Midterm Collins’ (1996) Research In what ways are theories applicable by managers for resolving organizational problems? Managers need to be open to using a combination of concepts depending on the workforce and the purpose of workplace. Manager’s shouldn’t relay on a single concept or theory while implementing strategies in the office.
“Understanding the management theories is the only way to find out which theory is suitable and beneficial in accordance to the circumstance at your workplace. Find out whether a single theory in itself is enough to handle the situation or combination of theories would help.” (EDUCBA, 2018) Having different theories to follow or test out gives managers a framework to work from. They are to note which theories or steps work and which ones didn’t. Managers just need to be trained and take the time to use the theories to help resolve organizational problems more efficiently and in a reasonable time. How do theories evolve through application? Mink contrasts the “old” with the “new” paradigm. “The old paradigm, he claims is founded on transactional leadership and behavioral compliance, the new on transformational leadership and the release of organizational talent.
This new paradigm, Mink tells us, is required to meet the rapidly changing economic and technological context of business. Mink’s new paradigm, therefore, exists to face up to what he refers to as the new and changing needs of organizations.” (Collins, 1996) As society continues to evolve with economic globalization, technological development, and the economic development this leads to significant changes in the nature of how theories are applied and are going to evolve. Mink tells us that the new paradigm is founded more on transformational leadership which is a leadership style that is geared to “inspire positive changes in those who follow. Transformational leaders are generally energetic, enthusiastic, and passionate. Not only are these leaders concerned and involved in the process; they are also focused on helping every member of the group succeed as well.” (Cherry & Gans, 2018) The Need Theory, The Expectancy Theory, and The Equity Theory. Need Theory “McClelland’s theory of needs is one such theory that explains this process of motivation by breaking down what and how needs are and how they have to be approached.
This theory was developed in the 1960’s and McClelland’s points out that regardless of our age, sex, race or culture, all of us possess these needs and are driven by it. (Management Study HQ, 2017) The three motivation types achievement, power, and affiliation motivation. “Per McClelland, every individual has these three types of motivational needs irrespective of their demography, culture, or wealth. These motivation types are driven from real life experiences and the views of their ethos.” (Management Study HQ, 2017) The need that drives a person to work and even struggle for an objective that he/she wants to achieve. An example of the three motivation types of the need theory is when companies meet and achievement needs by giving employees challenging assignments, competitions, and rewards for excellent work. The power needs can be met by offering opportunities for advancement and increased responsibility.
Employees can meet affiliation needs by creating a team environment that is safe and respectful for all employees. (Management Study HQ, 2017) Expectance Theory “Vroom’s (1964) Expectancy theory has held a major position in the study of work motivation.” (Bowman, 2016) It examines the relationship between the worker’s motivation, the perceived value of an outcome, the likelihood that one outcome will lead to another, and the likelihood that a behavior will lead to an instrumental outcome. “Expectancy theory shows a heavy linkage between rewards and the amount of work needing to be done to achieve the reward.” (Bowman, 2016) The idea is that an employee is motivated by the reward. An example of expectancy theory, is if an employee is working on getting a promotion with a pay raise they are motived because they want the reward but if the there is no pay raise but a promotion with more work they aren’t as motived to work towards the promotion. Equity Theory “Adams (1965) developed a theory on motivation to attempt to explain behavior influenced by the norm of equity.
His research indicates that people who discover that they are in an inequitable relationship attempt to reduce their resultant distress by restoring either “actual” or “psychological/perceived” equity to their relationship.” (Bowman, 2016) The idea is that individuals are motivated by fairness, and if they identify inequities they will seek to adjust their inequity. They can be de-motivated by an unfair environment. An example of equity theory at work is when employees compare the work they do to someone else that gets paid more than them. This can be a big issue for management to handle.
People want fairness. The Source and Use of Power in Organizations. The use of power can create and eliminate conflict. Organizations operate by distributing authority and allowing management to exercise the use of power. Use of power is good for an organization if used for constructive purposes. Power should be used to keep and maintain balance of work in the organization.
Inappropriate use of power creates conflicts in the organization which may lead to disintegration within the organization and must be avoided. Top management must have moral and ethical obligation on them to build a system which can minimize the inappropriate use of power in the organizational culture. (Javed, 2016) “Managers must acknowledge their role in shaping organizational ethics and seize this opportunity to create a climate that can strengthen the relationships and reputations on which their companies’ success depends. Executives who ignore ethics run the risk of personal and corporate liability in today’s increasingly tough legal environment.
In addition, they deprive their organizations of the benefits available under new federal guidelines for sentencing organizations convicted of wrongdoing.” (Paine, 2014) When managers have power they need to be aware of how they use it. Mangers need to have respect and make sure they are being ethical no matter what because they could find their self in a lawsuit otherwise. When leaders utilize emotional intelligence to stabilize organizations it gives them the ability to understand and manage oneself and the ability to understand and relate to others. “Emotional intelligence can best be described as the ability to monitor one’s own and other people’s emotions, to discriminate between different emotions and label them appropriately, and to use emotional information to guide thinking and behavior.” (Srivastava, 2013). This allows you to understand what is going on with employess without being verbal.
Emotionally intelligent interactions with other people by building on an individual’s strengths in self-awareness and self-management. When managers have a high level of emotional intelligence it helps in “identifying talents, delegation of roles accordingly, and resolving the conflict amicably.” (Srivastava, 2013). Gratton & Erickson’s (2007) Organization’s Culture has on Communication An organization’s culture plays a big role on how the communication goes on within the company. An organization’s culture is formed through “the leadership of the organization and can become ingrained into the core fabric of the way things are communicated and business is done on a day-to-day basis.” (Lotich, 2018) There needs to be communication between top management and employee to have an effective work culture.
Management must be able to clearly pass on necessary information to all the employees so that they know what they are supposed to be doing for the company. Gratton & Erickson “found that the perceived behavior of senior executives plays a significant role in determining how cooperative teams are prepared to be.” (Gratton & Erickson, 2007) Their study also “showed that a number of skills were crucial: appreciating others, being able to engage in purposeful conversations, productively, and creatively resolving conflicts, and program management. By training employees in those areas, a company’s human resources or corporate learning department can make an important difference in team performance.” (Gratton & Erickson, 2007) By having these skills as the company’s norm in their culture the commutations will be good and teamwork is able to be a successful. When there is an ineffective communication channels within an organization it breakdowns within an organization and leads to conflicts in the workplace and distorted information. (Lotich, 2018) How does the cultural norms dynamic affect the decision-making process? The cultural norms do dynamic affect the decision-making process. From the data presented in the article named Cultural Factors in Complex Decision Making by Stefan Strohschneider “it appears as if the ways of complex decision making are indeed influenced by cultural factors.
For one, it has been demonstrated that the specific combination of cognitive and behavioral activities that is required by complex decision making tasks does not come quasi naturally. It requires a specific expertise that has to be developed through exposure to different kinds of decisions from different domains. Culture plays a significant role in creating this exposure through, probably, value systems, familial socialization practices, and patterns of schooling.” (Strohschneider, 2002) “Secondly, there are reasons to assume that there are culture-specific decision making styles that are developed according to the functional requirements of the environment.” (Strohschneider, 2002) In what ways does diversity affect teamwork and decision-making? Having diversity in teamwork and decision making helps to challenge your brain to overcome the same ways of thinking and sharpen performance. This allows a group of people to make better decisions because by having diversity in teams they are more likely to constantly reexamine facts and remain objective.
“A 2015 McKinsey report on 366 public companies found that those in the top quartile for ethnic and racial diversity in management were 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry mean, and those in the top quartile for gender diversity were 15% more likely to have returns above the industry mean.” (Grant, 2016) By having a more diverse workplace it will help to keep your team members’ from being biases in opinions and make them question their assumptions in the group. This can make team members be smarter and make your organization more successful. Quality Improvement. Total Quality Management also known as TQM is a “philosophy aimed at improving business as a whole. Some of the benefits lie in the continuous improvement of processes and products, and enhanced efficiency of people and machines leading to improved quality.” (Nayab, 2011) TQM key issues areas are mistakes in work processes, redundant processes, unnecessary tasks, duplicate efforts, and unproductive activities. In what ways does Quality Management benefit teamwork? “Total quality management’s focus on teamwork leads to the formation of cross-departmental teams and cross-functional knowledge sharing.” (Nayab, 2011) Quality management benefit teamwork by improving communication skills of individual employees and overall organizational communication.
It causes knowledge sharing, which results in deepening and broadening knowledge and skill-set of team members. Teams members learn organization flexibility. “Another benefit of Total Quality Management is that TQM promotes the concept of internal customer/supplier satisfaction. For instance, the HR department considers employees as internal customers and processes their queries or requests within the specified time limit. The lab technician in a hospital processes the clinical tests required by the doctor, an internal customer in a timely and efficient manner, according to the laid down customer satisfaction norms.” (Nayab, 2011) In what ways does the quality improvement process benefit from teamwork? Quality improvement process benefit from teamwork because one, they combine individuals’ unique knowledge and skills to bring about lasting improvements.
Two, teams are most effective if they have a group of people to carry out task like to collecting data and making charts/graphs that can help a team better understand its processes. They are then able to analyze their data and bounce ideas around to each other to improve their processes they are looking to improve. (Schwarz, Landis, & Rowe, 1999) One example of quality improvement process benefiting from teamwork is a medical practice. The medical practice is seeking to improve patient waiting times and telephone service. You can have two different teams that will focus on each issue.
The teams can collect data, analyze it, and come up with ideas on how to improve this issues within the medical practice. They can record how their ideas are working or not working and continue to work on the issue till they see improves. Organizational Structure Functional “Within a functional structure, employees are divided into departments that each handle activities related to a functional area of the business, such as marketing, production, human resources, information technology, and customer service.” (Libraries, 2016) Divisional Within a divisional structure, “employees are divided into departments based on product areas and/or geographic regions. General Electric, for example, has six product divisions: Energy, Capital, Home ; Business Solutions, Healthcare, Aviation, and Transportation.” (Libraries, 2016) Matrix Within a matrix structure, is “where employees can be put on different teams to maximize creativity and idea flow.
As parodied in the move Office Space, this structure is common in high tech and engineering firms.” (Libraries, 2016) Compare and Contract Organizational Structures When comparing functional and divisional you are breaking people up into groups, only difference is divisional the employees are divided into departments based on product areas and/or geographic regions and functional the employees are divided into departments that each handle activities related. Functional is very slow to change while divisional and matrix act quickly to change. Divisional is costlier to operate than functional structures which tends to keep costs low and to create efficiency. With divisional and matrix work can be duplicated where with functional duplication is reduced with the way structure is hierarchical and delegates to each specialized department.
“Each structure has unique advantages, and the selection of structures involves a series of trade-offs.” (Libraries, 2016)
