1: Data to decipher challenges between the cross functional groups
Cross functional groups means a group of people who have diverse functional expertise and aim at achieving a common objective. The cross functional group may be made of people from various departments like operations, finance, human resource and marketing. Essentially all employees of an organization are included in this set up. In some situations members may come from outside an organization particularly from major customers, suppliers, and consultants.
Most cross functional groups are self directed- that is they simultaneously respond to a particular issue which may not be specific. The degree of freedom of decision making depends on the level of consensus reached by the individuals in the group.
Cross functional team is a platform of strong leadership and the nurturing of teamwork and innovativeness. When strong leadership is created it boosts unity and hence the organization’s success. But the major challenges affecting this cross functional groups are the external pressures. These pressures may include the shareholders demanding increased profits. These pressures however may make the company develop the skills of surviving. The cross functional group leader should know when the challenges begin and how do these challenges affect the company performance.
Mutual misunderstanding may also arise from the cross functional teams as most people coming from different departments may not be able to agree on the major agenda. There also might be underdeveloped cross functional collaboration which affects the functional mindset of the team members. Most organizations embracing cross functional team spirit have been faced with increased chances of misunderstanding and poor decision making (Cleverly, 2010)
2. Diagnostics and analytics
The manager also should be ready to apply the meaning of cross functional groups whenever and wherever the projects occur in the company or in a department which could be easily handled by a group of employees effectively. These employees should have varied functional knowledge and skills. The cross functional teams should be made of members from different areas and should be possessing diverse experience and abilities. It does not have to include all employees from different departments. The application of cross functional teams in small scale will eventually yield results. A cross functional team that consists of 75% of members coming from different departments and with different skills is twice more likely to perform efficiently than a team with few embers form different departments.
An employee who shows high level of competence and who drives the organization towards achieving team specific targets and objectives should be recognized. Additional training should be given to members of cross functional teams.
An organization needs to come up with ways of considering the contributions of other specialised functional groups. Across functional group should be highly interdependent, and should work in tandem with the corporate objectives of the organization. It should also necessitate the achievement of specific targets like improvement in sales, marketing, Rand D, production and other sectors of the organization.
There should be a close relationship between the entire organization and cross functional groups. Consultations should be done on a higher level due to the fact that the group is made up of people with varied skills.
Under the analytics, it has been found out that the comprehensive survey of fortune 500 companies in USA showed that there are up to six challenges affecting the cross functional groups. 80% of the respondents pointed out that tension exited between the members themselves. They also argued that there were issues of overlapping responsibilities, lack of well defined priorities and organizational targets, conflicting inter and intra personal roles. The study, done by Holland, using Cohen and Bailey’s heuristic model of determining the team’s effectiveness, showed that high performance and efficiency I cross functional teams could be achieved by reducing the diversity of the members and improving the motivation for success. The cross functional performance is affected by the choice of partners, the type of goals, the type of culture, interaction patterns, managerial support, informal relationships and trust and cohesion. Studies done on how these variables affect the success of cross functional relationship indicate that unified culture with partners had the highest contribution, with a mean of 5.77 and a standard deviation of 1.35. Being close physical location contributed the least with the standard deviation of mean of 3.61 and standard deviation of 1.58
3. Strategic goals of the business, criteria of decision making, horizontal and vertical structures of multidimensional organization.
The most important strategic goals of an organization entail the achievement of the objectives of the organization, and driving the organization to a higher level. Strategic goals of an organization should include focused objectives and clear action plans. Each goal must indicate what the organization can actually achieve not what it ‘may’ achieve. Realistic setting of action plans should be part of working strategic activity so that strategic goals are achieved.
The strategic goal of the organizations should follow SMART principle. The strategic goal of the organization is to support its mission statement which will be central in the other goals the organization. Supporting the mission statement means trying to work as per the provisions of the mission statements.
Another strategic goal for the companies is to be high performing organization. This allows the companies achieve their strategic goals. Though most companies have varied goals, this goal is usually universal for all organizations. The organizations should stimulate efficiency of operations the integration of solid management principles, the anticipation of primary goals achievement and full support of the organization’s objectives.
Decision making criteria
Organizations usually make decisions on daily basis. The nature of the organization’s decisions depends on the criteria which were used. Organizational policies should be followed when coming up with a particular mode of running the organization. The simplest decision criteria are as follows:
-One person is responsible for making the decision
-One person in the cross functional group consults the group, hence facilitating the final decision criteria
-the team finally makes the decision based on the consensus or majority rule.
Vertical organizational structure and horizontal organizational structures
Vertical organizational structure means that there is a very strict top down and bottom design of organization. Top down structure is basically favoured form in most organizations. The reason is because the company’s chain of command is very strong and should not be broken. But in some rapidly advancing firms, the use of vertical structure has proven to be somehow inefficient, since the decision making is slow ( the information has to go through many people before the final solution is made).
Horizontal organizational structures imply flat structure of the organization. An organization which has a perfectly horizontal structure has no leaders and the chain of command is not clearly defined. In essence large organization should have both vertical and horizontal structures so that they can function effectively and efficiently (Daft, 2008).
Vertical structures can have the implication of forming boundaries between departments of a larger organization. This may bring in the issue of bureaucracy as it will become too bloated and complex. Decision making will therefore be discouraged. To have a large number of horizontal structures in an organization implies that the mid level management vacillates should be cut out so that it can be more vertical and more horizontal. A good mix of these two structures will depend on the employees who make up the structure. If there are changes in employees, the way the structure works will change too. Therefore organizations should strike a balance between vertical organizational structure and horizontal organizational structure.
4. Management roles
Management comes with diverse roles. In organization, a role is defined as a common set of behaviours which are associated with a given office. The management roles were first coined by Mint berg, who was a famous management specialist. He said that the description of a manager can be best done based on the roles he or she is playing. Management roles therefore refer to management behaviour categories. Mintzberg put down three roles of management for example interpersonal roles, information roles and decision roles (Cleverly, 2010).
Under interpersonal roles, a manager should be a figurehead; he should be a liaison and should be a leader. The decisional roles basically touch on decision making. The decisional roles in management include being a resource allocator, a disturbance handler, entrepreneur and a negotiator. Mintzberg found out that managers had ten different and very interrelated roles.
Information roles include receiving, gathering and sending information. A manager is supposed to be the monitor, spokesperson and disseminator of information.
The executive teams in an organization include the top level management. These include the CEO, the executive chairman, heads of departments and human resource management. These teams are responsible for the decision making of the organization and implementation of polices. Organizational structures are how the organization is arranged. In most cases the structures of the organization usually have the CEO being in top of the hierarchy.
5. Role/Job Design
Job design means the decisions of the nature of the contents of the job. Job design is usually done by Human resource department and it stipulates the responsibilities of the job, the methods of doing the job, the way the job holder relates to his seniors and subordinates and remuneration terms. Job design is rather contractual as it requires the job holder to agree as per the specifications of the job in order to facilitate job security
Job design also aims at lowering the job dissatisfaction and alienation of employees which arises from mechanical and repetitive tasks. Through the policy of job design, an organization will be able to increase the levels of productivity through giving out of non monetary awards. These include increased job satisfaction as a result of increasing personal achievement gained through achieving the objectives in a short period of time. Job design exercise includes other items like job enrichment, job enlargement, job rotation and job simplification.
Staffing models are very important in any organization. Staffing models are able to streamline the organization’s directions and objectives. In the same note, staffing model influences the productivity levels of employees. Human resource manager should come up with ways of increasing the efficiency of staffing model and bring in administrative strategies of designing a perfect staffing model (Charlosfky, 2010).
Career lattices are tools which are helpful to people in visualising g and learning more about their job options which becomes available as one progresses through the job ladder. The organization should link up with consultancy firms which are better placed in designing perfect career lattices depending on the needs of the organization. A perfect career lattice should display the career direction and progression. The chart below shows the career progression lattice of nursing profession (www.careeronestop.org/competenncymodel/careerpathway/CPWIIinstructions)
The career lattice show above explains the lateral and vertical movements between jobs. Arrows emanating from Home health aide, goes to Certified Nurse Assistant, then to licensed practical nurse and finally to Registered Nurse. This is vertical movement of jobs. Arrows in between the home health aide, direct professional and home care aid shows lateral movement between the jobs.
6. Talent assessment
This is the verification of the individuals qualifications against the job specified to him or her. Talent assessment should aim at developing employee’s competency levels and fixing the employees ability to handle the job. When this is done, most individuals will improve their level of productivity since they will be able to explore their skills well and in an efficient manner.
7. Measurement metrics.
Since most organizations want to improve their productivity they need to k now how to measure the performance through the use of performance indicators. The major performance indicators include increased productivity, increased employee motivation, increased proficiency, well developed process, alignment and learning indicators, and improved customer satisfaction.
Bibliography
Chalofsky, E, 2010, Meaningful Workplaces: Reframing how and where we work. New
York: John Wiley and Sons
Cleverly, W, 2010, Essentials of Health care management. New York: Bartlett
Mills, J, 2002, Strategy and performance. Cambridge: Cambridge University
Murphy, Daft, 2008, Organizational theory and behaviour. New York: Pearson.
