Introduction
Establishing control in the context of the Bridgestone Aiken company was a crucial landmark on the way to improving the quality of the produced goods. Although the overall workplace environment within the specified setting could be defined as quite employee-friendly and comfortable, the lack of control and the absence of rigid corporate values and philosophies that could compel staff members to follow the established standards, the employees tended to confuse their responsibilities and tasks unless they were reminded of them directly. Therefore, maintaining constant control over the completion of tasks was essential in the specified setting. In retrospect, the observed phenomenon could be attributed to the lack of managerial control over the workflow and the lack of opportunities for embracing the vast range of functions that a manager can play within an organization. The functions such as ensuring that all procedural measures are completed when transferring data or documents was one of the critical aspects of maintaining the workflow consistent.
Experiences: Description
However, with the adoption of the framework that implied a significantly greater degree of control and power over the target’s setting, I managed to improve the cohesion between the set tasks and the staff’s performance. Specifically, I managed to group tasks based on their theme and goals, as well as their relation to a greater organizational goal. The specified experience has shown me how important it is to align the tasks and functions of staff members with the organizational objectives. For example, the task of quality assurance was divided into the goals of defining quality standards, reforming the tests that determined compliance with these standards, documenting the results, and passing the verdict concerning the quality of a product. In addition, the issue of reporting structures had to be explored. The reporting system implied transferring the data from one department to another, thus creating a data management system. A manager needs to establish a system of feedback that would allow gathering information about the levels of staff’s satisfaction and the issues that occur within the target setting.
Conclusion
Therefore, as a manager, I had to encourage the reporting process to ensure that employees are given all of the necessary items and that the workplace conditions meet their standards. In addition, the reporting structure had to remain clear for the chain of command to become effective and transparent. For this reason, the reporting structure based on the principles of the horizontal hierarchy had to be established. Providing employees with a certain amount of authority and encouraging reciprocity in staff-manager communication, the selected approach contributed profusely to managing workplace conflicts and creating favorable conditions for staff members.