A REPORT ON DaTa Co:IMROVING WORKFORCE COLLABORATION

SUBMITTED
TO
TUTOR

Michelle Mc.Lardy
MA HRM MO8

By

ARPITA DIXIT ID: 5245651

Release Da e 12 Dece!"er 2#1$

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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INTRODUCTION In modern business world, organizations are increasingly focused and specialised.

Nowadays they tend to plan and progress in their main fields and other basic supporting jobs are outsourced to different organizations or agencies, who are more specialized in those fields. This phenomenon of outsourcing work is a local as well as global trend in most developed countries of world. Financial working advantages and implications of outsourcing on are always been matter of debate in media and public in big countries. ut even if this is entirely a local restructuring within one country, professional workers of different outsourcing agencies working in the premises of a parent organization may create some issues and problems that may negate the advantages of using outsourcing. !ometimes It can be a barrier in the work pattern of parent organization. "ost of these problems are due to lack of communication, no clear guidelines regarding administrative responsiveness and poor interpersonal relationship between employees of parent and outsourcing agency, also lack of training of agency employees in relation to occupational safety and legal rules and procedures and poorer integration to work as team with employee of parent business. In short there is lack of team building and group working ,poor communication and decision making because different management team cater to different workers.

Team Building and Group Working Team uilding is organizational development intervention to help team members to

understand their own roles more clearly and improve their interaction and collaboration. Team is a phenomenon which is used by organization to achieve common goal of organization and each team member is interdependent on each other. #eople may

confuse about the group with team but the group is the group of employees giving their

individual effort to do the job. Team has a leader who work as a facilitator and support the team,assign the targets give insight to each team member about their role in team and try to establish harmonic interaction as team to achieve the main goal. Team building is also beneficial in making positive attitude and communication between the organizational members and good management practice $%ootegem and enders, &'''(. ut it is found

in )aTa *o there is lack of communication between )aTa *o employees and other two agencies .

Communi a!ion *ommunication process in an organization is a chain of messages passed between employees and their manager in order to fulfil the main goal of organization .In an organization even the tiniest to bigger work involve communication $+ablin and #utman ,--&( *ommunication is helpful in hiring and training employees,providing feedback, purchasing supplies, solving problems , dealing with customers,deciding strategy. ut sometimes improper information and channelization of messages and decision making through the manager become barrier in understanding priority of job. This issue is arising in )aTa *o ,workers from outsourcing agency Te*no and from Te*no manager and Tech are not clearly informed

Tech manager that they have to listen )aTa *o managers

order in their absence . .ack of interpersonal communication also found between )aTa *o managers and Te*no and Tech managers which is hindering the goal of )aTa *o. This problem occurred due to poor management and decision making. De i"ion #aking )ecision "aking is the phenomenon of scanning and selecting the best option to serve the organizational goal. %erbert $&'/0( criticized that decision making is a art of putting autonomy on subordinates and employees, as the main deciding factor is the senior manager. "intzberg $&'1'( argued that decision making is one of the important work of

managerial activities and it is one of the crucial task of manager. *yert and "arch $&'23( gave a view that if a manager is bounded to take decision in certain situation so they bias towards the scarcity rather than choosing any other alternatives. )aTa *o4s "anager is biased towards the limitation of cost of resourcing employees in the same organization. The decision making of manager is bounded towards the financial issues of )aTa *o, $to lower the cost of work force manager is outsourcing Tech and Te*no employees( and conse5uences are pathetic.

*urrent problems in )aTa*o regarding workers from Te*no and Tech employees in their premises to provide computer trouble shooting and technical support role to help them carry out their main business of data processing and handling. are the result of lack of communication between the "anagers of )aTa*o an Tecno and communication between employees of Tech, lack of

Tech and Tecno with the employees of

)aTa*o..ack of team building activities among )aTa*o and other two agencies which made Tech and Te*no employees irresponsible towards the )aTa *o. #oor management and bounded decision of )aTa *o manager made the case more vulnerable. It is also found the Tech and Techno managers were not found on the working hours,this gave an idea of breach of psychological contract. %ealth and !afety induction a big issue for )aTa *o.

RELATED LITERATURE 6esearchers working through out the world in various organizations to serve the management in their goal. "any researchers found in their studies it is important matter to understand by management for organizational development their employees must be provided training and development and team building e7ercises so that they can work as a team. It is cited by Zwarenstein and Reeves (2006) that poor collaboration and

lack of communication in health organization is causes of lack of time for team building and the negative effects found on healthcare professionals

socialization! Irmagean et al. $,-&,( e7plored that team building sessions and e7ercises benefited in team development,and positively correlated to build trust between inter professional teams in health organization. In a recent study it is stated that team building plays a significant role in organizational relations between organizations, in fact,it is helpful in making bond between the top and bottom management teams or in other words, between the employers and their employees$8an Idros etal. ,-&,( .

9ffective communication style also play significant role in organization. 6esults of study by :lbardiaz $,-&,( indicated that training of communication skills in teams, given to receptionists in an health organization , and manager found the drastic change in working pattern ,now receptionists were more friendly, and helpful towards patients and other staff. Ibad $,-&3( suggested in a study that open communication among team members serves clarity in aims or objectives and role descriptions of an organization team effectiveness. 4In this regard clear communication is the key to move effectiveness4. forward to achieve team

6esearchers suggested that ;interpersonal and communication skills are an important competency in team and organisational settings< $*I#), ,--0= Flin etal., ,--,(.%ayes and >modei $,-&&( in a study used semi?structured interviews with e7perienced I"T $Incident "anagement Team( personnel $N@ &/( to identify &, key competencies important for bushfire I"T roles. :nalysis of 3- bushfire incidents in :ustralia ,it is found that effective Incident management team personnel re5uire a range of well developed competencies, particularly teamwork,Interpersonal communication skills, leadership these can imply in decision making in organization too. Navickien, and Pevcevi it (2009) e"pressed in a

article that ;success of employment greatly depends on the ability to work in a group or team. Aroup task roles involve the positive communication skills to accomplish its task, whether it is decision?making, problem solving, information e7change or conflict resolution<.

#into and #into $&''-( e7plained that effective communication between team members is very important in a project, as this communication fosters cooperation between the team members, which is so vital in a project of an organization . ernard and !teyn $,-&3(

e7amined in a study that if contact centre is used $where 5ueries are solved by phone, emails(as a medium of communication it po tray a constructive role between project team members and project manager it is also beneficent in 5uality of project deliverables, service delivery, and customer satisfaction . #n using 20$0 %& 'ederal (mployee )iewpoint &urvey *ata +orumbescu and +ark (20$,) e"plored in a research

that if supervisors-managers boost their subordinates by robust interpersonal communication these strategies will be favourable in building trust in an

organization !.t is also found in a study that lack of transparency in decision making and secret agenda /s and politics develop mistrust among employees (&mith 2000)!

1anagers also play a efficacious role in boosting team and right decision2 making can do wonders! .t is identified in a study by 3aiser and #verfield (20$0) that leadership style and decision making of a manager can be

effective on team and unit processes and team unit processes are helpful in productive results and performance in an organization! Results of another study showed that the managers who believe in task oriented strategy see the effective result on group efficacy! 4ut the managers who use relationship

oriented strategy they found the positive effect on cohesion between group members (5abernero 2006)!

+roductive decision2making is not only influence on internal environment of organization but is also valuable in outsourcing of employees from outside organizations! Recently outsourcing is a significant trend and some times it has positive as well as negative effects on the parent organization! 7ynes $660 stated that big companies like toyota motors are following the trend of outsourcing! &electing and evaluating suppliers for outsourcing is a tedious 8ob for this decision making of a manager play a crucial role (1aitra and *ominic 20$2)!Researches showed that there are many decision making tools used by managers to choose right outsource agency or organization for that they applied 9nalytical 7ierarchy process (97+)!9nalytical networking process (9:+) model of decision making! 9nalytical 7ierarchy +rocess is based on decision2 making selection top to bottom one by one! 9nalytic network process (9:+) is a techni;ue to solve multi2criteria decision2making problems (&adeghi and Rashizadeh 20$2 ) !

ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION 4y reviewing literature it is found that proactive management and efficient

decision2making by manager is advantageous in team building and positive communication skills help in collaborating between employees :ow the ;uestion arises how it could help in solving problem in *a5a <o! 5here various issues in *a5a <o they are as follows=

1:1 Demanding Deadlines and Less workforce 5here are three types of employees in *a5a <o ($)! *ata entry <lerk whose work is to enter the which comes from customer companies (2)!*ata processing employee who analyse and evaluate the data so that the turnover profit financial statement suppliers buyers assets ;uestionnaires and market surveys etc! can be disclose to shareholders as well as stakeholders (,)!+rinters print this data and bound the copies for customer companies! &ome times the data is highly confidential so so security of theses data is very important but due to demanding deadlines its not easy to supply internal work force so temporary employees are recruited to serve the work !5his the critical issue when data is confidential how it could be protected in the presence of

temporary employees who are not even committed! 7ere the issue needs to be solved by making a contract and data protection act forms must be filled by the employee but then also it would be help full in this venture is debatable! 1:2 Ex ernal S aff!"#ec$ and #eCno%& Da a 'ro ec ion and (eal $ and Safe ) Iss*es .t is already discussed above that when *a5a <o is dealing with confidential data why they are employing e"ternal staff it is a important issue must be

reviewed by management of *a5a <o! &econdly if they are outsourcing employees they should make a criteria for selecting agency! .t is found in *a5a <o! that 8ust giving main priority to the low cost criteria !.t must be taken under consideration that whether the out staff is reliable but they are not committed to parent organization! *a5a <o must think about this issue staff must fill a confidential contract and induction either e"ternal health and

in terms of

safety issues as it is found that they are not aware of health and safety ! 1:+ ,ole Am-ig*i ) and Lack of #raining 9s it is found that 45ech and 5e<no 1anagers are working in premises of *a5a <o they are responsible for training and e"plaining the role of their employees! .t is found that 4tech and 5e<no employees were confused about the vitality of work! 5raining must be given to them by the managers of *a5a <o so they can understand the significant role and they must be given induction and education so they can decide which work is more important ! 1:. Lack of #eam working/"*ilding and Less co ordina ion .t is found that *a5a <o is not providing the culture of team to their employees and the e"ternal staff !>ess coordination between the *a5a <o and 45ech and 5e<no employees! .t is also found that there is very less collaboration between managers of all the three companies! 5eam building sessions must be helpful in these type of venture some organization give a topic to different team and they have to present seminar by this they become more caring more

cooperative to each other and work as a /we/ rather than /./ !&ome organizations give outdoor tasks like building sports etc! so the employees work as a team and interpersonal relationship develop and it is also helpful in establishing ;uality communication ! 1:0 Comm*nica ion 1a2 among 3anagers and Em2lo)ees Of Da#a Co

and "#ec$ and #eCno Agenc) .t is found in *a5a <o that there is communication gap between the employees of *a5a <o and 45ech and 5e<no employees for eg! when employees of

contracted company asked to do the preferred work first they were reluctant and said that they will other work first! 5his issue arose because they don/ t

have proper communication and neither manager of parent company

nor

outsource agency instructed them to listen the prioritize issue first than other! *a5a <o must make a policy and guidelines for employees working in *a5a <o and e"ternal company employees who are working on premises! .t is also important to give training and induction of using formal communication in organization! Respective behaviour must be appropriate for every employee and management!

1:4 'oor 3anagerial/Leaders$i2 s )le and lack of #rans2aren Decision 3aking .t is found that management is more responsible for blunders in *a5a <o rather than employees first and the foremost manager give a thought about outsourcing is it important or not! *a5a <o cant protect confidential data in

presence of outsiders it would definitely leak either way! &econdly management is responsible for 7ealth and safety .nductions legal policy as it is been seen in *a5a <o that it is causing accidents in *a5a <o! 5hirdly +oor communication and team building e"ercises are not happening which is creating problem in *a5a <o! 4tech and 5e<hno employees are feeling aloof and even they don/t have knowledge of vitality of work! >ack of transparent decision making built mistrust among employees! >astly 1anagement must review the finances how they can cut down other costs so that they can train there own employees as a technical team rather than outsourcing and employing temporary employees for meeting deadlines! 5hese are the issues re;uire close attention by management and need new policies for success of *a5a <o!

'or analysing the problem it is important to know about the how the work can be divided and how team building become productive in *a5a <o! 'or this 9randa etal!($66?) model is implied!

'irst and the foremost *a5a<o and 45ech and 5e<no held a meeting and discuss the problem skills , employees were selected and made leader of , different teams! Skills Team Problem Solving Task Include Outcomes

How to solve DaTaCo problem. #ore innovative Ideas and how Giving the usti!ied suggestion to and put into a bo" implement them in

workplace

Team Interpersonal

To create harmonic relationship Help in supporting the work among DaTa Co$ %Tech and

TeCno$ b& social gatherings in a month. Task Problem Solving To gather the in!ormation what Helped in process o! work. is the most vital ob and which should be done !irst.

.nterpersonal communication can be developed between *a5a<o 45ech and 5e<no by implying @ibbs <ommunication <limate model! @ibbs ($66$) argued that the open climate people develop self worth feel that they contribute freely without reprisal they know their suggestion will be respected and welcomed and if there is gap in their knowledge they will have learning opportunities and they feel trusted secure and confident in their 8ob and organization! )ice

versa in closed communication climate information tend to withheld unless it is to the advantage of the sender and the atmosphere of recrimination secrecy

and distrust can make working life very unpleasant! 4ut both the open and close climate is absolute so organization lies some where between the continuum of open and close communication!

O2en Comm*nica ion

Close Comm*nica ion

Descri2 i5e 1anagers of *a5a<o and 45ech and 5e<no employees must be informed the and induction and training must and e"plained functions and changes Sol* ion Orien ed

6*dgemen al 4efore they were confused about roles a left aloof in *a5a <o premises!

Con rolling

*a5a <o must involve 45ech mangers *a5a <o managers were inconsistent in and 5e<no managers and their in their message delivering method!5hey

employee in team working and they show controlling behavior! *a5a <o involved them to come up with solution !&o that they can feel them as a part of team ! O2en and (ones :othing to be hidden! 5raining must be given to each and every member of 45ech and 5e<hno and confidential contract must be filled by each member to protect the data if breach of contract legal acts must be Non Caring 4efore *a5a <o managers and 4tech and 5e<no managers were detached!

taken! 7orgi5ing .f it is found that 45ech or 5e<no employee did any mistake counselling must be given to them and try to e"plain them to focus on minimizing them in future ! 7eed-ack #ositive feedback must be given to maintain performance,commitment and relationship .!mall voucher incentives must be given on positive feedback . (os ile Needs of other staff was given less importance in )aTa *o. Dogma ic >ittle discussion and no compromising view! 5owards other staff the attitude was *a5a <o is paying they must listen no respect!

DECISION #A$ING %ROCESS .t is found that there is problem of decision making among *a5a <o manager which is also affecting the relationship of 45ech and 5ecno managers and employee !&o it is important to think about other managerial criteria to make solution! &ince problem is evolving due to less collaboration between the three companies it is beneficial to take team decision making while taking the right decision various models are found in research literature for decision making classic way of decision making always consider about the rationality !+rescriptive models of decision making recommends various ways and techni;ue how individual manager should behave to solve a problem in order to achieve a desired results! #ne of the best known prescriptive model is developed by )room and Aetton ($60,) and was later e"panded by vroom and Bago ($6??) this model is designed to help managers to determine how much

they should involve subordinates (employees) in decision making process! *epending upon the problem information available about it and time frame to solve it and to implement the solution managers have to to employ different decision making styles to solve the problem !

@roup problem

9$

92

<$

<2

@2

.ndividual 9$ problem

92

<$

@$

9C9utocratic

<C<onsultative

@C@roup (collaborative )

*C*elegative

:ow applying above model to solve the issues between *a5a <o and other two companies 45ech and 5e<no &enior managers of will lead more information from all the employees of , companies !1oreover it is revealed that they don/t have direct managerial authority over 5e<no and 45ech employees!5he autocratic style of decision making will not apply in this case! 9s there is involvement of employees of , different companies a collaborative

or group decision making process is more advantageous rather than consultative style!*uring decision making manager must answer the ;uestions gi5en in A22endix 18 it will help proper *ecision making 5o solve the *a5a <o problem managers re;uired to organize a group meeting which includes managers of other two companies and the employees who were directly involve and the issues and working in *a5a <o premises! .n this <ollaborating style subordinates collectively with concerned leaders generate and evaluate solutions to reach an agreement on final solution! >eaders (&enior managers) of *a5a <o act as a neutral chairperson they accept an implement any solution which has now the support of all the three (*a5a <o 45ech and 5e<no) companies concerned! #sborn ($6,6) criticised group working and gave concept of brainstorming it must be used to prevent personality clashes social conformity responsibility etc! 5his is essential companies ! diffusion of

to prevent conflicts between the ,

CONCLUSION

y the whole overview of 6eport it is to be concluded that team building, team work establish a intergroup communication and collaboration .8orking in team improve performance,new innovative ideas develop ,improve employee participation,enrich understanding and industrial relationship .!ense of security among employees , positively influence on psychological contract,team decision making gives employees sense of respect ,they feel like a family as a whole. >n inducing team building work ,right approach of leadership ,and productive decision making is advantageous in )aTa *o .

,ECO33ENDA#ION 2:1'ro ec ion of Confiden ial Da a 5he issue of protecting confidential data a legal contract which declares data protection act must be constitute! 9gency employees must sign the contract before starting work in *ata<o and they should be given proper information about importance of data protection and legal implications! 2:2 (eal $ and Safe ) Ind*c ion 'rogram .ntroduce #ccupational 7ealth and &afety .nduction training to every e"ternal employee who is working in *a5a <o! premises! .mportance should be stressed about their role for every employees welfare and protection! 2:+ #raining and Ind*c ion 'rogram o *nders and 9i al ,ole @eneral 5raining and induction must be given to e"ternal employees so that they can understand the vitality of 8ob! .t is important for them to know which pro8ects are more important and who is the responsible authority to decide this so that whenever they have to prioritize their work they do it in positive way as e"pected by *ata<o! 2:. :orking in #eam !:e% Dorking as a family must be introduced between all the three companies so they can collaborate each other in parent companies goal! .f manager use we instead of . it will give sense of oneness among employees! 2:0 O2en Comm*nica ion clima e .t is also important to give training and induction of using open communication climate must be created so other employees who are from e"ternal agency

would not feel aloof and odd man! .t convey sense of attachment! Respective behaviour must be appropriate for every employee and management! 2:4 'roac i5e 3anagemen and #rans2aren Decision 3aking 5ransparent decision making built trust among employees of parent company and e"ternal company +roactive leadership style can resolve big problems and collaborative decision2making can be considerate in solution of *a5a <o! 5here should be written agreement with suppliers for administrative arrangement so that agency employees should be responsible to parent company managers to some e"tent like matri" model of organization! (mployees should be deputed for longer term so that team once formed work persistently for longer duration

2:; ,e5iewing #$e Al erna i5es 9lternatives must be kept on hand so that whenever crisis occur they must be solved

29rrangements can be made with the 4tech and techno if possible to have an emergency team from their side available when an important problem arise and regular team is already busy!

29 special hotline can be made between the managers of parent company and suppliers to speak in une"pected situations to avoid any bitter confrontations between the employees of different organizations!

2 .ncentive must be given given to employees who get positive appraisal in *a5a<#! &ome bonus vouchers can also be given to the employees as a

reward!

2+arent company employees can be trained to manage the minor trouble shooting themselves so that specialists from 4tech and 5echno can be used where they are more re;uired and they don/t receive call for minor issues! 4asic .5 induction and how to get over minor troubles should be compulsory for all employees of the *ata<o!

2+arent <ompany can employ one or two employees who are best in there dealing with trouble shooting management! &o that the cost which is spend on 45ech or 5e<no agency can be used in paying *a5a <o technical employees!

2Review the finances where the cash flows how to cut down e"tra cost!1onthly financial statements must reviewed! 1ay be where *a5a <o is an impression of measuring low cost like employing 45ech and 5e<no employees in the lesser cost they can train there own employees !

21arketing Research would be incredible in this venture market can provide an idea of right supply chain and can be helpful in producing shares and shareholders too!