Organizational Psychology: Management Style in W.L Gore - Case Study Example

 Work-life Balance Case Study Key elements in the corporate culture at W.L. Gore that may prevent employees from taking advantage of there being no set work hours W.L Gore does not have working hours for its employees because the organization has its employees based in teams whereby every team has a leader and followers. Leaders emerge based on a personaldisplay of a special knowledge, experience, or skill that enhances the organization’s objectives (Marks, 2012). Because team leaders are chosen based on how one conducts himself or herself, the employees tend to have the responsibility to their working hours not just to push the organization’s objectives but also to build their careers. Employees also build the commitment in themselves to the organization’s fourprinciples, which include, fairness, freedom to encourage and help other employees develop in skills and knowledge, ability to have and uphold commitments and consultation with other employees before making critical decisions that influence the organization (Hill & Jones, 2012). These principles allow employees to manage themselves instead of having someone to manage them.This has made many employees to develop the responsibility to uphold their devotion to work. In cases where these commitments need staffing at precise hours, then the teams organize and come up with every participating individual’s hours of work. Management style and management responsibilities in W.L Gore Despite the management style in W.L Gore being disconcerting and differentit has managed to break into the market and prosper. The organization is different in the sense that it does not have job titles, no bosses, and no formal hierarchy in its organizational structure. This was in place to avoid suppressing the company into a thick layer of formal management, which acts like stifling an individual’s creativity. Therefore, the organization preferred a team based flat lattice and network organization (Stanford, 2012).Employees can ask anyone in the organization anything they want to be successful in the company rather than having decisions going up to the top then come back down. The company has a sponsor program instead of having bosses. This helps the new employees in getting started and following how they progressed (Daft, 2012). The sponsors act as a mentor, coach, and an advocate who watches assigned employee and guiding them by concentrating on his or her strengths. If an employee moves to another team, he or she will get another sponsor there to continue with the guidance program. This can make any employee a sponsor, a leader, and a follower simultaneously (Lawler, 2010). The company also believes in passion such that if someone is passionate of his or her work then they will be highly self-motivated towards work and this makes them performers (Pollard, 2008). They tend to see how authority imposes commands and not commitments, so they avoid the formal management in place of teamwork where one works where he or she can best. An employee can say no to an opinion but once they accept a task it is like a sacred oath. This management is therefore very democratic, participative, and self-regulated. Challenges employers may face when trying to implement W.L. Gore’s distinctive approach to work-life balance in different countries of its own operations The main challenge they are likely to face is the absence of working hours for employees. This can be a task since some people do not have the resilience that the company expects. Some employees can skip their working days because they already know there is no repercussion they will be facing. There can be questions with people’s attitude towards working hours since they vary across many countries. Cultural influences of some countries can be a challenge for example in Japan and China. They inhibit someone’s ability in working in a highly empowered and democraticsystem for example in power and distance domain. Employees from some countries lack the will to do and decide situations on their own. They rather prefer having someone to tell them what to do.In addition, the responsibility in leadership increases in countries where democracy is not a familiar notion. Introducing this approach into the UAE W.L Gore’s approach cannot be appropriate for adoption in the UAE. This is because companies cannot emulate Gore’s culture sine it will require total restructuring and alteration of already established culture. Gore has founded its approach since the company begun therefore it will be difficult to execute the approach on an already established company. It is always an uncertainty whether already accepted company can adopt the radical structure of Gore. For an organization operating with hierarchical structure, it will be worrying for Gore’s approach to those in power and the subordinates could view this as a revolt. Elements of W.L. Gore’s work-life balance program that other organizations could adopt Other organizations should adopt the guiding principles in W.L Gore Company because the company’s prosperity is the proof. Other companies should adopt freedom for employees in order to achieve their objectives by channeling their effort to the organization’s success. Organizations shouldallow employees to bring ideas, take actions, make mistakes because it is part of development, and mentor each other towards career growth. Fairness should be an important factor in an organization among themselves, customers and any associate of the organization. Companies should encourage its employees to make commitments, which they ought to keep, as this will enhance workflow. In addition, they should adopt consultations among employees on decisions that have effect to the company. Strengths and weaknesses of the case study in relation to Work/Life Balance Strength We approach relation of the organization and work/life balance by its working hours. The company has no working hours but instead it has commitments that employees make towards their work and responsibilities. One always has the permit to attend to his or her personal and family responsibilities. This gives people an ample space to handle their life issues and responsibilities without much pressure. In addition, the company allows people to work from their homes in cases where there is need for long working hours. Weakness The company does not have working hours and any staff can work on an autonomous choice. The workers can miss working days without any questioning and they do not have to explain anything to anyone. The company has few policies and rules such that their practices develop naturally rather than framing them in policies. Therefore, this makes no relation between policies and work/life balance. Link between Organizational Psychology theory and practice Organizational psychology goes on with the urge to address issues that are of importance to workers. Due to this applied focusthat tends to prioritize on applicability over fundamental insight and in turndata over theory. For a research on organizational psychology to be good, it should have guidance from a well-developed concept analysis. Before every practice established, there has to be a theory to justify it and this shows the link between theory and practice (Myers, Hulks, & Wiggins, 2012). References Daft (2012). “Organization Theory and Design.” Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. Hill, C. & Jones, G. (2012). “Strategic Management: An Integrated Approach.” Boston, Massachusetts: Cengage Learning. Marks, T. (2012). “20:20 project management: How to deliver on time, on budget and on spec.” London: Kogan Page. Myers, P., Hulks, S., & Wiggins, L. (2012). “Organizational change: Perspectives on theory and practice.” Oxford: Oxford University Press. Pollard, D. (2008). Finding the Sweet Spot: The Natural Entrepreneur's Guide to Responsible, Sustainable, Joyful Work. Vermont: Chelsea Green Publishing. Stanford, N. (2013). Organizational health: An integrated approach to building optimum performance. London: Kogan Page. Ulrich, D. & Lawler, E. (2013). Talent: Making people your competitive advantage. San Francisco: Calif: Jossey-Bass. Read More