Recommendations for a Company - Case Study Example

? Dear Amanda, After reviewing the terms under which your company operates, I would like to make certain recommendations. It seems that although efforts have been made for securing communication and cooperation within your business, there are a few issues that need to be addressed, so that the firm’s growth in the future is not threatened. Your firm is rather new in the market. Still, it should be carefully structured and monitored so that failures are identified early and appropriate solutions are given. Most important, the time spent on recovering from failures should be minimized otherwise there would be no time left for focusing on the firm’s expansion, a problem that you have already faced. As a leader, you have to emphasize on keeping the firm’s productivity at high levels (Schermerhorn 2011). You also have to ensure that the resources available are used appropriately so that organizational performance is high as possible (Schermerhorn 2011). In general, the management of organizations is based on four, key, functions: ‘a) planning, b) organizing, c) leading and d) controlling’ (Daft & Marcic 2012, p.9). This means that the leader who aims to secure the success of his business has to be able to respond to the demands of all the above management functions. Apart from the above functions, of particular importance for modern organizations is ‘the achievement of organizational goals’ (Dyck & Neubert 2008, p.7). In addition, emphasis should be given on the following facts: a) in modern organizations employees are no more considered as costs but rather as assets (Certo & Certo 2011), b) rewarding is a key tool for promoting employee motivation; however, rewards and other employee benefits should be carefully designed so that they can actually help to the increase of employee performance (Certo & Certo 2011), c) the gaps between a mission statement and a firm’s actual priorities/ capabilities can harm the firm’s image in the market (Certo & Certo 2011) and d) changes are unavoidable in businesses of all sizes (Certo & Certo 2011); however, managing change can be quite difficult for a leader especially if the pressures from the market are strong (Certo & Certo 2011). The issues highlighted above should be taken into consideration when reviewing the management practices developed in Smith's Accounting and Tax Service. In this way, the mistakes made will be identified and measures can be proposed for avoiding similar problems in the future. In regard to the mission statement of the organization the following comments could be made: a) although the mission statement responds to a basic need of the local market, i.e. the need for convenient accounting services, it seems to suffer at the following point: it does not refer, either directly or indirectly, to credibility, as a criterion of the services provided by the organization. In the specific sector, credibility is quite important at the level that any failure could lead to high penalties for the customer/ taxpayer. Therefore, the firm’s mission statement could be possible alternated. The phrase: ‘Credible management of your finances’ could be possible preferred instead of the firm’s existing mission statement: ‘Have laptop, will travel’; b) in its current form, the firm’s mission statement is related to another problem: the mission statement is not supported by appropriate strategies, so that the statement’s enforcement becomes problematic. As noted above, planning is one of the key management functions (Daft & Marcic 2012). This means that each firm’s leader has the responsibility for the identification and the promotion of the firm’s mission statement, as also of the firm’s strategies and ethical rules. This means that you have to take measures for ensuring that the mission statement reflects the organization’s capabilities, as revealed through the firm’s performance. At the same time, you need to ensure that the firm is able to respond to the challenges that the above mission statement sets, i.e. the provision of accounting services that are most convenient for the customer. If the firm manages to secure convenience for customers but it fails to secure quality of the services provided, then the goals of the organization, as incorporated in its mission statement, are not achieved. Taking certain measures could help you to face the above problem. For example: control – checks on the financial statements prepared by the firm’s accountants could be introduced, even on a periodical basis; also, an accountant would be hired not for directly working with customers but just for monitoring the reports and statements completed by the other accountants. In this way, all documents prepared by the firm’s accountants would be checked before delivered to the customer or submitting to the relevant authorities. Through this practice, failures in the firm’s services would be minimized, a fact that would allow to you to spend more time on communication with customers and on identifying new customers. The organization of resources is another aspect of the firm that needs to be reviewed. Despite the fact that highly skilled accountants have joined the organization, the performance of the firm has not increased at the expected level. Problems have been identified at the following point of the firm’s HRM: a) no plan seems to exist in regard to the distribution of tasks among the firm’s personnel; it is just noted that each accountant is responsible for a certain number of customers with no explanation on the criteria on which each customer’s financial statements are delegated to the firm’s accountants. It is not clear whether Lisa assigns tasks or whether accountants are fully free to choose the customers they prefer, according to their professional experience and area of expertise. It would be necessary for a task-assignment strategy to be introduced. In this strategy the criteria and the process for the distribution of tasks across the organization would be included. In this way, the monitoring of these tasks by the controller accountant, as suggested previously, would be easier. The hiring and recruiting process of the organization seems to be problematic. When a need for the hiring of accountants appeared, Lisa had to manage the whole process. Without underestimating the ability of Lisa to manage such process, the following issue appears: the personnel requested for the support of the organization has to be of particular expertise. According to the case study, Lisa is not an accountant. In addition, Lisa does not have work experience in the particular sector. For this reason, Lisa is not able to develop a thorough check on the candidates’ potentials in terms of the firm’s needs. This problem was revealed quite early, shortly after the accountants’ hiring in the following way: two of the accountants asked for extensions for most of their customers. Moreover, the time spent on covering the mistakes made in filling the financial statements of customers was significant, leading to the limitation of the organization’s productivity. It is suggested that the firm’s recruitment process is delegated to a recruitment office specialized in the particular sector. In this way, the quality of staff chosen will be increased and risks for future failures will be limited. Particular reference should be made to the leading problems identified through the review of the particular case. Employees were left free to take initiatives assuming that such practice could increase their motivation (Certo & Certo 2011). However, an opposite outcome has resulted. With no fear of possible control accountants did not pay adequate attention when filling the customers’ financial statements. The above phenomenon was further expanded due to the lack of specific standards in regard to the quality of the services provided to the customers, another issue that should be addressed by the firm’s leader (Certo & Certo 2011). Even when the first complaints from customers were received you did not pay adequate attention preferring to ignore negative information (Certo & Certo 2011). In this way, the firm’s market image has been traumatized. At this point of time, you could take immediate action introducing changes so that solutions are retrieved with no delay. Managing change is among a leader’s key responsibilities (Certo & Certo 2011). Taking no actions for quite a long resulted to the increase of the problem at such level that the staff had to be reduced for keeping losses at low level. In fact, measures should be taken immediately after the requests of accountants for extension for most of their customers. Then, apart from the hiring of a controller, the tasks assigned to accountants should be checked in order for the progress made and the quality of the work done to be evaluated. According to the above, the firm’s problems can be related to failures in all management functions, i.e. ‘planning, organizing, leading and controlling’ (Daft & Marcic 2012, p.9). In its current status, the business needs to be re-organized in regard to certain of its functions. The measures that would be developed with no delay would be summarized as follows: a) the hiring process should be delegated to a recruitment organization specialized on the accounting/ financial services sector, b) a controller should be hired for checking the financial statements filled by the firm’s accountants and for handling customers’ complaints and requests, c) an ethics & standards strategy should be introduced for setting the criteria on which the work of the firm’s employees would be evaluated and d) random control checks would be introduced, on a weekly basis, aiming to identify gaps in regard to the firm’s daily operations. The above recommendations could help the firm’s performance to be standardized while the basis for future growth would be set. In any case, the intervention of the firm’s leader in all organizational functions should become clearer so that the routine of work is followed and standards set are fully met. Sincerely, Robertson David References Certo, S. & Certo, T. (2011). Modern Management: Concepts and Skills. 12th ed. New Jersey: Prentice Hall. Daft, R. and Marcic, D. (2012). Understanding Management. 8th ed. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Dyck, B. & Neubert, M. (2008). Management: Current Practices and New Directions. Belmont: Cengage Learning. Schermerhorn, J. (2011). Management. 11th ed. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons. Read More