Organisation Behavior in Sony Corporation - Case Study Example

Name Class Unit Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Introduction 2 Leadership 3 Recommendations 4 Emotional Behaviour “psychology” 5 Recommendations 6 Creativity 7 Recommendations 8 Team Work 9 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 10 References 12 Introduction Sony Corporation is a leading Japanese electronics company dealing with games, softwares, and electronics and entertainment products. The company has also been engaging in the motion picture industry, recoded music and television products. The company has all its primary manufacturing facilities in Asia. Sony was founded in 1946 as a Tokyo telecommunications Engineering Corporation (Sony, 2015). The company was named Sony in 1958 and have over the years expanded globally as a leader in technology. Organisations are social systems based on how they combine people, humanity and technology. Since the company was developed, they have been on the forefront in developing industrial, entertainment and consumer electronics. Sony has invested a lot in the electronics industry through use of new technology in design, distribution and sales. The company original values still resonate today and they have great organisation behaviour (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). Organisation behaviour looks at the impact of people, groups and structure on behaviour within an organisation. The elements in origination behaviour are; structure, technology, people and external elements which an organisation operates in (Sony, 2015). This report analysis Sony Corporation and carries out a detailed analysis on how the company is dealing with various issues in the context of organisation behaviour and negotiations. This will be achieved through analysing, leadership, emotional behaviour, creativity and teamwork at Sony. The report will also give recommendations on all aspects of the company that will be analysed. Leadership Sony first leadership was by Morita, who founded the company. He strongly believed in creating a strong brand and expanding overseas. Under Morita, the company did not use its symbol on the products but used its name. He was able to change the company name to Sony to make it more easily pronounced. Morita leadership was strategic and helped the company in capturing a lot of opportunities. He had a vision which he communicated to his followers. Under Morita, Sony was able to expand globally. The leadership was able to communicate the vision to the followers and strategize (Prahalad & Hamel, 2006). The leadership was able to attain the required results in the industry. Morita was seen as instrumental in the Sony early success through his leadership (Sony, 2015). He was a charismatic advocate for the company products in the international market. He was able to spearhead the entry of the company into the software market. Under his leadership, the company was ranked among the fortune 500 companies. His leadership was characterized with innovations and creativity (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). He was a servant leader and greatly motivated his followers. As a leader, he had great trust on the employees. This is through allowing an environment where creativity and innovation thrived (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). When Morita resigned from Sony, the company started failing. The successful leadership made the company to miss a lot of opportunities (Prahalad & Hamel, 2006). Good leaders are expected to match their leadership with situation. This is according to Hersey and Blanchard. Leaders are also expected to match their style of leadership with the level of maturity of their staff (Kouzes & Posner, 2006). The leadership of Sony after Morita have failed to some extent in leadership. The company has engaged in some loss making profit lines such as Trinitron TV. Through the new leadership, Sony has lost flexibility and failed in smartphone, television, computer and flat display TVs. This is through failing to take the opportunities that would have helped the company to capture the market. There has been suggestion that Sony should discontinue the Trinitron TV production line. The Aiwa Company has been making loss for the company (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). Recommendations The current Sony leadership should emulate Morita. The leadership must be ready to create an environment where creativity and innovation thrives. This will enable Sony to capture new opportunities that will help them not to be obsolete. The company has lost a lot of opportunities that would have transformed them into market leaders. The company leadership must be ready to stop any loss making products and concentrate on trends in technology. Based on Morita charismatic leadership, the current leadership should be servant leaders and ensure that they value ideas and innovation. The industry is constantly changing and the leadership should be highly flexible. They must be ready to use the right leadership based on the situation. This is through utilizing their leadership styles on the right time and right measures. This will be able to pay off in the results. The more styles a leader is able to exhibit, the better for the company (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). Emotional Behaviour “psychology” Understanding the role of emotions in human behaviour is very vital in understanding human behaviour. Emotions are linked with specific behaviours. An organisation is supposed to find ways in which they can alter their practices to increase positive emotions and eliminate negative emotions. Research shows that emotions are central to human reactions. Workers at Sony are directed towards positive behaviours through well strategized practices. The organisation was able to realize that in order to make the behaviours more effective, they had to change the workers emotions (Bar-On & Parker, 2000). Sony looks at workers’ emotions as an interface which mediates the environmental input and bahavorial output. This has made the organisation to invest on employee motivation. Due to fact that most of the emotional responses are automatic, Sony rarely puts them as part of organisation training process. This has led to the employees’ ability to use social cues as a means to moderate emotions to predominate. Most of the employees’ understanding of social cues have been from other situations apart from the workplace (Grandey, 2000). Specific emotional are linked with certain behaviours. Negative emotions have strong associations with negative behaviours at workplace. This has made Sony to engage in regulating such occurrences. The organisation has been able to realize that changing employees’ behaviours without changing the associated emotions cannot lead to success. Through positive emotions, Sony has been able to benefit from skill building, great social relations, commitment, pro-social behaviours and creativity (Bar-On & Parker, 2000). Happier workers are highly productive. It is also important to note that emotions play a very vital role in giving motivation. Through motivation, the employees are able to express their emotions. The organisation ensures that workers are motivated and given an environment which balances the work family demands. Emotions at Sony are perceived as a larger part of the worker information processing. This is due to fact that information processing affects moods and emotions. Research shows that positive moods have a tendency to lead to heuristic information processing. Negative more are associated with careful information processing. The concern of the non-verbal behaviours on both employees and workers has been playing a major role in emotions at workplace. At Sony, the workforce is directed towards the leaders’ vision through positive emotion cues. There is also great need for Sony to focus on the emotional needs for the workers (Grandey, 2000). Recommendations In the workplace, it is important to look at emotions as orderly and sequenced. A lot of emotions exhibited by workers are based on certain job functions. Sony has to ensure that employees in every level of hierarchy are treated with respect. This will help in contributing to positive behaviours among the employees. This will help the workers to attain the desired emotional state. Having a positive mood is crucial for the proper functioning of the organisation. The organisation should realize that even danger can be beneficial in the workplace. This is through using it to confront the obstacles or offender to help them change their behaviours. Emotional expression is a very powerful form of social influence that should be encouraged in the workplace (Grandey, 2000). Creativity Creativity is vital for the organisation success. Innovations are very vital for the success of the organisation. For an organisation to innovate, they must have creativity (Zhou & Shalley, 2007). Creativity can only exist in organisation that supports open ideas. Sony has been dependent on creativity since innovation. Morita created a culture of innovation through supporting the workers in their ideas. Sony has used expertise, motivation and creative thinking skills as the pillars for innovative behaviours. Sony creativity has been demonstrated by their success in the game and entertainment industry. At the moment, the game industry is evolving very fast. The most successful gaming software takes years to develop and market. This is one of the industries where Sony has proved they can succeed. The company computer video games are based on high level of creativity (Sony, 2015). There is excellent project management and investment in research and development. In the 1970s, engineers at Sony were working on developing the music CDs. The project made a lot of progress, but they later gave up. This is due to the storage time, which they saw as too large to be marketable. The engineers did not think creatively to make the CD to be any size they wanted (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). This is a great example to show how creative thinking can be put in practice to avoid such situations. Sony has been able to ensure that their employees do not fear to fail. Fear is a great hindrance to innovation in an organisation. This is due to fact that creativity involves trial and error in order to come up with the perfect results (Zhou & Shalley, 2007). Sony has opened their doors for diverse perspectives. The organisation works with smart peoples within and outside the firm. This is through understanding that the organisation does not have to originate research in order to benefit from it. Failures to come up with perfect innovations have given the organisation an opportunity to address their weakness in ideas and products. Sony has based their work on looking for possibilities rather than taking everything for granted. This has helped Sony a lot in building their skills and competing in the technology industry (Townsend, 2000). Recommendations Sony is competing in a very competitive industry. This requires creativity and innovation in order to maintain market share. It is advisable for Sony to encourage risk taking for the company to remain among the most profitable in the industry. The workers must be shown that accepting failure part of being creative. The employees must be taught to address barriers which arise as they challenge the existing status quo. Creativity starts by being able to question the assumptions. Employees must be encouraged to look beyond the face value of things. Despite being a company built on creativity, Sony has lost some of their major strength in this area. Creative confidence must be reclaimed by the firm. This is through a combination of thought and action which will enable the firm to put ideas into actions. It’s advisable for Sony to adopt creative solutions and pathways through; inspiration, synthesis, ideation and implementation (Townsend, 2000). Team Work Team work is very vital in organisations. Sony have utilised teams as group of people with complementary skills. Team work at Sony helps a lot in working towards a common purpose. Employees at Sony work together toward a common objective. This is through the creation of real teams which have a clear membership. Engineering teams work together in developing a given product. Through the use of motivational leadership, the teams are motivated and focused on the stakeholders’ needs. The teams are encouraged to build strong inter-team relationships to attain team potency (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). There are two dimensions in a team functioning. There are task and social factors that help the team to work together as a social unit. Through teamwork, the tasks are worked on more effectively. Through teamwork, Sony has been able to come up with products that have enhanced usability. Sony products are made with user in mind. Through the use of intranets, communication in teams has been made easy. Employees are able to give their opinions in an open and efficient manner. There are also periodic meetings where team work and ideas sharing are enhanced. Teams which are diverse contains members who have varying emotional, social and physical needs. To ensure team effectiveness, Sony has been able to address all needs for the diverse teams (Sony, 2015). Teams are guided towards positive emotions such as hope, pleasure, joy and pride. This is due to the fact that when the team have more positive emotions, they are able to be open minded and accomplish a lot of tasks. In teamwork, the focus is not only on performance, but also on the emotions (Procter & Mueller, 2000). Teams are developed through minimizing conflict and enhancing the sharing of ideas. Leadership is very vital in teamwork. Through effective leadership, team members are able to work together with an aim of attaining their goal. The team leader ensures that members are able to work together to attain the set objective. The Sony group has been on the frontline to ensure that they have the best leadership in teams. This has enabled Sony to come up with products that are highly applicable and of enhanced usability (Salas, Bowers & Edens, 2001). Recommendations Despite the success of Sony products through teamwork, the company has to invest more in teamwork. This is through creating a climate of openness and trust, especially in the research and development sector. There is also need for more team meetings that will enhance face contact at regular intervals. The meetings must be based on trust, respect and familiarizing with each other. The teams must ensure that all members are given a chance to participate. Also, team meeting must be able to raise real issues and not agendas. It is also vital for Sony to come make sure that team identity is enhanced. This is through ensuring that there are collective behaviours among the members. This is through looking at the team as a combination of personalities, values, abilities and commitment. For example, the Sony team working on the CD in the early 1970s consisted of members with different commitments, loyalties, motivations and values (Gershon & Kanayama, 2002). By ensuring that the team has an identity, it will be possible to face the challenges they encounter (Salas, Bowers & Edens, 2001). Conclusion To sum up, Sony Corporation is one of the most successful organisations globally. The organisation is involved in development and manufacture of games, softwares, electronics and entertainment products. The organisation first leadership was by Morita who was a great leader. He was able to help Sony in diversification and global expansion over the years. When Morita retired, the successful leadership was not very effective. It’s recommendable that current leadership should continue emulating Morita in their operations. Sony understands the role of emotions in workplace behaviours. Sony looks at workers’ emotions as an interface which mediates the environmental input and bahavorial output. It’s important that Sony continues supporting positive behaviours at workplace. Sony has been able to survive in the industry through creativity and innovation. The company computer video games among other products are based on a high level of creativity. The company was among the first to engage in developing CD. It is very vital for the organisation to continue engaging in creativity and innovation. The organisation must be able to reclaim creative confidence. Most of the projects that are undertaken by Sony are based on teamwork. Engineering teams work together to work in a given project. The teams are made of diverse members who work together towards a set goal. Teams are able to work together through appropriate leadership and minimisation of conflict. Through teamwork, Sony has been able to develop high quality products. It is thus vital for the company to invest more on teamwork. Team identification must also be enhanced. References Bar-On, R. E., & Parker, J. D. (2000). The handbook of emotional intelligence: Theory, development, assessment, and application at home, school, and in the workplace. Jossey- Bass. Gershon, R. A., & Kanayama, T. (2002). The sony corporation: A case study in transnational media management. International Journal on Media Management, 4(2), 105-117. Grandey, A. A. (2000). Emotional regulation in the workplace: A new way to conceptualize emotional labor. Journal of occupational health psychology, 5(1), 95. Kouzes, J. M., & Posner, B. Z. (2006). The leadership challenge (Vol. 3). John Wiley & Sons. Prahalad, C. K., & Hamel, G. (2006). The core competence of the corporation (pp. 275-292). Springer Berlin Heidelberg. Procter, S. J., & Mueller, F. (Eds.). (2000). Teamworking. St. Martin's Press. Salas, E., Bowers, C. A., & Edens, E. (Eds.). (2001). Improving teamwork in organizations: Applications of resource management training. CRC Press. Sony, (2015), About Sony, retrieved 13th Sept 2015 from, http://www.sony.net/ Townsend, J. (2000). Creativity in the Workplace. Creating the Productive Workplace, 18-28. Zhou, J., & Shalley, C. E. (Eds.). (2007). Handbook of organizational creativity. Taylor & Francis. Read More