Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Relaxed Corporate Culture - Research Paper Example

 Evaluation of the Effectiveness of a Relaxed Corporate Culture Situational background The competitive nature of businesses that operate in multi-cultural environments seems to require a new type of leadership philosophy and organisational structure that breaks from traditional, highly-controlled management hierarchies. Companies that have a strong human resources focus tend to concentrate their efforts on building more effective, skilled and competitive human capital. Through transformational designs, this is accomplished by decentralising the organisation and giving workers a much higher degree of job role autonomy than in decades prior. Offering employees opportunities for free expression, the ability to offer their own innovations related to changes in the corporate environment, and improving the social networking opportunities with peers and managers are often the human resources activities that have become paramount to building a more cooperative and loyal organisation. However, despite these changes related to giving employees more opportunities within the business, there are problems with decentralisation efforts in business when decision-making is taken away from senior executive leadership and given to lower-level employees. Without tighter controls in areas of job role function and line management, employees have opportunities to become too focused on their own individualized reward systems and can potentially create competition between peers rather than creating a team-focused environment dedicated to meeting long-term strategic goals. Especially in a travel leisure industry, where customer lifestyles and demands for service are extremely diverse, lack of organisational controls might lead to negative brand word-of-mouth or provide customers with a less-organised service experience that can ultimately lead to lost profitability and diminished customer loyalty. The question is then asked as to whether a relaxed corporate culture can be effective in this industry where emotions and psychological behaviours drive the majority of customer decision-making. Are there advantages, in this dynamic industry, in having a relaxed culture? Literature Review Decentralisation of business is designed to give more insight to employees and help them become more motivated by giving them autonomy and developing them as decision makers in the business. It is often the foundation of the relaxed corporate culture where controls are minimal. This section describes advantages and disadvantages, potentially, of the relaxed corporate culture. Companies with a relaxed culture that focuses on individual self-expression and job role autonomy often have a strong human resources focus that helps build more team methodology and improvement of communications and social networking with diverse employee groups. According to Chow (2009) people who work in organisations that have a wide social network filled with influential peer and management relationship are able to develop trust, respect and seem to perform better than those who cannot draw on social networks in a more controlled environment. The nature of the service delivery concept in travel leisure businesses demands a team philosophy to ensure that customers receive an optimized service experience and improve the reputation of the hospitality company. It would seem that focusing on more socialization in the organisation improves total group function and makes it a more collaborative organisation so as to provide customers with top notch service delivery. However, there are those in the business environment that would disagree, suggesting that there are more important dimensions than simply giving workers more autonomy and decision-making control in order to be successful. Phipps & Burbach (2010) identify that in order to achieve the organisation’s purpose and mission successfully, there must be a strong focus on exploiting core competencies and the establishment of organisational controls. Without these two elements, the authors argue, there can be little in terms of competitive advantage in any industry. This would seem to suggest that workers must have a structured environment in which to perform their obligations or the break-down of job role function will be an inevitable conclusion. Despite this argument, some professionals in the corporate environment would disagree and further offer support for abandoning organisational controls in favour of a more relaxed corporate culture. Neubert, Carlson, Kacmar, Roberts & Chonko (2009) offer that in order for workers to be motivated and effective performers, there must be more focus on social learning theory which suggests that the best service-related behaviours spring from observation of role models. Under social learning theory, people learn about what is considered appropriate in the business world by witnessing what is rewarded versus what is punished and then modelling their own behaviours accordingly (Neubert et al). Businesses in the travel sector that aspire to using social learning theory in their daily operations and human resources division recognise that in order for an individual manager or peer worker to be considered a role model, they must exhibit behaviours that are credible, attractive, ethical and influential. In an organisation where management has a high level of power distance from lower-tiered employees in the hierarchy, there is little opportunity for this type of observed behaviour and role modelling, therefore no replication of these new established norms of credibility and influence does not occur. The disadvantage, then, in a more controlled corporate culture is that employees will develop their own norms rather than taking on the behaviours of team-based and cooperative learning in favour of their own goals and ambitions. This would give managers must less control over the whole of the employee population as they seek their own objectives or pursuit of individual reward. Bass & Steidlmeier (1999) would seem to agree in the importance of modelling behaviours associated with a more relaxed and social manager. The authors identify the importance of modernized transformational leadership over those who might operate under traditional Theory X control philosophy. A transformational leader seeks to find opportunities to engage workers and share goals, whilst also trying to bring out the best in workers through charity, good works and harmonious work relationships (Bass & Steidlmeier). This is a break away from traditional management systems, such as the transactional leader who rewards based on contingencies, in favour of a more progressive and social management system. “Leaders who transform seek fresh opportunities, ensure workers have purpose and decision power, and work to ignite ongoing growth in employee groups” (Adams & Adams, 2009, p.17). A transformational manager does not function well in a highly-controlled corporate culture, instead they become focused on human relations and human resources to bridge the gap between higher-level management and the subordinate worker. Their focus is that of advocate, coach and mentor rather than a line manager with structured objectives and high presence in the worker’s job environment. In a service industry, would transformational leadership be most effective over that of a more rigid hierarchical design? Antonakis & Hooijberg (2008) would seem to agree as these authors suggest that in order to motivate workers appropriately, leaders must be inspirational and emotional with an air of charisma when dealing with workers in multiple levels. In order to gain higher levels of performance and achieve organisational goals, the transformational leader should be values-based in their behaviours and stimulate intellectualism with worker populations (Antonakis & Hooijberg). In fact, Amernic, Craig & Tourish (2007) take the role of transformational leader further by provided they should be a mentor in every detail, labelling a more relaxed manager as a “pedagogue, architect, physician, commander and saint” in order to gain employee commitment (Craig & Tourish, 2007, p.1840). In every way, this role is designed to foster stronger social connections between the leader and his or her employees as both a role model and counsellor to get employees to commit to loyalty principles and achieve organisational goals. This cannot be accomplished in a corporate culture where employees have rigid control systems and strict authoritarian hierarchies. “If the organisation is still using vertical hierarchies instead of self-directed work teams, truly empowered to make changes and if communication still flows downward instead of 360 degrees, it is not ready for change” (Reis & Pena, 2005, p.674). This is pertaining to gaining motivation, especially in an organisation like the travel hospitality business that requires strong sales and marketing focus and face-to-face interactions with customers. This environment is driven by emotionally-charged customers hailing from diverse cultural and ethnic backgrounds, thus change is constantly present to meet these changing consumer values and buying behaviours. Change is commonplace when consumer attitudes are always in a state of flux. Again, it would seem that giving employees more decision-making and autonomy are necessary to drive change and satisfy customers whilst at the same time boosting motivation and word-of-mouth advertising from satisfied customers. However, despite all of this literature that indicates a more progressive and relaxed culture with transformational philosophy is most effective, there are still arguments against removing corporate controls from employee groups. Albert & Fetzer (2005) argue that transformational and relaxed environments have difficulty in establishing a feedback system, finding solutions to problems and successfully managing interactive relationships. This seems to point toward a communications breakdown between functional divisions when controls are relaxed and the structure is more progressive. This could potentially lead to customers having difficulty with feedback systems and losing their loyalty to a hospitality brand name. There is one last element that is directly related to motivation and achieving a positive customer-driven reputation for the leisure business. There is a phenomenon in psychology known as the locus of control. People with a high locus of control believe they have control over their own destinies and do not believe they are victims of chance. People with a low locus of control tend to blame circumstances and the actions of others for their own failures with an attitude that it is external forces that control their workplace destinies (Treven & Potocan, 2005). This is an element of psychology associated with motivation and individual job performance, something critical to providing a quality customer service experience. The evidence would seem to suggest that the business must, first, understand the degree associated with worker locus of control before launching a relaxed culture that is decentralised, progressive and transformational. For example, it would stand to reason that if the majority of the employee population is, inherently, filled with low locus of control, they will tend to blame others for their failures and would not necessarily function well in an autonomous environment. This could cause problems with marketing reputation, job performance and long-term motivation. Research aims and objectives Is a relaxed corporate culture effective in the travel leisure business environment? The aim of the research is to identify the outcomes, in the modern hospitality workplace, of a rigid organisational structure compared to a more relaxed and autonomous environment in relation to worker motivation, marketing strategy and teamworking. Therefore, the first objective of the study is to identify what makes up a structured, highly-controlled organisation versus the relaxed corporate culture. What constitutes the differences between the two philosophies? The second objective is to uncover the psychological principles behind motivation for the contemporary hospitality worker and how is this applied as related to worker performance. What actually motivates workers, intrinsically or extrinsically, to achieve organisational goals? The third objective is to identify with whether a more progressive and transformational organisation builds better teamwork with employee groups. How is teamwork coordinated and promoted in a controlled environment versus a relaxed organisational culture and what are the long-term performance outcomes of both efforts? The final objective is to identify whether transformational leadership manages to inspire, charm and act as a role model for service workers in the leisure business as was described by the literature review. Do transformational leaders actually create more creativity for workers that enhance marketing momentum or is a transactional leader (one who rewards through contingent performance only) more appropriate in the leisure industry? Research design The study will be qualitative by design, using interviews as the main research instrument. A sample group of 5-6 managers within a leisure business will be the focus of study, consisting of approximately 45-60 minutes each, using a template of open-ended questions regarding their views on human resources, organisational controls, marketing objectives, employee attitudes, motivational theory and organisational culture. The goal is to determine what is driving current methodology of management and leadership within these businesses and gain knowledge of the long-term outcomes of any efforts currently in place to drive more motivation through either transformational or traditional control tactics. A secondary sample of 6-8 workers in the same industry will be interviewed asking questions about what motivates performance, their role within the organisation, the type of organisation they perceive to be operating especially related to human resources, locus of control, their relationships with managers and their overall view of their management system as it pertains to their needs fulfilment. The goal of these interview sessions, again with open-ended questions, is to determine whether their views differ radically with current management or whether the sample group feels that their needs are being met appropriately for meeting performance targets and to gain organisational loyalty. Interviews will be conducted based on the approvals granted by management officials within the business, guaranteeing anonymity for the sample participants to foster more participation and motivation for the interview sessions. Data received from the interviews with then be transcribed and analysed in the pursuit of identifying comparisons or differences between worker attitude and management philosophy. Consultation with various secondary literature sources related to the leisure industry will also be conducted to locate case studies of progressive versus controlling organisational hierarchies in this industry as a point of comparison to determine what outcomes should be expected when using either methodology of culture and structure. The results will be presented in graphical form or tabular form in the discussion section of the research. To guarantee validity, case studies that utilised interview templates in the leisure business on a similar topic will be compared to make sure the study accurately measures what the researcher is attempting to uncover through the primary study. Reliability when conducting a qualitative study can only be estimated, thus no pre-testing can be developed. The open-ended format of the interview template somewhat forbids scientific measurement in terms of reliability as the structure and results of the interview sessions will be subjective. However, various texts related to psychology will be consulted as a point of comparison to assist in the analysis of the data achieved through the interview sessions so ensure it is grounded in valid and contemporary psychological theory and practice. Quantitative methodology was rejected as a potential research approach since the data associated with emotional responses, motivation and socialization are difficult to measure scientifically. “The study of business is afflicted by confusion between the results of a survey of what people think about the world and a survey of what the world is really like” (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2007, p.4). Thus qualititative analysis was most appropriate. The study is related directly to manager and worker attitudes and feeling which requires a generalized analysis that cannot be predicted until results have been achieved from the study. When dealing with psychological principles, it is difficult to justify using logic-based quantitative methodology. References Adams, W. & Adams, C. (2009). Transform or reform?, Leadership Excellence. 26(11), p.17. Albert, S. & Fetzer, R. (2005). Smart community networks: self-directed team effectiveness in action, Team Performance Management. 11(5/6), pp.144-157. Amernic, J., Craig, R. & Tourish, D. (2007). Jack Welch’s letter to stockholders of General Electric, Human Relations. 60(12), pp.1839-1873. Antonakis, J. & Hooijberg, R. (2008). Cascading a new vision: three steps for real commitment, Perspectives for Managers. Vol. 157, pp.1-4. Bass, B. & Steidlmeier, P. (1999). Ethics, character, and authentic transformational leadership behavior, Leadership Quarterly . 10(2), p.188. Chow, I.H. (2009). The relationship between social capital, organizational citizenship behavior, and performance outcomes: an empirical study from China, Advanced Management Journal. 74(3), pp.44-55. Neubert, M., Carlson, D., Kacmar, K., Roberts, J. & Chonko, L. (2009). The virtuous influence of ethical leadership behavior: evidence from the field, Journal of Business Ethics. Vol. 90, pp.157-170. Phipps, K. & Burbach, M. (2010). Strategic leadership in the nonprofit sector: opportunities for research, Journal of Behavioural and Applied Management. 11(2), pp.137-155. Reis, D. & Pena, L. (2005). Focus on management history: reengineering the motivation to work, Management Decision. 39(8), p.674. Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2007). Research Methods for Business Students, 5th ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited. Treven, S. & Potocan, V. (2005). Training programmes for stress management in small businesses, Education & Training. 47(8/9), pp.640-653. Read More