New Work from Home Policy
Student’s Name
Institution
Date
Introduction
New work from Home policy constitutes an agreement between the employer company and its employees to perform specific roles from home for a given period (Bick, Blandin & Mertens, 2020). Apple Inc. is one of the most prominent multinational corporations in the technological industry that designs, manufactures, and transacts service software, mac computers, iPads, iPhones, and their innovative products globally. This study evaluates new work from home policy using Apple Inc. as a case study. Data is gathered using secondary sources such as peer-reviewed articles and case study analysis and answered several report questions. The guiding questions allow this paper to provide an in-depth explanation of the role of the supervisor in handling new work from home poly, impacts of this policy on supervisor’s role, help needed by the supervisor to support the initiative, and recommendations on supervisory policies and practices that need to change. The report finds out that supervisors’ role changes slightly to reach a successful organizational change (Arif et al., 2017, p.33). The report concludes that Supervisory duties require flexible enough to respond appropriately to unintended management change and enable the organization to compete daily in the market.
Detailed Situation Description
Who
Apple incorporation, one of the biggest technological companies based in the United States of America, joined other great organizations in adopting newfangled work from home policy to adapt to the Coronavirus climate. This incorporation designs, peddles online services, consumer electronics, and computer software globally (Chamings, 2020).
What
A new work from home policy was introduced by Apple Inc. to its American workers to respond to the Coronavirus (Bick, Blandin & Mertens, 2020). This term explains a contract between the employer company and the workers that visibly defines responsibilities, expectations, and roles for the individual employees working from home. This policy also outlines employees entitled to work from home, authorization process, and applying for the policy privileges.
Why
Apple Inc. incorporated the newfangled work from the home policy because the CoronavirusCoronavirus was becoming a threat to its employees’ safety (Chamings, 2020). Therefore, incorporating this policy was made to curb the Coronavirus spreading and adhere to the world health organization’s safety rules and regulations.
When
Apple Incorporation multinational organization incorporated newfangled policy to work from home at the beginning of 2020 when the spread of CoronavirusCoronavirus was continuously increasing (Bick, Blandin & Mertens, 2020). The agreement between Apple Inc. and its American workers to work from home might be extended up to 30th June 2021, depending on the vaccine and therapeutic success related to CoronavirusCoronavirus.
Where
Apple Inc.’s global company is based in America and headquartered in California State, Cupertino (Chamings, 2020). The company operates globally with more than five hundred and ten retail stores located in twenty-five diverse countries. Apple incorporation also has numerous distributors that distribute its products, including iPads, Mac computers, iPhones, and other products to its worldwide customers.
How
Apple incorporation adopted newfangled work from the home policy by signing an agreement with employees to conduct their official duties from home under provided privileges (Bick, Blandin & Mertens, 2020). This agreement allows Apple Inc. to define the employee’s roles and expectations and processes under which the work would be conducted.
Supervisor’s Role in Handling the Event
The supervisor must communicate about the newfangled work from home policy to employees because workers require to hear alteration messages about their responsibilities and how the change would affect their working teams (Arif et al., 2017, p.37). Supervisors must acquire new policy pertinent information and conversation points from the change management team and deliver it to employees with the necessary details. The details include the meaning of the situation, reasons why the employees need to get on board and support the initiative, and reasons why Apple Inc. decided to incorporate the new policy.
Supervisors must advocate for the new policy to the employees because workers act based on both supervisor’s message and his level of effort and support for adopting the new policy (Day, Crown & Ivany, 2017, p. 6). Supporting the policy passively could cause employees to be reluctant towards its adoption. Supervisors must, therefore, actively demonstrate a high level of new policy support by supporting the new policy and leading the employees by undertaking it.
Supervisors must coach employees entitled to this policy and address the barrier arguments, hence ensuring the new policy (Krivtsov, Polinova & Chupina, 2016, p. 7756). The coaching is useful in creating awareness on why the new policy is necessary, creating employees’ desire to participate, and providing employees with knowledge on how to adopt the new policy. Coaching can also allow employees to execute required behaviors and skills while adopting the new policy and reinforcement to sustain the new work from home policy.
The supervisor must liaise between the new policy team management and the workers to offer appropriate information to workers ((Arif et al., 2017, p.40). Supervisors must offer policy input, utilization results, and workers’ feedback on specific aspects of the new work from home policy to the policy team. A supervisor also must recognize and raise practical operational requirements and concerns during the execution phase of the new work from home policy.
The supervisor must also identify any form of resistance to the new work from home policy, sources of that resistance, and appropriate approaches to managing that resistance. The ADKAR technique might help a trained supervisor identify the policy element, causing resistance, and addressing it accordingly.
Longer and Short-term Impacts
The short-term implications of incorporating new work from home policy include shifting the supervisor’s role from routine duties to new responsibilities. A supervisor’s original duties include organizing and supervising workflow through delegation of duties, providing constructive feedback and related training and coaching to employees, performance evaluation, management of schedules and deadlines, and others. The short-term impact of executing this new policy involves shifting these roles to change management roles ((Arif et al., 2017, p.37). Supervisors may be required to communicate about the policy, advocate for its implementation, coach entitled employees based on the policy requirements, and liaise with employees and management to ensure the successful execution of new work from home policy. The supervisor’s role may also change to identifying any resistance to the new policy, the policy’s element that causes resistance, and appropriate approaches towards handling the resistance.
Long term impacts of adopting newfangled work from the home policy would include changing roles of a supervisor (Day, Crown & Ivany, 2017, p. 10). The supervisor’s role may shift to setting new supervision rules and regulations, such as ensuring appropriate dress codes even when working at home, coaching employees on utilizing newfangled technology associated with the policy, rescheduling work processes, and deadlines, and other alterations. Adopting the new work from the home policy may boost employee morale and performance because the policy seems favorable to workers. The changes to the role of supervisor are difficult because supervising employees virtually is very challenging. Virtual delegation of work, management of operations, and evaluation are challenging to a supervisor.
Help Required by the Supervisor to Support Policy Adoption
The supervisor requires help from the newfangled work from the home policy management team and Apple Inc.’s employees. The management team should help the supervisor with necessary information related to the policy requirement, reasons for policy execution, why the incorporation requires its implementation, and procedures necessary for the successful execution and sustaining of the policy. On the other hand, employees should help the supervisor handle the situation by listening to the management team’s information via the supervisor and cooperating with the supervisor to perform actual implementation activities (Vito & Sethi, 2020). Employees should receive the information, accept the coaching, execute the actions as per the supervisor’s guidelines, and provide feedback on challenges, achievements, and required improvements for successful implementation and maintenance. Collaboration among the three teams, including employees, supervisors, and work from home policy administration team, is necessary for implementing the policy and improved performance by the organization.
Recommendations on Supervisory Practices that may need to Change
Supervisory policies such as physical delegation of duties and supervision of workflow and employee execution of tasks may need to change to virtual delegation, supervision, and provision of required support and guidance to employees. Supervisory procedures and policies used to prepare work schedules, deadlines, and work evaluation reviews should be adjusted to suit working from home levels (Krivtsov, Polinova & Chupina, 2016, p. 7756). Policies used to determine the kind of coaching and training necessary for the employees should be altered to meet employees’ knowledge to work from home. Supervisory training structures and materials used to equip employees with appropriate skills and knowledge to tackle office duties should be adjusted to suit home training work. Close supervision supervisory responsibilities should be replaced with training to work independently and with minimum supervision to successfully implement new work from home policy.
Summary
New work from home policy is one of the current trends due to the Outbreak of Coronavirus, which has hindered organizations’ everyday operations. Apple Inc. is one of the institutions that have implemented this policy to ensure employees’ continued operations and safety. This paper provides detailed information about the new work from home policy in Apple Inc. in the form of 5w+H. The role of the supervisor in handling the implementation of this policy is clearly stated and explained. The article also provides short-term and long-term impacts of this policy’s execution on the supervisor and his employees’ role with a precise opinion that the role alteration is difficult for the supervisor. The paper provides in-depth information on the supervisor’s help from employees and the policy execution team. Recommendations accompany this section on supervisory practices, structures, procedures, and policies that may require change for successful implementation and maintenance of the new work from home policy.
Conclusion
Organizational change is inevitable because external and internal forces may require a company to alter its management for expansion, take advantage of a new business opportunity, or survive during the global crisis and recession caused by unavoidable situations such as the Coronavirus. A supervisor’s role is critical in change management because he receives information about the change implementation from the entitled management team and ensures its execution through communicating, advocating, coaching, liaising with workers and management team, and identifying and handling any resistance. Supervisory duties require to be flexible enough to respond appropriately to unintended management change and enable the organization to compete daily in the market.
References
Arif, M., Zahid, S., Kashif, U., & Sindhu, M. I. (2017). Role of leader-member exchange relationship in organizational change management: Mediating role of organizational culture. International Journal of organizational leadership, 6, 32-41.
Bick, A., Blandin, A., & Mertens, K. (2020). Work from home after the COVID-19 Outbreak.
Chamings A. (2020) Apple announces remote work until 2021
Day, A., Crown, S. N., & Ivany, M. (2017). Organizational change and employee burnout: The moderating effects of support and job control. Safety Science, 100, 4-12.
Krivtsov, A. I., Polinova, L. V., & Chupina, I. P. (2016). Managing change in the holding company as a factor in solving strategic problems of the region. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(15), 7754-7762.
Vito, R., & Sethi, B. (2020). Managing change: role of leadership and diversity management. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Appendix
Topic: Apple announces remote work until 2021 New Article: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/Apple-employees-return-to-offices-2021-15449516.php
Topic: Work from Home after the Covid-19 Outbreak. New Article:https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3650114
Topic: Organizational change and employee burnout: The moderating effects of support and job control. New Article:https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0925753517304277
Topic: Role of Supervisor. New Article: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3333073
Krivtsov, A. I., Polinova, L. V., & Chupina, I. P. (2016). Managing change in the holding company as a factor in solving strategic problems of the region. International Journal of Environmental and Science Education, 11(15), 7754-7762. Retrieved from; thttps://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ1117413.
Topic: Managing change: role of leadership and diversity management. New Article:https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JOCM-04-2019-0116/full/html