Workplace Practices In Top Trucking Company’s Wollongong Yard

New workplace practices introduction process for complementing another

Workplace practices reflect the activity that businesses conducted for fulfilling the requirements of the operational process. Over the years, changes in the needs and wants of the customers and technological evaluation have completely transformed the way businesses are conducted in the global platform (Bishop, 2014). Now, changes in the workplace practices often create different types of complex situation in the short-run. However, it is essential to initiate changes in the operational procedure for fulfilling the requirements of the organization. In this report, the focus will be on Top Truckling Company’s Wollongong yard. The study has highlighted that the focus organization was initially facing different types of challenges in completing all the requirements of the operational procedure. For instance, people regarded the yard as extremely high performance workplace, where employees had to spend several hours on regular basis. Moreover, the yard manager was very autocratic in his leadership style, which has created major adverse impact on the overall motivational level of the employees. However, the acquisition by a big transport organization, Wollongong yard has seen several changes in the operational procedure. The report will focus on analyzing the way new operational process is introduced in Wollongong yard. It will also try to assess possible risks associated with the changes in the operational procedure.      

From the assessment of the previous operational process of Wollongong yard, it can be mentioned that all the truck drivers are extremely demotivated towards their organizational roles and responsibility. The autocratic style of yard manager has provided no support to the employees in fulfilling all the responsibilities in an effective manner. In fact, The Top Trucking Company is reluctant to spend money on improving the quality of the existing machinery and trucks. Therefore, employees have to work extremely hard to fulfill the requirements of the operational procedure (Coronado et al., 2012). For that reason, the new yard manager has focused on investing massive amount on the complete transformation of the operational process. Firstly, the yard manager has cleaned up the yard for rejuvenating fleet. The transformational process has also focused on providing new uniforms to the drivers for increasing the motivational level in an effective way. Yard manager also has focused on purchasing new trucks, as majority of the present trucks are old and out of condition (Bennett, Pitt & Price, 2012). A new computer system has been installed in the warehouse for keeping track of all the incoming and outgoing products.

Moreover, the yard manager also has made a conscious effort in changing the leadership pattern in the Wollongong yard. The manager has looked to understand the kind of problems drivers and other workers are facing in fulfilling the responsibilities of the organization (Leslie et al., 2012). In addition, the yard manager also has provided employees the opportunity to share their views and perspective towards an important management decision. Therefore, it has allowed introducing different training and development facilities for the drivers in both customer service and technical aspect. The leadership style of the new yard manager has induced employees to perceive themselves as a valuable asset of the organization (Milliken et al., 2015). It has helped to develop a constructive relation between the employees or drivers with the management. It has also encouraged drivers to provide more respect to the managers, which has created major positive impact on the overall business procedure. The yard manager also has focused on enhancing the present occupational health safety aspect for the employees. It has also created positive impact on the motivational level of the employees.    

Possible risks to sustaining changes if yard manager or George moves on

From assessment of the performance level of the Top Trucking Company, it can be mentioned that all the new initiated changes or plans have helped to create positive impact on the business. The business performance of Top Trucking Company has enhanced massively for the past couple of years (Engeman et al., 2012). It has been assessed that Top Tucking Company had won several new contracts, which created direct impact on the revenue level. In fact, the effectiveness of the operational process of Wollongong yard had induced many visitors to observe the way all the activities are conducted comprehensively. For that reason, it has allowed Top Trucking Company to achieve sustainable growth in the market (Furlan et al., 2012).  It has been assessed that yard manager and George has developed strong constructive relation that helped to perform all the activities in an effective way. Moreover, strong relationship between George and yard manager has eliminated the possibility of too much conflict at the time of initiating changes in the operational process.

As per the article by Henderson et al. (2013), strong interpersonal relation between employee union and manager is essential to perform all the responsibilities smoothly. The study has highlighted the fact that union delegate George and yard manager had several conflicts regarding the changes in the operational procedure at initial stage. George does not have the vision to understand the future impact of the changes in the business level. However, when the initiated new strategies have started to create impact on the operational procedure, George has understood the significance of initiating changes. Moreover, the approach of yard manager that was no crawl or patronize has helped to provide required information to union delegate. It has allowed Top trucking Company to eliminate initial drawbacks of making changes in the operational procedure (Yardley, Cottrell & Protheroe, 2013). Therefore, keeping both George and yard manager in the same position will allow the organization to fulfill all the responsibilities related to the operational process effectively. If any of the two moves on to head office or somewhere else, Top trucking company will have to begun the process from scratch again. Therefore, it will again create initial barriers in making changes in the operational procedure, which is likely to create adverse impact on the business process.  

Historically, transport workers hold extremely strong bonding among each other. It has lead to develop strong union in several transport departments. Now, many studies have highlighted that people are tend to remain rigid without any external forces (Parry et al., 2013). Therefore, any changes in the operational procedure will likely to increase the perceive threat of the employees working in the transport sector in a significant way. Fear of unknown is likely to create barriers at the time of making changes in the operational procedure (Laing, 2012). Now, strong bonding in the transport union members increases the challenges even further. The management had to expect initial strikes or other unnecessary activities at the time of implementing changes in the operational procedure. Many transport organizations have faced weeks or even moths of strike, as the employees have not responded with the changes in the operational procedure. For that reason, it can be mentioned, “Transport Workers Union is more of less likely to engage in workplace changes”

Critical evaluation of the statement ‘Transport Workers Union are more or less likely to engage in workplace changes’

However, the above case study has highlighted that changes can be made even in the presence of strong transport union, if the managers related to operational process can provide proper vision of making changes (Bloom et al., 2012). The case sty has mentioned that the yard manager of The Top trucking Company has faced initial trouble from the union at the time of making changes. However, the yard manager has tried to provide proper information for making changes in the operational procedure to each employee. Moreover, yard manager also has provided opportunity to the employees to share their perspective in an effective way. As a result, it has created strong bonding between manager and employees (Katzeff et al., 2013). Therefore, it has created positive impact on making changes in the operational procedure. Thus, it highlights the fact that it is not necessary that transport worker union will create challenges in making any change in the business procedure.  

From the in-depth evaluation about the initiated strategy of Top Trucking Company, it can be mentioned that the organization has able to create desired impact on the business process. For that reason, it can be recommended that development of strong constructive relationship between managers and employees is extremely important to move forward in the right direction. It is also crucial for the managers to listen to the feedback of the employees at the time of making any changes (Totterdill, Dhondt & Devons, 2014). It will allow organizations to minimize the adverse impact associated with the changes in the business procedure. Moreover, managers also have to identify proper training and development needs of the employees to counter the fear of unknown factor in an effective way. Proper knowledge regarding changing procedure is likely to create massive impact at the time of making changes in the operational procedure.  

Conclusion: 

From the in-depth analysis of both previous and present operational procedure of The Top Trucking Company, it can be assessed that changes is obvious for fulfilling all the business objectives. For that reason, managers will have to take additional responsibilities in communicating the significance of implementing change in the operational procedure. Clear vision or aim will induce employees to provide proper support to the managers for making changes in the operational process. On the other hand, autocratic leadership or dictating style will induce employees to remain rigid in any changes in the operational procedure. Hence, the leadership approach or style is critical for creating maximum positive impact on the overall business procedure of the organizations. Moreover, organizations also have to focus on not to make too many changes in the management combination for fulfilling all the objectives of the business procedure.     

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