Organizational Development and Human Resource Management - Essay Example

Organizational Development and Human Resource Management The paper concerns itself with the performances of Templeton Hardwarein its attempt to own the biggest chain of hardware stores in Australia under the steering efforts of its CEO, a Ms. Jacquie Tudori. The company’s board has charged their CEO with the duty of implementing measures that would help the company in achieving the objectives that they had set for the organization. The CEO indulged in the acquisition of other firms within their industry in an effort to expand their activities and increase the impact of their operations among the community. By indulging the company’s resources in the move, the CEO hoped that they would be successful in achieving their objectives1. The acquisition of other similar industries would enable them to expand their activities and reach a wider variety of customers. The developments of an organization along with the management of their human resources are vital methods in ensuring that an organization achieves its set objectives2. The organizations ability of reaching a wider market would greatly have assisted in augmenting their profitability while enabling them to carry out their activities more effectively3. Analysis The article stipulates the main objective of Templeton Hardware as making its presence felt in the market through them becoming the retailer that leads in the provision of all al fresco items. Under the leadership of their CEO, the company goes on to acquire ownership of several companies that include the caravan manufacturers known as ‘The Great Outdoors’ and soon rename it to ‘Templeton caravans’. The company also acquires another firm that is known as the ‘Lodestone Landscapes’ at around the same period. Both businesses that are acquired by the company were formerly owned privately by certain families though the former company controlled business enterprises that had long been established. The latter was a contract operator and was established much later than the outdoors company. Lodestone landscaper, the first company to become franchised, had an additional fifty franchises that were located in New Zealand along with Australia and was also a participant in the country’s stock exchange4. The CEO mistakenly relocated all lodestone landscaper’s offices and rebranded them with their name by calling them ‘Templeton Landscape Solutions’. The employees of the company were however offered their jobs but ended up leaving the company. The employees in the other company that had also been acquired by the CEO also quit after the acquisition was complete. This move was greatly facilitated by the company’s selling of several of their purchased outlets along with the relocation of their showrooms to areas that were near their premises. The CEO had also mistakenly assumed that their acquisition of the caravan business would perform superbly. This was because she had made assumptions concerning the tendency of the baby boomers to obtain better products from them during their retirement years. The former company which was responsible for manufacturing the caravans, had already built a reputation of being the best producer of caravans which made the commodities of their new owners be rejected in the market. The customers thought of the products as home brands and discarded them when making their purchases. This in turn made Templeton Hardware to experience a low volume in their sales along with lower profitability levels. The company suffered from the above consequences since they offered after sale services that were poor, made inferior products and had changed the perception that the customers had in the previous caravans produced. Under the same circumstances, the customers of the landscaping business disliked their approaches since the company mainly outsourced its tasks when an individual had a job they wanted done5. In spite of the CEO’s efforts to expand the company’s operations, their board was not impressed. This is because she had failed while they had a reputation along with a corporate image to protect in their operations. The board was concerned that despite the finances that the CEO had been given by the board to assist his activities of purchasing other companies, she had not succeeded in making the company the leader in their industry. The CEO should have utilized the strengths at her disposal to ensure that the company’s efforts would be a success6. The company also had several weaknesses like the inability of providing good after sales services and maintaining the product images that the previous owners had7. This could be attributed to their lack of adequately qualified member’s of staff in the performance of their operations8. This can further be evidenced by the fact that the company had failed in maintaining the former employees who had being employed by the previous owners9. The company had also failed to advertise aggressively and continued using its name for the trademarks that were initially being produced by other companies10. The company had instead sold the different sites that were owned by the companies that they had purchased. This would have been positively utilized by the CEO in helping the company to spread its influences across diverse the cultures that the sites were located11. The two companies’ sites were also opportunities that the CEO did not adequately utilize in enabling the company to accomplish its objective of becoming the leader in their industry. Instead the companies failed in satisfying the existing employees thereby making them leave their employment. The company lost a lot of qualified manpower and skilled technical expertise following the exit of the employees12. The company’s CEO did not utilize his negotiation skills in convincing the employees of the companies they had purchased to stay in their company. Their withdrawal from the company meant that the new management had lost many of the personnel who had a lot of experience in making the former businesses a success13. The CEO had perceived the baby boomers to be her target population that would have helped the company into expanding its activities. This however did not happen since the baby boomers perceived their products to be home products unlike the previous ones that were being manufactured. It is also for the same reasons that their customers were not impressed with their landscaping approaches. The company should instead have trained their own personnel who were skilled enough to handle the problems that were being encountered. This would have been done instead of outsourcing to people who did not properly understand their client’s problems14 The company was threatened by the fact that it did not have enough trained personnel to work for it during its operations. It was also threatened by the fact that it could not sufficiently expand its activities due to the CEO’S resolve to dispose the sites owned by the previous owners. They were also threatened by the competition of other producers who manufactured better quality products than theirs and were still present in the market15. In conclusion, the company’s CEO should have put up strategic plans that would have helped him in attaining the goals set by the company’s management. The strategies laid out would also have helped the company in maintaining the employees who departed following their take over’s of the two companies16. They in turn lost a lot of qualified personnel who had a lot of experience in manufacturing products that were capable of satisfying their target markets17. References Bratton, J & Gold, J 2008. Human Resource Management: Theory And Practice, Routledge, New York. Cummings, T. G. & Worley, C. G. 2008.Organizational Development & Change, Cengage Learning, London. Hodgson, M. 2010. It Seemed like a Good Idea at the Time (Session 10). Knopf Doubleday publishing group, Sydney. Kandula, S. R, 2006. Human Resource Management And Organizational Development- Practitioner Readings. ICFAI Books, Melbourne Pynes, J. E. & Lombardi, D. N.2011. Human Resources Management Foe Healthcare Organizations: A Strategic Approach, John Wiley & Sons, New York. Redman, T & Wilkinson, A. 2002. The Informed Student Guide To Human Resource Management, Cengage Learning, London. Werner, J. M & DeSimone, R. L. 2011. Human Resource Development, Cengage Learning. London. Read More