Employee Engagement And Porter’s Five Forces Model For Analyzing Industries

Factors to be considered while implementing employee engagement processes

Question:

1)

a. Analyse the effectiveness  of a range  of strategies  which an  organization  could  use to improve  engagement  with its employees.
b. Using  an organization  of your  knowledge  comment  on how  the company  has  implemented   employee  engagement  techniques.

2)
a. Explain each element  of Porters  Five  Forces  Analysis.
b. Apply  each element  of Porter’s  Five Forces  Analysis to an organisation of your choice.

3)
a. Explain  how the effective use of the  communicaiton  process  model  can  improve   communications  within  a business  organization.
b. Outline  two communications skills which  could  be used  by senders  to improve  their  interpersonal communication skills  and two  communication skills  which can be used by receivers to improve  their  interpersonal  communication  skills.

4)
“Leaders are born,not made.” Anon
Discuss  the view  that some leaders are born  to be great (trait theory), whilst others  become  leaders  by developing  their  leadership skills.
c. Evaluate the appropriatness of the use of verbal  and non-verbal  communications  within  a business organisation.

Task 1

1. Strategies for improving employee engagement

Employee engagement is quite essential for effective management system, within the company. In this process, the three factors has to be analysed which are –

1. Physical – In this process the staffs exert the right kind of energy to accomplish the task that has been assigned to the members.
2. Emotional – It is related to the efforts that have been put in by the staffs to perform the task.
3. Cognitive – In this method, the staffs perform the job, without worrying about anything.

Through employee engagement it is possible for the management of the company to increase the productivity for the organization. This is done by involving the staffs into the decision making activities. In this process, an attempt is made to understand the challenges that are faced by the staffs at the time of performing the tasks at the workplace. In order to ensure that there is effective strategy adopted for involvement of the staffs, it is necessary to analyse the below mentioned factors –

• The process for communicating the strategy (Attridge, 2009).
• Action areas that needs to be worked upon
• Measurable outcomes
• Actions for specific problems
• Drafting policies for engaging the engagement strategy over the period of time.

Communication is one of the most important tasks that need to be effectively handled at the time of drafting and implementing the staff engagement process. In the communication process, it is essential to analyse the challenges that are faced by the staffs, and then draft the best possible solution to overcome the issue. Leadership activities have to be also taken into consideration at the time of drafting the policies to ensure that the staffs perform the tasks in the best possible manner. This also includes drafting a detailed plan through which the necessary steps can be implemented for introducing engagement strategies. Through an effective strategy it is also possible for the management of the company to clarify the expectations from the employees (Harter e al., 2009). Once this has been done, the next step would be to provide the basic materials and the required equipment’s that is required to perfume the task. Through this method, an attempt is made to –

1. Improve the contribution of the staffs towards the objective meeting of the company
2. It increases the sense of belongingness towards the company, which is required for carrying out the tasks.

1. Employee engagement techniques

The method that needs to be adopted for implementing employee engagement process has to be evaluated in the right manner. Tesco one of the leading retail stores in the UK has adopted an effective and reliable method for improving the employee involvement in the company. Some of the techniques that has been followed by the company has been mentioned below-

• The engagement process that has been adopted by the company is linked to the objectives that have been drafted by Tesco. This has been done with an intention of increasing the performance of the staffs. Also, it is possible for communicating the challenges faced by the staffs with the management of the company.
• The method that is intended to be followed has been effectively linked to the senior leaders and managers of the company. This has been done to ensure that the tasks are discussed with the members and the steps are followed by the managers and the staffs in the right manner (Holbeche & Springett, 2003)
• The method for communication has been implemented in the right manner, as this will help in discussing the challenges instantly. This will also help in increasing the relationship between the management and the staffs of the company. Apart from this, the level of communication that has been adopted by Tesco is flawless, as it reduces the time that is required for interacting with the staffs from different departments.
• In the engagement process, the staffs of the company are equally treated as this is meant to help in increasing the quality of communication that is adopted by the company. This is one of the reasons the company has adopted robots communication plan through which the policies and rules are discussed with the members on clear and consistent basis.
• The organizational culture followed by the company is quite transparent and it is meant to help the members to put in the right efforts to accomplish the task. In other words, employees of the company provided with fair opportunities to accomplish the task, and there is no biased system adopted by the management. This encourages the staffs to perform better and improve the productivity for the company.

Task 2

1. Porter’s five forces analysis

Porter’s five forces is an excellent model to identify the factors in the industry. It is useful to seek for the information and different factors are:

1. Competitive rivalry
2. Supplier power
3. Buyer power
4. Substitutes
5. New entrants

Case study: Evaluation of employee engagement at Tesco

The factors that influence the performance of the industry are vital to deal with the important factors before entering an industry. (Ic.gc.ca, 2014)

Rivalry: Competitive rivalry is important to identify the particular industry. The important key is to assess the competitors and to offer the resources. The rivalry will be high if there is low differentiation between the products sold by the competitors. Competitors are also of the same size of each other. The strategies depend on the competitors’ actions and the tools as well as resources. Rivalry intensifies that there is low cost of switching and the competitors are dissatisfied with the market position.

Supplier’s power: Suppliers are vital for success of an organization and it offers business with the resources that requires dealing with the products and services. Suppliers are those organizations that offer important factors in the industry to conduct the business. The suppliers play a powerful and vital role. In the market, suppliers try to increase the profits. It will increase the prices to as high a point as the market can afford. The higher the prices, the stronger will be the profits.

Buyer’s power: Customers can exert influence and control over an industry in certain situations. There is less differentiation over the products and customers can easily found the substitutes. Price fluctuations create high sensitivity to customers and customers can switch the product which is less costly to them. Customers always wish to reduce the price they pay and it has a great effect on the price determination.

Substitutes: Competition not only comes from within the own market but from similar markets. It concentrates on products outside the direct market and substitutes contain capital, amount and satisfaction.

New entrants: Competitors can rush into the market because of high profits. There are barriers of entry in terms of high economies of scale, capital needs, easy accessibility of channels etc.

Porter’s five forces are used for measuring the intensity of competitors and is an essential component for analysing the industry. Strength and price is in accordance to the same. (Learnmarketing.net, 2014)

1. Application to an organization

Porters’ five forces model of Tata motors

Entry barriers: Companies such as Maruti, Hero Honda are present in market from many years and it is not easy to avail huge benefits from economies of scale due to higher competition from the current players. Customer in this industry has high cost of switching and this is the major barrier in the industry. There is a huge distribution network.

Substitute’s threat: There are two major substitutes known as airlines and railways. For every customer, these will not know as substitutes and within the automobile industry, it is a great advantage to Tata as two wheeler customers can also opt for cars after the successful launch of Nano car.

Supplier’s power: While talking about steel, major inputs for the automobile industry in India is the demand of steel and it is more than its supply and most of the steel is imported from abroad. Thus, in this scenario also, automobile industry is lacking. When we talk about other inputs such as seat covers, plastics etc, the switching cost is zero and this way, there is a low bargaining power of suppliers.

Understanding Porter’s Five Forces Model

Buyer’s power: There will have low power of bargaining for the customers because it will affect the customers directly and the produced good also add values to the product. Company need to maintain strong relationship with suppliers to enjoy the advantages of discounted prices so there is a need of long term relationship with the suppliers. Thus there is high power of bargaining. When the power of buyer is strong, the buyer is the one who fixed the price in the market. Price sensitive customers were the major factors that determine the limit the influence of buyers in the industry.

Rivalry: The firm must produce high capacity to deal with the lowest costs. The firm must sell the high volume of product and high level of production that could attain the fight for market share and this result in high rivalry. It requires strong investment and the presence of many players leads to little differentiation between competitors. High would be the competition, there will have low profits.

Task 3

1. Models for communication

Communication style is quite an important factor that contributes towards the successful business operational activities. In this method, the goals of the company have to be analysed as this will help in selecting the best communicating model.

Some of the models include –

1. Empowerment – In this method, the innovative strategies and the steps for creativity are evaluated. It means that the staffs of the company are provided with more power to develop and implement better ideas. This is required for improving the quality of services that is being provided to the clients. It basically involves two way communications, which is quite essential for the business development (Gonrig, 2008).      
2. Controlled – In this process, the managers of the company adopts typical communication method for top-down and controlled task. The work environment is quite essential and the knowledge that is required to be shared with the members has to be interacted in the right manner. In this process, every line managers are entrusted with certain responsibilities.
3. Branding – Here, the companies stress a lot on the creation of the brand image, which is required for the successful business operational activities. In this method, the management of the company focus on different advertising and packaging materials that is been adopted by the company. Promotional activities are one of the best methods to interact with the clients and the potential buyers.
4. Direct marketing – In this method the company adopts effective steps through which the changes can be made by the management of the organization. Through this method, the company directly interacts with the clients and talk about the features of the product and services that has been rendered to the potential buyers (Maslach et al., 2001).

1. Two communications skills

The type of communication skills that is being adopted by the company matters a lot when it is related to interacting with the employees. In this process, the method that is selected by the company has to be effective and tested for its reliability.

Listening skills is one of the prime requirements for implementing an effective communication skills. In this process, the managers ensure that the right steps are taken to communicate the information with the staffs and managers in the right manner. For this, a smooth and uninterrupted method for communication has to be adopted and implemented by the managers. This will ensure that the message is being communicated with the concerned members in the right manner. For this, the method that has been adopted is done in an acceptable manner (May et al., 2004).

In the second method, verbal communication method is adopted and implemented in a precise manner. This has been done to ensure that the right message has been passed on to the members. Apart from this, the quality of conversation that is being adopted by the managers and the staffs of the company have to be reliable. Also, for this the essential steps have to be taken to ensure that the message is understood in the right manner by the clients.

1. Effectiveness of verbal and non-verbal communication

Verbal and non-verbal methods for communication are considered to be quite important for the successful operational activities of the business. In this case, an effort has to be made to ensure that the quality of communication between the members is clear and there is no confusion between the members. This is one of the reasons the verbal and non-verbal methods have to be adopted and implemented in the right manner. The process for communication between the managers and the non-managers staffs of the company has to be precise, and this can be done by presenting clear and accurate information to the recipients. Also, the step that needs to be followed for non-verbal method for communication has to be precise and up to the mark. In this case, the challenges that are related to the process of analysing the details or the contents that are mentioned on the communication method has to be checked upon. This will improve the quality of communication and ensure that there is no interruption in the process. It is quite important from the from the business communication point of view. Apart from this, the limitations that are involved in the process of verbal and non-verbal communication method have to be analysed. This will be helpful in adopting and implementing the right steps through which the chances can be implemented for increasing the quality of communication between the managers and others (Organisational Effectiveness, 2001).

Analysis of Tata Motors through Porter’s Five Forces Model

Task 4

Leaders are born, not made

Leaders are made by themselves and this leads to a person to take participation to provide the solution for the problems. The initiator is the leaders. Leader lives deep inside everyone and in terms of moving forward, the individual is required to focus on desires and leads to success. Leaders carry the process with respect to the knowledge and skills of leadership and it influences high group of individuals. This helps to attain the goals. This way, it inspires the workers into higher level of team work. It helps to improve the skills of leadership and it is a process of social influence. Thus it is to get accomplished. Leaders require others and it is to get accomplished.

As per the research, the factors such as personality traits are lived for long and are durable. Traits such as intelligence factors, physical attractiveness, and extraversion factors are the major traits that work as followers in a leader. It attains other attributes and other characteristics such as values, business and ethics. This way, an honest understanding of leader’s trust is dependent on confidence. It is important to focus on emotions and motivation. Thus it leads to two way communication and communicates the strong relationship with employees.

Their main goal is to deal with movements and establish the direction through vision and motivation as well as inspiration. This way, trust and leadership generates huge satisfaction among employees and it also helps to understand the employee’s goals and objectives with respect to the business objectives. It also helps in exchange of information and they reflect the concerns of organization with respect to employees, customers as well as investors. This way, the relationship is determined by the roles and responsibilities. It integrates to deal with the new task and strong relationship develops accordingly. These are the road to great success and leadership.

If there is desire and willpower, then they become an effective leader. Good leaders develop through an unending process of self-study, training and experience. This will help in the process. To motivate the employees into higher levels of team work, there are the requirements for continuous work and study. Effective leaders are working continuously to improve the skills and capacities of leadership.

There are different factors in leadership such as:

Leader has an honest understanding of who you are, what you know and what you can do. They are the followers and not the leaders. If they do not trust or lack the confidence in their leader, it will not be uninspired. Different people need different styles of leadership and the person who lacks motivation and encouragement needs important approach. They lead through two-way communication and this way, it will gain interest and the sense of direction could be gained by strong vision in the future.

Leaders can be trusted in terms of trust and respect. The big five personality factors are called as openness, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism and extraversion. This aid to develop each factor and conscientiousness can be defined as the individual’s tendency that needs to be organized, controlled and remain dependable. Agreeableness leads to trust, confirm and it is associated with leadership. Neuroticism is to be anxious, hostile and vulnerable. Openness is referred with respect to experience and extraversion is the personality factor that is strongly associated with respect to leadership.

The specific traits of leader are associated with:

Intelligence: Intelligence consistently in a wide pattern relates to positive leadership and the intellectual ability is not dissimilar from followers. It has a wide variety to leadership in terms of expression of ideas in terms of followers.

Self-confidence: With respect to high self-esteem, there is ability to lead the people and to influence others.

Determination: Leaders are often hard to understand and there is a great deal of understanding the adversity. Leaders show skills and abilities that constitute the motivational energy and it includes success.

Sociability: It is known as strong desire of leadership with respect to high quality. Leaders demonstrate the skills to be friendly and courteous. They have strong interpersonal skills with respect to communication. This way, it maintains social harmony.

Integrity: The term integrity refers to the honest and trustworthy. Leaders are loyal and responsible that inspires high level of confidence and they are authentic with high level of interest. (Michelle, 2011)

References

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Harter, J.K., Schmidt, F.L. & Hayes, T.L. (2002) Business-Unit-Level Relationship Between Employee Satisfaction, Employee Engagement, and Business Outcomes: A Meta-Analysis.Journal of Applied Psychology, 87, 268-279.

Holbeche, L., & Springett, N. (2003). In Search of Meaning in the Workplace. Horsham,

Roffey Park

Gonrig, M. P. (2008). Customer loyalty and Employee Engagement: An Alignment For Value. Journal of Business Strategy, 29, 29-40.

Ic.gc.ca. (2014). Archived: A literature review and industry analysis of informal investment in Canada. A research agenda on angels.

Learnmarketing.net. (2014). Porter’s five forces model: Industry analysis model.

Maslach, C., Schaufeli, W. B., & Leiter, M. P. (2001). Job Burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397-422.

May, D. R., Gilson, R. L., & Harter, L. M. (2004). The Psychological Conditions of Meaningfulness, Safety and Availability and the Engagement of the Human Spirit at Work. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 77, 11-37.

Organisational Effectiveness: Discovering How to Make it Happen. Right Management, July 2009.

Michelle, B. (2011). Personality theories of leadership: Sage publications.

Robinson D. Perryman S. Hayday S. (2004). The Drivers of Employee Engagement. IES Report 408. ISBN 1 85184 336.

Saks, A. M. (2006). Antecedents and Consequences of Employee Engagement. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 21, 600-619

Schaufeli, W. B., Bakker, A.,& Salanova, M. (2006). The Measurement of Work Engagement with a short questionnaire: A Cross-National Study. Educational and Psychological Measurement, 66, 701-716