...Organizational Behavior within WorldCom WorldCom entered the telecommunications market as LDDS in 1983, founded by Bernie Ebbers in Jackson, Mississippi. The company grew dramatically through numerous acquisitions and adapted the name “WorldCom” in 1995. In 1998, WorldCom purchased MCI, the nation’s number two long-distance provider, for $37 billion. WorldCom, considered a major success story of the 1990s, filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2002. With 65 successful acquisitions, including 11 major companies between 1991 and 1997, WorldCom’s accumulated debts reached $41 billion with assets of $107 billion (Beltran, 2002). WorldCom operated the largest Internet network at the time and employed 60,000 people in 65 countries. The downfall of the colossal giant devastated many shareholders and stakeholders both internal and external. Many believe this collapse inevitable given the factors of the company’s poorly planned growth strategy, unethical behavior, and poor corporate governance. Organizational Structure and Growth Strategy Revenue growth by acquisition laid the foundation for WorldCom’s corporate strategy. Although this strategy propelled WorldCom to the forefront of the telecommunications industry by consolidation, it left the management and leadership unprepared for the challenges of merging corporate cultures. Integrating two very different business leadership styles into a smoothly functioning business requires thoughtful planning and considerable attention...
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...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 highly formalized; have clear, well-defined, centralized, vertical hierarchies of command, authority, and control; nearly all processes and procedures have been administratively authorized...
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...Review Introduction What is organizational change? Organizational change occurs when a company makes a strategic effort to improve the performance of the organization or functions of the organization, such as a group or a practice. The goal of organizational change is to increase the effectiveness of the change effort, while decreasing employee opposition and the cost associated with the change. Change is inevitable in today’s business community if an organization wants to remain competitive and to increase profits. With an increase in globalization and advancements in technology, companies are forced to make changes if they want to stay in business. Unfortunately, most change efforts fail due to resistance and lack of support. Most people are afraid of change, and managers have to be very skilled in getting the employees to commit to implementing the changes. Successful change efforts are based on individuals at the organization responding positively to the transformation. So what can an organization do to bring about successful change? Research suggests that change is more effective when it’s driven from within by the upper management team of the organization. Employees are more than likely to buy into the effort if they feel it’s being supported by the top brass. If the employees get a sense that upper management is not championing the cause, then they will not support it. In addition, the change effort must also tie in with the culture of the organization. Management...
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...Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts MGT-307 September 12, 2011 Farid Dalili Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts I will be discussing in this paper how the organizational culture, organizational behavior, diversity and communication is analyzed at Kaiser Permanente. I will define and explain how Kaiser Permanente uses the terminology and concepts in our hospital. Organizational Culture Organizational culture is the shared beliefs and values that make a difference in the behavior of organizational members. Culture plays an important role in stability and safety in an organization. Organization culture defines an organization's leadership and in order to understand its leadership, it is a must to first understand its culture. “Although it is relatively easy to conclude that what works well in one culture may not work as well in another, it is far harder to specify exactly how cultural differences affect things like motivation, job satisfaction, and ethical behavior.” (Schermerhorn, Hunt, & Osborn, 2008). The organizational culture at Kaiser Permanente has started a program called “Live Well Be Well” for their employees. This program has really made a big difference at our facility. The employees have better understanding of their health, motivated to come to work everyday and work ethics have improved as well. . Employees rely on culture for the ability to respond to any circumstances, culture becomes hard core in many organizations...
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...ROWE Program at Best Buy Tracey D. Battle Strayer University Leadership & Organizational Behavior BUS 520 Professor Bruce Macdonald December 12, 2011 Abstract Best Buy introduced the ROWE Program to reduce stress and overwork in their employees at their headquarters. The agenda basically allows you to work from anywhere, any hours you choose, as long as the job gets done. The staff at Best Buy’s headquarters generally worked long hours until the ROWE curriculum was introduced. Member of staff burnout and turnover was high. After the ROWE Program’s implementation, productivity has increased and voluntary turnover has decreased. Jody Thompson pioneered the Result-Only Work Environment (ROWE) in the Best Buy Corporation. This action was instrumental in introducing the concept of culture Rx. Culture Rx offered a customized consultancy services as per the needs of the clients with ROWE as its core philosophy. Organizational society depends upon the sharing of core values among the maximum numbers of people in any organization. There was minimum sharing of values among the employee members in the Best Buy managerial culture. The negative environment prevailing in the organizational premises inhibited the bonding among the human resource. There was not much time available for employees to interact with each other. A survey was conducted to know the attitude of staff participating in ROWE. It was found that their “feelings of pressure” and sense of “working hard” had...
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...Discuss organizational culture and its implications for performance Organizational culture is defined by the value systems, behaviors and policies of an organization. It in turn defines the corporate identity, distinguishes the exclusive services/products and is the positive force within the organization that drives successful results. For a company to be successful it needs a strong organization culture and leadership. Well defined internal process and strong organization culture provide a strong organization structure. Companies who are not able to develop and maintain strong cultures that align with the mission see little or no success in the long term. A few companies in the United States known for their strong corporate culture include Microsoft, GE, IBM, General Motors, and Boeing. Strong corporate cultures drive commitment, job satisfaction and a sense of belonging. These organizations have over the years developed repeatable processes and well defined training systems to help employees assimilate into their organizational culture and become informed of the value system quickly and easily in order to become fully committed and performing team members within defined timeframes. To ensure employees are reminded consistently of their corporate responsibilities some companies have defined mandatory certifications to be completed by employees as part of the performance review process. Studies show that organizational cultures have a definite and measurable effect...
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...Introduction Modernists perceive organisations as tangibly factual bodies operating in the reality. When the organisation has been well designed and managed, the systems of actions and decisions made will be driven by the norms of rationality, efficiency and effectiveness to realize the organisation goals such as mission and vision. (Hatch, 1997) Critical Theorists view organisation as places where inequalities in power relations will dominate, resulting in the exploitation and estrangement of proletariat. Elements of authority and power of the dominant ideology will initiate decisions, laying constraints and oppression on the exploited parties. (Comstock, 1982) Apple Inc. is one of the most successful multinational organisations in creating consumer electronics, computer software and commercial servers, which started out as the minority player in the industry. With the Macintosh, Apple slowly built upon its successes from the iMac to the iPod and to the iPhone, which eventually turns the industry to its ear. (O’Grady, 2009) While Apple concentrates their headquarters’ activities on their core functions such as designing and developing of their products, as well as defining strategic direction and processes, outsourcing to regions will enable Apple to operate with greater cost-efficiently. (Schneiders, 2010) By engaging in global outsourcing, Apple was able to get cheaper overseas labour that were employed by third-party firms to lighten the labour load of their direct employees...
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...Organization as Machines Thoughts: The machine metaphor sees organizations as “machines made up of interlocking parts that each plays a clearly defined role in the functioning of the whole” (Morgan, 1986). In the machine, the parts (persons, groups, or real machines) have to do their preprogrammed jobs. In the ideal machine, jobs interlock in a perfectly timed manner. The perfect example for this would be the Just-In-Time organization, where product buffers and waiting queues are minimized. For perfect interlocking of jobs, standardization is needed in order to reach product compatibility and a well-defined product quality. Therefore, the machine has to be designed to run in the most efficient way. There are three theories regarding this metaphor which is Bureaucracy, Classical Management and Scientific Management. First of all, Bureaucracy was found by Max Weber and according to him, the legitimating of authority leads to the obedience of persons to commands and rules. Rational-legal domination of authority is the form of legitimate authority that is appropriate for industrialized societies. Legitimating of authority of in a society is defined to be based on rational-legal domination if a sufficient level of arbitrary rule avoidance is reached. A sufficient level of arbitrary rule avoidance is realized when a bureaucratic administration of sufficient quality is realized and when the rule system is sufficiently sophisticated. A bureaucratic administration of sufficient...
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...1.0 Introduction Organizational behaviour is a field of study that analyzing the impact that individuals, groups, and structure have on behaviour within organizations, for the purpose of applying knowledge to improve an organization’s effectiveness (Robbins & Judge, 2013). According to the early research, to improve the effectiveness of the organization, stuffing may be one of the concern, and this leads to the discussion of organization member behaviour (Rue & Byars, 2009). As recent research pointed out that organization member behaviour can be affect by many factors, yet values have long been considered important to explain action in and around organization (Schwartz,1992; Potocan & Nedelko, 2011). In this essay mainly focus on how personal value as a vital diver of working and behaviour. Different person may have different value that leads different thought, attitude and behaviour, whereas understand how value drive a personal behaviour is not only important for a manager but affect the organizational behaviour as well (Collins & Porras, 2002). Therefore, the discussion will emphasize how personal values adjust into a group or an organization; and how personal values influence the organization behaviour. Besides, the discussion will go through the influence of personality to give further discussion on how an individual fit into an organization. The Hofstede’s Cultural Framework and The Big Five Personality Model will be used to explain how value and...
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...Management Organizational Behavior Prof. Agatep Hope Individual Assignment HE YUTIAN (Stephen) Content Page Page1----------Introduction of Apple Page2--------- Organizational culture, design, structure Page3--------- Management of conflict and motivation of employees & Conclusion Page4------- Recommendation& Referencing List If there is a survey about which business you believe is the most valuable and has most revolutionary influence on the society last ten years, it must be true that most of the people will choose Apple. From some professional evaluation about Apple, it describes Apple as an enterprise which has ability to take over the world one bite at a time and is already doing it. As of July 2011, Apple is the largest publicly traded company in the world by market capitalization with 357 retail stores in ten countries and 60,400 permanent full-time employees and 2,900 temporary full-time employees around the world. (Profile: Apple Inc, n.d.)At the same time, its revenue and profit is more than Google and Microsoft combined, and its annual revenue is totaled $65 billion in 2010 and is growing to $108 billion in 2011 miraculously. (Harry Wilson, 2012) Apple not only is one of the most successful enterprises in the world nowadays, but also already is a creative, miraculous and revolutionary company which is founded by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne on April 1, 1976 during its starting stage. (Cyrus Farivar...
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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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...1. Introduction This report is going to evaluate how people management practices influence business performance within a specific sector of the service industry and will put forward suggestions to improve performance based on the findings. This report will specifically focus on the Devonshire spa and its people management practices. Furthermore it is going to be an evaluative report and will look at two different practices – Monday to Friday team and Weekend’s team. 2. Introduction to Human Resources Management Human Resource Management (further in report HRM) can be defined as a strategic and coherent approach o the management of an organization’s most valued assets – the people working for the company (Armstrong 2001). The main characteristics of HMR are listed in Table 1. Table 1 Main characteristics of HRM • It meets the need for a strategic approach to human resource management which achieves ‘fit’ between the business and the HR strategy; • A comprehensive and coherent approach to the provision of mutually supporting employment policies and practices; • The importance of gaining commitment to the organization’s mission and values is stressed – it is ‘commitment-orientated’; • Employees are seen as assets or human capital to be invested in through the provision of learning opportunities and the development of a ‘learning organization’; • Human Resources are viewed as a source of competitive advantage in line with the concept of resource-based strategy; • The approach...
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... | | | Impressive remarks The author points out thirteen practices for managing people in order to achieve a competitive advantage. I am impressed by the way the author points out the importance of the workforce and how it is managed. The importance: As other sources of competitive success have become less important, what remains as a crucial, differentiating factor is the organization, its employees, and how they work. The author quotes Southwest Airlines as an example, which achieved competitive advantage from its very productive, very motivated, and by the way, unionized workforce. The author clearly points out, Culture, how people are managed, and the effects of this on their behavior and skills are sometimes seen as the “soft” side of business, occasionally dismissed. Even when they are not dismissed, it is often hard to comprehend the dynamics of a particular company and how it operates because the way people are managed often fits together in a system. Success, such as that achieved at Southwest, can be sustained and cannot readily be imitated by competitors. It is easy to copy one thing but much more difficult to copy numerous things. This is because the change needs to be more comprehensive and also because the ability to understand the system of management practices is hindered by its very extensiveness. It is really interesting to see how the “soft”...
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...HRM Issues/Diversification Strategies Global demand for steel expanded continuously throughout the 1960s, a demand domestic producers elected to not meet, choosing only to match domestic consumption requirements. This presented an opportunity for up-start foreign producers to strengthen themselves without directly competing against producers in the United States. Throughout this expansion, the relationship between management and labor soured. The Nucor Corporation broke into the industry with a workforce that consisted of farmers, mechanics, and other motivated workers. The company experienced various pains, eventually won community trust and respect within the industry. Trends in Steel Industry and how it may Impact Nucor’s Strategy “Due to growing demand for scrap metal, its cost has become increasingly volatile in the 1990s. In 1994, for example, prices climbed as much as $50/ton to $165-170/ton while 10 million tons of American scrap were exported to offshore customers. In 1996 prices reached $200/ton, and were expected to climb, but instead declined to $170-180/ton by the end of 1997” (Boyd & Grove, p. 6, 2000). Like many industries, the slumping global economy has significantly impacted demand in the steel industry as well. As the automotive and construction industries recover, the steel industry should begin to see a gradual upswing in demand. However, the steel industry will encounter difficulty trying to maintain growth revenues greater than 15% until other...
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...Organizational Behavior Terminology and Concepts By: Scott Pitcher April 5, 2010 MGT 307 Prof. Marian Karcher Organizational culture is the way a company follows its procedures or what they do. Organizations with strong cultures operate with a clear vision of the future that is supported by well developed and well communicated beliefs and values. There is three types of organizational culture and the first culture is the community culture where the organization encourages the members to work together to achieve their goals or a higher standard set by the company. The next is passive/defensive culture which the members act defensive in order to protect their position in the work force. The last is the aggressive/defensive culture where the members will act forcefully in their work place to secure there positions in the work place (Schermerhorn, Hunt & Osborn, 2008). The organization that I worked for has a clear vision as to what the company wants to accomplish in the future and that customer satisfaction is the number one rule in the company. The company prides its self on the fact that the customer comes first and that the price should match the amount of service that is provided and to continue this practice well into the company’s future. Any service that is performed must be written down and copies must be made to issure that the service personal is performing there duties properly and to protect the company from any customer or employee that is trying to take...
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