Improving the Efficiency of the Willy Wonka's Company by Organizational Analysis - Case Study Example

Organisational Analysis Introduction Organizational analysis can be characterized as a tool used for improving the overall efficiency of an organization. It looks at the design and structure of an organization and also, how these influence outputs. Apart from that, various external and internal factors need to be taken into account for assessing improvement and efficiency. Various factors affect the workings of an organization. These may include structure, cultural diversity, power within the organisation and level of technology, identity of employees as well as employers working and language barriers. In the current study, few of these organisational aspects will be discussed in detail, taking reference from a film. The film, Charlie and the chocolate factory, is an adaptation of a book published in 1964. The story revolves around a poor little kid named Charlie Bucket, who gets an opportunity to tour Willy Wonk’s chocolate factory, famous in the entire world. After nearly a decade, the eccentric and reclusive chocolate maker, Willy Wonka, opens his door for the public. However, he sets a lottery of five golden tickets and five winners were allowed to visit the factory for a day. The tour was to be given by Willy Wonka himself. This was a dream come true situation for young Charlie Bucket (Teaching Ideas, 2014). Culture Culture plays an important role in shaping an organisation. Culture can be described as behaviours and values which contribute to the unique psychological and social environment of a firm. It consists of a firm’s experiences, expectations, values as well as philosophies, holding the organisation together and expressing their inner working and self-image. The culture of an organisation can be understood and analysed through various aspects: 1. The way organisational business is carried out and customers, employees and wider communities are treated. 2. The extent of freedom given in terms of creativity, development of new ideas, decision making as well as personal expression. 3. The flow of information and power. 4. Commitment of employees towards collective goals and objectives. Now coming to the film, organisational culture can be understood by the relationship shared between Willy Wonka and his employees, the Oompa-Loompas. These were short humans, different from normal sized ones and had very particular working and communication styles. Nonetheless, Willy Wonka always appreciated them and gave them full liberty, in terms of conducting their work; making decisions, in terms of process and manufacturing; as well as taking consultation from these Oompa-Loompas, which has been shown in the plot. The overall flow of information and power was very streamlined and controlled as the Oompa employees were very disciplined, hierarchical and strict followers of rules. Another factor, which helped in increasing overall efficiency of the organisation, was inter-cultural relationship shared between the Pygmies and Mr Willy Wonka, which was found to be very cordial and pleasant. In an organisation with diverse cultural background, it is critical to accept as well as respect the customers, values and racial differences. Even though employees were entirely different, compared to Willy Wonka’s lifestyle and habits, they were provided with all amenities, work facilities as well as privacy and space, during work and also, off-time. The Oompa-Loompas were fun-loving and pleasant dwarfs, who hailed from Loompaland. They were rescued from hunger as well as from being prey by Willy Wonka, who not only offered them home, job and their favourite food to eat, but also treated them like a parent. As a result, their loyalty and consequently, efficiency increased, which enhanced overall growth and development of the organisation. Employees who are engaged are always ready to make unrestricted attempt for their work, in forms such as, energy, brainpower and time and that too beyond limitations, which are in general expected or considered adequate. A supportive culture helps to engage and satisfy employees, thereby increasing their level of commitment towards their tasks as well as their desire to finish their work more efficiently and diligently. Identity The second important organisational aspect found in the film was organisational identity. The identity of an organisation can be its products, services, culture, employees or anything that differentiates the organisation from other firms. Creating an identity has become extremely crucial for organisations in the contemporary world. As more and more products and services are being launched, competition is becoming intensive within and among industries. Consequently, consumers are finding it extremely difficult to differentiate one product from other, as they are giving out almost similar offerings and services. When customer and employee engagement is at stake, overall performance of the business automatically becomes vulnerable. For success and long-term growth, employees must align themselves with the purpose of the organisation. Organisational identification is important because of its relationship with organisational commitment. A concrete identity secures positive outcome for behaviours and work attitudes, such as, job performance, motivation, decision making of individuals, overall satisfaction and employee retention as well as employee interaction. Employee retention and satisfaction directly influences efficiency, productivity, effectiveness and profit of an organisation. Apart from maintaining concrete relationship with employees, organisational goals and objectives, it is also necessary to establish a strong link between company rules and policies and communicated values, mission and strategy to the firm’s members. This helps in improving their attitude as well as loyalty towards the company. As a direct result of this, organisations have started to change their notion of controlling employees and have been including various perks and lucrative incentives to keep them engaged. Even so, for a long-term engagement, these perks might not work and customers mostly value the attitude, commitment and support of the company and its owners towards the employees. A similar situation has been portrayed in the film. Before rescuing the pygmies and employing them in the Wonka factory, Willy Wonka had employed normal city individuals to work in his factory. The most prominent feature of Wonka chocolates was the taste or recipe, which was a secret. Wonka chocolates were the most preferred ones across the globe. The organisational identity was based on their process and recipe. However, the employees started to violate company policies and regulations by taking the recipe out in the market and selling it to competitors. Clearly, this was a case of mismanaged as well as dishonest employees, who were willing to sacrifice company’s secrets for money or other meagre benefits. Nevertheless, taking drastic steps against these mismanaged situations is also not always viable, especially in real life organisational settings. For instance, when Willy Wonka found out that some of his workers were selling his secret recipes to other competitors, he had fired all his workers from the factory and went on to search for suitable replacements. This kind of drastic restructuring is very uncommon in modern organisations. Presently, companies have a better option of patenting and licensing their manufacturing and production processes. For instance, many organisations have patented their technology. Companies such as, PepsiCo and Coca Cola, have also patented their recipes, so that others cannot replicate their success formulae. It has also been argued that relationship between employees and the organisation can influence the overall perception as well as decision making process of an employee. For instance, if an organisation is supportive and allows employees to participate in smaller and bigger decision making process, the employees will eagerly contribute their ideas and suggestions, thereby increasing the options or number of solutions. This will enhance the level of confidence and self-identification among employees and the next time, there will be higher voluntary participation. However, in organisations with stringent rules and regulations and also, where employees have zero contribution in the decision making process, solutions are found to be confined within the higher management without any creative or out-of-the box suggestions. Here, employees share a relationship that is limited to completing their work and doing what is expected, rather than contributing to the entire organisation’s growth and development (Williams, 1995). Technology Technology is fast becoming a crucial factor, which is responsible for the overall growth and success of any organisation. In recent economic and business environment, presence of technology in workplace is quite evident. More number of businesses, irrespective of their size, are incorporating latest technological innovations in their operations, productions and manufacturing processes. This trend is evident from the fact that majority of the businesses have a separate department concerning technology, controlled and monitored by technology specialists. The overall scope of technology adoption or employment is huge. It can range from buying a computer to investment in large equipments, machinery, high-end computer aided production and manufacturing machinery. Even though some of these technologies are difficult to incorporate and implement, proper use of technology will definitely bring in positive changes in overall organisational operations (Friedmann, 1994). Many big organisations, such as, US Aerospace and Union Pacific Railroad, went from nearly bankrupt to gaining huge profits and revenue through integration and application of technology in their overall operations. Another key advantage of information technology is simplification of organisational structures. As a result of increased coordination as well as better supervision, internal operations become much faster. However, there are issues related with technology implementation, which unless resolved, might lead to organisational conflicts. Employees and workers in an organisation form a core part and they need to accept any change occurring in that organisation. As a result, if employees in an organisation reject the new technology, it is difficult for the organisation to bring in modifications. Another drawback of technology is that it results in loss of jobs. More number of equipments means less number of man power required and thus, more number of jobless workers. The situation has been well-portrayed in the film. Charlie Bucket’s father used to work in a toothpaste factory, adding caps to the toothpaste. So, when the company brought automatic equipments, which could put caps on toothpastes much faster, it had cost Charlie Bucket’s father his job (Dahl, 1998). Nonetheless, considering the fast transformation of industries and company profit with the implementation of technology, there is no doubt that technology is fast becoming a ritual among organisations. Technology has played an important role in the overall success of Willy Wonka’s factory in the film. The factory portrayed in the film was equipped with advanced technology as well as latest equipments and some of them were not even heard or seen before. In the film, the entire chocolate factory was seen as equipped with latest technological equipments. Every process was technologically handled and as a result, the overall efficiency increased manifolds. In addition, it was also seen that the factory had established experimental laboratories and research and development centres, which is quite similar to modern multinational organisations. From the film, it is clear that though technology can perform operations at a much faster rate compared to humans, it still needs to be controlled and monitored, which was done by the Oompa-Loompas. Thus, it can be said that new age technology has both positive and negative implications. In the film, the owner Willy Wonka managed his employees in a very skilful manner. They were given proper training for handling technology as well as ownership, such as, decision making, which not only built their confidence, but also helped in making quicker and effective decisions. Therefore, even though no human from the city was involved in operations of the chocolate factory, the factory was still successfully producing winning chocolates, which were distributed all over the world (Fleck, Webster and Williams, 1990). From the above study, it is clear that internal organisational environment is crucial for positive growth in an organisation. During first half of the film, Willy Wonka had to suffer because of mismanaged employees as well as low technology innovation. However, in the second half, he was able to manage the entire operation with the help of efficient employees and new age technology. An organisational setting will require management of culture, employees, communication of organisational objectives and values to its employees and workers as well as job satisfaction among employees (Williams, Malos and Palmer, 2002). The film suggests that majority of these requirements were fulfilled, which in turn had resulted in the growth and prosperity of Willy Wonka’s Chocolate factory. . Reference List Dahl, R., 1998. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. [online]. Available at; http://education.wm.edu/centers/cfge/_documents/curriculum/languagearts/charlieandthechocolatefactory.pdf [Accessed 13 February 2014]. Fleck, J., Webster, J. and Williams, R., 1990. Dynamics of Information Technology Implementation-A reassessment of paradigms and trajectories of development. Futures, 22, pp. 618-638. Friedmann, A. L., 1994. The Information Technology Field: Using Fields and paradigms for analyzing technological change. Human Relations, 47, pp. 367-393. Teaching Ideas. 2014. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. [online]. Available at; http://www.teachingideas.co.uk/library/books/charlieandthechocolatefactory.htm [Accessed 13 February 2014]. Williams, M.L., 1995. Determinants of employee benefit level satisfaction: Test of a model. Journal of Management, 21, pp. 1097-1128. Williams, M.L., Malos, S.B. and Palmer, D.K., 2002. Benefit system and benefit level satisfaction: An expanded model of antecedents and consequences. Journal of Management, 28(2), pp. 195-215. Read More