Leading and Managing Organisational Resources

Executive summary 

This report demonstrates the details of a start-up business organization, Matchbox Architect Limited. It is a construction company in the UK. The detailed report entails the annual turnover, net profit for the financial year and the previous year. The main objective of this report is to analyse the hot topic “Ambidexterity” under the following perspectives like leadership, operations and Information systems. In order to become a successful corporate entrepreneur Matchbox Architect can implement transformational leadership, proper training to employees to develop skills, knowledge sharing with practical approach and Strategic human resource management by implementing Hr – Workforce Model.

Introduction

The Matchbox Architect Limited (MBA) is an Architect Engineering Company that functions in the UK since the year of 2009. MBA is the second largest Architect firm in Northampton. It became a Private Limited company of 22 existing employees at present. The managing director of this organization is Neil Scroxton. This business organization belongs to the Chamber of Commerce in the Northampton shire. In the last data that was collected from the business organization, the annual turnover, the net profit of the financial year and the previous year the turnover profit was released. For the year 2017, it released its annual turnover of an amount of £ 494,015, the profit for the year 2017 is £ 7,547. At the same time, the turnover for the financial year 2018 went up to £ 731,012, the profit for the financial year 2018 is £ 122,926. They have experienced the turnover growth of 48% compared to the last financial year. MBA has a diverse client base that includes Residential developments (locally), commercial and industrial building contracts (regional / national). MBA is trying to expand their client base and market to expand their business. They have step into a new sector of business – Education. The MBA has completed 10,000 small businesses programme under Goldman Sachs and tend to be in state of growth. Currently the organization has 22 employees working under and they try to increase their capacity to 50 employees within next 5 financial years.

The report talk about the hot topic – Ambidexterity (balance between being productive and innovative) as stated by Tushman and O’Reilly. (1996). The ambidexterity is analysed in the following perspectives leadership, operations, Information systems.

Analysis

Key aspect – Transformational Leadership to maintain ambidexterity

As stated byTushman and O’Reilly. (1996), the ability of an organization is to be both exploit (efficient) and explore (innovative) is called Ambidexterity. The exploration and exploitation are alone not required by the organization to be ambidextrous it also requires capability to adapt to changes and technologies in order to with stand in the competition with the competitors (O’Reilly & Tushman. 2008). For rapid growth of the organization, MBA needs to focus on the innovation process related to the project works. MBA needs to focus on the innovation related to adapting to new technologies and at the same time be productive. This can help the organization to increase cost effectiveness of the projects handled by them. In order to achieve ambidexterity in the organization the role of the leadership plays an vital role. As per the opinion of Jansen et al. (2008), transformational leadership helps to achieve ambidexterity in the organization. In accordance to the statement of Bryant. (2003), The roles of transformational leaders is to set mission, vision and goals for the organization and also inspire and motivate people in the organization to achieve them. We can suggest transformational leadership for the MBA in order to achieve their missions and goals. At the same time be innovative and productive. As MBA is a start up by Neil Scroxton in 2009 and has 22 employees currently. He takes responsibilities in taking most of decisions in the organization. As stated by Chang. (2016), Neil Scroxton should provide empowerment to his employees to achieve the vision. He should ask suggestion from his employees to take decision for being more innovative and productive in the organization. He should encourage his employee to be creative. The architectural organization are meant to be innovative in order to be successful and outstand from other competitor in the competitive market. Being innovative is alone not enough for the organization it should also be productive and produce output with good quality (Botting. 2011). Increased productivity is essential for the organization. It leads to efficiency and ultimately increased profit to the organization. In order to measure the productivity of the organization, there is yet to be an universal method discovered (Eziaku and S. 2014).

Knowledge – sharing to maintain ambidexterity

 knowledge sharing practices in the organization is very important and should be implemented within the organization. Knowledge sharing plays an vital role in an ambidextrous organization that means to efficient and at the same time be creative and innovative (Im and Rai. 2008). According to Park and Im. (2003), knowledge sharing is a method of sharing information among each other in the organization. It supports the organizations in various ways like innovations, information updating , gaining knowledge and also to creative.So it is very essential for the organization to encourage it among their employees and improve the knowledge managing capacity. The two types of knowledge are the “tacit knowledge” and the “explicit knowledge”. Tacit knowledge is the knowledge that are implanted in the human mind and that can be voiced through ability applications and it is transferred in form of understanding by only seeing it (Lee and Choi. 2003). The other type of knowledge explicit knowledge it can be easily shared within employees in the organization. This knowledge can be created, documented, transferred and shared in the organization (Keskin and Halit. 2005). The knowledge sharing can be either face to face or by means of documented information. But there are some information called as “ Top Secret” which are given high values in the organization and it cannot be shared within the employee in the organization. The knowledge sharing in the organization can be done through practice approach (Viehland. 2005). This kind of approach is also one kind of knowledge sharing within employees in the organization. The advantages of the practice approach knowledge sharing is that we can even share high-value tacit knowledge. Knowledge sharing generates new innovative ideas and also we can adapt to the changes happening in the environment. Knowledge sharing can be did within the organization by conducting meetings and discussion sessions so employees can share and exchange their ideas and experiences to others in the organization. Norris et al. (2003) stated that the tacit knowledge can be only shared through discussions within the employees in the organization. As per the statement of Skyrme. (2008), knowledge sharing is based on the involvement of the employee in the organization. Everybody trusts that their knowledge is respected and it makes individuals feel valuable. Knowledge is power.

 “If HP knew what HP knows, we would be three times more profitable.”

 ~ Lew Platt, former CEO of HP(Hewlett-Packard).

knowledge sharing within the organization is extremely important. So we recommend MBA design partnership to follow knowledge sharing by the means of practice approach. Knowledge sharing can be achieved only by the employees. It helps them to gain both explicit and tacit knowledge. There are many advances in knowledge sharing like example updating the information, generating innovative and creative ideas that are useful for the MBA organization. It also generates skill of handling information among the employees under knowledge management capabilities. So MBA needs to share knowledge within the employees in the organization to be ambidextrous (exploration and exploitation).

Strategic human resource management for maintaining ambidexterity

Themain purpose of the SHRM is to enhance the employee in the organization to achieve the vision , mission and goals set by the organization. The main target of the SHRM is to increase productivity and also in same time to be creative and innovative (Sullivan. 2018). The organization must invest on their employees for their training and developments in order to keep them motivated and make sure they perform at their maximum level efficiently. The leadership favoured for the SHRM is the transformational kind of leadership. This kind of leadership is mainly based on employee oriented by creating trust and also being flexible. This also encourages the employee in the organization to develop their skills and knowledge in order to perform well in their job. The organization can also motivate their employees by providing them value – added incentives for their performances. The employees can also be encouraged to participate in decision making process as we get creative and new ideas in the process for taking efficient decisions (Mullins. 1999). As employees are the main source to the MBA design partnership and they have direct impact on the performance of the organization. SHRM basically concentrates on the employees and examines how it affects the organization performance. As per the opinion of Kaplan and Norton. (2000), “Hr – Workforce Performance Model” can be used in organization for the SHRM. The model is based on the balance scorecard. The balance scorecard principle is relating the business strategy with the HR activities in the organization to achieve the vision, mission and goals set by the organisation innovatively. The scorecard shows an overview of the organization performance by showing the growth, innovation, creativeness. The balance scorecard is used to examine, gain feedback and update organization’s strategy (Kaplan and Norton. 2000). Balance Score Card suggests four prospective frameworks namely financial perspective, Customer perspective, Business process perspective, Organization learning perspective. Balance Score Card concentrates on setting strategies and measuring it at all stages within the organization and then achieving the objectives systematically. The organization should also provide learning opportunities to employees for enhancing their skills. By implementing this SHRM in the MBA design partnership the organization can be more innovative and productive with the help of following Hr – Workforce Model. MBA also needs to focus on the innovative training process associated with the development of skill level of the employees in the organization (Guiso et al. 2015).

Conclusion

From the above study, it can concluded that in order to be an innovative and productive organization effective leadership is required and he should empower his employees and motivate them. Involvement of skilful architectural engineers in the project works can help to increase the effectiveness of decision-making process associated with construction projects of MBA. MBA also needs to innovate in the field of development of the project plan by which they will be able to reduce the cost of the project. This process can help MBA to increase the level of its profit margin by which this company will be able to make rapid growth in competitive market of UK. MBA needs to increase the effectiveness of introducing strategies to the organization. MBA needs to analyse the skill level of its employees in order to develop proper training procedure for developing their skill level. The SHRM suggested to the MBA will help the organization to run more innovative and efficient. Analysis of the skill level of employees also can help Matchbox Architect to realize the involvement of the employees in professional field of work by which they can take effective strategy to motivate the employees. It can also be concluded that, Knowledge sharing plays an important role in the organization among the employees in order to be creative, innovative and informative. Finally, it can be concluded that with the help of innovation in the field of Architect and efficient as an organization Matchbox Architect can become a successful corporate entrepreneur.

Recommendations

●       Knowledge sharing – practical approach

●       Transformational Leadership

●       Innovative technique for training the employees in the organization

In order to become a large corporate entrepreneur MBA needs to training their employees to increase their skill level in construction field. This can be done by recruiting prudential and skilful HR manager and Architect engineer. Moreover, company can hire skilful employees to develop the skill level of their employees and update their knowledge to adapt to current trends. This can help MBA to increase the level of performance of organization.

●       Strategic Human Resource Management HR – Workforce Model

Reference list

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