Using Problem-Solving To Address Challenges Essays Examples

In terms of modern knowledge-based economy, human resources play a key role in ensuring successful functioning and development of an organization. Thus, developing employee commitment and loyalty is currently of particular importance for those, running organizations. As employee loyalty and employee productivity are directly concerned with the employee satisfaction factor, the notion of employee satisfaction becomes topical within the modern organizational context. According to Topolosky (2014), employee satisfaction deals with a set of one’s subjective experiences at the workplace (p.2)
The managerial problem that will be addressed for the purposes of this assignment is directly concerned with raising the degree of employee satisfaction for the sake of innovations’ development. The major problem of the company under study lied in the fact that competitors managed to create cheaper substitutes for products that it concentrated on, namely smartphones. For the management of the Smartphone Company, it became clear that the future of the venture depended on the introduction of a massive innovation that could make customers turn back to its products.
While management group was confident that employees would be stimulated by existing issue and start concentrating on the innovation development, conversations with employees revealed a threatening trend. The majority of the employees looked discouraged and did not seem to be challenged enough. After the meeting, one of the managers occasionally heard staff members’ discussing job opportunities with other companies, producing consumer electronics. Thus, the management of the Smartphone Company became aware about the fact that employees tended to be highly dissatisfied with their experiences of working with the company, and understood that boosting employee satisfaction was the only possible way to save the situation and sustain company’s market share.
The first step of the problem-solving framework, applied by the management, is problem identification. With regard to problem identification, managerial problem is to be addressed as the gap between a current state of affairs in the company and a desired state to be achieved (Reference for Business, 2015). Problem identification represents a key step of problem-solving process, because proper identification of a problem is a prerequisite for elaborating on suitable solution. Wrong identification of a problem may lead to unnecessary activities that can result both in mistakes and loss of time.
While there are lots of specific problem identification tools (e.g., statistical process control; benchmarking), current case did not require applying them, because the problem was clearly articulated by staff members themselves. An important technique that was used to identify a problem in a precise way was management-by-walking-around. Walking around and communicating with staff members allows getting aware about employees’ subjective experiences at the workplace. In case of Smartphone Company, management invested significant efforts in defining the sources of employee dissatisfaction, so that a problem could be addressed specifically, rather than in general terms.
The second step of the problem-solving process deals with verifying the problem. As in case at hand the problem was quite straightforward, it was appropriate to verify it in a cursory way (Reference for Business, 2015). More complicated problem could have required an in-detail analysis of external pressures, influencing an organization, namely suppliers, customers, regulators, competitors, availability of substitute products and changes in technologies.
The next step to be addressed is elaborating on a formal definition of a problem. It is important to note that a focused definition of a problem allows saving resources, needed for solving it. The problem of Smartphone Company was defined as the lack of employee satisfaction, causing employees’ incapability of developing creative solutions to complex challenges and threatening with employees’ choosing to work with competitors.
Now that the problem is precisely defined, it is vital to conduct a reliable root-cause analysis to find out the reasons that lie behind an emerging problem. In the case under study, Ishikawa diagrams (also known as fishbone and cause-and-effect diagrams) were utilized to define major causes of employee dissatisfaction (Joiner Assoicates Inc., 1995, p.8). Before the diagram was utilized as a major brainstorming tool, several surveys were conducted among staff members for them to define major factors, calling forth them being dissatisfied with their work.
The root-cause analysis allowed to establish that psychological environment in the company was the major factor, leading to employees’ feeling uncomfortably and not willing to work for the Smartphone Company. Major factors, leading to employees’ psychological dissatisfaction, included hierarchical organizational structure and the mode of communication that prevented staff members from discussing ideas in an open way.
After major reasons behind the problem were identified, management started with generating alternatives for solving managerial problem at hand. The peculiarity of this stage of problem-solving lied in the fact that external circumstances crated a need for rapid solution. Thus, it was decided to concentrate on options that provided for an opportunity to make a significant and quick change in employee attitude towards the company and challenges it faces. While a change in organizational structure (transfer to flat tem-based option) did not seem to be manageable within a short timeframe, it was decided to concentrate on empldiagrams
oyee benefits and facilitation of free communication between staff members and management. At the same time, simple refurnishing of an organizational structure was not likely to influence communication issues due to time-consuming nature of a required transition.
Implementation represents a key aspect of problem-solving process. In case of the Smartphone Company, the management influenced employees’ attitude towards the company through provision of extra employee benefits. While it was hard for the company to finance significant benefits, small benefits were introduced, and a new employee-centered plan of the Company’s development was presented. The plan was an important incentive for employees to concentrate on developing solutions for existing challenge, so that the plan could be implemented. Following informal events helped to break an ice between staff members and employees and provided employees from different departments with an opportunity to discuss existing challenges. Soon after the intervention several ideas for creating an innovative smartphone were presented to the management.
The approach, chosen by management, helped the company address an internal challenge that prevented it from addressing external threat, concerned with the development of substitute products.
It is evident that the approach, chosen by the company, could have a different outcome, if management had lacked persuasiveness and openness, when communicating with employees. Despite the fact that an organization’s success is doubtless at current stage, it is now vital for it to sustain and enhance new mode of relationships between employees and management for the future. In long-term perspective, management can consider transferring to a flat team-based organizational structure, so that strong hierarchy does not prevent employees from effective communication and generation of creative ideas.

References

Joiner Associates, Inc. (1995). Cause and effect diagrams: plain and simple. Madison: Joiner Associates, Inc.
Reference for Business (2015). Problem-solving. Retrieved 25 March 2015 from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Or-Pr/Problem-Solving.html
Topolosky, P.S. (2014). Linking employee satisfaction to business results. London: Routledge