The first steps towards this would be to assess the actual business and organization needs and then staff it with competent individuals. The assessment has to be both qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative assessments could use tools like open-ended interviews with selected staff. Quantitative assessments could be in the form of surveys either online or by mail.
Staff would be added to the new organization after performing a job analysis to assesses which skills are relevant and meet business and organizational needs. Job specifications would change based upon the new organization structure.
“An Efficient, Open, flexible and continuously adaptive Organization.”
Why Restructure?
Effective organizations must continuously meets the needs of and respond to a dynamic market environment. Adaptability and responsiveness are essential to survive and thrive. An organizational structure must support this dynamism.
Some of the problems facing this organization are below:
- Outdated Product line
- Dwindling Market share
- Ineffective interpersonal and Interdepartmental Communication
- Limited corporate funding
Restructuring the organization is a disruptive process and likely to face resistance from all areas of the organization. The following steps could be taken to minimize risks from resistance and ensure that change is seen as a positive move that would benefit all.
- Minimize hierarchical processes and bureaucratic thinking by initiating discussion on organization change by creating group workshops built to encourage participation. This will encourage building relationships among members enabling effective delegation and gain the buy-in from key resources, which further enables change within the organization.
- Encourage working cross-functionally by creating teams that have personnel from different departments.
- Listen and communicate with staff, if possible face-to-face and if not by participating in an interactive forum such as video conferencing. No matter how well laid out a plan or structure is, people will not follow without a sense of ownership and commitment to the organization. Interaction with staff will help build trust and ownership (Laka-Mathebula, 2004)
- Empower teams by delegating responsibility to come up with the best practices.
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Involve employees in the change process, the level of commitment to success of the change is directly tied to the involvement of stakeholders in the process (Laka-Mathebula, 2004)
- Understand and manage individual and team level resistance by honest and effective communication, giving clear feedback and a sense of direction.
- Address concerns raised by employees in an honest and consistent manner.
- Reward and provide positive feedback to initiatives that support working towards the intended goals.
- Ensure that employees receive sufficient training and provide on-the-job training and resources to raise people’s level of confidence and awareness. This could be done through structured learning programs or by initiating workshops that encourage discussion on change and how best to effectively adapt.
Policies that should be implemented with immediate effect:
Initiate an All-channel communication network. This can be done easily by using e-mail and other collaborative technologies. This helps build trust and gives everyone the ability to assess the pace and nature of change, and most importantly, how it affects the.
Open door policy: Employees should feel free to approach anyone in the organization regardless of management hierarchy or position. Expressing opinions and ideas should be encouraged.
Communication should flow upward through the organization rather than downward. The employees that are closest to the operation and end customer should be heard and encouraged to provide feedback for strategic decision-making.
Career development and training plans should be competency based rather than time based using suitable in-house training or where required using training from outside sources.
All functions are to start strategic planning to determine their requirements and competence development needs
These policies will be modified over time as the new organization structure becomes more acceptable and the functional roles and responsibilities become more generally acceptable.
Bibliography
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