- Situation Analysis
Cardexx had recently experienced several changes because the new CEO was appointed. Leadership style had changed. There were changes in technology and operations observed as well. The new opportunities emerged as a result of focus on innovations and availability of higher quality data.
After careful analysis of the situation that occurred at Cardexx, the following challenges were identified:
• operating in a highly competitive environment;
• problems with security;
• poor leadership;
• absence of coherence in the teams.
Cardexx faced tough competition from the side of Visa and MasterCard. Cash is also seen as a substitute product to the payment cards. Thus, a new operational process is needed to offer either new or different services or products. Besides, the security level of the products offered by Cardexx is low. The organizational culture of Cardexx inherited from the former CEO who exercised laissez-fair leadership style does not contribute to the goal commitment and the growth of the company. The absence of coherence in teams can be explained by the relaxed working environment. An improvement in team cooperation is currently observed, but still the employees tend to compete with each other. As the former CEO accepted informal communication, the employees used to talk a lot and blame each other for not completing the tasks. Cardexx faced problems with senior managers who were reluctant to commit to the new stretch goals. They also required more funding when they realized that their bonuses were linked to the budgets through the goals set.
- Organizational Learning Strategy
The proposed organizational learning strategy will be incorporated in the overall strategy of the company that has been recently developed. The organizational learning strategy will target strategic challenges that emerged.
The following learning goals are pursued aiming to solve the issues that emerged:
- Offer more competitive products through work-based learning of promotion of the products. A professional training will help the employees know product better and mitigate external competition.
- Introduce a new security system using the new process of providing security to the cardholders.
- Increase accountability among senior managers. Higher level of leadership will help increase accountability and adapt to new organizational culture.
- Improve the skills of working in a team. Coherent teams achieve better results.
1. Justification for work-based learning of promotion of the products:
Work-based learning is sometimes seen as ineffective. Antonacopoulou (2006) stated that the trainings conducted out of the working place are more effective. On the contrary to Antonacopoulou (2006), the study of Fenwick (2008) did not reveal any inconsistencies connected with organizing learning process within the organizations.
In the organizational context of Cardexx, the work-based learning of promotion of the products will help increase selling skills of the employees and improve knowledge of the products thus increasing revenues. Besides, learning of the products should be work-based to dive the sales managers into working atmosphere close to the real situations at work.
In addition, work-based learning help combine three types of learning outlined by Casey (2005). Casey (2005) marked out formal, informal, and incidental learning. Formal learning is seen as a result of training. Informal learning is the result of daily operations and interactions between the employees. Incidental learning occurs by chance when accomplishing the tasks and results from interactions between employees. The outcomes of Casey (2005) can of great help for the current research.
2. Justification for designing the new security system for the cardholders:
The development of the new security system is important for the organization operating in a highly competitive environment. Providing a new security system will help Cardexx improve the quality of the products and services. Also, more new customers can be acquired through introducing of the new security system.
3. Training related the development of leadership skills:
Antonacopoulou (2006) stated that learning is discouraged in bank environment. Based on the analysis of three studies of learning processes in banks, Antonacopoulou (2006) concluded that both organizational and individual learning is associated with training. Besides, the training is expected to be conducted out of working place. According to the findings of Antonacopoulou (2006), the trainings are mainly provided within the organizations. Thus, the managers in the organizations feel that they are forced to learn. In addition, the managers are expected to improve their education individually as the studies of learning process in the banks showed.
Atwater, Kannan and Stephens (2008) emphasized the necessity to add the course of systemic learning to the learning programs of the educational institutions. The need of systemic thinking courses was outlined in the previous studies. However, systemic learning was omitted due to the complexity of the courses and the need to redesign learning process. Atwater, Kannan and Stephens (2008) concluded that systemic thinking can be applied in any field of business including economy, finance, accounting, and marketing. The outcomes of the research presented by Atwater, Kannan and Stephens (2008) can be applied to develop the learning plan for Cardexx. Attending the courses of systemic thinking in the framework of leadership development is a must for the new leaders of Cardexx because systemic thinking helps find the solutions to the complex problems by conducting a systemic analysis of these problems.
The ideas of implementing systems thinking in practice were also developed by Vaill (1996). Vaill (1996) discussed the issues of implementing systems thinking in the organizations and the process of learning systems thinking. Vaill (1996) considered three element of a system in order to explain systems thinking namely: the role of an individual in the organizational performance, the impact of behavior of each system element on the system, integrity and indivisibility of a system. The study of Vaill (1996) contributed to the development of the organizational learning strategy for Cardexx.
4. Justification for team coherence training:
Fenwick (2008) outlined issues of workplace learning namely: the increasingly complex problems that cannot be solved through organizational learning and the problems that are connected with the learning in the groups. The problems from the first category may include the problems connected with the improvement of the work processes or cooperation between the interdisciplinary teams. The second category of the problems includes the learning processes in the groups and how the learning process in going on. Fenwick (2008) stated that learning helps improve performance and wellbeing of the organizations. Team coherence can be increased by conducting a training related improvement of personality and the development of the skills that would help work in a team. Besides, it can contribute to the development of Cardexx as Fenwick (2008) stated.
Collective learning was described by Senge (2006). Senge (2006) developed the ideas related collective learning that can be applied in practice by Cardexx managers. Also, Senge (2006) has drawn several examples of the corporations know all over the world including IBM, Xerox, and Kodak. In addition, Senge (2006) presented the implications for his ideas in different countries, such as Australia, Malaysia, Brazil, Italy, and Singapore. Senge (2006) applied to several core concepts of organizational learning including systems thinking, personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, and team learning. As Cardexx is a multinational corporation, the experience of other multinational corporations can be used to improve human resource management at Cardexx.
- Organizational Learning Implementation Priorities
The training related the development of leadership skills should be conducted first because training of senior management will help make framework for change. It was mentioned in the simulation that senior management failed to commit to the stretch goals. If senior managers reject to be committed, the rest of the employees will not likely be committed as well. Besides, senior managers shape new organizational culture.
The training that should be conducted next is training that targets team coherence. The previous CEO succeeded to create a family-like team and made employees feel comfortable in the working environment. However, the previous team failed to commit to the goals and was not targeting growth. After conducting the leadership training, team creation should be targeted because the employees need to learn the new work patterns from the senior management.
Work-based learning of product promotion can be conducted after team coherence learning ended. The team will know how to work coherently and the improvement of professional skills will be needed to ensure the team members are aware of the products’ quality. The training related the promotion of the products can be conducted every two months taking into account the new products and people coming.
In order to improve the level of security, a new process should be introduced. Chip technology should be implemented to provide higher security level for the cardholders. Security should be the primary goal for Cardexx since it competes with Visa and MasterCard that are known for high expertize level in security field.
Implementation concerns are mainly connected with human behaviors in the times of change. People do not like change especially in the working environment. However, direction for growth requires goal commitment, discipline, and meeting deadlines. Braun (2001) presented a research of human learning behavior and described the types of learning behavior. Braun (2001) researched the behavioral side of the learning process. According to the findings of Braun (2001), human behavior can be classified by ten types and learning behavior complies with these types. The findings of Braun (2001) can be used to research and develop the quality of human resources available and to develop a suitable human resource strategy targeting growth. The study helped better understand complex system of organizational learning process. The approach demonstrated in the study can help classify the human resources by archetypes and develop the appropriate methods of organizational learning. Braun (2001) revealed that the possessors of different archetypes can interact and this experience can be used by Cardexx.
As well as Braun (2001), Kim (1992) studies human behavior at work and the details of making training plans. The research of Kim (1992) will help analyze the causes of the employees’ behavior and make training plans. Also, the research of Kim (1992) deals with the challenges an organization may face. Kim (1992) used loop diagrams to describe the challenges. This approach can be also used at Cardexx since it helps better understand the problem and its causes from a dynamical development perspective. The stages of creating loop diagrams were described in details. This approach can be used for analysis of any organizational situation including human resource management, production, marketing, and other.
Another issue is funding change. As it was mentioned in the simulation, a special fund was created to finance change. The special fund was made to finance change. However, the distribution of the funds should be under strict control because the senior managers tend to apply for extended budgets since their bonuses tied to these funds.
The timeline showing the interdependencies between the training programs is shown in Figure 1. All four programs are the part of one change program and they are interrelated. The work-based learning of products’ promotion related the team coherence training because both trainings target personal and professional development that could help increase the organizational performance.
The program of developing the professional skills is linked to the program of the development of the leadership skills because they present the different sides of individual education. The training related the development of the leadership skills will help better understand the training targeting professional development. The leadership training contains a philosophical component helping understand all organizational processes better and develop proper attitude to the working process and goal commitment. The key role in the change process is assigned to the human resource department. CEO of the organization will set the schedule for implementing general control over the training process and its funding. The regional senior managers are accountable for organizing and control of the training in their regions. The heads of the departments are responsible for the current monitoring of the training processes.
The implementation priorities are outlined in Figure 1 below. The training related the development of the leadership skills should be conducted in the beginning of the year taking into account that this training is the most expensive. Besides, this training is supposed to shape other activities. Thus, it should be planned and implemented first. The program related the team coherence is the program of the secondary importance that will start after the leadership development program. It will start at the final stage of the leadership program to provide smooth transition from old working framework to the new one. The work-based learning and the program related the development of the professional skills do not require significant costs and can be conducted in the current regime. The work-based learning of the products’ promotion can be conducted at the workplace. These training should be conducted regularly taking into account the changes in the products and the requirements to the improvement of professional skills.
The success of the new process and trainings can be measured by carrying out the customers and the employees. Also, senior managers can track the results of the performance in the problem areas and analyze the results of the surveys. Thus, the results of the measures taken can be monitored and appropriate conclusions can be made.
Changing organizational culture is a long and difficult process. Therefore, significant changes cannot be expected in the short-term. Also, discipline and compliance to the current strategy play the most important role in these changes. The outcomes of the implementation of the
Measures proposed can be tracked in one year as well the changes in the organizational culture.
Figure 1 Implementation Priorities
- Conclusion
In the current paper the analysis of the situation that occurred in Cardexx was performed. The organization faced change because it was dictated by the changes in external environment. The organizational learning strategy was developed and linked to existing human resource strategy. The learning strategy was developed taking into account the current state of the organization and the new stretch goals. There were four programs developed targeting change in human resources that complied with the new organizational strategy. The training program developed included work-based learning of promotion of the products, program developing professional, the program of development of leadership skills, and the team coherence training. The implementation priorities were outlined together with the interdependencies between the programs. The timeline for performing the training was linked to the existing business schedules and budgets. The trainings are supposed to reinforce each other and strengthen the new organizational culture.
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