Management and Workbook Process Essay

As a leading pioneer in outdoor retailing and a company at the forefront of the front for environmental sustainability, we write this letter in response to your request to treasure your current Workbook exhibit and appraise the advantages as considerably as the drawbacks to the system. We argon non in favour of the current Workbook Process for reasons that we leave behind propensity for you. We feel that a company with such a reputation as Patagonia, Inc., needs to adopt a less sophisticated but imperfect tense system.MAIN FINDINGSWith the research we carried out it was very clear and app bent to us that the Workbook Process was ineffective. However, it did open up communication among employees, and it also encouraged employees to theatrical role their ideas with some upper level management. We do feel that the process push aside be improved upon.OVERVIEW OF THE WORKBOOK PROCESSThe Patagonia Workbook Process in our notion was knowing to make information about the companys planning, budgeting and quality value flow to a greater extent fluently amongst all the employees. The Process was also knowing to encourage the employees to take a more active role in the companys planning, operating re escort and decision making process. We will start our analysis by critiquing and listing what we feel are major(ip) concerns of the workbook process.CONCERNS OF THE WORKBOOK PROCESS* The Process of sharing information could weaken the managers power secondary, because selective revealing of information can be used to control and to manipulate employees to do their work. * Expensive system because training is required for the employees to learn and to understand the system. In addition, training is term consuming. * The poor deliverance of pecuniary information, due to the detail that some employees did not want to participate in the Process. * The one to two months lag behind of paperwork. Thus information was never relevant for that ad hoc time period. * Large proportion of employees refused to engage in the Process because they establish it tedious. * The plan was not accepted by all levels of management. * The Workbook Process focuses primarily on planning in advance for the longer term or else than on a day by day basis. * The Workbook Process had obstruction in judging environment, quality and distribution objectives, which are crucial winner factors for Patagonia, Inc.* The Workbook Process is very complex and time consuming. The level of planning and the commodious amount of meetings needed to discuss company plans leaves very little time for constructive work to be done. * The Process could be limiting in the sense that it does not promote innovations if anything it encourages people to just stick to a discipline plan and nothing else. * The profit sharing plan that was introduced was not based on merit it was just allocated in equal percentages of the base salary. On the contrary, the workbook process also has some bene fits. Although, the concerns outweigh the benefits, it is for your benefit and to cave in you a better perspective of the Process.BENEFITS OF THE WORKBOOK PROCESS* The Workbook Process has been significantly embraced amongst the employees at Patagonia, Inc. * A significant amount of the employees feel that the Process is worthwhile and that it has abandoned everyone an opportunity to bond and also optimized better solutions for the company. * The Workbook Process being a much longer term strategy can detect problems or rationalises before they arise, which is a more proactive approach, rather than waiting for an issue to arise before it gets attended to. * The Workbook Process gave a chance for employees at the top of the hierarchy a better understanding of what lower graded employees where up to, therefore it created an atmosphere whereby everyone was interested in what was happening within the company.EVALUATIONOn the basis of our evaluation, we would like to recommend that P atagonia, Inc. discontinues with the Workbook Process. We are of the consume that the Process has served its intended purpose. The Process has worked in the sense that it has educated the employees on how the company operates and how their jobs interface with individually other. A control system is employ to ensure that an organization strategy is implemented which is not the case with the Workbook Process. The Workbook Process focuses on long term rather than whole steping at each scenario as it arises. In looking back at the time utilize to achieving company objectives is lacking, which we feel is a key component of the emerging succeeder of the company. A value driver is an objective which can indicate future success. An example would include product design, quality and design, quality and customer service, which are all qualities that Patagonia, Inc. values.MAIN RECOMENDATIONS AND MODIFICATIONOur recommended replacement for the Workbook Process is a equilibrate calling card. A match Scorecard is a less sophisticated and more grounded evaluation system. A balanced Scorecard not only focuses on financial but also non-financial contributors to the success of the company. Management can set objectives that involve different areas of the business. For example the production and distribution could qualify as efficiency objectives, research and development would focus on innovations, and the human resources would look after the quality of life for the employees. We are of a strong view that these aspects are key elements to the success of the company. The balance Scorecard will not guarantee success for Patagonia, Inc. but, we see it as a step in the right direction.The Balanced Scorecard does have some drawbacks as well as advantages. The drawbacks are, a Balanced Scorecard can add a new type of reporting without necessarily improving quality or financial numbers it could be viewed as a non-value adding report method and a distraction for achieving a ctual goals. One more disadvantage is that Balanced Scorecard goals are easy to reach but hard to quantify. The advantages of the Balance Scorecard are that, it caters for employees who are both financially and non-financially literate, a Balanced Scorecard is less technical and easier to understand, and the last advantage is that the Balanced Scorecard is less time consuming and will allow workers to focus more on their real tasks.CONCLUSIONIn concluding, we feel that the time and run required to keep the Workbook Process operational are too costly. The faculty within the organization are only partially committed, which in our view is causing complications with the success of the Workbook Process. The level of training required is exhaustive. The employees who are not financially literate regardless of how much training they receive efficiency never fully grasp the concepts of the Workbook Process. When an organization focuses all its efforts on financial results, other tasks th at cannot be measured objectively are neglected. We hope that you will take all of our advice and recommendations into consideration and, we wish you and Patagonia, Inc. all the success in your future endeavours.