EBay Cultural Analysis - Essay Example

? EBay Cultural Analysis Part One EBay is one of the largest global online market regions that brings together over 100 million people across the globe to do business together (Miner, 2011). It enables almost anyone to buy or sell practically anything through the internet. The company has thus created an ideal market place that has revolutionized the way of doing business across the globe. A culture of any organization like EBay is defined by the way it conducts its business functions such as handling customers, selling of its products, structuring of the organization and its core values (Stanford 2011, p 276). These elements that define the culture of an organization are not constant, they change with time and it is the change of these elements that define culture change and hence the reputation and direction of the company. There are several cultural changes that have been initiated in EBay since its inception and these changes have resulted to a number of implications. The first cultural change initiated by the company was not localized to the company but to the whole world. The company changed the way the world does business. It initiated transitions from buying and selling physical commodities to a wide extension of commodities that include diverse services. The company also revolutionized the payments methods in business transactions y introducing paperless cash transfers such as PayPal (Griffin 2012, p 79). This is an online payment method that allows buyers and sellers to purchase and sell commodities online without handling cash. This has not only improved the efficiency of carrying out business transactions, but it has also enhanced security in business. The company has also initiated a communication culture between its employees and its customers. In the early days of the inception of the company, there had been poor communication strategies and many customers filled the company’s website with messages filled with dissatisfaction. Therefore, the company introduced a strong culture of communication by creating several interfaces and platforms of communication between the company and its employees (Ashkanasy 2011, p 82). The company also included the use of social media and channels in its communication culture with its employees and this assertion is attributed to the rapid changes in the levels of technology in the world. The other culture change that has been observed in the company is its responsiveness to its shareholders. The company initiated a mechanism that will ensure that all the concerns of their shareholders are met within the shortest time possible (Bevan & Wengrow 2010, p 18). The company changed its buyer and seller cultures a great deal by adding the aspect of shareholders involvement so as to include them in its short term and long term development plans. All the above described cultural changes that took place in EBay had a number of implications that accompanied them and the business environment as a whole. These were both positive and negative implications as will be described below. Taking a look at some of the positive implications that impacted the organization was increase in the number of products. This in return led to increase in the number of sales and consequently, increase revenue collection (Halal 2005, p 59). This was extremely significant as it led to overall increase in overall business turnover. All these continued to provide more energy in terms of financial resource to stir up the organization in the quest of attaining their set goals and objectives. In addition to this, there was improvement of interpersonal relationship between the staff, both junior and senior managerial staff. The flow of information significantly improved as a result of these cultural changes and as a result business could be carried out in a well orderly fashion and thus led to increase in quality of service. The customer is always the determining factor in any business entity. Therefore, by the organization having the capability offer quality services and goods, it is considered qualified to meet the needs and exceed expectations of the customer (Lury 2011, p 159). With this, the organization is able to achieve a competitive edge in the foreign markets. This explains the significance of improvement of flow of information among staffs irrespective of the department. Despite all the above mentioned positive implications, it also resulted to negative implications or consequence. Change being the key aspect, the people in managerial position who hold the sole mandate to formulate this changes and I the process implement them (Nelson & Quick 2011, p 229). As a result of this, most of the employees were so much reluctant to the idea of embracing these changes. This slowed down the progress and operations of EBay for the first few days after incorporation but with time, the employees and support staff became more and more open to it and this resulted to them embracing the new additional change in their form of organization. Lastly, even though in most organization cultural change tends not to work, in other cases it did. This has been proved by the case of this organization, an analysis of the cultural change proved that in deed there were a number of cultural changes that took place and with that, it led to more pros than cons. Therefore, this can be regarded as a positive change that effectively led to positive effects. Part Two Management is focused not only in directing and controlling the operations of an organization, but also in supporting other employees as well as facilitating operations of an organization. On the other hand, organizational behavior is the understanding of organization’s structure and functioning of its operations (Miner 2007, p 89). Therefore, from the definitions of management and organizational behavior, it is evident that there exists a relationship between the two aspects in a number of ways. Therefore, it is correct to state that it is essential for mangers to have a deep understanding and knowledge of organization behavior. The analysis of various functions of managers will provide a glimpse of the relevance of having knowledge of organizational behavior. Managers need to focus on efficient and effective utilization of the available resources so as to accomplish both short and long term goals of an organization. The resources that are available in any organization include knowledge, skills and talents of the workforce and thus having a deep understanding of how to utilize them is fundamental for mangers (Geisler & Wickramasinghe 2009, p 124). In order to get maximum results out of an organization’s resources, it is vital for managers to understand an organization in all angles. The other task of managers in an organization is coordinating various processes so as to achieve the ultimate goal of an organization. These processes include defining goals both short term and long term, motivating of employees, planning and organizing structures, and monitoring performance and outcomes (Sheldrake, 2003). All these processes are vital and are controlled and coordinated by the mangers. However, in order for the mangers to achieve all these processes and hence the ultimate goals, managers need assume different roles. This flexibility requires a number of skills such as interpersonal, informational, and decisional. It is essential for managers to understand the organization deeply thus the knowledge of organizational behavior is vital. Managers are part of a team and take the role of leading the team in different ways. Therefore, the role of mangers requires a deep understanding of individuals since they work with people who have a wide range of characters. Among the vital skills that are vital in this area are human skills. These include communication skills and conflict resolution skills (Mackevitt 2006, p 92). These are vital in galvanizing a team and making it work together towards achieving a common goal of an organization. Therefore, in order to ensure that the team works together and every individual in a team releases their full potential to towards achieving the objectives of the organization. The managers require a deep understanding of an organization in order to achieve this objective. A deep understanding of an organization as a whole, and how different parts of the organization work together is critical in order to ensure different people from different parts of an organization can work together in harmony and achieve common goals. This process shows the relevance of mangers having knowledge and understanding of organizational behavior. Therefore, it can be stated that the relevance of managers having knowledge on organizational behavior is demonstrated by their job description. The job description of mangers is characterized by a deep understanding of employees, organization’s structures and operations of an organization which are all elements that constitute organizational behavior. This is because organizational behavior also constitutes of the aspects that are brought in by the workforce which is controlled by the managers. Part Three A number of scholars and authors have been able to come up with numerous different definitions to describe the term leader and with regard to this, leadership. A leader can be broadly described as a person who has been given the power and mandate to guide, rule, inspire or direct others (Coleman & Glover 2010, p 63). On the other hand, leadership can be described as the process by which a person controls a group of persons with the aim of achieving a general goal or set objective. They do this by applying their leadership skills and knowledge over a period of time. There are two common types of leadership that is process leadership and trait leadership. Process leadership is whereby a leader undergoes continuous training based on skills and knowledge that he / she develops over time, whereas trait leadership is whereby a leader is perceived to have the right traits that influences ones actions. This is in line with the traditional belief that leaders are born rather than made. In addition to these, over the recent past there have been a number of inclusions which include charismatic leadership, destructive leadership and distributed leadership among others. Leadership is most commonly linked to the actions or person of a leader. The different attributes a person possesses such as values, beliefs, character and ethics can influence the knowledge and skills previously gained by a leader. There are four key factors of leadership that include communication, followers, situation and leader (Mabey & Finch-lees 2008, p 87). All these are crucial in the success of an individual deeming to become a leader. Whereas some people are of the opinion that one can naturally possess good leadership skills as compared to others, many are of the opinion that good leaders are made. Through the use of talented mentors, one can be able to be trained and natured to become world class leaders who can be able to stir any group of individuals in attainment of set goals and objectives laid out by the organization. In the process, an organization is able to achieve maximum outputs. Followers can be described as the people a leader leads over. The most significant thing to start with as a leader, is to have an excellent understanding of the nature of humans, such as their needs, motivation and emotions. For example, someone who possesses a high level of motivation would require a different approach as compared to one with a low level of motivation. In addition to this, the leader has to have knowledge of how to exert influence and power to his / her followers in the most integral manner possible. Leadership can be divided broadly into two key groups’ followers and leaders. True followers can only be natured from a true leader. This is because it is always up to the manager to make the right decision in selecting the best candidate for the job. In addition to this, it is the responsibility of the leader to make the follower have a good atmosphere while performing his / her tasks (Hafford-letchfield 2008, p 345). For example, no leader can be able to lead others well except if he / she possesses the ability to guide his / her followers in obedience to the set goals he / she is supposed to attain. Therefore, there is definitely a room for followers in leadership and this can be viewed from a number of different perspectives and approaches on leadership. Bibliography Ashkanasy, N. M., Wilderom, C., & Peterson, M. F. 2011. The handbook of organizational culture and climate. Thousand Oaks, SAGE Publications. Bottom of Form Top of Form Bevan, A., & Wengrow, D. 2010. Cultures of commodity branding. Walnut Creek, Calif, Left Coast Press. Coleman, M., & Glover, D. 2010. Educational leadership and management: developing insights and skills. Maidenhead, Open University Press. Geisler, E., & Wickramasinghe, N. 2009. Principles of knowledge management: theory, practices, and cases. Armonk, N.Y., M.E. Sharpe. Griffin, R. W. (2012). Management. Mason, OH, Cengage Learning Custom Publishing. 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Mason, OH, USA, South-Western Cengage Learning. Sheldrake, J. 2003. Management theory. Australia, Thomson. Top of Form Stanford, N. 2011. Corporate culture: getting it right. Hoboken, N.J., John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Bottom of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Top of Form Read More