Changes in Organizations and Management - Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc - Case Study Example

Changes in Organizations and Management (Students Name) (Institution) (Date) Introduction The establishment of organisations and the art and science of management are some of the progressive processes in the world’s history. Organisations form a critical part of the society. Therefore, they have continued to face significant progress. Besides, the management of these organisations has equally witnessed remarkable progress. During the 19th Century, management and organisations were deemed as social constructs and obligations with little scientific processes involved. Several scholars who studied organisations and management gave a rather social perspective except few such as Taylor. However, this perspective and concept have continued to change quite significantly since the beginning of 20th century (Melton 2005). The position help by organisations in the contemporary society is integral and therefore progressive depending on the changes in the political, social, psychological and even cultural perspectives within the society. The organisations have been modelled and changed depending on what they purpose to achieve, their composition, their management, their structure, beliefs and the manner in which they work. All these changes have been captured by contemporary scholars and theorists who continuously attempt to distinguish between the modern organisation and management as well as the traditional organisations (Womack & Jones 2010). This paper specifically intends to underscore some of the significant changes and progress which have been made in organisations and management since the start of 20th century. The paper seeks to discuss some of the specific attributes of organisations such as their purpose. Formation, management, composition and an example of the contemporary organisation which I have been previously involved. Essentially, the analysis in this paper seeks to bring out the particular progress which has occurred in the organisation as compared to the traditional belief and perspectives of earlier scholars. Historical perspective and theories of organisations and management Organisations have been in existence from the olden days. Their existence, however, was less structured and focused as opposed to the modern organisations. Before the 20th century, several organisations came into existence as the formation of social constructs. Many political, administrative and even social organisations came into existence upon the foundation of mutual concept. For example, business organisations were majorly formed by a group of people with the social and agreement but may have lacked concise economic objective. Little investigations and understandings on purpose of these organisations were carried out. Therefore, many theories attempted to centre on leadership rather than on the human resource and the objectives (Melton 2005). For example, the Scientific Management Theory postulated by Fredrick Taylor (1890-1940) primarily focused on the complex nature of industries that existed during this period. The theory espoused the understanding that the organisations and management need to be run on the principles of rewards and punishment so as to achieve its goals. It further advocated for the management of routine activities in the organisations so as to achieve the purpose. The another theory advanced during this period was referred to as Bureaucratic Management Theory whose brainchild was Max Weber. This approach recognised the complex nature of activities of any organisation. Therefore, it advocated for the establishment of the hierarchical system with definite lines of authority. Further, the theory conceptualised an organisation as a system comprising of different functional areas. Therefore, the bureaucratic mechanism would ensure proper reporting and flow of authority from top to bottom. Most of these historical theorists understood organisation regarding their social orientation and composition. Little significance was attributed to their roles, culture, objectives and changes within their structure. Therefore, the modern perspectives regarding organisation have recorded remarkable changes and tapped in the gap which has been in up to the beginning of 20th century (Wright 2002). Changes in contemporary organisations and management since the start of 20th century Reduction in the hierarchical structure Organization has witnessed immense changes and progressed regarding their structure. Historical, theoretical perspectives such as the bureaucratic theory assumed that there exist structural boundaries and flow of authority within the organisations which determine their nature. Further, traditional organisations organised themselves in a manner in which strong structural boundaries highly guarded every department and authority. For example, some of the manufacturing industries which existed during the industrial revolution established a strong hierarchical structure between the top management and the lower cadre of the workforce (Wright 2002). The workers were deemed as less significant in such organisation and were mostly dependent on the decisions of the top management in such companies. This was further affected the way in which leadership tricked to lower segments of such organisation. In the recent past, there has been enormous development and progress towards breaking the wall between different departments and level in the organisations. The role of decision-making has progressively been decentralised so as to integrate the voice of other junior staff and management levels in the process of decision-making (Melton 2005). The hierarchical structure has recently been replaced by cross unit organisational structures which aim at decentralising authority and obligations among various members of the organisation. Cross unit organisational structure has recently been adopted in many organisations so as to reduce autonomy and powers of top management and instead foster the participation and role of everyone in the organisation in decision making. The progressive advancement into the cross unit structure has immensely changed the role of organisations. It has expanded the participation of other members of the organisation especially in decisions making functions and reporting systems. There are fewer barriers between different departments and levels of authorities in the modern organisation. This is partly attributed to the changing operational environment which requires prompt and flexible decisions to be made. Hierarchical structures tend to consume a lot of time for successful decisions-making and execution of policies; a phenomenon which is progressively wiped away due to the highly fluid and changing competitive environment (Womack & Jones 2010). Therefore, many modern organisations have instead adopted the cross unit organisation structure as a tool to make quick and flexible dictions for addressing some of the emerging issues in the competitive world. I was privileged to work as a part-time employee of one of the privately-owned business organisations in the United States referred to as ‘Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc.’ The business organisation which constituted of a CEO, MD and other functional departmental heads hosted a total of 20,000 employees. The theory of Cross Unite Organizations Structure became part of the organisation. The role operational decision-making was left in the hands of the departmental heads who normally worked with the views of the staff. Besides, the implementation of the tactical plans and decisions was highly decentralised to the departments and were further allowed to make temporary decisions as deemed expedient to address the changing and competitive business environment. As a result, the organisation continues to stand out as one of the highly responsive and progressive organisations in the country leading in travel network and coordination (Wren 2005.) Emergence of Goal-Oriented Culture and Management Approach Every organisation depends on the style and structure of management so as to realise its objectives. The management culture is defined by the values, beliefs and norms which shape up the management perspective. In many cases, a progressive management is essential towards fostering an organisation to realise its purpose. The same applies to a retrogressive management culture which is less focused towards goal realisation. Since the beginning of the 20th centuries, organisations have aligned themselves towards achieving their specific and general objectives which form the foundation of their establishment. The competitive corporate world has further necessitated every management to be highly geared towards motivating its human resource factor that plays an enormous role in dictating the progress of an organisation. Therefore, several management perspectives have shifted from ensuring employee adherence to rules and policies. Instead, they have focused on aligning the employees towards realising the goals and objective of the organisation captured within the strategic plan. The management’s perspective has changed from policies to goals. This progressive change has been deemed as a departure from various historical perspectives. Theories such as the bureaucratic management theory were highly centred on authority and command policies for the flow of the administrative process. It centered on the existing chain of command and boundaries of authority which needs to be observed within the organisation. Such a historical, theoretical perspective centered little on the achievement of goals in the organisation. Besides, it gave little focus on motivating employees towards achieving the objectives and the purpose for the formation of the particular organisation. Therefore many companies and organisation failed to match their plan with their actual achievements due to less attention on the objectives. Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc is one of the organisations which have developed a goal-oriented culture within its realms of operations. Every employee who enters into the organisation is educated on purpose and aims set to be achieved. The management, additionally, has been active in motivating and steering the staff towards the goals rather than observance of the administrative policies. This has precipitated the organisation immense profitability and realisation of objectives. The change in culture and management perspective has been instigated by the nature of the environment which is highly competitive and requires the realisation of goals and objectives as a survival tactic (Van Buuren 2008). The organisation as sub-system of the community The society is composed of several systems which interact to provide a source of livelihood to the inhabitant. The organisations form an integral part of the entire social system. The community within which an organisation operates has been considered as a key player in determining the success or failure of such an organisation. It’s normally composed of immediate customers and key players who interact with the organisation. In the historical periods, the community was less regarded in determining the operations and existence of organisation such as business organisations. Many theorists avoided the integration of the society in discussing or evaluating the keep players in the success of the organisation (Smith 2001). In the modern corporate environment, organisations have consistently appreciated and advocated for the involvement of community-related engagements so as to foster the good business relationship. The management of such organisation has equally been bent towards promoting the relationship between the community and the respective company or business. One of the most common contemporary procedures used to facilitate this involvement is through the institution and execution of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. These are voluntary activities done by business and other organisation aimed at promoting the welfare of such a community and fostering friendly relation. CSR initiatives have come into practice in the recent years especially after various organisations recognised the role played by the community in dictating their success (Smit & Cronje 2002). During the beginning of 20th century, many contemporary organisations changed their management culture and oriented their practices towards the surrounding society. The customers and potential partners in business have become aware and keenly observe the moves taken by any organisation towards the environment. Studies have proved that the organisation which participate in SCR have received remarkable embrace by the community. This has further translated into the nature of relationship and engagement existing within such organisations and the community. Some of the most common CSR initiatives carried out by modern organisation includes sponsorship of education opportunities, assisting the needy in the society, organisation social events such as sports and also participating in environmental conservation practices (Ruedi & Buckley 2000). During my work period at Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc, I noticed the periodic involvement of the organisation and the management of the community activities. The organisation continues to run a proper CSR plan which majorly sponsors several students through the high school and college levels of education. Besides, the organisation periodically organises practical sensitization and demonstration events aimed at creating awareness on environmental conservation and protection. Besides, the staff within the organisation has been educated to adopt the culture of friendly service and approach to every client who visits the premises. This is aimed at fostering a more hospitable approach and service to the community and getting the community involved in the running of various initiative sin the business. Further, the management of Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc provides for an allocation of annual budget towards CSR activities (Persson 2006). This has remained as the culture of the business and continued to foster stronger work relationship between Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc and the society (Jacobs 2006). Adoption of Lean thinking and practices by contemporary organisations and management One of the changes which have considerably been attributed to the modern organisations regards the adoption of the lean concept. The lean concept refers to an organisational practice aimed at minimising waste and maximising output from a given process such as manufacturing processes. The management in the modern corporate world has continually adopted this technique that came into existence in the 1970s as a brain idea of Toyota. It entered into existence as a way of ensuring that the processes of production used as minimum resources as possible while maximising the out as much as possible. The concept revolves around a phenomenon which asserts that break even is achieved when the output can give back returns at a particular point in the production process (Hines et al. 2004). The lean concept is not only applied in the manufacturing industries but nearly all organisational practices. It’s a noble precept which ideally influences the practice of management towards minimising the resources and time use in any process so as to maximise the returns and outcomes of such particular process. Ideally, the traditional organisational thinking was highly determined by the result and not significantly on how to achieve the result. This explains the reasons why most of the industries during the industrialisation period had little focus on the need to minimise resources. In fact, few of them had control on the quantity to be used in the production process (Hartley, Nell 2006.) In recent times, businesses and other organisations have concerted much effort in determining the principles of lean thinking in their activities. One of them corresponds to the definition of value based on the perspectives of customers. This implies that the customers dictate the kind of internal processes and attributes given to decisions and internal processes. This approach is normally referred to as Outside-In Approach. The other aspect involves identifying non-values activities and reducing waste in the activities and processes of the organisation. The significance of this practice is to help in minimising the associated costs and also reducing the period require in processing transactions in the organisation (Rejda 2001). A typical business organisation which exemplifies the success of lean thinking is Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc. My work moments within this organisation enabled me to realize the various ways through which the organisation integrates the perspectives and preferences in its activities. For example, the determination of travel destination of clients such as tourists received by the organisation depends on the perceived preference of the clients. The operation of automated booking systems for the clients equally helps reduce time and documentation that would otherwise make the process cumbersome and avoided by clients. Therefore, many clients continue to prefer the services of Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc and have high demand to be associated with the organisation. The management has further established a waste reduction culture in the manner in which decisions are made and implemented. The delegation of authority and roles has helped minimise the time required for executing various roles within the organisation (Cortez et al. 2012). The existence of organisation culture instead o individual leadership attributes One feature which clearly shows the changes in the contemporary organisations and management is the aspect of body culture. This refers to the beliefs and practices that have been practised over time within the organisation. The organisation culture is carried along one period to another through the vehicle of organisation policy, vision and mission. Every member who joins a modern organisation is made aware of the values which the business stands for, how to exercise such values and the relevance of such beliefs in shaping the success of the organisation. For example, most modern businesses are premised on the concept of value- addition as a culture. Therefore, every employee who joins the business is compelled to behave and operate in a manner likely to ensure value addition to the organisation. Organisational culture has considerably replaced the personality traits and attributed which initially determined the choice of management. For example, many organisations became successful from the personal characteristics of the manager (Carroll 2005). However, the establishment of the organisation culture in moist companies and organisation has facilitated growth despite the changes made in the management levels. Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc is one of the organisations which has experienced changes within the management level many tomes. However, this has not affected the profitability and the operational standards of the organisation. The running of operations within Carlson Wagonlit Travel Inc has been improved and made to succeed due to the existence of a strong organisation culture. This is one of the changes in the businesses operations that have been witnessed in the modern times (Wondolleck & Yaffee 2000). References Carroll, A. B. (2005). 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