What Are the Benefits of an Organizational Investigation?
Organizational investigation, or organizational analysis, is the gathering and processing of information regarding a particular organization's operational structure. Conducting an organizational investigation can help business managers find and implement better methods of running the business, so that they achieve various goals that they have set for the business more effectively.
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Efficiency
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The most common reason that management carries out an organizational investigation of a company is to boost efficiency. In many cases, a company may cause redundancies by having multiple employees or multiple departments performing the same task. In other situations, employees may be doing some menial task manually, when it would be more efficient to invest in an automated system that partially or completely takes the task out of human hands. Increasing efficiency allows a company to lower prices, increase production and make more money for both owners and employees.
Social Issues
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Businesses sometimes receive bad press because they do things that result in a negative benefit to society. Even if the business owners are only concerned with their own interests, they must deal with such issues anyway, because failing to do so can result in a poor public image that leads to lost revenue. Social issues that a business may uncover through an organizational investigation may be nepotism, prejudice, low employee morale, poor customer service, sub-par employee benefits and high employee turnover rates. One extreme example of a social issue that a company might decide to address would be the underpayment of manufacturing workers in poor countries who assemble products for next to nothing. By identifying and dealing with such issues before they even become apparent to employees and to the public, a company can avert the problems that result from having a poor public image.
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Environmental Issues
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Often seen as a subset of social issues, environmental issues can also be an important thing for a business to consider during an organizational investigation. For instance, the business may be able to install solar panels to both boost energy efficiency and decrease its consumption of electricity from non-renewable and polluting sources. If the company's organizational structure requires employees to travel more than is necessary, this can lead to both inefficiency and unnecessary pollution. In this case, enacting policies that promote carpooling and the use of public transportation can be beneficial.
Liability Issues
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The possibility of getting involved in a civil suit is a common business risk. In conducting an organizational investigation, a business may uncover situations in which employee and client safety can be substantially improved at a limited cost. For instance, a company may enact an additional level of product inspection to ensure that faulty production does not result in harm to consumers. It may also put various safety guidelines into effect to keep employees from doing anything dangerous in the production process or any other process of work. By lowering the safety risk to employees and customers, the company lowers its risk of paying legal fees and settlements.
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