The Rules of the Game in an Organization - Coursework Example

Outline: Introduction of the general issue Data and methods (Army as a role model) Discussion and analysis Conclusion Introduction: The Rules of thegame: In an organization there are three kinds of rules. They are laws and regulations, contracts and agreements and ethical standards. These rules are strictly followed in an organization. When breaking these rules that organization faces bad conditions. Rules in the organization include development of business and services of customer. This rules help to sustain efficiency and quality. There is great relationship and co-operation between department and services. Rules cover the guarantee of quality and the standard of services. This helps the strategies that distribute a competitive advantage. The rules of the game are connected on the outside of the mandated requirement. These provide a clear cut idea about how to do the business, and how to overcome the competitive environment. It explains the surroundings and the resources like human, financial, natural for an organization to be successful. In this paper we deal with rules of the game of the army compared to financial institution like City groups. Selection of Army as a role model (Data and methods): Analysis of US Army organization’s key inputs:- Environment: The environmental factors that affect the US Army organization are the globalization and information revolution. Globalization makes changes in the rules, regulations and policies of the nation through changes in its international dealings. The open economic system which resulted from the globalization has widened the security responsibility of the nation above its military concerns. Interdependent global markets and widened communication system through omnipresent media put pressure on the national security. Information revolution has great influence on the national power due to the compression of time and distance. In order to keep the national security, integration of non military disciplines such as political, economic and informational factors is required. Extremist movements, narcotics trafficking, and organized crime are long term continuous threats that cannot be eliminated through short limited actions. Terrorism and other adversary activities are threatening the security of the American Society. The potential for assaults on civilian, military and economic resources has increased in the present conditions. Through the use of massive weapons, terrorists impose catastrophic challenges to the nation. Disruptive challenges rose from the opponents through the development, possession and employment of advanced military technologies. Resources: The resources of the US Army organization revolve around tangible objects such as funds, materials, facilities and human resources and intangible resources such as time, information and technology. Soldiers are the major resources of the US Army organization. The organization employs highly professionalized soldiers with well trained and well equipped capabilities. In the first category, developing of institutional forces and individual collective skills are involved. It includes the schools, soldier training centers, and combat training centers. In the operational army, fulltime Soldiers and Army Civilians are involved. (Chapter 2: the strategic environment and army organization 2005). Financial resources required for various operations of the Army organization are mainly derived from the General Fund Enterprise Business System. Army occupies a general fund of $110 billion. (U.S army: general fund enterprise business system 2009). The United States Army information Systems Engineering command (USAISEC) is established with the objectives of developing system engineering and integration of information systems on behalf of the US Army. Its primary mission is “the design, engineering, integration, development, sustainment, installation, a testing and acceptance of information systems.” (US Army information systems engineering command). The human, financial and informational sources of the organization are highly efficient and effective to provide better results for the organizational performance. Discussion and Analysis Organizational history: Organizational history of US Army consists of the processes and strategies adopted by the organization in the past years in order to attain the organizational mission. The organizational history analysis puts a great impact on the soldiers that it makes them proud for serving the nation. The motto of the organization was often a story about a former member or regarding a major event in the history. Use of different colors, campaign and beautification streams, heraldic devices and art works helped them to develop a unity within the organization. History of the organization has a strong base which is developed through years. The victories of the army were recognized time to time, and were awarded righteously. In the early wars flags were generally using the colors of the enemy. Commanders are given the responsibility of making up such organizational programs. Many of the mistakes that happened during the world wars were avoided carefully and after the world Second World War tremendous changes were brought to the organization, especially in honors functions. Now, after several reorganization activities honors functions are said to be the center of the organizational history branch. (Organizational history 1999). Strategy: In the US Army the President is responsible for the national security. The employment of the national power to attain the security goals is determined by the President with the assistance of the National Security Council. The unification of the strategies of all government agencies is handled by the Security Council. National defense strategy is prepared by the Defense Department. The National Military Strategy involves the methods for realizing the National Security and National Defense strategies. (Chapter 2: the strategic environment and army organization 2005). US have redesigned its Army strategy after the collapse of the Soviet Union by adopting a Regional strategy. “The Regional Strategy has as its hallmarks a commitment to continuing alliances, maintenance of a forward presence, and a focus on regional rather than global conflicts. It posits a need to fight two nearly simultaneous major regional contingencies (MRCs) and designs a Base Force to provide that capability.” (U.S. military strategy and force posture for the 21st century). The process of designing a military strategy is particularly difficult today because of the enormous international and domestic changes under way. Interaction of the input components towards the organizational objectives: The input components of the US Army organization consisting of environment resources, strategy and organizational history are coordinated together to attain the targeted output through adequate transformation process. The environment of the organization and the organizational history are analyzed thoroughly for the formulation of adequate and efficient strategy for the operation. The strategy formulation is highly influenced by the organizational history and its prevailing environment. The association of the four factors of output provides better result for the operational efficiency of the organization. The working of US army: When a soldier is designed to join in US army he wants to know about the rules and regulations. That rules and regulations are the obligation of the country. The working of US army is that Active Duty &Army reserve: When one person selects to serve on active duty, he is working in army the whole time of their length of services. The active duty he does is on the basis of hours. The off- hours soldiers do what they like. The lengths of the service can vary from two to six years. Army reserve is the part time obligation where the soldiers go on with this job. In this case the soldiers like professionals and college students spend their time in training and attend field training exercise once in a year. These two duties have their own advantages. Enlisted soldiers and officers:- Enlisted soldiers control and regulate entire officers and other staffs. They make the army physically powerful. In any critical condition the enlisted soldiers working with officers accomplish their duty. They have definite skill of job and they know how to overcome the critical conditions. Officers are warrant officers, commissioned officers, reserve officers training corps, direct commissioner officer etc. Warrant officers are specially qualified officer in the army. Warrant officer provides instruction to the commanders. His job is related to the improving the career field and developing the command and staff duty positions. Flight training is one of the duties of soldiers. For achieving this, soldier will attend the nine weeks training. After completing this training they will again attend the warrant officers candidate school. Then they go straight to the flight training program. “Commissioned officers are known as the leaders of the army. Commissioned Officers make decisions quickly, always focusing on completing the mission successfully, and showing respect for their subordinates. Commissioned Officers lead from the front and adjust to environments that are always changing. To be a Commissioned Officer is to be respected as a Soldier, an inspiring leader and a servant of the nation.” (How does the army work 2009). The above leadership qualities of a commissioned officer in the army are lacking in many of the management teams of the Banking institution which lead to their poor performance. We take the example of City groups whose performance in the leading the economic recession was hit by poor leadership and motivation. City bank is “One of the largest financial services firms known to man, Citigroup (aka Citi) has some 200 million customer accounts and does business in more than 100 countries. Citigroup offers deposits and loans (mainly through Citibank), investment banking, brokerage, wealth management, alternative investments, and other financial services.” (Industry center- money center banks 2009) A good leader should lead from the front setting example by himself. He should be able to motivate his fellow officers. Many of the business leaders in the banking sector are lured by the high bonus and other perks. With an eye on the high bonus many of the banking norms were diluted which led to the present housing loan crisis. Unlike in the army where the motivation is the patriotism, the motivation in the banking sector is only money. The rules of the game are is flouted, thus sanctioning loans indiscriminately for achieving their target and higher bonus. The rules of the game are never flouted in the army, which has a rigid organization structure and good communication network. Communication plays an important role in the success of a leader. Without effective communication there is no meaning for leadership. “Articulation, fluency, language, voice, listening and writing skills, as well as the use of gestures are dynamic elements that enhance the leader.” (Joni R 2002). A good leader should be a good communicator. It is the proper communication which helps a person to impart his ideas and knowledge to others. There are so many obstacles that a leader has to face on his way to growth and development. The main obstacles include lack of support from superiors, peers and followers, lack of technical support, absence of proper delegation of tasks etc. And also the leaders have to overcome other personal as well as organizational barriers. Personal barriers include lack of clear cut goals, unawareness of the strengths and weakness of themselves, lack of co-operation, absence of positive thinking etc (Hesselbein 2007). Conclusion: Organizational barriers include unscientific structure of staff positioning, the attitude of the organization which does not consider the value of the leaders, ambiguity in policy and operation etc. Such organization barriers are absent in the army unlike financial institution like City group where there are lot of obstacles for the leader. Man cannot be motivated by money alone and in the army motivation is not money but the national spirit. So financial institution like City Bank has to learn a lot from the rules of game of the army mainly communication network, leadership and motivation. We advise the City banks to learn more from the Army in the areas such as training, leadership, motivation, communication and rigid management structure and rules of the game. Bibliography Chapter 2: the strategic environment and army organization. 2005. U.S Army. http://www.army.mil/fm1/chapter2.html#section7 (accessed April 24, 2009) How does the army work. 2009. College Recruiter.com. http://www.collegerecruiter.com/employersblog/2006/08/how_does_the_army_work.php (accessed April 24, 2009) Hesselbein, Frances. 2007. Barriers to leadership. Leader to Leader Journal 3. http://www.leadertoleader.org/knowledgecenter/journal.aspx?ArticleID=139 (accessed April 24, 2009) Industry center- money center banks. 2009. 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