Wallace Group

Date: June 10, 2006

To: Hal Wallace

From: April Lewis

Re: Action Plan

After careful review of The Wallace Group’s background, history, organization and personnel and current trends, I have created an action plan that will enhance morale and keep your company profitable. These suggested changes will cost you approximately $50,000 to implement; however, the long-range outcome will be well worth the initial cost.

Organizational behavior (OB) is the study of factors that affect how individuals and groups act in organizations and how organizations respond to their environments (George & Jones, 2005). OB is discussed in detail later. Having some knowledge in how an organization behaves, I believe that the biggest problem that stands out with The Wallace Group is the low morale of the employees.

Job satisfaction has the potential to affect a wide range of behaviors in organizations and contribute to employees’ levels of well-being (George & Jones, 2005). Another important term that is used in relation to employee morale is organizational citizenship. It is defined as the behavior that is not required but is necessary for organizational survival and effectiveness. In short, organizational citizenship behavior is what employees do over and beyond his/her job duties. Job satisfaction and organizational citizenship directly affects each other. If an employee is not satisfied with his/her job or does not feel appreciated, work performance and going over and beyond what is necessary will decrease. The workforce has changed over the years; to work on a job for 20 years is almost unheard of. If the opportunity arises, the employee will find another place of employment, even for a lower salary. The Wallace Group does not want this to happen because losing subject matter experts can be disastrous for the company and will add the expense of recruiting and training a replacement.

Priority of Work:

1. Building a Team

First, there should be a detailed description of the goals and objectives of the company as a whole not as three separate entities. If goals and objectives are communicated, the employees’ focus will be aligned with the mission of the company.

The low morale of The Wallace Group has a common factor: the feeling of not being heard, appreciated or valued. Top executives and mangers must pay attention to ‘why’ their employees selected this particular organization to work and what is retaining them. Organizational commitment relates to the feelings and beliefs about the employing organization as a whole (George & Jones, 2005). Researchers have identified two distinct types of organizational commitment: affective commitment exits when employees are happy to be members of an organization. With continuance commitment, employees are committed not because they want to be but because they have to be when the costs of leaving the organization are too great. The job of the management team is to convince the employees that they want to be a part of the organization not that they have to be a part. One way to achieve affective commitment is empowerment. Empowering employees encourages organizational citizenship and loyalty to the company. Planning and decision making should include input of lead management and key personnel. Top executives and managers need to delegate authority to his/her team; this shows confidence and trust in the team.

Outside consultants should be hired to educate top management on the benefits of self-directing teams. Self-directing teams help with empowering employees. The team, as a whole, is responsible for the decision making and implementations for their assigned project(s). The success or the failure of an assignment is depended on the team and the decisions they make as a team not individuals. Together, top executives and mangers should decide if self-directing teams are reasonable and beneficial to the company.

2. Build a Strategic Management Model

Below are the steps to build a strategic management model:

Step 1- Environmental Scanning: gathering information both externally and internally.

Step 2- Strategy Formulation: developing a long-range plan(s)

Mission- reason for existence

Objectives- what results to accomplish by when

Strategies- plan to achieve the mission and objectives

Policies- broad