it is highly recommended to give incentives and bonuses to the employees working in Wesfarmers. 

Performance management is the practice of using the performance data of the employees to improve the performance of the organization. The practice involves the strategic use of various measurements and standard of performance to achieve the targets and goals of the organization. As commented by Keyes, (2016, p.40), it falls on the part of the managers to set the expectations of work on the employees and keep reviewing the performance to achieve better results and reward performance. In this respect, Hansen & Schaltegger, (2016, p.210) pointed out that performance is the sum of the behavior and the result, which clearly indicates that the employee should also focus on their behavior to achieve better performance results. Therefore, it is suggested that at Wesfarmers, John could come up with a performance management plan and would collect data of the performance of the employees and the managers. However, Mugo, M., Njanja & David, (2015, p.42) pointed out that there are a number of limitations of measuring the performance. For instance, the performance management data could not include the timeliness, reliability and validity of the particular employee.

The Resource-based view or the RBV theory is based on gaining competitive advantage by a firm by utilizing the tangible and intangible resources available to the organization. As commented by Miner (2015, p.36), the available resources can be utilized by an organization for gaining not only short term advantages but for long term competitive advantage as well. If the available resources are utilized properly, there remain better chances of gaining a consistent growth in the market. In case of Wesfarmers, it can be said that better training and learning procedure can be introduced in the organization to teach the employees and improve the capabilities of them (Hansen & Schaltegger, 2016, p.203). In order to achieve this, it is expected that the organization should come up with better training programs where the employees could be taught for improving the performance of the employees and workers of the organization.

Performance-pay practices

It is expected that the manager should also focus on the corporate growth strategies as well. As stated by Mugo, Njanja & David, (2015, p.52), there are a number of internal methods that can be used for the purpose of corporate growth. For instance, the corporate strategies should include methods of developing new markets for the sales of the products manufactured by the organization. It has been found that Wesfarmers is responsible for the manufacturing of a number of products. Therefore, focus should be made on increasing the market penetration of the products. Purce, (2014, p.23) revealed a number of strategies for corporate growth. These include, external methods like acquiring or merging other organizations belonging to the same category. In addition to this, the organization might come up with the approach of introducing new products in the existing market. For the same purpose, there might be need of new hiring of employees or alerting the existing employees about the introduction of the new product (Klarner, Yoshikawa & Hitt, 2014, p.65). This could be done by the manager at the workplace. Training the employees will ensure better quality and performance at the workplace.

The Balanced Scorecard approach is a system perspective but can be regarded as an integrated approach to measure organizational performance. In the view point of Goswami & Ha-Brookshire, (2015, p.260), in order to manage and deploy the organizational resources to deliver and fulfill the organizational objectives that falls on the prime responsibility of the senior managers, the balanced scorecard method is used by the organization. It is expected that an organization should come up with their scorecard measurement performance and generate their valuable information related to various organizational activities. As pointed out by De Waal, (2013, p.36), it is with the help of the analysis of the balanced scorecard the management can be aware of the potential performance of the employees and can design their strategic makeover.

Four major perspectives of utilizing the balanced scored card are Financial, Customer, Operational and People. It is expected that the organizational objectives should be cascade down to those four perspectives in order to achieve a clear path of the implementation of the organizational strategies. A balanced scorecard-factors example that John can implement in the said organization can be given as under:

Department	Function
Finance	Keeping an understanding of the major areas of functions including Return on Investment, the Cash Flow, Return on Capital of the employed workers and half yearly or quarterly financial results (Wolpert et al. 2014, p.52).
Internal Business Processes	The internal organizational activities including understanding the function of each employee in the organization. In case if there is creation of duplication of work that has to be stopped that the efficiency of the work increase. If applicable, the organization is also expected to carry out process bottlenecks and process automation approaches to improve the organizational effectiveness (Shields et al. 2015, p.63). Advanced technology has to be used in order to carry out the business activities in the organization. The software should be easily accessible to all and that the employees should be able to communicate properly and update their activities accordingly.
Learning and Growth	As already mentioned, there should be the provision for teaching and learning the employees and the workers. As commented by Poister, Pasha & Edwards, (2013, p.635), there should remain a level of work satisfaction among the workers that they would be able to perform best as per their ability. Providing better opportunities to the employees to perform in the organization will provide better opportunities to develop and improve the organizational activities.
Customer	Whatever work that is done in the organization is aimed at satisfying the needs of the customers. Therefore, focus should be made on improving the organizational performance that would ultimately help to satisfy the customers. In this respect, it can also be added that gaining feedback from the customers can also help to improve the organizational activities (Budworth, Latham & Manroop, 2015, p.50). Therefore, the manager is also expected to carry out surveys at a regular basis to understanding the changing nature of demand of the employees.

Table: Balanced scorecard approach towards the organization

The paper is based on the analysis of the issues faced by John at Wesfarmers. It has been observed that John is responsible for managing the internal mangers as well as the staffs of the organization. It has been observed that in order to meet the organizational activities and improve the present condition of the organization, it is important to apply a number of organizational strategies. These strategies should be best fit practices for the organization. It has been observed that there should be improvement in the organizational practices. For instances, there should be introduction of a number of motivational factors that would help the employees to motivate in the work place and increase their efficiencies (Goswami & Ha-Brookshire, 2015, p.260). For the same reason, a number of practices have been proposed. For instance, motivating employees on the basis of performance pay. There should be introduction of incentives and bonuses to the employees for their performance at the organization.

Performance management

In addition to this, the performance of the employees should be regularly followed and measured. There should be awards and recognition to be given to the employees as a part of the motivational factors. Apart from that, it has also been understood that it is indeed important to utilize the resources available at the organization to a large extent that will automatically improve the organizational operation to a large extent (Mugo, Njanja & David, 2015, p.52). The approach of framing the balanced scorecard cannot be denied. It has to be said that it is by the means of framing a balanced scorecard of the different areas of functions, it is possible to carry out a balanced operational activity in the organization. It has been suggested that the strategic management should include the introduction of new and advanced technology at the workplace. As proposed by Shields et al. (2015, p.63), technological advancement has opened up better opportunities for the organization as well as the employees working in the organization to utilize the technology to improve their work. Therefore, there should be introduction of technologies as well. Apart from this, taking feedbacks from the customers of the organization is also important. It is on the basis of the feedback, changes in the organizational activities are recommended. All these activities have to carry on by the managers of the Company. Therefore, John is responsible for understanding the situation and framing organizational activities accordingly.

Conclusion:

The paper has highlighted the problems faced by John, the manager at Wesfarmers. A number of organizational strategies have been highlighted that the manager can apply at the workplace to improve the present context of the organization. It is thus, expected that if the organization carry out the proposed strategies, it would be effective for the organization.

References:

Budworth, M.H., Latham, G.P. & Manroop, L., 2015. Looking forward to performance improvement: a field test of the feedforward interview for performance management. Human Resource Management, Vol. 54(1), pp.45-54.

De Waal, A., 2013. Strategic Performance Management: A managerial and behavioral approach. Palgrave Macmillan.

Goswami, S. & Ha-Brookshire, J., 2015. From compliance to a growth strategy: Exploring historical transformation of corporate sustainability. Journal of Global Responsibility, Vol. 6(2), pp.246-261.

Hansen, E.G. & Schaltegger, S., 2016. The sustainability balanced scorecard: A systematic review of architectures. Journal of Business Ethics,  Vol. 133(2), pp.193-221.

Hoque, Z., 2014. 20 years of studies on the balanced scorecard: Trends, accomplishments, gaps and opportunities for future research. The British accounting review, Vol. 46(1), pp.33-59

Keyes, J., 2016. Implementing the IT balanced scorecard: Aligning IT with corporate strategy. CRC Press.

Klarner, P., Yoshikawa, T. & Hitt, M., 2014. Towards a Temporal Theory of Board Attention to Corporate Growth Initiatives.

Miner, J.B., 2015. Organizational behavior 1: Essential theories of motivation and leadership. Routledge.

Mugo, M., Njanja, L. & David, M., 2015. The collective effect of succession planning, succession timing and successor commitment on corporate growth strategy among local family businesses in the manufacturing industry sector in Nairobi County.

Naylor, J.C., Pritchard, R.D. & Ilgen, D.R., 2013. A theory of behavior in organizations. Academic Press.

Poister, T.H., Pasha, O.Q. & Edwards, L.H., 2013. Does performance management lead to better outcomes? Evidence from the US public transit industry. Public Administration Review, Vol. 73(4), pp.625-636.

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Shafritz, J.M., Ott, J.S. & Jang, Y.S., 2015. Classics of organization theory. Cengage Learning.   

Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., Johns, R., Robinson, J., O’Leary, P. & Plimmer, G., 2015. Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices, Strategies. Cambridge University Press.

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