Organizational Behavior and Employment in Sao Mai - Essay Example

? Case 2 Introduction I am employed in ‘Sao Mai’ as an architect for a considerable time period now. ‘Sao Mai’ is a renowned construction company. Inthis memorandum I would like to draw your attention to the influences of power distribution over the workplace of ‘Sao Mai’ on the basis of my experiences. I was appointed to work under Mr. Tam Nguyen. He is associated as a project manager in the company. Mr. Tam Nguyen is also responsible for issuing the checks in absence of the CEO acting as an authoritative leader at times. In my knowledge he is the most powerful employee of ‘Sao Mai’ next to the CEO. He is given with the charges of directing, monitoring and managing almost every operational process in the company. His responsibilities in the company include managing a group of 20 architects and engineers along with taking any decision for the benefit of the company. He completely utilizes his power to accomplish his targets that assists the company to grow. Discussion The power gained by Mr. Tam Nguyen has three sources. These are interpersonal source, vertical or hierarchical source and horizontal or situational source. The influences of these sources on the power of Mr. Tam Nguyen are as follows. Interpersonal Powers Person Based power The personality traits of Mr. Tam Nguyen play a vital role in making him the most powerful employee in ‘Sao Mai’. He has been associated with the company over a long period. This gave him a considerable experience to control the organizational processes with efficiency. He is also a good trainer because he always keeps pressure on his subordinates to perform better increasing the potentiality of the workforce. He is a very ambitious in directing his subordinates that creates tremendous pressure over the workforce. This often tends to hinder the morale of the employees giving rise to the turnover rate. He desires the entire workforce to perform as he did without providing consideration to the eligibility of the employees. His current position in the company is certainly due to his personal qualities that has a significant influence on the CEO as well. Position Based power Mr. Tam Nguyen is assigned to segregate the diverse construction project related responsibilities including designing and allocation of resources. This is generally determined on the basis of the abilities and competences of the architects and engineers. The responsibilities are also often segregated according to his choice and perceptions. His responsibilities include convincing and persuading the clients regarding any impasse with ‘Sao Mai’. He is also solely responsible for taking any decision regarding financial matters or employee evaluations. He possesses the liberty to offer bonus or rewards to the high performers of ‘Sao Mai’. He is also liable to terminate any employee in case of inefficiency. Mr. Tam Nguyen liberally utilizes his position based powers over the employees of ‘Sao Mai’. He often praises the performing employees and motivates them to work harder. He also tends to terminate inefficient employees whose acts might have hindered customer satisfaction or the commitment of the company towards its services. Whatever the decision he takes is explicit within the knowledge of every employee in ‘Sao Mai’ that creates a pressure on the workforce to perform better. Vertical/ Hierarchical Based Power In case of urgencies, Mr. Tam Nguyen possesses the authoritative rights to approve certain changes in the blueprints of the construction projects to satisfy the customers’ demands. He believes that maintenance of long term relationship with the clients is crucial as customers are the fundamental elements of any organization. Once, a client wished to make certain changes in the blueprint of the house. He wanted to elevate the designs of the roofs of the window and the door at a reasonable cost. This was likely to hinder the quality of the project causing safety issues. The proposal was approved so to retain a good relationship with the customer. However, no extension in deadline was provided by the client. This meant that the entire process had to be modified within the scheduled deadline that required re-allocation of resources. Mr. Tam Nguyen had a strong influence over the departments in ‘Sao Mai’ irrespective of the operational divergences. This implies that Mr. Tam Nguyen’s orders were followed strictly in the organization. While taking the decision of reallocating the resources, Mr. Tam Nguyen did not even require the permission of the higher authorities as it would be a time consuming process which in turn could cause delay in serving the client. Hence, we had to allow additional team members in our team with the orders of Mr. Tam in order to attain the deadline and satisfy the client yielding long-term relationship. Horizontal/ Situational Based Power Mr. Tam Nguyen negotiates with the suppliers and dealers of raw materials regarding cost-related issues. He also utilizes his power to consult with the clients regarding architectural issues. Once we had to face a trouble in dealing with a client who had a demand to use inferior quality of material in his roof. Tam helped us to negotiate with the client and settle the issue. He often orders us to work overtime so as to deliver the architectural design of the construction project within a specified time satisfying the clients. This is beneficial on the part of the organization. At times this might also hinder the personal interests of the employees. Performance evaluation or criticism by him is performed for every member that takes place in front of the entire workforce of ‘Sao Mai’ on a monthly basis. This becomes a discouraging strategy according to me because it may cause a significant impact over employee morale leading to unrest in the organizational environment. The corporate image might also decline due to lack of talented employees in the organization in its long run affecting its profitability. Criticism Tam Nguyen utilizes his powers on the departments of ‘Sao Mai’. This means that he has strong influences not only on the internal members, but also on the external sales personnel of the organization. Moreover, he also provides training and development programs based on the competencies and skills of the employees, which is highly beneficial for us. The way in which he evaluates us also acts as the motivating factor. It also enhances our commitment towards the work. Certain specific behavioral traits of Tam Nguyen are often noted to be discouraging by me. It has been observed at times that he decides to terminate employees due to his/her incorrect selection of suppliers of raw materials required for construction purpose. He once had terminated my friend and a trainee in ‘Sao Mio’ because he failed to serve the client on time delaying the project for 7 days. If a newcomer continuously makes this type of mistakes, he/she might be terminated from ‘Sao Mai’ by him without prior notification or training facilities. This is agonizing on the part of the new employees to an extent. I feel that it is the responsibility of the senior member to brief him/her the shortcomings in the monthly meetings rather than dismissing the employee without any prior intimation if a member is making faults numerous times. Recommendations Tam Nguyen is one of the senior members of ‘Sao Mai’. However, certain improvements are necessary for efficient utilization of his powers. He should transfer the responsibility of selecting the suppliers of raw materials and resources to the experienced members rather than to the newcomers. This is because, the experienced members can select the proficient suppliers and also at a reasonable cost. This would be highly beneficial for ‘Sao Mai’. Moreover, the proposition of these types of changes should be kept in front of the management board by Tam Nguyen for approval and support utilizing his position-based power. He should also change his way of addressing the mistakes to the specific employees. His strategy to make his appraisals explicit is likely to create serious Human Resources Management related issue in the later days. Talented and skilled employees might leave ‘Sao Mai’ due to shoddier use of interpersonal power resulting in a serious consequence of Human Resource shortage. Hence, Mr. Tam Nguyen should implement his expert power and referent power with the employees on the basis of the situational demand. Mr. Tam Nguyen should also implement soft influence tactics along with his hard influence tactics to build up cohesion and morale amid the workforce. Bibliography Mcshane, L. S., & Glinow, M. A. V. (2006). Organizational Behavior: Essentials.US: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Read More