Business
I. Copy/paste the following items from your major scholarly project into your Metacognitive Assignment document
The sentence or two that best gives your argument or analysis point (your thesis).
“This decline in the retention rate reflects the implication of a problem caused by lack of the company’s attention on the importance of leadership and professional growth among its employees and top management. I believe poor publicity, lack of change-management training and leadership training, in addiction to inadequate public facing could be contributing to the surmounting issues facing Transurban”.
One complete body paragraph (not your introduction or conclusion) that includes at least one reference to a secondary source and demonstrates your best work as a scholarly writer
“Furthermore, it was mentioned that Transurban has abnormally large number of managers disproportionate to the number of team leaders and supervisors. This problem contributes to the lack of opportunity to establish teamwork as part of the efficient leadership strategies for the company. Team leadership is highly important in an organizational design because it provides the roadmap to spreading corporate culture, values, and effective leadership traits across the organization (Trent, 2004). Given that Transurban have more than 700 employees with only 30 team leaders/supervisors, the proportion is way below the recommended standards. Ideally, each team leader and supervisor should handle 15-20 subordinates (ERC Insights, 2014). In the case of Transurban, each team leader is handling a minimum of 24 subordinates per team unit. Meanwhile, the proportion between manager and employees is one manager for every 5 employees. This disparity in the workforce structure has a chain of effect towards organizational efficiency and cost. As a solution, Transurban should consider restructuring its organizational setting by creating more team leaders with considerable and proportionate number of subordinates instead of making more managers, which at some point creates an internal power struggle and has a significant impact towards the overhead and operational cost (Hamel, 2011)”.
The full bibliographic entry (copied from your "works cited" or "references" list) for each source you cite in the paragraph you just copied in
Hamel, G. (2011). First, Let’s Fire All the Managers. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved
ERC Insights, A. (2015). HR Insights Blog | Span of Control: How Many Employees Should
https://www.yourerc.com/blog/post/Span-of-Control-How-Many-Employees-Should
Trent, R. (2004). Team leadership at the 100‐foot level. Team Performance Management,
10(5/6), 94-103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527590410556818
II. A. During the initial stage of designing the research question and conducting the research on the case, the researcher has undertaken three particular steps in organizing the overall thought construct of the case study. The first process involved the exploration of the nature of the company and its overall conditions as presented in various media and research resources. After this, the researcher identified potential issues that the company, Transurban, is currently facing and drafted possible solutions or meeting points for the struggles on hand. In this process, the research analyzed the problems of the company and consulted the recommendations and conclusions of previously conducted scholarly studies on the particular area in order to identify which among these could be applicable in the case of Transurban. Lastly, upon being able to draw a larger context of the company and its issues, and upon considering the recommendations and evidences provided by scholarly literature, the researcher then sought to create a design of the discussion flow in order to effectively organize the thoughts and arguments of the study. The aforementioned steps have been evident in the manner by which the discussions were outlined. The first portion presents a context of the firm. This is followed by the presentation of probable solutions. These were then subjected to analysis based on the critical perspectives of relevant literature including the possible issues that might arise from the selected solution to be implemented.
The steps undertaken by the researcher followed the usual format of the scientific method which involved the identification of a particular problem, drawing possible solutions, and proving the effectiveness of the proposed solutions in resolving the problem of the study. This format is very much common among the body of scholars and professional researchers even including those individuals in the onset of learning the gropes of scientific study.
B. Much more than the process of drafting and revising in order to apply the conventions appropriate for the particular field that the research is engaged in, the study on the case of Transurban also conducted precautions in order to assure that the study and formulation of probable solutions are kept scholarly suggestive rather than opinionative in thought. In doing this, two key steps were made.
First, upon being able organize the context of the study and determine the literature most suited in aiding the discussions of the study, effort has been exerted in order to secure the unity of thought between the literature and the proposals formed. These included the assurance that solutions and implementation strategies formed were applicable to the nature of the company. An example of this is the fact that though Ernsberger (2003) recommends further encouraging employee leadership, this may not be applicable in the study due to the fact that the company already has a lot of managers. Thus, the attention was shifted on enhancing the leadership capabilities and camaraderie among employees in the organization even without the need of producing an excessive amount of managers – a horizontal growth objective rather than an unsustainable feat of vertical promotions.
Second, while the task might only involve the provision of a viable solution on the issues faced by Transurban, the researcher also took into consideration the probable issues that the firm could meet and have laid it out as part of the discussions. In this manner, the arguments presented in the paper will be most suited to the demands of scholarly writing particular (1) the justification of the best probable solution, and (2) the identification of probable risk areas and those requiring further research and support.
C. In totality, the research conducted has contributed to the body of science in two key aspects: (1) the reaffirmation of the fluidity of solutions applicable to a variety of firms, and (2) the necessity for identifying probable risk areas and areas that could further be enhanced by research. In terms of the reaffirmation of the fluidity of issues faced by the firm, the study has been able to assert that the construction of probable solutions and the selection of the best solution for the company would still highly depend on the overall context and capabilities of the firm. The availability of relevant literature does no enforce direct applicability. It should still be understood based on the lens of the firm. In terms of the second aspect, the solutions suggested in this study should not be a means to an end. Rather, it should continuously be tested and evaluated in order to smoothen its flaws and mitigate its risk areas. All of which are for the greater benefit of the firm.
References
Hamel, G. (2011). First, Let’s Fire All the Managers. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved
23 April 2016, from https://hbr.org/2011/12/first-lets-fire-all-the-managers
ERC Insights, A. (2015). HR Insights Blog | Span of Control: How Many Employees Should
https://www.yourerc.com/blog/post/Span-of-Control-How-Many-Employees-Should
Ernsberger, M. (2003). Leadership development leads to employee retention – Washington
Business Journal. Washington Business Journal. Retrieved 23 April 2016, from
http://www.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2003/01/20/focus7.html
Trent, R. (2004). Team leadership at the 100‐foot level. Team Performance Management,
10(5/6), 94-103. http://dx.doi.org/10.1108/13527590410556818
