ORGANISATIONAL DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT ASSIGNMENT NO.

SUBMITTED BYARUSHI ARORA PGDMHR10

Q1)Palani kumar had succeeded in putting in place the most modern tractor plant of india with products that were supposed to be technologically superior to those of the competitors.Yet that evening,some issues were troubling him.Identify the issues that were troubling Palani kumar? ANS.1)While setting up the tractor plant palani kumar had tried to set up and create a team based and process based organisational structure that would enable NH1 to establish a barrierless flexible organisation by enhancing greater communication,speedy decisions and actions,focusing on deliverables and having an orientation towards results. However,inspite of all these advantages,there were certain problems that were cropping up in the organisation and it was these very issues that were troubling palani kumar.The following were some of these issues1. HIGH WORK PRESSURE AND STRESS LEVELS AMONNGST EMPLOYEES Since the employees of NH1 were being supposed to give their best in the teams as well as the functional areas,the pressure on them was increasing as the size and volume of operations of the company were on an increase.This would also sometimes make employees compromise on the intensity of their participation in teams. 2. PROBLEM OF MULTIPLE ACCOUNTABILITY A team member was not only required to be accountable to the members of his own team but also to the functional heads,the numerous customers and even to the process owners.This created both vertical and horizontal time targets for the employees 3. FLAT STRUCTURE OF THE ORGANISATION WAS BECOMING A BOTTLENECK FOR RECRUITMENT With the idea of a flat organisation,it was becoming extremely difficult to approach convince senior level managers to accept designations that were not

commesurate with the ones they currently had.This was hence reating a huge problem in attracting candidates

4. CULTURAL CONSTRAINTS/DIVERSITY ISSUES IN IMPLEMENTATION OF TEAM BASED WORK STRUCTURE Not all people in the organisation responded to the concept of a team based work structure in a similar way.Foe eg- in NH1,a person quit because he did not want to be called an executive for 5 years!.Some cultures do have an inkling towards designations and titles,and hence a flat team based structure fails to fulfil their personal goals as is what happened with this person 5. HIGH COST OF RECRUITMENT Since palanis requirement for a person job fit were too specific,he had to incur a huge cost on recruitment and also had a rigourous interview process arranged.Even inspite of all this effort and cost,some recruits were unable to let go off their prior work experiences and habbits 6. INTEGRATION OF INDIAN AND GLOBAL WORK PATTERNS The Indian employees in NH1 had different work patterns and styles of working.It was getting difficult to integrate their styles with working of the parent organisation and the foreign heads were having a problem with respect to this 7. GROWING NEED FOR PROCESS FORMALISATION As the organisational size was growing,the need for formlisation of team based work was required as the volume of work was increasing.Sometimes members would approach late for meetings and even the brainstorming sessions consumed a lot of time.The benchmarks that were set up were also not being followed 8. TEAM KRAS VS FUCTIONAL KRAS The team and functional kras were in the ratio of 60:40 in the performance appraisal system.However,to an extent the team performance was dependent upon the time,responsibility and the authority given by the functional heads to the team members.Some of The members were confused as to which kras to

focus on.This was also creating a sort of psychological stress on the team members hence reducing their productivity

9. PROBLEMS WITH IMPLEMENTATION OF ERP AND BAAN The team members were required to not only define processes but now also align them with the erp solutions. This was adding to the work pressure of employees. 10.REDUCING LEVEL OF ENTHUSIASM AND ZEAL TO WORK Some of the members had started feeling that their role was being limited to taking feedback during team meetings and giving it to the functional heads.Also due to reducing team efficiency,members had started loosing their initial motivation and interest in the team processes.

Q2)What kind of an organisational structure was being operated in NH1? ANS2)The following are the characteristics of the structure followed at NH1 It was a flat structure which was process and team based It was a lean ,flexible and agile organisation The work done was entirely process based There were no hierarchies The work processes and teams were matched to each other Work was done across different levels and different departments There were only 5 main designations-chief manager,senior manager,deputy manager,executives and associates At the organisational level there was presence of cross functional teams Both horizontal and vertical time targets were present for employees to work Several teams were present like-supply chain team,safety management team etc There were also cross functional teams like,territory team,travel management team etc. However each junior level manager was accountable both to the team as well as the function.

Q3)Identify the hr interventions required to facilitate a team based organisational structure? ANS.3)The following are certain hr interventions in implementing a team based structure in NH1,and can also be generalised1.THE HR DESIGNS APPROPRIATE JOB DESCRIPTIONS AND SPECIFICATIONS In case of NH1,palani was extremely sure about the kind of jobs wanted.The knowledge,skills,abilities and attitudes that he wanted in his people were also very clear.palanis hazed view about all this was given a clear shape,facilitated and crystallized into appropriate job descritions and specifications by the hr.egemployees were required to be creative,have team skills etc. Therefore we see that in order to implement a team based structure the first thing that hr does is start with an appropriate job and task analysis 2.DESIGNING RECRUITMENT POLICIES The hr designed an appropriate recruitment strategy for finding the best employees.This included the followinga) Attracting people with automotive and engineering industry b) Rigorous interview process having different stages c) Assessment and exploration at every stage of interview process 3.MANAGING CULTURAL DIVERSITY Employees from all sorts of cultures and places who were working in NH1 had different set of mental models,different paradigms and different ideas about ways to work.Sometimes,their approaches would also be rigid,and the HR was required to refreeze their styles and old ideas and blend it with the organisational structure and style of working 4.INDUCTION/ORIENTATION OF EMPLOYEES The hr also conducted a series of sensitization excercises with employees at the time of their joining in order to make them familiar with the team and process based work

cultures.This included holding communication meetings,holding various kinds of trainings,sending employees abroad to learn the global ways of doing work etc

5.CULTURE BUILDING The hr conducted a series of seminars to show to the employees what a team and process based organisation was.informed meetings and forums were also built to internalize this concept and build an overall culture of working in teams.Actions that were pro teams were encouraged and the opposite were discouraged. 6.TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT The hr arranged for internal training,and also outside vendors to train its employees,.These included b schools also to teach theoretical aspects of team building,problem solving and conflict resolution.This was done to ensure short term and long term performance of employees and also make them aligned to the vision and mission of the company 7.STRATEGIC PARTNER IN THE ORGANISATION Hr was a part of almost all strategic decisions.All considerations took the line managers as well as the hr managers in view. Eg-It was the hr that helped in formulating the policy of making team processes formalised and also rules regarding compulsory participation in teams. 8.DESIGNING PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM The hr also designed an apt performance appraisal system for employees,which called for kras of both team based and function based.Although employees were having some problems with the appraisal system but hr was dealing with that problem as well 9.FACILITATOR AND SUPPORT FUNCTION TO TEAMS The hr function addressed all the issues related to teams and members of the proactively.It also facilitated the formation of teams but did not directly intervene in the process to make it independent 10.MOTIVATION AND EMPOWERMENT OF EMPLOYEES The hr made sure that the spirit of team participation should remain prevelant in employees.Also appropriate challenges and decision making authority was given to

employees .Communication meetings were also held by hr to inspire the employees and increase productivity.Hence,the hr played a major role in both the physical as well as psycological empowering of the employees Q4)what were the integrating mechanisms that coordinated team working in NH1? ANS4)The following were the integrating mechanisms that coordinated team working in NH1 i. CHIEF MANAGERS-the chief managers played the role of integrating devices in NH1.they made sure that the diverse team did nor loose sight of the organisational goals.At the organisational level,they were a part of the top management team but at the same time they were also members in certain cross functional teams.The chief managers also worked with the senior managers,the managers and executives in diverse teams to address various issues. ii. THE HR FUNCTION-the hr was also responsible for directly and indirectly influencing the integration of work teams by formulating appropriate policies,building culture,solving employee grievances and motivating the employees iii. THE TOP MANAGEMENT-the top management including palani was also responsible to decide various organisational goals and how the work and the processes would be trickled down to the various teams.Hence the integration of work and teams was indirectly excercised by the top management as well iv. ORGANISATIONAL STRUCTURE-the flat organisational structure played the role of an intangible element in integrating the work of teams.It was the problem solving that was the focus and no two different team members required permission from anyone to consult each other or help each other in the time of a particular problem.

Q5)At the end of the day,what did NH1 receive by experimenting a team based structure in india? ANS5)By implementing a team based structure for the first time in india,NH1,undoubtedly faced problems as mentioned in answer 1.However,needless to say the achievements of NH1 by implementing this structure cant be ignored. In terms of effectiveness if we look at the ultimate organisational goal of NH1,it was building huge quality products at low cost and right volume.Now if we analyse the effectiveness of NH1 in terns of i. ii. To what extent did it achieve its goals? To what extent did it satisfy the stakeholders including the employees and consumers?

To analyse,we take into consideration,the tangible and intangible achievements of NH1 TANGIBLE ACHIEVEMENTS Nh1 experienced an increase in productivity,profitability and staff retention For the two consecutive years,1999-2000,associates achieved the highest production,ie 35 tractors per day.This was achieved when they were asked to run the plant by themselves In 1999,Nh1s spare part operations team bagged an award for customer satisfaction after competing against well established competitors worldwide. The 933 project team was successful in launching 40 hp tractors in april 2001 and this was much ahead of the scheduled time in September The effective teamworking helped NH1 in developing an effective partnership network with dealers,suppliers etc.It had 54 dedicated dealers,36 stockists and 30 authorised service centers.

 NH1s production team successfully launched 70 hp,50 hp and 40 hp tractors that were technically much ahead of competitors and were even launched earlier than the scheduled date INTANGIBLE ACHIEVEMENTS FLEXIBILTY and SPEED IN DECISION MAKING The employees had flexibility in decision making as they were not accountable to any superwisor or have to wait for any approval from top befoor it could make an instant decision.These teams set their own targets which were also usually stretch targets.they were also empowered to make instantaneous decisions.for eg-if they would find a defect in a tractor,the team would instantly do a branstorming session and fix it without taking any sanction. BROAD HOLISTIC VIEW ABOUT THE ORGANISATION The employees did not look at NH1 from narrow perspective of a function or a subunit.Rather,by working in teams,they had a broader outlook and also gained the views and opinions of people working in other functions MULTIPLE SOLUTIONS/IDEAS The team could look at a particular situation or a problem from all angles and perspectives .Every member had distinct role to play in the team and a consensus could be srrived at a solution feasable to all.Hence,the effectiveness of problem solving has increased manifold by this approach EQUALITY AMONGST EMPLOYEES Since all employees were treated at an equal level,with no concept of a senior or a junior,every employee felt equally important and that his contributions were respected.This helped to increase the commitment of employees to the organisation LOYALTY OF EMPLOYEES Since every employee had a feeling of ownership by being a contributor to major decisions,Nh1 achieved the loyalty of its employees and the retention levels were much higher

 ENCOURAGED LEARNING AND SKILL DEVELOPMENT Every team had people from different functions.Some employees acted as communicators,or catalysts or visionaries in he team to collaborate joint decision making.The learning from other functions in a team,helped employees increase their individual development apart from knowledge acquisition INCREASED MOTIVATION AMONG EMPLOYEES There was decentralisation,employees were empowered and the processes were clearly laid out.This to a large extent helped to increase employee motivation INCREASED CREDIBILITY Nh1s credibility had become entrenched not only amongst customers but also to the suppliers as well as dealers.This was only possible due to team work and instant reactive measure to solve problems without any delay.

Thus we can summarise by saying that although a few weaknesses of team based work can be rectified and improved,all in all it worked out to be successful for nh1.However,the organisation also needs to take into account certain problems that might occur in future and take measures in the present itself

Q6)Identify the future challenges which NH1 may face in its efforts to sustain team based building processes and its team based organisationl structure? ANS6)keeping in view,the facts given in the case,in future,NH1 could face the following problems1. HIGH MONETORY AND TIME COST FOR RECRUITMENT With the expanding size of the organisation,recruitment shall become an inevitable activity for the organisation.Now since the requirements are very specific,it shall be difficult to identify as well as recruit people with the same orientation as the company. 2. HIGH COST OF COORDINATION OF TIME AND PEOPLE If proper measures are not taken to formalise and regulate team processes,it shall be very time consuming to coordinate employees.morover,this can defeat the entire purpose of speedy decision making in the organisation 3. DIVIDED COMMITMENT IN BETWEEN TEAMS As NH1 is increasing in size,more teams shall be formd and there shall be greater need for coordination.So an individual in more than one team will find it difficult to manage his commitment and priorities 4. ATTRITION If the current problems of employee dissatisfaction and performance appraisals is not addressed,and role conflicts are not cleared out,the problrm could be aggrevted and eventually cause the entire team bsed structure to collapse 5. LACK OF CAREER DEVELOPMENT In future,some employees might ask for career in term of titles,designations etc.However in team based and flat structure,this kind of growth is at later stages.This might cause dissatisfaction in some employees

6. RESOURCES FOR TRAINING Since a huge amount of training is required in the future for the increasing size of workforce,the organisation shall need to ensure that it has adequate resources available for the same 7. NO ECONOMIES OF SCALE IN FUNCTIONS Since the employees of all functions are scattered in different teams,there would be no economies of scale for the working of a particular function 8. LIMITATION OF INDEPTH SKILL EXPERTS In the long run,the expertise that NH1 might require for a particular function may not be available internally,since employees have been used to working in cross functional teams. In thi case,larger resources shall be required for hiring outside expertise. 9. SUSTAINABILITY OF TEAM BUILDING PROCESSESS As more teams are added and the size of workforce increases,it shall become difficult for hr and top management to directly oversee the working of teams.The integration of different teams will also require appropriate measures in future 10.CONFLICT BETWEEN TEAMS Although things are quite smooth in between teams at the present,but as more and more teams get formed,the possibility of clasing opinions,fight for resources of the organisation and conflicting views in between teams cant be ruled out completely.The hr and top management shall have to be very vigilant about this