Organizational Behavior and Analysis - Coursework Example

INTRODUCTION Organizational culture and organizational structure have an influence on the overall performance of the organization (Price, 2007). Organizational structure and culture define how the organization operate and manage its overall businesses (Boxall, and Purcell, 2003). This report analyses the organizational structure, organizational culture and values of the firm in which I work. The company in which I work is our family owned laundry appliance repair and sales business. This report has been divided into three parts; the first section highlights and analyses the overall organizational structure, organizational culture and behavior and the second part of the report assesses my capabilities and strengths. The last part of the report concludes the overall topic. SECTION I: ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR AND ANALYSIS Structure of Organization The structure of the organization I currently work in is a functional structure i.e. flat structure. In my organization there are only two employees at the moment i.e. me and my father. This reflects that the responsibilities are divided between me and my father at our home-based business. With the passage of time, I and my father have planned to expand the company and increase the services that we offer and at the same time make sure that we offer high quality services to our clients so that they are satisfied and retained. Therefore, as we expand, new employees would be added in the organization that would look after key responsibilities and positions such as human resource department, sales department, service department and marketing department. With such addition, the president of the organization would be my father and I will be taking up the position of Managing director in order make sure that overall businesses are managed properly whereas my father would look to satisfy the customers and attract new ones and at the same time encourage and motivate the team to attract more customers for our company. The business that is being analyzed is my father’s family owned laundry appliance repair and sales business. Currently, my father repairs and sells used appliances from home whereas; I help my father by taking calls. Along with answering the phone, I also schedule appointments for my father. Furthermore, I have taken responsibility of marketing department temporarily. To enhance our home-based small business, I place ads on craigslist and to further attract customers, we have web portal that allows the customers to place their service calls. These are my responsibilities at our business whereas, my father has expertise in repairing and selling used appliances to customers due to which my father enjoys all the power. However as we expand and further grow, we will be using more marketing tools and platforms to entice customers to avail the services that our company is offering. The hierarchy after the expansion of our business would remain the same i.e. flat. This could be further explained through the following organizational chart. The organizational chart indicates that after the expansion, the business will operate with four different departments i.e. marketing department, service department, sales department and human resource department. In this chart, it can be clearly seen that the organization structure is still flat and the power and authority is with the president; my father. Most of the departmental work is done by me but after the expansion, these responsibilities would be taken over by other personnel working for our home-based business. How Does The Organization Behaves This part of the analysis would evaluate the behavior of the organization under study i.e. home-based laundry appliance repair and selling business. Following are some factors that could help to understand and assess the organizational behavior of our small business. Culture Being a small and flat-layered organization, the culture of the business is mainly controlled by the head of the organization (Salaman, Storey, and Billsberry, 2005). In our business my father is the head and he has all the required experience and knowledge regarding the business and its operations. If the top management has high expertise in whatever is being done, then it creates a culture that encourages everyone (Bratton, Sawchuk, Forshaw, Callinan, & Corbett, 2010). With such an experience and knowledge regarding the business, he enjoys expert power along with legitimate power over me in the business. By having such a culture, the family business has developed its roots and people have started trusting our business. The business has also developed its own identity in the neighborhood. This is the biggest achievement for our business as few years back, not too many people were aware of our offerings however with the passage of time and with the increasing number of satisfied customers, our company has been showing an increasing trend and the culture that has been adapted by my father to satisfy the customers has been prevailing and the strategy has been successful. My father has always focused on customer satisfaction and for this, he has even forgone short term gains and this is the reason why the name of our company is expanding and growing with every passing day. Leadership Leaders in such business are quite handful as leaders helps others by ‘knowing the way and showing the way’ (Caroselli, 2000). Leadership qualities and traits are critical for the success of any business (Kirkpatick, & Locke, 1991). I believe the qualities and traits of my father have played an important role in the success. In small business, the role of leader is highly critical as the motivation and commitment of the leader can make or break the organization (DuBrin, 2012).. This is quite the same in our business as our father is a great leader and is a self-motivated individual. But a great leader always talks about the decision with employees (Jackson, Schuler, & Werner, 2009) and so does my father. The leadership style that my father focuses on is democratic style. The style of the leader is also important for the business (Rees, & Porter, 2008). Before taking any decision regarding the business, I am always consulted before the decision and the decision are always taken unanimously. By asking for my suggestions before taking any decisions has helped me in building up my confidence level and I have started taking interest in the family business. Within such a short-period, I am totally aware of the activities of our business and can help my father with a lot of things. This eventually helps my father in reducing his burden regarding his work and my father can repair and sell appliances without any problems. Moreover, my involvement in the business would help me in managing the overall operations of the business in the next few years when we expand. Values Since this business is being operated just by me and my father at the moment, we believe in collectivism rather than individualism. Due to this fact, we tend to use plural nouns rather than personal pronouns as we believe that using such plural nouns, the growth of the business is inevitable. This can be commonly observed in daily routines of our lives and we tend to use such values as it can be beneficial for the both of us in the forth coming years. Some other values of that are critical for the business include trust and commitment (Henry, 1995). Since there are only two people in our business, we share information with one another without any falsification. This has helped to create a sense of understanding between me and my father and we both are committed to enhance our business. By focusing on our business values, we have established trust with our customers. Communication links Communication for small business is quite crucial for its success. Through communication, my father has created a group of technicians that has allowed the business to operate under any provided circumstances. Through this relationship and collaboration, the business has flourished in recent years. My father not only communicates with the group of technicians but also with the customers to engage them to take active part in providing feedback regarding the appliances bought from our business. Conflict Majority of the conflicts that occur in this business are due the power and the slow pace of my father to understand and implement new technologies in business. Moreover with lack of resources particularly human resource some customers have to wait for their appointment. With technology advancing at a great pace, my ability to adapt such technology is quite slow. Due to this problem, I ask my father frequently to adapt such technologies as fast as he can. Another factor that leads to conflict is the power. My father has the absolute power over the business and being considered as generation Y, I constantly work hard to achieve power in our business. There are certain other factors as well that give rise to conflicts but these two are the major reasons of our conflict. Power and Politics With majority of power resting with my father, I keep reminding myself that in order to achieve power in this family business, I need to work hard to earn the power. My father has the absolute power over the business due to his experience and know-how of business operations. Moreover, as we expand the power would still be in his hands considering the experience and expertise he has. SECTION II: SELF-ASSESSMENT AND STRENGTHS After self-assessment analysis, it was observed that some of the required strengths to become an effective leader are as follows; Context This strength focuses on examining historic events in order to gain information. For an individual to work in an organization, it is important to look for the causes that happened in the past and can affect the future growth prospects of the organization. By analyzing the historic events, an individual may find some clues regarding the failure of an organization and can work to reduce such factors. A person having such strength can positively influence organization to take right decision at the right time to enhance future prospects of an organization. Deliberative This strength indicates that an individual that tends to be deliberative are reserved by nature. This means that an individual refrains from sharing personal information with others. An individual that possesses such strength can be social and talkative depending on the situation. Because of such strength, an individual exercise great care regarding revealing of thoughts, feelings and personal information. Such individuals are sober and strong due to which they engage in only those conversations that involves philosophical matters. Relator Having such strength indicates that an individual welcome questions and by considering the situation might offer others with respective advices. Such people are considered quite important as these individuals possess something valuable and can help others by providing guidance. With such guidance others can resolve their personal and professional problems. Relators have a tendency to work alone as by doing so, they can achieve their results comparably greater than working with teammates, classmates and other members. Analytical Individuals that possess such quality are often regarded as practical and realistic in their daily life. Focusing on facts and numbers rather than emotions is the major reason for such individuals to be regarded as quite realistic. It has been observed that individuals that possess such talent are often appreciated for their way of doing things and often consulted for their advice. As these individuals pay more attention to facts and numbers, they tend to work alone on projects that require thorough and accurate analysis of facts. Restorative Restorative individuals are generally solo performers. These individuals are determined to identify their weaknesses through programs and by following such programs, these individuals work to improve their weaknesses on their own. Such individuals look for opportunities through which they can constantly improve their weaknesses and enhance their strengths. These individuals are empowered by their commitment towards eradicating their short-coming and are zealous to make things right. Individuals that possess such strengths are often termed as opportunistic as these individuals always challenge themselves to enhance their short-comings by reducing deficiencies so that they can achieve success in future. SECTION III: CONCLUSION To conclude, it would be better to say that I am best suitable individual for our family business. However, there might be some flaws in my personality and I would work on to overcome these weaknesses and flaws in forthcoming years. These flaws might include the way I communicate with my father as well as the customers. Being considered generations Y, I sometimes forget that my father is the major reason for the success of this family business and yet, I ask him for receipt and expenses incurred which makes him quite furious and defensive. Regarding the compatibility of my organization and me, it could be said that the organization is quite compatible with the way it is now. On the other hand, I would like to capitalize upon my strengths in order to enhance the performance of our business so that the business could flourish and prosper the way we desire. Another way to be more compatible is by enhancing my skills and knowledge regarding the business and its operations so that I could further help my father with other things in the business. I and my father possess quite different skills and this could become beneficial for the business. For the family business to survive, it is quite essential to understand the strengths of my father so that we could work together. This could enhance the level of coordination between both of us and the level of performance would eventually increase with such as understanding between me and my father regarding business decisions. I would also be able to understand and learn quite new things while understanding the strengths of my father. Being provided with such an opportunity, I am sure to make the full use of this program to enhance my skills and core competencies. Through this program, I am sure to learn how to become productive leader and by doing so, I would eventually learn the areas where my organization currently lacks. Through all this effort, I aim to enhance the performance of my organization. After analyzing the organizational behavior, I was able to evaluate some of my skills which enable me to take active part in the operations of my family business. Some of my skills that differentiate me from my father are as follows; Context v/s Focus One of my major strengths is my ability to relate to the past and to identify the mistakes done by organizations that led them to fail. By focusing much on the past enables me to take corrective actions accordingly and to learn from their mistakes. This strength; context, allows me to eliminate those mistakes that could lead me and my family business into failure. For my extensive observation regarding the past and history has allowed me to become a crucial asset for the business. On the other hand, my father possesses a totally different kind of strength. He focuses on the things present in front of him regardless of the outcomes and past. Being a focus type, my father does not consider the possible risks before taking any decision. Deliberative v/s Dreamer Being deliberative in nature has allowed me to gain a lot of exposure regarding things that I was not aware of. With such strength I am able to choose my friends and business partners accurately. This strength has allowed me to consider all possible risks that might turn the face of our family business around and by doing so, me and my father can mutually benefit from the success and growth of our family business. With such skills, I am able to develop clear goals and plans in mind which would allow me to look into the future without any constraints. On the other hand, my father possess quite opposite strengths. My father likes to dream big from the very start. According to my father, dreaming big from the start could help an individual to gain what he wants but the flaw with such thinking is that there is no particular plan or anything regarding the achieving of the plan. Relator v/s Woo Being a relator I am constantly asked for help and advice from my friends. This strength has allowed me to keep my friends near. With such ability, I tend to provide my friends with creative ideas that can be implemented by them to improve their lives. With such strength, I am able to choose my friends wisely and this allows me to gain their trust. Through such ability I avoid rushing into business deals. By doing so, I am able to acquire relevant information regarding the business deal to make a wise decision regarding the future of the business. On the other hand, my father likes to rush into new business deals and relationships without considering the consequences it may have on our business. Analytical As described earlier, I am used to observe the past and try to find out the mistakes that were made by organizations so that those mistakes could be eliminated so that our family business could survive. I am good with fact and figures and this is the very reason, I tend to look at the hard facts rather than any other factor when it comes to our business. By concentrating on facts and numbers, I am able to prevent myself from getting distracted. Sometimes my father gets really annoyed when I ask hard question out of nowhere. For example, once my father wanted to purchase a Laundromat and he asked for my advice regarding it. But I somehow disappointed him by asking hard questions. Restorative Having such strength reflects that I tend to work alone. I emphasize on bringing appliances back to life by repairing them. Freedom is quite important for me as I tend to perform greater when I work alone. With the help of my strengths and knowledge regarding the business, I am willing to take some strategic moves that could change the face of game for our business. As this business has flourished and survived over such a time, expansion of the family business is the most feasible strategic move that I could come up with. The factors behind such strategic plan are the increasing demand of used and repaired appliances due to the recessionary effect on the people. Another strategic move would be to hire some talented individuals that could help the family business to grow. With my father’s communication links with other technicians in the neighborhood, the business can provide its clients with the required used appliances as per their demand. References Boxall, P. and Purcell, J. (2003) Strategy and Human Resource Management, Basingstoke, Palgrave MacMillan. Bratton, J., Sawchuk, P., Forshaw, C., Callinan, M. & Corbett, M. (2010). Work and Organizational Behaviour, 2nd edition. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Caroselli, M. (2000). Leadership Skills for Managers. New Jersey: McGraw-Hill DuBrin, A. J. (2012). Leadership: Research findings, practice, and skills. New Jersey, South-Western Pub. Henry, C. (1995) Human Resource Management: A Strategic Approach to Management, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Jackson, S., Schuler, R., & Werner, S. (2009). Managing Human Resources. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Kirkpatick, S. A., & Locke, E. A. (1991). Leadership: do traits matter?. The Executive, 5(2), 48-60. Price, A. (2007) Human Resource Management in a Business Context, 3rd edition. London: Cengage. Rees, W. D., & Porter, C. (2008). The skills of management. Boston, Cengage Learning Business Press. Salaman, G., Storey, J., and Billsberry, J. (2005). Strategic Human Resource Management: theory and practice. London: Sage Publications Ltd. Read More