What Forces an Organization to Change - Research Paper Example

Management. (Organizational Behavior Outline and discuss a range with examples of external and internal issues that force an organization to change. There are many external issues which can cause an organization to change. The laws of the land change all the time. Recent legislation on equal opportunities, for example, has meant that organizations have to develop policies to ensure that all member of the organization have equal access to jobs, training and promotion,. This can be a big change, especially for smaller companies which may be more accustomed to appointing mainly men, or mainly people from a particular ethnic background. Political issues can cause change too, for example the military in the United States has to deal with political decisions on matters such as care of prisoners, or regulating gay and lesbian members of their staff. There are also sometimes advances in technology that cause an organization to change. In the middle of the twentieth century, for example, most companies had typing pools with rows of secretaries typing up letters. When computers came along, and functions like skype and email arrived, organizations had to adapt to this and train people how to use them. They also had to change the type of staff they employed, so that there were fewer typists, and more technicians. Managers also had to learn to speed up response times and conduct more of their business themselves using technology instead of secretaries. Perhaps the biggest changes of all are caused by economic factors. Companies have to deliver more efficiently, and so this can cause them to review their processes in search of ways to work faster and smarter than before. In times like the recent credit crisis, organizations are at risk of complete failure, if they cannot meet their cost commitments and are not allowed to borrow. This can cause serious changes in staffing levels and in the business focus, in order to concentrate on the essentials for survival. Internal change can be caused by many different things too. Often the appointment of a new CEO can mean a change in the way an organization sees itself. There can be a need for expansion of certain units and reduction of others, for example when an organization chooses to start new lines of business and to close others. Most companies also set up systems for gradual and positive change that leads to quality improvement. Japanese manufacturing companies build this in to their business, and encourage even the most junior members of a team to suggest change and improvement all the time. Investment in new equipment can mean changes in working practices. An example of this can be seen in the photographic industry which used to involve people buying film and taking it to be developed. Nowadays most cameras are digital, and so shops and businesses which used to offer film developing now have switched to offering printing from disks as well as all sorts of printer equipment for the customer to buy. 2 What are the factors that affect organization culture? Organizational culture is often hard to describe exactly because it is something that emerges in the interactions between people. The people in an organization can make or break its culture and assist or block any change processes. (Hiatt and Creasey, 2003, pp.3-7). A big factor is the tradition that has been built up over a long period in certain types of organization. Examples of a bureaucratic organizational culture can be seen in some local government organizations which are tasked with managing processes involving large numbers of documents like parking tickets, building and planning processes or some health systems. Here the paperwork is highly rated, and people are expected to stick to set rules and achieve clearly defined outcomes. The requirements of maintaining a just and effective social administration seem to be lots of paperwork and little flexibility. A much freer organizational culture can be found in many universities, especially in those which engage in research. These organizations value independent thinking, and so there is room for arguments about strategy, and decision making often involves a lot of consultation and debate. Some companies, like the famous Walt Disney organization, and newer animation companies like Pixar, pride themselves on leaving space for creativity. The demands of the business are for innovation, and so the company has play rooms and mentoring systems to ensure that staff interact informally some of the time and foster their creativity. Many commercial organizations have a formal dress code which is caused by their desire to present a professional interface to their customers. This can be seen in many retail chains, for example, where the color of the uniform and the style of the greeting is part of the company’s whole marketing plan. In this culture it is necessary for staff to be polite and friendly, even if they do not feel like it, because service to the public is a major feature of company culture. These general factors all affect the type of culture that an organization aspires to have. Sometimes, however, there are factors which can affect the culture in a negative way. Overwork, the threat of redundancy, or dissatisfaction with management can erode the positive culture of an organization. (Kotter, 1996, pp. 37-40) Some organizations, like the military, have an authoritarian culture, which can be good for discipline, but staff can feel oppressed by it. A less directive culture, for example in a successful baseball team, can be more effective when you have a team of highly competent and well-motivated individuals. (Hitt and Colella, 2009, p. 269) 3 A leader may be task oriented or people oriented. Define them, and what are the advantages and disadvantages of each one of these leadership styles? A task oriented leader makes sure that any piece of work is well understood, and plans carefully how that piece of work is to be done. This type of leader marshals people together to focus on the goal of getting that work done to a high standard and on time. This is a focused leader, with his or her eye on the finished product. Such a leader can be perceived as harsh and unapproachable, and so people do not always give their best. A people oriented leader also has his or her eye on the goal, but is more focused on who does each little part of the work and puts effort into encouraging individuals and teams to do it well. The people-oriented leader will explore any interpersonal difficulties, and smooth out working relationships along the way. The advantage of a task oriented leader is that the work will be more likely to be done on time. This kind of leader is good for technical tasks which require attention to detail and tight deadlines. Less time will be spent discussing things, and more time will be spent working on the task. The advantage of a people oriented leader is that the staff will feel good about working together and will be able to discuss things more with the leader. This kind of leader is good for complex tasks where people need to work together in teams, and where flexibility is required. There is a danger that a task oriented leader might miss important interpersonal problems or issues, and will be inflexible in pursuing the goal. In the long term the task oriented leader may not be effective because people give up on him or her and might be tempted to leave the organization because there is not much praise when work is done well, and not much support when help is needed. The people oriented leader may lose track of company objectives and be too soft on staff who are not working to full capacity. It is possible that too much focus on the people will result in not enough attention to the task, and so errors can creep in, or misunderstandings can arise which no one can see until it is too late. There is a danger of this leader being side-tracked by issues brought up by team members. A balance of the two styles within a company is most effective, since different people prefer different approaches. 4 1-values, 2-norms, the unwritten rules which provide informal guidance on how to behave in the organization, 3 artifacts: explain the list of the key elements above of organizational culture, give an example. The values that an organizational culture has are very important because this is what binds the people together in a common aim. In a church, for example, there are shared beliefs in spiritual and moral ideas that everyone shares. Norms are unwritten rules in a company, for example the expectation of accountants is that they should dress in sober suits with shirt and tie, and they should maintain a professional neutrality and an absolute accuracy and honesty in every tiny set of figures. Many big companies advertise their values to their customers in order to create a shared view on things, for example, McDonalds source ingredients from the same countries where they sell, and they claim to be concerned about animal welfare and the environment, because they are afraid of criticism on these points. They create these values for staff so that people do not feel guilty working there or eating there. Doctors take an oath to protect life and not to do any harm, and many of the rituals such as patient consultation, prescribing drugs, take place in particular contexts and with expectations of a kind tone of voice and professional attitude. Doctors learn these rules while they are training, and they then automatically follow these unwritten rules throughout their career. Hospitals are full of unwritten rules about what happens when and how, and both patients and staff soon learn to adapt to them, because these are the accepted norms of the organization. Artifacts are some of the visible expressions of how an organization is, for example its layout in a building and events, objects and processes that reflect the values and aspirations of the organization. The importance of artifacts is often overlooked because they become part of the surroundings and people take them for granted. An example of this is private boardrooms, dining areas, and reserved parking spaces for some staff, which might denote an elitist or hierarchical approach in an organization. (Schein, 2010, pp. 34-37) Some companies have open plan offices, which encourages teamwork and makes the work of the people transparent, while others created more privacy in separate offices. Artifacts have to be decoded by the observer, but they reveal a lot about an organization. In Japan, or in Japanese companies with centers abroad like Datsun and Toyota, for example, there is a preference for uniforms in many jobs and this shows that people identify very strongly with their profession, and their company, and they like to display their company affiliation in this way. References Hiatt, Jeffrey and Creasey, Timothy. Change Management. Loveland Co: Prosci, 2003. Hitt, Michael A. and Colella, Adrienne. Organizational Behavior. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2009. Kotter, John P. Leading Change. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1996. Schein, Edgar H. Organizational Culture and Leadership. San Francisco, CA: Wiley, 2010. Read More