Organizational Behavior and Skills Required in a Successful 21st Century - Case Study Example

Management College: Contents 3 Management 4 Introduction 4 Organizational Behaviors and Skills Required in a Successful 21st-Century 5 Working in an Uncertain Environment 8 SWOT Analysis of BMI 9 Appreciative Inquiry Approach 10 Recommendations 12 Abstract Performance-based project review is a tool that the human resource management utilizes in monitoring and tracking the business during its implementation process, to ensure that it is in line with the predetermined goal and objective. Multinational corporations experience numerous challenges while venturing in an uncertain business environment including having to cultural diversity within its human labor. The purpose of this essay is to provide a reflective approach to business performance evaluation, as a way of tracking business performance during its phases of scenario planning. By evaluating the effectiveness business strategies in the dynamic market structure evident in the 21st century, it is possible to recommend modest strategies that can be used to correct the business path. The Appreciative inquiry business model will be recommended as a flexible tool for effective human resource management. Management Introduction Multinational corporations, such as Beta Manufacturing Incorporated (BMI) are faced with the challenge of managing cultural diversity while implementing projects in various target markets that are un-uniform and dynamic. While implementing projects in foreign nations, an organization will require to strategize on how to manage its resources including the human labour in to penetrate the market and compete with the external and internal market phases. The human labor is a crucial element of any business, and its management and effective utilization has a direct impact on the company profits and its success. The productivity of human labor in all the phases of business establishment lies on the shoulders of the organizational managers. The role of human resource manager in an organization is to recruit, train, monitor, evaluate and motivate the employees during the project implementation process. The performance of a company will depend on its ability to exercise effective organization behavior and skills while managing teamwork among the employees within the business system. To do this, a company will require to conduct a SWOT analysis as a strategy of re-evaluating its effectiveness in gathering its strengths, neutralizing its threats and weaknesses and grasping its opportunities in the foreign market. Effective team management and organizational behavior are the basic elements that a multinational company must possess in order to survive in the diverse market. The Beta Manufacturing Incorporation (BMI) is a multinational telecommunication organization that has its business located in the United States, Mexico, Taiwan, and Kenya. The ability of the company to spread its wings to foreign nations has come along with the challenge of having to manage a diverse labor force as a necessary survival strategy in the highly competitive market conditions. The success of the company is dependent on its capacity to utilize the available human labor in supporting its projects during the various stages of performance based scenario-planning project. The management has failed to recognize the modern principles of diversity management if manage its employees, which has resulted to poor employee productivity. Its effort to revise the employee appraisal process has ended up being futile, resulting in a complex, cumbersome and discouraging process for both the employees and the managers. In this paper, we shall employ a reflective approach to evaluate the effectiveness of the performance review process in BMI, and hence recommend strategies that can be employed to overcome the challenges that the company has faced in managing the diverse workforce in the dynamic labor market. Organizational Behaviors and Skills Required in a Successful 21st-Century Organizational transformation is an element of business that an organization cannot ignore in the 21st century. With the proliferation of technology the barriers of business boundaries have become a thing of the past and the world has condensed into a small village. This is a century that has been dominated by trade globalization and extension of business boundaries to feature international business markets (Kreitman, 1997). These changes have had a great impact on trade and organizations are under the pressure to readjust their organizational behavior to suit diversified business environments that are characterized with unpredictable market forces. When a company makes an effort to internationalize its business, it has to be prepared for varying market environments, and unpredictable market forces that characterize foreign markets. One challenge that arises in foreign markets is the understanding of the available labor force, its management and motivation. Global diversity management advocates that business organizations provide opportunities for each employee to grow and develop within the organizations that they work in. It requires that the organization takes consideration of the various unique of characteristics of the labor population in order to provide equal opportunities for every employee in the society. The role of the management to establish a productive workforce is not a simple task. Kreitman (1997, p. 1) points out that in the 21st century the role of the human resource manager is to maintain a cohesive team that bears the same business agenda as the organization, and works towards the business set goals and objectives. The idea of this scholar is that the management has a big role in managing the worker-attributes and aligning them in to the specific objectives of the company. Having invested in foreign markets, Beta Manufacturing Incorporation has encountered a great cultural diversity that has proved to be a sensitive group to handle. Cultural diversity refers to the variation of the ethnical and traditional characteristics of the labour force and customers in the business environment. To operate in a multi-cultural environment, effective organizational and teamwork behavior is important for BMI if it has to thrive well in its international trade. Effective human resource management requires a reflective approach to look back and track the business progress. According to Brookfield (1998), critical reflective analysis is a critical tool in evaluating the performance of practitioners in any organization, and the corrective aspect of this kind of analysis has great benefits in modeling the future tracks of a practitioner (Alden, 2011). Therefore, the challenge experienced by BMI can be resolved if this kind of approach is used to evaluate the performance of the organization in the international market. One organizational behavior that a company needs in this century is the ability to implement diversity management within the organization (Robbins, 2009). In this aspect, the company needs to conduct a market research to understand the cultural demands in the new business environments. In any business system, organizational behavior defines how the human resource managers use effective management techniques to study human psychology while making short term and long term decisions in an organization. The challenges that face BMI can be associated with poor organizational behavior, especially in its poor strategies in working out cultural balance schemes. The company has failed to recognize the significance of employing workers from all cultures in the labor force. Failure to understand the cultural psychology as a ground to enhance the cultural balance of new business environments is a big hindrance to company development. Although the company has assimilated different cultures, they have not successfully invested in enhancing social cohesion among the different cultures that have different traditions and beliefs. In addition, the BMI has failed to implement team behavior in the work environment, which has had adverse consequences for the firm. Economists have commended teamwork as the basis for company development. In foreign markets, for instance in Kenya, employees have varying backgrounds and the management team has a great role to bring them together in the business focus if at all the organizational goals are to be met. High performance teams can only be established if an organization invests in innovative schemes to form a collaborative labor force that will drive the business to superior end results. BMI management has failed to achieve worker co-ordination particularly in the implementation stage of scenario planning (Tuckman, & Jensen, 1977). One major reason why is the company has failed to achieve High performing groups is its failure in promoting participative leadership, which requires that the management include all the employees in the decision making process. Lack of employee participation has brought about employee dissatisfaction and hence poor performance. In short, the limitations of BMI emanates from the failure of the management to involve employees in the project implementation process, hence lowering down their morale. Working in an Uncertain Environment Investment in foreign markets comes along with the risk of working in an environment whose characteristics are complex and hard to predict. Therefore, flexibility is not an option for any company that intends to excel in such an environment. The reaction of the customers, the labor force and the market forces are all paramount in readjusting organizational strategies during the project implementation stage. In this view, the company required to monitor the project and re-evaluate its decisions at each stage of its implementation. Therefore, to enter a new market the management must design organizational behavior that is adaptive and dynamic to help the company to achieve its business goals (Barrett & Fry, 2005). The adaptability of a company depends on its ability to learn the new market environment promptly, and exercise flexibility to catch up with market demands. Each business environment has its rules and masterly of the rules of a market assists the company to improve its strategies during the establishment process. Adaptivity can only be enhanced if the company management conducts a thorough market research before deciding to invest in it. Market research enables managers to understand the market force, to determine the competitors, to learn from the experience of others and to re-design their strategies to suit the new environment. When the project is rolled out, it is important to remain dynamic by using feedback channels to effect adjustment to the business strategy. Kreitman (1997) uses the analogy organizations and organisms to depict how companies need to survive in new and uncertain environments; just like organisms adapt to their environments by learning feeding tactics, a business must also learn tips and tricks of surviving in a new business environment. Although BMI conducted a thorough research before expanding its business market, it has failed to achieve effective project monitoring and consequently has failed to fit the market demands. The company has relied on their imperative decisions in re-inventing the business path and has failed to assimilate employee feedback in re-strategizing. The employees’ feedback must be considered to reshape the business track and reform the business strategy (Lewis, Passmore & Cantore, 2008). The employee feedback is based on the ground experience and hence has substantial significance to the direction of the business. It is crucial to engage employees in the performance review process to ensure that the ground issues are considered while improving the business policy. The failure of BMI management to include employee feedback is a negative organizational behavior that amounts to its ineffectiveness. SWOT Analysis of BMI The future of a company can be guaranteed if only the company is able to capitalize on its strengths, overcome its threats and weaknesses and take advantage of any opportunities that comes its way. The role of the strategizing team is to identify its strengths, weaknesses, the looming threats and the opportunities that can be utilized to survive in new market environments. The BMI has enjoyed a great reputation of being recognized telecommunication equipment manufactures in the world. Its strengths lie in its ability to come up with unique and quality products that are long lasting and satisfying to customers in the long run. The company has maintained this trend which has given the company an upper hand in the business market, and a competitive advantage against its business rivals. The survival of this telecommunications company can be attributed to its ability to cling to this desirable organizational behavior. The foreign market has offered BMI numerous opportunities to push its business to the next height. In Kenya, BMI has an opportunity to supply telephone equipment, which is a market that has been least exploited in this country. Although the company has become a major supplier of Siemen systems in the country, the opportunity has not been fully exploited due to internal business weaknesses. The inability of the company to get on board its employees has become a great weakness for the company leading to underperformance (Cooperrider, Whitney, & Stavros, 2008). This underperformance of the company can be attributed to its inability to build a cohesive team through effective cultural diversity management strategies. This trend of the company has given its competitors, who are the major threats in the market, a competitive advantage over it. It seems that the internal organizational behavior has limited the organizational development. In short, shortage of team work building is the BMI has undermined its potential to exploit the available opportunities in the telecommunication sector. Appreciative Inquiry Approach The changes in the business approach in the 21st century demands for more dynamic approach to effect performance review during the various stages in the performance-based scenario-planning process. In performance based scenario-planning process, organizations adopt a flexible business plan that can be evaluated at any stage of company development. Self-evaluation at each stage ensures that the business plan is maintained at the right course in accordance with the objectives of the company (Kreitman, 1997 : Chermack, 2011). One of the most effective performance review models is the appreciative inquiry approach, which pays particular attention to remodeling group formations to maintain optimal team cohesion along the implementation stage. Given the weakness exhibited by the Beta Manufacturing Company in group formation can demand that the management switch this model, which is effective in building worker cohesiveness. In managing the human work force, the appreciative inquiry model recognizes the need for effective organizational behavior for employee appraisal in a business environment. Earlier authors such as Tuckman and Jensen (1977) recognize the need for group development in small business organizations through relational improvement among the workers. Appreciative inquiry approach aims at establishing worker loyalty through a management-employee mutual relationship in the work environment. The strengths of this model can be exploited to overcome the challenges that the BMI Company has experience in a culturally-diversified environment. The simplicity of this model can be a great exploited by human resource managers in BMI to replace the complex model that they had adopted. The appreciative model is a principle-based multi-stage model that faces the problem head-on by as opposed to other models that seek to define what the problem is. The first stage of this model, the define stage, in which the management seeks to establish the problems that exist within their team behavior in the organization. This stage is problem specific and it aims at establishing ways in which the recruitment and job motivation can be implemented. The second stage is the discovery stage that aims at obtaining employee feedback about their taste of job conditions. This is similar to Brookfield’s (1998) idea of CIQ questions that are paramount in critical reflective studies. Establishing a worker rapport will ensure that the employee is free to air their complaints, grievances or even positive comments which are essential in discovering the root problems. By discovering the problems within the team, it is possible dream, the third stage of this model, a process that involves brainstorming of the problems that to come up with innovative problems solving techniques. By coining a business vision, it is possible for the management to enter the project design stage to build the dream so formed. In the design stage, the practitioners derive formulae to implement the already built vision of the company. The final stage of the appreciative inquiry theory involves is referred to as the delivery stage which now involves all the organization employs in implementing the formulated dream. The strength of this model emanates from its employee involved in re-inventing organizational behavior. To address the problem of cultural diversity in Beta Manufacturers incorporated, it is important for the human resource managers to adopt the appreciative inquiry theory to stabilize the human labor. This model is best suited for this company since it is simple, realistic and solution oriented as compared to problem solving models that aim at establishing treating side the side effects of the problem (Lewis, Passmore, & Cantore, 2008). Just like the method stipulates, it would be recommendable for the organization to appreciate the situation in the company as it is, and work along with employees to improve the situation. Innovation would be essential in this process especially in a situation where the company has to deal with diversified culture. For instance, Kenya has a total of 42 ethnic groups which the company has to select its employees from. To ensure worker collaboration in such an environment, it would be crucial to redefine their structural ties to beat the racial barriers and establish an organizational bond. Recommendations In future, it would be necessary to co-ordinate conduct a comprehensive research before implementing management decisions in a foreign country. The experience that can be derived from the experience of BMI is that proper market research is paramount in a foreign market that has mixed culture orientation. An empirical research would help a company to build the confidence of the management in implementing team work in a new market environment. Teamwork in a company determines the extent to which the company will achieve its organizational goals and objectives (Cooperrider, Whitney & Stavros, 2008). Through experience, effective group development can only be achieved if the company has identified its target market and the global characteristics of the labor market. Understanding the population will assist the human resource manager to approach the labor force with more dynamic approaches. It is recommendable to approach team management with an adaptive strategy to enhance survival in an uncertain market environment. Every environment has its own rules and survival depends on how fast an organization learns to dance to the tune of the market. To hasten the learning process, it would be crucial for an organization to involve its team players in team work building process. By learning the tastes of each employee it becomes easy to satisfy the employees more effectively and get them on board to push the business goals to reality. Economists have recommended that although the priority of the organization is to meet its target, it should seek to satisfy the employees’ goals so that they can bear a long term purpose for the organization (Robbins, 2009). One way of satisfying employees’ long term goals is defining a transparent promotion strategy based on employee stay in the company and appreciation of employees’ efforts. By building team work, the BMI would be able to capitalize on its strengths, exploit its opportunities and neutralize its weaknesses and threats. Conclusion The conclusion that can be derived from this experience is that the teamwork is paramount to any business organization, and its enhancement will push the business to its predetermined goals. With the current global trends, an organization must be prepared to encounter a business environment that has diverse characteristics, which may pose a challenge to maneuver if the human resource management adopts rigid organizational strategies. Cultural diversity is a challenge that every organization must encounter while investing in a foreign business environment. Business in the 21st century requires adaptivity and policy flexibility allow the organization to adjust to the rules of the market that often differ from one market to another. The appreciative inquiry model is one of the recent models that can used to impact effective human resource management by its principles of simplicity, flexibility and innovation while dealing with team cohesion issues. Beta Manufacturing Inc should adopt this strategy to implement management leadership while dealing with a multi-cultured business environment. References Alden, B., (2011). Distance Learners Conceptions of Reflection in Higher Education. Psychology of Education Review, 35(10), pp. 3–7. Barrett, F.J. and Fry, R.E., (2005) Appreciative Inquiry: A Positive Approach to Building Cooperative Capacity. Chagrin Falls, OH: Taos Institute Brookfield, S., (1998). Critically Reflective Practice. Journal of Continuing Education in the Health Professions, 18(4), pp. 197–205. Chermack, T.J., (2011). Scenario planning in organizations: How to create, use, and assess scenarios. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler. Cooperrider, D.L., Whitney, D. and Stavros, J.M., (2008) Appreciative Inquiry Handbook Brunswick, OH: Crown Custom Publishing. Kreitman, (1997). 21st Century Organization: What it will look like. Retrieved from: < http://www.well.com/~kbk/aqpppr.html> Lewis, S., Passmore, J. & Cantore, S., (2008). The Appreciative Inquiry Approach to Change Management. London, UK: Kogan Paul. Robbins, S. P. (2009). Organizational behaviour: Global and Southern African perspectives. Cape Town: Pearson Education. Tuckman, W. and Jensen, c., (1977). Stages of Small-Group Development Revisited. Group and Organization Studies, 2(4), PP.419–427. Read More