Effects of Multiskilling on Individuals and Teams

This article discusses the potential effects of implementing multiskilling in a department, including benefits for individuals and the team as a whole. It also addresses concerns and resistance to change, providing advice on how to manage them.

Part A: Written Questions
Q10: What are the four stages of transformational change in an organisation? How can these
stages be managed? Write your answer in 200-250 words.
The first stage of organisational change is denial where people start rationalizing in a manner
which diminish the change requirement. However, in this context,. …..,.. identify that denial is a
passive aggressive resistance which comes from fear at work. The organisation should
communicate the seemingly feasible advantages of of implementing the organisational change
before harbouring of unexpressed concerns and residences. This will Help in diminishing the
impact of this stage of denial.
The second stage is the stage of emotional problem Where The Mind set is set on identification
of issues. Since the organisational stakeholders are emphasize on learning new skills, they are
dealing with some unanticipated conditions as well as obstacles which proves them to spend time
working about the change and its impact ending outcomes. As an outcome Emotionless best
defensive reactions come from the stakeholders which reduce the temper man forward and
organizational outcomes are hampered. During this phase of change, the organization can
arrange motivational sessions or informal communication session with employees so that about
the future of change.
The third stage is acceptance where the employees actually look forward to solving their
problems and moving forward with the change setup. In the step pessimism gives way to
cautious optimism, moral as well as improvement in productivity. It is very necessary that in this
stage the small success is a celebrated so that the stakeholders get something positive to look
forward with courage as well as persistence.

The last stage is commitment where moral and productivity in organization is at its peak and the
people in the organization are forever strengthenedthrough sharing of experience of
perseverance.
Q11: Explain the role of organisational design and building in responsiveness of operations to
change in customer or market conditions. Write your answer in 200-250 Words.
2. Organisational design and building are very important for success of the company in the
customer market. These aspects help in improvement of communication, instrument of
productivity and also inspires innovation creating environment where people attracted to work
effectively. Most productivity as well as performance issues are accounting out of organisational
design being poor. For designing and building of organisational structure can be the reason
behind confusion in job roles coordination among the function in groups as well as failure of
sharing ideas. The organisation should have clear vision, great leaders as well as talented people
who have not yet been able to give their best performance because of the poor design and
building of the organisation.
One of the major factors affecting organisational design is the size of the company. The larger
the growth scale of the organisation more is the need for implementation of a formal structure,
define the word assignments as well as clear lines of authority. In the initial two stages of
organisational life cycle like birth and youth, where the organisation grows fast, by default, these
aspects like organisation design and building do not have much impact. Nevertheless in the letter
to stages like midlife known as the slow growth of the nobles phase and maturity also known as
the decline of the organization these two aspects become very important.
Q12: Give examples of two workplace behaviors that should be avoided by managers.

The first activity that can reduce the effectiveness of a manager is strict micro management of
employees in a company. The manager should not be constantly looking over the shoulders of
the employees and tell them to do something or not to do something. The second aspect of
behaviour that needs to be avoided by the managers is criticizing of the employees in public.
This is a toxic behaviour which might demoralize them and bring them to the receiving end of
the public dressing down events.
Q13: Explain how a manager can build the trust and confidence of their team. Write your answer
in 50-100 words.
The manager should take significant responsibilities in order to exhibit their importance before
the rest of the employees. In the first place it is about taking responsibility for their mistakes. By
doing so the authoritative image of manager is dissolved and the trust of the team is built. Having
the courage to admit their own fault makes the team believes that the manager is also capable
team player. The second strategy is investing in the team buy best having trust as well as believes
in their capabilities. The manager can also modify the budget in order to allocate fund for
improvement of the working practice of the team members thereby incorporating and developing
skills for the members. Highway, the most effective sign of a potential manager is constant
feedback gathering. Employees are aware of the fact that the managers have knowledge about
their weaknesses vulnerabilities and that is why if they are also provided the opportunity to share
the same information from up employee start feeling that the manager takes some steps so that
they are able to overcome their weaknesses.

Q14: Identify legislation relevant to your state or territory that ensures that bullying does not
occur in the workplace and explain the negative impact of bullying on workplace relationships.
The fair work Act 2009 s.789A-789F1 is the necessary legislation in Australia that prevents
bullying in workplaces or other organizations as well and empowers in manager or employers to
take strict disciplinary action against the person convicted of bullying others. Besides, it should
be highlighted that there are several adverse impacts of bullying in workplaces. In the first place
the victims have trouble in making decisions and their incapacity to work or concentrate
becomes exposed because of which there job performance is also hampered. Gradually leads to
loss of self esteem of employees. Other than that, the people who are being constantly bullied try
to defend themselves in every possible manner. Trying to avoid the bully, they generally become
aloof from the network for support which helps in only ruminating about the situation.
Q15: Identify and explain an example of a workplace policy and procedure that can assist in
creating effective workplace relations. Write your answer in 50-100 words.
Effective workplace relations is developed by some executive and managerial goals that needs to
be implemented time to time in the organisation. The first step towards development of
workplace relation is to develop the skill set of the employees so that they are empowered. The
HR and executive managers of the organisation should have dedicated time for interacting with
the employees. 3 reasons and executive heads should appreciate the effort of the members, stay
positive and avoid criticizing employees. These are the basic and fundamental strategies that can
be maintained by organisations to develop workplace relationships.

Q16: What is the importance of discussions with customers and other personnel involved in
marketing mix in relation to improving marketing performance? Answer in 100 – 150 words.
Discussion with customers or related consumption groups can lead to development of sales
calling for direct sales channels. Pontifical form of communication between customers and
customer representatives of organisations is the social media consumer support. Social media
management is done by Marketing department of organisations who can easily collaborate with
the customers in order to extract feedback from them regarding some product, understand their
view regarding the market impact of the specific product on convince him for doing word of
mouth publicity for any product or service also. Content creation ideas also regular as well as
consistent means of developing marketing strategy by means of communicating with customers.
Potential content makes the consumers inquisitive about the impact of the content on the market
for its Association with the product. There are similar strategies which include development of
buyer persona or developing customer expectation setting.

Part B: Unit Project (UP) - Answer a set of questions based on the case study
Scenario
Case study:
Chan was thinking long and hard. As part of the latest workplace agreement, the organisation is
about to introduce multiskilling for all non-salaried employees. The goal is to enhance
efficiency, flexibility and job satisfaction and help the organisation become an employer of
choice.
Section manager are responsible for developing and implementing learning plan for the
employees in their sections. They are to ensure that all the employees can benefit that dignity,
equal opportunity and health, safety and welfare issues take top priority and that a net 3% gain in
productivity, results in the six months after the training is completed. Measures of each section’s
success also includes attendance rate, labour retention rates, number of grievances registered and
output to costs ratios.
As Chan rolls this around in his mind, he can see some obvious benefits to the employees. A
greater variety of tasks and increased skills should provide more job satisfaction and flexibility
resulting from multiskilling takes shape, employees may have the opportunity to undertake
complete projects and take on more responsibility and decision making in their jobs.

And Chan can see plenty of other benefits to the organisation, too apart from those stated in the
workplace agreement: multi skilled staff, improved occupational health and safety, improved and
easier recruitment and retention due to increased level of job satisfaction, more effective use od
technology, improved staff morale-it sounds too good to be true!
Then he thinks of Newton’s third law: for every there is an equal and opposite reaction. What is
downside of all this? He wonders. (Source: Kris Cole Management theory of practice 6th edition
Page number 711)
Read case study carefully and answer following questions:
Q1: How might the move to multiskilling affect individuals in Chan’s department? how might
this change in the way employees affect Chan’s work team as a whole? (100-150 words)
There are several benefits of multi skilling for Chan's Work Department. This includes reduction
of personal cost, alongside enhancement of work quality. However the production of response
time and increase in retention rates are the biggest advantages for him. However the training cost
will be higher which would impact the operational cost at the end of the year and description in
organisation should be handled with care and cautiousness.
Q2: What are his team members concerns likely to be? how would you advise Chan deal with
their concerns? (100-150 words)
The major reasons of concern in the organisation are dignity, equality of opportunity, welfare
issues, employee safety and other similar issues. In this context, it should be highlighted that
Chan has to make the communication channel with employees more efficient so that he can be
aware of the personal needs of the employees. There should be recruitment of a dedicated HR
strategy analyst who would be analysing how the fulfillment or unfulfillment of the the personal

needs of the employees are impending the fulfillment of organisational requirements. Based on
that conferences, sessions as well as training attendances can be undertaken with the employees
or or their representatives. The HR department of the company should work keeping in mind the
attendance rate, labour tension range, number of grievances registered and output to cost ratio
also. This initiative is face centred at understanding if the claims of the employees are worthy or
not.
Q3: What do you predict will be the major resistance points or obstacles to this change? (50-100
words)
In this context it needs to be highlighted that major resistance to change will come from the
lower level labours and the non salaried employees. The organisational changes that are coming
to the employees are mostly faceted at improving and developing a sustainable base of labours.
Where the contribution of the non salaried employees in the organisation is is being neglected.
This is one important aspect that chain should keep in mind. The employees of all levels should
be provided with equal level of job satisfaction so that the recruitment and retention processes
become easier and there are always availability of multi skilled staff in the organisation.
Q4: If you were to coach Chan on how to plan introduce and manage this important organisation
initiative in this section, what steps would you recommend he follow and why? (100-150 words)
The first step that Chan needs to undertake in this regard is to analyse the development needs of
the organisation. So far as the non salaried employees are concerned, the organisation needs to
make a proper evaluation of the current skills, make a point of the new skills required and justify
whether it is appropriate to invest sufficient resources for the training, keeping in mind that they

are not permanent employees. After the adjustment of the skill gap, the abilities, employee
competencies and Organisation knowledge which would be best suited for the employees in
order to help them fulfill the organisational goals have to be understood. In order to do so
external development teams and organisational training forms can be recruited. Now the
organisation as well as Chan needs to prioritise the training program. Can can either make it cost
effective and address the specific change needs of the organisation or she can implement any
popular as well as successful HR training model as an outcome of which the organisational
output would be can can either make it cost effective and address the specific change needs of
the organisation or he can implement any popular as well as successful HR training model as an
outcome of which the organisational output would be higher and his company would be
competent for bigger orders in the future.
Q5: If you were the leader of Chan’s team how you will develop plan and introduce this change?
(100-150 words)
In the coaching strategies, the way in which plant development process would take place has
already been highlighted. Nevertheless it would start with identification of the importance of the
employees in organisation and readjustment of the hierarchical order of the employees in the
company. The organisation can employ the HR professionals in order to check the records of
employees to understand the significance they hold towards organisation. For evidence if it is
found that an employee with higher qualification has been appointed and had been projected for
promotion in short span of time, but in due time it was observed that his or her organisation
performances poor, the organisation would now need to plan personal training sessions for him
or her. Number of employees in Chan's Company is very less, it would be easier to follow this

process here. Nevertheless in the long run it can be identified that personal and professional
training sessions should be undertaken in order to keep employees updated with the
organisational needs and the modern performance skills. Most importantly, as evident in the
performance expectation gap existing in the company, Their employees also need to be trained
about maintaining work life balance and fulfilling personal needs.
Q6: Should the team leaders of Chan invite team to participate in designing the specific changes?
Why or why not? (50-100 words)
I don't believe that the team leaders of chain need to be involved in the designing phase.
However they can be kept in the design management team so that they can provide valuable
inputs regarding the team members. After the performance of designing and building has been
completed that can be communicated with the feasibilities of the change that has been made and
how they should be operating this change environment so as to extract the best performance from
the teammates.
Q7: How you would deal with the resistance to change? (50-100 words)
The best policy of dealing with resistance to change is keeping the employees and other
stakeholders informed beforehand about the consequences of change. The Herzberg Theory of
motivation can be highlighted here. The theory states that without personal goals, none of the
employees are motivated to fulfill the organisational goals also. Hence the organisation has to
take time in order to develop a procedure of communicating employees of all hierarchical orders,
how they as a team or as personal stakeholders 2016 are going to be benefited in their personal

domains alongside professional fulfillment. This will help in boosting the employee moral and
they would now act as stakeholders in favour of the change and not as resistors to the change.