Small Business Design Portfolio: Beta Cranks Ltd - Case Study Example

SMALL BUSINESS DESIGN PORTFOLIO: BETA CRANKS LTD (Manufacturing Sector) MISSION Our mission, being both challenging and inspiring, is to guarantee provision of quality products and services to our esteemed customers and appreciate value for money always. BUSINESS GOALS Be the finest Setting of high standards and trying to go beyond them. We aspire to deliver results, succeed when we compete, as well as rejoice in our success. Innovation We are inventive, continuously looking for new initiatives, which drive development and expanding them throughout the business. Freedom to be successful We give every one and ourselves the liberty to succeed since this promotes the spirit of entrepreneurship in the organization. Appreciating each other We seek to be inclusive and diverse, offering affiliation and belonging, as well as having reverence for human life. Motivation In any company, motivation is an important factor in regards to performance (Understanding and managing organizational behavior). Motivation, as defined by social scientists is the process of provoking, pointing, in addition to sustaining behavior toward an objective. Organizations that help their workers in accomplishing their needs, frequently harvest the benefits. Organizations that endeavor to fulfill their employees’ needs attract excellent workers. Some organizations, like Google, offer numerous employee benefits such as free haircuts and meals, child care, game rooms, on-site doctors, and exercise classes. Who would not want a job with Google (Hanisch, 2009). Goal or target setting can bring about noticeable performance improvements. These targets must be precise; difficult, but attainable; and accompanied by response. Organizations have devised ways of designing tasks that not only make them to be efficiently performed, but also make them enjoyable and pleasing (McKenna, 2000). Job enlargement where workers do a number of tasks as opposed to the same type of work might lead to an increase in inherent motivation. In this organization, a crank-shaft manufacturing company, motivation of employees is important in attaining the company’s goals. Motivation, in combination with a worker's skills and abilities, opportunities, and role perceptions, controls performance. In conclusion, target setting could be implemented as a way of motivating the employees in order to improve the company’s performance. Informing workers that teams that would develop a higher temperature-resistant crank-shaft would be rewarded, is a way of motivating them to work towards achieving that target. This target is precise, difficult but attainable and the response is the reward if it is met. Organization’s groups and teams A group, as defined by social scientists, is a gathering of two or more individuals who intermingle and share mutual goals also (McKenna, 2000). The intention of an organization creating groups is to direct its employees towards its vital goals. These are formal groups. Members of informal groups are brought together by common interests, e.g. union representation. Types of Groups (Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior) Each group has its rules regarding the behavior of its members. These norms, habits that are deemed acceptable, could either be prescriptive, what ought to be done, or proscriptive, habits that ought to be shunned. In some cases, groups are projected to produce better results than individuals when members support and encourage each other (Trouilh, n.d). However, some workers may be tempted to "take it easy." This phenomenon, called social loafing, occurs when contributions of each individual cannot be determined. Loafing can be avoided by highlighting one's contributions to a task, making tasks more interesting and significant and rewarding employees for their contribution to a group's performance. In order to increase our company’s productivity, it is vital to form teams or groups of about five employees, especially research scientists, so that their focus is on specific characteristics, such as, or load capacity. Rewards could also be given to teams that develop new temperature-resistant models, as a way of discouraging loafing and increasing members’ morale. Since informal groups can either support or oppose the organizational aims, managers of this crank-shaft company have ensured that they operate in a healthy and productive manner, and have not prohibited workers from joining any informal groups. Leadership A leader is defined as a person who can influence others to conduct themselves as prescribed by the organization (Sims, 2002). In Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior, leaders are individuals who can greatly influence others to ensure that a group’s or organization’s goals are attained. Leadership is a two-way process, where both leaders and subordinates have significant influences on each other in different ways (Sims, 2002). When employees believe that their leaders are assisting them attain the company’s goals, they are motivated. Path-Goal Theory (Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior) A leader forms the organization’s fundamental mission or purpose, plus the strategy to be used to attain it (Sharp, n.d). There are two categories of leaders; Charismatic and Transformational Leaders (Understanding and Managing Organizational Behavior). Charismatic leaders usually generate success amongst employees through clearly expressed visions and authoritative confidence. Transformational leadership, which is applied to our company, usually inspire employees to aim at, and accomplish more than what they presume they cannot. Leaders should be creative, flexible, honest and with integrity (Robbins, 2009). To record huge profits, our company’s transformational leaders must inform employees what is expected of them and add that the future success of the organization depended on them (Jennifer, 2009), in order to motivate them. The research and development manager could form strategies and encourage his team to use them to craft proposals regarding manufacture of a more temperature-resistant model. Since workers are aware that the project’s success would be the company’s and theirs also, they would be motivated to produce the desired results. It is through such effective leadership that our ‘normal’ company would become successful (Teerlink and Ozley, 2000). Making Decisions Making decisions is a process that involves a sequence of steps in order to help individuals and groups solve problems afflicting them (Furnham, 2005). The steps involved in the decision-making process include identification of the problem, definition of the objectives to be met in solving it, pre-decision, and generation of alternatives and possible solutions. In addition, the best choice is picked, and afterwards, implementation and follow up is necessary. The Decision-Making Process (Understanding and managing organizational behavior) Programmed decisions hinge on prearranged guidelines (Robbins, 2009), while non-programmed decisions have no ready-made answers since the situation is unique, as our organization’s case involving the research team finding the most hardened crank-shaft model. Time constraints hinder the capacity of decision makers to make sound decisions (Robbins, 2009). This is also experienced in our company. Some of the decisions will be programmed and certain, while others will be non-programmed and uncertain (Arthur, n.d). This calls for finding about enough information regarding a problem before making a decision. Research scientists are required to find as much information on hardened materials for the crank-shaft before coming up with several measures that can help solve the problem of breakage. It is worth noting that machine operators in the organization will make programmed decisions, such as turning on the generators when there is an electricity outage. Being important, decision-making, in our crank-shaft manufacturing company, should be timely, accurate, and inclusive, to improve the company’s performance. Lastly, decisions affecting human resource policies affect worker commitment (Pfeffer, 1998). Before deciding to increase the length of shifts, machine operators should be involved, and increased compensation may be encompassed to motivate them. Organizational Design and Structure Extensive studies conducted by scientists in organizational behavior were based on defining jobs and tasks that form a job. Through departmentalization, these scientists were able to look at how every job matched into different groups in the organization (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2007). This research study proposed practical ways through which organizations could streamline jobs and relations with the intention of simultaneously stimulating productivity and job satisfaction. Research scientists in organizational behavior used a number of extensive studies to examine organization climates and cultures (Hellriegel and Slocum, 2007). The intention of doing this was to find ways of improving the quality of life of employees in the workplace. As a result, they put forward techniques such as programs involving participative management and quality circles (Sharp, n.d). For that reason, it is important to find out which cultural profiles would fit our company’s needs (Raduan, 2009). The design of our organization balanced two contrasting concerns – differentiation and integration. Differentiation leads to innovation through provision of creative energy (Beer, n.d), while integration involving differentiated departments is necessary to tackle markets’ needs promptly and efficiently (Lawrence and Lorsch, 1967). Our company has adopted the Product Organization structure, where distinct units were set up to manufacture unique models (either temperature resistant or hardened). Decentralization would enhance the company’s innovativeness as it ventures into new geographic regions and markets. The company has two levels; top management, comprising the CEO, Human resource/Finance manager and Research manager, and low level, comprising other workers (15). References Arthur, G. (n.d). Organizational Behavior. Retrieved on September 20 2011 from http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/encyclopedia/Oli-Per/Organizational-Behavior.html#ixzz1Y8a0W6eW. Beer, M. (n.d). Organization Behaviour and Development. Retrieved on September 22, 2011 from www.hbs.edu/research/facpubs/workingpapers/papers2/9798/98-115.pdf Furnham, A. (2005). The psychology of behavior at work: the individual in the organization. New York: Psychology Press. Hanisch, K.A. (2009). Wadsworth Psychology Module: Industrial and Organizational Psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning. Hellriegel, D., and Slocum, J. W. (2007). Organizational behavior. London: Cengage Learning. Jennifer, G. (2009). Understanding and managing organizational behavior. New York: Pearson Education. Lawrence, P.R., and Lorsch, J. (1967). Organization and Environment. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. McKenna, E.F. (2000). Business psychology and organizational behavior: a student’s handbook. New York: Psychology Press. Pfeffer, J. (1998). The Human Equation. Massachusetts: Harvard Business School Press. Robbins, S.P. (2009). Organizational behavior: global and Southern African perspectives. Cape Town: Pearson. Sims, R.R. (2002). Managing organizational behavior. Westport: Greenwood Publishing Group. Teerlink, R., and Ozley, L. (2000). More Than a Motorcycle: The Leadership Journey at Harley-Davidson. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Trouilh, J. (n.d). Business … the key: MOTIVATION. In 10th World Business Dialogue. Retrieved from juantrouilh.com.ar/Archives/Juan%20Trouilh%20OFW%20Essay.pdf Read More