Leadership and Management Development - Assignment Example

ID Number: Leadership Topic 1 1. The workplace injury may lead to financial losses for the company because the worker who has been injured can claim for a high amount of compensation. Apart from the legal requirement for paying compensation, the company should also take up all the necessary responsibilities to ensure a positive reputation. 2. The integrity of information should be ensured by maintaining the consistency and accuracy of data over the entire information processing cycle. Maintaining integrity of information can be ensured through the assurance of transparency and security in information transmission in the workplace. 3. The three sources of health and safety from Australia are the official website of the government of Australian, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) and the Public Health Information Development Unit (PHIDU) in Australia. 1.2 1. It is important for all workers to have proper access to information related to health and safety because this would ensure having more stringent guidelines related to safety in the workplace and also help to minimize the risk of accidents and injuries in the workplace. It will help the workers to remain educated and aware of the existing policies and guidelines of safety and health in the organization. 2. The workers should present their ideas and opinions on improving the existing health and safety management in the company through the use of written documents and plans. The impact of a written plan involving the ideas regarding the development of health and safety in the workplace along with relevant practical workplace examples experienced in their daily work lives would help to increase the validity and relevance of the suggestions. 3. A worker should consult with his peers before submitting the strategies because this would help to get a more holistic view of the existing problems of health and safety in the workplace. This would also ensure that the suggestions presented are backed up by the inputs form different workers in the workplace which would improve the relevance of the strategies to the actual workplace scenario in the company. 1.3 1. The information about hazards and outcomes of control and risk assessment many come from the health and safety programs. The flow would be from senior managers to Health and Safety Representatives and committees to the reporting systems and then it would be reflected in the audits. 2. The five ways are Providing the workers with the detailed information relevant to the company procedures and safety requirements in the workplace Advertising among the employees that the company and the management are giving much importance to the value of work safety. Promoting safety as a part of the initiative. Establishing a forum for the workers to address any specific questions Developing a feedback system related to workplace health and safety. 1.4 1. The major benefits that can be achieved are the improvement of operational effectiveness and efficiency, development and maintenance of trust based, effective and reliable workplace relationships, encouragement of mutual respect between the mangers and the workers, reduction of the stress levels in the workplace for both the workers and the managers and an improvement in the job satisfaction levels. 2. Consulting with workers about the workplace health and safety would help the managers to document the practical experiences of the workers in their workplace and would thus, help to generate an effective workplace health and safety plan and guidelines in the company. 1.5 1. The interactions between the managers, the workers and the health and safety representatives should be encouraged through facilitating discussion and feedback sessions. This would help in establishing the commitment and interest of the company towards communication and safety in the workplace. 2. The improvement in the work practice and attitude of the workers in the workplace should be recognized and rewards should be given to the workers on displaying this type of responsible behavior and in contributing to workplace health and safety. This would ensure encouragement of the workers. Also, suitable rewards and recognitions should be given to boost morale and improve team spirit. 3. The requirement of work inductions programs is high in health and safety assurance. The effective induction processes would ensure that the workers become aware of the expectations of the company from them and would also help them to be aware of the guidelines and procedures in the company. 1.6 1. The PCBUs can use different types of strategies to consult with the workers regarding health and safety matters. The most common strategy is to act through the Health and Safety Committees (HSC) and by holding meetings at regular periods of time. The meeting procedures should be documented and minutes of the meriting should be kept to evaluate the effectiveness. Also, the meeting outcomes should be recorded and communicated to the workers ( Kohn 144). 2. Health and safety issues are included in the industrial issues. As such, the issues that are being raised internally should be dealt with in a prompt manner to ensure that the issues can be settled without making it necessary to resolve it under the jurisdiction of the judicial tribunals and bodies. 1.7 1. Meeting Agenda for HSC 1. Introduction of the members in the meeting 2. Attendance and minutes recoding 3. Reference to minutes from previous meetings 4. Addressing the issues recognized from previous meetings 5. Addressing existing issues in the workplace 6. Report presentation by the safety officer including Risk management Induction Occupational well-being Safety inspections in the workplace Reporting on accidents and hazards Suggesting Corrective and preventative actions 7. Report of the Specialty officer for statistics and incidents 8. Review of the plan 9. Fixing the next meeting dates and objectives 2. Meeting minute template for A HSC Time, dare and venue for the meeting Attendance and minutes Reports and items discussed including reports, statistics and incidents Recommendation and oppositions Plan of specific actions? Time and date for next meeting Signature of senior management personnel 1.8 1. A training needs analysis is a formal procedure for identifying and evaluating the needs for training, identifying the gaps prevalent between the knowledge level and skills font e workers so as to equip them to perform their daily work in a more skilled manner through an enhancement of the knowledge and skills level of these workers. 2. The tools that can be used to identify the skills and needs of the worker are direct observation, examination of the records of the employees, feedback about the employees from the supervisors, direct questions to the workers about the daily tasks and work, formal assessment of the skills, reference to the relevant assessment reports and formal interviews. 3. The steps of developing a training program are developing suitable training profile; establishing proper training development plans encompassing all workers, implementing the training and evaluating the effectiveness and results from the training. This should be started by an identification of the needs of training and an establishment of the best fitting strategies that would help to make the training process more effective (Deese 54). 1.9 1. The information that should be included in the proposal should be relevant and value adding. The information should include the relevant topics that should be covered in the training process like the identification of risk and hazard, roles and responsibilities regarding health and safety in the workplace, reporting procedures etc. The team concerns and the statistics regarding incidents of accidents should be presented to the senior managers by the supervisors. The proposals should be backed up with sufficient statistics and figures and the statistical analysis of the reports on incidents and hazards. Also, the management should be informed about the regulatory and legislative requirements of the process. It is likely that such a proposal would be considered acceptable by the management because this would be considered necessary according to team feedback (Taylor 90). 2. The information contained in the new worker induction program should be information about the safety guidelines and requirements, health and safety training and necessity of health and safety maintenance in a company. Also, stress should be given on how adhering to the health and safety guidelines and contributing to health and safety in the workplace would lead to mutual benefits for the both the managers and the workers. 3. Providing follow on training is necessary because it is essential to incorporate professional and personal development programs and skill development programs to stay informed and updated with the Work Health and Safety rules and also to facilitate the development of new knowledge and skills among the workers. 1.10 1. The benefits of evaluating training are mutual because this helps to determine the effectiveness and appropriateness of the training process. The evaluation of training ensures that how much the objectives of the training are attained can be measured. Also, an evaluation of the effectiveness of the training, attainment of training objectives, skills of the trainer and learning of the trainees is possible through training evaluation. 2. The determination of the effectiveness and appropriates of the training can be done by mapping the achievements of the training with the objectives of the training. Also, it would be useful to compare the performances of the employees before and after the training processes. The consideration of the performances done in these areas would help to accurately evaluate the training processes. 3. The health and safety training programs should be evaluated on the basis of suitable statistics relevant to work practices, demonstration of the understanding of the safety procedures, the reasons behind the implementation of safety procedures, levels of worker satisfaction, increase in the credibility of the companies, reduction in the number of hazards and accidents in the workplace, reduction in the number of absenteeism and attrition among the employees which are directly or indirectly related to health and safety concerns. 1.11 1. A hazard is a source which may have the potential to harm the health, life, property of an individual or the environment. A risk, on the other hand is a chance of the occurrence of anything that many be harmful. The likelihood of a harm to occur that may result in a hazard is a risk. 2. Checklist for a manager/supervisor for identification of hazards Conduction of safety inspections in a documented, well recognized and recorded way Analysis and review the procedures and work systems in a regular manner. Investigation of the injuries, accidents and reported injuries in the workplace New machines and equipment installed for safety Recycling processes and disposal of waste. Ion a safe manner Understanding of the current safe and secure work practices. 1.12 1. Comprehensive risk assessment procedures are important because proper record keeping helps to ensure stringent processes in the risk management. The records help to ensure more efficient risk assessment systems, provide suitable information for decision making, verification, comparisons as well as for demonstrating suitable level of compliances in the workplace. 2. The risk level is high which indicates a risk level that is harmful and unacceptable for the company. Therefore, suitable measures and controls should be developed in the short term to ensure that the risk is prevented. Since, the level of occurrence of the risk is low; therefore, steps should be taken to reduce the chances of occurrence of the risk to zero. 3. There may be two major dimensions of the factors that can affect the severity of any incident or hazard in the workplace. These two dimensions are interval and external. The internal dimensions refer to the internal company environment and the external dimension represents the impact on the external environment of the business. 1.13 1. Examples of strategies for managing hazards. A. Elimination: Design of processes with protected machinery or control systems that can be used for complete elimination of hazards. B. Substitution: Sandstone wheels used in grinding which contain silica are harmful for workers. They can be replaced by wheels made of less harmful and inert abrasive like aluminum oxide in industrial equipment. C. Engineering: Mechanical lifting equipment used in place of manual handing systems may be used to reduce the risks and hazards associated with manual handling. D. Administration: Sharing of jobs and reducing the time of work related to any particular work may reduce the risk of exposure to harmful chemicals in factories. E. Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): If hazards cannot be reduced through other ways than use of PPE, the companies should provide the workers with suitable PPEs and also with proper instructions regarding the use of these PPEs (World Health Organization 4). 2. Risk assessments should be conducted on a periodic basis so that the control systems are effective and that the introduction of a control does not lead to the emergence of a new hazard. The effectiveness of the controls and the degree of reduction of the risks should be included in the risk assessment. 1.14 1. The health and safety records are essential so as to increase the satisfaction level of individuals in terms of providing a safe work environment. The records of the various diseases of the team members would help in taking preventive measures which in turn would enable the management to avoid any such health hazards. 2. Every organization must maintain three forms of health and safety records so that they are able to encounter all form of hazardous situations. These records would be of sanitary facilities, maintenance and workstation condition. All of these three are the major elements that need to be properly maintained by an organization so as to achieve high standards. 3. As a representative the only way through which it can be identified that the record keeping requirements are known by the workers is by proper training programs. This kind of training and development programs would impart the necessary knowledge and a constant evaluation would even outline the degree to which such requirements are maintained by the workers. 1.15 1. The work teams are needed to be provided by the required information that is based on various health issues and their consequences, and even the regulatory control that is exercised by the organization. This would simply enable the work teams to be ensured that they are a part of a safe workplace and even educate them in terms of control measures that is to be taken in case of any hazards. 2. The consultative mechanisms are very effective simply because contributions from a wide range of experts and also from the team members would ensure the health and safety policies that are to be adopted are ideal for the organization. The decision making is strong through this mechanism as more number of people is involved. 3. The plan that is implemented for the training program should take into account all the elements such as that related to the health and safety policies. The plan should encompass all the health and safety issues that any organization has to face and then the details about the control measures that are adopted by the organization so as to encounter such issues. 4. The hazards report encompass all the small details that should be in the knowledge of the workers. The report consists of various conditions that may harm the workers in the workplace so that they are cautious enough to prevent such hazards and adopt the possible safety measures. 5. The term risk management is a very broad concept that is incorporated by majority of the organizations. Risk management deals with identification of possible risks and then designing on strategies that would help in encountering such risks. Risk management is the most important part of strategy formation it takes into consideration the risks in accordance with the present scenario as also of the future. 6. The incident records comprise of the hazards that has been occurred in the past and the various first aid that had been used towards such injuries or incidents. These records can act as a trend analysis tool so as to identify what are the potential hazards that can occur in the nearby future and the appropriate control measures that can be taken in such a scenario. 7. The key aspects of the health and safety legislation are a concise detail about the various health hazards that can be caused in a workplace. It basically educates people towards different form of hazards and set forth the policies that are needed to be taken to avoid such a situation and to ensure a safe workplace. 1.15 Action Plan Factor Action to be taken Date Person responsible Additional Factors Key Performance (KPIs) Workers need to be informed about the workplace guidelines Written brochures and guidelines should be circulated among the workers. Workers should be provided with the workplace health and safety requirements in written forms. The managers and supervisors should communicate openly about the workplace health and safety policies with the new workers (Worksafe 14). 3 days Supervisor, Managers A subsequent evaluation of the effectiveness of the existing procedures should be done. Awareness among workers Compliance rate with guidelines Workers need to be clear about the workplace health and safety requirements as well as the expectations from them. Training should be started to ensure that the workers are enabled to comply with the existing procedures as well as to ensure that they become more involved in the safety and health management processes. 3 days a week for the first 4 months Safety inspectors, supervisors, Health and Safety Trainers Mutual benefits should be focused upon. Performances of the workers before and after the training. The demonstrated participation levels. The management of health and safety should be done with proper cost controls in place. A budget should be prepared for the whole process of implementation of health and safety programs, including the setting up and maintenance of the Health and Safety Committee (HSC), training cost and the training review costs. 5 days Senior management, Managers. The extensive costs of accidents and hazards should be considered. Cost review of the training processes Attainment of objectives of health and safety processes. Identification of risks in the workplace and evaluation of the training effectiveness. Implement suitable risk assessment and training assessment processes 6 days Managers, safety officers, workers Risks should be avoided through control systems Effectiveness of the control systems Reduced level of risks in the company Topic 2 2.1 1. a) The team that I was a part of was a manufacturing company called as Maestro Fits. The purpose of the team was to achieve the set goals in the specified time frame. The team worked together for the overall growth and productivity and to build a specific position in the market. b) The vision of the team was to “create excellence”. Though the vision was very concise it conveyed a meaning that was to design a workplace that would motivate people to strive for excellence through their hard work and dedication. The team was aligned towards the goal as stated by its vision. c) The goals of the team were to establish a strong presence in the market, to develop future strategies that could encounter risks, to keep the motivational level of the team high, to create high standards and to keep ethical values aligned with the profitability that the team plans to generate. d) The two objectives of the team can be to increase the level of customer satisfaction by a percentage of 10% in the coming three months. The other team objective can be to increase the percentage of sales by 15% by mid of the financial year. The objectives should always be specific and measurable. e) The two major stakeholders that shaped the role of the team were customers and suppliers. The suppliers placed high expectations on the team to perform well in the industry so as to give them higher returns. The customer’s expectations are linked with the high quality level of the products and effective relationship maintained by the team. 2.2 1. Feedback is the most important tool to encourage team members simply because it provides the team members with the appropriate knowledge in terms of which areas they perform well and even the areas that needs further improvement. Feedback motivates team members as their hard work is appreciated and recognized and this in turn influences them to set higher performance standards. 2. “Catch them doing good” is a popular phrase that relates to reinforcing on the positive aspect so as to increase the standard then to be bothered about the negative aspects (Burns 76).This can be put to use in workplace through incorporating the performance appraisal system that would help in monitoring overall performance as well as reward individuals for their performance. 2.3 1. The best method that can be used is through a visual representation so that the team members can understand in which specific areas the team is lacking in their performance. This can also be supported by the customer reviews so that they disheartened and understand the crisis faced by the company. 2. The line manager’s directive can be passed through making the team members visualize the drop in sales and customer satisfaction. As a leader in this scenario it is essential to motivate the team members for their innovative ideas and hard work but at the same time also make them witness the reality so as to enable in them more of ownership. 3. The additional action that can be taken is in the form of a one to one communication through which each of the team members can be given an opportunity to express themselves as well as they can be motivated as per the directions given by the management. 4. Other comment can be in the form of appreciation towards the new idea of embroidering the logo. This would make the team members feel that their ideas were recognized by the management but only for customer satisfaction they need to follow the traditional process, so that there is no such turmoil in their sales percentage. 2.4 1. The major role of a team leader is to allocate the right task to the right team members so that the task is completed on time and is a quality work. The responsibilities should be allocated on the basis of competency level of team members so that each of the members holds the right kind of responsibility as per their capabilities (Northouse 65). 2. A happy team indicates that team that possesses high levels of enthusiasm as well as motivation. The team members being highly satisfied with their job turn to be more productive. The best method for developing a united team is following a participative leadership approach where all the members are given equal opportunity to share their ideas as well as appreciated on their performance. 3. In order to encourage individual development the best method is through monitoring their performance. This would help the leader to determine the areas where the individual is lacking so as to impart proper training and on the other hand it would help to reward those individuals who are performing exceptionally well. 4. The major strategy that can be used is through conducting meetings to check whether the team members are communicating their ideas and opinions to line managers. The other way is through observing whether in decision making the line managers takes the support of the team members or not. 2.5 1. The team performance greatly depends on the level of effectiveness and efficiency that is maintained by the team members. The responsibilities and the tasks that the team members perform are totally different from one another. As a team leader it is very much essential that even the smallest details of all the team members are taken into consideration so that the exact reason behind the declining team performance can be effectively determined (Western 54).The documents related to the roles and responsibilities of the team can be obtained from the HR department either in the form of printed document or through the access of the database. The database of the company would be containing all the details required about the employees working in the company. This would even be a genuine source of information with the help of which exact information can be determined. The goals, objectives and plans of the team can be determined through the minutes of the meetings that were held with the team during formulation of such goals and plans. These are some of the major and realistic sources of information that can be accessed as a team leader so as to overview the overall performance of the team. 2. The documents that are analyzed consists details regarding the objectives, responsibilities, goals, plans and role of the team. The first procedure that would be used to check whether the objectives of the team are aligned with the goal of the team or not is the method of SMART. This would help in analyzing as to whether the objectives that is taken by the team can be achieved or not in the real time context. The objectives of the team set the plan for the team and also help in allocating tasks to the team. The next approach that would be taken into consideration so as to analyze whether the performance of the team is aligned with the required standard is through setting performance appraisal system. This system based on advanced technology would compare the performance of the team members over the time and design specific benchmarks for all the team members. The benchmark that is designed by the system would help in encountering as to which of the team members are performing below the required standard and even identify those whose performance needs to be recognized and rewarded. The other strategy can be taking feedback from the employees so as to analyze any such issue that is faced by the employees which need to be resolved so as to enhance their performance level. 3. The performance that is been analyzed through various strategies as a team leader needs to be communicated with the team members simply because they would understand the areas where they need to improve so as to achieve the goals and objectives (Harris 94).The performance of the individual members should not be communicated through any form of group meetings simply because this would bring down the motivational level of the poor performers. The best procedure to communicate the performance of the team members is through emails. This would consist of a detailed track record of performance on individual basis. The email that would be forwarded would comprise of the desired performance level and the real performance level of the individual members. This pictorial representation would enable the members to understand well that their performance is lacking to what degree which needs to be upgraded. The discussions that are taken place between the management and the team leader also needs to be communicated to the other team members. This kind of communication would have dual purpose one is that it would facilitate two way communication and the other is that it would maintain transparency in the system. This can be conveyed through meetings conducted with the team members so as to highlight on the discussions and the other is through sending emails of minutes of the meeting. 4. The work output depends on the aim or objectives that are set forth by the team. In the present scenario where there exists intense competition it is required that the team is aligned with its goals. As a team leader is very much essential to do all that is said so as to gain trust of all the team members. As a team leader the entire work output would be dependent on how effectively the team is performing. This is simply because the output of the leader’s work is highly linked with the performance of all the team members. The management most of the times do not question the team members but rather the team leader on low productivity level of the team. The way the team leader sets the message would be adopted by its followers so the leader needs to be visionary by nature. There needs to be a link between the objectives that is set by the leader and the task that is performed by the leader as the followers would imitate the leader and follow the strategic direction that is given by the leader. If the team members do not trust their leader in terms of what the leader say and do then it would automatically affect the work output of the leader as well as the team members. 5. The issues and its possible solutions that is outlined as a team leader needs to be well communicated with the upper management so that there is no such question raised on the work performance of the team leader (Sadler 45).A meeting can be organized with the manager so as to highlight on the issues that have been identified. The meeting should be such designed that it covers all the vital elements that has been identified in the above process. The meeting that is to be conducted by the manager should not be any form of verbal conversation as that often leads to misinterpretation. The best approach that can be adopted is a visual representation through which the identified issues can be highlighted along with the recommended solutions. This would help in facilitating a better understanding between the two parties so that a clear picture can be drawn between the issues and the solutions. A face to face conversation supported with such visual representation would be beneficial in terms of better productivity and understanding. On a continuous basis in order to communicate small changes that take place in the team functioning can be conveyed through the use of any form of social media so as to be in regular contact with the manager and discuss about various issues affecting team’s performance. 6. The action plan needs to be designed in such a format that it helps in encountering all the issues related to the productivity level of the team. The first most important step that needs to be taken as a team leader is to organize a team meeting where each of the member’s problems can be identified and resolved. This would help in identifying the various problems that is related to the performance of the team. The second step of the action plan would be to revise on the roles and responsibilities of the team members and to allocate the right job to the right individual. The team members who perform well would be imparted a specific training program that would help them to perform better. On the other hand those individuals who are not being able to meet the required performance standard would be given basic training sessions so that they are able to understand their job roles better. The next step would be set a performance monitoring on a continuous basis so that the team members are always inclined towards the set targets. The most essential part of the action plan is to design a platform where the team members can communicate with the management and discuss on their ideas and issues. Works cited Burns, James., Leadership. New York: Open Road Media. 2012. Print. Deese, Charles. Occupational health and safety management. New York: CRC Publishing. 2003. Print. Harris. Alma., Distributed Leadership: Different Perspectives. London : Springer. 2009. Print. Kohn, James. Fundamentals of Occupational Safety and Health. New Jersey: New Bridge. 2007. Print. Northouse. Peter., Leadership: Theory and Practice. USA : SAGE Publications. 2012. Print. Sadler. Philip., Leadership. Great Britain : Kogan Page Publishers. 2003. Print. Taylor, Geoff. Enhancing occupational safety and health. Oxford: Butterworth Heinemann. 2004. Print. Western. Simon., Leadership: A Critical Text. Great Britain : SAGE. 2007. Print. Worksafe. Getting started with workplace health and hazards. 2010. Web. 28 June 2014. < https://www.worksafe.vic.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/21822/GS_Policies.pdf>. World Health Organization. Five Keys to Healthy Workplaces: No Business Health without worker’s heath. 2010. Web. 28 June 2014. < http://www.who.int/occupational_health/5keys_healthy_workplaces.pdf?ua=1>. Read More