Outcome: Support calls were cut to one or two a week. End users responded enthusiastically to the documentation and the software. This material is now produced as context sensitive on line help.
Client: A medium aeronautical company.
Problem: This Company had produced a system which could monitor a plane externally for intruders whilst on the ground, and record activities within the cabin whilst in flight. In order to market this product the company had to comply with the very strict requirements of the CAA which requires a number of specialised documents.
Solution: A technical author from Aims and Objectives liased with the CAA to find out the documentation requirements, and to produce the software support documents to their standards. This included investigating and recording the methodologies used to produce the software.
Outcomes: The documents were submitted to the CAA and sales went ahead as planned. The system is now used in some major airlines to monitor 'air rage'.
A major American airline Company
Problem: The Company was in the final stages of having a bespoke system written to manage a vital part of their stock control system. The company required training materials to roll out to a large number of warehouse staff all with differing job roles, across the whole of Europe in a very tight time-scale.
Solution: A training needs analysis was conducted by Aims and Objectives to identify which procedures were required for each job. This allowed us to break the training down into distinct training modules that could be used for a variety of staff. From these modules, four distinct training courses were then written by a technical author using Information Mapping. Presentation materials were also produced. The format of the material also allowed the company to produce reference material for use after training had been completed.
Outcome: Training documentation was well received and delivered in time to support the software implementation. Staffs were able to use the new software effectively.
Improve the use of performance objectives in organisation
1: Objectives: what they are and why they exist
This activity introduces participants to the broad topic of setting objectives and seeing them through. It emphasises that objectives exist to improve performance, motivation and levels of satisfaction.
2: Introducing SMART objectives
Participants get to know SMART objectives and to understand the value of applying SMART when agreeing objectives.
3: Let's get specific
An activity that focuses on the Specific aspect of agreeing objectives. Participants work on improving examples of vague statements that are often put forward as objectives.
4: Measuring progress and success
Exercises and case studies that focus in great detail on the Measurable aspect of objectives. The activity emphasises the importance of considering all the measurable aspects that may affect objectives, not just the most obvious.
5: Agreeing individual objectives
An activity that concentrates on why objectives need to be Agreed by those involved rather than imposed on members of staff. This activity examines the benefits of gaining commitment to the objectives and focuses on how objectives are agreed during a one-to-one interview.
6: Setting realistic objectives
Exercises and a case study that focus in great detail on the importance of agreeing Realistic objectives that stretch people, but not to breaking point.
7: When will it all happen?
Exercises and case studies that focus on ensuring that objectives are Time bound. This activity emphasises the importance of including interim steps to check timings before agreeing final timescales where appropriate. The activity also guides participants through a full project-planning exercise, which will enable them to assess timescales as accurately as possible.
8: The organisational perspective
An activity that examines objective setting from an organisational perspective and illustrates how objective setting at all levels must tie in with organisational aims.
9: Departmental objectives
This is where objectives start to get more specific, giving a clear view of the targets and expectations of departments and functions. This activity examines departmental objective setting and asks participants to show where their own departmental objectives fit in to the bigger picture.
10: Team objectives
The key link between departmental and individual objectives. Agreeing team objectives can be more difficult than agreeing individual objectives as more people need to be involved in the process. This activity introduces the line manager to a method of agreeing team objectives that has been designed to gain maximum input and commitment.
11: Task-based objectives
Task-based objectives normally relate to discrete tasks or projects with a clearly stated outcome. This activity covers the benefits of task-based objectives while raising awareness of the problems associated with an overly task-orientated approach.
12: Developmental objectives
Developmental objectives are more difficult to set, monitor and review than task-based objectives but can be far more valuable. This activity focuses on what's best for your team rather than what brings the easiest results.
13: Monitoring progress
All objectives need to be monitored formally and informally. This activity helps the manager to work with team members to decide on an appropriate monitoring system. It also emphasises the importance to the manager of continuing to discreetly monitor progress to avoid any surprises as the buck suddenly returns home!
14: Reviewing progress
Formal progress reviews are an essential part of seeing objectives through to a successful outcome. This activity examines review methods and appropriate timescales.
15: Keeping up momentum and rewarding success
It's hard to keep up the enthusiasm that marks the launch of a project. It's even harder to keep the momentum going when objectives are ongoing and not so high profile. This activity looks at the importance of making specific efforts to raise the profile of work in progress, and to give reward and recognition of what has been achieved so far. Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs plus the participants' own knowledge of what motivates individual members of their team helps them plan a rewards programme that ranges from 'Thanks David, I appreciate that' to a full-blown awards ceremony. The guiding themes of this activity are what's appropriate and what works.
16: Amending objectives
Things change and we have to meet changes with flexibility. Striving to fulfil objectives that have shifted in importance is a waste of everyone's time. There are also times when objectives will need to be amended because of fundamental flaws at the setting stage. If this happens, it must be accepted and lessons learnt from it. This activity examines the situations when amendments may be needed and looks at how to implement them.
Objective's mission is to provide reliable, high-quality documentation, help systems and training solutions for a wide range of organisations in the public and private sectors.
TASK 2
CLASSICAL APROACHES
STRENGHTS
- Identification of general objectives would lead to the clarification of purpose and responsibilities at all levels of the organisation, and to the most effective structure.
- Improving the organisation structure as a means of increasing efficiency.
- They emphasised the importance of principles for the design of a logical structure of organisation.
- Organisational design is not unlike architectural design. It involves creating large, complex system having multiple goals. It is illusory that good designs can created by using the so-called principle of classical organisation theory.
WEAKNESSES
- However, although the work of the classical writers is sometimes regarded as an out-of-date approach it does focus attention on important factors in the study of organisation and management.
- Writers were writings in a normative style and they saw these principles as a set of ‘rules’ offering general solutions to common problems of organisation and management.
INCREMENTAL APPROACHES
ADVANTAGES
They deal with technical problems the organization faces one at a time, without reviewing or changing any underlying "systems" issues, such as performance appraisal, profit sharing vs. individual compensation, and organizational structure. Incremental approaches work best when senior management is unwilling to deal with these systems issues, when lower-level employees wish to experiment with TQM without senior management support, or when many in management are ambivalent towards TQM.
Organizations can use approaches in "stealth" mode, where several quality improvement teams are quietly working without senior management's acknowledgement. These approaches are good for picking "low-lying fruit", (solving easy problems.) Incremental approaches can easily collapse when TQM "champions" leave the organization.
DISADVANTAGES
One of the most frequently used models in implementing TQM, and perhaps the most wasteful of time and effort. Using this approach, every one in the company or a designated unit receives massive training (40-100 hours) in TQM, Statistical Process Control (SPC) and meeting management. After this training, employees in many are on their own.
The net result of this option is the loss of employee time due to too much training being given, employees feeling confused about the company's direction, and frustration at not using the training they received. Whatever success these teams are limited by the structural barriers the company has, that is compensation, organizational structure, performance appraisal, etc.
STRENGHTS
- Based on critique of rationality
- Appreciates limits of decision-makers (i.e., satisfying – successive approximations)
- Problems easier to solve one at a time
- Attention given to the environment when there is a crisis – crisis management
- Environmental problems handled individually
WEAKNESSES
- Planning responds to fragmented environmental regulations and is highly political
- Cannot optimise solutions
- Focus on what is implemental
- The plan may not be a "good" plan or the "right" plan
EMERGENT APROACHES
The UB case illustrates the strengths of using emergent models of strategic change. For whatever reasons, between February and July 1995 the Company found itself being forced to undertake a completely different approach to its strategy:
- World-wide and US activities were dropped in favour of a more modest European and Asia-Pacific programme;
- Its major US subsidiary, Keebler, was sold off.
The emergent model of strategic change, with their long-term approach to learning, provides only limited clues to interpreting the difficulties and suggesting how they might be tackled over this period. By contrast, the three-phase Lewin prescriptive model does provide a means of interpreting the events and their meaning for change.
Emergent models of strategic change have a number of weaknesses that may make them difficult to employ.
- The ‘long-term learning’ approach of Pettigrew and Whip necessary to achieve emergent strategies may have little practical value where an organisation faces a short-term unforeseen crisis. There in no guarantee that the ‘learning’ that has already taken place will be relevant to the crisis. Arguably, the crisis may partly have arisen because the learning was incorrect.
- In some emergent models, increased turbulence of the environment is assumed as a justification for the emergent strategies. Such generalisations about the environment need empirical evidence. There are a number of environments that are generally predictable.
- A reliance on a learning culture may be counter-productive for some managers and employees. Some managers may refuse to learn because they will realise that such a process will reduce their power. Empowerment of some employees will certainly mean that others will have less power and may react accordingly.
Overall, the way forward proposed by some emergent strategists often amount to the need to start earlier so that the organisation is able to adapt when the change comes. This may not be sufficient at the time when a sudden change hits the organisation.
TASK 3
a) It focuses attention on objectives by uniting the organization and its activities.
b) It removes uncertainty by providing a framework of activities that can be placed in a context.
c) It facilitates control by supplying targets for performance.
d) It leads to economical operations by emphasizing and consistency.
The most important level is the mission. This identifies the purpose of the organization and it can be broken down into many types and levels of objectives. These objectives specify the things that the organization wants to achieve. Once objectives have been agreed, strategies need to be designed. Policies, procedures and rules help the nature of these actions, whereas programmes are the detailed activities needed to carry out the actions. Underlying all these types of plan are budgets, provide information about the extent of resources available.
A planning period or ‘horizon’ is the length of time between making a planning decision and implementing that decision, for example, a decision to move to new premises might have a time horizon of many years, whereas a production or sale schedule might be implemented within a few days or weeks.
CONCLUSION
- The purpose of the organization needs to be clarified at the outset of strategy development. Many different aspects are potentially involved. In most cases, no single element is usually dominant.
- The polygon purpose is one way of drawing the elements together. Although ten specific elements can be identified in the polygon, other elements may be more important and those highlighted may be little relevance in particular organization.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
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- Management and Organizational Behavior Sixth Edition Laurie J Mullins
- Corporate Strategy
- Lecture notes
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