the challenges and problems faced by the firm as well as proposing the possible solutions

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Executive Summary

The current economic and demographic changes in the world call for adoption of effective management strategies by the concerned organizations to enhance their performance and subsequent survival in the competitive and unstable business market. The adoption of such strategies is however depended on a variety of factors including the available resources, organization’s structural design, the external environment within which the organization operates as well as leadership approaches employed by the firm. East Cost School of Languages (ECSL) is such an organization that has faced challenges as far as the management strategies are concerned. For instance, ECSL has demonstrated poor leadership approach especially in regard to the decision making process as well as marketing strategies adopted by the institution. To begin with, the institution has bestowed all the decision making power upon its manager who happens to be the institution’s owner. This paper therefore seeks to analyze the operations of East Cost School of Learning by scrutinizing the marketing strategies as well as management approaches so far adopted by the institution. It also analyzes the institution’s external environment and proposes possible measures to improve its performance. Additionally, the paper attempts to scrutinize the leadership approach adopted by the firm its effects on the performance of the institution. Besides, the paper attempts to critically analyze the challenges and problems faced by the firm as well as proposing the possible solutions to overcome the aforementioned problems and challenges. Finally, the paper proposes a variety of recommendations to improve the performance of the firm as well as enhance the quality of services offered by the firm thereby improving its competitive advantage in the business market.

The formalization of business processes at East Cost School of Learning institution would present more benefits to the organization thereby minimizing or totally avoiding stress in during management. To begin with, the formal business processes would encompass such activities as documentation of the firm’s processes and record keeping. Documentation and the subsequent keeping of relevant records are important in future references of the firm’s activities and operations (Rainey, 2009). This can be used to provide data required to analyze the performance trend of the institution which is usually vital for predicting the future performance based on the past information. It would therefore exempt the management as well as other stakeholders of the stress of retrieving such vital information. Besides, the informal business procedures are associated to a myriad of problems including time wastage, bureaucracy as well as provision of poor quality results (Rainey, 2009). Informal marketing procedures for instance have contributed to the poor performance of the firm in the students’ recruitment process compared to its rivals who adopted the formal processes (Daft & Armstrong, 2009).

Department of Commerce refers to the US government arm that is concerned with the promotion of the country’s economic growth. The department provides vital information concerning the country’s economic trends which is important to various business ventures including the East Cost School of Learning. The institution uses the statistics on economic trends to analyze its external business environment as well as planning for future operations of the firm.

Organizational structure and design

East Cost School of Learning has a simple organizational structure and design with all the management authority bestowed upon one manager who happens to be the owner of the institute. All the employees of the institution reports to the manager and therefore he has the power to command people within the institution to perform specified organization functions. Besides, the learning institution operates within an environment that changes slowly and characterized by clustered threats. The environmental forces are linked and pose high threats to the organization. Long-range planning as well as forecasting would therefore help the institution to fully understand the environmental changes and take corrective measures (Daft & Armstrong, 2009).

The institution has no formal structures required of an effectively and efficiently managed organization (Robbins & Coutlier, 2001). Moreover, the institution lacks proper departmentalization as such important departments as human resource; accountings as well as marketing departments are lacking (Triplett, 2007). Additionally, the decision making process is highly centralized the manager possess sole authority to make all decisions concerning the operation of the institution. This is done amid challenges in the business environment including instability, and small size of the institution among others. The subordinates are not involved in the decision making process despite their capability in doing so (Robbins & Coutlier, 2001).

As mentioned before, ECSL operates under informal business procedures and process. At the outset, the jobs within the institution are not standardized with little clarity on the job procedure and description. This may make the employees to contemplate seeking alternative employers (Robbins & Coutlier, 2001). ECSL has adopted mechanistic characteristics as its structure is strictly and rigidly controlled by a single manager. Such an organizational design decision inhibits appreciation of diversity as it suppresses the different traits exhibited by the people within the institution (Robbins & Coutlier, 2001).

Generally, ECSL institution has a simple organizational structure which jeopardizes its desire to achieve the stipulated goals and objectives. Besides, the institution is characterized by simple organizational design with the authority centralized in the manger, low departmentalization as well as little formalization of its processes (Robbins & Coutlier, 2001). Moreover, the firm should consider linking its management strategies with the organizational structure to enhance its performance (Daft & Armstrong, 2009). Modern technology should also be incorporated into the firm’s management process to improve the results.

Due to the fact that systems may be confronted with unlimited variety of perturbations, the organizations need to maximize their internal diversity in an attempt to counter the foreseeable as well as unforeseeable contingency. East Cost School of languages has a minimized formal system of management and therefore the information available for the organization is provided by other entities outside the institution. This has reduced the firm’s ability to perform appropriate selection during management process. It needs to adopt its own method of ensuring availability of information necessary for the management process. To achieve a suitable and appropriate control of the institution’s operation, there should be an increased diversity in the control system compared to the variety in the perturbations. Daft and Armstrong (2009) proposes two approaches of problem consensus and technical knowledge on the problem solving issues as the suitable means of decision making in an organization. Since the ECSL has a centralized management system, problem consensus may not be applicable as one manager is bestowed with all the authority to make important decisions concerning the management of the institution.

Recommendations

It is worth noting that East Cost School of Languages has demonstrated poor management approach as far as decision making process as well as marketing strategies are concerned. To begin with, the institution is controlled by one individual who has assumed both the roles of a manger as w/ell as the institution’s owner. Worse still, the manager makes all the decisions concerning the firm’s operations individually. This suppresses the performance of the institution as other stakeholders’ ideas are always important in the performance of any organization. Besides, the institution employs backward marketing strategies in communicating the firm’s ideals hence unable to reach greater client base compared to its competitors who utilize modern technologies as far as marketing is concerned. The institution therefore needs to employ a variety of strategies to enhance its performance in the highly competitive and unstable business market.

Firstly, ECSL needs to adopt a long-term planning and forecasting strategy in an attempt to fully understand the environment within which it operates. As mentioned earlier, the institution’s environment changes slowly but is characterized by forces that are not only linked but also pose threats to the institution. Besides, the institution should enhance its formalization process by establishing formal organizational structures such as creating specialized departments including accounting, human resource as well as marketing departments which would improve the firm’s management process. The human resource department for instance, would create a suitable working environment for employees as well as students within the institution. Through formal marketing strategies, the institution would be able to minimize time that is usually wasted while pursuing such activities manually. Moreover, it would be in a position to access credible information through formal means and not the informal strategies currently utilized by the firm. The formalization process would also ensure adoption of a formal business plan which would facilitate proper management process by eliminating bureaucracy involved in the business operations.

Besides, ECSL should also contemplate phasing out all its manual processes and replace them with the modern electronic procedures. For instance, the collection and analysis of data concerning the trends and changes in the institution’s external environment should be done electronically to avoid time wastage as well as enhance accuracy thereby ensuring high quality results. The leadership approach adopted by the firm should be restructured to improve the firm’s operational success. Notably, a hybrid approach involving the inclusion of all stakeholders in the management process ensures optimal performance of the institution. This would ensure that all the important decisions are made by the concerned stakeholders unlike the current case where such vital activity is performed by the manager who is also the institution’s owner. Finally, ECSL should diversify its management approach by incorporating modern technological innovations necessary for the improved performance of the institution. This together with the social, economic as well as cultural factors has immense effects on the health of an organization.

References

Daft, R. & Armstrong, A. (2009).Organization theory and design. USA: Nelson College Indigenous.

Rainey, H. (2009). Understanding and Managing Public Organizations. 4th Ed. New York: John

Wiley and Sons.

Robbins, S. & Coutlier, H. (2001).Organizational structure and design. 7th Ed. Indiana: Prentice

Hall

Triplett, J. (2007). Organizational Design: A Holistic View. NC: Lulu Enterprises, Inc.

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