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Introduction The following report is based on the review and planning of the administrative systems of a company. The researcher has chosen Woolworth company which is the largest retail stores of Australia. The report will provide a detailed insight into the administrative system of the mentioned company. Company Background Woolworth is a retail company with a number of supermarkets at different centers of Australia. The supermarket was established on 5th December, 1924 in New South Wales, Australia. Originally named as “Walworth Bazaar Ltd.” The company however changed its name to its present name because of its plans to not expand outside Australia (AbouZahr et al. 2015). The company first established its first “Bargain basement” operating in the Imperial Arcade, on Sydney’s Pitt Street. Initially the shareholders were limited in numbers and there was reluctant from their part to expand the company across Australia and develop the business. However the tremendous success of the company in the following years changed their minds. The share of dividends grew to around 50% in just the third year of its existence as compared to 5% at the start of its business (Beaven 2015). Company’s Mission and Vision The company’s mission is to deliver the best in convenience and enable the value and quality of the products that are sold by the company in its retail supermarkets. The company employs around 205,000 employees who are engaged in serving around 29 million customers of different brands. The vision of the company is to expand its business all across Australia and establish a reputation for the company (Beaven 2015). Company’s Business Performance The company has a set of business policies. The management of the company formulates these policies on a yearly basis to ensure that they enjoy a competitive superiority in the market. The topmost priorities of mentioned company are; 1. To build a customer base and a store led team and culture 2. To create a sustainable plan involving momentum in sales over the Food sector 3. Integrating and implementing a retailer through an end to end process and an excellent network of systems 4. Empowerment of the portfolio business to undertake the different plans to deliver the value of the shareholders 5. Plans to Evolve other business under the belt of Woolworths for providing much more values and facilities to the customers |
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Review and analysis of the administrative system Woolworths has two main contact centers in Australia and New Zealand, and more than 150 supermarket online agents who are engaged in more than 4 million contacts from its different contact centers. The company has a reputation for its excellent customer service (Bellé and Ongaro 2014). However the company has taken the strategy to enhance its business in digital ways. Problem Identification Identification of the problem is one of the main aims of the management of Woolworths. Until and unless the company understands the problems within the management it is impossible for them to get rid of their problems and weakness (Bowersox 2013). Current use of Technology does not support the administrative needs of all the employees. There’s a lack of technological equipments and an absence of proper staff training with the traditional software system. Apart from this absence of the know how to integrate technology into the system, absence of a technical support, absence of proper coordination and communication between the departments and last but not the least the absence of a proper preparation timing are all the problems that the management of Woolworths face. Impact of the problem The above mentioned problems can have a huge impact on the industry. Some of them are; 1. The employers are reluctant to incorporate the latest technologies in to the company 2. The traditional Technology does not support new problems and thus the employees face hurdles while doing their work. 3. There is also absence of proper scope for the employees as they are bound to work within the additional software scope. 4. Employees are also less motivated because of the absence of curricular activities. 5. Technology is not used effectively by staff 6. The lack of additional funds the traditional methods used by the company two assess the processing gave her out of date. Critical Success Factors It appears from the literature that the formulation of an effective corporate communication/task management strategy ultimately delivers results from bottom line perspectives, be it through improved process control or being able to action a task in the most efficient and effective manner (Caiden 2017). Working from the position that the total communication effort must serve the corporate strategy, the end result is the customer experience in the store. Many traditional and modern researchers argues that gaps in the day-to-day reality of corporate communication practices influence corporate identity negatively. The researcher sees this as part of the validation process of the Return on Investment in the appropriate communication/task management platform. The management can further support this by saying a company may use a perfectly developed communications strategy to achieve a competitive edge over competitors who might offer more or less similar products but which may not follow a strategic approach. Many products in highly competitive markets have become extremely popular only as a result of a well executed advertising plan (Carolina 2017). Woolworths for example can use their new communications/task management portal on the SharePoint platform not only to communicate such campaigns but execute the tasks systematically across many locations nationally. The term task leadership can be said to be a leadership style which has to do with a leader having a clear idea of the task at hand and guides the group towards this goal and, through continual reminders and direction which ultimately strives to bring a group back on course (Doh and Tashman 2014). According to the literature the following refer to the critical success factors associated with an effective communications strategy: Ensuring that the organization identifies and implements a suitable framework and/ or tool for the organization of the communications/task management function. Defining and controlling quality standards for communication and task management practices and Ensuring that content released for review, action or comment is structured and easy to understand. Stimulating long term interest in communication as a management tool at board level, Ensure good management by communication managers and or administrators of the process on corporate campaigns and tasks involving all the external as well as the internal shareholders and allow them to be part of designing the communication strategy and process Ability to evaluate and report on the success on any communication/task campaign (Doh and Tashman 2014). Processes that requires revision Woolworths is a retail organization that deals with selling food, liquor and petroleum. Also, Woolworths operates in home improvement. Woolworths Limited is considered to be among the largest retailers in Australia. The company’s organizational structure consists of the board of directors, management executives and officers and the brands that the company manages. The directors have the responsibility to analyze and oversee the operations of the organization. Some of the major brands of Woolworths include; BIG W, home improvement, supermarket and petrol, hotels, and liquor group. Woolworths’ management is, therefore, involved in the management control system. The management board consists of the various people such as the Managing Director, CEO and Financial Operations Chief among others. All the managers work in their specialized areas to collect analyze and report information on the performance of these areas. It involves studying the plans of the company and compares them with the performance of a particular unit or a group within the organization. This helps an organization achieve its set objectives (Donaldson et al. 2017). A good example of performance measurement in Woolworths is the one done on the following; home improvements, hotels, and others. This performance measurement involves providing an exclusive reports the different types of units that are listed above. This is done to help the directors on the ways to provide the necessary resources for the following units and also judge their performances. The performance is usually measured and judged based on the income of the units before tax, interest and some personalized relevant items. During the measurement of the performance, apart from just reviewing the report on the divisions of the group, expenses, the earnings from sales and financial assets of the following group are also assessed. The revenue must be based on the determination that it is capable to be recognized. Expenses involve depreciation, leases and employee benefits. Depreciation are performed by considering the total life of a particular asset in an organization. This report determines by how much and the time period in which this should depreciate. The employee benefits include the establishment of the advantages that makes it one of the main liabilities to the company. The following factors help in the measurement of the performance of any company. Every company has a native culture to which it links itself. This culture consist different values which makes sure on how the employees in the organization must behave and work for the company in a proper manner. Another process of ensuring the success of the strategies are by the use of control system existing in a management culture to ensure that the employees behave according to the standards of the organization. This section of management control system entails communication, coordination, and motivation. The control system of the Management consists of the following elements; result, action and personnel controls. The controls of Action ensure that the employees must behave in proper way that will receive additional benefits from the organization. Results controls ensure that the results of a particular performance in a company are in line with the strategies that are presently being undertaken by the company. Personnel controls are the ones in which the employees that work for the organization are qualified and experienced for the work and also possess educational qualifications. Personnel controls also ensure that loyal and hardworking. In the management control system of Woolworths, the following elements make up the action controls; administration, separation of duties and definition of actions that are acceptable. The administration is the sole decision maker in an organization. The management board and its role form part of this element (Finch 2016). It is quite evident that the decisions that the management board makes in one or another influence the actions of the employees. Woolworth is a big organization that involves different units that may not require same management hence for it to function effectively, duties have to separate. This is to help reduce the workload. It also helps to easily identify those who are accountable for particular actions. Definition of acceptable actions involves observing, tracking and rewarding good actions. There is a particular and unique way in which Woolworths rewards it employees is by providing them a salary. The salary is dependent totally on the performance factors. Rewarding the best performances is very important because it is a process by which employees are motivated to perform actions that have the aim to achieve the strategies and are put into place. Apart from keeping an update of the good actions, the undesirable actions are also kept in track to make sure that they does not happen. The management of Woolworths usually sees to it that every time they are choosing employees for a particular post, they must formulate certain conditions that would help a educated person to get selected. Woolworths organizes different training courses and programs for the members so as to increase their knowledge of a certain job. Resources should be enough to facilitate the tasks done. Hence, the mentioned company allocates the resources fairly. For example Director of human resource ensures good allocation of human resources to the jobs to be done. The action, result, and performance control ensure that the employees perform actions regarding the actions put in place. A dimension refers to the extent of a particular thing. The control system of the management has its own directions. These things generally have striking difference in the organizations. An example is the loose and the tight controls. This direction displays the extent at which a management control system has a positive or negative impact on the employees. Stringent controls have a greater influence on employees. For example, when looking at the tight action controls, it is quite evident that they have a very high impact on the employee (Kubasek et al. 2016). These require the employees to be responsible for each and every single work they do. This involves a lot of additional difficulties for the employees of the organization, for example restricting the decision making power to the higher authorities only. This also includes procedures, codes of conduct that the employee should follow. The unacceptable actions are communicated to the employees and there are always consequences for any such action. The controls can be even tighter if there are frequent and detailed reviews done on the performances of the employee. When there is a lot of diversity in an organization, then the cultural control is usually loose or weak. Tight personnel control involves putting in place very high qualifications for a certain job. In contrast to tight controls, loose controls do not have much influence on employees. They have few conditions and constrictions. Less amount of control have the limitation of not being specific on the regulations of the employees and thus may trigger confusion and ambiguity. Management control system is a very important aspect of an organization. More so, the large organizations that involve a lot of workers, it helps to structure the performance of an organization. Good management control system means a good performance by an organization and this means success and growth to the organization (Kuipers 2014).
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Monitor the new system performance |
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Monitoring criterion |
Key areas of concerns |
Achieved (Y/N) |
Critical baseline required (what is the expected performance) |
Intervention considerations (Should priorities be changed to put more focus on achieving the goals or not?) |
Person responsible (who should this be followed up) |
Date (When should this be reported) |
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System quality |
Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions. |
Yes |
To achieve goals |
To turn into a customer friendly company |
Total organization |
Start of the strategic planning |
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Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? |
Yes |
A proper performance from all the concerned people |
More focus on overall goals |
Managers of the respected Departments |
Beginning of the fiscal year |
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Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)? |
No |
The work must be completed within time |
Focus on the deadline |
“ |
Middle of the year or a period of 6 months |
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Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals? |
No |
Expected to have the best resources starting from money to facilities training etc |
Focusing to gather the resources that are needed |
“ |
Beginning of the financial year |
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information quality |
Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledging, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions. |
Yes |
To achieve goals |
To be a customer friendly company |
Total organization |
Start of the strategic planning |
|
|
Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? |
Yes |
A proper performance from all the concerned people |
More focus on overall goals |
Managers of the respected Departments |
Beginning of the fiscal year |
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|
Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)? |
No |
“ |
“ |
“ |
“ |
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Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals? |
Yes |
“ |
“ |
“ |
“ |
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Service quality |
Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions. |
Yes |
To achieve goals |
To turn into a customer friendly company |
Total organization |
Start of the strategic planning |
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|
Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? |
Yes |
Have to achieve the goals in time |
Focus must be on successful completition of the task |
Employees |
End of the financial year |
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Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)? |
No |
“ |
“ |
“ |
“ |
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Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals? |
Yes |
A minimum stand off capital as well as paid up capital must be maintained by the company |
The management must focus on adopting a proper financial strategy to meet the financial aims and objectives |
The top level management |
Beginning of the financial year |
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|
Productivity measurement |
Are goals and objectives being achieved or not? If they are, then acknowledge, reward and communicate the progress. If not, then consider the following questions. |
Yes |
To achieve the goals |
To be a customer friendly company |
Total organization |
Start of the strategic planning |
|
|
Will the goals be achieved according to the timelines specified in the plan? |
Yes |
“ |
“ |
“ |
“ |
||
|
Should the deadlines for completion be changed (be careful about making these changes — know why efforts are behind schedule before times are changed)? |
No |
Expected to possess the best resources starting from finance to facilities training etc |
More focus on overall goals |
Operations manager |
While preparing the strategy |
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|
Do personnel have adequate resources (money, equipment, facilities, training, etc.) to achieve the goals? |
No |
A minimum stand off capital as well as paid up capital must be maintained by the company |
The management must focus on adopting a proper financial strategy to meet the financial aims and objectives |
The top level management |
Beginning of the financial year |
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Review |
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7.1 |
Ongoing monitoring system on usage |
The monitoring of the contemporary administrative system is carried out by a number of different ways; · Online and offline monitoring · Systematic review · Yearly review |
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7.2 |
Further improvements requirements |
· The management can create a secured database to keep a track on every activities of the organization and keep an update on the customers and the employees (Lavia López and Hiebl 2014) · The cloud system that has been incorporated by the organization must be in charge of special IT professionals which will make the daily operations of the business hassle free · The mentioned company can start a new feedback collection system that will be helpful to assess and analyze the reaction of the customers as well as their choice towards certain product or some services provided by Woolworths · Woolworths can also explore options and scan start to keep some new products that would bring it some other niche market customers to their vast supermarket stores (Van Dooren 2016) |
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A thorough analysis of the total project will reveal that the aims and objectives of the researcher have been met. The readers will be able to sort out some of the main learning outcomes of the project. They are; · The administrative system of Woolworths · The Way the administrative system is managed · The possible issues and benefits of the system · The main success factors that help the mentioned supermarket chain to operate its business smoothly |
References
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