Strategic Management

Introduction

Steve Prestwick had attended a committee meeting and was assigned to help staff the facility for Singapore R&D centre project. Steve has to put together a team with all the experts needed to get the new facility up and running smoothly for the first two years.

Steve faced various problems like who has the right skill for the job, rejection for the assignment from the best engineer in the company and the lack of competent staff who was willing to relocate to Singapore. He also needed technicians who could set up for the facility. Unfortunately, the US technicians he had talked to was not interested in such an assignment. Steve thought a European perspective might be useful but he didn't even have records on possible candidates from other overseas offices.

Therefore this paper aims to identify the main issues that Steve is facing and a plan to solve the problems.

Issues/Problems

1. Goal Setting and Time management

Steve does not seem to have a plan as to how to get the project going. He has a lot of things in his mind but did not organize properly as to which to do first and how should it be done. He did not have sufficient resources and information as to how to get people to be interested in the project or how to get overseas candidates to be in the team. Steve may think of questions such as "I feel overwhelmed by the amount of work I have to do? I face a constant barrage of looming deadlines? And did I sometimes just forget to do something important, so that people have to chase me to get work done?

2. Issues in staff

Steve has difficulty to retain and persuade employees to work with him in the project. He did not motivate them into doing the project nor explain the importance of their existence into making the project a success.

He was unable to convince US engineers to participate in the project. When the engineers do not seem interested in the project, Steve does not try to make enthusiasm into selling his company profile or even the project. He did not highlight the importance of the US Engineers for this project.

Steve should gather all the US engineers and have a discussion with them on how they feel about the project. At the same time, should the US Engineers show's no interest in the project. Steve will have to find out what are the reasons for rejecting the project. He will have to take all the feedback that was given during the discussion in to considerations and try to address the issues. Thereafter motivate the Engineers to get involved in the project.

3. Insufficient management meeting

Steve should request to have more management meetings or discussion to assist him on this important task. This is to ensure if he is on the right track and if he is not, how he can salvage the situation immediately without any further delay.

4. Deployment

Steve is clearly facing a problem of deployment. He is not able to find the right candidates who are willing to be re-deployed in Singapore. According to Taylor 1995, in the past where organizations that had a history of operating internationally had relied on a headquarters-subsidiary structure and the traditional expatriate model of human resource staffing where US nationals held most positions of authority. Today, however, new technologies, new markets innovation and new talent no longer solely emanate from headquarters but are found cross-nationally making the expatriate model obsolete. The Academy of Management Executive Journal states that it is 3 times more expensive to have an expatriate than to have a local in any given job.

Most organizations now are developing alternative ways to get the right people to where the work is on an as-needed basis. The key innovation is that organizations are making distinctions between when it is necessary to physically move a person to a particular location and when their skills can be delivered through other means. Permanent transfers are no longer seen as the only method for delivering certain services to parts of the organization, giving way to short term assignments and virtual deployment.

5. Knowledge dissemination and innovation transfer

Steve will face a problem in knowledge dissemination and innovation transfer when he began operating globally. In the past, most organizations whose operations are done globally, information flowed from the centre out. Current global organizations need structures where all units concurrently receive and provide information. Valuable market and production technology information are being produced outside the parent location.

6. Reluctance and disinterest from staff in relocating to Singapore

Steve finds it a challenge to motivate his employees to want to spend the time overseas. Most of the executives considered overseas assignments as a sure way to stagnate and not be in favor of any upcoming promotions. For a variety of reasons, many talented employees are not willing to move overseas.

Recommendations

1. Goal Setting and Time management

With good time management skills, Steve is in control of his time, stress and energy levels. He makes progress at work. Planning is one of the most important project management and time management techniques. Planning is preparing a sequence of action steps to achieve some specific goal. If Steve does it effectively, he can reduce much the necessary time and effort of achieving the goal. By keeping a To-Do List, Steve can make sure that he capture all of the tasks he have to complete in one place. This is essential if Steve is not going to forget things. And by prioritizing work, he plans the order in which he will do things, so he can tell what needs his immediate attention, and what he can quietly forget about until much, much later. (Mind Tools)

2. To solve Issues in staff

Vary award types to meet employees' diverse needs - When employees can choose from a variety of awards, the perceived value of the award increases because it is an award the employee wants. The management will have to come up a standardize work practices for example: Encouraging Engineers to have a work life balance allow flexible working hours.

Management should organize activities for the Engineers together with their family and get the family involved

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