Harrison-Keyes Gap Analysis

Running head: GAP ANALYSIS: HARRISON-KEYES

Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes

University of Phoenix

Gap Analysis: Harrison-Keyes

Harrison-Keyes, a leading publishing company, is faced with several project implementation and human resource issues. These issues are affecting employee behavior and have essentially added to the result of Harrison-Keyes' bottom line. Declining sales and profits over the past few years has the company struggling for survival or revitalization. To overcome these obstacles the company needs to identify these issues and convert them into business opportunities. The leadership team needs to understand that every aspect of the business will be effected and each department should be apart of the revival process. After understanding the issues, opportunities, and the vision the new CEO William Guardo and staff can create end state goals that will be SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely).

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

In any company issues will arise that can affect the company's overall production and motivation. How the company resolves these issues will determine their success or failure. Harrison-Keyes is no exception. Recently, issues have surfaced within the company that requires management's attention. In MBA 530 one of my lessons, we discussed that some performance problems can stem from employees' lack of ability and lack of motivation. We learned the three factors that explain employee behavior (performance): ability, motivation, and opportunity. Ability is what an employee "can do" and motivation is what an employee "will do". (Milkovich & Newman 2004) H-K needs to look close at the employee performance to see how the lack is affecting the company. Harrison-Keyes needs to create an effective chain of communication. It is obvious that through the resistance to change and missed deadlines that communication is not a priority. Employees want to feel valued and appreciated. The last thing an employee wants is to find out about his or her company from someone on the outside or as a last minute announcement. To increase effectiveness in communication H-K should have a company intranet to post announcements, meetings, deadlines etc. This will help increase the overall efficiency in each department and with each individual. Another issue within Harrison-Keyes Publications is that the leadership team does not have an effective plan in place to implement the e-publishing project. H-K's goal is to enter into the 21st century e-publishing market and stay competitive in their respective industry. In the Project Management chapter it explains "Two major dimensions of strategic management are responding to external environment and allocating scarce resources of the firm to improve its competitive position" (Gray & Larson 2006 p2). A third issue for H-K is the projects are managed within a functional hierarchy. The different stages of the project are delegated to the correct functional department who is responsible completing their part of the project. The CIO had a huge role in this plan and with his lack of knowledge and skills could cost the company time and additional money they were not looking to spend. The CIO should be held accountable for his lack of KSA's. Chapter 3 explains that "The functional organization is also commonly used when, given the nature of the project, one functional area plays a dominant role in completing the project or has a dominant interest in the success of the project. Under these circumstances, a high-ranking manager in that area is given the responsibility of coordinating the project." (Gray & Larson 2006 Ch. 3) The implementation of a strategy that is not aligned with the company's mission will be hard to influence others and the projects that creates problems is the ones without sound reasoning, but have the persuasive power of people fighting for it. This issue is one that exist in most companies. Organization politics within H-K is with the author Will X Harper not wanting the company to e-Publish because of royalties; and those who prefer the traditional publishing vs e-Publishing. Organization politics can be positive or negative, but should be used for the betterment of the company. This issue can give H-K the opportunity to create a positive partnership with the established authors and Harrison-Keyes.

Lastly, human resources is not involved in the strategic planning of the business. I have learned from week 1 to week 4 that human resources are a vital part of the organization. In chapter 4 it explains that "human resource system has a direct effect on the firm's bottom line". A company that does not include human resource in their business strategy will not succeed. Human Resources benefits companies in different ways, but importantly without a good HR system a company will not be successful. The opportunity Harrison-Keyes has is to develop a HR plan geared to recruit and hire the right mix of staff and to retain the valued employees.

Stakeholder Perspectives/ Ethical Dilemmas

The stakeholders for Harrison-Keyes are the owner(s) and stockholders, employees, and customers. The owners and stockholders have money invested in the company and they want to see the company succeed because of profits and the reputation the company can build. The board members and the new CEO William Guardo have concerns about the e-publishing project. Guardo realizes that some changes has to be made, but is carefully weighing his options. The ethical dilemma in this case is that the CEO seems to be concerned about his success of within the company and not the future of Harrison-Keyes. H-K cannot afford to ignore the e-book project. This is a new wave of reading and for H-K to stay competitive they new to join in on the e-publishing market. The issues above should not be taken lightly. It appears that Guardo and the board doubting their employees' ability to pull this off and the 30-day timeframe is proof that may not want to move forward with this project. However, William Guardo and the board members need to realize that this approach has affected employee behavior and they are at risk of losing some of their valued asset, their employees.

The employees and authors are other stakeholder for Harrison-Keyes. The employees at H-K should be considered as valued assets to the company. Create an effective communication channel that works for the company of H-K's size. H-K's