Posts Tagged ‘effectiveness’
The impact of time management in individual and team performance is great. Time is one of the most valuable resources of individuals and organisations and this resource needs to be dealt with accordingly. Penalties for neglecting the importance of time management for organisations include higher costs of operations and missed opportunities. Effective time management strategies for individuals include scheduling meetings and tasks in an organiser, compiling to-do lists, dealing with interruptions, eliminating distractions and others (Mathews et al., 2011, online). Time management strategies in organisational level, on the other hand, include developing Gant-Charts for the completion of important projects, imposing deadlines for each tasks, and organising virtual conferences that do not require physical presence of employees whenever possible. Moreover, some businesses have adopted an unconventional approach towards employee time management with positive effects on the bottom line. For example, one of the most famous internet companies of the present day – Google allows its employees to spend one fifth of their paid time on side projects and this strategy is often credited for the development of a range of successful Google services such as GMail and AdSense (Tate, 2013, online). References Mathews, J., Debolt, D. & Percival, D. (2011) “10 Time Management Tips that Work” Enterpreneur, Available at: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/219553 Tate, R. (2013) “Google Couldn’t Kill 20 Percent Time Even if It Wanted To” Wired, Available at: http://www.wired.com/business/2013/08/20-percent-time-will-never-die/
Employee motivation can be defined as “influencing others in a specific way towards goals specifically stated by the motivator, conforming within organisational constraints” (MacKay, 2007, p.21) and the level of motivation of the workforce represents one of the most critical factors affecting organisational performance. One of the main reasons for increasing importance of motivation in the workplace relates to the role of human resources becoming greater in ensuring long-term growth for the business. Employee motivation is an essential component of a successful business practice. No matter how appealing products and services a company is providing, how efficient are company’s business and marketing strategy and what size of budget does a company have to operate, low morale and lack of motivation in employees could be a major problem for companies who aim to make a profit in marketplace. It has been argued that while each individual has a general idea of what motivation is, these ideas differ from each other. One of the most comprehensive definitions of the term motivation is offered by Business Dictionary (2012) as internal and external factors that stimulate desire and energy in individuals to be interested and committed to a position, role or subject in a continuous manner, and exhibit persistent effort in achieving a goal. Alternatively, motivation can be defined as “a process of stimulating someone to adopt a desired course of action” (Kumar, 2008, p.12), and the level of employee motivation can be justly specified as one of the major factors contributing to overall organisational competitiveness It has been also said that “all employees have unique needs that they seek to fulfil through their jobs. Organisations must devise a wide array of incentives to ensure that a broad spectrum of employee needs can be addressed in the work environment, thus increasing the likelihood of…
Introducing change and improvements regularly in various business processes has become one of the basic conditions of survival in a competitive global marketplace of today. However, even when the importance and necessity of change is understood by many its implementation in practice is associated with a set of substantial challenges caused by a range of reasons such as loss of power, fear of unknown, job security, economic factors etc. (Zimmerman, 2011). This article analyses and evaluates diversification strategies implemented in Ford Motor Company by its President and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Alan Mulally. Ford Motor Company is global auto manufacturer that employs about 164,000 members of workforce in about 70 plants worldwide (Annual Report, 2011). The article covers three main themes: main drivers of change in Ford, key changes introduced by Alan Mulally, and an analysis of change management style of Alan Mulally. Main Drivers of Change in Ford Motor Company By 2006 when Alan Mulally was appointed Ford President and CEO there were a set of stark drivers of change. Specifically, at the time among other issues “Fords major problems was consensus management in the process of designing automobiles” (Herbold, 2011). For example, Ford Fusion sedan introduced in the same year was not equipped with navigation and side air bags, despite the fact that most of the competitor cars of the same class were equipped with such accessories. Analysis conducted by Mulally has identified that the main reason behind such a practice was high level of involvement of finance department over the design and functionality of cars (Fuller, 2011). In other words, in order to bring down the costs of manufacturing, finance department have been asking engineers and designers to be engaging in excessive cost saving when designing cars and equipping them with technological gadgets and functionalities.…
The definition of the concept of time has been associated with ambiguities and even contradictions. For instance, time has been described as “time nothing more than the occurrence of events in sequence, on after another” (Olpin and Hessen, 2012, p.167), and “a resource that, when lost or misplaced, is gone forever” (Kerzner, 2009, p.286). The definition of time management has been offered as “the process of skilfully applying time to finish and perfect a specific activity within time constraint” (Harris, 2008, p.22). However, there is no single definition of time that fully captures all aspects of the concept. Becker and Mustric (2008) divide time into two categories: quantitative and qualitative. It can be specified that “quantitative time is seen to represent time as quantities, that is, time can be measured and counted into seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, and years” (Wu, 2009, p.5). Qualitative time, on the other hand, is associated with a meaning of an activity the time is spent on. Similar to the concept of time, there are varying opinions amongst secondary data authors regarding the definition and role of time management. For instance, it has been noted that “time management is about taking charge, carefully, consciously, purposefully – not shrinking from difficulties, but engaging them” (Kristan, 2010, p.4). Moreover, some secondary data authors also note that “time management is not an end itself. It is the means to an end. When linked with setting and meeting goals it provided a way of getting really high achievement out of individuals and others with whom they come into contact” (Pearson and Thomas, 2010, p.49). Marquis and Huston (2009), on the other hand, disagree with the term of time management, and argue that time cannot be managed in any ways, but rather individuals can manage events in their lives in…
The principle of prioritising involves categorising tasks and goals according to the level of their importance and urgency, and giving priority to the most important and urgent tasks amongst the others (Hansen, 2011). This principle has been addressed by Covey (1990) in a comprehensive manner. Specifically, Covey (1990) introduces the time management matrix in the following manner: Square 1 Urgent and Important Square 2 Important, but Not Urgent Square 3 Urgent, but Not Important Square 4 Not Important and Not Urgent Time management matrix Covey (1990) recommends that people should primarily concentrate on important tasks in order to reduce the numbers of urgent tasks. In other words, within the Time Management Matrix illustrated above, Covey (1990) argues that concentrating on activities within the Square 2, reduces the numbers of activities within the Square 1. Moreover, according to the author, activities within the Square 3 need to be delegated, whereas activities within the Square 4 need to be avoided altogether. It has been stated that “priority setting is perhaps the most critical skills in good time management, because all actions we take have some type of relative importance” (Marquis and Huston, 2009, p.189). Kennedy (2004) urges to comprehend the differences between efficiency and effectiveness in managing time and states that efficiency relates to deal with assigned tasks in an appropriate way, whereas effectiveness involves choosing appropriate tasks to deal with. References Covey, S. (1990) “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” Fireside Hansen, C.K. (2011) “Time Management for Department Chairs” John Wiley & Sons Kennedy, D.S. (2004) “Time Management for Entrepreneurs” Entrepreneur Press
Goal setting, as an effective time management principle has been mentioned by Harris (2008), Boone and Kurtz (2010), and others. The importance of time management plan has been stressed by Harris (2008). Specifically, the author states that “when the management is not capable of drawing the correct time management plan, it may result to potential work related issues” (Harris, 2008, p.12). Pearson and Thomas (2010) consider goal setting as a compulsory condition of effective time management and praise the motivational aspects of this principle. According to Boone and Kurtz (2010) goals, aims and objective to be set by individuals has to meet the SMART principle, where the abbreviation stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. References Boone, LE & Kurtz, DL (2010) “Contemporary Business” John Wiley & Sons Harris, J. (2008) “Time Management 100 Success Secrets: The 100 Most Asked Questions on Skills, Tips, Training, Tools and Techniques for Effective Time Management” Lulu Publications Pearson, B. & Thomas, N. (2010) “The Shorter MBA: A Practical Approach to the Key Business Skills” Bell & Bain
Specific features need to be present within teams in order for the team to be able to achieve its objectives efficiently. ‘Integrated Model for Team Effectiveness’ framework proposed by Reis and Geller (2010) can be used in order to explore this issue with sufficient level of depth. The framework specifies eight most important features of effective teams in the following manner: Purpose. Effective teams understand, share and value team’s objectives Strategy. The ways of achieving team objectives are clear to each team member Team roles. The existence of all needed roles such as shaper, specialist, critic has been ensured within the team Work processes. Efficient operating procedures are put in place that effectively contribute to the achievement of team objectives Team processes. There is a great level of respect, understanding and trust amongst team members. Engagement. High level of team engagement is achieved through effective utilisation of motivational tools Feedback and metrics. Objective and timely information is communicated to team members regarding the team performance and their individual performances Stakeholders. Appropriate level of interaction between the team and key stakeholders is maintained. It is important to note that all team members do not need to possess the same set of personal traits, skills and competencies, rather variety within the team is welcomed to an extent that it produces a balanced outcome that would allow the achievement of team objectives efficiently. Nevertheless, there is a common set of skills and competencies to be possessed by each member of team regardless their role and function within the team. First of all, each team member needs to possess effective communication skills in order to be able to formulate their viewpoint in an appropriate manner, an adequate level of cross-cultural knowledge is also important for team members taking into account increasing forces of…