Human+Resources

1. Construct an organisation chart for //Reach out// and describe the nature of this structure.

2. Explain the roles of Neil Johnson (Finance and Strategy) and Laura Chan (Communication and Networking

3. Evaluate Neil’s desire to outsource the therapist scheme management role (line 110).

4. Identify and explain the barriers to effective communication at //Reach out//. Discuss solutions to overcome these barriers.

The The first source of ineffective communication is between the managers of the business. As it seems, Laura and Neil have a problem communicating due to their different schedules. While Laura is away on vacation, Neil cannot make decisions and implement changes due to their shared positions as Directors of Reach Out. A solution to this would be to separate their roles and have only one director- to reduce conflict and simplify the organizational chart, hence increasing effective communication. This would decrease the span of control of the Director, thus making it easier to oversee the overall activities of the business but would increase the chain of command- hence, delaying effective communication. Another barrier to effective communication arises between Andrew and all the people around him such as Neil, Laura, the therapists and clients. His poor communcation skills and other disabilities caused by Asperger's syndrome have made it difficult for him to keep up with tasks of arranging and confirming meetings between therapists and customers. This has posed a major problem as it is affecting Reach Out's cash flow, and may have affected the business' reputation and reliability in the eyes of customers. To solve this issue, Reach Out could consider training Andrew to help him overcome his problem although this may be costly to the business. However, it is important to realize that this conforms with the companies mission and vision statements, enhancing the image of Reach Out's as an ethical company. There are also other factors which may be the cause of the poor communication in Reach Out, for example the informal communication methods. Perhaps, these informal ways are influencing the other managers and therapists to be more 'laissez faire' with their leadership. This may be affecting the employees' view on the authority in the business, and may be leading the company into bad habits of ' company culture'. Perhaps, Laura should change her leadership style, or adapt a more democratic style where she will have more control over decisions, and ensure better communication with the business. Furthermore, as Reach Out is dealing with therapists who do not have to physically come to the office, they should implement a more reliable system such as e-mails or smartphone services ( BBM, text messages) which would allow the managers to contact the therapists at all times. This may be costly in the beginning, however it seems that most businesses nowadays are relying on rapid telecommunication methods as these are very effective.

In conlusion, there are many ways to solve Reach Out's communication problems, although they are all likely to come with a cost or an initial drawback to the business. It seems that communication is a serious problem ( as seen on the fishbone diagram) thus it deserves to be investigated and changes should be implemented -despite the cost- as this would ultimately improve the business' activity and in return increase sale revenue.

An excellent response! (HEBE)

5. Evaluate the effectiveness of Laura’s Laissez-faire leadership style at //Reach out.//

6. Use motivational theory to analyse possible strategies to improve the motivation of the therapists.

Herzberg felt that workers could be motivated by the work itself. This is the case with the workers at Reach Out because they are helping the society by helping autistic children. Herzberg argued that employees should be trained to do tasks they were not capable of doing before they were recruited. In Reach Out, the therapists are students who are inexperienced and unqualified for helping the autistic children, training is necessary in order to increase efficiency as well as create better relations with the families. This would increase motivation as there is better communication between the child, parents and the therapist, creating stronger relationships. Furthermore, Herzberg also believed that recognition increased worker satisfaction. Neil and Laura could do this through praise and have a system where they would announce a therapist of the month. This would motivate the therapists to work at their full potential. This allows for healthy competition between the therapists. However, job enrichment and job enrichment, a big part of Herzberg’s theory, are not quite applicable to the therapists in Reach Out. Herzberg used skilled and qualified workers in his research sample, whereas the therapists at Reach Out are less skilled, therefore this theory may not be well suited for Reach Out.

In addition, Vroom’s expectancy theory could also be used to increase motivation. Vroom felt that if workers lacked the ability to do a task, their level of effort would be lower. The student therapists in Reach Out lack the skill and training to help the autistic children, therefore Vroom’s theory can be applied to this. At the moment, the therapists are not 100% reliable as they turn up late to appointments, which lower the efficiency of Reach Out as well as lower their reputation. Neil and Laura can use a rewarding system where they would reward therapists when they met performance expectations. This would increase worker motivation as they would want to get the rewards. However, because Neil and Laura are the only directors of Reach Out, they may not be able to keep their promises. So they may end up not gaining the trust of their employees, and worker motivation may decrease. A good response, although the strategies that have been recommended have not been fully evalauted (i.e. weigh up the strengths and drawbacks) as required by the term "analyse" in the question. (HEBE)

Second Answer:

According to the case study, Reach Out has been suffering from several complaints from their customers regarding the local student therapists which have been assigned to them by Reach Out [Line 95]. The general consensuses of the complaints states that the therapists sometimes failed to be punctual and arrive at the time allotted to them or failed to turn up at all [Line 98-99]. The students’ cause has been argued on behalf of Andrew Grandin who feels that the students need more flexible working patterns so as to be able to attend their lectures and also have their travel fare paid for as it takes out a considerable portion of their wages [Line 104-105]. The problem put forward is that the students are not motivated as they feel that their wage, while satisfactory, does not leave them with enough spending power for themselves due to reductions from paying travel fares. Reach Out can implement the following theories to motivate them to perform better. According to business theorist F.W. Taylor, the main incentive for an individual to work is to make money for themselves. Hence he introduced the idea of a piece rate system where he claimed that the more efficiently and productively an employee worked, the more they should be paid. This can be applied to the case of Reach Out as well. Neil who is in charge of finance and Strategy [Line 38], could look into altering the wage system in such a way that the students who possibly perform the best and/or work with the most autistic children with minimal complaints from both sides should be paid more. This would motivate the students to possibly work harder to attend sessions and possibly also work with more children as they will be motivated by the prospect of earning more cash for themselves. This, additionally, could mean a better reputation and, possibly, a larger customer base for Reach Out. Another Business theorist McGregor states that the belief managers have about their workers could also affect how motivated his/her employees are. McGregor devised two theories which states that ‘Theory X’ is a scenario where the manager has a negative attitude about his employees and sees them as lazy who avoid work while ‘Theory Y’ takes a more positive approach. He has stated that businesses should be more like Theory Y. As can be seen from the case study, Neil embodies the ‘Theory X’ style of management as he is feeling that Andrew is not working and only giving excuses while the student therapists are being lazy regarding their work. If Andrew were to adapt his management style and follow a more democratic style of management by possibly allowing the students to fix their own timings and charges from the families, they might possibly feel that they are being delegated more responsibility and will work harder and better. Thirdly, Business theorist Herzberg also claims that employee motivation revolves around two categories. Hygiene factors and Motivators. Hygiene factors are the physical aspects such as work conditions and pay which might be de-motivating them while motivators such as recognition and praise might also be the case. With regard to Reach Out, Neil could use the physical aspects by improving pay and adapting work conditions to allow for smoother operation for the students and also motivate them by allowing them more responsibility and praise them more for good work which might motivate them to continue working hard and well. These are the possible motivational theories that can be used.

Effective use of theory, although the strategies that have been recommended have not been fully evalauted (i.e. weigh up the strengths and drawbacks) as required by the term "analyse" in the question. (HEBE)

7. Evaluate Neil’s rewards package based on Performance related pay (PRP)

Firstly, one benefit of Neil’s PRP rewards package is that it due to his 10 % commission he has increased ‘financial motivation to make reach out successful’ (L41) Secondly, a further benefit is that this PRP is more flexible than profit related pay, further motivating Neil to work hard and meet sales goals. however this may result in him focussing on quantity rather than quality of work. Thirdly, PRP is a fairer system of pay since hard work is rewarded Fourthly PRP Helps develop a performance culture where people strive to achieve their targets.  However one disadvantage of PRP is that it may result in stress on Neil when trying to meet his targets because he is solely in charge of ‘finance and strategy’ (L38) Secondly PRP may not promote teamwork between Laura and Neil as they both focus on separate areas of the business with different goals to achieve and PRP only rewards individual targets that are set. This may lead to other workers feeling alienated especially if they feel that they are being treated unfairly and their colleagues are being better rewarded. Thirdly there is the risk that Non-financial motivators may be ignored. This influences future conflict between Neil and Laura when trying to decide on future strategies to generate further revenue, as Neil focuses on options that only focus on financial motivators which may ‘damage the credibility of Reach Out’s vision’ (L158)

In evaluation Neil’s PRP package can be seen as beneficial because, PRP influences Neil to be motivated to make reach out successful, as his pay relies on the amount of revenue coming in to the business. However, there is the potential risk of non-financial motivator being ignored, such as the issue of workers having to pay for ‘public transport’ and the need for ‘flexible working patterns’ (L105). Nevertheless since Neil is a joint director he has a responsibility to keep his employees happy as demotivation may result in an overall disadvantage for the charity, for example negatively affected customer-employee relationships. This is therefore why Neil’s PRP rewards package is seen as a beneficial decision.

// A sound response. However, the evaluation can be strengthened by giving some weighting (e.g. "this is a significant factor becuase...) when discussing each of the benefits and disadvatnages rather then simply listing / briefly describing them as done here. (HEBE) //

8. Examine the methods that the therapists could use to try to improve their working conditions.