Leading and Managing Organisational Resources
Professional email: Leadership style
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Subject line:
The role of leadership style in contemporary business organisation
Introduction and purpose of the email
Leadership in today’s business organisation has transformed rapidly due to the changing nature of the business organisation. Leaders in today’s business organisation are not restricted to one task, rather they perform a multi-task activity to grow their skill sets and their capabilities. The purpose of this email is to determine the role of leaders within the contemporary business organisation. Besides, throughout this email, the current leadership style along with their application within a strategic business organisation will also be discussed. Strategic role and responsibilities of leaders within the business organisation will also be examined, that will help in understanding the contribution of leaders towards the growth of the organisation.
Main body
Leadership is the ability to influence the people to do and perform a task that brings best out of them and contribute towards the growth of character building among the people. The role of leaders is dynamic and significant as they are the one who is accountable towards performing their job roles with high integrity to achieve the overall objectives of the organisation (Cleveland & Cleveland, 2018). The characteristics of a leader include emotion, relationship building, motivation and empathy towards others. Leaders within plays a vital role within the business organisation as they motivate the employees to undertake the task and perform them within a limited period so that the best output and results can be achieved. The role of leadership also comprises monitoring the daily activities of the employees and provide them one to one feedback that makes it easier for them to identify their strengths and limitations. The evidence gathered in regards to leadership also points out that the role of leaders is not limited to monitor the employees and maintain day to day operations of the organisation. Leaders within the corporate business firm also take active participation during the decision-making process that benefits the organisation in gaining new insight, ideas and thoughts that contribute towards the growth of the organisation (Armstrong, 2016). Leaders ability towards contributing during the decision-making process reflect upon their skills and traits such as there thinking ability, cognitive skills and analytical decision-making capabilities. Besides, leaders are the one who maintains close ties within the employees hence during the time of conflict between employee union and management, leader act as the middle man to resolve the issue and restore harmony.
The role of leaders in today’s contemporary business environment has transformed rapidly, leaders now act as the representative of the enterprise. Leaders hold the responsibility of representing the organisation in seminars, conferences and board meetings. His role in managing the internal and external business affairs of the business organisation makes it possible for the organisation in developing their capabilities and growing its reputation within the competitive business environment (Renz, 2016). The role of leaders within the contemporary business organisation also includes integrating the personal goals of the employees with that of the organisational goals. Leaders of business organisation direct the employees in co-ordinating their activities and their efforts towards achieving the common objectives of the organisation. Accomplishing the common objectives of the business enterprise benefits the employees in accomplishing their personal goal of pay hikes, recognition and reputation within the organisation that help them in achieving their self-satisfaction goals (Golensky & Hager, 2020). Leaders within the business organisation also offer supports to the employees that being including emotional as well as mental. He accepts feedback, opinions and suggestions from the employees so that their commitment towards the decision-making process can be increased. Leaders also hold personal self-assessment session with the employees where he acts as a mentor and try to culminate values among the employees (Bush, et al., 2019). Leaders make the employee know about their values and motivate them to sharpen their skills as a result of which it helps them in earning the trust of employees and build a positive relationship with them.
The changing nature of business scenario has also enabled the leaders in changing their leadership style. the ability of leaders to predict the business scenario and develop strategies accordingly help them in differentiating themselves from managers. In the current present scenario when a global pandemic of Covid-19 has taken all over the world and has disrupted the overall activities within different sectors and industries, leaders changed their leadership approach to tackling the challenging situation (Deloitte, 2020). The fist leadership traits that the leaders in the current scenario develop comprise of empathy, that has enabled the leaders in establishing communication with the employees in this difficult situation. Leadership trait towards empathy has also managed them in understanding the kind of support and motivation the leader needs to provide the employees to develop their morality and positive attitudes. The leadership characteristic in the current pandemic situation of Covid-19 also includes communicating transparency and maintain openness with their employees (Forbes, 2020). Leaders in various sectors have maintained transparency in communication that has enabled them to access better ideas and creative solution to tackle the challenging situation. Furthermore, leaders are also trying to motivate and influence the employees to work with higher efficiency so that organisation productivity can be grown that contribute towards the growth of their professional career. Leaders are also providing skill-based training and flexible work from home option that has successfully contributed to the growth of both organisation and employees (Mckinsey, 2020). It has eliminated the risk of employee attrition, high cost in training and recruitment for the organisation in the current global pandemic situation. Whereas, employees have been benefited by maintaining work-life balance, leading a healthy lifestyle and achieving professional growth in their career.
The role of leaders within the contemporary business organisation also aims towards eliminating the challenges and risk that the organisation face from the VUCA business environment. The challenges that leaders mainly face comprise of the volatile business environment due to its ever-changing nature. Leaders also face an uncertain situation due to growing challenges and rise in consumer buying behaviour. Business complexity is also being faced by the leaders due to the changing policies and procedure that makes it tough for them to operate successfully. Growing ambiguity due to changing roles and responsibilities of the leaders also make it confusing for them to play their part towards the growth of the organisation (Marques & Gomes, 2020). The risk that the VUCA environment brings to the leader includes disrupting the workforce capabilities due to changing business scenario. Working in the VUCA situation also make it tough for the organisation in achieving their desired results and output as a result of which the market share and profitability for the business establishment falls rapidly. Therefore, the role of the leader in this situation becomes more crucial as they identify the root cause of the issue and develop a solution accordingly. One of the most common VUCA challenge that the leader’s face is of growing competition from the global business market (Thorpe, 2016). Considering this challenge the leader has taken up the decision of putting up barriers through the help of technology and manpower resources that contribute towards the growth of the organisation.
The current business situation has also made the leaders adopt a servant leadership style. the servant leadership style has benefited the leaders in developing the characteristics of empathy that has managed them in growing relationship with employees. This type of leadership trait is focused on developing the capabilities and competencies of the employees and leaders that make it easier for them to perform their job roles with higher accountability (Adams, 2018). This type of leadership style also encourages creativity among the leader that contribute towards the higher productivity and performance of the organisation. Therefore, based on the above analysis it has been noticed that leaders play a significant and important part within the organisation, they manage employees and also help in contribute towards decision-making abilities. Leaders also aim towards motivating and influence good character development within the employees to make them competent.
Recommendations
- Leaders play an integral part within the organisation and contribute towards the growth of the organisation but it has been seen that leaders fail to manage employee conflict. Therefore, it becomes necessary for the leaders to understand their employee behaviour and make them work in-group rather than individuals so that teamwork can be grown and conflict situation can be minimised.
- The leaders also need to be more proactive while making decisions, leaders sometimes make a rational decision that increases the risk of business sustainability. Therefore, the leaders need to analyse the situation and scenario before making any strategic decision that contributes towards the growth of the business organisation.
Conclusion
Role of leaders within the contemporary business organisation has been discussed briefly. Proper analysis of the leadership role has managed to understand the responsibilities towards the organisation along with the characteristics that makes them a good and efficient leader. A critical analysis of the leadership ability has also been demonstrated through the help of analysing the changes in the role of leaders due to Covid-19 situation. Moreover, leaders strategic approach towards the VUCA environment has also been explained. Finally, recommendations have also been laid down so that the capabilities and competencies of leaders in future can be grown.
Thanks and Regards
Robert Simson
Blog: Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is referred to a self-regulating business model which makes the business entity to be socially accountable (Mishra and Suar, 2010). Modern-day organizations need to deploy lots of business strategies and policies where it has a direct impact over social, human and environmental aspects. The large competitive market condition enforces the organization to maintain a certain position over the market, as potential customers recognize its brand and show acceptance towards it. It seems that modern-day business entities not only utilizing the CSR activities to ensure ethicality but also as a marketing strategy (Yakovleva, 2017). On the other hand, the organizational business process involves different unethical practices for getting more profit from it. CSR can be considered as one of the best practices that not only assist the organization to maintain ethicality but also improve its brand value and recognition.
The modern-day business has experienced lots of organizational changes that enforces it to redesign the business model in different ways. On the other hand, globalization allows organizations to expand their business in the large market over different countries. Such business possibilities result in high competition over the market (Yakovleva, 2017). Such competition offers customers to control the market position. The organization has to focus on different business strategies to get customers’ acceptances and certain profit margin at the same time. It’s quite challenging for the organization to offer such business facilities. Additionally, the industrial revolution brings a much more sustainable approach over the organization. Previously organizational practices were quite different, where they involve in different unethical practices for getting fast development and growth in the business (Bénabou and Tirole, 2010). The entire business environment is changing every day, where the management needs to consider ethicality within the business process as one of the essential aspects. Before understanding the CSR, one needs to understand the areas where such ethical considerations become quite essential and how the business entities are focusing more on such activities.
Business situation is evolving every day quite quickly. Rapid growth in business results in high competition. For an organization, evolving market competition becomes one of the first consideration, where it requires proper perception and behavioural against its internal people and external social and environmental aspects. Requirements of the CSR in the organization becomes one of the essential (Bénabou and Tirole, 2010). Previously, organizations did not care much about the business ethicality. Unethical practices have lots of profit possibilities. Previously, employee discrimination, inappropriate resource uses, price growth, environmental disruption etc were some common issues within the organization. Employees are deprived of their basic right, facilities and lots more. The organization carried out such unethical practices for maintaining lower expenses. Such unethical practices have enough role to provide massive profit generation to the organizations. The requirements of such CSR activities were raised in the organization when employees started protesting against such unethical practices (Joseph et al. 2016). On the other hand, the brand image of the business become quite essential for overcoming market competition. Customers get enough role in offering marketing position to an organization. Customers start preferring such organizations that follow ethical practices in the business and offers proper facilities towards internal people, and external aspects. Organizations understand how important is it to promote ethical practices and behaviour towards social, human, and environmental aspects to keep customers interested in its business.
Developing CSR in the business is not such easy as it expected. Modern-day business entities have expanded over the large local and global market. The number of employees, vendors, shareholders is also increasing quite in a large number. An equal approach towards such ethical practices should be maintained by the organization in all market areas. Corporate social responsibility is considered as one of the best organizational practice for maintaining ethicality in its working (Joseph et al. 2016). Proper ethicality in the business can be achieved if it considers all aspects such as people, social aspects and the environment. Organizations should follow certain strategies for developing proper and effective CSR. The organization needs to focus on both its internal and external areas. Internal employee and other members need to be offered proper facilities for their work. Facilities such as accommodation, compensation, benefits, etc need to be offered to employees as per their performances and designations. No discrimination should be considered within the organizational behaviour towards the employee. In the case of a societal approach, the organization should initiate different development initiative. It should focus on the areas, from where the maximum revenue is generated. Societal development, healthcare, education, transportation facilities for all common people will make the business market more upgraded, and an ethical approach can be identified for the organization (Fernandez-Feijoo, Romero, and Ruiz, 2014). Organization need to consider environmental issues into a serious concern. Different strategies can be deployed for maintaining environmental sustainability. Development and deployment of the CSR have a positive impact over the organization itself along with the society, general peoples and environment also. Such facilitations also promote organizations to develop effective CSR on a large scale. Benefits of the CSR over the organizations and their business is listed below.
CSR activities assist the management to maintain ethical business practices and activities that encourage the internal people to work dedicatedly. Employee motivation is enhanced that also assist in achieving quality business process along with greater productivity. Diversity can be approved in the management team and their work (Yakovleva, 2017). Additionally, operating costs are also decreased by CSR implementation. Financial performance of organizations is improved. Such ethical consideration assists in achieving greater brand image and business reputation. That has a direct impact in gaining customers’ loyalty and trustworthiness along with better sale and revenue generation. Employee turnover is controlled by the CSR, where more top talents are also attracted to join the organization. Product liabilities are reduced along with enhancement in product safety. On the other hand, organizations focus on environmental disruptions that happen due to business activities and natural resource utilization (Fernandez-Feijoo et al. 2014).
The organization has to focus on different business strategies to get customers’ acceptances and certain profit margin at the same time. The organization carried out such unethical practices for maintaining lower expenses (Yakovleva, 2017). Such unethical practices have enough role to provide massive profit generation to the organizations. The requirements of such CSR activities were raised in the organization when employees started protesting against such unethical practices.
Effective CSR in the organization promotes environmental sustainability, where it focuses more on resource recycling, waste management, renewable source utilization, better product durability and lots more (Fernandez-Feijoo et al. 2014). Along with the organization itself and the environment, communities and the general public are also facilitated from CSR activities. Organizations involved in charitable works, employee volunteer programs, where community education, healthcare, employment etc are taken into the consideration. It seems that modern-day business entities not only utilizing the CSR activities to ensure ethicality but also as a marketing strategy. At the age of the large competitive market, marketing plays the most effective role in case of business growth and advertisement over both existent and new market areas. The market condition also becomes more customer-centric, where customers prefer organizations that have enough brand reputation in specific industrial sectors. Certain CSR activities assist the organizations to develop a good image and brand value in the market for their ethical activities towards the employee, society, and environment. It seems that customers prefer companies that are involved in such effective CSR activities. Such opportunities allow organizations to invest in CSR as a marketing strategy. CSR is an essential aspect of organizational businesses to get enough competitive edges and market position (Joseph et al. 2016). CSR is referred to as an organizational business model, where multiple strategies and policies are needed to be developed and deployed separately for the employees, the general public and the environment. Such practices may pose different challenges which may make such CSR initiative ineffective. A few challenges in CSR are discussed below.
CSR requires a certain amount of resources and investment. The amount of investment is high in the case of the organization operates business on a global scale. CSR activities require proper community participation. CSR only for the employees may not get enough success. Lack of community participation in CSR can be considered as one major issue. Organizational management needs to develop proper and clear CSR guidelines (Joseph et al. 2016). Non-availability of such guidelines along with improper communication strategies may fail CSR deployment. The proper organizational approach is required during CSR development, where lack of consensus during CSR implementation is considered as an issue. CSR activities without proper transparency and visibility may result in a barrier. All such issues restrict CSR activities within the organization, whereas management should focus on such issues and make proper recommendations for developing successful CSR activities (Mishra and Suar, 2010). Proper evaluation of ethical consideration along with CSR initiative would offer effective outcomes of such activities.
Corporate social responsibility becomes one of the most essential practices chosen by organizations to be socially accountable and highlighting their ethical considerations in the business. Brand generation is affected quietly by the CSR initiatives from organization towards the employee, general public, community and environment. On the other hand, business entities are preferring sustainability in the business for ensuring future growth possibilities along with the current status. It seems that effective CSR activities have a positive impact on business sustainability. Organizational management should take care of the CSR activities not only for maintaining ethicality but also for ensuring business growth and success possibilities.
Wiki: Core executive roles of a company in a COVID Environment
A business executive is an individual who has the responsibility of administering the organisation and has wearing rules depending on the business and the nature of work is also variable as there required to create plans for growth and prosperity of the organisation (Adams, 2018). The chief executive officer, a chief operating officer in addition to the chief financial officer, fills the core executive roles of organisations. The executive team also comprises of a chief marketing officer and chief technology officer. All these members of the chief executive committee have the power of decision making and shaping the organisational policies.
The Covid-19 pandemic has affected most of the businesses across the world due to the lockdown implemented by the government resulting in stoppage of business operations and functions in addition to disruption of the supply chain. The pandemic has created major changes in the stock market that are affected the valuation of companies in addition to restricting the consumer expenditure (Allen, et al., 2020). The core leaders of organisations are required to undertake important roles for restoring the production lines that have been disrupted due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The enforced isolation of people due to the lockdown has a result of the pandemic has resulted in the closure of thousands of businesses and caused economic jeopardy for the large and medium enterprises. The organisational leaders and core executive roles are required to be highlighted and integrated towards the establishment of corporate governance in the organisations for operating under the safety parameters of the Covid-19 environment (Anderson & Sun, 2017). The core executive chef organisations are required to work for integration of the organisational operations and overcome the disruptions caused to the supply chain and allocate funding towards the core business operations.
The core executives of an organisation have the crucial decision-making functions that can be used to overcome the challenges due to the pandemic and regenerate the business operations. They are required to display crisis leadership for managing the organisational operations and overcoming the challenges due to covid-19 (Bass & Bass, 2009). This would be required the core executive stay establish strong health and safety guidelines in the organisations and mandatory safety initiatives for safeguarding the employees as well as the clients. The message socio-economic changes and challenges due to the pandemic is needed to be countered with responsible strategy making and leadership. The core executives of the organisation are required to establish and change the existing corporate governance rules for increasing the adaptability and creativity of the organisation to use fewer resources for achieving similar outputs. It is also essential for the executive to preserves the interest of all the stakeholders and shareholders. This would enable the organisation to maximise the value of the shareholders in addition to providing maximum returns to the investors.
The core executive of organisations is required to focus on improvement in organisational performance and productivity of the workforce to the display of effective leadership. Crisis leadership and situation and leadership are some of the styles of leadership that can be followed by the core executives of the company for adapting with the present covid-19 environment. It is also required for the core executive to implement policies and rules for maintaining sustainability in the operations and efficient use of resources (Champy, 2018). The incorporation of an ethical code of conduct is crucial for the code executive of the company, as it will instil a sense of trust among the customers as well as their employees. An ethical role for the core executive during the Covid-19 environment provides a sense of job security to the employees and enable the company to attract investors (Weforum, 2020). It is also essential for the core executive to focus on the finances of the organisation and minimise the redundant costs. Executive decision making will play an important role in facilitating the corporations to deal with the impact of covid-19 on business operations. The display of robust leadership and charismatic abilities of the executives will enable the organisations to counter the first changes in the business environment and adapt themselves for meeting the needs and wants of the customers. Record executive will also be required to focus on the alignment of the organisational strategy and capital allocation by focusing on the drivers of growth and value creation for the long term in the organisation (Coulson-Thomas, 2018). The board of directors and executive across the organisations are required to adapt to the new economic context brought forward due to the pandemic for working with the change workplace conditions and handle the environmental constraints at the same time for adopting the digital transformation and fourth industrial revolution. This would enable the corporations to improve their productivity by several folds and become less reliant on manual labour.
The core executive and leaders of organisations are also required to prepare the mainstream reporting of the company in an integrated manner for identifying the areas that need growth and development (Weforum, 2020). The executives are also required to align the corporate social responsibility policies of the company with the sustainable development goals of the United Nations in addition to avoiding by the Paris climate agreement. It is necessary for the companies to follow proper policy dialogue and advocacy for maintaining the ethics in operations and placing for societal welfare (Covin & Slevin, 2017). The integration of risk management strategies is also important for organisations to cope up with such natural situations in the future. This can be established through mainstream disclosures and establishing transparency and accountability across the organisation. This would have the companies to provide assurance to the investor’s about the business policies and remain consistent. The executives across organisations are also required to play the role of a crisis manager in order to minimise the negative implications of covid-19 on the economic performance and financial stability in the organisation by incorporating sustainable development measures and achieving economy of scale in production.
The executives are required to shift from the traditional model of decision making and look beyond the revenue-based model to focus on the aspects of society and environment for non-traditional crisis management (Mckinsey, 2020). It is needed for the organisational managers and leaders to communicate with the stakeholders of the organisation and understand their needs by implementing physical distancing measures for better understanding of what needs to be changed in the business (Thorpe, 2016). The best strategy of the executive would be to maximize and capitalise on the organisational strengths and at of the strategy of regenerating leadership for contributing towards overall organisational and social welfare. The executives are required to dedicate funds for training and development of the employees for making them more confident to work in stressful situations along with providing them flexible working opportunities to help them balance their personal and professional lives.
The executives are required to increase the involvement of the employees and staff representatives during the decision making for encouraging creativity and innovation in the organisation in addition to creating a sense of respect and fulfilment. The integration of regenerative organisation practice is recommended to the organisational executives for engaging in input exchange with the employees and foster collective unity for motivating and empowering the common staff by inducing a sense of belonging (Armstrong, 2016). The consideration of employees in the decision-making will allow the executive to have a fresh perspective and create new solutions for challenging problems. However, the organisational leaders are required to ensure full safety and wellbeing of the employees that would also become a motivating factor during the execution of the holistic corporate purpose.
During the times of crisis, the executives are required to communicate frequently with the managers and their employees for uplifting their morale and providing them complete information. This would eliminate any misunderstanding among the stakeholders and the employees. The executives also have the key role of being empathetic towards the stakeholders and providing them support during these challenging times by not downsizing the workforce and ensuring that basic wages are paid to the employees even if they are not able to come to the workplace. organisational executives are required to lead by example and visit the workplace for encouraging their employees to join work by following the safety precautions and have full control over the employees (Bass & Bass, 2009). This would be crucial for delivering important information and avoiding any conflicts and neglect in the bottom line. The executive is required to be alert for supporting any major changes in the workplace and the external environment and identify any early signs of crisis for warning the employees in time and avoiding the negative effects. The organisational executives and leaders are required to participate in crisis management and response training for uplifting their confidence in managing and certain situations and becoming compatible with the business environment of the 21st century. This would enable the organisational executives and leaders to manage the volatile environment and observe the changes that happened across the wider business environment and make prior planning for avoiding any situations of emergency. It is also recommended for the organisation and leaders to communicate frequently with the employees and ensure that there is a culture of open communication and transparency.
Business Report: COVID19 changed workforce management
Title
A report on the need for adoption of new workforce management due to COVID-19 situation
Introduction
The main aim and purpose of the current study were to recommend new workforce management processes to business managers and CEO as a result of COVID-19 situation globally. Workforce management is a critical task that allows businesses to manage the engagement of its employees, promotional policies, and employee segmentation for tasks, employee retention policies, and all other activities for the employees (Diawati et al. 2019). Since the global lockdown situation due to COVID-19 infections and the high rate of mortality, majority of the businesses globally have either been shut until the lockdown is lifted whilst some businesses have restored to remote working or working virtually. Remote working needs different workplace management as managers and leaders cannot physically be in contact with the team or board members and therefore, have to adopt a more sustainable and strategic as well as flexible mode of communication and flow of information. Plus, monitoring and controlling has to be done virtually to ensure that the performance of the business is not impacted and so contemporary leadership styles and management skills need upgrading (Kaushik and Guleria, 2020). Thus, the current report explores the adoption of new strategies and recommendations to managers and CEOs that aim to adopt work from home workplace management processes as well as virtual systems. In the following section of the report, an impact of covid-19 in businesses have been presented followed by a theoretical framework for change management and existing strategies of working remotely and leadership has been presented.
Main body
Impact of COVID-19 on businesses
Since the global lockdown due to COVID-19, businesses have been greatly impacted by the supply and demand reduction as well as due to lack of revenue generation from poor demand. With no demand for most of the businesses globally, revenues were low and this greatly impacted the financial performance of the company as the companies had to pay its employees during the process and some businesses for rent of office space, bills for electricity, maintenance of the building and other expenditures. According to a survey by McKinsey, (2020) from March 2020 to October 2020, it has been found that the business conditions and performance has been worse for more than 58% of the business globally and only 17% of the businesses were not at all impacted by COVID-19. The percentage of worse has been evident between March and May 2020 and these were the times when the majority of the businesses were under lockdown and shut due to COVID-19, however, past June the governments globally started to strategize for economic revival and support to businesses for sustenance during the COVID-19 period and this helped more businesses to go towards the better section of the survey. Businesses also faced uncertainties about different aspects starting from their plans to project developments to the manufacturing process to business performances and so on. The occurrence of the COVID catastrophe not only impacted the businesses with performance but also impacted their supply chain and the resilience of the workforce towards career development and personal planning (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020). Majority of the business globally never considered the pandemic situation as a risk to the business and therefore, they lacked preparedness which led to the loss of finances and inability to adopt new business structures during the process.
Figure 1: Economic condition of businesses (Source: McKinsey, 2020)
Theoretical framework
Different theories of change management have been developed and explored until now and no better change management model has been developed rather than Kotter, Kim, and Mauborgne, (2011). Kotter et al. (2011) developed a change management model that comprised of 8 major steps and they were; “Create Urgency”, “Form a Powerful Coalition”, “Create a Vision for Change”, “Communicate the Vision, Remove Obstacles”, “Create Short-Term Wins”, “Build on the Change”, and “Anchor the Changes in Corporate Culture.” Change management theory states that any changes to business’ entire structure of a particular process need critical assessment for the need for change as well as develop a systematic process of changes in the business process. In the case of workforce management, the change management based on Kotter’s model the manager has to assess the challenges top workforce management due to covid-19, the challenges faced by employees working from home like lack of internet connectivity or flexibility of work and other challenges followed by the process of developing objectives that are acceptable by all the employees and the managers as well as ensure that the workforce management structure is aligned to the business objectives then the formation of deliverable and a vision for the change on workforce management. The vision is to be communicated to all stakeholders of the company and assess that the concerns and issues are projected and addressed and considering the risks to the new workplace management structure and finally the change in workforce is developed and implemented. Therefore, for the current business, the change management model by Kotter will be the best fit to address the changes needed post-COVID-19 for workforce management.
Existing strategies of workforce management during COVID-19
Businesses around the globe had adopted multiple strategies in workforce management during COVID-19, even though, the area of business is different and therefore only a few of the business segment mainly in the service sector and IT segment was able to adopt the same. Working from home is a generic strategy that many businesses were already adopting, but the management of task allocation and monitoring the performance of the employees working from home were done strategically (Harvard Business School, 2020). Monitoring of the performance for employee working from home is based on deliveries or quality of the task completed by the employee. Similarly, a few businesses allow flexibility of working because many employees have family members to tend to and it may be disturbing to working at day time so, many businesses allowed employees to work at nights or using flexible timing of the employee (WHO, 2020). A few companies from the IT sector also allow employees with incentives and bonuses for the installation of internet services and other amenities for developing of a working environment at their homes. Apart from these, working women were given special support and assistance like flexibility and low pressure for work and better work-life balance as a strategy of workplace management (Brookings.edu, 2020).
Conclusions
The main aim and purpose of the current study were to recommend new workforce management processes to business managers and CEO as a result of COVID-19 situation globally. The current report explores the adoption of new strategies and recommendations to managers and CEOs that aim to adopt work from home workplace management processes as well as virtual systems. In the following section of the report, an impact of covid-19 in businesses have been presented followed by a theoretical framework for change management and existing strategies of working remotely and leadership has been presented. In addition, recommendations have been also made.
Recommendations
- The primary recommendation is that the businesses must first conduct a survey amongst its employees on the idea or remote working and working from home and then make changes and plans to the workforce management as a result of COVID-19. It is very important to get the opinion of the employees and their perceptions to ensure that the change is made effective and accepted by all employees.
- Another recommendation is that the business may improve and change their leadership policies and cultures followed because the contemporary leadership styles will not fit with the changing workplace management and managers and leaders have to be more independent and flexible rather than being dominating and performance-oriented.
One last recommendation is that the changes in workplace management must be based on Kotter change management model as this way the issues and challenges from the current situation of COVID-19 can be explored from the purviews of the employees and strategic changes can be developed and implemented.
Reflections
Description:
Based on the current coursework assignments I was asked to write on different topics using different formats like business reports, posters, blogs and e-mails (Bikowski and Vithanage, 2016). The assignment aimed to use critical and researchable skills and explore different areas of business management like leadership and corporate social responsibilities and also the impact of COVID-19 situation.
Feelings:
Based on the current assignments I feel that I have been able to independently work in the different aspects of the assignment and generate knowledge on different topic areas of business. In addition, I also feel that these assignments helped to develop my research and writing skills which are also important in management career development.
Figure 1: Gibbs reflective cycle (Source: Husebø, O’Regan, and Nestel, 2015)
Evaluation:
The best thing about the assignment was that I was able to learn many new things about the current situation of COVID-19 and how it has impacted global businesses as well as understand concepts in leadership and other aspects of the business. Plus I was also able to develop my writing and reporting skills along with presentation abilities.
Analysis:
The assignments helped me to develop my abilities to write Emails as well as blogs for future development and business reports as part of the communication strategies and also helped tp critically explore and present the findings from secondary resources like journals and grey literature and webpages. However, I think I have scope to develop because this is the first time I have done this kind of assignments and I need to learn more about how to concisely write for blogs or newsletters and E-mails for communication skills development.
Conclusion:
The set of assessments comprised of simple blog based reports to business reports to PowerPoint presentations and poster developments. During this period I look for different resources and used these resources concisely to complete the task with effectiveness. Even though I feel that the task may be moderate in quality but my efforts have been excruciating.
Action plan:
To improve my writing and presentation skills as well as research I plan to write more blog articles and wikis for content development organisations and improve my writing skills as well as an intern at organisations whereby my reporting and communication skills can be developed. Furthermore, for the presentation, I will develop PPTs and give an oral explanation of the same to develop my confidence and communication abilities. Lastly, I plan to undertake similar tasks as part of the curriculum and further develop my skills in career development.
References
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Brookings.edu, 2020. Why has COVID-19 been especially harmful for working women? [online] Retrieved 9 November 2020 from https://www.brookings.edu/essay/why-has-covid-19-been-especially-harmful-for-working-women/.
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