Management of Continual Improvement for Leadership - MyAssignmenthelp

Question: Discuss about the Management of Continual Improvement for Leadership. Answer: Introduction In recent years there has been an upward trend in the safety and operational performance of IT operations. Safe, efficient operation is their goal. Continual improvement of the processes of organizations has led to enhanced performance and efficiency benefits such as cost reductions and improved cycle times. Many organizations have experienced significant cost improvement largely by or through better financial management and a common drive to reduce costs brought on by commercial pressures. Without the use of a structured methodology to identify and implement improvements, changes to an organization to reduce costs through cutting staff and activities could eventually fail to produce the desired changes and even have a negative effect on safety and overall performance (Baker and Newland, 2008). It is recognized that there are many different approaches and methods available in the marketplace to improve processes. Structured Approach for Continual Improvement A well-defined a structured approach to continuous improvement is necessary in order to improve the operations of any organization and it can be achieved only when there is support or encouragement from the top management. Leadership team sets the tone for the organization in terms of operational excellence and it is a top down exercise. It can be done by incorporating the continual improvement approach in the companys mission and vision. The vision and futuristic approach of a company plays an important role in deciding the different course of action for the company. Therefore, it can be a part of the companys vision and mission. Apart from that, most of the organizations now operate on the principle of management by objectives. As a result, efforts can be made to have a built in approach towards continuous improvement within the goals of each and every employee. A learning culture has to be created in order to enforce the agenda of continuous improvement in the organization. The di fferent aspects of improvement strategies and processes can be utilized in the day to day operations of a company so that it can lead to a sustainable and long term growth of the organization. A continuous process of reviewing and taking actions based on it also lead to the enactment of a continuous improvement culture within the organization (Hung and Tu, 2011). Therefore, these are the actions which can lead to a structured approach for continuous improvement in a company. Responsibilities of Senior Management Senior management or leadership is the most important stakeholder in establishing a continuous improvement culture in an organization. It sets the tone for the adoption of the continuous improvement and change principles in an organization together with an effort to implement the tools and procedures for improving the operations of the company. The actions of the leadership team can create the required motivation for the employees to take up initiatives which can lead to continuous improvement for the processes in the organization. In fact, in order to establish any process or change there is a large deal of coordination and alignment that is required among various departments and stakeholders, which is difficult to achieve by the efforts of only employees at the bottom of the pyramid. Therefore, the top management needs to take initiatives so that confidence is instilled within the organization about taking new continuous improvement initiatives. The culture of the organization also needs to be changed in order to bring in any continuous improvement process or tool. All these efforts can be done and achieved by the top management of any organization. Therefore, it is customary for the senior management of any organization to take the role of a bellwether in case of any continuous improvement initiative. Organizational Issues The vision and mission as well as the culture of the organization are already established in a company. However, whenever one tries to improve the operations of an organization through change management there are considerable amount of resistance from various quarters that need to be faced by the initiator of the change. Therefore, one needs to be judicious and ready to face the struggle in any organization with respect to change management and implementing difficult processes. These initiatives often shows result in the long term which can be the cause of considerable resistance among the employees in short term. Therefore, one needs to bring the people who are going to implement any change at the grass root level on board before going on with any big bang change. These are some of the tactics which should be used in case of the common challenges faced in an organization which trying to attain operational excellence. Factors in Team Management and Dynamics Any improvement in existing process requires change and change is not easily acceptable by the team members. Everyone likes to follow the set standards and processes. Therefore, there are certain terms which define each stage of the imprudent management. Forming: When project teams are organized, they expect standard processes to be followed. They have high expectations and anxiety for the new processes. Ice breaking sessions to bring the new change are required to introduce the requirement of change and its effect on the system. Team leader clarifies the doubts and expectations of improvement in the system. Initial few meetings are termed forming sessions (Bjrk, Boccardelli and Magnusson, 2010). Storming: at the storming stage, team members might show their anger for the slow progress and failure of team to produce the outputs. They may rebel against each other and can show their disappointment for the changes. Change in responsibilities and clarification of all doubts can help in consensus building. Norming: After successfully resolving the conflict issues, team will reach at the norming stage. In the norming stage, conflicts will be converted to harmony, support, respect and trust. Team members will become more open and helping towards each other. They will work as a team to achieve the new goals (Frezatti, 2004). Additional training can help to acquire new skills. Performing: Performing is the final stage where team members work with their best productivity level. They start achieving milestone and this boosts their confidence in the new system. IT services requires a longer time duration to achieve the results therefore, performing stage requires more time to achieve the desired goal. Personnel Considerations Associated with Continual Improvement Continuous improvement in the system requires change at personnel level as well. They need to acquire new skills and learn about new processes. They should also be ready to take new responsibilities. Team may hire new persons or can transfer some of the existing members. Impact on employees involved in the change management: Employees should have full confidence in the changes system that this is for their best benefit. Their opinion and views should be considered and respected. This will boost their confidence in the system and they will actively take part in improvement management (Leigh, 2004). The improvement in existing process might affect different employees in different manner. They may feel guilt, anger, commitment, acceptance or denial of new responsibilities. Leader of the change management should take all these factors into consideration and should provide best possible solution to the team. Recognizing employees for the improvement success: All the employees do not carry equal capabilities and behavior. They show different response to same situations. Management should select the employees based on their skills and ability to adopt changes. They should take into account the organizational culture and the employees culture. Employees who contribute to the improvement success should be recognized and should be rewarded in appropriate manner. They should be provided both monetary and non-monetary benefits. Honesty and Openness: The main objective of the improvement management is to identify the problems in existing system, inefficiencies, waste and analysis of new opportunities, and innovative ideas. Creating an environment of trust and honesty is required (McAdam, 2006). Management should share the objective of the change with the team. Employees must feel comfortable and secured in the new system. Professional as well as personal interest must be saved. Such kind of culture will make the employees adoptable to changes. Steps for the Process Improvement To implement the process to enhance the performance of an organization and to increase the productivity of the processes, it is required that no opportunities are missed out. It is required to follow the improvement management through step by step procedure. Steps shown in the following figure be followed. (Ramias, 2005) Step 1: In this step, goals of the process improvement are identified to avoid any deviation from the processes. All the goals are approved by all team members and management before taking the final approval from the quality team. Step 2: Change is not applicable for all the processes. It is required to analyse the scope of the improvement for the particular processes. All the stakeholders involved in the process of improvement should be considered before finalization of the improvement management. Step 3: The stage of the existing process should be analysed and based on which changes should be proposed. This will eliminate the chances of unnecessary changes and will also improve the efficiency of change management. Step 4: Improvement possibilities should be prioritize and their benefits should be quantized. This will provide an exact estimate of cost benefit analysis. Step 5: All the available options for change should be analyzed, whether they meet customer requirement or not, whether they are beneficial for the organization. All the options should be recorded and then properly analyzed and eliminate the unwanted options (Teruya, 2004). Step 6: Processes should be mapped properly so that in case of any difficulty, team can revert the change and can return to previous processes. Step 7: With the development of new processes, change manager should also plan implementation of new processes without affecting the product and the customers requirements. The new system should help the customers and should not create any trouble for them. Step 8: All the improved processes should be supported by the documents and user manuals. Process owner should take full responsibility of the improved processes. Step 9: After implementation of new processes, they should be monitored for a specific time period to resolve the problems if any. Success should be measured with proper parameters. Step 10: Lessons learnt from the new processes should be analyzed and examined to identify the problems faced and to devise the solutions for that. Step 11: At the end, improvement project should be closed formally after taking feedback from everyone. Continual Improvement Success It is required to publicize the successful completion of improvement processes and wins throughout the company by using print and electric media. This enhances the employees confidence in the system and improvement management processes. This also encourages employees to take part in such activities. This sets the example for future change in the processes and employees learn from such activities. Conclusion IT industry needs to change rapidly because of change in technology and customer requirements. Almost all the projects in an IT industry require modification in existing processes. A proper planning and strategy of change management is required to maintain progress of the existing processes and at the same time implement the new processes in the organization. This paper successfully discussed various issues related to change management in the organization along with the responsibilities of the senior management to deal with improvement in the organization. It also discussed various steps to be followed for change management along with factors affecting it. References Baker, R. and Newland, R. (2008). Continous quality improvement of perfusion practice: the role of electronic data collection and statistical control charts. Perfusion, 23(1), pp.7-16. Bjrk, J., Boccardelli, P. and Magnusson, M. (2010). Ideation Capabilities for Continuous Innovation. Creativity and Innovation Management, 19(4), pp.385-396. Frezatti, F. (2004). Beyond Budgeting: any chance for management improvement?. Brazilian Business Review, 1(2), pp.122-140. Hung, S. and Tu, M. (2011). Technological change as chaotic process. RD Management, 41(4), pp.378-392. Leigh, D. (2004). Improving performance improvement. Performance Improvement, 43(7), pp.1-2. McAdam, R. (2006). An integrated business improvement methodology to refocus business improvement efforts. Business Process Management Journal, 2(1), pp.63-71. Ramias, A. (2005). Process improvement. Performance Improvement, 44(3), pp.52-52. Teruya, S. (2004). Measuring performance improvement. A knowledge management perspective. Performance Improvement, 43(4), pp.33-39.