...General Motors as a Unionized Organization This week paper is going to outline several things about General Motors (GM) as one of unionized companies in the United States (US) and United Auto Workers (UAW) as the labor union that represents workers for GM Corporation. This paper will also discuss the effects of the union on the GM Motors such as organization’s benefit by joining a union, the unionization process, the process of Union bargain and the effects the union bargaining have in the organization. General Motors Company, commonly known as GM was founded in September of 1908. It’s an American multinational automotive corporation with global headquarter in Detroit, Michigan (General Motors, 2011). General Motors produces cars and trucks in 31 countries, sells and services these vehicles through the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Daewoo, Holden, Isuzu, Jiefang, Opel, Vauxhall and Wuling and is nominated as the world’s second largest automaker, after Toyota (World Ranking of Manufacturers, 2010). This company’s largest national market is in China, followed by US, Brazil, United Kingdom, Germany, Canada and Russia. GM employs 209,000 people in every major region of the world and does business in more than 120 countries (General Motors, 2011). History of United Auto Workers (UAW) in relation to General Motors UAW is a labor union which represents workers in US, Puerto Rico and Canada that ranges from multinational corporations, small manufacturers, state...
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...Huntington-Ingalls: A Unionized Organization Huntington Ingalls Industries (HII) designs, builds and maintains nuclear ships. For more than a century, HII has assembled more ships in more ship classes than any U.S. naval shipbuilder. HII employ over 38,000 workers in Virginia, Mississippi, and California. The main business divisions are Ingalls Shipbuilding and Newport News Shipbuilding (Huntington Ingalls Industries, Inc., 2011). Ingalls Shipbuilding is a division of Huntington Ingalls Industries. Ingalls Shipbuilding was industrialized by Ingalls Iron Works in 1939, on the east bank of the Pascagoula River. The U.S. Maritime Commission erected Ingalls as a long-range shipbuilding program and was bought by Litton Industries. The yard began to grow with the assistance of the State of Mississippi. Mississippi created “The Shipyard of the Future” on the west bank of the Pascagoula River. In 2001, Northrop Grumman bought Litton and Ingalls was combined with Avondale as Northrop Grumman Ship Systems. In March 2011, the yard was spun off, together with Newport News, as Huntington Ingalls Industries, with each yard winning back its old name (Ingalls Shipbuilding, 2011). Unions are a group of workers that have come together to accomplish goals such as better working conditions. They bargain with the organization on behalf of the union members and negotiate labor contracts with employers. Unions usually bargain on wages, work rules, grievances, instruction leading to hiring, firing...
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...models to their portfolio. In 1983, they added the discount warehouse of Sam’s club. In 1988, they added Wal-Mart Supercenters thus adding groceries to their portfolio making them one of the largest grocers in United States. Wal-Mart is an organization that is seen as one of the most successful groups in the world (Fortune, 2015). They are known for their low cost low price motto thus paying their suppliers and employees the lowest wages possible. They perpetually pay their employees less wages compared to other large retailers. One of the reason is their stong stance against employees being unionized (Britannica.(n.d). In Britannica). They are also known for going into urban area and forcing local merchants out of business since they can’t compete with the retail giant Research Questions 1. Why does Wal-Mart choose to practice a low prices motto for both supplier and employees? 2. Why women employees at Wal-mart are not able to climb the corporate ladder? 3. Why Wal-Mart has an Anti-Union Stance? 4. How Wal-Mart exploits employees? Rationale and Reasoning Organization Behavior is the discipline that is concerned with the nature and the behavior or people within organizations and the nature and behavior of organizations within (Organizational Behavior, page 10). Employees are concerned with low wages standards, inadequate health care, employee exploitation, and the...
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...Organizational Behavior (OB) is the study and application of knowledge about how people, individuals, and groups act in organizations. It does this by taking a system approach. That is, it interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organizational objectives, and social objectives. As you can see from the definition above, organizational behavior encompasses a wide range of topics, such as human behavior, change, leadership, teams, etc. Success isn’t a destination it’s a process. And the margin between successes is often small. Ob is all about studying the principles of defining nd achieving success in your organization and life. Impact of ob Organizational behavior is an aspect of doing business within large companies that many executives have overlooked. This organizational behavior impacts every nook and cranny of a company. Thinking about the organizational behavior and how people act within a company can foster new ways of managing people that can have longer-term impacts on profitability. For example, unionized work forces may have a more negative environment then non-union work environments due to the natural adversarial relationships between company management and union officials. In unionized environments many employees may feel as though their supervisor is abusing them and therefore they regulate their...
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...1. P5 Analyze the importance of Employee relationship in respect to influence HRM decision making. Employee relations commonly deal with preventing and determine issues regarding individuals which possible arose out of or influence the work concept. Healthy and safe work is dependent on strong employee relationship environment, reward for employee motivation, and effective communication system in the organization. Enterprise Rent-a-Car management must focus on these issues in order to have an efficient and effective employee relationship (Employee Relations - Importance and Ways of Improving Employee Relations, 2016). Strategies that employers can use to engage employees depending on leader relating to worker at their level, solicited opinion from employees though survey. Employer at time can leave the boardroom and work with employees to recognize hindrances. Coach Manager to be responsible for the employer develop strong working environment. Make realistic goals significance to employee day by day experience (Gallup, 2016). 2. P6 Identify the key elements of employment legislation and the impact it has upon HRM decision-making. Equality ...
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...To start with, we must first understand what a managerial strategy means and how we can apply the appropriately. And according to a lay man understanding it simply means how you designs you organization in order to meet your targeted goals and how the managerial strategy links to rewards and compensation. To choose the appropriate managerial strategy for the multi-products corporation, we must firstly have to understand the five key Contextual variables, which will help identify the best managerial strategy to use. These variables are:- THE ENVIRONMENT This is the most important aspect to help determine the managerial strategy to use, because it help ask two questions to determine the managerial strategy and the first question is:- Whether the firm environment is stable or unstable? and an unstable (dynamic) environment exists where product or service life cycles are short, where product or service demand is volatile, where customers needs change quickly and unpredictable (Richard, 2009). And according to the multi products corporation story, market research suggests that the demand for the product will be strong and stable and demand will not be very price sensitive, since golfers who want the product will generally be willing to pay what it takes to get the product. However, it have a stable environment and classical or human relations approach will be best for the corporation. The second question is if the firm's environment...
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...medium family-run enterprise with 225 employees, and is partially unionized. The company manufactures plastic mouldings and bins, enjoying a good reputation for its quality. In order to remain profitable and a leader position in the market, the company plans to take some radical changes in new technology, working practices and reorganization of the workforce. The strategic agenda for Walkers Engineering is to start pilot scheme from the manufacturing section with acute problems and then to transform organization-wide. In this assignment, based on the overall situation of Walkers Engineering, specific problems in the organization, especially from manufacturing department will be discussed, and realistic solutions affecting the company will be addressed in according to the practice and management knowledge. Meanwhile, the relevant implementation would be introduced for comparison provided this organization was operating in China. Main problems in Walker Engineering As many people have mentioned, nothing is perfect in the world and ‘there is always a room for improvement (Cheetham, 2009). As one of functional department full of shop floorers in Walker Engineering, manufacturing section is involved in producing bins and packing and dispatching them. It gets many problems indentified, which partly reflect the management situation in the organization. Johnston et al (1995, p.113) emphasize: For most organizations it is not the people in the computer department, or the payroll office...
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...to any organization in order to make it run more effectively. e. OB focuses on 3 levels of behaviour that can occur in any organization. Difficulty: 1 Page-Reference: 4,5 Question ID: 01-1-01 Skill: Recall Topic: Defining Organizational Behaviour Objective: 1 Answer : a.OB is relevant only in employment situations. 2. Which of the following situations would likely receive the least benefit from studying Organizational Behaviour(OB) techniques? a. voluntary community groups b. large family situations and interactions c. post-secondary education student study groups d. religious organizations e. pre-teen paper routes Difficulty: 2 Page-Reference: 4,5 Question ID: 01-1-02 Skill: Recall Topic: Defining Organizational Behaviour Objective: 1 Answer : e.pre-teen paper routes 3. A field of study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups, and structure on behaviour within organizations is known as a. psychology. b. sociology. c. social psychology. d. anthropology. e. organizational behaviour. Difficulty: 1 Page-Reference: 4 Question ID: 01-1-03 Skill: Recall Topic: Defining Organizational Behaviour Objective: 1 Answer : e.organizational behaviour. 4. A consciously coordinated social unit composed of a group of people that function on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common set of goals is known as a(n) a. work group. b. team. c. organization. d....
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...International Journal of Management Reviews (2008) doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2370.2007.00227.x Teamworking and organizational performance: A review of survey-based research Teamworking xxx 2007 Publishing Ltd ORIGINAL Journal of Ltd 2007performance XXX UK Publishing Management Reviews © Blackwell 1460-8545 International and organizational IJMR Oxford, Blackwell ARTICLES Anne Delarue,1 Geert Van Hootegem, Stephen Procter and Mark Burridge This paper presents a review of recent survey-based research looking at the contribution of teamwork to organizational performance. In particular, it focuses on empirical studies in which both teamwork and performance are directly measured in a quantitative way. The paper begins by identifying four interrelated dimensions of teamwork effectiveness: attitudinal, behavioural, operational and financial. The first two represent transmission mechanisms by which organizational performance can be improved. The latter two provide direct measures of organizational outcomes. The review shows that teamworking has a positive impact on all four dimensions of performance. It also reveals that, when teamwork is combined with structural change, performance can be further enhanced. The paper concludes by highlighting some important research gaps that future studies could address. Introduction Teamwork has emerged in recent years as one of the most important ways in which work is being reorganized (Osterman 1994; Waterson et al...
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.... Organization Theory Challenges and Perspectives John McAuley, Joanne Duberley and Phil Johnson . This book is, to my knowledge, the most comprehensive and reliable guide to organisational theory currently available. What is needed is a text that will give a good idea of the breadth and complexity of this important subject, and this is precisely what McAuley, Duberley and Johnson have provided. They have done some sterling service in bringing together the very diverse strands of work that today qualify as constituting the subject of organisational theory. Whilst their writing is accessible and engaging, their approach is scholarly and serious. It is so easy for students (and indeed others who should know better) to trivialize this very problematic and challenging subject. This is not the case with the present book. This is a book that deserves to achieve a wide readership. Professor Stephen Ackroyd, Lancaster University, UK This new textbook usefully situates organization theory within the scholarly debates on modernism and postmodernism, and provides an advanced introduction to the heterogeneous study of organizations, including chapters on phenomenology, critical theory and psychoanalysis. Like all good textbooks, the book is accessible, well researched and readers are encouraged to view chapters as a starting point for getting to grips with the field of organization theory. Dr Martin Brigham, Lancaster University, UK McAuley et al. provide a highly readable account...
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...people skills. In times of rapid and ongoing change, faced by most managers today, OB can help managers cope in a world of “temporariness” and learn ways to stimulate innovation. Finally, OB can offer managers guidance in creating an ethically healthy work climate. Managers need to develop their interpersonal or people skills if they are going to be effective in their jobs. Organizational behavior (OB) is a field of study that investigates the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behavior within an organization, and then applies that knowledge to make organizations work more effectively. Specifically, OB focuses on how to improve productivity, reduce absenteeism and turnover, and increase employee citizenship and job satisfaction. OB studies three determinants of behavior in organizations: individuals, groups, and structure. OB applies the knowledge gained about individuals, groups, and the effect of structure on behavior in order to make organizations work...
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...• The Group Chapter 8 Foundations of Group Behavior 292 Chapter 9 Understanding Work Teams 344 Chapter 10 Communication 374 Chapter 11 Leadership 410 Chapter 12 Power and Politics 460 Chapter 13 Conflict, Negotiation, and Intergroup Behavior 502 Part Four - The Organization System Chapter 14 Foundations of Organization Structure 548 Chapter 15 Technology, Work Design, and Stress 588 Chapter 16 Human Resource Policies and Practices 634 Chapter 17 Organizational Culture 678 Part Five - Organizational Dynamics Chapter 18 Organizational Change and Development 714 CHAPTER I • WHAT IS ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR? What Managers Do Let’s begin by briefly defining the terms manager and the place where managers work—the organization. Then let’s look at the manager’s job; specifically, what do managers do? Managers get things done through other people. They make decisions, allocate resources, and direct the activities of others to attain goals. Managers do their work in an organization. This is a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people, that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. Based on this definition, manufacturing and service firms are organizations and so are schools, hospitals, churches, military units, retail stores, police departments, and local, state, and...
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...Organizational Theory Taxonomy Organizational Theory Taxonomy Title and Theorist Name | General Description | Example of Theory | Other Attributes | Agency Theory, Jensen & Meckling, 1972-1976 | The agency theory applies classical economic thinking to problems of organizational control and design (Tosi, 2009). Agency theory offers a useful way of understanding the complex authority relationship between top management and the board of directors. An agency relationship is when one personal “the principal” delegates decision-making authority or control to another “the agent” (Jones, 2010). | In 2005, Time Warner came under attack because top management had made many acquisitions such as AOL that did not led to increased innovation, efficiency, and higher profits which creates an agency problem that the agency theory addresses (Jones, 2010). | Agency theory views a firm as a legal entity that serves as a nexus for a complex set of formal and informal contracts among different individuals. A typical firm consists of the shareholders or the boards of directors are principals, and top managers or CEOs are agents (Jones, 2010). Agency theory dictates that principals will try to bridge the informational asymmetries by installing information systems for monitoring (Shapiro, 2005). | Contingency Theory, Burns & Stalker, 1961 | The contingency theory shows how some organizational designs will adapt to the environment, depending on the nature of the environment. The contingency...
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...clarifies why such a program will become a mainstream requirement for successful small and midsized businesses in the future. Summary: According to Harpst, excellence is the enduring pursuit of balanced strategy and execution. Strategy requires choosing what promises to make to all stakeholders and a roadmap for delivering on those promises. Execution requires getting there, while overcoming unending surprises. Excellence is a journey – not a destination. A business excellence model tells organizations as to how they should operate relative to the two dimensions of strategy and execution. (See figure 1, Exhibit 1) Quadrant I: Strong Strategy/Weak Execution: In this quadrant, a business has a strong strategy, which means a competitive advantage. Regardless of whether a company is a start-up or a seasoned business, strong strategy usually leads to growth in sales. A key point to understand is that success and the results of growth start the journey but this often leads an organization into Quadrant IV. | Quadrant II: Strong Strategy/Strong Execution: Quadrant II...
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...Increases Performance 3 Excess control often stifles innovation. 4 Employee motivation: The crisis of bureaucratic control 5 Summary 8 Reference 10 Abstract In this paper I will critically evaluate the statement “Organizations seek to control” from both mechanistic and culture perspective, using my own placement experience in Great Eastern Life Assurance (Singapore) as an example to examine the extent of compatibility and conflict between these two perspectives in the sense of control. Introduction Control is a set of activities to determine an actual state of affairs, compare it to appropriate models, and then formulate conclusions which should contribute to assure efficient and effective functioning of an organization. A mechanistic view of organizations assumes that organizations operate in a consistent machine-like manner. Control in mechanisms perspective, primarily aimed at detecting irregularities. A culture view of organizations treats organizations as mini societies which have a system of strongly-held shared value among members. Control by corporate culture views people as emotional, symbol-loving, and needing to belong to a superior entity or collectivity. Great Eastern Life Assurance provides an interesting case study in mechanism and culture perspectives for third primary reasons: First, its structure is...
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