Staff Administration Report for Century Ltd: Communication, Teamwork

This report, addressed to the Managing Director of Century Ltd, examines key aspects of staff administration to address operational difficulties such as high absenteeism and poor morale. It begins by emphasizing the importance of effective communication, detailing its benefits like improved goal accomplishment, conflict reduction, and enhanced job satisfaction. The report then outlines communication policies and procedures within Century Ltd, including two-way communication, equal opportunities, and communication tools. It also reviews relevant legislation, such as the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations and the Data Protection Act, and their impact on communication practices. The report further analyzes the impact of organizational structure, specifically flat and functional structures, on communication methods. Additionally, the report explores teamwork, remote working practices, and leadership styles. The report then assesses HR policies, procedures, and practices designed to support people in the workplace. Finally, the report provides recommendations for improving workplace practices and mitigating staff issues, concluding with a call to action for the Century Ltd management.

People in organization
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
TASK ...................................................................................................................................................3
task1: COMMUNICATION PRACTICES...........................................................................................3
1.1 Benefits of effective communication:........................................................................................3
1.2 Communication policy and procedures.....................................................................................4
1.3 Outline of legislation relevant to communication within Century Ltd and its impact .............5
1.4 Organizational structure and its impact on communication method.........................................6
task 2: TEAMWORK...........................................................................................................................7
2.1 Benefits of teamwork.................................................................................................................7
2.2 Analysis of team failure.............................................................................................................8
2.3 Evaluation of impact of leadership styles on teamwork............................................................9
task 3: REMOTE WORKING ...........................................................................................................10
3.1) Explanation of different ways in which people work remotely..............................................10
3.2) The common working practice used by those working remotely in different context...........10
3.3)Analysis of leadership styles appropriate for remote working................................................11
Task 4: SUPPORT STRUCTURE......................................................................................................12
4.1. Explanation of human resource (HR) department..................................................................12
4.2 Assessment of policies and procedure designed to support people.........................................12
4.3. Assessment of practices used to support people at work place...............................................13
Task 5: RECOMMENDATION..........................................................................................................14
5.1 Work place practises that impact on people within the Century Ltd.......................................14
5.2 Recommendation.....................................................................................................................14
CONCLUSION..................................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................16
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INTRODUCTION
Workers play a very important role in success of organizations as they make efforts and
render services to customers so as to satisfy their needs and wants. Henceforth, it is essential human
resources manager to manage employees by making effective employment policies and regulations.
This will help in creating better working environment in the workplace. Century Ltd is a medium
sized local company who is facing operational difficulties due to high absenteeism, staff turnover,
poor morale and drop in sales. In this assignment, role of effective communication, team working
practices and organizational structure will be explained to ensure better working environment.
Moreover, different types of leadership styles, HR policies and procedures and remote working will
be examined so as to give appropriate advices to Century Ltd management to mitigate their staff
absenteeism.
TASK
To: Managing director of Century Ltd
From: Research analysts
Date: 22nd June, 2016
Subject: Staff administration
TASK1: COMMUNICATION PRACTICES
1.1 Benefits of effective communication:
Communication is regarded as the process of exchanging information by the means of
speaking, writing or any other medium. In businesses, it is essential for companies to ensure
effective communication in the workplace (Wilkens and Minssen, 2010). This will help the firms in
conducting their operations without any hazards. Some of the advantage of effective
communication is given below:
Accomplishing target goals: Effective communication helps the staff to understand their
work and mitigate their difficulties. Further, it will result in enhancing their performance to a great
extent. This in turn, Century Ltd will be able to fulfil their business aims and objectives.
Reduce conflicts: In workplace, conflicts can incur due to misleading of information or poor
communication. By ensuring effective communication, Century Ltd managers will be able to
resolve workers conflicts and issues faced by the organization (Du, Bhattacharya and Sen, 2010).
Enhance job satisfaction: Regular communication with workers provide a sense of feeling
that they are valuable part of the organization. Therefore, it increases their motivational level and
encourage in performing better. This in turn, Century Ltd can enhance employee’s job satisfaction
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to a great extent.
Strengthen relationship: Effective communication enable the firm to understand wants,
desires and needs of employees. On the contrary, at a Century Ltd personnel will be able to identify
business aims and objectives. It builds stronger relationship between employer and employees so
that healthy working environment can be created.
Team building: It also assist in reducing unnecessary competition within different
departments of the organization by developing team working (Nur, Can and Yalcin, 2011). This will
help the employees to work willingly with each other that will further assist in enhancing workers
productivity.
Ideas and innovation : In the organization if there is open communication then company get
new ideas and innovation. For example Century Ltd Employee and management came to know
what type of change need in the organization and with employees ideas they can easily achieve
success. Customers are also great sources of idea it help in making a improvement in products and
services (Hobbs and Armstrong 2013). to is so because if employee of the Century Ltd
communicate effectively with customer they came to know there taste and preferences which will
be very helpful for them.
Hence form the above discussion it is cleared that effective communication act as a sources
of information. It also help Century Ltd in decision making process and determine various
alternative course of action of problem.
1.2 Communication policy and procedures
All the organizations design communication policy and procedures so as to deliver
information and share views, ideas and suggestions with each other. Century Ltd Plc is the third
largest supermarket chain established in the year 1869 and operates in different countries of the
world. It has developed its communication strategy by taking into account the beliefs, values,
customs and languages etc. Internal communication in Century Ltd is designed in such a way in
which both employees and managers took active participation in flow of information. Its
communication policy and procedures include following rules which are given below:
 All the plans and policies must be communicated to staff member so that they can
understand their work and perform accordingly.
 Two -way communication is undertaken by Century Ltd so that suggestions can be acquired
to bring operational efficiency in the business.
 It must ensure that equal opportunities must be given to all the workers to take part in
planning and management. It helps to motivate workers to encourage them to perform much
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better (Eijkman, 2011).
 Developing communication skills in staff by organizing training sessions.
 Communication tools comprises of Big picture meeting, department wide meeting, staff
meeting, telephone, handwritten or typed letters, suggestion box, E-mail, Intranet etc. It
enables the firm to provide information about employee’s work, eliminate difficulties and
receiving suggestions from workers to enhance operational performance. This will help the
Century Ltd to convey information, assign work and get report from the personnel.
 There are some strict communication policy and procedure which Century Ltd need to
follow that is the information which is shared to employee should not be misused by them.
 There is various type of communication that is written, verbal etc (Mowday, Porter and
Steers 2013). if any employee of Century Ltd company want to apply for leave then need to
follow a written communication because verbally it is not accepted in organization
 Any new employee join the Century Ltd they it should be make clear to new employee
about the policy of the company (Johns and Gratton 2013). All the policy and procedure
should be clearly understood by all employees.
 When any message end to sender through email it is necessary to make sure that is correct
and understand by the receiver.
1.3 Outline of legislation relevant to communication within Century Ltd and its impact
There are several legislations which Century Ltd needs to follow to communicate internally
or externally with the people. According to the Privacy and Electronic Communication Regulations
(PECR), Century Ltd is obliged to follow specific rules and regulations for using telephones, faxes
and other mode of electronic communication. Its main purpose is to promote good business
practices by offering advices to the personnel. Moreover, as per the data protection act, all the
people are liable not to share business information with others (Nur, Can and Yalcin, 2011). It helps
in preventing misuse of information by the staff member and ensures high security. As per the
information privacy law, employees can not disclose information to other rivalry organizations.
Thus, it ensures high confidentiality of business information.
Further, firm is held liable to follow rules, regulations and provisions mentioned in
Communication Act, 2003. This act provides detailed regulations for using electronic
communication networks and broadcasting regulations such as Wi-Fi. Any restricted or prohibited
act mentioned in the act will be considered as a criminal offence and defaulter party will be legally
liable. In addition, Constitution and Freedom of the Press Act provides right to people to share their
opinion, views and information with others (Getahun and. et.al., 2011). Thus, as per the legislations,
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it becomes clear that Century Ltd needs to follow all the provisions of the act to eliminate unethical
conduct.
The legislation which is related to internal communication is the information and
consultation of employees regulation. (ICE 2004).this regulation need to be apply at the Century
Ltd because they have more then 50 employees. This act give right to employee that they should be
informed and communicate on everyday issues such as related to health and safety, pension and
other information (Sageer, Rafat and Agarwal 2012). This standard provision give right that
economic situation should be consulted with workers. If there is any threat to their job then it need
to e discussed with employee thorough communication
1.4 Organizational structure and its impact on communication method
Organization structure defines hierarchy of business to allocate work, ensure coordination,
supervision and reporting structure so as to accomplish target goals. There are different types of
organization structure which are described below:
Flat structure: It is also called as horizontal structure in which Certified Executive Officer
(CEO) is the highest authority who decides business aims and objectives and makes long term plans
to achieve it.At Century ltd Middle level managers are responsible to make policies and regulations
and communicate to their departmental employees so that target objectives can be attained
(Cummings and Worley, 2014). In the end, staff member are responsible to perform as per the plans
and report their performance to the supervisors. This structure provides freedom to the people and
empowers them to get access of relevant information. Thus, it encourages open communication in
corporations.
Functional structure: It is referred as the hierarchical structure in which work are allotted
to different departments like HR, purchase, finance, sales, marketing etc. Century Ltd follows this
structure which includes series of people and so as to manage operations. Company's senior
manager is responsible for line manager while line manager is responsible for the sales assistant.
However, department managers are accountable to communicate order, plans and policies and
assign work to their staff member (Whyte, 2013).At Century Ltd Subordinates have the duty to
report their performance to their seniors. With the help of this, the manager can monitor workers
performance to get desired aims and objectives.
There is a great impact of functional structure on the communication method of Century Ltd.
There are separate department in the organization. It create a barrier in face to face communication.
Employee can communicate through mail or in a meeting. However email is less liked as compared
to face to face communication (Campo, Garrido and Friston, 2012). It is so because is can lead to
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misunderstanding or misinterpreted message. Communication flow in formal way in the Century
Ltd. It also have some positive impact that is al information flow in systematic way. Information in
top level of management employee send through a email or meeting. No employee can directly
communicate to other. It help in reducing a miscommunication in the organization
Thus, it becomes clear that flow of information is decided as per organizational structure. In
order to ensure better management of the people, Century Ltd must design its structure which helps
to assure two-way communication. Through this, managers can sent plans and targets and receive
employees suggestions and feedbacks which provide assistance to ensure effective communication.
Saisabury follow the functional structure
TASK 2: TEAMWORK
Team working refers to willingness of people in working together collaboratively to achieve
common set targets and objective of the organization.
2.1 Benefits of teamwork
Teamwork benefits for the employees:
 Collaboration fosters creativity and learning among employees. Century ltd teamwork
encourages mutual support and assistance which helps to encourage people to perform their
task with greater efficiency.
 Century Ltd assists employees to enhance their knowledge, skills and talent by learning
things from other team members and their shared experience (Mattson, 2015).
 Employees usually have different working styles, habits and practices. It may give rise to
conflicts. Teamwork helps to resolve conflicts and issues by developing conflict resolution
skills without intervention of management of Century Ltd
 It provides huge assistance to strengthen relationship with co-workers and build trust.
Teamwork encourages open communication and active participation of the entire team
member in finding effective solutions (Mattson, 2015).
 Employees work in a team at Century Ltd it help in getting a innovative ideas for
completing a work. Employee share their knowledge and information with each other (Zhu,
Newman Miao and Hooke 2013). Which increase the knowledge of other employee. Working in a team help in reducing a burden of work forma single employees. If any
workers work completed then it help other which reduce the work load of individual.
Teamwork benefits for the organization
 It enables the company to enhance their workers productivity so that best services can be
rendered to customers. Century Ltd develops team working practices and assure long run
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sustainability (Getahun and. et.al., 2011).
 It helps the firm to motivate and encourage personnel so that workers performance can be
improved to a great extent.
 It creates better working environment in the workplace by promoting co-operation and
contribution of all staff members. It helps to finish work in less time and at a higher
efficiency.
 It assists the organization to obtain innovative and better ideas to improve potential
performance. With regards to Century Ltd, it receives ideas from the suggestion box
(Mattson, 2015).
 At the time working in a team new innovative ideas came out which in beneficial for
organization in achieving a goals of the organization.
 Employee give a quality work to the organization it enhance the productivity of the Century
Ltd (Neumann and Neumann, 2013). It is because employee work in team they get
motivates by seeing other worker performance and try to enhance there own performances.
2.2 Analysis of team failure
Despite the benefits of team working, there are still some situations in which team may fail
to achieve targets. It is essential for Century Ltd to analyze its reasons because it creates a negative
impact on employee morale. From the research, following responsible factors are determined as
result of team failure described below:
Undefined goals: For the success of team working, all the members need to be effectively
communicated with goals and objectives (Hershatter and Epstein, 2010). This will help the
individual to focus on their efforts for attaining goals by successfully completing their tasks at
Century Ltd
Undefined roles and responsibilities: It is essential for the success of team to have clearly set
roles and responsibilities of each and every member. Poor role clarity can increase conflicts and
confusions on assigned work which will result in de-motivating workers. In Century Ltd, lack of
awareness about roles and responsibilities is reason for failure of team.
Ineffective interaction: There are regular interaction in meeting and at Century Ltd
workplace is also required to identify innovative solutions for the problems. Thus, ineffective
interaction among all team members, seniors and leaders is also a reason for the failure.
Trust: In order to work with co-operation, all the members must have trust upon each other.
Otherwise, they will not work collaboratively which may lead to failure.
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Poor time management: Work can be finished on deadline by developing time management
skills. With refers to Century Ltd, it has been identified that poor time management skills of
workers causes negative impact on their working efficiency.
Different culture and nature: Employee work in a team have different culture and nature
which affects the team work . At Century Ltd Employee not respect each other culture and they
ignore ideas of each other which lead to failure of team (Müller, Geraldi and Turner 2012). Workers
not try to understand each other and not respect the though of others.
Improper guidance; If employee working in a team they need some guidance and leader who
can help them in solving their conflict and goals. In team if none is present to guide team and
motivate them for completing a task on time.
2.3 Evaluation of impact of leadership styles on teamwork
Leadership style refers to the process of giving directions, implementing business plans and
motivating and monitoring workers performance by the leaders. Leadership styles impact teamwork
in following ways which are given below:
Autocratic: In this, leaders influence their personnel by aggressive attitude like punishment,
intimidation and reprimand. It is mainly used to eliminate unacceptable behaviour of employees. It
creates negative impact on employee’s morale, motivation and culture of collaboration (Rader,
Whitney and Trosten-Bloom, 2010). In autocratic leadership style leader no give any authority to
employee to take decision or other. Which sometime demotivate team employee (García-Morales,
Jiménez-Barrionuev and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez 2012.). Then it affects the work and they cannot
achieve goals on time by a employee of Century Ltd. sometime employee not feel free and they
think that their are working in boundation.
Democratic: It is also known as participative leadership in which leaders allow the entire
team member to participate in the decision making process. It encourages collaboration and
motivation of workers and enhances their performance to a greater extent at Century Ltd In this
leadership style employees are involved in decision making process. It motive employee in a team
because they thought that type are important for the team. It enhance the productivity of the
organization and improve the quality of work.
Transactional: In this, leaders promote workers through both reward and punishment on the
basis of their performance. Century Ltd's managers use this leadership style to motivate workers
who perform well. On the other hand workers who will not perform well will be punished. So
Subordinate will give their efforts in achieving goals to get monetary and non-monetary rewards.
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Century Ltd adopt Transactional leadership style which is very beneficial for them (Day, Fleenor
and McKee, 2014). In this leader link goal with reward which motivate employee to perform more
effectively and efficiently so that they can easily achieve success. Employee easily achieve the
goals of the organization becasue leader initiated in their work.
Transformational: This style refers to identifying the required changes and implementing it
successfully for attaining business targets (Warrick, 2011). It helps employee of Century Ltd to
inspire and motivate team members to strive for accomplishment of vision and mission. In this
leader create clear structure of work in front of team worker. It clearly set the goals and have a high
expectation form employees. It a lot work to employee according to their interest which helps in
achieving a target on time,
Impact of leadership style Mcgregor theory X and Y theory are as follow:
According to the theory X it assumes that employee get naturally demotivated and not like
to work in organization. Workers avoid working and need to be directed at Century Ltd. While in as
per theory Y it has participated style and it assume that people are self motivated and and creative
they take responsibility and ore motivated to fulfil the goals. They not need much direction.
In theory X employee are needed autocratic leadership style employee are required to be
motivate by providing a reward and incentives. On the other hand in Theory Y employee are self
motivated and there is participative leadership style work because employee take interest in work.
Delegation: at Century Ltd Employees are delegated work according to their ability in Theory X
and direct regularly so that they not get motivated
Empowerment :at Century Ltd Workers are involved in decision making process so that they feel
like a part of the organization and work hard for the them. In participative leadership style
employees are involved in all activity of team.
Herzberg theory : at Century Ltd company can use this thoery in which Hygiene factor are that
factor which are necessary for motivating a employee at workplace. It is also known as dissatisfies
or maintenance factor. In hygine factor there is factor are need to keep employee satisfy but this
factor not motivate employee that are pay, company policy, physical working condition this factor
are those which company provided to their employee but it not motivate employee. While in
Motivational factor are those which motivate employee that are promotion recognizant ion sense of
achievement etc this all factor motivate employee by leader in the organization.
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TASK 3: REMOTE WORKING
3.1) Explanation of different ways in which people work remotely
Working remotely means working at any other places not in office. In the present era, it is
rapidly growing by means of telecommuting, virtual, mobile, cloud working etc. Century Ltd
manage their remote workers by following ways which are mentioned below:
Developing formal policy: Century Ltd implemented a standard policy by formulating
expectations clearly for all remote workers. It developed a list of tasks and functions which can be
done remotely by the personnel.
Instant messaging: Century Ltd allow all remote workers to communicate with the
organization by delivering instant messages (Guy and Patton, 2013). This communication tool
provides assistance to workers to ask questions so that operational difficulties can be mitigated.
HipChat, Campfire and Chatter are some of the platforms which organization is using to
communicate with the remote employees.
Video communication: Skype and Google+ are some of the tools used by the firm to
communicate information to remote workers over video. It enables the parties to avoid confusions
in the work which is being allotted to them at Century Ltd
Leverage cloud technology: it is the important factor in the successful remote employees.
Weather they have a right technology to not. At the time of working remotely employee an easily
get easily take out information from file or data at the time of working as remotely. It is depend on
the size of the company and also require a various teamwork and serves (Berson, Halevy Shamir,
and Erez, 2015). If Century Ltd's used clod based software for everything them it become easy for
the company to work form any place.
Implication of remote working are as follow;
Investment on technology: technology which are required for the remote working cost highly. It
affect eh company revenue. Century Ltd is required to bring new technology in the organization
weather its cost is too high or not.
Working in a different time zone; at Century Ltd employee work in a different time zone such as
at the time of remote working it is not necessary that other employee is present that time on work.
Challenge with communication; At the time of communicate with telecommuting or video
conferencing then network problem can become a barrier. Sometime network or internet is not
working them it create difficulty for remote working of Century Ltd comapny
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3.2) The common working practice used by those working remotely in different context
The Working practice used by the people who are working as remote working
Teleconferencing: it is a right meeting tool which is available for Century Ltd It is not
available for those who are not participate in meeting forma a remote location. It help company tot
ravel less and save money and time. At the time of making a urgent decision business can not be
delayed with the help of teleconferencing. That is employee cane connecrt with other employee
which are working in the organization through teleconferencing. Employee are can communicate in
group of people with the remote working.
Flexible hours : It helps employee of Century Ltd so much employee can work in their own
hour. That is employee cane easily work by sitting at home and can chose their own working hour
(Ahirwal, Pandey and Bhadoriya, 2014). They can work from home and stay in connect with the
employee of organization.
Regular updates : Employee of Century Ltd can regularly update about their work tot he
managers so that they can easily accomplish a task on time. Remote working employee complete all
its work on time and give regular updates so that other employee have knowledge about their work.
Skype; it used by the organization so that company can make a video cal through Skype.
Employee can easily attempt urgent a meeting through Skype calling from any place that is not
form office other then form work place.
3.3)Analysis of leadership styles appropriate for remote working
Leading remote workers effectively plays an inevitable role in managing people in the
organization. Leaders have to encourage and motivate remote employees so as to get best efforts
and attain great performance. Laissez-faire leadership style is considered best for administrating
remote workers (Day, 2014). It is because remote employees of Century Ltd are experts and
specialist in their operations henceforth; they need less supervision of leaders. In this style, full
rights and authority is given to personnel to take decisions in their area. Members are capable in
fulfilling their responsibilities effectively and efficiently. Strong control is not required by the firm
to monitor and control staff performance.
Transformational leadership style is also another suitable leadership style which is used by
the Century Ltd to encourage their remote employees by implementing required changes in the
business. Leaders can get ideas, views and suggestions of employees to bring any sort of changes
and convert it into reality to achieve high level of operational efficiency in the future.
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