HR assignment on: Manage problems that promote personal effectiveness

 Activity 1


Consider the following sources of information and identify whether they are primary/ secondary types of information and whether they are quantitative/ qualitative in nature.

(a)Textbook: It is a secondary and qualitative source of information (Ithaca college library, 2011).

(b) Interview: It is a primary and qualitative source (University of Victoria, 2011).

(c) Graph: It is quantitative and secondary source of information which represents the data (Ithaca college library).

(d) Sale Figures: It is a quantitative and secondary source of information (Street directory, 2012).

(e) Personal Diary: It is a primary and qualitative source of information which is designed by the individual on the basis of their personal experiences and evidences (University of Victoria, 2011).

(f) Video: It is both primary and qualitative source of information because it is based on witnesses or recorders who experienced the occurrences or the conditions being recognized (University of Victoria, 2011).

(g) Survey: It is basically primary and qualitative source of information depending upon market surveys and public opinion polls (Street directory, 2012).

(h) Website: It is a secondary and qualitative source of information but in some cases it can also be considered as primary source.  It is made after the happening of facts (Ithaca college library, 2011).

 (i) Academic article: It is secondary and qualitative source depending upon the discipline can be primary. Moreover, it is taken as primary source in case of being published in peer-reviewed publications (University of Victoria, 2011).

(j) Memo: Memos have twofold purpose. First, they bring attention to the problems and second, they solve problems. Therefore, they are a secondary and qualitative source of information which is generally the first formal appearance of results and agreements in physical, print or electronic format (University of Victoria, 2011).

 

ACTIVITY 1 PART 2

Identify whether the following sources of/ types of information are internal or external.

1)      Employee files: Internal source

2)      Intranet: It is an internal source of information because it uses internet protocol technology to share information, systems or other computing services within an organization.

3)      Public library: It is an external source of information.

4)      Procedure manuals: It is an internal source as procedure manuals are set by every individual organization.

5)      Internet: It is an external source because it is used at a great level by each and every organization.

6)      Newspaper articles: It is also an external source of information.

7)      Clients: Clients are always an external source of information.

8)      Sales reports: Sales reports containing an organization’s allover sales statistics are the internal source of secondary information.

9)      Professional organizations: This is external source of information because they differ broadly in the extent of their data compilation and information distribution activities.

10)  Colleagues/other staff: As colleagues and staff are associated with organizations itself, they are the internal source of information.

11)  Memos: It is an internal source of information because it is a note or a document that records the observations and events on a topic used for business and official purpose.

12)  Asset records: These records reveal an organization’s assets information, thus it is an internal source of information.

13)  Journals: Journals are usually based on daily record of events or business. It can be referred as private journal, newspaper journal, and academic journals. Therefore, journals can be both internal as well as external source of information depending upon their public or private publication.

14)  Legislation: It refers to government statistics, thus it is an external source of information.

15)  Organizational files: Organizational files help revealing resources, organization, stakeholders, profit & loss related information. So, it is undoubtedly an internal source of information.

ACTIVITY 2

Identify whether the following statements are fact or opinion.

1)      In 2005, more rain fell in Tasmania than in any other state or territory.

• It is a fact (Australian bureau of statistics, 2005).

2)      All people over the age of 18 should have a life insurance policy in place.

• It is an opinion, not a fact.

3)      Sharks are a fascinating animal to study.

• It is an opinion (Martin, Rossmo & Hammerschlag, 2009).

4)      The cost of petrol is too high.

• It is an opinion (news.com.au, 2012).

5)      Between May 2006 and May 2007, the average earnings of females in Australia rose by 4%.

• It is a fact (Australian bureau of statistics, 2009)

6)      Cats are easier to look after than dogs.

• It is just an opinion.

7)      During an asthma attack, muscles around the airways tighten up.

• It is a fact (California department of public health, 2010)

8)      Governments must invest more money in the environment.

• It is an opinion.

9)      Diamonds are the hardest substance known to man.

• It is a fact (Bergam, 2012).

10)  Saturn takes longer to travel around the Sun than Earth does.

• It is a fact ( Cain, 2009)

ACTIVITY 2 PART

Select an article from the daily newspaper or website that reports on a change in a business’s structure, forecast or plans. Critically analyze the material in the article and provide your report and the article to your assessor. Be prepared to justify any conclusions you have reached and to provide evidence that the content of your report has merit.

• The article being chosen for analysis is “Rowan announces proposed changes in corporate structure”. Rowan companies Inc is major provider of global offshore contract drilling services with a fleet of 31 jack-up rigs located worldwide including the middles east, the North Sea, Trinidad, Southeast Asia and the Gulf of Mexico (Rowan companies plc, 2012).

Rowan announced a change in its corporate structure and business plan on Feb 28, 2012. The proposed plan’s main aim was to enhance the shareholder’s value by developing Rowan’s long-term competitive position as a worldwide contract driller. Further, report depicts that it would change its legal quarter from Delaware to U.K where Rowan already has significant and growing operations in process (The financial Tribune, 2012). In support, company also estimates that it will derive approximately 81% revenue from non U.S. operations in 2012 as compare with ten percent in 2004. Afterwards, they also made certain that the changed plan will not hamper employees’ jobs, wages and benefits associated with them. With the help of changing context, Rowan interpreted to strengthen numerous operational benefits from its developing base of activities:

Primarily, it will develop the access to main customers in U.K, Europe and Egypt.

• Afterwards, it will develop Rowan’s competencies to grow its market in North Sea and other areas by creating a competent shore base.
• Further, it will work with customers and other investment communities to improve their perception about Rowan by briefing them about general business of the company its main focus and offerings.
• Next, it entailed Rowan to remain competitive with the effective tax-rates of its competitors.

However, in order to put in place this change in their business structure, it has been provided by Rowan that the company would go for a merger with one of its subsidiaries.

Conclusion: On the basis of analysis of changed and proposed plan by Rowan companies plc, it can be concluded that they mainly emphasized to shift their global market area in U.K. Reason being their estimation of 81% of revenue drawing from non U.S operations in 2012. By involving this plan, Rowan expects that over the long-term, it will foster the further growth and the job creation in U.S as well as globally. Furthermore, changed plan confirms no effect on employee’s work, wages and their current benefits.

In simple words, the company will start accessing key customers in U.K, Europe and Egypt and also work with their common perception about company’s business and offerings.

ACTIVITY 3

1)      What do you need to do to show that the options that have been developed are valid?

• The options developed for personal effectiveness are valid because EAP metrics strongly recommend that additional calculations can be performed with EAP data existing within EMPAQ (Employee measures of productivity, absence and quality). This data also calculates the financial effect of EAP problem group cases profitably determined, as compare with cases that were not resolved.
• It is more reliable due to its ability of calculating the financial impact of enhanced productivity and attendance at work place for all EAP cases with its follow-up measures.
• Moreover, it provides solutions for psychological/emotional, family/relationship problems (National Business group on health, 2008).

2)      Select one personal effectiveness program that could be implemented in an organization. Identify and articulate the benefits and estimate the costs that would apply and prepare a report that could be provided to management to seek support. You can make assumptions about the numbers involved etc. These assumptions should be described in your response.

• Employee assistance program (EAP) can be developed and implemented in an organization for personal effectiveness.  EAPs are intended to help employees deal with their personal problems or issues that might somehow affect their work performance, health and well-being (Washington, 2009).
• Taking about its benefits, it may result in various benefits including lower medical costs, reduced absenteeism and turnover and principally greater employee productivity. In other words, it may also provide other benefits such as supervisory consultations and support to troubled and weak work teams (Bhagat, Steverson & Segovis, 2007).

The cost of EAP services varies depending on the options provided. In that case, EMPAQ (Employee measures of productivity, absence and quality) metrics are the ratios that are used to calculate the effectiveness of productivity of management programs. These can be calculated on the basis of assumptions (French al 1998).  There are 3 following EMPAQ metrics:

1. New EAP participation/Incidence rate= Total no of new EAP cases/ Number of covered employees

=20/100

=0.2

1. Existing EAP participation cost = Total number of EAP cases/Number of covered Employees

=40/100

=0.4

1. Program Cost = EAP program cost/ Number of covered employees

= (0.4 + 0.2)/100

= 0.006

This metric will help calculating the number of new cases per 100 covered employees acquired during a distinct period of time (National business group on health, 2012).

Here, assumption has been made by covering only 20 new and 40 existing cases of EAP that an organization may take out of 100 covered employees to calculate the overall implementation cost. The calculated cost becomes approximately $6 million for around 60 cases of EAP.

ACTIVITY 4

You are responsible for a production line that has about 30 workers on each shift. There are two shifts each day with the late shift commencing work at 6.30 pm. You have noticed that some workers (not always the same ones) on the late shift seem to have been drinking. Workers change shifts on a rotational basis.

Prepare a proposal for a personal effectiveness program to present to management on how to deal with this issue

• To deal with this issue, an employee assistance program can be proposed in the company. In that program EAP counselors would be available to tell the employees about negative effect of alcohol & drugs and also assist employees with problems related to their personal issues. Moreover, each employee would be provided appropriate control over their own care. In simple words, care will be authorized in advances for employees through the help of program.
• Background: EAP service will mainly focus on the role of alcohol use and its abuse on job performance of each employee. With the set of professional principles, over the time, emphasis will be broadened to include more issues that may affect job performance.
• Furthermore, EAP specialist or care managers will arrange a referral according to each employee’s specific requirement (U.S Office of personnel management, 2012).
• Moreover, cost involved in this program is concerned with utilization of the resources. For an instance, it can be calculated that if 50% of employees joined the program for an average duration of 7 visits at $100 each, the monthly cost would be $35.0 per employee. Therefore, it is valid and reliable from financial perspective also (Resource management services, Inc, 2009).
• If an employee assistance program is executed, there are possibilities for risk involvement, It can be in terms of it psychological mindset of employees, threat of violence, financial loss, etc. Workers addicted to drinking may not join the program and don’t find the method used valid. There can also be a risk involved on account of not performing well with the program (Purdue University, 2011).
• Consequences: End results will indicate various methodological and theoretical weaknesses, health and performance related issues. This may result in higher level of productivity, awareness of negative effects of alcohol and other drinks. It will further improve the rate of absenteeism that may result from workers’ psychological problems. Precisely, EAP for workers will be advantageous in terms of fostering employee relations, health promotion, medical and other occupational health- services, organization development, and work-life of workers.

ACTIVITY 5

Identify a consultative process in which you have been involved as an organizer or a participant. Describe your role, what the purpose of the consultative process was, how the consultation was undertaken and how successful you believe it was. Provide reasons for your judgment of the success or otherwise of the consultation.

• Generally effective consultation involves seeking opinions on relevant issues from those at the workplace and associating in general discussions to attain accepted results.

The following process identified was related to safety and health issues in which a role has been played as a consultant.

a)      Elected safety and health representatives

b)      Safety and health committees

c)      Issue resolution procedures

 (Australian government, 2001). This was proposed with an obligation placed on employers to consult employees and safety and health representatives, where they exist, on safety and health at the workplace. It was undertaken by electing the safety and healthy representatives by co-workers to represent them in all relevant matters. Before setting up safety and healthy representatives, a process of consultation for an election was carried out between the employer and an employee delegates to get agreement on definite issues.

It was noticed to be beneficial because it provided proactive, systematic ways for dealing with issues, rather than a reactive approach dealing with them as they take place.

ACTIVITY 6

1)      If you needed to make a decision about a work process or procedure, how would you go about involving the other members of your team?

• Sometimes, while making decisions entire team doesn’t participate. Therefore to manage this process of decision-making and to involve other team members, Delphi method can be approached.

With the support of this method, a facilitator helps all the team members individually brainstorm solutions and put their ideas anonymously. This becomes fruitful because in this method, team members don’t get to know who put which ideas.

2)      Why is it necessary to develop a number of different options to contribute to a problem solution?

• It is necessary to develop various options to contribute to problem solution because an effective and efficient course of action can be chosen from those available options by viewing their advantages and disadvantages.

3)      Decision making can be a risky business. Many of us are much better at procrastination rather than making and implementing decisions. What do you think are the elements of personal risk that contribute to this?

Decision making is considered as a key skill at work-place within or outside the organization. In this context, mostly tend to procrastinate rather than making and implementing decisions. There are some elements associated as personal risk with decision-making process. Firstly there can be a competing motive of an individual which contributes to put the decision off for a specific period of time. The perception of their own decision as a weak point also becomes a reason for not implementing final decisions.

Sometimes, an individual has not surety about the consequences of decisions made. Therefore, he/she plans to adjourn the decision. Nonetheless, decision are made and implemented by a group of people working in an organization. Still, individual’s limited interests or abilities may become an obstacle in decision-making process.

Moreover, individual consideration of lack of valid and reliable information also enforces them not to implement those decisions. Lack of justification for decisions made can also entails them to Procrastinate the decisions (Monger, 2012).

ACTIVITY 7

1)      What are some of the things that you believe leaders/ managers should take into consideration when communicating decisions to employees?

While communicating decisions to employees, 7Cs of effective communication can be taken into consideration (Phillips, 2011).

1. Completeness
2. Conciseness
3. Consideration of audience
4. Clarity of communication
5. Concreteness
6. Courtesy
7. And correctness

2)      Why do you think that action plans are necessary?

A business without a feasible action plan is considered as a ship without a helm because success of business requires staying on route toward a long-term objective. Therefore, it is necessary to have an action plan that can be followed in business. The trick to crafting a successful action plan is making it motivated and determined enough to achieve growth and revenue, but it should be practical enough that business doesn’t exceed its limits itself (Anthonisen, 2006).

ACTIVITY 8

1)      Describe how you would gain the support of stakeholders or others who have not been involved in the preparation of a plan.

Stakeholder management is an important part to the achievement of every project or assignments in an organization. To gain the support of stakeholders or others, a plan can be prepared which will include following activities:

• Firstly, a worksheet consisting of stakeholder’s name, key interests and issues, current status, desired support, desired role and action required for stakeholders will be created and implemented by the operational department of the organization.

Afterwards, sheets will be sent and distributed to the stakeholders by planning an approach to stakeholder management. Next, they will be informed about the plan and their desired actions to be performed. For this, each stakeholder and involved management team will also be dictated about the expectations from them because the extent to which a stakeholder is needed to contribute to a project guarantees the success of a business plan.

Besides, a strong message needs to be identified to convey the stakeholders to convince them to support and engage with the preparation of plan.

Finally, the need arises to identify the actions and communications that what can be done to win their support in plan. Focus can be made on the high-power/interest stakeholders first to communicate the right amount of information regarding their involvement in plan’s preparation. Once this plan is prepared, it is needed to be implemented to make their involvement in preparation of plan (Walker, Shelley & Bourne, 2008).

ACTIVITY 9

1)      How could you use the information gained through evaluation?

Generally, people use the information to enhance their knowledge and competencies in a particular area. Alternatively, evaluation process determines the outcome that should be consistent with what could be accomplished and not overly unrealistic. It provides both quantitative and qualitative result which can be used to make further improvements and things which were not considered are identified and implemented after evaluation. Next, a considerable attention must be paid on the information obtained through evaluation.

Evaluation provides the data and information which can be used for accountability and increase productivity and type of work. Information gathered through evaluation can lead to better decisions about where to invest an organization’s capital and efforts. Moreover, information reveals the strong and weak areas existing in an organization. This can be used to decrease the unproductive employees’ time. Information can also be used to address both internal and external issues operating within the organization. However, the information can also be used to review financial and operational aspects of the organization including, cost, facilities, stakeholder management, etc (Case & Donald, 2002).

ACTIVITY 10


Choose a situation in which you have been involved—either in your current job, in previous workplaces or in a non work context such as a social/ sporting club environment—where a significant change occurred. Briefly describe the changes and explain how they were implemented. Then answer the questions below

• In previous workplace, the most important noticeable change that took place was the change in number of working hours.  Following changes were made by the management
• Explosion of required  disclosures
• A huge growth in the interest of employees in those explored  disclosures
• Number of working hours from 9 hours to 8 hours.
• Emergence of new professional services and activities.
• Better, faster and more decisive actions by management

These changes were implemented in the organization by taking focus group in concern. A new curriculum was designed to include all these changes and a copy of that was sent to every employee via electronic mail.

1)      Were the changes part of a continuous improvement process or were they transformational?

The changes were transformational.

2)      Were you aware of the need for change?

Yes, it was somehow reflected in our work-process

3)      Were you consulted regarding the changes?

Yes, a discussion was conducted regarding the changes.

4)      Were the benefits of the proposed changes communicated to you prior to implementation?

No, the benefits were not disclosed prior to implementation

5)      Were you actively involved in the decision making and implementation processes?

Yes, actively participated in the decision making and implementation process.

6)      Once the changes were implemented were you kept informed of their progress and outcomes?

Yes, updates were provided by the management on time.

7)      Do you consider they were successful?

Yes, they proved to be effective for profit maximization and improvement in productivity.

ACTIVITY 10 PART 2

1)      How did the changes affect you personally, were you uncomfortable with them; did you understand why they were necessary; were you able to see how they would relate to you? Explain

• Changes in number of working hours affected me personally, as it was influenced my working activity. Working for 8 hours instead of 9 hours helped focusing more on work and their deadlines provided. It was much comfortable working hours.

It was necessary to make a change in timing because, lower level of productivity and absenteeism were noticed in the work-process. Working for too long hours make employees unhealthy and forced them to be on leaves often. It was related in context of being capable to accomplish the work given on time and effectively.

ACTIVITY 10 PART 3

1)      In the same, or a similar situation, what would you do if you were implementing and managing the changes?

• Firstly, an urgency of changes required would be identified and established.
• Then powerful guiding coalitions would be formed.
• Further, a vision would be set along with the objectives.
• After setting up the vision, it is necessary to communicate it within the organization.
• Other key members would be empowered to act on vision
• More changes can be produced and developed
• Finally, new and effective approaches would be institutionalized.

ACTIVITY 11

1)      Comment on the ten roles of a mentor. Are the difficulties, challenges and rewards different depending on the role undertaken? Can the roles be combined and why is this effective/ not effective?

• Mentoring refers to a developmental relationship in which a more experienced individual helps a less experienced person. A mentor has multiple roles but they are not necessarily practiced on the same day or even in the same mentoring relationship.
• Generally, the roles adopted on any provided day or within a specific encounter are dependent upon the needs of the person to be mentored.
• Mentors face different kind of challenges when they educate and teach. Different roles have the different challenges and rewards depending upon the role they undertake.
• Roles can be combined on the basis of situation; minimal changes can be made for their effectiveness. In reality, a mentor is unlikely to have all the experience and expertise. In simplest words, no one other person can fulfill all the roles (Gladwin, 2009).

2)      How comfortable do you feel being a mentor to someone and providing assistance in regards to their current role? How comfortable do you feel about mentoring someone to position them for future roles? What influences the way you feel in these two situations and what skills will you use in each instance?

• Being a mentor makes the ability to see the situation as an outside observe and to use some wisdom not just intelligence and experience. It is much comfortable to develop a distinct approach to handling the stressful lawsuits and dispute-resolution of mentees. Assistance is provided by a mentor in restructuring mentee’s current position and help them strategizing their way to present themselves in front of anyone. Moreover, helping them in defining and clarifying the values and future prospects.
• Skills to be a listener, cheerleader, confident teacher and coach can be used in these two situations.

3)      Explain how you think coaching or mentoring can contribute to encouraging employees to participate in continuous improvement processes.

• Coaching or mentoring is progressively used mainly for professional development, to specify a positive change in individuals and to cheer up the transfer of knowledge from the coach / mentor to the individual. Coaching/mentoring is found highly advantageous for the career growth of employees. Therefore, coaching and mentoring has been utilized by many organizations in their organizational practices.

It helps increasing self-confidence and self-esteem

Fosters professional career growth

Develops skills

Identifies weak areas and turns them into potential success

Further, enhances problem analysis (Departmental office of Human resource management, n.d).

Departmental office of Human Resource Management n.d, Dot mentoring handbook, viewed on 31st July 2012,

<http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/mentor/mentorhb.htm>.

ACTIVITY 12

1)      Define the term ‘internal control’.

• In accounting and auditing, internal control is described as a process affected by an organization’s framework, work and power flows, people and management information systems. It is basically designed to help the organization achieve specific goals or objectives (Ratcliffe & Landes, 2009)

2)      In your own words, explain ‘corporate governance’.

• Corporate governance is a system by which organizations are intended for and controlled. It includes authoritarian and market mechanisms, and the jobs and relationships between a company’s management, its board, shareholders & other stakeholders, and the objectives for which the organization is governed (Judge, 2011).

3)      What are your responsibilities as an employee working under corporate governance and internal control procedures?

• Each employee is accountable for adhering to those performance programs, policies, procedures, principles and internal control standards recognized and established to guide the operation of organization.

ACTIVITY 13

Describe a project in which you have been involved or which you have had the opportunity to observe closely. Identify a milestone; describe what it was and any decisions that had to be made at the milestone.

• A project on Odessa mobile technology has been described in order to identify its milestones. The Odessa Mobile Technology Project Plan provides a description of the project, including the project’s goals and objectives. In addition, the Plan serves as an agreement between the following parties:
• Project Sponsor, Steering Committee, Project Manager, Project Team, and other personnel engaged with and/or influenced by the project.

 

 “Initial steering committee meeting” has been identified as a milestone in this report. It was the audience for overall communication plan which has been focused more than other audiences. It helped in identifying risks and issues and further helped in resolutions. The decision was made at this milestone that these status meetings will be held at least once per month and will be coordinated by project managers. In this context, every member of steering committee will actively participate in the meeting and status reports will be send to each member of the committee (Whitson, 2003).

ACTIVITY 14

1)      What is a gap analysis?

• Gap analysis is a device that helps organizations compare their actual performance with potential performance. At its core are two questions: “Where the organization is currently?” and “Where it wants to be in future?” Moreover, gap analysis identifies gaps between the optimized allocation and incorporation of the contributions (resources), and the current share level. This also depicts the areas that can be developed (Balm, 1996). Gap analysis involves evaluating, documenting, and appreciating the variance between business needs and current competencies.

2)      Conduct some research of your own and identify and describe some of the technological applications that might be used to monitor and review progress and to identify ways in which planning and operations could be improved.

• After research, some of the following technological applications were identified which might be used to monitor and review the progress;
• CBA, CBM and progress monitoring systems, these monitor the progress through existing course of content and across time respectively.CBM has been presented to be reliable and valid for increasing the level of information.
• Other applications can be PEG collection of progress tools and utilities, PSDN-progress software developers network’s code share.
  • The following way can be proposed to improve planning and operations:
  • Firstly, implement continuous improvement systems and processes
  • Monitor and review processes
  • Implement opportunities for further improvement (Precision Group (Australia), n.d)

3)      What are some common problems when designing measuring systems?

• In designing a measuring system, first and foremost problem can be lack of objectives which may distract the overall system. The less knowledge and understanding of the system also becomes a reason for system’s failure and implementation. The issues related to consistency and a measuring system’s fairness caters to the problems. Next, system’s validity and reliability are one of the major issues contributing to the problems whilst designing measuring systems. Designers consider the level of correct estimation a measuring system provides (Ouellette, n.d).

In this structure, too high or too less variations and multiple reading simultaneously take birth to new and genuine problems at the time of framing measuring systems. More problems can be there in terms of technical error, valid source of system, durability, efficiency to measure, etc (Metawie & Gilman, 2005).

ACTIVITY 15

1)      Why should documents and reports be written in an impartial manner?

• A good report is one which is outlined in a simple, clear and clear language. Its language should not be difficult and confusing. It should be written in an impartial manner so that no ambiguity as regards the statements would be there in the report. A reader should be able to understand the entire report simply and exactly. In fact, this is the basic purpose of report writing.
• Moreover, a report written in a clear way is considered to be complete, self-explanatory, comprehensive but compact and accurate in all aspects (Monash University, 2012).

2)      Select a recent scientific/ medical discovery which has received publicity. Ideally it would have a health focus. Research the background to the issue and prepare a report describing what happened, how it was reported, was the reporting accurate and provide your opinion (with reasons) as to the quality of the information that the public received.

• A recent medical discovering revealed that concussions an head impacts may accelerate brain aging. Researchers from the University of Michigan School of Kinesiology and the U-M Health System viewed college students with and without a history of concussion and found changes in pace, steadiness and in the brain’s electrical activity, particularly attention and impulse control.
• Furthermore, to begin to understand how concussions might affect brain activity and its indicating pathways, researchers asked the applicants to perform definite tasks in front of a computer, and took pictures of their brains. In addition, the brains of the non-concussed group presented a greater area of electrical establishment than the participants with a history of brain injury (University of Michigan, 2012).

ACTIVITY 16

1)      What does the term continuous improvement mean to you?

• Continuous Improvement is an enduring effort to improve products, services, or processes and capabilities. These efforts can be sought through incremental and breakthrough improvements all at once. For that, strengths and weaknesses are found out through organizational assessment (Locke & Jain, 1995).
• Among the most broadly used devices for continuous improvement is four-step quality model. Plan-do-check-act (PDCA) cycle.

Plan: It propose to recognize an opportunity and then plan for changes

Do: At this stage, changes are implemented and all the activities are set to be performed.

Check: Here, changes are checked by the supervising department and the differences are observed and noticed for further determination.

Act: This offers the implementation of changes on a larger scale and continuously evaluating the differences. In case, if changes did not work then the cycle can be restarted (Peter & Ross, 2003).

2)      Discuss and suggest some specific activities or processes you could use to encourage employee commitment to continuous improvement in an organization.

• To encourage employees commitment to continuous improvement in a organization, following techniques can be followed
  • Problem-solving cycle: Here, each employee’s problems can be identified and resolved on the basis of preference.
  • Brainstorming sessions: General ideas and point of views are collected and efforts are made to draw a conclusion for specific problems. It also welcomes unusual ideas and view-points.
  • Cause & effect and flow chart diagrams: These diagrams consisting of causes and effects of activities will help knowing the factors and issues related to the employees, so that area of improvement can be worked on.
  • By providing reward and recognitions for employees’ performance, more commitment can be gripped from them in continuous improvement of an organization.
  • Moreover, employees should be provided responsibilities, for that they can also be trained. (International atomic energy agency, 2006)

3)      How and in what ways do you think these strategies would impact on productivity?

Effective motivational strategies have addressed a remarkable impact on productivity in the workplace. An associated and aggravated workforce can mean the difference between a victorious business and a failing business because managers have that potential to motivate and de-motivate workers.

In contrast, all these techniques mentioned will help assessing every employee’s personal and organizational problems/issues. After knowing and resolving their problems, they can be ensured for their safe future, so that they could concentrate on work and could bring productivity and maximize the profit. These techniques determine the qualitative and quantitative data for worker’s general issues and estimate the areas to be improved and developed.

These strategies help reinforcing the productivity. In other words, if management wants developed productivity, they must reward and consider the responsibilities shared by employees.

They help bringing high quality in the work-place, sustainability, and flexible operations. As productivity is the ratio of output to input, it can be understood clearly that the strategies approached will definitely impact the input which automatically increase the output and then productivity.

WRITTEN QUESTIONS

1)      Does the way in which information is presented have any impact on understanding and how can you check that understanding has occurred?

• Understanding of information is assessed by audience analysis. Considering one’s audience is one of the most significant constituents of effective communication. Audience analysis can help gaining effective s about the information provider, which further can help to choose and develop a pertinent and meaningful topic (Dubinsky, Paretti & Armstrong, 2001).

2)      Cost benefit analyses are used to do more than establish how cost-effective an option will be financially. Describe their other purpose.

• Cost-benefit analysis’ purpose is to provide management a realistic picture of the costs, benefits, and risks related with a given framework development project so that they can compare it to other investment opportunities. Cost/benefit analysis is the de facto normal for representing economic feasibility and for comparing and choosing among investment opportunities.

3)      Why should decision making in a group or team be inclusive?

• The objective in group decision making is to ensure that the group makes the best possible decisions they can; based on all the information they have; as fast as possible; with the correct level of involvement and dedication. Nevertheless, this goal is achieved or not.  It is said to be more inclusive because it leads, follow the group, manage the process and the content and manage participation (Shen, Zhao & Huang, 2008).

4)      What is the purpose of qualitative analysis and on what does it rely?

• While most investors and researchers rely greatly on quantitative measures, metrics such as the debt-to-equity and price-to-equity ratios, complementing the analysis with qualitative analysis enhances the insight into the organization. Further, using qualitative aspects will often provide investors and edge since core factors, such as management, does not show up in quantitative analysis (Bessembinder, H al, 2012).

5)      What is the difference between coaching and mentoring

• In coaching relationship usually has a set duration whereas in mentoring ongoing relationship that can last for a long time. Coaching is more structured in nature and meetings while mentoring can be informal and meetings can take place as and when they are required.

6)      Why does learning not always readily transfer to the workplace?

• It is not always readily transferable to the workplace due to its proficiency, transfer of learning and climate because corporate managers need compound cognitive skills in order to work effectively and efficiently with greatly technical systems, interpersonal skills to work capably in teams, and leadership skills to manage effectively (Enos, Kehrhahn & Bell, 2003).

7)      What questions should you ask yourself to ensure that your advice is impartial?

• Following questions can be asked:

1. What has to be achieved?
2. What are the projected benefits?
3. What are the alternatives?
4. Is every employee get benefited by this advice/
5. What are the consequences?

8)      Why is participation and consultation important to a culture of continuous improvement?

• Participation and consultation encourages employees to contribute to continuous improvement of human resource management
• Further, it encourages creativity through risk-taking and being tolerant of mistakes
• It creates an organizational culture that learns from mistakes
• It acknowledges employees’ contributions to continuous improvement (Government of South Australia, 2001).

PROJECT 1

Write a report (approximately 1,000 words) on the process that is required to effectively and sensitively measure and evaluate individual effectiveness in a workplace. The report should reflect an understanding of cultural diversity in the workplace. Discuss the potential difficulties of conducting reviews and provide examples of specific behaviors that encourage open and honest communication. Discuss the benefits and the disadvantages of such evaluations to the individual and the organization as a whole.

• It is clear that the effective individual is more than just the sum of their technical or professional expertise. While years spend, sometimes decades, improving work talents, people generally disrespect the importance of developing some transferable skills. Yet various studies have shown that these skills value for the majority of differences in every individual’s job performance. In this case, following process can be discussed to evaluate the individual effectiveness in the workplace:
• Firstly, Purposeful communication
• Inspired thinking
• The fulfilled self
• Lastly work talents

Going forward, purposeful communication evaluates an individual’s ability to communicate sensitively and forethoughtfully on purpose. Moreover, it evaluates their capability to accept the responsibility for managing both relationships and task tension in communications. Further, it determines individual’s effectiveness for expressing to explore, demonstrating credibility, uncovering interests, effective presentation, and interpersonal versatility (Wilkinson Learning Worldwide Inc, 2007).

Nonetheless, there may have been a time when inspired thinking was needed only by a few people at every level of organization. It is basically a process of evaluating individual competency for reasoning, problem-solving, creative thinking, pattern recognition, and decision-making. It also ensures that all employees have a broad set of inspired thinking skills which is significant to every organization. Furthermore, the values, individual characteristics, and common sense of an idea that valuable individuals bring to their lives is the fulfilled self. It assesses that employees who are fulfilled are more associated with their work and achieve higher performance level in the organization. Finally, Work talents suggest a mean for an individual to make a substantive input toward achieving personal and organizational objectives.

While at the time of evaluating personal effectiveness, cultural diversity can be seen at work place. Diversity is not a moderate ideological movement to be hold or opposed. For an organization to get its arms around the complication of diversity culture transformation it requires to focus on three following areas:

• Individual attitudes and behaviors
• Managerial skills and practices
• Organizational values and policies

To make culture change happen, following seven steps are recommended:

1. Generating executive commitment
2. Assessment
3. Diversity Council
4. System changes
5. Training
6. Measurement and evaluation
7. And integration (Kahn & Gomez, 1998)

However, there can be possibility for difficulties of conducting review. While individual employee performance evaluations are rarely any superior’s desired task, there is no getting around the reality that employees’ performance or lack can make or break any company. Therefore, some of the potential difficulties have been described in this report.

• It doesn’t evaluate actual performance
• Provides infrequent feedbacks
• Non-data based assessment
• Lack of effectiveness metrics
• Individual scores exceed team performance
• No comprehensive tem evaluation
• No second review
• Doesn’t address cultural diversity
• Corporate culture issues (NCBI, n.d)

Accordingly, to succeed, organizations must create an open and ethical atmosphere within the workplace. Therefore, a few examples can be presented showing specific behaviors which encourage open and honest communication. One of the examples is, when a boss makes a call to the employee and he is in the middle of a meeting with his colleague. The behavior of concern employee should be honest at that point of time and he answers that call. It is important because it is a call from boss’s end.

Second of the examples can be viewed at the time of running behind. Taking an example, its 2:40 pm and the report which employee is preparing has to be submitted by 3:00 pm sharp. Employee takes its print but the paper jams in the middle of the jam. The ethical and honest behavior of that employee can be viewed on the basis of employee’s ability to deal with that problem. Employee resent the print job to another printer, but didn’t go back and sorted it out himself. Therefore, these kind of open and honest behaviors help an organization to set an ethnic and positive background for every member (JRS Consulting, 2007).

Finally, advantages and disadvantages can also be a part of such evaluations.  These reviews and performance evaluations can benefit both the organization as well as an individual. Organizations can use data obtained from the feedback programs to monitor reliable patterns or areas of improvement for employees within the premises. From an individual perspective, an all around feedback helps individual employees see whether a steadiness exists in the way their performance is observed by more than just the manager or supervisor (Accounting for management, 2012).

On the other hand, disadvantages can also be taken into consideration. Some employees are concerned when they are unfairly critiqued by supervisor’s who may frequent have little direct communication with them. It can be analyzed that employees may not feel comfortable providing honest feedback of managers and supervisors. This same issue can also exist in employee-to-employee evaluations. Another major point is that different individual employees interact in different ways with the person being reviewed (Accounting for management, 2012).

It can be concluded on the basis of entire description that an effective communication process helps evaluating individual effectiveness. Furthermore, cultural diversity can be understood within the workplace which leads to some difficulties at the time of review. In that case, some ethnic, honest and open communication can be exemplified on the basis of specific behaviors.

Finally, reports talked about advantages and disadvantages of evaluation process in context of individual and organization’s effectiveness.

PROJECT 2

The management of your organization plans to introduce a healthy canteen and all of the unhealthy foods (which are very popular) are going to be removed. There are no alternative food outlets near your workplace. You are responsible for the introduction of the program in the workplace but not for the management of the canteen. That function has been outsourced and contracts signed.


You have advocated for the introduction of a healthy canteen as part of an overall personal effectiveness program, the need for which has arisen from your analysis of employee health. You were not aware that management was about to make a decision about the canteen. The personal effectiveness program has been running successfully for about three months. You are concerned that the healthy canteen initiative may impact negatively on your current programs.


Describe how you will introduce the concept of a healthy canteen to the workers, how you will deal with negative reactions and how you will get the workers to support the canteen and the menu.

• A workplace health program is undertaken in the workplace that supports health and well-being of every employee. Taking this consideration, a healthy canteen concept has to be introduced to the workers through nutrition program.

• First, there need arises to introduce the concept of healthy canteen and identify the actual needs of the employees.
• A support from employees can also be gained and program’s overall responsibilities can be established.
• Afterwards, personal effectiveness program’s goals and objectives are required to develop
• For that, program activities are identified and an action plan and budget is  developed accordingly
• Foster your program with additional support of employees providing them health related solutions
• To deal with negative reactions, program should be manage according to employees’ needs and considerations and it should be evaluated to make further improvements.

To take support from the workers, they should be made aware of the benefits of nutrition and healthy food in their daily routine. Moreover, it can be made assure that health and nutritious food can significantly impact their ability to perform their job effectively. Subsequently, nutrition program and healthy canteen concept will educate employees about their food choices in menu and provide them to make healthier food and drink choices. An employee health event can be conducted where the workers will be educated and motivated about their health (Mitchell al, 2011).

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