Tasks
1a) Summarise the meaning of Personal Responsibility and develop a set of responsibilities and performance objectives for Harrods employees.
1b) Explain the steps which Harrods can use to evaluate own effectiveness against defined objectives.
1c) Based on the methods and techniques used by Harrods towards their employees, make recommendations for improvements on how they can help develop the skills of their employees.
1d) Review and select a motivational theory which you believe can help improve an employee’s quality of performance.
2a) Identify procedure for developing ideal solutions to work-based problems for Harrods.
2b) Analyse a variety of ways which communication can take place at Harrods. Identify barriers to effective communication and how to overcome these barriers.
2c) Identify Time management strategies and explain which you believe to be the most effective for Harrods to use.
2d) Suggest alternative ways for Harrods to complete tasks and achieve team.
4a) Evaluate the effectiveness of SWOT analysis and Brainstorming in developing solutions to problems in Harrods.
4b) Develop appropriate strategies to resolving particular problems within business organisations.
Please evaluate the potential impact from the implementation of your chosen strategy in Harrods.
Harrods is a reputed brand in the market for British, services, luxury, sensation and innovation. They have realized that employees plays an important role in creating the brand value for the organization and hence the survey was conducted to see the employee engagement and the motivation levels of the employees and after that the managers created strategic plans to improve the employee engagement and trust within the systems.
Personal responsibility stands for the accountability or the ownership of owns work and taking the responsibility of the work one is doing and not blaming other for it in case something goes wrong. In case of Harrods, it has been observed that there are few benefits of taking personal responsibility like it makes relationships healthier, the people who take more personal responsibility are more social in nature. The research shows that the management of Harrods builds the trust for an employee within the organization. People can depend on each other, be more trusted and respected. Personal accountability also saves the money and time, people who takes the responsibility speaks up and looks solution to the problems (Eshleman, 2009).
Keeping customer as a priority is one of the responsibility and performance goal of Harrods. In the organization of Harrods, the employees are the ones who interact with the customers and they create the brand value. Hence, these objectives will help in building a better brand.
More efficient and error free operations of work should be another objective in which each task should be delivered by the employees smoothly without any disruption and error(Woolfolk, Doris, Brianna, John,2008)
The employees within the organization of Harrods are also honest and at the same time authentic enough to share their information. The employees within the organization who have been working hard and in a diligent manner have been provided more incentives and the discount facilities.
Evaluation of performance is another important task Harrods. The employees within the organization not only set the designs and the goals but at the same time also make the proper evaluation of the goals. Without evaluation of performance, the direction of a job is lot and more time and cost is spent. The management of the organization has engaged themselves in making the proper evaluation of the present and the future forecasts. The steps can be used to measure the effectiveness of objectives:
The Company introduces the system of evaluation within the organization and with its employees. This is done so that all the employees can be able to understand the process in a proper way.
The evaluation design made in the form of questionnaire or subjective paper and the evaluation should be conducted on the same (Zaffron, Logan, David, 2009).
There are various logic models available as tool to evaluate objectives and one of it should be used to evaluate the same (Sandberg, 2004).
Evaluation method is very important because based on this only the correct result will be out, hence choosing the right evaluation method is very crucial.
Cost is involved in terms of human resources and logistics, which will be required to conduct the process of evaluation and the company, should incur the right cost on the same.
Having good employees, skills are very important in business world to beat the competition and grow the business. Those organization who have employees with better skills are more competitive and profitable because its employees only who are working to achieve the organizational objective. Within the organization of Harrods, it can be analyzed that the benefits of the better skills are better margins, better customer satisfaction, fewer accidents and grievances, increased loyalty, increased productivity, ability to grow, better sales performance, competitive edge, less errors and defects, improved morale etc. Ways to increase employee’s skills are given below:
The management of Harrods has been successful enough in providing the proepr training facilities to the employees. This occurs based on the joint training, orientation or classroom training. Internet based training is another important tool (Nielsen, 2013).
In case of Harrods, it has been observed that the management of the organization have been utilized their available resources and provides the training facilities with the help of the learning systems.
Harrods gives promotion to the employees and gives them more responsibility in order to increase their skills. It also provides support through training, rewarding good performance and retaining valued employees (Swiss, 2005).
The research studies show that within the organization, every employee works as a team in order to achieve the better results.
Lateral moves: The management of Harrods gives different positions, pay and responsibility offers new challenge, which ultimately encourages the staff members to develop new skills. New roles offers new responsibility and challenges that helps an employee learn new things.
Abraham Maslow develops a theory of motivation, which is known as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs. He proposed this theory in 1940Maslow believed that there are different stages of life that people moved through and have five needs that motivate their behavior. He called these needs physiological, love, safety and esteem, social and self-actualization. (Neely, Adams, Kennerley, 2002)
Physiological needs: It represents the basic survival needs such as clothes, food, shelter and sexual satisfaction.
Safety needs: These needs refer to the physical safety within your environment.
Social Needs: It talks about companionship, which includes the need for love, friendship and belonging (Kaplan, 2001).
Esteem needs: This category encompasses the need for recognition, status and self-respect and the things that make a person feel better.
Self-actualization: This category is about achieving your potential, excelling in your life and personal achievement.
The advantage of this theory is that it provides a summary of human needs and helps to focus on a specific need shared by the target audience whereas the disadvantage of this theory is that it is cultural bound and lacks empirical support for the rank ordering of the needs (Boris, Kopczynski, 2013).
Work based issue are very common these days that may arises due to culture, hieratical structure, top management, policies and other factors. Therefore, to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the organization as a whole the management of Harrods has undertaken some of the steps so that the employees can be motivated in every sphere
Transparent communication: Transparent communication is mandatory and it is everyone’s concerns. In many cases, it has been observed that the employees within the organization are free to discuss any kind of problems with the managerial heads. . The leader should facilitate open communication and the build trust within the team (Upadhaya, Munir, Blount, 2014).
Open-minded People: The people are open-minded and adapted some of the strategies in order to cope up with the culture of the organization. They need to understand the new policies and culture. Their mind should be open for change and bringing in new environment and change as per the new business environment. Those organizations, which are rigid, are less likely to grow.
A solid foundation strategy: The foundation of the company is strong and is more culturally oriented and open toward new business environment. They have good management and enhancing employee policies, which brings motivation and efficiency in the system (Morgenstern, 2004).
There are four types of communication that takes place within Harrods and are given below. As per the need and the type of stakeholder, the right form of communication can be chosen (Patrick, Bruce, 2000).
Internal and external communication
Oral and written communication
Formal and informal communication
Verbal and non- verbal communication.
There common barriers of communication are mentioned below:
Use of Jargon or complicated terminology.
Emotional taboos and barriers where people feel it is difficult to express their feelings.
Difference in viewpoint and the perception.
Physical disability such as speech difficulty and hearing problems
Physical barrier for non- verbal communication, unable to understand gestures, body language, non- verbal cues (Derek, Laura, Stephen, 2004).
Language difficulty and difference to understand the unfamiliar accent.
Cultural differences where one person is from another country and the other is from another country.
Clarity of ideas: The communicators should have clear idea that what they are communicating with each other. They should clearly know the agendas and the outcome for the communication they are doing.
Understand the need of receiver: Both the parties should know what is the need of the receiver, what he or she is looking for and which mode of communication will be suitable for the receiver and accordingly plan the communication.
Be aware of content and language of message: Parties should know that which language will be suitable for each other to communicate so that the message sent is clear and the content is as per the agenda and goal of the communication.
Other measures that can be effectively used are consistency of message, proper feedback, follow-up of communication, consultation with other before communicating, Convey things which are helpful and have values for the receiver and be a good listener (William, Kazanas, 2004).
Time management is most important factor for any organization and using time effectively increases the efficiency and achieving targets. Few of the strategies are given below:
Set Priorities: The organization of Harrods has undertaken some of the strategies where Person have the list and should know what are more important. Everyone should set the priorities and should work towards achieving those. (Hill, Westbrook, 2010).
Use a planning tool: There are various planning tools available online as well on mobile, which helps in planning the tasks The organization uses these types of tools, which help in recording the information, jot down all the important points, and it helps in keeping the priorities set.
Delegate: Delegation is a principle of management, which the organization follows in which one can get helps from the other person by assigning it to the subordinate or peers. This is how the work is divided between the team and everyone has a set of target and responsibility.
Manage external time wasters: There are various factors that waste time within our day schedule. One should void those factors and remain focused on what the day’s priorities are.
Avoid multi-tasking: Doing number of things at one time is not a good idea rather working on one task at one time and completing them accordingly saves the time as well as brings the efficiency in the work.
For Harrods’s all the above mentioned time saving strategies are important , they should imbibe that in the culture of the organization and everyone should follow it effectively.
2d) All the companies are working towards achieving the organizational objectives and earn profit but to achieve these objectives that should have a good team and should be able to achieve the targets they have set for the tasks. They should be able to meet the production targets or the selling targets. In order to achieve the same they should have clear set of objectives in the organization, they should evaluate their objectives and set priorities to complete the tasks.
Morgenstern (2004) commented on the essential fact that working in a team is like sharing a common goal with the other teammates. Each organization has both informal and formal groups where managers encourage in effective building of team. The groups are so made that focuses towards accomplishment of the common goals and corporate goals. It is the responsibility of the team manager and the teammates of Harrods to initially identify the purpose of the entire team that is aligned with the missions, objectives and goals of the organization. The team agenda need to be clarified so that it can be measurable according to the resources of the team members. As per commented strategically by Barnlund (2008) the companies need to operate as per the objectives along with the priorities that are set up in the team.
While making the changes, the team of Harrods also needs to focus on the unbiased, transparent as well as timely changes that will well align with the organizational missions and objectives. The manager of Harrods needs to communicate well with each individual of the team for a successful change and therefore focuses towards the consolidated improvements. In addition to this the organizational structure as well as design is so made that helps in achieving certain goals as well as focuses towards the allotment of responsibilities to the individual team members. From the viewpoint and outlook of Fifer (2010), the better will be the flexibility within the organization the better will be the working environment as well as group task. The group focuses towards the successful accomplishment of the work.
Swot analysis and brainstorming will help Harrods in understanding their business more deeply. They will be able to understand the current situation of the company as well as will be able to generate good new idea, which will help in the expansion. Both are discussed in detail below:
SWOT analysis refers to the strength, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. It helps in studying the business environment, which is related to the strengths and weaknesses of the business and helps in understanding the opportunities and threats for the business (Barnlund, 2008). With the help of this, the management of Harrods brings the efficiency in the business by helping in understanding the complex business without using money and outside consultants. It also helps in understanding the business of Harrods in a better way, weaknesses can be addressed easily, opportunities can be capitalized on time, knowing the threats and taking the advantages of the strengths, it helps in making the business goals and the strategies that helps in achieving these goals (Koch, 2000).
Brainstorming refers to the process to generate the solutions and creative ideas through intensive and free group discussion. Everyone in Harrods is free to participate and share his or her ideas aloud. They are free to make the proper analysis, discuss or criticize the ideas and in the end, they can evaluate the same. It helps in generating a lot of idea at one point of time, it is very much easy to teach and learn, it comparatively easy to prepare and moderate, a lot of material is not required a simple pen and paper helps, idea formation collectively and it saves a lot of time (Fifer, 2010).
It is important to resolve the issues in the organization, if some problem arises the detailed analysis should be done and the problem should be overcome rather than sitting on the problem and looking for the solution to come. The steps to resolve the problems are given below: (Robbins, Judge, Millett, Boyle, 2011).
Identify the issue
Look for the root cause
Brainstorming the solutions
Select the right solution
Apply and evaluate the impact of the solution
Harrods’s will use the above method or strategy to solve the problem arising in the organization. The impact will be the issues will be tackled one by one and can be solve in a better way (Barnlund, 2008).
Conclusion:
As per the case study the company, Harrods is a growing organization and in order to meet the current business needs which will help them grow and be more focused towards achieving organizational objectives. They should use techniques like SWOT analysis, brainstorming, and motivation theory of Maslow, Plan their work I a better way should have time-management-skill training programs and should work on building an effective communication channel for the organization.
References
Eshleman, Andrew (2009). “moral responsibility”. In Zalta, Edward N. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Many have held that one distinct feature of persons is their status [emphasis added] as morally responsible agents.
Woolfolk, Robert L., Doris, John M., and Brianna, John M. “Identification, Situational Constraint, and Social Cognition: Studies in the Attribution of Moral Responsibility”. In Experimental Philosophy. Knobe, Joshua, and Nichols, Shaun eds. (2008). New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 61–80.
Zaffron, Logan, Steve, David (Feb 2009). Performance Management: The Three Laws of Performance: Rewriting the Future of Your Organization and Your Life (1st ed.).
Nielsen, Poul A. 2013. Performance Management, Managerial Authority, and Public Service Performance. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Published electronically on June 2. doi:10.1093/jopart/mut025.
Swiss, James E. 2005. A framework for assessing incentives in results-based management. Public Administration Review 65:592–602.
Upadhaya, B., Munir, R., & Blount, Y. (2014). Association between Performance Measurement Systems and Organisational Effectiveness. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 34(7), 2-2.
Neely, A.D., Adams, C. and Kennerley, M. (2002), The Performance Prism: The Scorecard for Measuring and Managing Stakeholder Relationships, Financial Times/Prentice Hall, London.
Kaplan, R. S. (2001). Strategic Performance Measurement and Management in Nonprofit Organizations. Nonprofit Management & Leadership, 11(3), 354.
Boris, E. T., & Kopczynski Winkler, M. (2013). The Emergence of Performance Measurement as a Complement to Evaluation Among U.S. Foundations. New Directions For Evaluation, 2013(137), 69-80.
Patrick J. Montana and Bruce H. Charnov (2000). “Training and Development”.Management. Barron’s Educational Series. p. 225.
Derek Torrington, Laura Hall, and Stephen Taylor (2004). Human Resource Management. Pearson Education. p. 363.
William J. Rothwell and H. C. Kazanas (2004). The Strategic Development of Talent. Human Resource Development Press. p. 4.
William J. Rothwell (2005). Effective Succession Planning. AMACOM Div American Mgmt. pp. xviii.
Hill, T. & R. Westbrook (2010). “SWOT Analysis: It’s Time for a Product Recall”. Long Range Planning 30 (1): 46–52.
Koch, Adam (2000). “SWOT does not need to be recalled: It needs to be enhanced”.Swineburne University of Technology.
Fifer, R. M. (2010). Cost benchmarking functions in the value chain. Strategy & Leadership, 17(3), 18-19.
Robbins, S., Judge, T., Millett, B., & Boyle, M. (2011). Organisational Behaviour. 6th ed. Pearson, French’s Forest, NSW p315-317.
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Sandberg, Jared (2004-09-08). “To-Do Lists Can Take More Time Than Doing, But That Isn’t the Point”. The Wall Street Journal. — a report on to-do lists and the people who make them and use them
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