ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

Posted: October 17th, 2013

Organizational Behavior

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HD Technologies and Consultancy Limited

Introduction

Organization description

It is a consulting company dealing with information technology and business consultancy services. Its headquarters base is Texas, United States. It is a well-established company ranked top on the list of successful businesses with a broad customer base. Its existence started in 2000 and has continuously grown to offer its diverse services that include management of business organizations, provision and improvement of IT applications and offering auditing services to the global market. The company began 13 years ago as a small company but has now merged with various businesses to broaden its capacity in serving the global market.

Characteristics of the organization

IT service provision and offering management guidance is its main line of business. HD Technologies And Consultants Limited has its offices in various countries all over the world, which is a proof of its wide market capacity. HD Technologies and Consultants contribute Over 3% of the country’s revenues receiving over $5 billion revenue and experiencing a growth rate of 25% annually. Employee capacity is around 90,000, which is a large workforce to manage effectively.

Situation analysis

The company has been experiencing a high growth rate over the years. However, the CEO felt there was a need to improve the efficiency of the business and the best way to initiate the changes is changing the organizational culture. He adopted the concept of placing employees’ needs before consumers’. This involved demolishing the lines drawn between management and employees, raising their salaries and adoption of simple methods of addressing their issues. His idea was to change the management structure where there are bureaucratic procedures in addressing issues and introducing the company to a new management system where the employees freely interacted with customers. Acceptance of reality through open conversations is one of the major activities in determining the areas requiring transformation. Creation of a vision for the future motivates employees to work towards its achievement.

Transparency is a key aspect in building trust among the business’ stakeholders. The employees acquire free access to financial information concerning the company and any issues aired addressed accordingly. Management accountability to the rest of the employees and vice versa was a structural change undertaken under the proposal. 360-degree appraisal that allows the appraisal of an employee performance by other employees would improve their participation in management. The incorporation of employees’ involvement in making crucial decisions was part of the agenda.

Stakeholder Discussion

Stakeholders are people with some level of interest in a business or people affected by the operations of the business. The stakeholders within the business include customers, employees and managers. Customers are the recipients of products offered by the business, and in this case, they are the recipients of IT services offered by the company. Employees are the people employed to work for the organization in the provision of services to its clientele. Managers overlook the operations of the employees at various levels, which ensure efficiency in business operations. These stakeholders interact with the company directly and its operations directly affect them.

Every business operation has a resulting effect on it stakeholders. Every stakeholder has a certain influence on the operation of a business, but not all stakeholders have an equal amount of influence. This makes some of them superior to the other in terms of the power they hold to control the direction taken by any particular business firm. The ability of the stakeholder to disrupt business operations determines the level of influence by causing uncertainties in the plans drawn by the company and the level of reliance of the company on the stakeholder. In the operation of the company, stakeholders’ roles are evident in its success. The transformation of the business entity involves the intense participation of the three stakeholders. It is a known fact the efficiency of workforce of a business depends on the value of the methodologies of management employed by the entity.

The management considerably influences the operations of the daily activities of a business and influence major decision-making of the business since they design goals, objectives, and design methods for use in achieving them. The management is also a key focus in the transformation of HD Technologies And Consultants Limited since it involves the overturning of the usual management structure. Management also influences the level of interaction carried out at various levels of the organization. Customers are the major bosses in any business contrary to what ordinary people believe in. This is because the existence of a business is almost entirely dependent on the number of clients it attracts. Customers are the main source of revenue for a business entity, and it is therefore impossible to discuss the improvements of business operations without focusing on their effects on the customers. These three stakeholders have a significant level of influence on the business operations and the transformation of these operations.

Initially, the employees were answerable to a number of managers for their performance standards. Under the new model, the accountability became a two-way traffic where the employees were accountable to the managers and the managers were accountable to the employees. This helped in promoting the value of employees by appreciating their input. The 360-degrees method of appraisal enabled the employees participate in the appraisal of the manager’s performance and the performance of their fellow employees. This improves the level of responsibility among the employees and managers as well since their output is publicized and open to scrutiny. The employees and customer interactions were highly improved by the overturning of the management structure. The role of the employees in improving the customer relations is evident. The employees are the ones who interact most with customers unlike managers who only interact with them indirectly. Transparency plays a significant role in building trust among the employees, customers and the management team.

The transfer of the roles of the top management to the employees gave more responsibilities to them and this increased their morale in handling various tasks. They could answer any questions raised by customers. There was also the increased efficiency due to more immediate ways of addressing the issues of the employees. Clientele base expanded due to the raised efficiency in operations and high quality services. Improved customer relations improve the business image and the community appreciates the role of the business in its existence. The government also recognizes the efforts made by the company and has adopted some of its products in its operations to improve on efficiency. Governmental record keeping has transformed from the manual system to the automated system to enable easier access, management and control. Improved public image is another result of transformation and the community appreciates the role played by the business in its existence.

Conclusion

The stakeholders positively welcomed the modifications and their relationship has vastly improved. This explains the success of the business in recent years and the growing clientele globally resulting in a positive corporate image. Despite been a successful model, there have been challenges experienced in the transformation system. Traditionally, the customer was considered first above all else and many sacrifices would be imposed on the employees and managers for the satisfaction of the customer. In HD Technologies And Consultants Limited, they adopted a different approach where the employee comes first. This contradiction may be a set back for the intended efficiency for the business. Outsourcing faces this challenge since it becomes difficult to transform their understanding of the organizational structure and adopt the new structure. There is also an evident challenge in the incorporation of the new system in various branches of the firm since there has to be an intense training process.

The shifting working relationship advocated by the system is also a challenge to the employee especially new employees and top managers since the abolition of boundaries cause confusion among workers. The addressing of these issues improves efficiency and the productivity of the business. An assumption made on the situation is that there are no distinct roles of the various employees of the company. The cost-benefit analysis is crucial to determine the effect of the system on business operations. On the cost side, operational costs, time and sales deviation related to the adjustments should be considered while, on the benefit side, the efficiency, incremental sales and corporate image improvement should be considered to determine the overall effect. What concepts utilization is necessary in ensuring a smooth transition?

The Recommendations

Introduction

In this situation, it is important to consider the effects of the transition on the relationships of the stakeholders and the success of the business. The issues raised from the implementation could affect the impact of the whole transition process. The training of employees on the various changes in operations is crucial to avoid confusion since this could have serious implications on the overall efficiency. The success of the system is the success of the entire business since a major transition is involved. The question is the assurance of a smooth transition from an old system of operation to a new and entirely different system. If improper handling of the transition occurs, the whole operation of the business would collapse, and this would mean tragic losses for the business.

An assumption on the disruption of the distinctive roles played by the various employees at their different capacities is because the managers are accountable to the employees and there is a system of self-governance. In ordinary business structures, the managers assess the performance of employees. They have the power to question the employee’s actions, and since this system advocates for the overturning of these roles, the distinction of various positions fades away. The system also favors the employees too much and neglects the ordinary focus of businesses on consumer satisfaction, and this could have negative repercussions.

Recommendations

Systems Thinking Analysis will assist in determining the nature of interactions and their changes due to the adoption of the new system of operations (Ackoff 2008). There is an evidently healthy relationship among the individuals and operations of the firm. The transparency and 360-degree appraisal model have greatly contributed to this success. However, the issues raised if not addressed would affect this smooth operation. The integration of new employees to the organizational structure is essential in ensuring smooth running of operations.

The Complexity Theory adoption is helpful in the analysis of the current situation. It is evident that there is good progress for the business in its adoption of the new system and its adjustments to the changing working environment. The stakeholders at various levels have demonstrated satisfaction in the progress of the operational transformation. The Butterfly Effect concept focuses on the huge effect due to a less than proportionate change. The company has experienced tremendous improvements due to the slight changes made in operations. Due to the strong butterfly effect felt, it is necessary that the company ensure exemplary smooth transition to avoid negative effects on the quality of their services. This will also help determine which issues would largely affect the operations of the company.

Organizational Behavior (OB) Model involves the analysis of an organization at three different levels where the three components; the Individual, the Group and the Organization are used (Kinicki, 2011). In this particular case, the individual analysis is more crucial in finding a solution. A new employee finds it difficult to adapt to the management system, and the organization should invent measures to ensure quick integration into the system. This will benefit the organization in the end since efficiency in operations develops. Organizational analysis, the effects of the system to the overall performance is a necessary consideration especially in addressing the issues raised in transition. Since, the individual assessment shows positive results for the organization, the necessary actions should be undertaken effectively.

Organizational culture guides the actions and beliefs of the employees (OCL 2010). This has a great level of influence on the productivity of the employees. The positivism of the organizational culture hugely determines the success of a business. HD Technologies And Consultants Limited has adopted a culture of transparency, which has improved the level of trust among stakeholders of the company. The management should positively influence the culture to continue improving the high level of performance. The culture already adopted in the company would help in solving the outsourcing problem since the employees and managers interact freely. The provision of support from fellow employees on a new member of staff is possible.

Organizational learning analysis is a crucial method of analysis of this company since the level of innovation is remarkable (Senge, 1990). The company has devised new ways of operations and management to improve efficiency and this has given them a competitive advantage over their competitors who find it confusing to adopt this particular model. Adoptive learning utilization is necessary in the training of new employees to assist them in adoption of new techniques necessary to undertake various tasks. Efficiency improvement becomes evident due to the use of innovative ways of integration into the system.

References

Ackoff, R. (2008). Learning Together: Exploring on Systems Thinking. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJxWoZJAD8k

Kinicki, A. (2011). Organizational Behavior: Key Concepts, Skills and Best Practices (5th International Edition). Boston: McGraw-Hill.

Senge, P. M. (1990). The Leader’s New Work: Building Learning Organizations. Sloan Management Review, pp. 7-23.

Organizational culture and leadership: 4th ed. (2010). San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.