Vodafone Group Plc - Concepts of Organizational Behavior - Essay Example

MANAGEMENT ISSUE This study aims to incorporate the issues and concepts of organizational behavior with the help of an example of Vodafone Group Plc., which is one of the leading telecommunication companies in the world. Vodafone is chosen because the operational functions of the company are spread over a large geographic area and this is the reason why a Vodafone is diverse in its processes, organizational culture, activities, etc. The company has always tried to maintain a good blend of all the ingredients to maintain its high brand value and has been able to offer localized products for every country it operates. In this study we would be including issues related to organizational culture, communication, motivational factors for the employees, performance appraisal policies of the company, the diversity and change management aspects of Vodafone, preference of leadership styles or traits in the company, team-works, group goals of the divisions, decision-making process, conflict management and negotiation techniques utilized by the management of the company, company politics, and survival kit of Vodafone in times of crisis. Vodafone employs around 83,900 people around the world, in which about 16.5 percent senior positions are occupied by women. Vodafone carries out internal survey to acquire feedback from its stakeholders regarding the organizational process and functions of the company. In a survey conducted in 2010, the company found that 90 percent of the employees were proud to be a part of Vodafone, motivated by the company at every step and loyal towards their responsibilities and the company. The company received 75 out of 100 in employee engagement, which is a really high score. Communication is the core service or product that the company offers, so their global intranet system is actively utilized by the employees to access and transmit information within the organization. The Chief Executives of the company is directly communicated all the information through online team meetings, video conferencing, and emails. The information and change decisions are discussed with the employees through team meetings. The culture of the company is based on The Vodafone Way. There is a separate leadership team of 230 people would have been the cornerstone for the project The Vodafone Way. They conducted workshops and presented how the culture of the organization under this new program would be. Changes in structure, accountabilities and governance of the company were made to maintain its position in the stiff competitive telecom market. The financial and the commercial priorities of the company led it to the introduction of commercial units for the expansion of group technology and roles in all its operating companies. Moreover, Vodafone also reduced the back office roles in UK and increased customer interaction based profiles for their employees. The number of employees have been shifted and changed according to the requirements of the changing business strategy (Ranganayakulu, 2005, p. 1-3). Like the other multinational companies, Vodafone also had to face problems of having single brands and issues in accepting the local culture of the country and introduce their products accordingly. In order to have the right structure for transparent communication, the right organizational culture is very important. So every division of Vodafone functions like separate companies. The company also accepted the culture of setting the operational base according to the geographic area they are working from. The human resource activities of the company and the policies were also different according to the country. Leadership traits were promoted in the company among the employees through motivation. Four major leadership styles are very prominent in Vodafone Group Plc., such as Democratic leadership, Situational leadership, Task Oriented, and Transformational leadership. A transformational leader inspires his/her team members and motivates them to perform better every day. The entire top management and executive of Vodafone pose an example of transformational leadership (Daniels, 2004, p. 480). Democratic leadership style is generally found in the subordinate and staff level of the company. The sales and marketing department have a task oriented approach, so as to acquire 323 million customer bases. There are many situational leaders in the top level management and this is also regarded as one of the best leadership style because based on the present global economic situation, leaders need to have situational leadership qualities in them. Now if we discuss about the reward policies of the company, which is a primary motivating factor for the employees, it can be said that Vodafone rewards its employees on the basis of their potential, contribution to the organization and off course on their performance. The company also aims at paying fair rates and best benefits to the employee according to the country it is operating in. Even global short-term incentives are offered to the human resource of the company and the senior managers get incentive long-term incentives. This is a part of the motivational program that the company follows. The employees of the company are also motivated through global, local or functional training for skill development. The company spends about £ 55 million for training programs. In order to maintain the most diversified talent pool, the company hires top management graduates from every part of the world. The Managers in the company follow a 4 P strategic cycle to management its work force to increase its productivity and maintaining a transparent operational process. The people or the human capital of the company is motivated to develop their skills through regular skill development trainings. They are motivated through transparent performance appraisal system, by offering best remuneration in the industry, developing a concept of achieving group goals and feeling of team work in the organization, decreasing the stress of the employees through organizing various events for the employees and infusing an enthusiastic environment in the organization culture, so that employees are always active and accept change readily. This would lead to producing of better quality products and services and customers will also receive greater satisfaction, when the employees would be satisfied with the company. The processes of the company would be smooth and fast due to utilization of advanced digital technology. Further this would reduce the excess work and avoid wastage of resources. The resources such as materials, finance and information would be better utilizes through human capital. Figure 1 Source: (Kinicki, & Kreitner, 2009, p. 5). Decision making is regarded as a fundamental skill in the organization, but it is a difficult task to make decisions at strategic levels as it requires great commitments and large amount of resources. It also includes prediction of long-term goals and objectives which is difficult to project. While taking decisions, one needs to consider the strategic objectives, uncertainty and risk, etc (Bhushan and Rai, 2004, p. 3). There are many decision making models which strategists use to conceptualize the decisions. These models are: a) Bounded-Rationality Model, b) Bargaining Model, c) Polis Model, d) Mix-Scanning Model, e) Garbage Can Model, f) Rational Model, and g) Participative Model. The managers in Vodafone generally follow a ration model of decision-making. The rational approach is simple and straightforward. It assists in solving problems in a structured manner and helps in arriving to solutions easily. It works on technically solving the issues and identifying the goals of the organization. When a company functions in a large geographic area, it has to manage a huge human capital. In situation as these conflicts are bound to occur. Though most of the employees in Vodafone are adaptable to change, but in few offices of the company conflict were seen due to discrimination of employees on the basis of their religion or physical conditions, etc. In situations as this, the company utilizes the nine generic models to influence the employees. This involves persuading them rationally, aspiring them, consulting the team member to take decision, ingratiation, infusing loyalty and friendly behavior, exchanging information, integrating team approach, and demanding compliance from the managers for the internal conflicts in the division or department (Kinicki, & Kreitner, 2009, p. 326). References Bhushan, N., & Rai, K. (2004). Strategic decision making: Applying the analytic hierarchy process. London: Springer. Daniels, R. (2004). Nursing fundamentals: Caring & clinical decision making. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Kinicki, A., & Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational behavior: Key concepts, skills & best practices. (4th ed.). Boston: McGraw-Hill Irwin. Ranganayakulu, K.C.S. (2005). Organizational behavior. New Delhi: Atlantic Publishers & Dist. Vodafone. (2012). Organization structure. Retrieved from: http://www.vodafone.com/content/index/investors/management/organisation_structure.html. Read More