An Analysis of the General Motors Corporation - Essay Example

? Organizational Analysis Table of Contents Introduction 2 Paradigmatic perspectives 2 Company background 3 Methodology 5 Literature review 5 Knowledge workers and diversity 6 Organizing and globalizing 7 Organizational analysis 9 Conclusion 11 Recommendation 12 Introduction This paper presents an important analysis of the organization of a target company. For this study, the company to be analyzed is the reformed General Motors Corporation (GM). Looking at the company from the lenses of a functionalist, this paper hopes to present how the company was able to effectively loop into their organization the diverse culture prevalent in their organization. Indeed, the company has been able to harness the capabilities of each individual so that they can help in the historic comeback of a legend in business that has succumbed to the pressures of the financial crisis that engulfed the United States (GM Website). The paper also aims to gather different perspectives from different authors and papers that have been available throughout the past two decades. As such, it is important to note the there has been two significant changes that affected the organization of General Motors. One is the transition from the industrial age to the information age which has yielded what Serrat (2008) calls the knowledge workers. Also, automobile giant has not been spared by the onslaught of the credit crunch that engulfed most of the advanced economies towards the latter part of this century’s first decade. Paradigmatic Perspectives The lens for analyzing this paper has already been settled. As such, the views presented herein will illustrate how General Motors was able to harness their diverse employees into one functioning organization. There will be various literatures that will be able to shed some light into the organization that has been formed within this company. However, the analysis will be anchored upon the basic paradigm that has been established for this study. As such, this will hopefully show the organization of GM and its employees as it rises back from bankruptcy. Looking at the organization of the company, the channels of communication has been established in order to capture the suggestions of their diverse employees (Hoffman and Gavin, 1998). Still, despite the diversity, the company’s organization has been able to maintain a certain degree of linearity as they are able to funnel all these suggestions from all their diverse employees into the top management. In addition, it is important to see how these employees can be effectively harnessed. Indeed, central to the efforts to improve a company’s organization is its human resources department. As such, it is important that the company is able to maintain within its organization the needed manpower that fits its culture perfectly and contribute to the company (Huselid, 1995). Also, it is important to note that the employees ought to be able to identify themselves with the company and this is what the organization of GM has so far been banking on. Company Background The company that this analysis will focus on is General Motors Corporation (GM), one of the biggest players in the automobile industry in the United States. Last June 2009, at the height of the Global Financial Crisis, GMC filed for bankruptcy that has practically wiped out jobs and share value. However, after being bailed out by the United States government, the company has been able to recover and has been able to record decent profits. As such, the company has tried to distance themselves from their previous image putting forward the impression that General Motors has been remade (GM website). Aside from the help from the government, the company has been able to maintain its diverse pool of talents since they rely on their greatest asset – people. Hence, the company tries to maintain a workplace that employees would prefer to work on by making sure that theirs is an organization where people can perform to the best of their abilities. To do so, they have an organization that welcomes the capability of an individual to improve which to them redounds as an improvement for their company as well. To do so, the suggestions of their employees have to be heard and this has been made possible by about twelve different resource groups of employees that act as a channel between employees and senior management. In so doing, the diverse experience, capabilities and collective knowledge of their diverse workforce are harnesses. In the end, the ingenuity from their people are combined in the designing and building as well as bringing forward to the different sales channels the vehicles characteristic of the quality of General Motors. In the end, for GM, their organization that encourages employees to perform to the best of their abilities enables them to contribute immensely to the company and society (GM website). Methodology In analyzing the target company, the objective method is used in order to see how the organization of General Motors is able to foster greater improvements (Hassard, 1991). After being bailed out, the company has been able to better realize the diverse pool of employees that they have. In so doing, they were able to see that they will have a mutually beneficial relationship by encouraging these people to perform according to their individualities and making sure that these individualities are heard and recognized by management through various resource groups (GM Website). Literature Review The post GM organization has seen a greater preference towards encouraging the individual. Indeed, they have even introduced different communications channels in order to further solicit ideas and suggestions from their employees. This is indeed very timely as information age heralds in the new breed of employees – the knowledge workers (Serrat, O 2008). Indeed, Ashkenas, et al (1995) has recognized the problem of boundaries as early as the mid 1990s. They postulated that membership in lower level groupings may not necessarily follow through in the upper echelons of the organizations. They recognized the existence of company staff and officers that tend to work alone. Of course, there are groups that due to their innate characteristics such as a task force formed for a particular purpose, they tend to concentrate more on what they do and are not really obliged to be members of any other groups aside from their own. However, they also noted that lesser bounded groups tend to be harder to analyze as they tend to be more complicated. Knowledge Workers and Diversity GM though has been able to sort through this and take advantage of these knowledge workers. Also, the diversity of their organization has also provided more strength since they are able to unlock the potential of each individual in their organization. This is very important since individuals tend to have their satisfaction as employees correlated with their traits. Indeed, the personalities of these different individuals tend to influence strongly their perception of their job satisfaction (Bouchard, 1997). The company’s human resources factor in strongly with this aspect as they are the ones that acts as gatekeepers that source out highly qualified individuals to fill their organization with high-caliber people (Huselid, 1995). However, despite the diverse nature of their organization, it is very important for all companies to maintain a certain degree of cooperation between individuals and groups. Their numerous channels for communication to enhance cooperation between top management and rank and files have so far been an effective tool for their organization to have a strong level of cooperation. This is very important since the cooperation within groups is as critical as the cooperation between groups. Group level variables have the tendency to affect the behaviour of their employees and this is a very important consideration for maintaining synergy despite the existence of diversity. It is important to note that this synergy can only be met with a certain degree of trust. Indeed, Mayer and Schoorman (1992) recognize the importance of this trust which is inversely proportional to turnover and is directly proportional to good performance. As such, the climate of trust in an organization is a very important contributor to its success. This has been followed up by Wiley (1991) in which he further stressed that this ultimately redounds to the firm’s customers. Furthermore, this can be a source for competitive advantage since motivated employees can serve customers better (Ulrich et al, 1991). Therefore, looking at an organization and how employees are able to interact within this organization, one can easily surmise its capability to serve its customers and produce goods and services that the market will accept and that the customers will patronize. Organizing and Globalizing Of course, it is important to maintain a certain degree of hierarchy so that they are able to streamline the decision-making process in their company (Hoffman and Gavin, 1998). Also, Hough (2006) recognizes the different levels of the organizations so that they are able to have a full guidance of their organization. The different interactions across levels, they ought to be able to properly merge these different individuals, more so for those that have different backgrounds and are diverse. Also, Ostroff (1992) stated that there is very important consideration on the satisfaction and pride that their employees may place on the organization they belong to which redounds to the service that they may give to customers. Greckhamer et al (2008) has been able to show the different effects of the industry, corporate and business units on organizations. Nowadays the impact of globalization has been very prevalent in most organizations and businesses worldwide. As such, it cannot be helped that there are different comparisons from all these other countries as different leadership and managerial skills are employed. This is very important as there are different techniques that must be used for the varying culture prevalent in most organizations today (Guillen, 1994; Khatri and Nanyang, 2000). Therefore, the importance of hierarchy in organizations cannot be neglected. This enables them to properly harness their manpower through effective management of their organizations (Hoffman, 1998). This is very important since different levels are analyzed comparatively and the linear aspect of an organization makes it easier to analyze (Fiss, 2008). This linearity comes into play strongly since there is a strong link between the satisfaction on the job of an individual with his or her performance (Judge, Thoresen, Bono and Patton 2001). It is also important to note that the way a company’s manpower management department handles its employees have a strong impact on the overall success of a company’s business. Indeed, in terms of organization analysis, the human resources department plays a strong part since many companies nowadays put a strong premium in their ranks recognizing that their manpower is a strong asset of the company (Huselid, 1995). Moreover, the relation of employees in their respective organizations is very important and must be analyzed in order to have a greater understanding of the target organization. Therefore, Fiss (2007) highlighted the importance of including the time concept aside from the usual considerations of population and levels whenever the organization is being analyzed. Organizational analysis It must be noted that a business’s main focus is and always will be to create and maintain customers. Nowadays, in the environment that businesses operate in the capability to close accounts, get customers and retain them is a key ingredient for success if not the survival of a company. However, it is also important to note that the industrial age has long been replaced by the information age. As Serrat (2008) further underlines this change, the new age has even produced a new breed of workers. It is then important to understand that these new breed of workers are consumers themselves. Therefore, it is easy to assume that consumers are more knowledgeable nowadays than they were a decade ago. This is not to say that they are more intelligent but not venturing into a possibly debatable area, it is easier to assume that consumers generally nowadays are more informed. The greater spread of internet usage as well as the major advancements in technology has provided consumers of today with more avenues to gather information. This is an important aspect that GM must always take note of since they have a diverse workforce within their organization. Indeed, towards the latter part of the past century, there has already been a stronger recognition of the impact between the employees and the customers targeted by their respective companies. Of course these combined attitudes of employees form part of the quality of the product or service that firms offer to their various consumers. As such, it is easy to see that there is a strong relation between this quality and the profits that a company can earn (Schneider, 1991). Furthermore, Schmit and Allscheid (1995) underlines the importance of the attitudes the various employees may possess for a company’s capability to satisfy their customers. Internal marketing is therefore needed in order to ensure that the firm’s employees are up to the challenge of not only creating but maintaining the customer as well. Clearly, the organization plays an important role in shaping an employee to be an effective part of the company’s overall value chain. As mentioned, many companies are recognizing the fact that their employees are their greatest asset. The organization of GM has recognized this very well as they have put in place important channels in order for their employees to air their suggestions to management. In effect, this has so far been an effective channel for them to capture the strengths that they can gather from their diverse line-up of employees. Clearly, the respect is there for the differences and individuality of each employee at GM. As such, these employees has been able to navigate effectively thereby infusing with ease their knowledge and contributions to the company’s organization. This has been further illustrated by Reynierse and Harker (1992) using banks as example to correlate the perceptions of not only their clients but their employees as well. Having recognized this need, there is the very important aspect of talking to your employees whereby Schneider et al (1996) stresses the need for an effective way of surveying the attitudes of the employees. As mentioned, the new era of information is not the only issue but globalization as well. The diversity of culture from all over challenges companies to satisfy not only their different customers but their employees as well. Although GM is not a service but a manufacturing company, the capabilities of their employees that have allowed them to produce quality automobiles can be linked to the effectiveness of their organization to show respect to the diversity prevalent in the company. In turn, this respect has yielded the trust of their employees that in turn produced the effectiveness and efficiency necessary for business success. However, as sure as one company cannot satisfy all consumers, then an organization also has its limits with its own organization and companies must recognize the fact that the combination of the organizational limits and the factors presented by globalization present a considerable challenge (Guillen, 2001). Indeed, the United States alone where the company’s headquarters is based is basically brimming with different cultures and diversity. Hence, it can be easily surmised that their employees may have come from basically all walks of life. Thus, the company’s organization is filled with these diverse employees operating as one under the company’s banner to provide consumers with quality automobiles that is characteristic of the company. Conclusion Looking at the factors that have affected General Motors, it is quite clear that the company’s strength lies strongly in its ability to merge its diverse workforce into a functioning organization (GM Website). While it is true that the company has been forced to file for bankruptcy, it has been consistently trying to make a comeback into the mainstream economy, not just within the United States but globally as well. By being able to merge well their diverse culture, the company claims to have been able to provide a clear channel that enables their different individual air out their individualities and along with it the different creativity characteristic of a diverse culture. This communication channel point to the fact that their employees are happy and basically trust their company which, in turn, contributes strongly to overall productivity of the company. In effect, this is basically what Mayer and Schoorman (1992) has been advocating whereby the trust that the employees ahs for its company increases their productivity. On the other hand, this trust can also contribute immensely to reducing the turnover rate of the company. Indeed, this has resulted into a positive business performance for the company. Recommendations Looking at the current set-up of the organization of General Motors Corporation, it is clear that they have been able to provide an avenue for their employees to communicate their concerns and suggestions to the top management. This has fostered trust within the organization which Mayer and Schoorman (1992) has espoused in order to foster commitment with their employees. As such, this can enable the employees, despite their diversity, to be able to bring their suggestions upward to their management. Also, as mentioned, this can be able to help in ensuring that the employees can be motivated to perform better and stay with the company. This open channel that has been able to open up the creativity of their diverse employees must likewise be watched as it may also border on the possibility of a loss in discipline. It is then important to ensure that there is a proper policy so that the organizational structure will not be drastically affected. However, Ashkenas, et al (1995) has espoused the advantages of a loose organization which, nowadays is very timely with the increasing number of knowledge workers (Serrat, 2008). However, it is important to note that despite the existence of the channels within the company and the rich source of employee information that it gathers, there ought to be certain policies that must be observed so that the authority in the organization cannot be compromised as well (Guillen, 2001). In the end, what is important is to strike a balance between fostering employee communication and encouraging their creativity with the need to ensure that discipline remain instilled within the organization of General Motors. Currently, they are undergoing a tough time but getting their employees involved and being able to strike that delicate balance between organizational freedom and discipline can bring back the company into its strong place in the automobile industry. References Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T. & Kerr, S. (1995). The boundaryless organization: breaking the chains of organizational structure. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass. Bouchard, T.J., Jr. (1997). 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