Samsung - Organization Behavior - Essay Example

SAMSUNG: ORGANIZATION BEHAVIOR The Kodak International and Xerox, in their bid to reduce the costs, and its restructuring and downsizing activities have affected it immensely. However recent reports suggest that there are reasons for these organizations in terms of their impaired ability to perform long term. The company has shown poor leadership when trying to capitalize on technological breakthroughs. However Samsung International has played convincing role, and has taken concrete measures to support and strengthen the organizational behavior. The international community has entered an era of technological advancement, where the business, commercial and economic activities are so integrated that its one world economy, and the notion of unilateral and international economy has changed the nature of competition, and has forced the companies to broaden the scope of their activities. The second generation of the Information Age, marked by advances in decision support and telecommunications technology, is changing the nature of work in all organizations. Samsung International, Japanese based company, has successfully employed sufficient and required measures to bolster and supports its international sale, with the involvement and active participation of its employees. The Samsung international has therefore successfully incorporated the required technological features, and services of the employees; their management, analytical and technical skills. Samsung understands that the "quality Service Revolution" has changed and enhanced the spectrum of competition among world competitors as product and service quality become increasingly important to consumers, both internally and externally. The three dimensions of management are summarized to be technical, conceptual and human. Samsung International has therefore trained its managers, because it understands that it is important for the managers to evolve meaningful solutions and techniques for resolution of complex management problems, by employing innovative technological solutions that provide answers to problems people and organizations are having. For achieving management success, it is important to understand the extent of involvement of human resources needed for the deployment of these resources. COMPANY AND HENRI PRINCIPLES Samsung International has applied the principles of Henri Fayol, the father of management. The Samsung International has split the workforce into certain segments, and has achieved better production and quality work input. The practice of division of work has provided the employer with an opportunity of maximizing employee efforts. It is applicable to all work including research and technical applications. There are limitations to specialization which are determined has been determined by application. The company has stressed on the importance and role of the authority, and therefore the authority has the rights to give orders and the power to exact obedience. Samsung International has made clear distinction between a managers official authority deriving from office and personal authority created through individual personality, intelligence and experience. The company has introduced certain rules and regulations to ensure that there exists obedience and respect between the firm and its employees. The company considers it necessary to hold clear understanding and courtesy between the employer and employees for proper functioning of the organization. Managers have been vested with the required powers to apply sanctions whenever violations become apparent. Samsung International has taken concrete measures to ensure that managers having proper and well assigned network, and under no circumstance there should be any exchange of argument or conflict between the managers for the overlapping of their task and responsibilities. It is ensures that an employee in under one manager only, and the employee will be receiving commands from only that particular manager. Employees are not encouraged for adapting to dual command. The company has realized that how important it is to ensure unity of direction, the company has requested the concerned authorities to ensure that organizational activities must have one central authority and one plan of action. The company has been successfully in making the employees their deep attachment, which is beyond professional values. Therefore the employer expects that employees will always keep their individual interests under the general interest of the company. The company offers salaries and related remuneration to its employees on fair grounds, the amount allocated is such that it brings satisfaction both to the employee and employer. The rate of remuneration is dependent on the value of the services rendered as determined by the employment market. The optimum degree of centralization varies according to the dynamics of each organization. The company has implemented centralized network with the objective of best utilization of personnel. A chain of authority exists from the highest organizational authority to the lowest ranks. The company has practiced the "gang plank" principle of direct communication between employees, for increasing and expediting the effectiveness of organizational communication. The company has introduced particular department for inspecting the quality of the employees and materials. The right materials and the right employees are necessary for each organizational function and activity, and the company has introduced certain checks and inspection activities on periodic basis. Samsung has encouraged and successfully practiced equity in its policies towards the employees and customers. The desires for equity and equality treatment are the successful aspirations of the company, which has been practiced regularly while dealing with the employees. The company has further worked towards establishment stable work force for attainment of maximum productivity of personal. The company understands that management insecurity produces undesirable consequences. The company has worked out a plan for ensuring that success is an extremely strong motivator. The company understands that at ‘all levels of the organizational ladder zeal and energy on the part of employees are augmented by initiative’. (Howard L. Shenson - Business & Economics. How to Develop and Promote Successful Seminars and Workshops: The Definitive Guide). The company has promoted the practice of team work, it is fundamentally important for an organization. The company has created work teams, and used extensive face to face verbal communication. COMPANY AND WEBER PRINCIPLE Samsung International has applied the principles of Weber to incorporate organizational behavior in successful manner. All the positions within the management are structured in a way permitting the higher positions to supervise and control the lower positions. This provides a clear chain of command facilitating control and order throughout the organization. All responsibilities in the company are rationalized to the point where each employee will have the necessary expertise to master a particular task. This necessitates granting each employee the requisite authority to complete all such tasks. Standard operating procedures have been developed to provide certainty and facilitate coordination. The company understands that it is important for the managers to maintain an impersonal relationship with the employees because of the need to have a rational decision making process rather than one influenced by favoritism and personal prejudice. Such an organizational atmosphere has facilitated rational evaluation of employee outcomes where personal prejudice would not be a dominant consideration. According to Weber, ‘Competence should be the basis for all decisions made in hiring, job assignments, and promotions that would lead towards the elimination of personal bias and the significance of "knowing someone" in central personnel decisions’ (Robert J. Thomas., New Product Success Stories: Lessons from Leading Innovators). The company has been able to develop ability and merit as supreme characteristics of the organization. The company also understands that it is important for the high command to maintain complete files regarding all its activities, and in this regard the company has launched update sessions on periodic basis, his advances an accurate organizational "memory" where accurate and complete documents will be available concerning companys actions and determinations. CONFLICTS AND psychological concerns Organization is subject to experience conflicts, and it is an inevitable exercise. The individuals and groups with difference of priorities, interests generate conflicts. The organization in past has experienced such situations where the authorities put the organization into the crisis because of their lust of power. The organization considers that natural arena is responsible for the conflict within and between individuals and group levels. Following are the reasons that which the company views are reasonable for conflicts and arousal, 1. ‘Members compete for limited resources, status, rewards and professional values. 2. Organizational politics involve constant struggles for control, and choices of structure, technology and organizational goals are part of this process. Individuals and organizational interests will not always coincide’. (Robert J. Thomas., New Product Success Stories: Lessons from Leading Innovators.) However in the light on the organization’s management conflicts are not always to be taken seriously, the management firmly believes that conflict can be constructive, because through conflicts, solutions towards different problems can be achieved; also conflicts define power relationship more clearly. Experiencing conflicts has helped the organization to encourage creativity and the experimentation of ideas; furthermore the conflicts help in demarcating the performance and contribution of the individuals. The management of the company has been able to acknowledge and experience the emotional quotient of the employees. However the organization has ensured that conflicts are controlled, and not appreciated for the highlighted advantages. The company has applied certain precautionary measures to avoid and overcome a conflict. The negative opinion towards conflict is because it generates polarity within the organization, and the employees are fragmentized. The organization has experienced that on sudden occasions the attention and focus of the employees towards the assignment gets distracted and diverted. Therefore the organization has adopted certain strategy to minimize occurrence of such situations, and the employers have been encouraged to play neutral role, and all the employees are accountable for their personal and professional conduct. The organization has further warned such miscreants not to disintegrate the workforce, and avoid any such practice responsible for the emotional and religious stimulation of the employees, disturbing the professional momentum. The organization has researched conflict in different contexts. The organization divided the employees into three groups, where the groups were assigned the task of avoiding the controversies, supporting the controversies, and conducting the comparative analysis of controversies respectively. The organization concluded that, 1. ‘Where controversy was avoided, the foremen’s views dominated. 2. Competitive controversy brought no agreement, but brought out feelings of hostility and suspicion. 3. Cooperative controversy brought out differences in an atmosphere of curiosity, trust and openness, the decisions reached seemed to integrate the views of both parties’. (Robert J. Thomas., New Product Success Stories: Lessons from Leading Innovators.) The organization then conducted another experiment in which the employees were given puzzles and human relation problems to work in discussion groups. Some groups were told that the grade each individual got at the end of the course would depend on the performance of his group. Other groups were told that each employee would receive grade according to his personal contribution. The organization was surprised to observe that no significant differences were found between the two kinds of group in the amount of interest and involvement in the task, or in the amount of learning. But first group was more cooperative; however the second group was more competitive, the cooperative group has grater productivity per unit time, better quality of product and discussion, greater coordination of effort and subdivision of activity, more diversity in amount of contribution per member, more attentiveness to fellow members and more friendliness during the discussions. The exercise was good to understand the psychology of the employees. The organization has employed different techniques for managing the conflicts, and early resolution of those conflicts. The adopted measures in this regard range from the denial or suppression through various resolution approaches, to more collaborative ways of working. The organization has supported the formation of commissions for joint problem solving, the company has further laid emphasis on the task along with the conflict resolution, and employees are to accept the need to modify their views for its sake, and group effort must be seen to be superior to individual effort. Furthermore, the organization has supported the practices of bargaining, negotiating and conciliating. The organization beliefs that, to some extent these practices might be inevitable, however employees are requested not to exaggerate their positions to allow for compromise, and compromise itself is seen to weaken the value of the decision, reducing commitment. The organization has also appreciated the application of power or influence to settle the conflict. According to organization, the disadvantage of this is that it creates all the lingering resentment and hostility of win-lose situations. REFERENCES 1. Howard L. Shenson - Business & Economics., How to Develop and Promote Successful Seminars and Workshops: The Definitive Guide 2. Robert J. Thomas., New Product Success Stories: Lessons from Leading Innovators. 3. Chris Rowley, Tae-Won Sohn, Johngseok Bae., Managing Korean Business: Organization, Culture, Human Resources, and Change. 4. Gerardo R. Ungson, Richard M. Steers, Seung-Ho Park., Korean Enterprise: the quest for globalization. 5. Giovanni Dosi, David J. Teece, Josef. Chytry., Technology, organization, and competitiveness: Perspectives on Industrial and Corporate Change. 6. David O. Ulrich, Stephen W. Nason, Mary Ann Von Glinow, Arthur K. Yeung - Business & Economics. Organizational Learning Capability. 7. Richard Daft., The Leadership Experience. Read More