Advanced Organisational Behavior: In Search of Excellence - Essay Example

? SCREEN CULTURE REVIEW ON THE SCREENING MATERIALS By Presented to Advanced Organizational Behavior: In Search of Excellence In 1982, Peters and Waterman published the book “In Search of Excellence” that was based on McKinsey's model elements (Collins, 2007). It focused on structure, strategy, style of management, skills, staff, and shared values to determine the exact nature in which those elements should be implemented. An essential message in their book is the importance of people to a business and the failure of particular philosophies and practices that were being implemented by some companies at the time. The book is flawed in stating that these principles would apply forever the business world when indeed some of them have become obsolete. According to the book, there are eight common themes they argued were important for the success of any corporation (Peters & Waterman, 2006). A bias for action and active decision making is the first theme that is developed through their book. They argued that quick decision making was fundamental to the success of any business. Each time an organization is faced with a task, they must make decisions in a timely manner in order to stay ahead of the rest. This quick decision making is fundamental in problem solving to avoid bureaucratic control. Transparency in the approach to problem solving will be enhanced to ensure that effective management is enhanced. Maintaining a good relationship with the customer is fundamental to the success of the business. This is reflected in their second theme which requires a business to maintain a certain level of closeness to the customer that ensures that they are in touch with their needs (Peters & Waterman, 2006). In addition, the process allows the business to receive valuable lessons from the customer through the process of careful feedback and evaluation. Courteous service is an aspect that several businesses overlook when providing its services. This interaction is important for the business being that it supplies it with valuable information that can be used to tailor products to the customer's requirements. Innovations are key to the progress of any organization in the manner that it fosters the success of the business. New ideas are important for businesses all over the world as it gives them the competitive edge that they require to own the market. This innovation gives them autonomy over other organizations. They become the leading innovators of business solutions all over the world giving them rights to sell of any ideas they may have to gain revenue. They are also able to continue improving the services that they already have through development of new products and services. In doing so, innovators are also given a chance to place their mark in the world. This concept nurtures the skills of talented youth all over the world making them marketable as well. In their fourth theme, they stated that productivity within the company was best achieved through the staff (Peters & Waterman, 2006). Employees should be treated as a source of quality if the business is to achieve success. It is widely known that employees are the face of a business and their actions greatly reflect on the image of the organization. As such, if a company focuses on its employees by providing them with proper working conditions and commensurate pay, they will be able to achieve efficient service delivery. This increases their productivity and the overall profits that the company makes. Their management policies focused on a hands-on approach that allows for managers to actively participate in the day to day activities of the company (Peters & Waterman, 2006). This approach ensures that the management is committed to the success of the organization by constantly visiting production sites to ensure quality. With this approach, employees are also able to focus more on the production process with the knowledge that management is able to monitor their activities. Management should also be value driven referring to the focus on value that should be given to the production process. Good quality products are more likely to be appreciated by customers who may increase their consumption of those products. The approach was developed to ensure that the company is able to attain profitability and an increase in market share. Diversification has always been the goal of many organizations all over the world. Each company seeks to increase its market share in various ways that may involve trying out a new line of products to work well with its existing ones. However, according to the book, businesses should engage and remain within business activities that they are familiar with (Peters & Waterman, 2006). Once a business has started out in one direction, one should work to master its processes and stick to it. Diverting to other forms of business is likely to lead to a non-profitable scenario as a result of inadequate knowledge among other reasons. To achieve and efficient human resource management system, the number of staff who are hired must be few (Peters & Waterman, 2006). Most companies operate with so many staff under their payroll leading to an increase in the amount of money spent in salaries and benefits. Some companies may argue that they can hire more employees for the same amount of money, a concept that can be argued differently. A large pool of staff are likely to work less efficiently as a result of the diluted amount of work and the low salaries that they may be receiving as a result. Management is another key area that should be left for very few people. The top level managers must be kept to the bare minimum to ensure efficiency of operations and management of costs. The book details the necessity of a simple lean staff that ensures efficiency in management operations. It even goes further to state that some of the best companies have a minimal number of staff. The eighth and final principle is simultaneous loose-tight properties whereby individual workers are expected to work at their best. They are supposed to engage the company's philosophies and values into the work that they so that they can produce goods and services that reflect the organization's principles (Peters & Waterman, 2006). Culture is important in an organization and employees should be engaged into it. They should understand that the organization will expect them to produce goods and services that are good and acceptable. These principles were based on the study of several companies, a research activity undertaken by Peter and Waterman. However, critics have suggested that the book's choice of companies was poor and indifferent implying that the principles may not have been best practices after all. Companies like Xerox and Wang Labs had not produced excellent results on their balance sheets in the 1980's (Collins, 2007). In fact, most of the companies that had been quoted as having been the basis for their data collapsed soon after. Others were forced into bankruptcy and had to be acquired by other companies making them poor representations of organized management. The information that led to the development of the book was also questionable as was later revealed. The methodology that was used to arrive at the companies that were studied was flawed (Collins, 2007). In order to identify the companies, Peter engaged McKinsey's partners and some other technocrats to identify who was seriously doing business in the current economy. This information was obtained from the view of this group only, an aspect that was the source of bias in the information that was collected. Information on the financial state of companies that were identified was not obtained in order to ascertain the claims by these technocrats. Peter and Waterman used this information to shortlist 62 companies and paid a visit to 43 companies that seemed most promising (Collins, 2007). They collected information on their operating procedures and management principles which was later published into the book. It was not surprising that some of these principles were flawed because some of the companies that had been included in the study collapsed soon after. Critics of Peter and Waterman's work have come forward to state that an important determinant to success is the avoidance of stupid mistakes. He argued that the doctrines laid out by Peter and Waterman were based on doctrines that if followed in totality, may lead to the collapse of a business. Wang Laboratories, a computer company, was founded in 1951 with its headquarters in Cambridge Massachusetts (Kenney, 1992). It was among the successful companies in the 1980's that Peter and Waterman carried out research on for the data they included in their books. At the time, it has annual revenue of $3 billion and employed over 33,000 people. The company, having been founded by Dr. Wang, was primarily directed by him. He took steps of ensuring that the Wang family would maintain control over the company even after going public by retaining shares that had voting rights. In this way most of the decisions would be made by the family and in the manner that they wished (Kenney, 1992). When a company goes public, it should entrust the power of decision making to its members owing to the stake that they have in it. It should be done with consultation from all members with shares in the company to ensure fairness (Schein, 2011). But thus process is time consuming and will allow for quick decision making. The principles researched by Peter and Waterman as relates to a bias for action depicted several pitfalls as realized in Wang Laboratories. Decision making must not only be quick but must also include all the members with shares in the company. As much as the speed with which this process is carried out is important, the quality of the decision must also be taken into consideration. It must include the people's opinion and it must be in the best interest of the company and not in the interest of its founders or proprietors. Poor decision making, even if it is done is a quick manner is another factor that led to the loss of profitability of Wang Laboratories (Kenney, 1992). As a result of Wang's insistence that the company remain in the family, he appointed his son to succeed him, a factor that contributed to a failure in management of the company. He failed to place employees at the front of business operations by building environments that were not suitable for their work. Several employees resigned from the company as a result of the poor working environments and the rash decisions that the new manager was making. Management by constant supervision may also be an aspect that is not feasible with the current economy (DuBrin, 2012). Some employees work best when they are not supervised as a result of the level of stress that constant supervision gives them. It is fundamental for employers to allow their staff to work alone for some time so that they can feel that the management has entrusted the company to them. Employees are the most fundamental people in the operation of a company and must be treated like the adults that they are. Quick decision making may be favored in some companies but may not apply to others. It is imperative that organizations take a certain amount of time to make their decisions as relates to business operations. Liberation to expand into other areas of business should be freely applied by organizations. Some companies have thrived on the concept of diversification that has enabled them increase their market share. This goes against their sixth theme that advises each company to stick to only what they know and master it. Wang Laboratories underwent several product changes along its time. Even though it was a well-regarded calculator company, it realized that calculators were low margin commodities and would become unprofitable in the future (Kenney, 1992). Peter and Waterman believed that a company should stick to the product line it is good at and avoid diversifying into other products. As seen in the case of Wang Laboratories, some of the products that a company engages in may not have a future in the business world. Wang Laboratories diversified into the production of computer starting with desktops and advancing to a line of laptops. It gained the competitive edge that it sought for and should have proceeded along the same path in the 1990's. However, Wang Laboratories chose to specialize in computers that were designed specifically for word processing (Kenney, 1992). Even with the changing times when people desired computers that could accomplish more than the simple task of word processing, Wang computers still chose to produce such computers which lost their hold on the market as a result of other competing companies like Apple Mackintosh that gained market share. A value driven approach is another aspect of the themes that were suggested by Peters and Waterman. They felt that all of the company's activities should be geared towards the values that it is able to achieve. The company must benefit from any activity that it undertakes. This concept however should be applied with caution to ensure that the negative aspects are not reflected on the employees. In a bid for most companies to achieve success and ensure that value is achieved for any activity that it engages in, it may misuse employees. Such ambitions have led to longer working hours, cut-throat competition, shorter deadlines, and strained working conditions that led to low employee morale (Ernst, 2001). Over the years, the nature of human resource has evolved to place emphasis on the employee as well. As much as value is fundamental to the success of the products of any companies, employees are also equally important. A careful balance must thus be established that ensures that this theme does not go against the value of human resource. Human resource systems have been known to operate in a different manner in different companies. Some companies operate better with a lean staff while other need to have their work done by more employees. It is thus up to the company to decide the kind of system that works for them. An application of Peter's theme of utilizing a lean human resource base in order to reduce costs and ensure efficient management should be applied cautiously. Powers of management should not only be left to a few people or to one person because of the errors in judgment that may arise. If few people are placed in management then they are in charge of the decision making process. They make decisions that may be detrimental to the success of the business as was realized in Wang Laboratories when Wang's son was made president of the company only to make poor decisions (Kenney, 1992). If employees are too few compared to the roles that they have to perform then a crisis among the employees may arise. When roles are too many , the work output may also be compromised. This is because an employee who is overworked may not be very motivated to produce quality work. They may simply work just to complete the task but may not put any meaningful input into it. Employee morale is also low as a result of poor working conditions even though the pay is satisfactory. Staff turnover may also be high in these organizations, a factor which makes the organization incur extra costs in staff recruitment (Kotter, 2012). It is evident that some of the companies that were quoted as being excellent at the time have been unable to survive in the current economy (Collins, 2007). Others have even wound up or have been acquired by other companies. Peters stated that a possible reason for their failure was their inability to keep up with the economy's requirements. They have failed to make changes that are required to keep them going as the market's needs changes. Hence it can be concluded that the themes that were put forward by Peters and Waterman did not allow room for companies to expand and meet market needs. They were not all inclusive making companies that were based on its principles destined for doom. References Bonstingl, J. J., 2001. Schools of quality. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press. Burns, T., & Stalker, G. M., 1961. The management of innovation. 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L., & Quick, J. C., 2011. Understanding Organizational behavior. Belmont, Peters, T., & Waterman, R. H., 2006. In search of excellence: Lessons from America’s best run companies. New York, NY: Collins Business Essentials. Schein, E. H., 2011. Leadership and organizational culture. New York, NY: Wiley. Read More