3.1.1 Communication
Communication is, “to give successfully (thoughts, feelings, ideas or information) to others through speech, writing, bodily movements or signals” (Definition from the Cambridge Dictionaries Online). This communicative process consists of a sender encoding a message, sending it through a chosen medium and then being decoded by a receiver (in many cases feedback is given from the receiver to the original sender). Communication may sound very simple when expressed in this way; however, there are many micro and macro barriers, which can hinder communication, making it ineffective, which can cause severe problems within an organization.
Many theorists understand this importance and in a survey concerning organisational restructuring, Katherine Burke (1999) concluded that many companies do not pay adequate attention to the communication when planning ad implementing change, resulting in absenteeism, turnover, low productivity and efficiency and disputes. I feel that communication within this organisation is not being carried out effectively and has been hindering the organisations overall productivity, morale and customer satisfaction. These difficulties are specifically evident in ‘vertical communication’ (top-down and bottom-up), particularly in the distribution department, and there is also ineffective ‘horizontal communication’ between the distribution and bakery departments.
By looking at the Fig.1.1, showing the hierarchical structure of the organization, it circles the areas of concern for poor communication.
Distribution Department Bakery Department
Mr. Hofford
(Owner)
Bakery Manager
Bakery staff
Delivery drivers
Fig.1.1. – The current hierarchy at Hofford Distribution
The top-down communication in this organisation is required to allow Mr. Hofford to inform employees about changes in the macro-environment, which affect the organisation, organisational attitudes/expectations/beliefs, and concerns about the daily operating procedures that Mr. Hofford may have. The bottom-up communication should allow employees to inform Mr. Hofford of any machinery/vehicle difficulties, employee illness or ordering difficulties. These sets of information are important and must be received and dealt with promptly in this dynamic business environment, however, this is not functioning effectively particular respect to the depot.
The bakery has an intermediary in the form of the bakery manager who can deal with smaller difficulties personally and promptly, addressing Mr. Hofford only when necessary. However, this effective intermediary does not exist in the depot and there is only the singular channel of communication to Mr. Hofford. As Mr. Hofford is a business man investing money in several business ventures, it proves very difficult to contact him all of the time, particularly as deliveries take place between the unsociable hours of 12am and 8am. The goals which need to realised by an implemented change will be to have stable passage of ‘vertical communication’ with the depot to avoid communication breakdown and communicative methods must be considered in informing staff of organisational goals, expectations whilst providing information to management about employee individual goals, needs and expectations from the organisation.
Within the organisation, ‘horizontal communication’ is required between the two departments. This communication is core to the operating procedures of the business as it is where the drivers communicate the orders of fresh bread, rolls, etc. to the bakery, in order for the bakery to make the correct amount for the next day. Unfortunately, it has been noticed that this vital communication is also suffering from communicative barriers, this time concerning the people rather than the process. Poor initial communication of organisational goals has lead to incoherent team goals, conflicting departmental cultures and perceptual filters. These barriers are making the two departments work against each other and lead to poor motivation of bakers to complete the orders, inadequate record keeping of daily orders and sometimes they are even lost. These factors are very detrimental to the organisation and even though are communicative problems; they may require action through teamwork and motivation as remedial change.
3.1.2 Motivation
The concept of a motivated and efficient team at work has become increasing important in the modern, flexible business environment and Hofford distribution is no exception. A motive is “the reason for doing something”, and motivation is how people enthuse people to do that particular task. Mullins (1993) describes motivation as “ the ‘driving force’ through which people strive to achieve their goals and fulfil their values”. A motivated team in an organisation is a valuable resource as they will work efficiently and effectively in order to achieve both personal and organisational goals.
In this organisation, the staff are carrying out an additive task, everyone has an input which is required to provide the final product to the customer, this requires teamwork to reach these goals and in order to this the team needs to be sufficiently motivated. A demotivated workforce on the other hand may lead to absenteeism, poor performance.
There are a few minor factors that are currently making the staff feel particularly demotivated to work, minor details such as the fact that staff do not feel that they are being acknowledged for their work and do not feel particularly significant. This may seem quite small to the senior management, but as this appears to be the general consensus throughout the entire organisation it has led to absenteeism, lack of respect for the organisation, very little drive to fulfil personal potential and poor performance.
This organisation needs to implement some organisation change in order to motivate staff to reach their potential and cut down on poor attendance records. They need to be given a vision and goal to strive for but many do not know what these goals are. The overall aim from the implemented change would be to take the currently formed formal group and in order to carry out the daily additive tasks to the organisations fullest potential, create psychological groups who have common goals and receive both extrinsic and intrinsic rewards from their work.
3.2 Plan of Implementation
When implementing change, it must be carried out in a structured for in order to gain maximum benefits. Possibly the most popular model of a planned approach to change is the Lewin ‘3 stages of implementing change’.
The concept of breaking down the hardened structure of an organisation, implementing change and then hardening the organisation into a new accepted system is very popular and easy to incorporate when implementing change.
3.2.1 Communication
The difficulties motioned earlier concerning communication I feel must not be taken lightly. The consequences in this business of making an inadequate delivery of goods due to poor or ineffective communication on a more than irregular occasion can result in customers buying goods from another supplier.
Some fairly incremental; changes need to be implemented in this area to avoid the problems identified. The main change which I feel could be implemented in the depot is the introduction of some kind of depot manager or supervisor to aid in with the core purpose of a communicatory aid in the top-down and bottom-up communication channel in the depot. I feel confident that a depot manger would be an effective intermediary in the top-down communication channel in express organisational goals to the drivers, reinforce expected behaviour and norms of the organisation, such as absenteeism, performance, etc., and keep subordinates informed.
All vital communication to provide man informed and driven workforce, which is evident from the use of a bakery manager in the bakery. Other forms of change that may be used to create the same advantages may be regular meetings with middle management, in-house newspapers/magazines/leaflets, notice boards, e-mail/intranet, t6eam briefings, and employee reports. I agree that these are all good mechanisms for communicating unilaterally with employee’s information such as organisation goals, expectations, etc. but do not feel that these would be fully appropriate for this organisation. In-house leaflets and an intranet are not cost effective options, and although team briefings, notice boards, etc. are helpful, I feel that these would not adequately improve the current state of communication but instead would be excellent supporting aids to be used in conjunction with and by a depot manager and to be used by the rest of the organisation
On the other hand, bottom-up communication will also be more effective and efficient. The depot manager will have the knowledge and power to deal with most department difficulties, which would usually be given to Mr. Hofford, whilst enabling vital information to be selectively reported to him. This is important, as it has been mentioned that Mr. Hofford is a busy businessman with limited time resources to allocate to his businesses when required. Attitude surveys, suggestion boxes and team focus groups would be an ideal structured way of receiving constructive comments from the workforce communicating from bottom-up. This should be implemented in both departments of the organisation as these people work in this environment each and every day and are the people who are most likely to forecast areas of concern and how these obstacles can be overcome.
Moving on to ‘horizontal communication’ between the two departments, the bakery and the depot, I have already mentioned that it is a people problem as apposed to a problem with the processes involved. The problems that arise are incoherent team goals between the two departments due to poor communication, conflicting departmental cultures and detrimental perceptual filters. In the current state, I am personally surprised that this situation was not addressed earlier, but an appropriate influence on this communication can resolve any past difficulties. The incoherent team goals has already been addressed, The use of notice boards stating company mission statements, goals and objectives along with teams briefings will firmly inform and educate the staff of the ‘entire’ organisation of the organisation objectives giving this cohesion of an organisational culture. As for the other two barriers of communication, thee are strongly linked to the motivation of the working team and are addressed in the next section.
The way communication has been recorded has been cause for concern, lost orders are unacceptable therefore a more structured procedure must be put in place. An example may be to use the e-mail or fax as opposed to phone orders but the disadvantages here include their inefficient cost-benefit ratio and more importantly the lack of immediate feedback in the communication process. A technological breakdown would also be detrimental to this organisation. A preferred procedure of change may be to delegate responsibility of receiving orders to a specific baker. This person must obviously be selected with skills of reliability and good organisation skills, and willing to take ion this task.
3.2.2 Motivation
Basically, motivation is a set of building blocks including needs, values and goals. People may go to work (action) to receive payment (goal) because money is valued as it allows purchase of food (need).
Fig.1.2. – Relationships between the building blocks of motivation
If these building blocks can be identified then the organisation can appropriately motivate its staff. There are three distinct aspects in which motivation can be viewed, drives (e.g., wealth, status and power), motives (e.g. an individuals choice of goals) and motivation (processes by which directed behaviour is initiated). Many theorists have taken their own approaches to needs driven and values driven motivation. Amongst many, Maslow’s ‘hierarchy of needs’ (1954), Alderfer’s ‘ERG’ theory (1972), expectancy and equity theories are most prominent, but Herzberg’s et al’s two factor theory is particular useful to use with this organisation.
Traditional View
Satisfaction Dissatisfaction
Herzberg’s View
Satisfaction No Satisfaction
Motivation Factors:
1. Achievement
2. Recognition
3. The work itself
4. Responsibility
5. Advancement and growth
Dissatisfaction No dissatisfaction
Hygiene Factors:
1. Supervision Working conditions
2. Interpersonal relationships
3. Pay and security
4. Company Policies
Fig.1.3. – Herzberg’s et al two factor theory (1959)
Herzberg (1959) believes that motivation is not a single continuum running from dissatisfaction to satisfaction, but instead identifies 2 sets of factors affecting motivation:
1. Satisfiers (motivation factors)
2. Dissatisfiers (hygiene factors)
To tackle Hygiene factors first, Hofford Distribution could remove dissatisfaction by improving the working conditions. The current appearance of the depot and bakery are not reaching satisfactory levels for the workforce. The building internally looks old and run down, a leaky roof on the loading bay causes discomfort for certain drivers, bakery machinery is old and keeps breaking down, the heating in the winter does not always work and the indoor toilet is out of order so a porta-loo has been situated outside the building for the last 3 months. As earlier mentioned, company policies and goals have not been communicated to employees which is another dissatisfying factor which through communication should be resolved. If these factors are looked at and improved then this will dramatically decrease the current dissatisfaction of the employees allowing for motivation factors to be used.
As for motivating factors, the employees feel a strong lack of recognition from the organisation. Focus groups and team meetings have been earlier mentioned to implement, but these changes would improve the motivation of the team by identifying them and their needs. Even though pay is described as a hygiene factor, an appropriate appraisal scheme, related to no absenteeism or personal marketing and expansion of rounds would strongly motivate the employees and also address recent problems with the workforce. This motivating ‘offer’ must be something, which is valued by the workforce. This is usually money in many organisations, however this is important to understand to obtain the desired motivating affect.
4. Resistance to change
Whenever any organisational change is being implemented, resistance to this change will most probably be evident through the organisation or the individual. Huczynski and Buchanan (2002) describe resistance to change as “an inability, or an unwillingness, to discuss or accept organisational change that are perceived in some way damaging or threatening to the individual”. There are several sources of organisational resistance to change, but 2 factors are dominant, ‘structural inertia’ ('why change a system that has worked for years?') and ‘group inertia’ ('We don’t like the change so we won't change!'). Other individual factors, identified by Bedeian (1980), existent at Hofford Distribution include misunderstandings and lack of trust and parochial self-interest. When these factors of resistance have been identified, Kotter and Schlesinger (1979), state 6 methods of dealing with resistance to change:
1. Education and communication
2. Participation and involvement
3. Negotiation and agreement
4. Facilitation and support
5. Manipulation and co-option
6. Explicit and implicit coercion.
These methods will not all be appropriate to implement at Hofford Distribution but methods 1., 2. and 3. could be used to encourage the acceptance of change. ‘Education and communication’ is probably the most important method to this organisation, as the internal communication channels are the organisational change, which needs to take place. It is important to fully inform the people within the organisation of planned change and also constantly updating them of the progress made with the change and goals, which are hoped to be achieved. People who are informed will be more willing to accept the change.
‘Negotiation and agreement’ is usually a relatively easy way to avoid major resistance, the negotiation merely aims to effectively reimburse/compensate employees for any loss this change may bring about, this may be monetary, tangible or intangible factors which affect the employee’s. These negotiations and agreements throughout the organisation from top-to -bottom will create effective psychological contracts, from which expected norms, behaviours and rewards can be determined.
Finally, is the method of ‘participation and involvement’. By involving the employees into any change, such as finding suggestions for appropriate appraisal/motivational schemes, will determine exactly what the employees deem fair and once people are persuaded, people will often help with the implementation of the change. This is furthermore helpful in the long run as the more employees who get directly involved in the change process itself, the less likely to have a "they" to blame for any unforeseen circumstances (Wanous, Reichers and Austin, 2000).
No matter what the change may be, there will usually be a spectrum of the 'levels of commitment’ from the workforce. These levels include:
* Opposed or committed - likely to oppose change
* Let - will not oppose the initiative but will not actively support it.
* Help - will support change with time and resources provided someone else will take the lead.
* Make - will lead the change process and make it happen.
The use of rewards, role models, peer group pressure and the sharing of positive exchanges will all further encourage increased commitment to the change process ad add to the idea of having no "they" to blame.
5. Evaluation
Hofford Distribution has been a successful organisation, continually expanding in the Northampton area, and further organisational goals were set to either continue growing within Northampton and it's surrounding areas or open a new distribution centre in another appropriately selected area. The organisation does have the potential to fulfil this goal of growth, however, the current Northampton branch is not operating in a fully effective or efficient way therefore, organisational change must be implemented to resolve current problems before further expansion is considered. The use and effectiveness of these changes would allow any new distribution centres to operate effectively from creation, avoiding previously experienced restraints.
The 2 main areas, which were addressed, was the communication within the organisation and also concerns with poor motivation. Communication difficulties were identified in communication channels of vertical communication, with particular emphasis in the distribution department. Restraints involving lack of time to interact and uncontactability between Mr. Hofford and the drivers have caused many problems involving informing about order troubles, delivery van malfunctions, understanding employee needs and
I have strongly advised that Mr. Hofford employs some form of depot manager, which will slot easily into the current hierarchy, mirroring the bakery department and therefore reaping the same benefits of using this intermediary in the communication chain.
Other beneficial incremental changes with the vertical communication would be in message boards and regular team meetings to communicate organisational goals, expectations and objectives, whilst employee surveys and suggestion boxes would provide important information about the employees needs and requirements and expectations. Vertical communication between the two departments was deemed ineffective in the calling through of fresh bread orders for the following days deliveries. Informative and motivational methods were proposed to improve this vital communicative process.
The motivation of the employees within the organisation was also an area of some concern, the fact that much of the workforce was unaware and uninformed of organisational goals did not allow for the organisation to drive forward for these goals. This information distribution was addressed within communicative change but the organisation still needed to know how the workforce is motivated. Many content, value and gaol setting theories could be used to determine what motivates the staff, but Herzbergs model was the base theory I used to propose changes to implement, such as staff appraisal schemes, staff recognition and improved working conditions to improve satisfaction and reduce dissatisfaction.
These proposals, layed out within this report are exactly that, they are proposals only. Information, examples and theory have been given to support all proposals of organisational change so that an educated decision can be made. The understanding and improvement of these areas should improve both performance and morale in the organisation, however, it must be understood that there may be some organisational and/or individual resistance to change and the methods to overcome these restraints. I would advise that this distribution centre is changed to a satisfactory level, before any new expansion is to take place. By doing this the organisational knowledge can be used, learning from previous experience and avoiding similar difficulties.
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