Riordan Manufacturing

Gap Analysis: Riordan Manufacturing

Introduction

Riordan Manufacturing is faced with an interesting, but not uncommon occurrence among businesses, especially larger businesses and ones that have been around a while. Riordan is faced with a motivation and production problem, with much of this believed to be stemming from an inadequate and archaic total rewards system compounded by the problem that the HR department seems to not be getting the type of attention this department needs in a growing, global organization. This paper is designed as a way of exploring the intricacies of this problem and producing a problem statement that will identify the actual problem and not just one of the problems. Before any of this can be explored, though, the issues affecting Riordan must be analyzed. By doing this, there will be opportunities that will be revealed, which brought together with the stakeholder's perspectives, should give some insight into some proper end-state goals. First, the issues at hand will be explored.

Situation Analysis

Issue and Opportunity Identification

Riordan is being faced with a variety of issues. It is imperative to bring as many of them as possible to light and try to find an opportunity in the issues. Not all the issues may be affecting the overall problem, but only by identifying them, can Riordan decide this and can they also have the opportunity to act on them at a later time, as these issues may be affecting some other part of the business. But for the specific problem at hand it is important to look at the issues and find the ones that have an opportunity to give Riordan relief. In the next following paragraphs, issues will be identified and the corresponding opportunity will be revealed along with these issues.

It becomes immediately clear that Riordan is having difficulty in motivating a vast amount of "different" types of employees. Currently, Riordan has a wide array of age ranges as well as nationality differences and with both of these comes cultural and generational differences. There is a good opportunity buried in this issue though. Riordan has the opportunity to explore these differences now, listening to the employees needs as well as studying the differences and by doing so, can gain better insight into how to motivate the individuals within these various segments. With the proper motivation, productivity in the workplace will have a chance to flourish.

In connection with the above issue, Riordan seems to have a few issues that may correlate and even exasperate the issue. One of the other issues that have become evident is the fact that the company has waited a long time to do anything about the issues at hand despite early and often warnings from the employees and even those within the leadership team. One of the other issues involved in this is that some of the members of this leadership team are not very cohesive. In addition, when a problem has been brought forward, the company is not getting a complete buy in from the leadership team, as each of them have differences in opinion. There is an opportunity in these issues, that the organization will have the opportunity to perhaps examine the make up of the leadership team and make some changes if necessary. The fact that they have waited so long to do something has not slipped the minds of the employees either and with this there is an opportunity that if the leadership team makes substantive moves, those within the organization will see a commitment that has not been seen previously and in seeing this, the employees should gain a sense of urgency and seriousness, but also a sense of relief knowing something is being done. In regard to the issue of the leadership team not buying in to the ideas or not being on the same page, the team now has an opportunity to come together and take an active role in what is going on in the organization. By using value leadership, the team can be great examples of an organization that wants to change for the betterment of the organization as a whole.

Two final issues identified also possibly go hand in hand. The organization is losing people rapidly and the retention rate of Riordan is starting to become a major issue. The company also seems to have a bad and/or outdated compensation system. Riordan has an opportunity with both of these issues to explore the many employee surveys that have been conducted but failed to be acted upon. They are in a good position of already having years of surveys, where some companies will have to start from the beginning. These surveys can help with the compensation issue also and the company can look into some benchmarking solutions from other companies. It is quite possible that Riordan will find the concept of total rewards as being beneficial for these issues. With all these issues in mind, next the stakeholder's perspectives will be analyzed.

Stakeholder Perspectives/Ethical Dilemmas

There are a variety of stakeholders involved in these issues and with each of the players involved comes different values and issues as well as dilemmas that are faced when looking at the issues. The main stakeholders here seem to be the founder and 80% owner, Michael Riordan, the Director of Human Resources, Yvonne McMillan and lastly the leadership team as a whole.

Michael has a good grasp of the business and is still very active in the day to day operations of the organization. Being a clear majority owner with 80% of the organization in terms of stock, he has a unique position of speaking for the stock holders. His concerns mirror that of most stock holders in that he wants a profitable organization, especially as he approaches the age of retirement. He values the employees, but he also believes that the organization is treating the employees fairly and that some of the blame falls upon disloyal employees. His views may be a little archaic in terms of the new global age of business. There is a dilemma for whoever decides to approach Michael with ideas, that they may face rejection or even worse. This may explain why nothing has happened as of this moment.

Yvonne McMillan is the HR director and has been for a decade. In this time, she has conducted the employee surveys and has been in the perfect position to view these firsthand and see the employees' views of the organization, their working situation and their compensation. She sees HR as a vital part of any business and she believes she should be included in more of the strategic goals of the organization. Unfortunately, there may be evidence that she is being denied better roles and denied the ear of Michael due to gender discrimination. Either way, Riordan