Human+Resources

 (Human resource planning, organizational structure, communication, leadership and management, motivation, organizational and corporate cultures, employer-employee relations, crisis management, contingency planning)   16) Analyse reasons for changes in work patterns, practices and consequences of these changes for Les Maisonnettes. (hint-Charles Handy’s Shamrock organization) HL (5)   
 * HUMAN RESOURCES**

17) Discuss the development of a more flexible organizational structure/ informal organisation for LM HL (hint – Mintzberg or Tom Peters) (6)   Flexible Organisational Structure    Sophie’s organisational structure is composed of several part time and two full-time employees who are all from the local community. Adopting a flexible organisational structure to Les Maisonettes, specifically Mintzberg’s, this business has adopted a paternalistic leadership style which means that Sophie has allowed the workers some freedom in working hours. With the flexible organisational structure the business can deal with rapid changes in the market. They should adapt a basic structure of six parts.     Mintzberg came up with six organisational structures which Sophie can benefit with her own company organisational structure, all of them can be taken into account, but one is more likely to dominate.
 * 1) // Ideology //, the beliefs, values and traditions of the organisation.
 * 2) // Strategic apex //, the senior management team, i.e. key decision makers.
 * 3) // Middle Line //, middle management in an organisation.
 * 4) // Operating core, // operational process within the organisation.
 * 5) // Techno structure, // technical support team and systems.
 * 6) // Support Staff //, team of auxiliary staff support outside of operational process and technical support, such as clerical staff and those working in public relations.

// Innovative organisations – // the employees are split into small project teams that deal with a specific task or problem, this can be taken effect with Sophie’s implementation of recruiting the small eco-tourism value group. With working on independent projects, the organisation becomes flexible and can adapt to change. // Entrepreneurial organisations // – With Sophie using the structure of Strategic apex, this is where the decision making is taken place. This centralized decision making means that the strategic apex is flexible and quick in responding to other employees in the organisation. // Machine Organisations // – With Sophie organising the grocery shop, her mother helps her with the food preparation which applies to techno-structure. If Sophie specialises and standardises the procedures communication is clear and reliable, this benefits Sophie as she appears not to have fixed processes, which offers the company to adapt to change. // Divisionalized Organisation – // If Sophie implements structured middle line workers, this means that they can ensure the teams standardization of output. If Sophie decentralises the employee structure and offers delegation of decision making power to divisions, this can lead to high levels of flexibility. // Professional organisations – // When Sophie employs these core staff then they would probably have standardised skills, which means they would have prior knowledge and learnt skills, they would not be adaptable to other roles. As a back-up Sophie should employ workers who are adaptable to many jobs so she would have a good workforce reputation of having employees who are well rounded. // Missionary Organisations – // Sophie should set up a set of beliefs which the business follows so then they all work on the same which can lead to high productivity. Informal Organisation Sophie’s business consists of employees who are long-term family friends, which in turn she has given loyalty to her friends. This can be identified by informal groups, as they are friends who share similar interests. If Sophie wants to keep her company in an informal organisation then she should set up networks which can exist in the workplace, she could implement and advice network which the employees can provide guidance to others and help solve problems, employees working in groups can provide a harmonious workplace and can promote motivation. As Sophie has adopted this paternalistic network she will have to trust her employees, this can be described as a trust network where her employees are relied upon for their loyalty and trustworthiness. However, Sophie has encountered a problem with employee trust with staff absences and poor punctuality, to help solve this problem Sophie will have to either adapt a different leadership style, she could use a democratic leadership style as she can take into account the decision making of her employees, this can lead to a better morale and motivation amongst the employees as Sophie can take into the views of her employees and can set a timetable of who is working at what hour making it a smoother product line. This can also help with the communication network, as the more communication within the company the better the relationship between employees and employers and these informal groups are a good source of spreading and receiving messages. With the use of this informal group it can produce motivation within the workplace as it promotes a sense of belonging. Finally, informal groups are known to come up with the most innovative and original solutions for a problems.

 

18) Evaluate effectiveness of Sophie’s leadership style (hint for HL: use Likert) (6)  Sophie has tried to adopt a paternalistic leadership style. She has several part- time staff and two full-time employees all from the local community. A number of the employees are long-term family friends. There is some advantages but also some disadvantages in this leadership style. 

19) (a) Describe **one** advantage and **one** disadvantage of Les Maisonnettes recruiting a significant proportion of their staff externally //(line 176)// (4) Les Maisonnettes recruiting a significant proportion of externally staff brings both advantages and disadvantages, the main advantage is that with the new employees from outside the company have new ideas, that can help develop and improve the business. However will all the new and fresh ideas that allows the business to improve, the business is taking risks. Recruiting externally can be inscure, with lack of security the Sarah doesnt know how reliable the employees maybe......  

(b) Explain the effect on motivation of offering high performing staff significant financial bonuses. (4)  

(c) Analyse the costs **and** benefits of changing the organizational structure of Les Maisonnettes to a matrix structure. (4)