Introduction to People, Organisations, and Management - Case Study Example

TABLE OF CONTENTS After completing your assignment, you can up the table of contents below to correct the page numbers clicking on it with the right button (update field > update page numbers only). When the file is ready for submission, please delete all instructions in red. PATCH 1: PERSONALITY SELF-ASSESSMENT AND CAREER CHOICE (1,000 words) 3 PATCH 2: LEARNING DIARY (1,000 words) 4 PATCH 3: CASE STUDY REPORT (2,000 words) 7 REFERENCES 13 SELF-ASSESSMENT 15 Important note about the word limit: You will find recommendations regarding the word limit for each patch. However, there is some flexibility in such limits of about 100 words (for example, if you do 100 words less in Patch 1 you can compensate for it doing 100 words more in Patch 3). Importantly, the final word count can vary in about 300 words (below or above the 4,000 limit). Please remember that tables and figures, references, appendix and self-assessment do not count for the final word count. PATCH 1: PERSONALITY SELF-ASSESSMENT AND CAREER CHOICE (1,000 words) Complete one of the two tables below according to the theory you chose to use and delete the other as appropriate. The words in the table don’t count for the final word count. The Big-5 Traits Your score Self-assessment Openness to experience Contentiousness Extraversion Agreeableness Neuroticism MBTI (Jung’s typology) Type Your score Self-assessment Extraversion – Introversion Intuition – Sensing Feeling – Thinking Judging – Perceiving Complete the table below. The words in the table don’t count for the final word count. Holland’s interest profile Interest profile Your score Self-assessment Realistic Investigative Artistic Social Enterprising Conventional Commentary on person-job fit (600 - 750 words) Include in the Appendix the job position you will comment on. Cover letter (250 - 400 words) If you wish, you can include your CV in the Appendix as well, as long as you refer to it in the cover letter. PATCH 2: LEARNING DIARY (1,000 words) The diary needs to have a minimum of 10 entries, 5 of which are specified below based on seminar activities. If wanted, you can add rows to include more entries. Please specify the dates in dd/mm format, and then order the table by ascending date. The words in the table don’t count for the final word count. Date What was the activity? What have I learned? How will I apply this learning? Design of the seminar activity “explain the activity you designed with your group” (instructions will be given during Part A seminars on organisation structure and architecture on week 3; if unable to attend for a valid reason, contact your tutor and s/he will provide you with an alternative) Use of the Prospects career planner (Part B seminar on careers and career management on week 4) Exercise on the effect of positive and negative reinforcement on behaviour change (Seminar Part B on learning on week 6; if unable to attend for a valid reason, contact your tutor and s/he will provide you with an alternative) Peer feedback on formative assessment (Part A seminar on week 11) Tutor feedback on a draft of my patchwork assignment (Part A seminar on week 11) You choose You choose You choose You choose You choose Reflection on your learning using theory (700 – 1,000 words) As the table above requires a lot of thinking and writing, you are allowed here to write a minimum of 700 and a maximum of 1,000 words. PATCH 3: CASE STUDY REPORT (2,000 words) 1. Introduction Valve Software or Valve Corporation is a company engaged in providing computer based entertainment and software solutions employing over 300 people who are empowered to apply their creativity at their workplace. This company emerges as a unique case study because they have achieved what most companies find it difficult to even think. There are no supervisors or managers who direct roles of employees. The company works under a flat organizational structure where each employee is treated as an equal. In this way, the company tries to remove any barriers between the customers and the employees. It is believed that people form the most critical component of any company and this is one of the major problems for Valve corporation where the company has to work together to involve a new employee and help him to adjust to its unique work climate. The absence of any human resources management team makes it the responsibility of the existing employees within the company Objective of this report is to analyse the organizational structure and the corporate culture with Valve Corporation. Through the study of the company’s structure and culture, the report essay to find out the way in which company manages its people, work and management. Valve Corporation is unique in terms of its company’s management structure. It is a flat organizational structure that has no bosses. This presents an interesting case study for analysis as to how a company can be managed in the absence of bosses. The organizational culture is influenced by the company’s leadership and management and since the company follows a flat structure, it shall be noteworthy to know how such company’s culture patterns emerge. 2. Analysis 2.1. Organizational structure and architecture The key to creational and collaboration as seen by Valve Corporation is to involve employees and give them the power to innovate and experiment with final products (Valve Handbook for New Employees 2012, p.4). They have strongly believed that navigation within the company gets simplified if there is complete absence of any manager or supervisory element. Valve Corporation has structured itself as a flat organizational structure which has in turn reduced barriers between the work of an employee and its customers. In such an organic structure, the contribution by each employee is weighed equally. The workers within such an organization are more liek team members rather than employees. The organic structure is more popular in advertising agencies, independent research firms, commissioned sales representatives and within factories in South Korea (Robbins and Judge, 2013). Such companies have eliminated the chain of command, replace departments with empowered teams and have limitless control breaking all kinds of geographical boundaries. It has been argued that the matrix structure is more logical in terms of organizational structure for companies of the size and diversity of Valve Corporation (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2013; Campbell and Goold, 2003). This organic structure also includes decentralization of power to a very high degree. The company has no management and the employees are entitled to take part in the process of decision making. Such decisions can be quite harmful if it is found that the employee is not of rational thinking. It becomes an additional tasks for Valve’s employees to recruit the right kind of people who are capable of rational and strategic thinking along with the capability to understand and adjust to the company’s unique organizational structure. The company seems to be making good revenues through collaborated efforts of the group. As the company shall grow in size, it is imperative that the need for visionary leaders shall arise. This implies that lack of leaders and mentors makes distribution and sharing of information quite ineffective. This can be fatal in the long run. Valve’s management system is viewed to be strength for the company as well. It has been observed that valve corporation is more profitable than Amazon or Microsoft. The contingency theory here states that the organic structure is more oriented towards high risk and high revenue terms. In this context, mechanistic organizational structure which calls for the need of leadership and direction in an organization is low risk and low profit oriented. However, the case of valve has a problem in association with such high risk maintenance. Mintzberg’s theory of organizational structure states that organic structure follows the adhocracy structure where organizations are highly innovative. Such innovative ability of organizations drives high profits but innovations can go wrong too. Valve Corporation is a computer gaming company which is constantly innovating for new games and software. In the event of an innovation implementation failure, the need and role of a proper management system shall be realized. Managerial guidance and functioning is important for the purpose of implementing and innovation and designing its market penetration and development within the computer gaming segment. The study of the case of Valve Corporation presents that there is need for change in the company’s organizational structure. The company is recommended to understand the needs and wants of its employees to grow into a larger and more successful company. For this purpose, it is suggested that Valve includes the concept of supervisors and managers within its company structure. It is suggested that the company follows a mix of organic and mechanistic organizational structure. They could include the manager system within the human resources department so as to ensure proper and suitable employment training and absorption of employees within the company. The decision making process can still seek the involvement of employees and thereby retain its organic nature of organizational structure in certain parts. 2.2. Organizational Culture The Employee handbook for Valve Corporation was released in an attempt to bring some peace to the bewildered new hires. The new incumbents at Valve Corporation found it impossible to believe that ultra flat structure of the organization was a reality indeed. They were facing difficulties in getting used to the system and practices within the company and Valve Corporation found it important to clarify the culture and structure of the organization in order to facilitate the mentoring and orientation process for the new recruits. The organizational culture at Valve is largely agile where hierarchies are dismantled for the purpose of promoting an innovative and creative environment. Valve has been a leader in engaging its audiences through captivating games that is constantly original (Wingfield, 2012). As per the handbook, hierarchy is believed to be great for maintenance of repetition and prediction. It is responsible for simplification of planning and controlling of a large group of people following a top down approach. The need for hierarchical structure is highly felt within the military and Valve feels that it is necessary to remove such a system within the organizational context. The culture promotes the company’s personality. According to Handy’s framework in the context of Valve, the person culture exists for the mutual benefit of organizational as well as personal development (Brooks, 2009). There is complete absence of any formalised control structure which enabled employees to think freely and creatively. Information sharing within such an organization is based on mutual respect and expertise of people within different aspects. According to Goeffe and Jones culture contingency framework (2003), Valve operates in a networked culture where lots of communication between the staff which includes the induction process undertaken by the employees at Valve for the new recruits. This culture promotes social interaction. Each department is divided as functional groups and communication between departments is observed through collective decision making culture within the company. Specialisation of work departments helps to make a better representation of the interests and concerns of each department during the decision making process. the environment is highly informal which sets the right tone for a networked work environment (Robbins and Judge, 2012). The absence of hierarchy within Valve Corporation can be likened to the context of an artist who is a professional and is free to decide over his paintings. Such artists do not need maps of textures for assistance in creating an artwork. Hence it is believed that absence of hierarchy also helps to develop self organization among employees. They tend to become more responsible and accountable for their work. Such freedom only promotes a good working environment and it is observed that good is linked to profitability. Good workplace environment also promotes high levels of employee retention (Wingfield, 2012). It is identified that recruiting becomes a problem within such unstructured organizational structure but in case of Valve, reports suggest that employees come to the company attracted by complete absence of authoritative structure in the company (Wingfield, 2012). Such analysis presents that Valve Corporation ahs a strong organizational culture where the employees are dedicated towards their task. Employee participation within the decision making process and absence of hierarchy promotes a sense of ownership with the company among the employees. This builds employee commitment towards company’s goals. On the flip side, freedom within organizational culture can also be a deterrent to company functioning and even existence. Free minds and weak hierarchical structure might lead to disintegration of independent thinking staff who shall seek to detach themselves from the company in the absence of control over employees thought and actions. In the presence of a manager, such actions can be managed through guidance and direction 3. Conclusions The Valve Corporation case study is developed n the basis of the employee handbook of the company available on its official website. The company does not have any structured organization chart because works on the theories of an organic organizational structure. The employees are present within each department but each department lacks a mentor or a supervisor which shall guide and mentor the team of employees. The management free structure has potentially driven the company to the levels of success at which it operates today. Valve Corporation has been able to identify the potential drawbacks of the present system like hiring and induction of new incumbents, high risk and informal pattern of mentoring. This leads to the argument that high risk structure might not be able to sustain the company for the long run. It is essential that Valve Corporation looks at moving towards a more mechanistic structure of management. Being a technology based company that has heavy reliance on innovations, it is necessary to have a team that can guide and mentor these innovations into proper implementation strategy. For this, the company needs to have a system of hierarchy in place which shall be able to overcome all problems faced by the company and also contribute towards higher revenues through formalised, controlled and an autonomous work staff. The culture within Valve Corporation is indeed one of those that have awed the world. It is impossible to believe that such an organizational structure can exist for a company which is valued at a net worth of about $2 billion (Wingfield, 2012). It also cannot be denied that the cultural set up within Valve does have its positive effects which are very much evident. The company has found a way to work a enable freedom and innovative thinking within its organizational set up. It has presented stunning examples of its successful innovations like the Counterstrike 1.6 and GS 3. However, the company has to realise that such a corporate culture needs supervision. It is essential that the company looks through control mechanisms and develops a degree of employee management so as to avoid catastrophes like disintegration of company on account of independent thought of employees. Cultural management does not wholly support either of presence or absence of controls, however, in the context of Valve, it is recommended that some degree of control is exercised in order to remain sustainable in the long run. WORD COUNT: include final word count (3,700 – 4,300; REFERENCES Please cite your references in-text and compile here the full reference list following the ARU Harvard referencing style available here: http://libweb.anglia.ac.uk/referencing/harvard.htm Robbins, S. P. and Judge, T.A., 2013. Organizational Behavior. 15th ed. Harlow: Pearson/FT Prentice Hall. Buchanan, D.A. and Huczynski, A.J., 2013. Organizational Behaviour. 8th ed. Harlow:Pearson/FT Prentice Hall. Campbell, A. and Goold, M., 2003. The collaborative Enterprise. New York: Capstone Publishing Limited. Wingfield, N., 012. Game Maker Without a Rule Book. [online] Available at: [Accessed 28 March 2014]. Brooks, I. 2009. Organisational Behaviour: Individuals, Groups and Organisation. Harlow: Pearson/FT Prentice Hall. Robbins, S. P. and Judge, T. A., 2012. Organizational Behavior. 15th ed. Harlow: Pearson. http://media.steampowered.com/apps/valve/Valve_NewEmployeeHandbook.pdf http://www.jeffwofford.com/?p=943 APPENDIX SELF-ASSESSMENT Grade Justification of the grade PATCH 1: Personality self-assessment and career choice PATCH 2: Learning diary PATCH 3: Case study report Read More