Sample only for
educational purposes; Copyright 2005, Robert K Russell
for GTVeloce.com
and TheSpiel.com
5 year Action Plan for the
Management of Human Resources issues within Spiel Corporation
Spiel Corporation Confidential material
is provided for the purposes of this assignment only and any use outside of
that purpose is not permitted.
The purpose of this report is to identify, assess and plan for the
primary Human Resource management issues pertaining to the employees of Spiel
Corporation in
Whilst many issues were revealed, one in particular has been selected
out. The issue of Corporate Culture “drift” has been chosen for more detailed
analysis, as much for its particular nature and scope as well as its potential
to distract and disrupt the organisation in question.
It is worth outlining here that cooperation between the two main
“halves” of Spiel Corporation in
The current processes and policies relevant to the issue are highlighted
and where possible additional changes suggested. Supporting resources are
identified for the implementation of the ongoing “drift correction” program and
appropriate owners selected. Key targets are identified along with measurements
and a timeline; consideration is also given to possible blockages to
implementation.
The plan itself is aimed at the Spiel Corporation Antarctica Executive,
including the Country Executive. A presentation of the plan is proposed at a
group meeting of the Executive, comprising the Executive teams of both Spiel
Corporation Antarctica and Spiel Corporation Web Services Antarctica, where a
business case will be put for a targeted investment in HR practices where the
expected outcome is an improved bottom line[2]
(Huselid, 1995).
Table of
Contents
Executive
Summary........................................................................ 2
1 Identify and prioritise relevant issues......................................... 6
1.1 Issue definition and scope...................................................................................... 6
1.1.1 The Organisation................................................................................................... 6
1.1.2 Human Resources issues......................................................................................... 6
1.2 Environmental Scan............................................................................................... 7
1.2.1 PESTEL analysis.................................................................................................... 7
1.2.2 Internal Environment.............................................................................................. 7
1.2.3 Scenarios or Futures?............................................................................................. 7
1.2.4 Incremental analysis............................................................................................... 7
1.3 The issues, policies and resources.......................................................................... 8
1.3.1 Issue identification................................................................................................. 8
1.4 Implementation Plan.............................................................................................. 9
1.4.1 Plan Owners......................................................................................................... 9
1.4.2 Taskforces........................................................................................................... 9
1.4.3 Managers............................................................................................................ 9
1.4.4 Champions......................................................................................................... 10
1.4.5 Communication.................................................................................................... 10
1.4.6 Goal setting........................................................................................................ 10
1.4.7 Measurement...................................................................................................... 11
1.4.8 Feedback........................................................................................................... 11
1.4.9 Roadblocks......................................................................................................... 11
1.4.10 Report........................................................................................................... 12
2 Executive focus: Ownership and
Outcomes..................... 13
2.1 The Executive Imprimatur Plan............................................................................. 13
2.1.1 The Executive survey........................................................................................... 13
2.1.2 The Experiential Exercise....................................................................................... 13
2.1.3 The Briefing........................................................................................................ 14
2.1.4 Outcomes of a successful implementation................................................................. 14
3 Conclusion.......................................................................... 17
4 Appendices............................................................................ 19
4.1 PESTEL Analysis.................................................................................................. 19
4.1.1 Political Analysis.................................................................................................... 19
4.1.2 Economic Analysis................................................................................................ 22
4.1.3 Social Analysis..................................................................................................... 24
4.1.4 Technological Analysis........................................................................................... 26
4.1.5 Environmental Analysis.......................................................................................... 27
4.1.6 Legal Analysis...................................................................................................... 28
4.2 SWOT Analysis.................................................................................................... 28
4.3 Spiel Corporation History..................................................................................... 29
4.4 Spiel Corporation’s current situation..................................................................... 31
4.4.1 Issues Identified.................................................................................................. 31
4.4.2 Policy and Practice linkages..................................................................................... 32
4.4.3 Key Players........................................................................................................ 35
4.4.4 The Broader Context in which Spiel Corporation Operates.............................................. 40
5 References............................................................................ 43
1.1 Issue definition and scope
The
selected organization is Spiel Corporation, and in particular its Antarctican staff and operations. These operations comprise
Spiel Corporation Antarctica, 100% owned by Spiel Corporation Corporation, and
Spiel Corporation Web Services Antarctica, a joint venture between Spiel Corporation,
GTVeloce.com and Addicted2Wheels.com[3].
Spiel Corporation
This report identifies only those issues that may have significant business impact, and may seriously distract or disrupt people working within the Spiel Corporation Antarctica organization. Issues are considered in light of the Organisation’s inability to significantly alter the issue itself. In this way these issues are analogous to a chemical catalyst; they remain intact and discrete in form and nature despite being causative of significant, observable changes. Consideration is also given to the ability of the organisation to respond to the issue, and the organisation’s likely interest in addressing the issue.
This report has used the well-known P.E.S.T. framework with the addition of “environmental” and “legal” categories (refer Appendix 4.1). P.E.S.T. is an acronym for the Political, Economic, Social, and Technological factors of the external macro-environment[4]. This analysis has been undertaken by researching resources generally available on the Internet; and the opportunity was taken also to informally review the identified factors with current Spiel Corporation staff. Within Spiel Corporation such research is generally conducted by representative Taskforce, where all divisions of the company provide 1 or more staff members as panel participants. Membership of such taskforces is limited, usually to a 1 year tenure.
In addition to considering the external environment, care is taken to encompass internal factors. A S.W.O.T.[5] analysis (appendix 4.2) was undertaken for that reason. Generally, Spiel Corporation departments hold S.W.O.T. meetings at a management team level and one was examined in preparation of this report, however its inclusion in the Appendices was not approved.
Considerable weighting is given to incremental analysis[6] in this report. In principle, the methodology used was to look at trends apparent from accepted data over the preceding 5 years and to then extrapolate forward by the same number. The resulting data may be found in Appendix 4.1, combined with the body of the PESTEL analysis.
1.3 The issues, policies and resources
The primary issues were identified from the
environmental scan data and are presented in Chart 1, Appendix 4.4.1.
Each PESTEL category and the data therein was compared and contrasted
with Spiel Corporation’s current situation; where issues of significance arose
the issue was captured. Spiel Corporation’s current situation was deduced from
Spiel Corporation material, including Spiel Corporation’s Intranet. Significant
portions of this material are included in Appendix 4.4.
In summary, the major issues are that “Acquisitions, divestments and outsourcing will continue to occur” and that “Corporate culture drift will occur”. It is important to note that these issues are clearly and strongly linked, and for that reason will be treated as one issue during the implementation section of this report.
1.3.1.1 Relevant Processes and/or Policies
What
policies exist now in support of these issues? Chart 2, Appendix 4.4.2, explores the policy and practice linkages.
Most pertinently for our selected issue of culture change, a culture change
program exists, however it fails to deal either with the sub-issue of
structural and procedural ‘replication’, whereby preexisting ‘heritage’
structures are simply reproduced within an Spiel Corporation world; or to
tackle the blockages to change at individual and team levels. Rather it is a
program designed to foster key values (known by the acronym CASE, for Clients,
Achieving,
In summary, the integration of strategy formulation, policy determination, process rollout and feedback is clearly indicated for all issues. A wide range of policies must interact in order to deliver the desired results and practical implementation must occur (Nadler and Tushman, 1998). Key policies and practices include Skills and Competency Management, Performance Management, Individual Development, Culture Change (the CASE program), Employee Assistance, Knowledge Management and Manager Development.
1.3.1.2 Resources
What resources are needed in addressing these issues? Chart 3, Appendix 4.4.3 identifies the key players.
In summary, the resources required vary, but common elements include Executive ownership at a strategic level, coupled with management ownership at the implementation level and staff cooperation in delivery and uptake of new knowledge. The tools used include communication techniques, cooperative think tanks such as Taskforces and HR Systems, including Performance management and Individual development programs.
Having identified the
issues, the related policies and practices, and the resources needed, an
effective implementation plan is
required. For this purpose only the 2 major impact issues will be addressed,
although they will serve as effective examples for all issues. As well, to
further simplify and acknowledge the linkages between these issues, the plan
addresses a combined issue, that of: “Concomitant
with ongoing Acquisitions, divestments and outsourcing, corporate cultural
drift will occur”
Executive ownership at a strategic level is essential. This is standard Spiel Corporation practice, with clearly communicated Executive owners attached to all HR programs or sub-projects.
Spiel Corporation has a preference for shared ownership and a matrixed, flat management structure. Taskforces are an expected part of strategy and policy formulation and that tradition is respected in this Plan.
Spiel Corporation managers are expected to take non-transparent ownership of issues and to deal directly and honestly with issues and the people concerned as and when required. This Plan respects that expectation.
The Champions process is embedded at Spiel Corporation and effective. It is proposed to use suitably motivated and trained “Culture Champions” as both the seed for effective change and for continued, long-term maintenance of the program.
“Straight-talk” is an
Spiel Corporation management desired characteristic, and line managers will be
called upon in particular to deliver the message, in team and individual
settings.
Communication will be
by multiple means, including the following:
1. Mass e-mail to all
staff
2. Launch article on Your
Portal, the Spiel Corporation Intranet
3. Town Hall launch
meetings, open to all staff
4. Follow-up, progress
articles and e-mails
5. Follow-up Executive
Roundtables at worksites
6. Openly accessible
culture change forums on Your Portal, allowing immediate feedback to questions
or comments by HR professionals and topic specialists
7. Announcements at team
meetings
8. 1:1 reinforcement in
manager-led ad hoc and planned supervision with individual team members
This is an ongoing program and the goals and progress towards those goals will be reviewed at 3 monthly intervals. Initial goal values will be developed in taskforces and by feedback from open Your Portal forums to provide a stronger sense of ownership. It is expected that cultural values will be examined purposefully, i.e. that business and organisational needs are equally important and worthy of clearly defined goals. Goals are to be clearly defined and achievable, and they will be translated by managers and staff into local performance management targets.
Measurement is linked with Goal setting and Review processes, to ensure that appropriate measurements are taken and fed back into the ongoing taskforces for continuous review and improvement. Target values will be set by Taskforces in conjunction with other methods.
Feedback is open and honest, straight talking communication to all levels of staff. Whilst taskforces and champions will have a great influence on the enthusiasm and ownership levels of the staff overall, it is by providing open feedback channels and being seen to implement suggested improvements that true reinforcement will occur. Surveys and anonymous channels for communication will be created and maintained. Your Portal Forums will provide open exchange and staff suggestions will be captured.
The greatest threat to implementation of this plan
is the opposing cultures of staff from other organisations. Whilst the chief
purpose of the plan is to normalise Spiel Corporation’s culture between the two
main companies, it is the constant inflow of staff representing different
corporate cultures that challenges that normalisation.
Failure to resource the program appropriately will
also undermine target achievement. Every link in the chain is important; a
broken link will represent a substantial risk to the overall program.
Other factors to be overcome:
1. Natural resistance to any change
2. Power relationships, especially those that will seek to preserve existing relationships in preference to forming new ones
3. Poor resource allocations, where resources that may have helped communicate or alleviate blockage are used in a misdirected manner.
A definitive report on HR issues will be generated and distributed widely, being made available to all staff, discussed in team meetings and in a follow-up Forum on Your Portal.
It is important that
an Executive imprimatur exists for the program, to ensure the ongoing
achievement of the set objectives. To that end the Executive team (comprising
of both Spiel Corporation Web Services Antarctica and Spiel Corporation
Antarctica staff) will be approached to participate in a practical
demonstration of the developing cultural divergence and what it means to the
business overall. It is important also that any potential advantages in
diversity are explored; this is not a program to rid the company of diversity,
rather it is a process to re-align values to ensure optimum cooperation exists between the two
main Antarctican Spiel Corporation companies and
other Spiel Corporation units in all geographies.
2.1 The Executive Imprimatur Plan
The executive team
will be surveyed individually prior to the report presentation to gauge their behaviours on a range of seemingly
unrelated issues, such as their attitudes to work/life balance, ethics, use of
non-renewable resources, teamwork, preference for print versus on-screen
reading, meeting administration expectations and so on. It is important to
capture behaviours, not simply to capture capsules of reiterated Spiel
Corporation policy.
2.1.2 The Experiential Exercise
Following the collection of data from the Executive
survey, analysis will be made to establish patterns of cultural preference
within the team. A facilitator will manage a debate on the key differentiators
between Executive team members with a view to elucidating why some people hold
differing views on the identified issues, and how that meshes with stated Spiel
Corporation corporate values. An examination of these variations will present
both the positive aspects of diversity and the challenges to communication that
certain indicators may suggest.
A formal briefing and presentation of the Report will
take place, with key cost items identified and solutions fully costed. This
will be a business-impact report looking at the widening gap between each
company’s cultural values and expectations and the costs inherent in bridging
that gap.
An abridged implementation plan will be provided,
including pilot project and projected savings.
2.1.4 Outcomes of a successful implementation
What can be achieved
with the successful implementation of this Plan?
2.1.4.1 Organisational
In the
In contrast, Spiel Corporation Antarctica and Spiel
Corporation Web Services are moving toward a common shared services platform
whilst drifting further apart in culture.
Shareholding in Web Services Antarctica is split between Spiel
Corporation, GTVeloce.com and Addicted2Wheels.com and a significant number of
staff are heritage GTVeloce.com staff working on GTVeloce.com premises, side by
side with GTVeloce.com staff. This
pattern is repeated in many outsourcing deals, where client staff become Spiel
Corporation staff upon the date of effect of the contract. They may however
remain on a customer site, or be moved to an Spiel Corporation building where
essentially they will remain in the ‘heritage’ structure but be overlaid with
Spiel Corporation policy and practice.
One recommendation to be made is to more vigorously and
quickly mix the incoming staff with the core Spiel Corporation staff. A clear
expectation will be set that key information will be passed onto Spiel
Corporation staff and/or captured in Knowledge Management systems immediately
after an outsourcing or acquisition and that staff will rotate roles in a
carefully judged but prudently expeditious manner. The expected outcome is a
strengthened feeling of belonging to Spiel Corporation and a lessened feeling
of retained ties with the ‘heritage’ employer.
Current briefings and inductions, typically conducted
immediately upon contract effect, will continue but will be examined for ways
to hasten integration.
2.1.4.2 Individual
A further change will be that it is recommended that
individual staff will be coached by culture-change champions on ‘they way we do
things around here’. Whilst peer support is currently the preferred route to
assimilating large numbers of new staff, the lack of effective early mixing of
staff limits the effectiveness of this value exchange.
A key outcome for the individual is a greater sense of
belonging to the new organisation and a feeling of greater support and
understanding for the stress involved in changing employers. The culture change
champions will be selected for positive values and skills that will assist in
passing on important values such as teaming to the new inductees. In this way
the support practices will not only provide welcome assistance to staff
undergoing great change, but also assist in maintaining profitability through
improved efficiency[7] (Pfeffer, 2001)
2.1.4.3 Community