Identifying R, D & D Innovative/Creative Capabilities From Email Communication | Cluster Identification | Key Members Selection

Research Questions

The business analysis has a significant role to play in the implementation of any project, which comprises of project development and project testing. The managers in the development department needs business analysis decisions, to help in modeling the internal business processes, data flow, to identify the critical components which impacts the performance and to prepare the test plans (Carlberg, 2010). Any business depends on communication and ROI (Return on Investment), because it helps to determine the business value and business benefit, for maximizing the revenue of the business (“Importance of Business Analysis”, 2018). 

The context of this report refers to the constantly changing work environments, where the contemporary organisations happily accept the advanced methods of bringing the groups of people together, i.e., through the formation of virtual teams. The virtual teams effectively communicate and work, irrespective of their physical presence, in the networked environments. In the virtual groups, the managers are required to effectively utilize the present and emerging technologies, for enhancing the functioning of the groups, plus help the organization to take right decision and change the management skills. However, in this technology-based environment, the managers must also ensure the psychosocial cost and the challenges of communication.

1.1 Research Questions

The research questions are:

• What was the basis for your selection of nodes in the clusters?
• Did you include ‘dangling nodes’ in your analysis? Why or Why Not?
• Did you include unconnected nodes in your clusters? Why or Why not?
• What is the justification for selecting two R.D & D staff per each cluster to attend meeting areas over others in different clusters?
• What form does the field service staff members’ communication take?
• Who are they most likely communicating with, and about what?
• Is there a high level of communication between managers and customers?
• How important has support availability been?
• How open is communication between field staff and management?
• Describe the nature of results communicated by field staff.
• What part do managers play in communicating results?

1.2 Objectives

The objectives of this research are associated with both the scenario A and B, where the following will be accomplished:

• Select and evaluate the usefulness of a range of decision making tools and reflect on your decision-making styles and contrast with other styles to determine the respective levels of rationality and intuition utilized.
• Compare, contrast and critically evaluate sources of data as influences for decision-making in a range of business contexts.
• Examine and evaluate decision making systems and techniques to engage group decisions and analyze how these can enhance sustainable outcomes.
• Critically examine emerging tools and technologies for decision making.

Here, the case revolves around a mid-sized Australian organization, which comprises of 800 staff, where in research, development and design (R, D &D) work 80 staff are present. This organization is interested in identifying the innovative/creative capabilities held by their RD&D staff and use these capabilities for differentiating the business from their competitors’ point of view. The organization has introduced a project for researching the R, D & D innovative/creative capabilities that are held tacitly by the staff and in their unstructured communication. 

Therefore, the map below illustrated map helps to identify every single member of the staff along with the work station they have logged onto, by node. The nodes are denoted with a circle that contains a number inside it. Then, the rates of connectivity are illustrated with the lines that connect various nodes and direction. Further, the traffic’s intensity is illustrated with the help of the number of lines into or out of the nodes.

After considering the map constructed from more than 70 company staff members’ emails over a one week period, the tacit data is held in those emails, for making sense. The process is started with the identification of naturally occurring clusters of R, D & D staff. These identified clusters are numbered from one to six in the below table and shows the nodes (numbered staff and terminals) who are decided to be included in each of the cluster.

2.1 Cluster Identification

The following table represents the identified clusters from one to six and displays each cluster’s constituents (Carlberg, 2014) (Wakiru, Pintelon, Karanovi?, Jocanovi? & Orošnjak, 2018).

Clusters	Cluster size	Cluster Constituents
1.	6	07, 12, 30, 32, 53,70
2.	5	15, 21, 27, 67, 75
3.	7	10, 26, 54, 59, 66, 81, 80
4.	6	04, 19, 35, 36, 39, 52,
5.	3	14, 13, 41
6.	4	40, 74, 78, 84

2.2 Key members of clusters selected 

Rooms	Clusters	Key Members Selected to Attend Meetings
A.	1.	32 and 07
B.	2.	75 and 15
C.	3.	59 and 10
D.	4.	19 and 39
E.	5.	14
F.	6.	78 and 40

The above table represents the selected key members for attending the meetings. Two key members are selected by using the rates of inter connectivity connecting lines, from each of the clusters to attend the meeting areas and work with facilitators and GDSS technology in generating explicit knowledge.

Objectives

3.     Scenario B

Here, the case revolves around the Australia wide service-based organization, whose head office is located in Melbourne, Australia. Across ten service centers, there are nearly 200 service staff, who report to 40 managers in this organization. This organization is interested in determining the service support levels provided by their staff. On the other hand, the organization has introduced a project for identifying the meaning of a service person and the required management support. Several interviews are conducted, to identify the knowledgeable and skills staff, with the recorded results. The Leximancer is used as a qualitative analysis tool, to clearly understand the large data.

The relative size of the balloons and the lines connecting, or not collecting are noted. The Leximancer content analysis map shows the concepts surrounding field staff, managers and customers and the communication.  The key concepts and their relative relationships are identified, to describe the highly important and least important relationships.

4.     Research Analysis

In general, the business analysis includes communicating complicated details which helps the managers and the people involved in the business management. This analysis provides clarity in the business operation’s decisions and helps the organization, to achieve cost savings. Moreover, the decision making includes communication and sharing processing details, for managing their respective implementations (Basu, 2018).

From the Scenario A, the following answers are identified.

The number of short distance nodes were considered, to decide the type and size of each of the six clusters. The nodes in the clusters are selected on the basis of the rates of inter connectivity connecting lines. In this analysis, the dangling nodes are not included, because such nodes act as sinks, which decreases the significance of the network (Lin, 2016); No, unconnected nodes are included in the clusters, as it won’t contain any tags, so it hardly represents anything and thus it is not required that such nodes must be present in the data (“Paul Ambrosiussen”, 2018);

The justification for selecting two R.D & D staff per each cluster to attend meeting areas over others in different clusters includes, the rates of inter connectivity connecting lines, from each of the clusters to attend the meeting areas and work with facilitators and GDSS technology in generating explicit knowledge.

From the Scenario B, the following answers are identified.

The field service staff members’ communication take the following forms (Khursheed, 2018):

• Reporting the workflow processes
• Workflow Performance
• time usage
• Team Performance
• Cost Optimization
• Customer Satisfaction

Most likely communication takes place between the managers and their employees, about the workflow of the process, its performance, and completion of the work (Dev, 2017). Yes, there is no high level of communication between the managers and their team. The support availability is significant, as the businesses increasingly work in mission-critical modes, thus support availability is becoming highly important (Lynton, 2001).

There is open communication between the field staff and the management. Thus, the organization is keen to determine the levels of service support provided by their staff and has instituted a project to capture what it means to be a service person and identify perceived support provided by management. Hence, a series of telephone and face-to-face interviews have been conducted across field staff and management. The managers play leadership and managerial role in communicating the results.

Cluster Identification

5.     Result

5.1 Are managers sufficiently customer facing to justify an introduction of an incentive payment system for them. Why or Why Not?

No, but it has to be introduced as it helps to boost productivity (Everitt, Landau, Leese & Stahl, 2013).

5.2 Should the organization bolster management’s role or rather establish empowered self-managed field service teams to better reach customers?

The organization must reinforce an effective management role for effectively reaching the customers.

5.3 Has support proved to be effective enough to justify support increases?

Yes.

5.4 Should customer-service communication be changed towards one of greater openness? Why or Why Not?

Yes, as it helps to meet the requirements of the customers.

6.     Recommendations

It is recommended to implement business analysis, for helping the managers and the people involved in the business management. As, it provides clarity in the business operation’s decisions and helps the organization to achieve cost savings. Moreover, the decision making includes communication and sharing processing details, for managing their respective implementations (Uprichard & Byrne, 2012).

It is also suggested that the business Analysis process is important, as it helps to make decisions instantly. It considers the logic and standard principles, to take instant decisions making (Everitt, Landau, Leese & Stahl, 2013).

Conclusion

According to the Scenario A, the following answers are identified i.e., The number of short distance nodes were considered, to decide the type and size of each of the six clusters; On the basis of the rates of inter connectivity connecting lines, the nodes in the clusters are selected; In this analysis the dangling nodes are not included, because such nodes act as sinks, which decreases the significance of the network;

No, unconnected nodes are included in the clusters, as it won’t contain any tags, so it hardly represents anything and thus it is not required that such nodes must be present in the data; The justification for selecting two R.D & D staff per each cluster to attend meeting areas over others in different clusters includes, the rates of inter connectivity connecting lines, from each of the clusters to attend the meeting areas and work with facilitators and GDSS technology in generating explicit knowledge.

According to the Scenario B, the following answers are identified i.e., the field service staff members’ communication take the following forms such as, Reporting the workflow processes, Workflow Performance, time usage, Team Performance, Cost Optimization and Customer Satisfaction. Mostly the communication takes place between the managers and their team, related to the process workflow, its performance, and on-time work completion. Yes, there is no high level of communication between the managers and the customers. There is open communication between the field staff and the management. The managers play leadership and managerial role in communicating the results.

Henceforth, both the scenarios are reviewed and evaluated, to compare and contrast the decision-making in a range of business contexts. The decision making systems and techniques are examined, to achieve sustainable outcomes. The emerging tools are examined critically. Further, various tasks are completed such as, cluster identification and key member of the selected cluster. Finally, the related results are also represented with effective suggestions.

In this report, the analysis concentrates to get the answers for the following questions,   

Are the managers sufficiently customer facing to justify an introduction of an incentive payment system for them?, Should the organization bolster management’s role or rather establish empowered self-managed field service teams to better reach customers?, Has support proved to be effective enough to justify support increases?, and should the customer-service communication be changed towards one of greater openness?

References

Basu, C. (2018). The Importance of Business Analysis for a Project Manager. 

Carlberg, C. (2010). Business analysis. Indianapolis, Ind.: Que.

Carlberg, C. (2014). Classifying According to Naturally Occurring Clusters. 

Everitt, B., Landau, S., Leese, M., & Stahl, D. (2013). Cluster analysis. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley.

Importance of Business Analysis. (2018).

Lin, D. (2016). Google PageRank Algorithm.

Paul Ambrosiussen. (2018). 

Uprichard, E., & Byrne, D. (2012). Cluster analysis. London: SAGE.

Wakiru, J., Pintelon, L., Karanovi?, V., Jocanovi?, M., & Orošnjak, M. (2018). Analysis of lubrication oil towards maintenance grouping for multiple equipment using fuzzy cluster analysis. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science And Engineering, 393, 012011. doi: 10.1088/1757-899x/393/1/012011