MDCs Approach To Motivating And Coordinating Employees In Xerox - Essay Example

MDCs Approach To Motivating And Coordinating Employees In Xerox #1  John Clendenin’s objectives at Xerox were to grow and lead the MDC department, managing and staffing operations for this facet of the company. Clendenin was given significant authority to achieve his objectives, although the timeline of his leaving is somewhat problematic, and the process has been ongoing. MDC’s approach to motivating and coordinating employees is rather loose and informal. It operates in an open system, in alignment with theories of leadership, and tends to focus less on positional leadership, planning, and formulated strategy in the organization, and more on the open communication between individuals (Chapter 5). This could most clearly demonstrate the role of Clendenin being the authority as the project manager within the organization, because they are let go to coordinate activities and build teams according to their own creative standards and communication patterns after the rational career development training. The sources of power in a matrix organization like Xerox are very disparate and changeable, to reflect the external environment of change and dynamism in a competitive industry. Clendenin created many new opportunities for looking at organizations and the relationships that are formed out of a sense of circumstance and happening rather than out of a sense of totalized management planning. The result was a more open and malleable system that accounts for vagaries in the organization and obstacles that may not be as easily accounted for from other, more rationally strict viewpoints. This perspective also often stresses the ability of the face of the organization, like Clendenin, to determine its corporate culture. #2 Clendenin’s social network Clendenin’s relationship Threats Opportunities Trustworthiness Hewitt Subordinate Thinking C. is being forced off the fast track Decision-making Debatable MDC team Overseer Internal culture changes Stay 2 years Strong Gunning Mentee Misalignment of goals Realignment of goals Strong Clendenin has a strong social network based on a foundation of team-based management. MDC has made various organizational design choices as shown in the case, particularly revolving around its new career development initiatives and new procedures that focus on teamwork as well as effective management. In terms of its status as an organization as shown and depicted in the case, MDC has faced design challenges in various ways. In terms of vertical differentiation, this has been met at the organization through the maintenance of systems within a matrix type design, which still has differentiated areas of control such as those of project manager and sub-project manager, who are able to balance between the multinational sections of the organization and the more domestic management- or budget-oriented sections, which form two distinct organizational cultures. Clendenin has also expanded the more social side of his social network by installing performance initiatives and company get-togethers. #3 In terms of the obstacles Clendenin faced, and the strategies he used to overcome them, two major obstacles were the jealousy of other Xerox departments towards MDC, and having to build MDC from the ground up. Everyone in the group or on the team didn’t grow up with the same rules. Leaders like Clendenin therefore have to know how to communicate with everyone as equals and not show favoritism or diminished expectations (Leadership). This is another aspect of communication in the effective leader that people need to look at specifically. Formal leadership comes from a title, but true leadership comes from an ability to treat people as equals. In terms of leadership, it has also been demonstrated by MDC that collective decisions are more effective in implementation than individual decisions. This is another benefit of making creative decisions through utilizing teamwork. Yet another benefit is that the unity that binds the group together will further ideas of equal participation. There are plenty of people who are content to be a team member, but effective leadership and effective teamwork patterns can help ensure that everyone involves becomes a real team player, as inspired on the MDC teams. Power is a difficult thing to really quantify and assess, and the case tends to focus more on dynamism and coherence between functional and project management entities than it does on power relationships. Also, the case author interviews different managers with very different perspectives on power and authority. However, it can be seen in terms of overall agreement that at MDC, there have been many obstacles. In other words, from this perspective, power comes from the interplay between two systems or two sides of the matrix: Xerox and MDC come together to form the power dynamic. #4 John uses techniques of charismatic leadership and team-building to expand his social network. At the end of the case, I would recommend that John stay with MDC for two more years. But being a charismatic leader is not always strictly defined by one individual whose decisions are held above others in a real-world environment. In today’s complicated world, an expanded definition of the charismatic leader is needed. After all, it is not only one person who is responsible for making decisions: effective decisions now more than ever must be a team effort among a group of people who share a common vision of success. People who think they are charismatic leaders may accept too much responsibility for their decisions are denying the fact that they are by nature working within a supportive community which surrounds them, and which is the nature of their responsibility. They must not lose sight of the implications of their decisions on others; such behavior could border on crossing the line of definition from being a charismatic leader to being a bad influence. Too often, leaders think that they are somehow better than everyone else, and also too often, other people accept this as the natural definition of them. But in the case, Clendenin shows the true charismatic leader understands that he only leads through the accepting permission of those who make up a team in which everyone has an equal say and is able to provide input and feedback without fearing condescension. Problems also may arise when a charismatic leader operates under a theoretical code of conduct that effects a reality of disparate individuals minimally. I think that a group can become a dynamic and powerful entity, a charismatic leader itself, and this is shown by the transformational leadership John displays at MDC. #5 John uses many interpersonal and organizational strategies to accomplish his objectives. This type of person might be a type who encourages a person to change from what they are used to, or their status quo. John really demonstrates how the most powerful kind of leader is this kind of charismatic leader. It seems that this role can also be applied to the definition of a charismatic leader as someone more personal as well, since the function of getting support through dynamic action that is seen to be new and refreshing would be part of everyone’s life structure, if it can be called a structure, even the charismatic leader. In terms of communication and motivation, unconventional problem solving is most applicable to the organization mentioned above in terms of positive results. On the other hand, a rational model may look at organizations in a way that is a little more scripted and predetermined than this model, because it does not automatically assume that everything in an organization is going to proceed rationally without any sort of central motivating authority. And this is often the case in organizations, especially ones in which complex relationships are formed among individuals. In the case of MDC and Xerox, the matrix structure strategy appears to be the main model that can be applied to most of the quotidian operations of the organization. That is, in the relationships that are formed between employees and managers, as well as customers, the matrix structure is predominant because it does not try to script these relationships or hold them to a rational standard. Something more rigid than the matrix system may be a better theoretical perspective for looking at the operations of MDC, involving simplified communication in terms of assessing how the workers and managers function on teams, rather than as individuals. Read More