People in Organization

Century Ltd is a medium sized local company who is facing operational difficulties due to high absenteeism, staff turnover, poor morale and drop in sales. In this assignment, role of effective communication, team working practices and organizational structure will be explained to ensure better working environment. Moreover, different types of leadership styles, HR policies and procedures and remote working will be examined so as to give appropriate advices to Century Ltd management to mitigate their staff absenteeism.

Section A : Communication Practices

1. Benefits of Effective Communication

Communication is regarded as the process of exchanging information by the means of speaking, writing or any other medium. In businesses, it is essential for companies to ensure effective communication in the workplace (Wilkens and Minssen, 2010). This will help the firms in conducting their operations without any hazards. Some of the advantage of effective communication is given below:

Accomplishing target goals: Effective communication helps the staff to understand their work and mitigate their difficulties. Further, it will result in enhancing their performance to a great extent. This in turn, Century Ltd will be able to fulfil their business aims and objectives.

Reduce Conflicts

In workplace, conflicts can incur due to misleading of information or poor communication. By ensuring effective communication, Century Ltd managers will be able to resolve workers conflicts and issues faced by the organization (Du, Bhattacharya and Sen, 2010).

Enhance Job Satisfaction

Regular communication with workers provide a sense of feeling that they are valuable part of the organization. Therefore, it increases their motivational level and encourage in performing better. This in turn, Century Ltd can enhance employee’s job satisfaction to a great extent.

Strengthen Relationship

Effective communication enable the firm to understand wants, desires and needs of employees. On the contrary, personnel will be able to identify business aims and objectives. It builds stronger relationship between employer and employees so that healthy working environment can be created.

Team Building

It also assist in reducing unnecessary competition within different departments of the organization by developing team working (Nur, Can and Yalcin, 2011). This will help the employees to work willingly with each other that will further assist in enhancing workers productivity.

2. Communication Policy and Procedures

All the organizations design communication policy and procedures so as to deliver information and share views, ideas and suggestions with each other. Sainsbury Plc is the third largest supermarket chain established in the year 1869 and operates in different countries of the world. It has developed its communication strategy by taking into account the beliefs, values, customs and languages etc.

Internal communication in Sainsbury is designed in such a way in which both employees and managers took active participation in flow of information. Its communication policy and procedures include following rules which are given below:

• All the plans and policies must be communicated to staff member so that they can understand their work and perform accordingly.
• Two -way communication is undertaken by Sainsbury so that suggestions can be acquired to bring operational efficiency in the business.
• It must ensure that equal opportunities must be given to all the workers to take part in planning and management. It helps to motivate workers to encourage them to perform much better (Eijkman, 2011).
• Developing communication skills in staff by organizing training sessions.
• Communication tools comprises of Big picture meeting, department wide meeting, staff meeting, telephone, handwritten or typed letters, suggestion box, E-mail, Intranet etc. It enables the firm to provide information about employee’s work, eliminate difficulties and receiving suggestions from workers to enhance operational performance. This will help the Sainsbury to convey information, assign work and get report from the personnel.

3. Outline of Legislation Relevant to Communication Within Sainsbury and Its Impact

There are several legislations which Sainsbury needs to follow to communicate internally or externally with the people. According to the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations (PECR), Sainsbury is obliged to follow specific rules and regulations for using telephones, faxes and other mode of electronic communication. Its main purpose is to promote good business practices by offering advices to the personnel. Moreover, as per the data protection act, all the people are liable not to share business information with others (Nur, Can and Yalcin, 2011).

It helps in preventing misuse of information by the staff member and ensures high security. As per the information privacy law, employees can not disclose information to other rivalry organizations. Thus, it ensures high confidentiality of business information.

Further, firm is held liable to follow rules, regulations and provisions mentioned in Communication Act, 2003. This act provides detailed regulations for using electronic communication networks and broadcasting regulations such as Wi-Fi. Any restricted or prohibited act mentioned in the act will be considered as a criminal offence and defaulter party will be legally liable.

In addition, Constitution and Freedom of the Press Act provides right to people to share their opinion, views and information with others (Getahun and. et.al., 2011). Thus, as per the legislations, it becomes clear that Century Ltd needs to follow all the provisions of the act to eliminate unethical conduct.

4. Organizational Structure and Its Impact on Communication Method

Organization structure defines hierarchy of business to allocate work, ensure coordination, supervision and reporting structure so as to accomplish target goals. There are different types of organization structure which are described below:

Flat Structure

It is also called as horizontal structure in which Certified Executive Officer (CEO) is the highest authority who decides business aims and objectives and makes long term plans to achieve it. Middle level managers are responsible to make policies and regulations and communicate to their departmental employees so that target objectives can be attained (Cummings and Worley, 2014). In the end, staff member are responsible to perform as per the plans and report their performance to the supervisors. This structure provides freedom to the people and empowers them to get access of relevant information. Thus, it encourages open communication in corporations.

Functional Structure

It is referred as the hierarchical structure in which work are allotted to different departments like HR, purchase, finance, sales, marketing etc. Sainsbury follows this structure which includes series of people and so as to manage operations. Company's senior manager is responsible for line manager while line manager is responsible for the sales assistant.

However, department managers are accountable to communicate order, plans and policies and assign work to their staff member (Whyte, 2013). Subordinates have the duty to report their performance to their seniors. With the help of this, the manager can monitor workers performance to get desired aims and objectives.

Thus, it becomes clear that flow of information is decided as per organizational structure. In order to ensure better management of the people, Century Ltd must design its structure which helps to assure two-way communication. Through this, managers can sent plans and targets and receive employees suggestions and feedbacks which provide assistance to ensure effective communication.

Section B : Teamwork

Team working refers to willingness of people in working together collaboratively to achieve common set targets and objective of the organization.

1. Benefits of Teamwork

Teamwork Benefits For The Employees

• Collaboration fosters creativity and learning among employees. It is because teamwork encourages mutual support and assistance which helps to encourage people to perform their task with greater efficiency.
• It assists employees to enhance their knowledge, skills and talent by learning things from other team members and their shared experience (Mattson, 2015).
• Employees usually have different working styles, habits and practices. It may give rise to conflicts. Teamwork helps to resolve conflicts and issues by developing conflict resolution skills without intervention of management.
• It provides huge assistance to strengthen relationship with co-workers and build trust. Teamwork encourages open communication and active participation of the entire team member in finding effective solutions (Mattson, 2015).
• Teamwork Benefits For The Organization
• It enables the company to enhance their workers productivity so that best services can be rendered to customers. Sainsbury develops team working practices and assure long run sustainability (Getahun and. et.al., 2011).
• It helps the firm to motivate and encourage personnel so that workers performance can be improved to a great extent.
• It creates better working environment in the workplace by promoting co-operation and contribution of all staff members. It helps to finish work in less time and at a higher efficiency.
• It assists the organization to obtain innovative and better ideas to improve potential performance. With regards to Sainsbury, it receives ideas from the suggestion box (Mattson, 2015).

2. Analysis of Team Failure

Despite the benefits of team working, there are still some situations in which team may fail to achieve targets. It is essential for Century Ltd to analyze its reasons because it creates a negative impact on employee morale. From the research, following responsible factors are determined as result of team failure described below:

Undefined Goals

For the success of team working, all the members need to be effectively communicated with goals and objectives (Hershatter and Epstein, 2010). This will help the individual to focus on their efforts for attaining goals by successfully completing their tasks.

Undefined Roles and Responsibilities

It is essential for the success of team to have clearly set roles and responsibilities of each and every member. Poor role clarity can increase conflicts and confusions on assigned work which will result in de-motivating workers. In Sainsbury, lack of awareness about roles and responsibilities is reason for failure of team.

Ineffective Interaction

Regular interaction in meeting and workplace is also required to identify innovative solutions for the problems. Thus, ineffective interaction among all team members, seniors and leaders is also a reason for the failure.

Trust

In order to work with co-operation, all the members must have trust upon each other. Otherwise, they will not work collaboratively which may lead to failure.

Poor Time Management

Work can be finished on deadline by developing time management skills. With refers to Sainsbury, it has been identified that poor time management skills of workers causes negative impact on their working efficiency.

3. Evaluation of Impact of Leadership Styles on Teamwork

Leadership style refers to the process of giving directions, implementing business plans and motivating and monitoring workers performance by the leaders. Leadership styles impact teamwork in following ways which are given below:

Autocratic

In this, leaders influence their personnel by aggressive attitude like punishment, intimidation and reprimand. It is mainly used to eliminate unacceptable behaviour of employees. It creates negative impact on employee’s morale, motivation and culture of collaboration (Rader, Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, 2010).

Democratic

It is also known as participative leadership in which leaders allow the entire team member to participate in the decision making process. It encourages collaboration and motivation of workers and enhances their performance to a greater extent.

Transactional

In this, leaders promote workers through both reward and punishment on the basis of their performance. Sainsbury's managers use this leadership style to motivate workers who perform well. On the other hand workers who will not perform well will be punished. So Subordinate will give their efforts in achieving goals to get monetary and non-monetary rewards.

Transformational

This style refers to identifying the required changes and implementing it successfully for attaining business targets (Warrick, 2011). It helps to inspire and motivate team members to strive for accomplishment of vision and mission.

Section C : Remote Working

1. Explanation of Different Ways in Which People Work Remotely

Working remotely means working at any other places not in office. In the present era, it is rapidly growing by means of telecommuting, virtual, mobile, cloud working etc. Sainsbury manage their remote workers by following ways which are mentioned below:

Developing Formal Policy

Sainsbury implemented a standard policy by formulating expectations clearly for all remote workers. It developed a list of tasks and functions which can be done remotely by the personnel.

Instant Messaging

Sainsbury allow all remote workers to communicate with the organization by delivering instant messages (Guy and Patton, 2013). This communication tool provides assistance to workers to ask questions so that operational difficulties can be mitigated. HipChat, Campfire and Chatter are some of the platforms which organization is using to communicate with the remote employees.

Video Communication

Skype and Google+ are some of the tools used by the firm to communicate information to remote workers over video. It enables the parties to avoid confusions in the work which is being allotted to them.

2. Analysis of Leadership Styles Appropriate For Remote Working

Leading remote workers effectively plays an inevitable role in managing people in the organization. Leaders have to encourage and motivate remote employees so as to get best efforts and attain great performance. Laissez-faire leadership style is considered best for administrating remote workers (Day, 2014). It is because remote employees are experts and specialist in their operations henceforth; they need less supervision of leaders.

In this style, full rights and authority is given to personnel to take decisions in their area. Members are capable in fulfilling their responsibilities effectively and efficiently. Strong control is not required by the firm to monitor and control staff performance.

Transformational leadership style is also another suitable leadership style which is used by the Sainsbury to encourage their remote employees by implementing required changes in the business. Leaders can get ideas, views and suggestions of employees to bring any sort of changes and convert it into reality to achieve high level of operational efficiency in the future.

Section D : Support Structure

1. Explanation of Human Resource (Hr) Department

In all businesses, there is a HR department whose manager is liable to frame employment policies, rules, regulations to manage their people. With reference to Sainsbury, HR professionals are liable to carry out following functions which are given below:

• HR manger has the duty to determine manpower needs and fulfil it by recruiting talented and skilled people (Are You an HR Manager or a Personnel Manager?. 2014).
• HR Department is also liable to decide worker’s wages and salaries for their efforts and services in the business.
• HR Department needs to review employee’s performance for performance appraisal. It is the process of acquiring, examining and recording worker's performance so that potential performance can be improved (Lloyd and Rakodi, 2014).
• Sainsbury's HR manager is accountable to conduct training and development program so that required skills and abilities can be developed in workers to perform their work.
• HR professional has the duty to motivate and encourage people to work so that worker’s productivity can be improved which will further result in high employee retention.
• HR Managers are accountable to resolve conflicts and issues faced by the manpower to create better working environment (Miyake and Friedman, 2012).

2. Assessment of Policies and Procedure Designed To Support People

Workplace policies and procedures provide framework which all the employees need to follow in operations. Sainsbury's working policies and procedures is explained here as under:

Code of Conduct

Sainsbury's Grocery Supply Code of Conduct Practices (GSCOP) restricts unethical and illegal practices. Like, unauthorized use of business resources, breaching laws and regulations, not sharing material information with others without any permissions etc.

E-mail Policy

This policy describes the rules and regulations for communicating information through E-mail. Sainsbury has prohibited in sending any obscene and defamatory nature of information (Jo and Joo, 2011).

Recruitment Policy

Sainsbury's recruitment and selection policy provides equal opportunity to all applicants so that suitable candidate can be hired with having adequate skills and knowledge.

Healthy and Safety Policy

This policy aims at providing better working environment to the people by keeping into account their health and safety needs. Hazard free working conditions help the workers to operate effectively.

Internet Policy

As per this policy, Sainsbury restrict its personnel to use internet for sharing any confidential or sensitive information with others (Griggs, 2013). Moreover, they cannot get access to internet for personal entertainment like gambling, gaming and any other illegal activity.

Equal Opportunity Policy

This policy aims at providing equal opportunity to all workers without any discrimination on the basis of caste, gender, nationality etc.

3. Assessment of Practices Used to Support People

Sainsbury's design its working practices in such a manner in which proper support and help is provided to employees for completing their work which is explained below:

• Company organize training and development program to enhance ability, skills and knowledge of workers. It enables them to perform their work with high efficiency.
• Seniors, mentors and leaders provide adequate support and help to their subordinates for accomplishing their tasks and duties (Holt and et.al., 2012). It helps to establish better working environment by strengthening relationship among workers at the workplace.
• Management support: Managers of organization provides full support to implement any modifications which helps to encourage personnel.
• Consultation with staff: Sainsbury involve their staff members to frame policies so that workers will feel they are valuable assets of the organization. Henceforth, they will give best efforts to complete their work.

Conclusion

In conclusion from the entire project report, it can be said that managing people is very essential and crucial part which affects business growth and profitability to a major extent. People can be administrated effectively by ensuring two-way communication, building teamwork, maintaining hierarchy, employing best leadership styles etc. Moreover, it has been inferred that effective execution of working policies, procedures and practices designed by HR professional helps to manage staff in a better way. It also enables the organization to address conflicts and eliminate it by finding appropriate solutions. By managing people effectively, companies can enlarge their customer base, productivity and profitability as well.

References

• Cummings, T. G. and Worley, C. G., 2014. Organization development and change. Cengage learning.
• Day, R. D., 2014. Leading and managing people in the dynamic organization. Psychology Press.
• Du, S., Bhattacharya, C. B. and Sen, S., 2010. Maximizing business returns to corporate social responsibility (CSR): The role of CSR communication. International Journal of Management Reviews. 12(1). pp.8-19.
• Eijkman, H., 2011. The learning organization as concept and journal in the neo-millennial era: a plea for critical engagement. The Learning Organization. 18(3). pp.164-174.
• Getahun, H. and. et.al., 2011. Development of a standardized screening rule for tuberculosis in people living with HIV in resource-constrained settings: individual participant data meta-analysis of observational studies. PLoS Med, 8(1), p.e1000391.
• Griggs, D., 2013. Policy: Sustainable development goals for people and planet. Nature. 495(7441). pp.305-307.
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