Solutions to Organisational Problems - Case Study Example

Organisational Behaviour: Solutions to Organisational Problems Name: University: Instructor: Course Title: Date: Journals Used 1. Path-goal theory of leadership: lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory Robert J. House Leadership quarterly 1996 Vol. 7 (3), pp. 323-352 2. Importance of managerial skills and knowledge in management for small entrepreneurs Papulova, Z. and Mokros, M. E-Leader 2007 3. Soft skills and technical expertise of effective project manager Gillard S. Issues in informing science and information and technology 2009 Volume 6 4. Samsung’s Competitive Innovation and Strategic Intent for Global Expansion Kim, R. Problems and Perspectives in Management 2007 Vol. 5(3): pp. 131-137. 5. Achieving and maintaining strategic competitiveness in the 21st century: The role of strategic leadership Ireland, R. D. and Hitt, M. A Academy of Management Executive 2005 Vol. 19 (4): pp. 63-77. 6. Reflective Learning: Learning from Experience. Boyd, E. M. and Fales, A. W. Journal of Humanistic Psychology 1983 Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 99–117. 1.0 Introduction Organisation exists to achieve it desired vision as outlined in its strategic management plan. This would subsequently ensure that the offer value to their clients and if they are profit driven they should get revenue from sales. Any organisation’s dream is to be a market leader in its area of operation or industry. According to Goldratt’s theory of constraint an organisation is strong as its weakest link. This means that organisation’s success is tied to how it operates as a system. In systems approach to management, organisation is treated like organism where different parts interact to achieve the overall goal. In addition, these parts interact with the external environment so as to guarantee success (Dettmer, 1997, p. 7). One organisational problem that I have experienced is failure by that organisation to be responsive to changes in the market trends and being customer oriented. Proper marketing is about creating value for the customer through various avenues/ marketing mix while ensuring increased profits and sales for the company. In earlier years the company was a dominant player in the field of machines & computers and thus, rose significantly to claim market leadership. After some years and paradigm shift from product oriented approach to business service, the company started experiencing decline and thus, stared at eminent fall. The source of that company’s woes is tied to its laxity to be market responsive in product development. In their earlier years of existence, the company focused more on hardware production or what is called product oriented approach. With time, there emerged shift in market trends which made them cede some grounds to other players thus, loosing market leadership. This means that the products they produced were not in touch with market trends and demand. The problem was not that they were not innovative; it was innovation which is not realigned to market trends. This showed lack of marketing research. 2.0 Core Theoretical Concepts and Inter-relatedness of the Topics 2.1 Leadership Leadership is about soft skills and doing what you believe in through people so as to attain organizational goals (Barman, 2009, p.205). Leadership is a soft skill or people skill that is derived from interpersonal skills and cognitive power (Papulova & Mokros, 2007, p. 4). Leadership deals with the future, ideas, people and personalities (Gillard, 2009, p. 726). There are numerous theories that have been developed to support the same. Trait theory is grounded on the premise that leaders are born. On the other hand behavioural theory posits that it is what a leader that makes him/her different from others based on energy, passion, self confidence and ambition (Bolden et al., 2003; House, 1996). The essence of marketing is to reach maximum number of customer as much as possible and ensure they buy and lock them in from your competitors. This is only possible if the company develops product that add value and are in agreement with the market trends or the company can create a new trend that keeps them ahead of the chasing pack. This can only be attained by a visionary manager who creates that vision and urgency. Marketing is not only sales and advertising, marketing start right from product conceptualization, development and production. A manager at any given level plays an important role in creating that enabling environment by directing the energies of other employees towards the organizational objectives by offering leadership and this is one of the requirements of what the organisation I had experience in needed. 2.2 Perception Perception is all about how we think about our environment by organising and interpreting sensory impressions. A manager should posses these kinds of cognitive skills so to be able to react to problems and opportunities. For the problem noted above, there was no manager or employee to perceive that the current situation by then needed response. To them it was business as usual while they were loosing ground. Proper perception without bias is based on knowledge base and critical thinking and can stand test of time. Knowledge-based theory of an organization or firm is one of the significant information system theories that seek to explain how data, information and knowledge are applicable and useful in the operations of a business organization. According to the knowledge-based theory of an organization, knowledge is a significant and strategic resource that determines an organization’s ability to gain competitive advantage and register superior business performance. This is because an organization’s knowledge resources are usually embedded in the business culture, policies, operations, identity, systems and human resources of an organization. This complexity makes extremely difficult to imitate an organization’s knowledge based resources (fsc.yorku.ca, 2010). Kahneman, Lovallo and Sibony (2011, p. 51) observe that bias can distort reasoning in business. They note that confirmation bias that is as a result of our perception, for instance, leads people to ignore evidence that contradicts their preconceived notion. Moreover, they note that when organisations worked at reducing the effects of bias in their decision-making process, they achieved returns up to seven percentage points higher. In the modern day business world, managers are faced with numerous tasks that require rational, strategic, decision making outside their biases through perception devoid of personal biases. This can be achieved through reflective thinking. Boyd and Fales (1983, p. 101) defines reflective thinking as the process of creating and clarifying the meaning of experience of past or present in terms of self (self in relation to self and self in relation to the world). Here reflection does not only add to our knowledge but challenges the concepts and theories we hold. Furthermore as a result we don’t see more, we see differently. 2.3 Organisational Change Change in organisation is inevitable if an organisation wants to stay afloat. However, these changes in work place in one way or another affects the employees more than employers due to their reliance on their employers. In order to avoid these unnecessary friction caused with change, there is need to plan for change and place communication at forefront. This can only be partially achieved if the firm adopts pluralistic approach in solving employment relations (Denning, 2000, p. 2). The best way to introduce change in absence of extreme factors is through planned and progressive approach. One of the causative factors to the problems experienced in the organisation I am familiar with is lack of planning for change and thus, they were overtaken with time. In this event they were producing products that did not match or keep pace with the general and technological development. 3.0 Application of the Theories in Managing the Problem 3.1 Leadership An example of how bold and visionary leadership can be used to turn around organizational problem afflicting an organization especially in being responsive to market change, aligning innovation with customer requirements and marketing research is best seen in International Business Machine (IBM) re-emergence in 1993 after staring at eminent fall (Tung, 2001, p.41). Moreover, case study like this can be best domesticated by other companies to overcome organisational problems. The first competency and source of restructuring was the board’s decision to source for a top level manager from outside who would view things from different angle. One of the competencies that the CEO brought was being customer oriented rather than just investing in innovation for no sake. In this line of thinking, the CEO was able to precisely pin point that the market trends were shifting and thus, being able to engage and formulate new management and marketing strategies for IBM. At the initial start, he emphasized on speed, customers, teamwork and execution. He did this through standardizing the company operations and centralizing them so that IBM would act as one stop shop solution provider to its clients (Carter, 1998, p.90-95). The next phase of turnaround was based on repositioning and reclaiming of the IBM brand. Moreover, he directed most of the operations towards high profit- margin opportunity. To strengthen the brand value of IBM he consolidated the advertisement section into one rather than a scattered one with different themes. The second last competency that they engaged in from 2000 was the strategic partnership and acquisition. In this instance, the company acquired stake or the whole company so that they could add value to the customers and the shareholders. The last affront that they embarked on and which is being carried out by Louis successor a one Mr. Sam Palmisano is the standardization and globalization of the company platform so as to reduce operating cost, increase profit margin and value (Carter, 1998, p.96 & 97). 3.2 Perception One organisation that was able and has been able to perceive the future environment in their area of operation is Samsung electronic. This kind of approach by the leaders in the organisation I am familiar with would have adopted so that they would have anticipated change. In more contrary manner, the organisation was reluctant and only perceived the future environment has it has been in previous years. This made them to almost breaking point. Correct perception backed with critical thinking, internalization and interpretation is important in directing how organisation reacts to present & future environment and opportunities & challenges. Proper perception of the business environment is an integral requirement for level managers as it acts as the source of inspiration and creation of the dream wanted through formulation of strategic management plan (Ireland & Hitt, 2005, p.68). For instance, Kim notes that the approach to achieving competitive advantage in the global consumer electronics industry is by changing the terms of engagement (Kim, 2007, p.134). Samsung Electronics Company has achieved competitive advantage in the global consumer electronics industry by defining the industry’s attributes and market segments boundaries. Samsung Electronics Company management style is based on ability to make faster decisions on investments and responsiveness with regard to consumer electronic products sizes and prices. In the mid 1990’s Samsung Electronics Company ventured on producing larger LCDs which other competitors such as Phillips and Japan’s Sony were reluctant to venture into yet these are the current trends in the market. Samsung Electronics Company has also changed terms of engagement by commanding technology leadership in the consumer electronics industry. Technology leadership enables Samsung Electronics Company to produce differentiated consumer electronic products and set standards for other industry players and competitors. Some of the innovative consumer electronic products that Samsung Electronics Company has produced due to technology leadership include the Mobile WiMAX which is a next generation technology in wireless communication and the 50-nanometer 16 GB memory flash among others (Kim, 2007, p.135). 3.3 Organisational Change In this world there are two situations. Change with the changing time or be changed by the changing time. Change can be incremental or radical. The best way to anticipate change is through taking the lead initiative so that a firm can enjoy first mover advantage. For a company to stay afloat, it has to be responsive change either at industrial level or the larger macro economic environment. Organizational change can only be attained through a visionary leadership that is able to churn out strategic management plans that will guide the internal operations of the company. The problem that afflicted the company was due to lack of anticipating and designing change in the organization. The management took business as usual yet its competitors were not sleeping. One approach as an example towards planned and incremental organisational change is as seen in IBM. After the recruitment of Gerstner as a new manager in 1993, the first approach that the company had adopted since 1993 is being demand responsive. In this they produce what customers want and not what they think customers will need. The next affront is through making of the culture universal and thus being able to identify with diverse market as driven by their current CEO. Through strategic alliances, the company has been able to penetrate different segment of markets. This means that every one is catered for under IBMs marketing strategy. The last observation is that they have been able to develop a good supply chain and outsourcing so as to reduce operation and production which is later transferred to the consumers. 4.0 Conclusion While there was initial belief in earlier years that managers required more technical skills such as managing costs and business initiative to soft skills, the notion of late as changed. Managers and employees now acknowledge the importance of soft skills such as communication, conflict management, leadership, perception and persuasion as integral part for success (Gillard, 2009, p. 725). Soft skills are those skills over and above the technical knowledge and expertise in the chosen field, required for an individual to relate to and survive and succeed in his or her environment (Ramesh, 2010, p. 3). He observes that soft skills are built on attitude, manifested through communication and polished through etiquette. Thus, soft skills are used to give a vision and make organisation responsive to change while technical skills are used to achieve efficiency in operation. Bibliography Barman, K. 2009. Leadership Management: achieving breakthroughs. New Delhi: Global India Publications Pvt Ltd. Bodreau, J. & Jesuthasan, R. 2011. Transformative HR: how great companies use evidence- based change for sustainable advantage. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Bolden, R., Gosling, J., Marturano, A. & Dennison, P. 2003. Review of leadership theory and competency frameworks. Centre for leadership studies, University of Exeter. Retrieved on 18th April 2012 from: http://centres.exeter.ac.uk/cls/documents/mgmt_standards.pdf Boyd, E. M. & Fales, A. W. 1983. Reflective Learning: Learning from Experience. Journal of Humanistic Psychology, Vol. 23 No. 2, pp. 99–117. Carter, T. 1998. Contemporary sales force management. New York: Haworth Press. Denning, S. L. 2000. Practice of workplace participation: management-employee relations at three participatory firms. West port, CT: Greenwood publishing group Dettmer, H. W. 1997. Goldratt’s theory of constraints: a systems approach to continuous improvement. Wisconsin: ASQ Quality Press. fsc.yorku.ca. 2010. Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm. Retrieved on 18th April 2012 from: http://www.fsc.yorku.ca/york/istheory/wiki/index.php/Knowledge- based_theory_of_the_firm. Gillard, S. 2009. Soft skills and technical expertise of effective project manager. Issues in informing science and information and technology. Volume 6. House, R. J. 1996. Path-goal theory of leadership: lessons, legacy, and a reformulated theory. Leadership quarterly, 7 (3), 323-352 Ireland, R.D. & Hitt, M.A. 2005. Achieving and maintaining strategic competitiveness in the 21st century: The role of strategic leadership. Academy of Management Executive, 19 (4): 63-77. Kahneman, D., Lovallo, D. & Sibony, O. 2011. The Big Idea: ‘Before you make that big decision...’ Harvard Business Review Kim, R. 2007. Samsung’s Competitive Innovation and Strategic Intent for Global Expansion. Problems and Perspectives in Management, 5(3): 131-137. Papulova, Z. & Mokros, M. 2007. Importance of managerial skills and knowledge in management for small entrepreneurs. E-Leader, Prague 2007. Retrieved on 18th April 2012 from: http://www.g-casa.com/PDF/Papulova-Mokros.pdf Ramesh, M. R. G. 2010. The ace of oft skills: communication and etiquette for success. Noida: Dorling Kindersly. Tung, R. L. 2001. Learning from world class companies. London: Cengage Learning. Read More