Morgan Car Company Organizational Conflict - Assignment Example

HRM Assessment Question A change agent is a person who causes change in an organization as they act as a catalyst for the introduction of new ways of doing things in an organization (Dealy and Thomas 2006, p.10). More so, they focus on the impact of changing technologies, structures and relationships in an organization, and they can managers, workers or outside consultants. They initiate change, convince others to embrace change and help them understand the need to change. In Morgan Car Company’s case study, there were many problems linked with this car company in various departments including production, planning, management and workforce. To begin with, the production rate in this company is very low and the car are hand built because they have little power tool and no new machinery. Given that the company produce solely handcrafted car, the production process is low and the number of cars produced in a week is limited. Secondly, the company has a poor planning strategy and so the way the management plan and organize work is very ineffective. For instance, the company has up to 50 years of stock and this not practical because some of the models are not produced anymore. Moreover, this company has a visual based stock control system and this makes ordering of cars extremely difficult and unpredictable. Morgan Motors Company’s personnel are very conservative in the manner they approach change and because of this, they are not willing and reluctant to change anything since change creates fear amongst them. For instance, the owners of the company claim that change is not necessary, as it would damage the company’s main selling point, that is, the hand crafted nature of the car that they produce. They have the mentality that if they were to alter anything, then would reduce the demand of their products and this will in turn put the company at risk. Their resistance to change implies that the management is satisfied with the ridiculously long waiting times. Sadly, the owners if this company believe that consumers are patient and willing to wait for their car however how long they take to produce them. It is unfortunate that some consumers wait up to 5 years for their car to be delivered. Similarly, the workforce are support the management’s resistance to change as they also hold the same opinion that change will not only damage the nature of the car but also exhaust demand of their cars. Only one person, Engineer Morris Owen, who advocates for change and he is willing to embrace new ideas such as building car in units then fix the engine last. Notably, the workers need more money to increase productive and since the management cannot increase the pay, they keep the production low. Later on, especially after re-visiting the company by Harvey-Jones, Morgan Car Company management stopped to be change-averse enabling the company to transform its products and the way it operates (Faulkner and Campbell 2006, p.117). For instance, in 2001, the production significantly increased as the company was able to produce 14 cars a week. More so, waiting list reduced to 18 months. Together with Maurice Owen, Charles worked on the ways to increase production particularly by changing the production layout and sequence. Change started taking place, the prices increased slightly and many people ordered cars. Engines were updated and new developments put in place and this played a leading role in the design of a new model. For instance, new aluminium wings and airbags were introduced making the car more marketable. Indeed, the whole company was transformed and they even created a website where they could advertise their products and allow customers to find out about the company, buy Morgan products and order new products for delivery in only 18 months. The company produced new cars including BMW and Aeromax among others. Morgan Car Company was classified as a customer friendly, flexible, high satisfaction and environmental friendly. This car company has really transformed from 1990s to become one of the world’s business model. These changes can be sustained if the company persistently change the production process to suit demand; implement new policies that will help in increasing production; and become flexible to adapt to any changes that might be of importance to organizational process and enable then have a sustainable competitive advantage. This includes embracing new technologies and redesigning company layout to improve organizational productivity and reduce the amount of waiting times. Nevertheless, the company need to develop and maintain an effective and productive working and they can achieve this by motivating, engaging and empowering its employees as well as increasing pay whenever necessary. More so, the company news to increase the prices of its products in order to improve their profit margin as this will enable the company to continue to develop. Question 4 Mostly, organizational conflict is as a result of different interests and needs between organizational members. According to Rahim (2011, p.17), organizational conflict takes place when some members engage in activities that are not compatible with their colleagues within the organization. Notably, organizational conflict takes various forms including intergroup conflicts, which refer to “the conflict between two or more groups within an organization” (Rahim 2011, p.23). Personally, I have experienced intergroup conflict, particularly between line managers and staff members with me being one of the staff members. This happened due to the interdependence between the line managers and the staff, for instance, if the line managers resent their dependence on staff for information and if the staff on the other hand resent their inability to directly implement their own decisions and recommendations. In most cases, conflict arises between employees and their managers if there is poor communication between them. More so, employees may feel mistreated if they are not engaged or encouraged to participate in making important decisions in the organization. As a result, their productivity decreases and this affects the entire organization. The intergroup conflicts are not personal and they assist in generating creative tensions that increases contributions to the organization’s goals by members. To some people, organizational conflict provides a chance to come up with creative solutions to certain problems. They believe that conflict can inspire organizational members to brainstorm idea and view problems from diverse perspectives. However, it is destructive when it causes work alienation or separates the groups that should be working together. If it is very destructive, organization’s personnel should be able to respond to the situation immediately. Organizational conflict can cause decrease in productivity if the management focuses more on resolving the existing conflict than the core goals that they should achieve. Conflict makes organizational members to shift their attention to gossip instead of performing the tasks assigned to them, and this limits the organization’s ability to be successful is limited. Some of the managerial problems that are related to organizational conflict include poor communication and leadership problems among others. Poor communication is one of the major managerial problems that cause conflict within an organization. For instance, employees are not always happy if there are not informed of major decisions that affect their lives. Moreover, employees who are not engaged do not always understand the reasons for the major decisions made in the organization because they are not involved in the decision making process. Employees tend to trust the rumours rather than their management if there is poor communication in an organization. Moreover, conflict arises in an organization if there are insufficient resources or poor alignment of available resources. This will in turn lead to disagreement about role allocation and it will be stressful working with inadequate resources. Another issue causing conflict in an organization is the conflicting values and actions of organizational members. There exist strong interpersonal natures among employees, which do not match, and there will always be conflict because of these differences. Another common managerial action that triggers organizational conflict is leadership problems. Poor leadership or inconsistent and uninformed leadership characterized by issues such as failure by the supervisors to understand the tasks of their subordinates or failing to address conflict when it arises. There are many theories explaining organizational conflict some of which include maturity and immaturity theory and organizational conflict theory. Maturity and immaturity theory states that individuals want to grow and mature in their career lives, but formal organizations limit their capability by breaking jobs into specialties and giving workers narrow opportunities and duties. This restricts employees from fully exploiting their talents and abilities and this makes them feel constrained and unable to develop. As a result, there will be conflict between employees and the organization (Sahni and Vayunandan 2010, 337). In addition, organizational conflict theory states that there are many different forms of conflict and so it is important to identify the kind of conflict an organization faces. This theory also claims that conflicts in an organization are not a problem as they can lead to more individual and organizational creativity in most cases. However, it agrees that it is important to resolve conflict in order to escape its adverse effects in an organization. If managers fail to clearly communicate their goals to employees and encourage them to share their views, conflict will emerge. Question 6 Larry Greiner suggested key dimensions necessary for developing organizational model and they include the organization’s age and size, its stages or evolution and revolution as well as the growth rate of the industry (Greiner 1998, p.4). Firstly, assessing the age of an organization is very important as it promotes change and development in an organization. This involves gathering data about the organization from various identify time and comparing them. Thereafter, it is important to note if the same organizational practices have been maintained throughout the organization’s timeline. More so, assessing the organization’s age in relation to change and development assists in identifying management problems particularly those that prevent the organization from developing. In addition, it will contribute to the institutionalization of managerial attitudes and as a result, worker’s behaviours become more difficult to predict and change if managerial attitudes are outdated. The size of an organization also matters, for instance, the problems and solutions change as the number of employees’ increases. Organizations that do not grow in size tend to retain the same managerial issues and practices for a very long time, but those that increase their sizes have more problems of coordination and communication, levels in the management hierarchy increases and tasks become more interrelated (Greiner 1998, p.4). Moreover, the company’s evolutionary period is also another important determinant of organizational change and development. Some organizations do not expand easily after experiencing rapid growth. Such organizations usually experience continuous growth without going through economic blow. Understanding the organization’s evolution stages is very critical in describing adjustments that are necessary for maintaining growth under the same management pattern. Organization’s stages of revolution are also important in determining change and development in an organization. During crisis period, many organization collapse and those that are not able to let go past practices and embrace major organization changes are likely to fold their growth rates (Greiner 1998, p.4). Further, the growth rate of an organization is very important to be analysed as it relates to the market environment of its industry. For instance, an organization that is in a rapidly expanding market need to increase the number of its employees and this will in turn leads to the need to create new organizational structures that will accommodate large staff. Greiner proposed various phases of growth including creativity, direction, delegation, coordination, and collaboration. There is informal communication of employees in the creativity phase of growth (Rao 1999, p.192). Again, long working hours are rewarded as a way of motivating employees to increase their productivity. In the direction phase of growth, communication is more informal and personalized as the hierarchy builds in the organization. In addition, a functional organizational structure is established and tasks are more specialized. In the delegation phase, the managers of the plant become more responsible, and the profit plus bonuses are used to stimulate motivation. The coordination phase of growth is characterized by the decentralization of units into product groups, establishing formal planning and procedures, and hiring of many staff personnel. In the collaboration phase, the focus is on solving problems through team action as so as these problems arise. More so, different teams come together for task group activity. The educational programs are used in training managers for them to improve their skills, achieve better teamwork, and resolve any conflict in the organization accordingly. Again, in this phase, the economic rewards are focused to team performance as opposed to individual achievement (Rao 1999, p.193). Greiner’s organizational growth model can be applied in organizational design by focusing on the growth phases to come up with an effective workforce, increase performance and organization’s productivity. Within each phase, the organizational design is suitable for the company’s size and context. The continuity of growth may change the design of an organization changes and the factors that made it suitable might cause a crisis leading to redesign and transition to the next phase. This model concentrates more on time and the size of business with problems at regular point along the way. The duration and growth in size of the five phases depend on the market and organization’s ability to effectively adapt and evolve. According to Rao (1999, p.194), Greiner’s growth model is suitable for these organizations in industries with moderate growth. He argues further those organizations that are in rapidly growing industries experience all these growth phases, but those in slowly growing industries experience at most three phases. References Dealy, M. D., and Thomas, A. R. 2006, Change or die: how to transform your organization from the inside out, Westport, Conn, Praeger. Faulkner, D., and Campbell, A. 2006, The Oxford handbook of strategy: a strategy overview and competitive strategy, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Greiner, L.E., 1998, Evolution and Revolution as Organizations Grow, Harvard Business Review, 1-11 Rahim, M. A. 2011, Managing conflict in organizations, New Brunswick [NJ], Transaction. Rao, M.G, 1999, Organization Design, Change and Development, Discovery Publishing House. Sahni, P., and Vayunandan, E., 2010,  Administrative theory. New Delhi: PHI Learning. Read More