Moving Toward Optimal Organization Design - Assignment Example

Organizational Management Organizational Magement DQ Moving Toward Optimal Organization Design The process of effecting organizational design is based on enhancing or improving the chances of an organization realizing its corporate objectives. In all organizations, when the workers wish to effect a specific design, they will start by generating definite decision guidelines which will be used by the organizational personnel to implement the actions that have been agreed upon (Becker & Glascoff, 2014). When deciding on a particular design, the corporate executives will likely make decisions that are aligned with the firm’s vision and purpose in order to assist organizational members to be able to concentrate on achieving the stipulated strategies while also improving efficiency (Osterwalder & Pigneur, 2010). There are companies that have increased their overall efficiency, thus realizing greater profits while saving on costs, as a result of introducing an organizational design model that improved their operations (Maztoul & Malek, 2014). For instance, the U.S. Army’s organizational design is basically in the form of a matrix structure in which distinct functions are connected with subsystems such as the combat and production subsystem. The operations that fall under the production subsystem include functional commands, training command, and installation operations. The integrating subsystem is tasked with integrating all other systems together while the combat subsystem transforms the existing assets into combat ready implements. The Army has in the recent past effected a far-reaching organizational design transformation that is based on re-alignment. The main aim of implementing the re-alignment was to strike a balance between different levels of authority while also meeting the growing needs of the army personnel (Cocks, 2014). The corporate design implementation process successfully met these objectives while also drawing attention to the importance of team-building. Becker, C. M., & Glascoff, M. A. (2014). Process measures: a leadership tool for management. TQM Journal, 26(1), 50-62. Cocks, G. (2014). Optimising pathways for an organisational change management programme. TQM Journal,26(1),88-97. Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Maztoul, S., & Malek, B. (2014). Does Corporate Governance Matter in Meeting and Beating Analysts Forecasts. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(2), 276-290. DQ#2: Personal Gleanings  In my time as a supervisor in the communications operations within the United States Marine Corps, the importance of the concept of communication has emerged as one of the most significant determinants of success in any operations. Basically, communication involves the exchanging of information between a receiver and a sender. In my position as a supervisor in the United States Marine Corp, I communicate regularly with other marines, the senior members of the Marine Corps, and the surrounding community. I know that my interpersonal skills, personality, past training experiences, and even challenges I have gone through have made it possible for me to be able to communicate efficiently with people from different ethnic backgrounds. This is particular because it is only in rare circumstances that I am able to exchange information face-by-face. The responsibilities of my position call for me to be able to conduct meetings with different people in multiple settings such as in meetings or assemblies. I also have to communicate with large numbers of people through electronic correspondence, mass mailings, or even publications. While communicating through such means is quite practical when dealing with a wide receivership, it also does not encourage responses and also has more likelihood of supporting miscommunications. In terms of army operations, it is especially important for marine corps to learn the different communication styles that can be used by friends and foes to express information. For instance, in areas of conflict, marine corps have to learn to understand how an individual perceives his or her surroundings in order to be able to successfully interact with them in order to prevent the incidence of misunderstandings, and negative responses or consequences. DQ#3: Managing People According to Chris DeVaney, who is the Pinnacle Performance Improvement’s founder, managers have to play different roles when seeking to support employees from different cultural backgrounds who work in their organizations (DeVaney, 2013). At different intervals, managers have to function as coaches, captains, political analysts, fortune tellers, cheer-leaders, negotiators, hunters, and spokesmen. According to DeVaney, supporting diversity in the workplace also involves organizing groups in such a way that they become functional units, dealing with conflicts, streamlining operational procedures, and constantly seeking to inspire the workers (DeVaney, 2013). Another important aspect of managing a diverse workforce has to do with constantly trying to engage the workers (Burkus, 2013). It is a recognized fact that workers who do not belong to the mainstream culture usually experience anxiety about their positions in the organization as well as about their capacity to deliver what their jobs entail (Salim & Sulaiman, 2011). This means that they may be prone to feeling alone and depressed on a more regular basis than their counterparts from the mainstream culture. This is why they may require more assistance than other workers. In the United States Marine Corps, there are orientation programs that are customized to cater to the needs of entrants from different cultural backgrounds. However, the organization has also recently introduced he system of mentoring for entrants who come from cultures that are significantly different from that of the United States. It is also common for personnel from the higher ranks to seek to develop relationships with different marines while remaining open about the prospect of learning new things about various cultures around the world. This can be of substantial help to new recruits who may feel bewildered about the American culture but feel that they cannot express their concern because they do not wish to display any type of weakness (Suckley, Price, & Sharpe, 2013). Burkus, D. (2013). Leading Creatives: Research and Implications on Leading Creative Work Teams. Strategic Leadership Review, 3(4), 71-75. DeVany, C. (2013). 15 Roles Leaders Play to Manage Performance and Accountability. THE PUBLIC MANAGER, pp. 31-33. Retrieved from https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/management-common/Management/MGMT600/Readings%20and%20Articles/Wk06supp-15%20Leader%20Roles%20for%20Managers.pdf Salim, I. M., & Sulaiman, M. (2011). Organizational Learning, Innovation and Performance: A Study of Malaysian Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(12), 118-125. Suckley, L. J., Price, I., & Sharpe, J. (2013). Exploring inter-departmental barriers between production and quality. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 2(2), 173-190. DQ#4: Charlie Carefree and Sandy Scrooge There are different factors that have to be taken into consideration when handling this situation. In the first place, there is an obvious though probably unspoken tension between Charlie Carefree and Sandy Scrooge. This is evident through the different ways in which they react to situations. Seeming to openly support one over the other could be dangerous because both may have personal feelings of animosity about each other which color their views about what is real. It is also important to take into consideration the fact that as a new entrant who has been promoted over both assistants, there is a very real possibility that both could decide to underhandedly sabotage all my efforts to effect improvements that will benefit the firm. While Sandy is open and expressive about her disappointments, Charlie Carefree, who seems to be more accepting, may also be more extremely dissatisfied with the decision to appoint a newcomer to a senior position. Given the fact that both Sandy Scrooge and Charlie Carefree are valued employees, I would invest in ensuring that they both still felt inspired to contribute to the organization. If there were tasks allocated by the manager or supervisor, I would ensure that we all tackled the problem as a team. This would inspire both individuals to maintain their commitment to the firm even though they both have different opinions about how they think that the firm should be run. I would also seek to ensure that I praised each one’s talent to him in the absence of the other co-worker. If the situation, particularly with Sandy, became more extreme, I would completely distance myself from her reactions in order to stop her internal turmoil from affecting how I perform my work. DQ#5: Culture and/or Climate in the Workplace—Do They Matter? In many organizations today, there are workers from different ethnic backgrounds who work alongside each other (Melody, 2014). In the United States, in particular, workers from different nations regularly work together. The United States Marine Corps has marines from nations all over the world who have become naturalized American citizens. It falls to the senior supervisors and commandants to ensure that these marines develop as a team and function as a singular unit. This can be difficult to achieve because, even though they may have made the decision to identify as Americans, marines are inevitably affected by the cultures they grew up immersed in (Tomczyk, Lee, & Winslow, 2013). Different personnel may have completely different values from others in the Marine Corps. They may also have different ways of communicating verbally as well as non-verbally in different situations. In addition, it is not unheard of for different ethnic groups in the Marine Corps to believe in false stereotypes regarding other ethnic cultures. Supervisors have to work through all these issues in order to bring together the personnel from different backgrounds. The presence of conflict in all circumstances results in negative outcomes such as under-performing because people are not likely to concentrate on the tasks at hand when they are emotionally distant or depressed. Miscommunication, which could easily take place in an organization with personnel from so many cultural backgrounds, could also result in the withdrawal of organizational personnel (Gentry, Eckert, Munusamy, Stawiski, & Martin, 2014). Managers or supervisors can deal with this problem by first dealing with incidences of conflict or miscommunication immediately they occur. This stops the problem from growing bigger and, thus, being more complex and difficult to handle. Managers and supervisors also have the option of employing destructive or productive conflict solving methods. For instance, when a conflict occurs, supervisors in the Marine Corps are aware that they have to select a ‘neutral’ place in which to solve the problem. They also have to decide on whether to address the issue formally or informally, and how to address the issue. The supervisor in question may also have to decide on how much time will be used to address and solve the issue. All these facts have to be considered because the situational context has the ability to impact the power balance. Gentry, W. A., Eckert, R. H., Munusamy, V. P., Stawiski, S. A., & Martin, J. L. (2014). The Needs of Participants in Leadership Development Programs: A Qualitative and Quantitative Cross-Country Investigation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies,21(1), 83. Melody, P.M.C. (2014). Influence behaviors and organizational commitment: a comparative study. Leadership & Organization Development Journal,35(1),54-78. Tomczyk, D., Lee, J., & Winslow, E. (2013). Entrepreneurs Personal Values, Compensation, and High Growth Firm Performance. Journal of Small Business Management,51(1), 66. DQ#6: Personal Process Using the Canvas Recently, I saw my supervisor make a minor infraction. I was surprised because he has been with the Marine Corps for 10 years and keenly understands all the rules he has to abide by. He was meant to visit a base that is some distance from our base. After waiting for sometime, it became apparent that his scheduled flight would arrive late. He was displeased by this fact; and his staff felt that they had to do something to alleviate his worry. So they located a different private plane that was not supposed to be used on that day and made arrangements for the supervisor to use it. I was surprised by this infraction because my supervisor has had to deal with many disciplinary cases where more junior officers commandeered cars and used them for personal errands or without official permission. There is a law in the United States Marine Corps’ constitution that outlaws ‘travel abuse’. The supervisor contravened this law. Even though he was counseled about this breach of ethics by his superior, many junior officers still felt surprised and a little frustrated that he did not suffer from any major punishment. The erring supervisor had incurred $35, 000 worth of expenses by chartering the unscheduled flight. The fact is that the issue of following rules and regulations is much impressed upon the junior officers but not much upon the more senior officers. This may be because it is presumed that the senior officers already have a deep understanding and respect of the Marine Corps regulations. However, it is important to ensure that even the senior officers are periodically reminded of the rules. This is important because they are more likely to presume that they have ‘earned’ the right to commit ‘insignificant’ errors that do not adversely affect other people than the junior officers. References Becker, C. M., & Glascoff, M. A. (2014). Process measures: a leadership tool for management. TQM Journal, 26(1), 50-62. Burkus, D. (2013). Leading Creatives: Research and Implications on Leading Creative Work Teams. Strategic Leadership Review, 3(4), 71-75 Cocks, G. (2014). Optimising pathways for an organisational change management programme. TQM Journal,26(1),88-97. DeVany, C. (2013). 15 Roles Leaders Play to Manage Performance and Accountability. THE PUBLIC MANAGER, pp. 31-33. Retrieved from https://edge.apus.edu/access/content/group/management-common/Management/MGMT600/Readings%20and%20Articles/Wk06supp-15%20Leader%20Roles%20for%20Managers.pdf Gentry, W. A., Eckert, R. H., Munusamy, V. P., Stawiski, S. A., & Martin, J. L. (2014). The Needs of Participants in Leadership Development Programs: A Qualitative and Quantitative Cross-Country Investigation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies,21(1), 83. Osterwalder, A., & Pigneur, Y. (2010). Business model generation. Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons. Maztoul, S., & Malek, B. (2014). Does Corporate Governance Matter in Meeting and Beating Analysts Forecasts. International Journal of Business and Management, 9(2), 276-290. Melody, P.M.C. (2014). Influence behaviors and organizational commitment: a comparative study. Leadership & Organization Development Journal,35(1),54-78. Salim, I. M., & Sulaiman, M. (2011). Organizational Learning, Innovation and Performance: A Study of Malaysian Small and Medium Sized Enterprises. International Journal of Business and Management, 6(12), 118-125 Srivastava, M., Rogers, H., & Lettice, F. (2013). Team performance management: past, current and future trends. Team Performance Management,19(7/8), 352-362. Suckley, L. J., Price, I., & Sharpe, J. (2013). Exploring inter-departmental barriers between production and quality. Journal of Organizational Ethnography, 2(2), 173-190. Tomczyk, D., Lee, J., & Winslow, E. (2013). Entrepreneurs Personal Values, Compensation, and High Growth Firm Performance. Journal of Small Business Management,51(1), 66. Read More