Identify the organizational/team environmental opportunities and threats.
LDR 503 SWOT Analysis (10 pages) – Viewing your project through the lens of Managing Talent (LDR503)
The purpose of the SWOT Analysis is to integrate your learning through this course. We have explored Engaging a Workforce through multiple lenses: Project Management, Diversity and Inclusion, Distributed and Virtual Teams, Decision Making, and Innovation. Using your 503 Journal, you will review your project specifically examining the workforce issues (focusing on talent not tasks). Be sure to follow the details Instructions for this assignment.
If you have not read or viewed the information about SWOT Analysis, go to Week 5 to find the links. Read and view the video prior to starting this assignment.
REQUIRED FORMAT: Write a 10-page paper with a Title Page, Introduction, the Sections listed below, and a Conclusion. Be sure to use APA format, cite your references, 12 pt Times New Roman font, double-spaced, pagination, and References. MAXIMUM LENGTH = 15 pages.
DUE DATE: Sunday, April 10, 2016 at 11:55 PM ET. Unlike other assignments in LDR 503 in which flexibility was allowed, this due date is required because of the final timeline of the course and grading deadlines. Please plan ahead. No extensions will be granted.
INSTRUCTIONS (HINT: to improve your grade, follow these carefully):
Prepare a SWOT Analysis of your Capstone Project in terms of engaging and motivating a diverse distributed team by through Managing Talent – project management, engagement, motivation, decision making, communication, collaboration, diversity, and inclusion.
A. INTRODUCTION: Write an overview of your project (1-2 pages). Include a statement of purpose for this analysis.
B. SECTIONS 1 – 8: Each section should be at least one (1) page in length.
1) Organization/Team history, development, and growth. Chart your organization or team’s history. Research the past strategy and structure to determine how its path resulted in its current status in its operating environment. Focus on critical incidents in its history – that is, the events that were pivotal (inflection points) and essential for its development into the organization it is today. Pay attention to events related to Human Resources, Labor, Talent, and Organization Development (e.g. organizational culture and change).
2) Organization/Team SWOT Analysis. Once the historical profile is completed, you can begin the SWOT analysis. Use all the incidents you have charted to develop an account of the organization’s/team’s strengths and weaknesses as they have emerged historically. How has the its leadership managed its talent and its internal stakeholders (e.g. board, management, employees, and contractors)? Upon completion of your SWOT analysis you will have a list of internal strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats focused on the organization’s dynamics – its microenvironment.
3) Evaluate the Organizational/Team Context. Identify the organizational/team environmental opportunities and threats. You can enrich your understanding through online research about the organization’s/team’s industry and market. Apply information you have learned about the organization’s macro environment (e.g. community constituents, suppliers, distribution channels, customers, industry competitors, governments, etc.) to understand the environment the organization is confronting. What is changing? Explore missed opportunities in which lessons were learned or overlooked. How is talent managed and motivated in the organization’s environment? Upon completion of this analysis, you will have an analysis of the company’s environment and a list of opportunities and threats in the macroenvironment.
4) Evaluate the SWOT analysis. Using your analysis of your organization’s external opportunities and threats as well as its internal strengths and weaknesses, consider the meaning of your findings. Balance strengths and weaknesses against opportunities and threats. Is your organization leveraging diversity and inclusion to build a strong competitive position? Can it continue to pursue its current organization-level strategy effectively, productively, constructively and/or profitably with its current structure, culture, and policies? What strengths should be leveraged further? What can the organizational leadership do to mitigate its weaknesses and threats turning them into potential strengths and opportunities? Can its leaders develop new functional, business, or organizational strategies to accomplish this change?
5) Evaluate the organizational-level strategy relative to HR. To analyze your organization’s strategy, determine its mission, goals, objectives, and operating principles. Use company literature and official statements. Otherwise, you will have to infer them from available information or research your organization online. Using your SWOT analysis, debate the merits of the strategy. Does the strategy fit the environment in which the organization operates? Could changes in its strategy provide new opportunities or transform weaknesses into strengths? Does diversity and inclusion factor into these strategies?
6) Evaluate the operating unit-level strategy to Talent Management. With your SWOT analysis and evaluation of the organizational-level strategy, identify your organization’s operating unit-level (department or team) strategy. Is the organization’s strategy consistent in all its lines of activities or are there separate strategies? Are there silos that do not share strategies and/or information? Is there redundancy (duplication of functions that cause wasted effort and resources)? Give a full account of the activity-level strategy to show how it sustains its ability to successfully make decisions, adapt to change, and solve problems. How does diversity and inclusion factor into these strategies?
With your analysis, you have a picture of the way the organization is operating and can evaluate the potential of its strategy. Then, you will be able to make recommendations for its future actions. Before you can formulate your recommendation, consider the organization’s strategy implementation – the way it achieves its strategic goals and objectives.
7) Analyze hierarchy – structure and control systems. Identify the organization’s hierarchy through the structure and control systems used to implement its strategy and to evaluate whether its structure is suitable. Different organizational and operational/activity strategies require different structures. Assess the organization’s culture and vertical differentiation (i.e. appropriate number of levels in its hierarchy or decentralized control) or horizontal differentiation (using a functional structure when a product or service structure is more suitable)? Similarly, is the organization using integration or control systems to manage its operations effectively? What are the cultural norms related to hierarchy in the organization? How tightly bound are employees to following policies, procedures, and processes? Are employees and managers being appropriately recognized and rewarded? Are the right rewards in place for encouraging cooperation among divisions and collaboration between departments?
Tailor your analysis toward the organization’s most pressing needs and pertinent issues. Organizational conflict, power, and politics are important issues to examine carefully. Analyze the source of these problems and explore why they are occurring. Is it flawed strategy formulation or due to poor strategy implementation?
Organizational change is a contributing factor in some cases because companies attempt to shift their structures to solve strategic problems. You may suggest an action plan that your organization could implement to achieve its goals. Then, map a logical sequence of steps that leadership needs to follow to alter its structure and control systems from highly formal command and control hierarchy (e.g. patriarchal organizations) to project teams through initial task force initiatives. Two excellent cases for reference (highly recommended reading):
References for Successful Transformation:
Semler, R. (1993). Maverick: The Success Story Behind the World’s Most Unusual Workplace
References for Failure to Change:
Schein, E. (2004). DEC is Dead, Long Live DEC: Lessons on Innovation, Technology, and the Business Gene
8) Make recommendations. Direct your recommendations at solving a strategic HR/Talent problem your organization is facing. Your recommendations should align with your analysis; that is, they should follow logically from the previous arguments and discussion. For example, your recommendations will generally focus on specific ways of changing functional, operational, and organizational strategy including reporting structure and control to improve organizational performance. In most (business) case analyses, recommendations may include changes in how the HR/OD budget is allocated to increase in spending on specific initiative to increase collaboration, inclusion and diversity; increase in the level of integration among divisions by using teams; make a structural change to implement a new strategy; or reposition the organization through shifting its mission. In this assignment, you are reviewing your project for ways to engage and optimize distributed talent through effective management of the o inclusion, and collaboration. Be sure your recommendations are consistent and written as an action plan. The plan may include a timetable coordinating and integrating actions with descriptions of changes needed at the multiple levels – organizational, operational, and functional, as strategy shifts.
Present your recommendations. Include discussion of your views about:
- Leadership and organizational integrity.
- Making decisions in a complex interdependent world and global environment (if applicable) – leveraging your organization/team’s ability to be inclusive and innovative.
- Developing professional, civic, economic and political perspectives and practices that benefit the common good.
- How to overcome present day obstacles to developing organizations rooted in sustainability principles, as well as expanding organization’s dedication to social responsibility.
C.) CONCLUSION (1 page) : Reflect upon the your project and how you will use the lessons learned in your professional life or apply them in your organization.
CHECK YOUR WORK BEFORE SUBMITTING YOUR FINAL PAPER. Submit your completed paper through the link on this Assignment Page. This assignment is designated to be part of your MSOL Portfolio.