Organizational Strategies Business - Case Study Example

Organizational Strategies BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Organizational Strategies Strategic organizational communication is where the organization establishes a variety of systems and processes to build control over the content of communications and also the methods by which it is delivered. The flow of communications is included in strategic organizational communication, such as determining knowledge-receiving channels and the technologies used to deliver messages throughout the organization.

It consists of individuals and systems to improve or maintain control over the variety of communications occurring across multiple divisions of the business. In relation to Industry International, this business was highly centralized, maintaining a vertical hierarchy of management. The management team was segregated from employees where the only interaction was through evaluation of productivity measurements to determine whether they were eligible for bonuses. Decentralized organizations have much more interactivity between managers and employees where there is some degree of shared decision-making.

The case study provided no evidence of any decentralized mentality at the business. Elements that make this company centralized are hinted toward with the amount of speculation occurring in the employee population. Employees are up in the air about whether their bonuses are going to be eliminated as well as the actual reasons why their bonuses have been reduced in recent years. A more decentralized organization has much more transparency and there would be more knowledge exchange between employees and the managers to improve communications and workplace relationship development.

The recognition that the business had a very political environment also provides cues that this is a centralized organization. Decentralized firms place more value on the decision-making abilities of workers and they are usually not evaluated in relation to the power distance that clearly exists in this business. The receipt of low bonuses, whether totally related to the recession or not, was the change that caused resistance in the rule-reward system. In order to receive the bonuses, employees were forced to work long hours and labor intensively, however this provided the motivation to be productive and meet output expectations set up by the business leadership.

Now, employees were receiving much smaller bonuses with no adjustments made to their intense workloads, therefore they no longer believed that hard work was worth the financial reward. There was also no communication from management about the real reasons why their bonuses had been reduced, therefore they began wondering about whether it was economics related, due to manager greed, or other unethical activities by managers. Therefore, the rules no longer had the clarity needed for employees to be satisfied in a rule-reward management system.

It left employees perceiving that there was now a new type of injustice about fair distribution of rewards versus their efforts, leading to resistance. Workers believed that they could gain control by threatening to unionize the organization, however the managers countered this debate by suggesting that only a non-union shop would provide bonuses. They were also considering a walkout or simply stopping their work as a means to control this situation. In addition, physical violence against the business’ leaders was considered or simply performing to inferior standards as a means to rebel against the new bonus structure.

Money was the primary motivator for the employees, which satisfied their desire to be productive and meet with organizational demands for productivity. There was no other motivational strategy in place, which also points toward a centralized organization as there did not seem to be any human resources-related strategies in place to improve motivation and loyalty to the business. The high bonus promoted some irresponsible behavior with the employees and fiscally-irresponsible spending habits. However, these freedoms that were provided by the one-time sizeable bonuses allowed them to express their desires for a more quality or rebellious kind of lifestyle.

Compensation was a significant motivator for the employees, even if it was the only strategy in place. The business now ran a risk of losing its only motivational strategy which could significantly disrupt business productivity and profit if a new strategy or plan was not put into place immediately to reduce this resistance. Employees changed because they no longer had the ability to sustain their irresponsible lifestyles, putting too much reliance on the year-end bonuses to pay for luxury items like houses and fine cars.

Though this was their own fault, they still blamed the company for the financial difficulties that lowered bonuses provided. This shows that they had no real relationship with managers and only considered them to be supervisors with no emotional attachment that is common in companies with human resources policies to improve these relationships. Sudden drops in bonuses illustrated that control over their activities and productivity could only be held with money, a significant oversight on behalf of the management team at Industry International.