Importance of team meetings in successful organizations

Team meetings are one of the most important aspects of a successful organization. This is because employees are the ones who contribute towards the overall production of the organization. The managers of the organization have to make sure that they are taking proper care of the interests of all their employees. They have to make sure that they are rendering their employees not only with the professional but the moral support as well. It is very important to conduct the team meetings on a regular basis for knowing about the opinions and the feedbacks of the employees (Davies 2016). It is during these meetings that the managers can discuss the different issue going on within the organization.  The operational and the strategic issues are also discussed during these meetings. The company needs to discuss, review and implement many new tactics as per the current situation both at the operational and the strategic levels (Pettigrew 2014).

A meeting was arranged for taking a look and discussing the strategic and the operational issues. Prior to the commencement of the meeting the managers made sure that all the employees are well informed about the meeting. All the employees were informed about the meeting through emails (Cascetta et al. 2015). This meeting was mainly about the discussion of the issues at the strategic and the operational levels of the organization (Wheelen et al. 2017). There were some of the other issues identified both at the operational and the strategic level as well. Some of the issues that were seen at the operational levels are as follows

This is one of the major problems for the organization. As it is a newly formed start-up organization the overheads must be checked and maintained properly. This was, however, a tamed problem because proper discussions and methods would be successful in checking the problem and find out some solutions to it. For instance, the electricity bill is one of the overheads of the organization. If the employees keep on using the electricity for a longer time then the company will have to bear a huge amount of money.

This will create extra pressure over the company funds. This can lead to a huge problem. If the company gets to know that the electricity usage is exceeding about 5 hours beyond the official timing then they might take the necessary steps like installing some alternate energy sources. Apart from this, they might also ask their employees to reduce the extent and the undue usage of the electricity. So, the probable solution is known to the organization. This is a tamed problem because they know that taking some of the other kinds of steps will help them to deal with this issue (Thompson 2017).

The next issue that was identified at the operational level is the complaints of the employees regarding the incentive system. Some of the employees were not happy with the rewards and the incentive system. They did not feel the promotion list to be correct and justified. They wanted some changes. The employees were of this opinion that the managers must have been biased while taking the decision for the promotions and the monetary rewards. This was also a tamed problem because the managers knew the possible solution to this problem. They decided to set some new performance indicators and make sure that they are being able to review the overall working of the teams. This would perhaps help them to make some changes in the old promotion list that they issued.

Identifying problems at operational and strategic levels

The other kinds of problems that were discussed at this meeting were the strategic issues. The most important is to take some new strategies for customer satisfaction. In the last few months, there have been many complaints from the customers. The customers need some extra additional services. In other words, they are looking for some additional benefits like free gifts and discounts. They are also looking for some customer forums online, where they can register their complaints. So, the organization can take some steps like improving their online presence or conducting some or the other kinds of customer campaigns etc. However, they do not have the exact information on whether they will be able to make some changes and meet the level of customer satisfaction. So, this is a wicked problem since the exact solution or the exact result of these solutions is not properly known to the company.

The next issue that was identified is the lack of enough digital tools and digitalized methods within the organization. The company has to create a blend between the hybrid and the digital tools. The pace of work is becoming much slower and there is the urgent need for introducing some digitalized applications within the system of the organization (Vaughn 2015).

The information regarding the problems identified has been obtained by using the qualitative methods. The first issue identified was the problem of overheads. This was mainly analyzed by using the qualitative approach. The managers made sure that they are observing the number of maintenance charges for over a certain period of time. They also arranged for many group discussion sessions with the employees and the accounts department officials so that they can get to know the actual idea regarding the causes of the excessive overheads. The next problem that was identified was complaints of the employees regarding the incentive system. This was also done by arranging the group discussion sessions and the individual interviews as well. This was helpful for knowing the complaints from the employees regarding their opinions on the salary and incentive structure (Shepherd and Rudd 2014).

hey also called the employees for one to one or the personal interviews in order to know about their grievances (Dror 2017). The next issue was the customer satisfaction problem. This was done by using the quantitative approach. This was done by using the methods like mobile surveys, online surveys, and others. The customers were asked to fill up some online survey forms or any online forms attached to the emails. Some of the employees were reached out by using the telephonic interview method (Forsgren 2015). The last problem was the lack of digitalized system within the operations of the company. This problem was identified by using the qualitative method. The managers arranged for board meetings and also regular team meetings for the purpose of taking the opinions and the views of the employees regarding the problems that they are facing in their work and the changes that they are expecting within the system. They have taken the opinion from the employees regarding the usage of the computers and the other digitalized system that will help them to work in an easy and accurate manner (Hill 2017).

Nature of problems and criteria for evaluating tame or wicked

The problems that were diagnosed within the system of the company have been seen through the usage of the rational problem-solving model suggested by Williams (2002). The first was the problem of overheads in the company. The first step is that of problem identification. It was seen that the company is paying a huge amount of money for the overheads like electricity usage.  In the criteria definition part, the decision makers had to realize that there can be many aspects like employee protests, price, and other such issues while trying to resolve this problem. The next step is alternative generation and evaluation where the rational decision makers have to sort out and form a list of methods that might be used for solving the problem (Domhoff 2017).

One solution was to talk to the employees and ask them to reduce the usage of the electricity for a longer time, not to keep the fans, lights, and internet switched on for long. This step was really tough. The decision makers had to list all the possible consequences of the solutions that they are selecting. If they do not take the safety measures to meet with the consequences of the measure then there might be some huge problem. So if this stage is not carried on properly, it gets in the way of solving the problem. The final step is an implementation where the decision makers will finally use the best and the optimal option for solving the issue.

I would suggest that the decision makers must involve the employees in their decision-making process. They must consider taking the views and the opinions of the employees before reaching any concrete solution to the problem. However, they must also analyze the issue properly. They will have to be very wise while making the decisions so that it serves the two-fold purpose. The solution has been to such that it solves the problem on one hand and does not hurt the emotion of the employees. The decision makers will also have to maintain a top secrecy so that the information or any other kinds of private data are not being leaked out. They will have to keep a very strong check on the activities of the employees so that they do not leak out or tamper with the important data needed for finding out the solution for the issue.

References

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Davies, P.W., 2016. Current issues in business ethics. Routledge.

Domhoff, G.W., 2017. The power elite and the state. Routledge.

Dror, Y., 2017. Public policy making reexamined. Routledge. Shepherd, D.A., Williams, T.A. and Patzelt, H., 2015. Thinking about entrepreneurial decision making: Review and research agenda. Journal of management, 41(1), pp.11-46.

Forsgren, M., 2015. Managing the Internationalization Process (Routledge Revivals): The Swedish Case. Routledge.

Hill, T., 2017. Manufacturing strategy: the strategic management of the manufacturing function. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Pettigrew, A.M., 2014. The politics of organizational decision-making. Routledge.

Shepherd, N.G. and Rudd, J.M., 2014. The influence of context on the strategic decision?making process: A review of the literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 16(3), pp.340-364.

Thompson, J.D., 2017. Organizations in action: Social science bases of administrative theory. Routledge.

Vaughn, L., 2015. Doing ethics: Moral reasoning and contemporary issues. WW Norton & Company.

Wheelen, T.L., Hunger, J.D., Hoffman, A.N. and Bamford, C.E., 2017. Strategic management and business policy. pearson.

Williams, P.F. and Ravenscroft, S.P., 2015. Rethinking decision usefulness. Contemporary Accounting Research, 32(2), pp.763-788.