How Organizational Inefficiency Characterizes Some Firms - Assignment Example

SWOT Analysis Essay Format Introduction Most organizations are operating in such a way that they cannot achieve their maximum potential. As such, change is necessary since the economy new approaches to enhance its competitive advantage. Organizations are mainly becoming profitable the moment they make good use available opportunities through commitment to irrational and difficult to measure things like people, quality, and customer service (Brown, 2010). Every organization should posses a system of joint values and beliefs that relate with an organizations people, structure, and structures to produce behavioral norms that can make the company maximize on its productivity. The purpose of this assignment is to provide a practical example of how organizational inefficiency characterizes some firms. The assignment is based on communication of two employees of the company, and their communication is used to unearth managerial and organizational problems that are faced by this company. Case analysis This busy organization is trying to work on several projects with different teams under the leadership of different people. Communication is a major hurdle for this organization since their leaders cannot easily communicate with each other except for emergencies as experienced in the case of Larry and Ryan (Brown, 2010). Another problem with the company is the manner in which they assign tasks to different leaders of the group. Larry is assigned a new team to manage instead of assigning it to Ryan who has experience of leading the team some three years back. Due to the communication problem, Ryan is telling Larry to keep their communication confidential, information that could be shared with other leaders of the company to help improve on their performance. John, the project manager is under a lot of pressure from his departmental head to get the project moving at a faster pace. The team led by John is also not turning out any result, leading to more pressure from the top management. Friction within the group members and poor leadership of John is partly blamed for this. The retreat arranged by this company is not beneficial as it turns out to be very weird according to Ryan (Brown, 2010). The company seems to carry out rigorous training for their leaders but this is fruitless since some of them do not seem to learn from the company’s team leadership course. The retreats organized by the company also seems less important as it is evident from Ryan that Johns’ team is associated with joking around instead of bonding with others. Problems A Macro (Opportunities and threats) 1. One of the greatest opportunities is that there are several projects for them to work on in pursuing their goals. This is evident since Larry is given several projects to work on by the management of the company (Brown, 2010). The company also has good workers who can perform better under good leadership. 2. What poses the biggest threat to this company is the leadership style, especially in the subunits. Their leadership lacks a proper philosophy of management in order to make the workers productive in carrying out their tasks. John lacks a proper vision of the company and his action and values is contrary to the expectations of the company leading to poor result from his team. 3. Lack of proper operational culture also posses a threat to the survival of this company. In this organization, the culture of discipline, determination, and hard work seem to be lacking, leading to failure of some of the projects set up by the company. The organization is thus threatened by the laziness of their leaders, a condition that may result in reduced profits for the company. B. Micro (Strengths and Weaknesses) 1. This organization is characterized by a hardworking team of members who can perform better under the stewardship of visionary leaders. They also have enough capital needed to finance their activities and project while at the same time pays their employees well. The top management of this organization also provides maximum support for their employees and leaders to an extent that they sponsor team retreats occasionally and provide them with other necessary support. 2. Poor leadership posses the biggest weakness of this organization since some of the projects they support fails. When members of his team are in organizational retreat, John, their leaders, fails to demonstrate leadership skills resulting in a complaint from one of the members. 3. Lack of proper communication structure also poses a major hurdle to the progress envisaged by this organization. Ryan and Larry are not able to communicate easily by phone despite working for the same organization. Kate, the departmental head is putting John under a lot of pressure to get the project moving at a faster rate, a demonstration of communication problem. II. Causes 1. Problems with this company are caused by poor leadership, both form departmental heads to team leaders. The leaders lack properly defined roles for their duties and this leads to rumbling and poor results in their duties. The management also seems to lack proper structures than can enhance the organization effectiveness and performance of their duties. In this organization, the communication process is characterized by barriers that result in a slow decision-making process leading to low productivity. III. Systems Affected Psychosocial Behavioral system is affected in that team building is not effective enough to promote productivity in the organization (Brown, 2010). Due to improper communication, channel process intervention is negatively affected in this organization. There are no elements of quality control that can promote the performance and the productivity of their products. Role negotiation is not properly done since some leaders seem not properly understand their roles. Third party intervention seems poor in this organization and this is compounded by communication problems that rock this organization. This is evident when Ryan is sent to help the team headed by John and he is not properly welcomed into that team. Structural Job enrichment is highly affected, leading to poor results in some of the projects done by this organization. Team building is not effective since members come from a retreat with very little progress concerning their organization roles. Role negotiation is not properly done and role analysis if not considered thus reducing the effectiveness of this organization. Technical Employee empowerment is less beneficial for their projects are less successful as expected. Proper job design can yield good results and this is highly affected in this organization. Virtual team and quality control are also affected due to technological system breakdown. Goals and Values Organizational effectiveness is the degree of goal achievement (Brown, 2010) and organizations should use their resources to attain their long-term goals. Organizational goals enable the organization to improve on its effectiveness and achieve their mandate. Managerial Since other systems in this organization lack coherency, the management system is equally affected because the managers are not in a position to discharge their mandate successfully. This is because the management system greatly depends on other systems to ensure effectiveness in organizations. IV. Alternatives 1. This organization can opt to hire new leaders who can steer the company forward. 2. Proper education can be conducted with all leaders together with their employees to enhance their productivity. 3. Performance indicators should be installed by the organization to assess each department performance. V. Recommendations 1. An assessment should be done to all leaders and those found incompetent replaced with immediate effect. A proper training should then be conducted to all leaders to upgrade their leadership skills. In this way, the effectiveness of this organization will improve tremendously. 2. Create a vision for change since shared vision provides the direction, focus, and commitment to all the people concerned in the production process and this improves on their effectiveness. In developing a proper model for change, it should be targeted to the various subunits that seem less productive in order to influence their subcultures. 3. This organization should formulate a clear communication policy to improve communication within their organization. Information is crucial for organizational development and this can only be facilitated by proper communication structures within and outside the organization. Conclusion Organizational effectiveness is important in achieving organizational goals. In order to improve on their performance, an organization should be aware of their strengths and weaknesses together with opportunities and threats. An organization should have clear roles and structures that enhance its activities and productivity. The management should also lead of a clear philosophy and values that are in tandem with organizational culture. Their visions and actions should also be clear and inspiring to facilitate performance within their subordinates. Appendix Case Analysis Form I Problems B Macro 1. Several projects to work on 2. Leadership style 3. Poor organizational culture B. Micro 1. Hardworking team 2. Poor leadership 3. Poor communication strategies II. Causes 1 Poor management 2 Poor organization structure 3 Communication barrier III. Systems Affected 1. Psychosocial 2. Structural 3. Technical 4. Managerial 5. Goals and Values IV. Alternatives 1. Hire new leaders 2. Proper education for leaders 3. Install performance indicators V. Recommendations 1 Assess performance 2 Create a vision for change 3 Formulate clear communication policy Reference Brown, D.R. (2010). An Experimental Approach to Organization Development. 8th ED. Prentice Hall. Read More