WMGM1002 Workforce Agility For Firms And Its Implications For Managers Homework Answer

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Question :

Unit Name:
Principles of Management
Unit Code:
WMGM1002
Assessment Task:
Essay
Term & Year:
Term 6, 2020
Total # Pages:
4
Total Marks:
100 marks
Weighting:
25%

NATURE OF THE TASK

This is an individual assessment task.

INSTRUCTIONS

Students are required to write a 1,200-word essay (excluding the reference list) in response to the question posed below:

ESSAY TOPIC: Workforce Agility

ESSAY BACKGROUND:

Workforce agility has been posited as important to the growth of businesses in competitive markets that face continuous and unanticipated change. An agile workforce can create impact, and therefore adapt to the environment of a firm. This agile workforce can use its knowledge and skills to anticipate and to pre- empt the dynamics of the environment.

MAIN ESSAY QUESTION: Critically analyse and discuss the importance of workforce agility for firms and its implications for managers.

RELATED QUESTIONS:

You should critically discuss the following related questions:

  1. Describe the notion of an “agile workforce”.
  2. Discuss the attributes or capabilities of an agile workforce.
  3. Analyse the factors compelling organisations to become more agile.
  4. Evaluate the implications of an agile workforce for managers

HOW TO PRESENT YOUR ASSIGNMENT

The marking criteria rubric has been placed in iLearn (Assessment Section).

The length of the essay, including citations, but excluding the reference list, is 1,200 words. Include the word count at the end of the essay, and before the reference list. Turnitin similarly should be less than 10%.

Use 1.5 line spacing, 2.5 cm margins on top, bottom and on each side, Times New Roman font size 12. You are required to use the Harvard Referencing style throughout your essay.

All essays must cite, in total, a minimum of six (6) academic/scholarly and peer reviewed articles. This includes three (3) of the recommended articles featured above.

Do not use colour printing or formatting templates when submitting your report. Do not include an executive summary, content section, abstract, footnotes or endnotes.

WRITING STYLE: The essay should be written in a formal and academic style. The essay will be evaluated for discriminatory language, clarity of expression and overall presentation. Do not use bullet points, casual language, or bracketed comments. Do not use headings and subheadings, as they reduce the integration and flow of your essay.

Your essay must be fully and appropriately referenced, using Harvard intext citations. Substantial marks will be deducted for inadequate, or incorrect, referencing. Aim for, at least, two (2) in-text citations per 100 words.

The only accepted file type for upload is:

  • Microsoft Word® (.doc and .docx)
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Answer :

Introduction

Agile is none other than an iterative approach to software development or project management that helps to deliver value to the customers with fewer headaches. Agile evaluates planes, results, requirements continuously to respond against the changes quickly. An agile workforce is a strategy which helps to mix all type of workers like part-time, full-time, and other contingent workers (Cannon 2017). It applies some techniques to encourage the workers of all age groups, and it also engages the workers with a particular organisation. The agile workforce will help an organisation to meet the changed workforce targets every time. It will increase the productivity of an organisation and meet the demands of the customers. 

The notion of an Agile Workforce

An agile workforce is a strategy to adopt the fulltime, part-time and contingent workers and motivate them to work under the same environment. It is considered as a flexible strategy which encourages an employee to make practical cooperation that focuses on the advantageous perspective of an organization (Menon & Suresh 2020).  An agile workforce can create an agile organization. An agile organization requires to adopt the changing needs of customers, marketplace and employees.The notion of an agile workforce acquires the five elements like the capability of intelligence, competencies, collaboration, culture and information system. Organizational agility is identified as a dynamic capability of a farm (Felipe, Roldán&Leal-Rodríguez 2016). An agile workforce makes a massive network within the company, which helps to empower the team members to operate a high standard of alignment, accountability and flexibility.  As a result, the collaboration between two employees helps to operate the ecosystem within the company. Agility plays an important role which recognizes the success of the workforce culture and evaluates the ability of change. Agility is relevant for developing knowledge of competition for facing the outer world.  It helps to identify the shrinking market of any products. Agility helps to increase the interest of the customer. An agile workforce is developing a belief among the employee, which helps to change their talents, beliefs, abilities and intelligence. The growth mindset helps to identify the priority of the employee towards their aptitude and interest. The growth mindset helps to evaluate the failure, challenges, efforts and skills of an employee. Agile workforce helps to develop an open mindset which influences an employee to share ideas with others.    

Attributes or Capabilities of Agile Workforce

According to Alavi et al. (2014), the agile workforce is the flexible infrastructure platform that helps to introduce new information systems to enhance competence across the workforce. There are some best attributes present of the agile workforce which are helping to improve the performance of an organisation.  The attributes are listed below.

Goal-Driven

The agile methodologies are beneficial for the work structure of an organisation, and the organisation can exploit those methodologies to bring value to the organisation (Sindhwani& Malhotra 2016). The agile principles help to achieve the goals of the organisation. The business can incorporate the agile principles in their work structure to meet the requirement of their stakeholders. 

Open to use New Technology

New Technology is required to improve the operational activities of an organisation, and agile methodology is appropriate to use new technology in the work structure of an organisation. Technology is evolving at a higher rate, and new technologies are required to meet the expectation of the organisation. Different tools of the agile workforce are helping to do separate tasks at the same time. 

Flexibility

Working flexibility is the essential thing to work with a considerable number of employees, and agile practices can help to ensure the flexibility of the employees and the organisation can incorporate any changes related to the organisation. Agile methodologies are helpful to remove obstacles between employees and their freedom. Agile workforce principals can main the work-life balance of the employees (Breu et al. 2002). Several other attributes of an agile workforce are also present like creativity, performance-driven, etc., to enhance the workforce of the organisation.  On the contrary, Beldarrain (2019), has stated that it has insufficient capability building, a short-time bias that can create a negative impact on the organisation. 

Factors compelling organisation to become more Agile

According to Alavi & Wahab (2013), Global competition has increased, and it insists markets find new production models and that is why an agile workforce is required to implement in the organisation to enhance the working ability of the organisation. There are different factors which are the compelling organisation to become more agile, and they are the factor of faster time to market means it takes less time to give the product which can enhance the performance.  The implementation of an agile workforce helps to get feedback from real customers which will help to improve the product quality of the organisation. The agile principles help to build the right products which are demanded by the customers. It can produce emerging products to attract customers to the organisation.  The customers can get help from the agile workforce, and the organisation receives the best possible outcome by implementing the agile methodologies. 

Agile principals help to resolve the risks earlier by delivering early feedback. It is also risk management to reduce early risks through some principles which are very helpful to bring competence to the market.  The Agile workforce helps to develop better quality products and fix the scope, time, and costs of the products through innovative technologies that are very attractive to the customers. On the contrary, Beldarrain (2019), has stated that the agile workforce spends much time at leadership, and it also increases employee turnover through different approaches. 

Evaluate the implications of an agile workforce of managers

The capabilities of agility and attitudes are the two critical factors for an organization transformation. The implications of an agile workforce create a significant impact on the mindset of managers. With the help of an agile workforce, a manager can evaluate the perspective of a people. They can evaluate the changing pattern of talents and sharing method of innovative ideas. The managers give the priorities of mindset and influence them to increase the capability of a people. The mangers allow employees for showcasing their talents and developing their skills (Varshney & Varshney 2020).  The mangers enable them to focus on the right things, and if they are looking for new ideas, then they should understand the consequences of the company. The diversity of approaches increases the fundamental perspectives among the employee. In this way, the managers express the innovation, productivity and efficiency within the organization.  Mangers have the capability to break the current magnitudes, which makes the existing barriers of competitive advantage of the organization (Singh et al. 2013).  The managers apply the promotional mindset that focuses on the achievement of an employee.  The individuals develop prevention of mindsets that helps to focus on the gain and losses. The managers help to create a preventive mindset which allows making awareness for an employee in terms of avoiding problems. They can anticipate the difficulties by risk-taking. The model of workforce management helps to enforce the practices of workforce agility (Sumukadas, & Sawhney 2004). The mangers should educate about the workforce and mindset. They make people aware of the changing mindset and agility.  They should not force to handle any hard consequences without knowing their mindset. The managers help people to assess their current mindset and empower them in the course of management.  

Conclusion

It is concluded the workforce agility plays a significant role in the development of the organization.  Workforce agility helps to make a dense network that helps to empower the employees within the organization. It helps to increase capabilities. The different attributes highlight the elements that built a robust and agile network. Agile workforce motivates the organization to adopt new technology. It helps to make collaboration among the employee. It helps to improve the relationship with customers, improves productivity and serving better quality. The mangers play a significant role to make the organization agile. The managers apply several approaches that help to motivate the mindset of the employee.