Sustaining Corporation, the Challenges of Change for a Company in a Globalized 21st Century - Assignment Example

Managing People and Organisations PART A Question 1 Define the notion of a ‘sustaining corporation’ as described by Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn. (2003). To what extent could Interface’s Quest to Make Carpetmaking Cleaner to be regarded as meeting the criteria of a sustaining corporation? Provide examples to illustrate your argument. According Dunphy, Griffiths and Benn (2003), a sustaining corporation is one that does six things. These are as follows: (1) having a new social contract that identifies and focuses on the needs of key stakeholders; (2) the organisation focuses on human sustainability by building stakeholder relationships and makes sense of decisions that have long-term impact; (3) engaging in purposive value-based action by forming partnerships with like-minded corporations; (4) focuses on sustainability by helping restore or conserve the environment and seeks to influence other organisations to be involved in promoting environmental sustainability; (5) embedding the sustainability strategy into the culture of the organisation; and (6) having a proactive leadership that shapes cultural values of sustainability within the organisation. Interface’s effectiveness at making make carpet making cleaner can be considered to be meeting the criteria of a sustaining corporation because of the different efforts that the organisation has made to ensure sustainability. For instance, in 1995, the company’s founder realised that there was need to pay attention to the environment and not just profits. This led to Interface making deliberate efforts towards reducing various aspects of its ‘dirty’ business. This included setting up a team of people that would advise the company on how to reduce waste and pollution at every level of its operations. All through, the company engaged the community and its employees to ensure that waste and old nylon materials could be recycled. Interface also ensured that the community benefited from their efforts in collecting old nylon fishing nets to be recycled. The company also worked with various like-minded suppliers such as Aquafil to make recyclable nylon. Most importantly, the company had a leadership and culture that promoted sustainability, as seen in the efforts by Ray Anderson and his successor, Hendrix. Question 2 What are the challenges of change and innovation for a company like Interface’s Quest to Make Carpetmaking Cleaner in a globalised 21st century? Companies such as Interface face the challenges of innovating to become more profitable and sustainable at the same time. Often, integrating sustainability efforts in the corporate strategy of a firm is a challenge because some shareholders may not support the idea of embracing suitability. This is because some company shareholders and other parties may fear that embracing sustainability may reduce the profitability of the company. This was exactly the case when the founder of Interface, Ray Anderson, mooted the idea of sustainability instead of talking more about the company’s margins and inventories. In fact, when Anderson talked about how dirty the carpet making industry was and why there was need to recycle materials and substitute fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy, many people did not like the idea, and ultimately, the company’s stock price dropped 50 percent. As such, much as companies would like to innovate and implement various changes, they face the challenge of resistance that comes from different stakeholders. Companies like Interface also face the challenge of establishing and sustaining long-term change and innovation plans. For example, Interface’s change efforts towards sustainability were conceived in 1995, with a long-term plan of ceasing to produce waste of any kind by the year 2020. For such a long-term plan to be successful, it has to be well thought out and implemented. This requires leaders who are committed to fostering a culture that supports innovation and change throughout the process of coming up with different innovations and implementing them to realise the organisation’s objectives. Question 3 What steps should the management of Interface’s Quest to Make Carpetmaking Cleaner take to ensure that the change process is effective? The management of Interface should take the following steps to ensure that its change process is effective. To start with, the management should create a climate for the change. This can be achieved by making everyone aware about the importance of the change process. For instance, the management can emphasise the benefits of being a sustaining corporation as the reason why there is need to embrace practices that are friendly to the environment and to the society. The company will then establish various teams that can be used to lay the foundation for the change. Secondly, the management should engage the different members of the organisation and involve them in the change process. This ensures that everyone is well informed about the change and what the organisation intends to achieve by implementing the change. For example, if employees are made aware that Interface will make more sales and be viewed favourably by making its carpet making processes cleaner, they will be more willing to support efforts to achieve sustainability. This will also ensure that resistance to the change process is minimised or completely removed. The third step is that the company should then implement and sustain the change. The company can capitalise on short-term wins such as reduced expenditure on energy to strengthen its efforts at attaining greater changes and more benefits. These efforts need to be sustained so that they can become embedded within the culture of Interface. At this level, the new changes will become routine practices for the company, and the change process can be said to be effective. Question 4 Do you think Ray Anderson interface any typical characteristics of entrepreneurs? Yes, Ray Anderson has some typical characteristics of entrepreneurs. Some of the characteristics include being ambitious, having a risk-taking mindset, being resourceful, being prepared to put up with frustration and failure, and being innovative, creative, intelligent and realistic. Entrepreneurs also exhibit high energy levels, a high need for achievement, tolerance for ambiguity, self-confidence, and are action-oriented. Ray Anderson exhibits many of these characteristics as described next. To start with, Anderson is risk taker because he decided to talk about the topic of sustainability knowing very well that many people would not like it, and in deed, after his presentation, the company’s stock prices plummeted. It can also be said that Anderson has a high level of tolerance for ambiguity. Notably, he decided to try new ideas despite not being so sure what the outcomes of trying those new ideas would be. Anderson also comes out as a person who is ambitious, confident and ready to face frustration and failure. This is because despite the opposition that he faced when he came up with his new plan, he went ahead to defend the plan and implement it. Anderson’s creativity, innovativeness and intelligence are seen in his idea to try making the company sustainable. This is seen through his efforts to reduce waste through recycling and the focus on using renewable energy instead of fossil fuels. The fact that Anderson had a long-term plan for attaining the sustainability objectives also shows that he is realistic in that he knew that attaining what he had planned would take quite some time. Anderson is also action-oriented because of the manner in which he worked with different people and teams to actualise his ambition for Interface. PART B One (1) essay question and it will be based on how you see Managing People and Organisations(You must apply theory and may draw a diagram). I would like you to write about WHAT IS AN EFFECTIVE TEAM? And apply theory of Team effectiveness and brainstorm. An effective team is a team that is able to achieve the performance outcomes that it is meant to achieve, such as innovation or adaptation, quality, efficiency, and employee satisfaction. An effective team model is based on having “inputs, throughputs and outputs”. Inputs refer to factors that are under the control of managers, such as the organisational setting, nature of tasks, the organisational climate and member characteristics, and team size and membership. For instance, the organisational setting determines the resources and technologies that are available, the structures that are in place, and the rewards that can be given to people for exemplary performance. As well, the organisation climate determines the values that an organisation upholds, whether teams are made up of members from diverse backgrounds, and the abilities and personalities that different people have. All these factors are sorted by managers who are setting up teams. Throughputs refer to the manner in which members interrelate and work together to transform the inputs into outputs. This includes group tasks and issues such as communication, cohesiveness, processes, decision-making, task activities, conflict, and maintenance activities. How team members deal with these characteristics determines how effective the team is in attaining the required outputs. This is to say that effective teams are able to successfully transform inputs into outputs. Outputs refer to the accomplishment of the desired team outcomes. This includes task performance, individual outcomes and other outcomes that are related to each team such as team viability and member satisfaction. This means that a team can be said to be effective if it is able to successfully transform the inputs that are available into the desired outcomes and at the same time guarantee a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction among the team members. The relationship between “inputs, throughputs and outputs” is shown in the figure below. Ultimately, team effectiveness, which is characterised by high team performance, is achieved when the team members get regular feedback about their performance. Effective teams also have to effectively manage communication, decision-making and conflict, and uphold norms to ensure that there is cohesion in the team. Members of effective teams also give each other constructive feedback regarding their team and individual contributions. This helps in improving personal development that is necessary for accomplishing the set goals. Read More