Perhaps, Cutting edge limited is a UK based company, which started three years ago, the company deals with manufacturing and distributing tennis racquets. It has rapidly expanded rendering the management of its operations a challenge. In order to improve the company’s profitability and efficiency, the reorganization of its team structure is deemed necessary owing its rapid growth. Re-organization of team structure revolves around arranging of the workforce and their various jobs in line the company’s goals and objectives. Initially, when Cutting edge limited was small, communicating face-to-face was easier and formal team structure. However, in its present large size, plans have to be made about allocation of different tasks in order to improve the company’s efficiency and profitability (Dent & Galloway, 1999).
In most cases, reorganization of team structure causes layoff in an organization. One of the objectives of reorganization is reducing payroll overheads. Others involve outsourcing, absorbing acquired or merged entities, increasing efficiency, and management’s wish for change. In a reorganization, not just jobs change, be outsourced, outplaced, but jockeying for position transpires; new associations are required, and the mental challenge of the revolution itself sluggishness almost everybody in the company. During the initial stages of Cutting edge limited, there are set of standards were made in line with the commitment towards total quality service. Values were set from the beginning, and now with the company’s big size, the increasing competitive and turbulent business environment Cutting edge limited has to re-organize its team structures in order to improve its efficiency and its operations and consequently increases its profitability (Brews & Tucci 2004).
The main issue now with Cutting edge limited relates to the growth of the business: owing the business size it happens to be much more complicated to coordinate the operations, to meet customer’s expectations, to uphold efficiency and to manage employees. The management should find out a resolution to address all problems associated to the present size of the company. The source of those problems was business growth so the way out is to reorganize the team structure of Cutting edge limited into various Strategic Business Units. Dividing the business into various business units will make easier to manage the efficiency of all the business units. Not just that but the various units will be more flexible and thus let them improve the response of the expectations of the customer. In addition, this reorganization will enhance the management of the workers (Dent & Galloway, 1999).
The management of Cutting edge limited should not end here after reorganizing the team structure of the company activity into various business units. But should go further and transform on how workers are delegating tasks inside those various business units. As an alternative of arranging structure in a hierarchical manner, the management should opt to put into operation a team approach to achieve the objective of the company. By doing this the management will be transferring the leadership responsibilities from the managers to the workers enabling them to have sound decision making power which will lead to an increased workforce responsibility and accountability. These transformations will motivate the workers to find out innovative solutions for their tribulations in stead of waiting the management to chip in for the solutions. Team restructuring enables the workforce to be task oriented and hence all employees will participate in search of various solutions when problems occur. Engaging all members of the team will be more productive other than leaving it to a manager to give solutions. Team restructuring will enable Cutting edge ltd to deliver tennis racquets in time, this will enhance satisfaction of customers. Consequently restructuring will reinforce teamwork among employees by including all members in finding ways of delivering tennis racquets efficiently (Cameron, Kim & Quinn 2006).
Furthermore, the company has to form groups called “superteams”. These groups will be self managed and will be under minimal supervision from the management of the company. These groups are to be more inventive and have a quality and speed as compared to the normal teams. Again, such teams will directly be concerned in solving issues arising from the company. This will save a lot of time and expenditure and thus enhance the company’s profitability and efficiency. Summarily, reorganizing the business into various units will promote the quality of services offered by Cutting edge ltd. Moreover, forming the self-managed groups will allow cutting edge ltd improve the quality of its services, profitability and efficiency. This will be realized through utilization of all the employees’ creativity and skills and again by motivating them (Cameron, Kim & Quinn 2006).
The self-team will be more beneficial as compared to the normal teams in that, their leadership is within. The fact that team members are engaged in making their own decisions, they therefore, have a sense of belonging and possession within their various tasks. They will also feel satisfied for the outcome of their decisions. Although, there are direct impacts on the outcome due to the fact that the decision was as a result of working as a team and so the probability to have sound decisions are high nevertheless an indirect impact will also be realized owing the team members participation in the process of making decisions. For instance when an individual participate in the process of making the decision, it will be more probable to struggle for proper implementation, as opposed to implementing a solution which he/she was never involved in making (Galbraith & Jay 2002).
In team restructuring, the responsibilities of group members can be interchanged. This will make the business capable of harvesting much more from its workers potential; above all, the workers will be much more encouraged. The change of tasks gives workers a chance to perform new tasks, acquire new skills and hence avoiding boredom. In a restructured team, work effort will be unified as opposed to unstructured team. This unified effort will enhance team results since an individual work effort where an employee focuses on his own task without involving other members will yield lesser outcome. This way, team members will be able to appreciate their achievement and thus feeling motivated. In Cutting edge ltd, the team restructuring will attract a bigger number of workers to participate in quality production and delivering of tennis racquets and hence customer satisfaction (Brews & Tucci, 2004).
After team restructuring, the management of Cutting edge ltd should create a job-secure environment in order to keep the team members involved and motivated. In fact, the company would have created a conducive environment for work where employees will participate. A right working environment is that which will involve all members hence avoiding failures and mistakes. To support the team restructuring, the company management should reward and recognize those members and teams who excel in their various duties. This award will motivate employees by recognizing them and by promoting competition amongst the teams. The team restructuring will enable managers be facilitators, this will motivate workers perform their respective duties and participate in the process of solving problems. Managers of Cutting edge ltd should empower employees by letting them make appropriate changes necessary in improving customer satisfaction and productivity of the company (Galbraith & Jay, 2002).
Team restructuring will also facilitate the aspect of power transfer to team members from the management. This will give room for transfer of responsibilities towards the team, which makes them enjoy the outcome of their decisions. By doing this Cutting edge ltd management will improve the effectiveness of all the team members since teams were liable for the outcome and also the inspiration among workers is improved owing the responsibilities and power transfer. The management will also assist employee’s effectiveness through goal setting procedure. As opposed to unstructured team, the responsibility of management in team-restructured system is to lay attainable and clear goals always utilizing ideas and input of the members. These ideas and input become more significant after goal setting since the workers are the ones giving the solutions to attain the goal. In addition, cutting edge ltd management should act on the best suggestions from employees. As opposed to the unstructured team system where the management both sets the goal and give solution required to attain certain goal. The team restructuring in Cutting edge ltd will allow managers to have a role in facilitating the setting of goals, on the other hand, solution finding is typically a team task. In order to uphold team motivation and effectiveness the manager of the company should give coaching and feedback process to the whole team and not an individual (Birckley & Jim, 2003).
The role of a manager after team restructuring is more of facilitation than management. The managers have the responsibility to creating the most favorable work conditions so as to have members of the team prepared to take roles to work competently and solving problems on their own. It is important that when implementing team structuring, key people must be involved; this means the executives and other upper-level management whose processes and workers will be influenced by the restructuring. For example, if a new technology is to be introduced in the business, the key people should not be just top management, but lower-level managers who also oversee the workers’ use of the introduced new technology. A diverse set of key people should be concerned in minimizing the cost of introducing the technology. Developing a plan for successful implementation of team restructuring is vital. The developed plan should assist to describe the responsibilities of the key people concerned where as also laying out short-term as well as long term objectives for the restructuring (Birckley & Jim 2003).
The management of Cutting edge ltd should uphold the plan for implementing team restructuring; the management should follow up on the plan it lays. This will make the rest of members of the team adapt to the team restructuring. If the management of the company fails to offer the necessary support for the plan to be applicable, it is unlikely to be successful. The management’s communication with workers on what is happening, why the team restructuring are being put in place, and how they will implement is vital. Since team restructuring can cause a lot of fear, better communication can be employed to cool down workers and give confidence to their continual support. In addition to improved communication, the management should consider any communication from the members. They ought to be accessible to act on suggestions or respond to questions that workers may have. Creating chances for member’s feedback like having an open-door management policy or holding meetings may successfully facilitate team restructuring.
Team restructuring in Cutting edge ltd may encounter various pitfalls; the management of the company may be attracted by the simplicity and power of the restructuring process, but then the process of putting in place is extremely expensive and time-consuming. The process requires a substantial amount of money and other resources to put in place the team restructuring. Another challenge is the differing perceptions of members of the team: The idea of teamwork differs among cultures, employees from diverse cultures will, in all possibility, portray a team’s membership criteria, objectives and activities in extremely dissimilar terms. This diversity will make it hard to institute the root cause of a problem, which may be within the team members since it’s hard to differentiate between personal and cultural factors. This makes team restructuring and problem solving more cumbersome (Birckley & Jim 2003).
The reorganization of team structure may faces resistance from some of the employees. The restructuring can cause some employees uncomfortable in executing their duties, their relationships with managers and coworkers and in their areas of expertise. Even when employees are not very contented with the present workplace and consequently welcome the restructuring, they may find the process to be demanding. Helping workers foresee difficulties and notifying workers of how these pitfalls will be dealt with can be a basis of comfort to them. When Cutting edge ltd proposes major team restructuring, those implicated will begin to be anxious on how the process will change their responsibilities and the required skills. The most thriving employees of a company may feel endangered since they are good performers under the old structure of the company. Some regular worker reactions to team restructuring include denial, confusion, anger and loss of identity. Such resistance is not only experienced among workers but also executives and managers may be prone (Birckley & Jim. 2003).
Team restructuring is personally a taxing issue for everybody affected; nevertheless, it is beneficial to the entire company in the long run. How the management reacts to workers resistance can decide the fate of the business. For instance, a sense of confusion by the employees, which is habitually represented by continuous questioning from employees and/or management — typically implies that not sufficient information, has been offered. This is a chance to convey supplementary information to workers, such as repeating the big picture and the reason the corporation is working so hard to redefine its business culture. This is also an opportunity to give assurances that the administration is going to address their concerns of the employees (Galbraith & Jay, 2002).
Another common challenge/pitfall facing the restructuring process is denial or doubt that actual reorganization will take place. This reaction takes place sometimes since workers will not want any alteration in their tasks they are used to, and in other times they do not trust the administration is fully dedicated to the idea of restructuring. In any case, the feedback also signifies an opportunity for administration to recognize issues that may perhaps be present transversely in the business and address them. The employees can also bring administration and higher-ups the attention that the actual reorganization of team structures is not consistent with the framework that was put in place. A probably related feedback is anger, sometimes goes together with attempts to sabotage the management efforts to reorganize. Once more, there can be advantages to this kind of behavior. Workers who so obviously make their feelings recognized let managerial leaders in on which hindrances to restructuring are probable to take place, and administration can then devise methods to address them. It also encourages negotiation with other employees (Brews &Tucci, 2004).
Another pitfall is the fact that employees who believe themselves experts or specialists in a certain field are frequently asked to begin, for example, operating in a dissimilar functional field or employing different technology), when business make cross-training be among their goals. Again, this intimidates the comfort zone for numerous workers at all levels of the business. Having demonstrated themselves once, they are still ordered to do so repeatedly. In order to relieve these fears, administration needs to persuade employees to take initiative, ask questions, and take risks. Fear of not a succeeding is perhaps one of the strongest grounds for opposing restructuring (Miles, 2003).
Companies that anticipate reorganization will be embrace need to analyze failures and risks as tools in which the business can learn and expand. Accordingly, resistance ought to be discouraged, whereas management will feel it is most significant to put in place a positive spin on the whole thing, business management will realize that demonstrating their own concerns on the team restructuring of the company assist other employees to deal with their concern (Galbraith & Jay, 2002). It also offers them a chance to instruct others on how to discover best practices in ordinary circumstances, and to let workers know they understand their concerns.
Resistance is another challenge of reorganization of team structure; this affects employees and managers equally when the process is put in place. Resistance is a phenomenon, which occurs naturally and can easily be tackled in a constructive approach. In this respect, resistance is an indication of a radical transformation in the reorganization of team structures.
Management can be of assistance by foreseeing common reactions and utilizing them to their best benefit. For example, if a member of staff is able to make requested transformation to his performance but not keen to do so, some compromise may be all that is necessary to convince that individual to follow along with the new direction of the business. For those who opt for transformation but lack various basic skills, intended training could be required to suppress the fears of those individuals. Whatever the conflict a company encounters, it is almost an assured part of transformation, which is a continuous in the business setting. Globalization of markets and rapid innovation in technology, a company cannot afford to relax on its success (Miles, 2003).
In conclusion, reorganization of team structures in Cutting edge ltd will assist significantly in the effective manufacturing and delivering of tennis racquets. The process will enable the company to manage the challenges and pitfalls associated with its full grown size. Team restructuring will transform the entire operations of UK based Cutting edge ltd hence increasing the profitability, efficiency and…