Introduction to Organisations and Management Essay - 10

Introduction to Organisations and Management - Essay Example As such, this report seeks to critically evaluate how these concepts are implemented by two different organisations namely; Watsons Engine Components and H & M Consulting. The report starts by giving a brief description of the two organisations followed by a critical discussion of how these organisations differ in the implementation of the above mentioned concepts in their operations. Similarities and differences between the implementation of these concepts will be outlined and a conclusion to sum up the major points discussed will be given at the end of the report. 1.1 Description of the organisations Watsons is an independent, family-owned company which specialises in mass-production of engine parts for cars in North East London. The company employees 200 people in total and these comprise of 125 semi-skilled production workers, 15 clerical workers, 20 technical staff and 40 managers. On the other hand, H&M Consulting is a large global management, engineering and development consul tancy which was established in 1989 when two consultancy businesses merged. The company has grown from strength to strength since then and in 2007, it bought an educational consultancy in Romania, an environmental firm in the Netherlands and a power engineering company in the USA in a bid to strengthen its market sectors in these countries. The company employs more than 13  000 employees. 2.0 Organisational design and structure Structuring the flow of work involves decisions about how the organisation as a whole is structured (Swanepoel, 1998). Basically, organisation design essentially means choosing an organisational structure that is appropriate for strategy implementation and mission accomplishment. Kleynhans (2007) suggests that there are different structural variables that come into play in the process of designing an organisation and these include the following: configuration which deals with the number of levels in hierarchies, formalisation which concerns the use of forma l procedures in policy formulation, specialisation as well as centralisation which refers to the extent to which power and authority are delegated. As can be seen, all these variables hold important implications in respect of different types of organisational structures. Whilst there are different types of organisational structures, it can be noted that Watsons Engine Components has a bureaucratic organisation structure. This is also known as a mechanist approach to organisation design which is described as an â€Å"organisation design emphasising the importance of achieving high levels of production and efficiency through extensive use of rules and procedures and authority.† (Gibson & Donnelly, 1994 as cited in Swanepoel, 1998). A close analysis of the case study for this organisation shows that its structure is very old-fashioned and hierarchical. The organisation is highly unionised and has a very poor history of relations between the management and the employees. This has often led to job actions and is mainly attributed to lack of trust between the management and the employees. Another aspect that illustrates the hierarchical structure of the organisation is that the people in the Marketing Department for instance rarely speak to anyone in the Manufacturing Department given that it is the firm’s procedure that interdepartmental liaison should go

Theory and Practice of Health Surveillance in the Workplace Coursework

Theory and Practice of Health Surveillance in the Workplace - Coursework Example of Theory and Practice of Health Surveillance in the Workplace Introduction The delight of many people in finding employment is to work and operate in a safe workplace environment that also gives assurance of good health. However, evidence from modern workplace environments will confirm that there exist numerous health and safety issues at workplace (Lewis and Thornbory, 2010). The presence of these varied health and safety issues cannot guarantee workers and all other persons involved meaningful occupation environment hence it is always important to ensure the identified issues are dealt with. In an attempt to ensure there is promotion of adequate health and safety of individuals in the workplace, risk assessment has become one way of identifying the pertinent problems and issues compounding the workplace (Lewis and Thornbory 2010). The essence of risk assessment is to identify the risks present and subsequently create a safe system in the workplace. What should be known is that, in most cases health, safety risks present in the working environment are not seen or felt, and therefore, demonstrable signs may be absent. As a result, the effects may remain hidden only to surface after a particular period. The evolution of health surveillance in the workplace has been gradual but impacting and it is from this interest that effort will be made to conduct evidence-based analysis of health surveillance practice in the workplace. The focus of the paper will center on; discussion and exploration of nature and purpose of workforce surveillance, legal requirements for conducting health surveillance, types of health surveillance and also evidence-based analysis of health surveillance to particular occupational exposure. Throughout this, the role of occupational health in responding to abnormal findings will be evaluated and how well they can be communicated to employees and managers, and discussion on the quality assurance systems and processes used for surveillance will be assessed. Health Surveillance in the Workplace Profound changes are taking place at the workplace in many countries and industries and the nature of changes can be evidenced in the increasing change in work, work environments, and employment patterns (Lilley and Feyer, 2010). All these aspects are seen to be shaped and influenced by the increasing political, economic, technological, and social change that characterizes the modern societies (Lilley and Feyer 2010). Emergence of these new profiles of hazards is negatively impacting the health and safety of workers, a concern that calls for appropriate actions of mitigation. The overall measure has been a call, sometimes a legal call for employers to initiate programs and measures that should promote the health and safety of its employees. Both international and national bodies have been formulated as guidance frameworks that propagate for enhancement of a health and safer working environment for workers. International Labor Organiz ation (ILO) has in place, Occupational Safety and Health Convection number 155 and the Occupational Health Service Convection number 161, in which employers in both convections are required to ensure health and safety needs of workers are promoted (Stellman and International Labour Office 1998). In this way, employers through appropriate programs are supposed to promote the health