Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
Organizational Development
Strategy / MBA Resources
Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution
Case Study Description of Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers
In recent years, the number of harassment claims filed with the EEOC has declined overall, but this fact masks a frightening reality: though claims involving some types of harassment have declined, claims for other types of harassment-especially nontraditional forms of harassment-have actually increased. Therefore it remains necessary for employers to maintain a current anti-harassment program, which should consist of the following elements: (1) a clear anti-harassment policy; (2) an explicit statement of prohibited behaviors that can be considered harassment; (3) a complaint procedure that encourages employees to come forward with harassment complaints; (4) protections for complainants and witnesses against retaliation; (5) an investigative strategy that protects privacy interests of both the alleged victim and the accused offender and ensures confidentiality to the extent possible; (6) periodic management training and employee awareness programs that continue to communicate the organization's position on this issue; and (7) measures and processes to ensure prompt corrective action to stop ongoing harassment, and appropriate remedial and disciplinary actions for offenders. In this article, we provide best practice recommendations concerning each of these elements.
Authors :: J. Bret Becton, J. Bruce Gilstrap, Maurice Forsyth
Swot Analysis of "Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers" written by J. Bret Becton, J. Bruce Gilstrap, Maurice Forsyth includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Harassment Claims facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Developing employees, Personnel policies, Workspaces and Organizational Development.
Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers casestudy better are - – geopolitical disruptions, competitive advantages are harder to sustain because of technology dispersion, increasing energy prices, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, technology disruption, challanges to central banks by blockchain based private currencies, cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models,
banking and financial system is disrupted by Bitcoin and other crypto currencies, increasing transportation and logistics costs, etc
Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers
SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Harassment Claims, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Harassment Claims operates in.
According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.
SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix
SWOT analysis of Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Harassment Claims
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Organizational Development field.
4. Making a Organizational Development topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Harassment Claims
Strengths Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The strengths of Harassment Claims in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers Harvard Business Review case study are -
Sustainable margins compare to other players in Organizational Development industry
– Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Harassment Claims to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Organizational Development industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Harassment Claims to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.
High switching costs
– The high switching costs that Harassment Claims has built up over years in its products and services combo offer has resulted in high retention of customers, lower marketing costs, and greater ability of the firm to focus on its customers.
Highly skilled collaborators
– Harassment Claims has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.
Low bargaining power of suppliers
– Suppliers of Harassment Claims in the sector have low bargaining power. Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers has further diversified its suppliers portfolio by building a robust supply chain across various countries. This helps Harassment Claims to manage not only supply disruptions but also source products at highly competitive prices.
High brand equity
– Harassment Claims has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Harassment Claims to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.
Strong track record of project management
– Harassment Claims is known for sticking to its project targets. This enables the firm to manage – time, project costs, and have sustainable margins on the projects.
Learning organization
- Harassment Claims is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Harassment Claims is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.
Analytics focus
– Harassment Claims is putting a lot of focus on utilizing the power of analytics in business decision making. This has put it among the leading players in the industry. The technology infrastructure suggested by J. Bret Becton, J. Bruce Gilstrap, Maurice Forsyth can also help it to harness the power of analytics for – marketing optimization, demand forecasting, customer relationship management, inventory management, information sharing across the value chain etc.
Ability to recruit top talent
– Harassment Claims is one of the leading recruiters in the industry. Managers in the Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers are in a position to attract the best talent available. The firm has a robust talent identification program that helps in identifying the brightest.
Training and development
– Harassment Claims has one of the best training and development program in the industry. The effectiveness of the training programs can be measured in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers Harvard Business Review case study by analyzing – employees retention, in-house promotion, loyalty, new venture initiation, lack of conflict, and high level of both employees and customer engagement.
Cross disciplinary teams
– Horizontal connected teams at the Harassment Claims are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.
Innovation driven organization
– Harassment Claims is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.
Weaknesses Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The weaknesses of Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers are -
Lack of clear differentiation of Harassment Claims products
– To increase the profitability and margins on the products, Harassment Claims needs to provide more differentiated products than what it is currently offering in the marketplace.
Ability to respond to the competition
– As the decision making is very deliberative, highlighted in the case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers, in the dynamic environment Harassment Claims has struggled to respond to the nimble upstart competition. Harassment Claims has reasonably good record with similar level competitors but it has struggled with new entrants taking away niches of its business.
High operating costs
– Compare to the competitors, firm in the HBR case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers has high operating costs in the. This can be harder to sustain given the new emerging competition from nimble players who are using technology to attract Harassment Claims 's lucrative customers.
Workers concerns about automation
– As automation is fast increasing in the segment, Harassment Claims needs to come up with a strategy to reduce the workers concern regarding automation. Without a clear strategy, it could lead to disruption and uncertainty within the organization.
High bargaining power of channel partners
– Because of the regulatory requirements, J. Bret Becton, J. Bruce Gilstrap, Maurice Forsyth suggests that, Harassment Claims is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.
Slow to harness new channels of communication
– Even though competitors are using new communication channels such as Instagram, Tiktok, and Snap, Harassment Claims is slow explore the new channels of communication. These new channels of communication mentioned in marketing section of case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers can help to provide better information regarding products and services. It can also build an online community to further reach out to potential customers.
Need for greater diversity
– Harassment Claims has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.
Slow to strategic competitive environment developments
– As Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers HBR case study mentions - Harassment Claims takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.
Compensation and incentives
– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers, is just above the industry average. Harassment Claims needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.
High dependence on star products
– The top 2 products and services of the firm as mentioned in the Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers HBR case study still accounts for major business revenue. This dependence on star products in has resulted into insufficient focus on developing new products, even though Harassment Claims has relatively successful track record of launching new products.
Aligning sales with marketing
– It come across in the case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Harassment Claims is planning to shift buying processes online.
Opportunities Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers are -
Use of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies for transactions
– The popularity of Bitcoin and other crypto currencies as asset class and medium of transaction has opened new opportunities for Harassment Claims in the consumer business. Now Harassment Claims can target international markets with far fewer capital restrictions requirements than the existing system.
Using analytics as competitive advantage
– Harassment Claims has spent a significant amount of money and effort to integrate analytics and machine learning into its operations in the sector. This continuous investment in analytics has enabled, as illustrated in the Harvard case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers - to build a competitive advantage using analytics. The analytics driven competitive advantage can help Harassment Claims to build faster Go To Market strategies, better consumer insights, developing relevant product features, and building a highly efficient supply chain.
Reconfiguring business model
– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Harassment Claims to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.
Building a culture of innovation
– managers at Harassment Claims can make experimentation a productive activity and build a culture of innovation using approaches such as – mining transaction data, A/B testing of websites and selling platforms, engaging potential customers over various needs, and building on small ideas in the Organizational Development segment.
Learning at scale
– Online learning technologies has now opened space for Harassment Claims to conduct training and development for its employees across the world. This will result in not only reducing the cost of training but also help employees in different part of the world to integrate with the headquarter work culture, ethos, and standards.
Low interest rates
– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Harassment Claims can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.
Developing new processes and practices
– Harassment Claims can develop new processes and procedures in Organizational Development industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.
Buying journey improvements
– Harassment Claims can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.
Manufacturing automation
– Harassment Claims can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Organizational Development segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.
Finding new ways to collaborate
– Covid-19 has not only transformed business models of companies in Organizational Development industry, but it has also influenced the consumer preferences. Harassment Claims can tie-up with other value chain partners to explore new opportunities regarding meeting customer demands and building a rewarding and engaging relationship.
Better consumer reach
– The expansion of the 5G network will help Harassment Claims to increase its market reach. Harassment Claims will be able to reach out to new customers. Secondly 5G will also provide technology framework to build new tools and products that can help more immersive consumer experience and faster consumer journey.
Loyalty marketing
– Harassment Claims has focused on building a highly responsive customer relationship management platform. This platform is built on in-house data and driven by analytics and artificial intelligence. The customer analytics can help the organization to fine tune its loyalty marketing efforts, increase the wallet share of the organization, reduce wastage on mainstream advertising spending, build better pricing strategies using personalization, etc.
Lowering marketing communication costs
– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Harassment Claims in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Organizational Development segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.
Threats Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis
The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers are -
High dependence on third party suppliers
– Harassment Claims high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.
Regulatory challenges
– Harassment Claims needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Organizational Development industry regulations.
Increasing wage structure of Harassment Claims
– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Harassment Claims.
Aging population
– As the populations of most advanced economies are aging, it will lead to high social security costs, higher savings among population, and lower demand for goods and services in the economy. The household savings in US, France, UK, Germany, and Japan are growing faster than predicted because of uncertainty caused by pandemic.
Shortening product life cycle
– it is one of the major threat that Harassment Claims is facing in Organizational Development sector. It can lead to higher research and development costs, higher marketing expenses, lower customer loyalty, etc.
Easy access to finance
– Easy access to finance in Organizational Development field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Harassment Claims can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.
New competition
– After the dotcom bust of 2001, financial crisis of 2008-09, the business formation in US economy had declined. But in 2020 alone, there are more than 1.5 million new business applications in United States. This can lead to greater competition for Harassment Claims in the Organizational Development sector and impact the bottomline of the organization.
Backlash against dominant players
– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Harassment Claims business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.
Barriers of entry lowering
– As technology is more democratized, the barriers to entry in the industry are lowering. It can presents Harassment Claims with greater competitive threats in the near to medium future. Secondly it will also put downward pressure on pricing throughout the sector.
Trade war between China and United States
– The trade war between two of the biggest economies can hugely impact the opportunities for Harassment Claims in the Organizational Development industry. The Organizational Development industry is already at various protected from local competition in China, with the rise of trade war the protection levels may go up. This presents a clear threat of current business model in Chinese market.
Stagnating economy with rate increase
– Harassment Claims can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.
Technology acceleration in Forth Industrial Revolution
– Harassment Claims has witnessed rapid integration of technology during Covid-19 in the Organizational Development industry. As one of the leading players in the industry, Harassment Claims needs to keep up with the evolution of technology in the Organizational Development sector. According to Mckinsey study top managers believe that the adoption of technology in operations, communications is 20-25 times faster than what they planned in the beginning of 2019.
Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins
– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Harassment Claims can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers .
Weighted SWOT Analysis of Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers Template, Example
Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants.
We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –
First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.
Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.
Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Preventing and Correcting Workplace Harassment: Guidelines for Employers is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Harassment Claims needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.
