The Organization, Structure and Culture of a Group - Assignment Example

Analyzing Structure and Culture of a Group Abstract The essay aims to address a two-fold objective to wit: (1) to understand the process on how the group played the cultural “rules of the game” for working on university group projects; and (2) to describe how the group developed networks of relationships among team members and connect with other groups or relevant stakeholders in the group project. Analyzing Structure and Culture of a Group The Organization Organizations refer to diverse groups of people who have a common goal, a designed, structured, and coordinated activity system, and a linked to the external environment (Daft & Armstrong, 2012, 11). People may not notice but organizations not only exist in government and companies but in our daily lives as well. It can be at home, in the community, inside the school, and even in every group activity or school projects. Each of these areas has a unique culture that is internal to the group and sets of norms/values, beliefs, rituals, ceremonial activities that are external to the group or institution that they belong. These internal and external aspects of an organization cannot be simply explained through text or words but through application or case analysis. In line with this, the group has chosen to analyze a local manufacturing company, Tornatech Inc., to understand the “rules of the game”, differentiate the internal and external aspects of organization, and analyze the organizational theory in action. Having this purpose in mind, the group structured each members into sets of activities. The group agreed to work separately but in a coordinated manner. Roles were given to the members who will gather company details through research archives, those who will interview company personnel, and those who will be on the site for organization flows and behavior. The succeeding data about Tornatech Inc. were the information gathered collaboratively by the members of the group. Tornatech Inc. is a local manufacturing company of electrical fire pump controllers. It is a privately-owned company that was initially incorporated in 1985 by Bruno Goupil and Armin Kunert at Ville St. Laurent. After acquiring his partner’s shares seven years ago, Goupil became the sole owner of the company and his son and son in-law became minority shareholders in the Company. The competition in the production of the fire pump controller is tight as the industry is highly regulated and oligopoly in nature. New entrants were almost inexistent and the customers are looking for a company that can purchase the fire pump controller and assimilate it into a “pump package”. This gives an exclusivity to pump manufacturer as no product can be certified by the agencies if these were sold directly to building contractors or any other buyers. In addition, Tornatech Inc. closely monitors and negotiate costs from an outsourced supplier in order to maximized the technical nature of the product at an economically cost. Tornatech Inc. is divided into three departments which specialize in the type of controller: sewage pump controllers, fire pump controllers, and Diesel pump controllers. Just like a typical organization, workers’ positions are arranged in hierarchy with the supervisors performing many of the assembly tasks by themselves. Each department is like a cell and operates on the principle of push and pull during the process of assembly. In short, the success or failure of electronic fire pump controllers depends mainly on the unity of the departments. But how does Tornatech Inc. manage its manufacturing of products? The answer lies on its employees. A few number of effective sales crew influence product specifications and provide training sessions and counselling to the agents that will purchase the controllers. After selecting the controller manufacturer, agents will place a request to order with Tornatech through the sales team via email, fax machine, or telephone order. The entry technician will receive and verify the order to ensure if all the requirements (part number, quotation and verification number, price of the items, delivery dates, terms of payment) of a purchase order are present. Once the requirements have been cleared, data will be entered on GENIUS – the ERP system used at Tornatech. ERP places the order in the production schedule, a system-generated production started, and the production schedule coordinator monitor the process. Timing of the production is determined by the customer’s requisition of the controller, logical lead time to produce the controller, and available labor hours to produce the controller. Organization Theory Analysis Accomplishing this university group project is not an easy task. As a group, we have differences in norms/values, beliefs, rituals, ceremonial activities, etc. Tornatech Inc. was just like us. As an organization, they also have to deal with differences among employees; however, due to a common goal and a structured system, each members of the group are being united to achieve success. In addition, analysis of the existing organization theory in terms of formal structure, culture/symbolism, and networks will help us understand Tornatech Inc.’s turnaround, history, and effective management. Four levels of analysis characterize organizations, namely: external environment level of analysis, organization level of analysis, group level of analysis, and individual level of analysis. In case of Tornatech Inc. and university group projects, the analysis being applied to is the group level analysis as Tornatech Inc. is grouped and compared at departmental levels whereas university group levels are also compared across different groups in the class. A number of organizational theory and design are being stipulated in the case of Tornatech Inc. The classical perspective is seen on Tornatech Inc. as there is development of hierarchy and bureaucratic organizations. Scientific management which based decisions based on precise (Daft & Armstrong, 2012, 25), scientific study of individual situations is also evident in Tornatech Inc. because they trained agents and believed that product specifications were contributed greatly by effective sales crew. This, in turn, leads to another organization theory called Hawthorne Studies. According to Daft & Armstrong (2012), Hawthorne Studies postulate that the positive treatment of employees improved their motivation and productivity (26). Tornatech Inc. believed that agents or employees are the key players in the industry so they provided training sessions to improve their competency standards. The current trend in the industry is to purchase a pump package rather than a pump controller alone. To survive the tight competition, Tornatech Inc. adopt Contingency theory and fit their structure of pump controller into pump package in order to meet the conditions required by the external environment or customer. Today, a number of contemporary organization theories exist to guide both the company and the employees in achieving their goal. The learning organization design actively involves all members of the company in problem identification and resolution thus, empowering every individual that is part of the company. There’s still evidence of vertical structure in Tornatech Inc. but the division and equality among departments lead to a horizontal structure. Employees are being empowered due to the training sessions they offered and employees are given “voices” to share information. Tornatech Inc. has been doing a collaborative strategy among its employees and also with different networks and stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, global partners, and even competitors. To remain healthy, Tornatech Inc. must develop a cultural adaptation to the environment. Though there are different cultural values, ideas, and practices, one must keep in mind that these are detrimental to the effective performance under rapidly changing environment. An organization must have: a culture of openness, equality, continuous improvement, and change; an organization that interact together; activities and symbols that discard status differences; development of web relationships; and maximizing the full potential of all employees. Reference Read More