Tobacco Company

Gestures International Tobacco Company has been having problems in the organizational and management of its large number of staff among its branches which streams over a number of countries. The top leadership of this company has tried a number of management approaches in order to streamline staff management of its subsidiaries but with littler success. The situation had become worse with many head of the subsidiaries citing the lack of directional leadership from its headquarters in New York as the cause of their choice to make independent decisions. However, these decisions were always not consistent with other subsidiaries.

This conflict became worse within the organizational where staff lacked morale that affected the overall performance of the organization. Eventually, after hearing of the success of the services offered by the Flawless Consulting group, the top management decided to come for advice from us as well as being helped to set up structures that would help it optimize its organizational in staff performance. I must confess that this was one of the most challenging assignments that I have handled in recent times in relation to offering advice over complex human resource issues for a big company that do not have a centralized operation.

This is because there was a need to first go through the said organization and have an insight on the existing condition before deciding on the best way forward for this organization. Application of appreciative inquiry After going through the major problems that the company was going through in the view of the human resource, I sought out to find the only one factor that was central to the organization. This would have given me an insight on what gives life to this organization. This was the only way I could find a common factor that would give hope to the staff of the organization.

This organization required regaining trust within its members a factor that could be achieved through application of strategic intervention. Interview During the course of my interviews with the selected member of the otherwise thought failing subsidiary, I posed some questions that helped me to get a clear picture of what the staff in this organization were going through. This allowed the participant to share his feelings and those of the general subsidiary freely. Such questions included.

1. What is good about this company?
2. What is going wrong?
3. Who is responsible for the mess?
4. Why is the trend like this?
5. What can be done to improve the situation?
6. What needs to change?
7. What would you like the top management to know?

One thing that came out clear from the interview was that the organization lacked a common factor that ensured cohesion among its staff. In addition, there was no any authentic form of organization within the chosen subsidiary that we visited and conducted interviews with. Most of its top leadership lacked the integrity to hold positions that they were holding.

In addition, the headquarters were found to be pushing for profitability of the subsidiaries without clearly trying to understand the situation under which these branches were operating. In fact, the top management was pointed at as the one, which lacked compassion, and courage that would have helped them to face the sensitive needs of the subordinate members who operated under different cultural diversities. This factor was cited as a common demoralizing factor for the other middle-level management executives. There was a need to create a common bond within the members of this institution.

In order to achieve a best output from staff, one has to start with hiring the right staff. The right staff must recognize and share to the common goal of the organization. This was a factor which was ignored for some time in this organization. This gave rise to hiring of staff through nepotism. Such staff had no hint of the organizational goals and direction. They were also disinterested in long-term goals of the organization. What I learnt This process made me learn that most of the staff in any given organization is fully aware of their roles and expectations.

The challenge comes in when the same people find their efforts being ignored by the same people who are supposed to help them achieve these ends. Most of employees are inspired by sound leadership, which is focused to the vision and the mission of the organization. It would help an organization a big deal if the organization would remain focused to building of a cohesive workforce. This is only achievable through building of a rapport and maintaining communication through consulting before any decision is made concerning staff issues (Flame Tree Centre, 2008).

It is not necessarily that the management has to meet the needs of their staff. However, the mere act of consulting them makes them feel valued and as a part of decision-making. Instituting new forms of communication have a great potential of revitalizing the staff morale. This makes the workers feel better about themselves and overall organization. This approach has proved to be transformative and generative throughout the subsidiaries of Gestures International Tobacco Limited. Instinctive insights.

This case would require me to move out of the boardroom closet where most of the decision-making in this company takes place. From the onset, I was sure that something was wrong and my instinctive insights pointed at the coordination within the human resource department. However, at this moment I did not have solid data to argue my case that required me to conduct an interview. I further recognized that if I followed my instinct in decision-making, I would have remained rigid and focused only on what I thought was going wrong.

However, this situation required a lot of flexibility of thought and action to help unravel the deep-seated problems in this organization. Interviewee and management reaction At the beginning, I did not expect to receive a positive response from my interviewee. This was because the person who was as the representative of the group had no clue of what the intentions of the interview. However, I was amazed to find that the person was very much interested and became even more enthusiastic n the process when he learnt that somebody somewhere was willing to listen at his concerns.

After I unearthed the pertinent issues and conveyed them to the management, it became easier for them to come up with possible solutions for these problems. The management needed to be more embracive and have a concern over the issues of their staff. The basic concept applied on this case remains the core principle of Flawless Consulting where one does not have to go far looking for problems. One only needs to look at the issue that has for long been ignored to understand a problem (Flame Tree Centre, 2008). Summary

The issue of this company was deep rooted within the system of this company. The company had chosen to ignore underlying issues of staff welfare in recruiting and the common social goal as conceived during the early life of the company. This had come to cost the company a great deal while trying to coordinate its activities. The good fact is that we were able to come out of this project successfully.

References

• Flame Tree Centre. (2008). Flawless Consulting. Retrieved on 15, July, 2010, from http://www. flamecentre. com/web/brochures/Flawless%20Consulting%201. pdf