Questions:
1. The relationship between organizational structure and culture?
2. Approaches to the management and leadership of a the organization?
3. The ways of using motivational theories in organizations?
4. The mechanism of fostering effective teamwork within the organization?
Answers:
1. The relationship between organizational structure and culture
The writer has a previous experience in working “Subway” as a team leader. This company is aimed to offer healthier food choices as well as great tastes, while reducing their environmental footprint as well as creating a “positive influence” around the world.
Compare and contrast between organizational culture and structure
There is no ideal structure, which can be professed as the greatest type of organizational culture. The structure of an organization is comprised of the target of the organization; the type of “work” is done in the organization and the environment of the organization’s business (Schein, 2010). The Subway is an organization that has formal structure. The formal structure of a company or an organization emphasizes that the company is well documented and distributes responsibilities to the designated rank such as small teams, departments, authority channels as well as individuals. On the other hand, Linnenluecke and Griffiths (2010) opined that one theory is common in literatures, such as “strong culture theory.” According to the theory if the employees and the managers of an organization or a company showed their full dedication to the morals, customs and collective principles, then it can bring a positive result in the company or the organization.
The impact of organization behavior and culture on the business performance
The Subway group is no doubt a dedicated group. The manager, employees and the team leaders are very much cooperative. From the study, it is found that the employees and the managers have a very good coordination, which is proved as helpful in order to increase the productivity and the brand names. According to the researchers, the strong culture theory is also helpful to prove that the relationship between “strong corporate culture” and “organization performance or profits” Zheng, Yang and McLean (2010). After studying the development of the Subway group, it can be emphasized that the level of the profits in an organization or a company is correlated with the strength of the “corporate culture.” From the research, it is found that there is also an existence of opposite relationship between culture and the performance of an organization. Some of the researchers argued that “high performance” of a company or an organization is able to lead to the birth of the “strong culture.” When an organization like Subway Group is performing their best and managing them to stay one-step ahead in the competition, it means that the company has a strong culture. Therefore, it can also be said that the organization culture in the Subway could be proved as more than just a result of super performance but also a critical element, which can lead as well as contribute to the success of the organization. On the other hand, unlike Subway Groups, smaller organizations need to follow a different organizational culture. The organizational structure is not taken under consideration. If the environment of the organization, the environments where the organization operates, how the business is done and the market is not considered well by the authority, then the organization may lead faulty assumption about their performance, which in turn decrease the productivity (Ivancevich and Matteson 2011). The organizational culture varies depending on the organizational structures. It is found that the small organizations often change their policies and very fragile. However, the bureaucratic large enterprises are more stable in their decision-making. The large enterprises arrange regular meetings and take decisions slowly in order to change their organizational behavior.
Factors that influence individual behavior
There are different factors found that have direct impact on the behavior of the individual in work. These factors may include leadership style, worker’s appraisal and the involvement of the employees in the decision-making. It is found that implementation of a strong leadership in the working environment can influence the employees more and extract the best work from them. On the other hand, if a company recognize their employees more often, then that could also be proved as beneficial in order to influence individual behavior in the work.
Approaches to the management and leadership of a the organization
Effect of different leadership style in organizations
There are different types of leadership approaches that can be followed by different organizations. The different types of leadership may include Lewin’s Leadership Styles (autocratic leaders, democratic leaders, laissez-faire), the Blake-Mouton Managerial Grid, Path-Goal Theory, Six Emotionla Leadership Styles, Flamholtz and Randle’s Leadership Style Matrix, Transformational leadership, Specific Leadership Styles, Beurocratic Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, Servant Leadership and Transactional Leadership. From previous research, it is found that different leadership styles are applied by different authorities in companies. However, it is recognized that each type of leadership style cannot be applicable in all types of organizations (Tannenbaum, Weschler and Massarik 2013). The leaders of an organization need to select the leadership style depending on the environment of the organization and the diversity among the employees. The company like Subway (large company) follows the transformational leadership model. According to the transformational leadership model, the leaders are very open-minded and consider the opinions of the followers. The authority of the Subway Group always collects the feedbacks from the employees as well as from their customers. This step is proved as helpful in order to increase the quality service of Subway Groups. On the other hand, the Subway Groups could follow the charismatic leadership. In the charismatic leadership, the leaders are inspiring as well as emphasized on the motivation of the team members. However, transformational leaders focused to transform their team in such a way that maximum positive output could be gathered, while the leaders of the charismatic leadership style often focus on their own ambitions as well as the team but may not show interest to bring any changes in the team. The smaller organizations can also follow transformational leadership, which will be helpful to enhance the effective teamwork by merging the team goals with the company’s goal. On the other hand, the smaller organizations can also follow charismatic leadership, which will help to inspire the employees within the organization and extract best work from them.
The organizational theory and the management practice
The leadership style is directly interrelated with the management of the organization. Although, most of the researchers emphasized that there is a difference lying between management and leadership, it can also be stated that the management and leadership for an organization have to maintain synchronization for the development of the organization. According to Schaubroeck et al. (2012), the managers of an organization do things, which are right and the leaders do the right things. However, the roles of a manager and a leader somewhere overlapped with each other. The characteristics of the leaders and the managers also have a deep impact on the progress of the organization or a company. The manager can prepare budget and implement orders as well as solve problems in order to develop the growth of the company. While implementing changes the managers need to be careful about the structure and the culture of the organization. Before implementation of the leadership, the manager of an organization also needs to have a clear idea about different leadership. On the other hand, the effective leadership style help in the change as well as movement of the company. The leaders can also help in the establishment of the direction, aligning people as well as inspiring and motivating the employees, which in turn is helpful in the development of the company.
Different management approach in two different organization
Organizations like Subway Groups use a different management theory than the healthcare systems. In Subway groups the management use strong leadership model to accumulate their workers and inspire them to work. The company tries to focus in the improvement of the product delivery system and control the diversity among the workers. On the other hand, in health care system, the management mainly tries to focus on the development of the discipline among the nurses and the health professionals in order to extract better performance from them.
The ways of using motivational theories in organizations
Effect of different leadership to motivate in organizational changes
The leadership and the management styles vary from organization to organization, depending on the environment of the organization of the company. There are different types of leadership that could be implemented after considering the organizational culture and the organization structure, which may include Lewin’s Leadership Styles, Path-Goal Theory, Six Emotionla Leadership Styles, Flamholtz and Randle’s Leadership Style Matrix, Transformational leadership, Specific Leadership Styles, Beurocratic Leadership, Charismatic Leadership, Servant Leadership and Transactional Leadership. From the research, it is found that different types of leadership style have different impact on the development of the organization (Wery and Thomson 2013). The Lewin’s Leadership style includes autocratic leadership, democratic leadership and Laissez-faire. On the other hand, the transactional leadership as well as the Charismatic leadership proved as best for the organization like Subway Groups. Demetriou and Schmitz-Sciborski (2011) opine that leadership styles used to have impact on the motivation in a company or an organization, when it is going through changes. The transformational leadership style is proved as important in the development of an organization as the leader is very influential and open-minded. Charismatic leadership style is also acceptable for the same reason. However, Beurocratic Leadership and transactional leadership are not very helpful to promote a friendly environment in the workplace. In this leadership style the leaders are the only one who take every decision for the company and take care of all of the responsibilities. Although many large organizations tried to implement these leadership styles but it is found that, the result is not satisfactory as the workers are involving in protest against the manager.
Compare and application of different motivational theories
From research, it is observed that there are different types of motivation theories that can be applied by the managers as well as the team leaders for the growth of the company. The motivation theories may include Maslow’s hierarchy of need, Alderfer’s ERG theory, Acquired Needs Theory (mcclellan), Cognitive Evaluation Theory, Two Factor theory (Herzberg Theory), Equity Theory, Reinforcement Theory and Expectancy Theory (Vroom). The managers need to select motivational theory wisely while implementing it in the organizational, as the implementation of motivational theory has a direct impact on the employee retention. Maslow’s hierarchy of need theory is the ideal one to implement in the organization, as this theory is helpful to diagnose and fulfill the basic needs of the employees. The Maslow’s hierarchy of needs includes, self-actualization, esteem, belongingness, safety and psychological. In most of the cases, it is observed that application of Maslow’s hierarchy of need proved as beneficial to assess the basic needs of the employees of an organization and fulfill them, which in turn helped to reduce the employee turnover. Another important motivational theory is Herzberg’s two factor theory, which emphasizes two types of factors exist in an organization’s environment that can affect the motivation and helpful to manage the employees.
Evaluation and usefulness of a motivation theory of managers
However, it is found that the theory that could be applied by the managers is Herzberg’s two factor theory. According to Herzberg’s theory, there are two types of factors exist in an organization’s environment that can affect the motivation. These two factors are hygiene factors and motivators. Hygiene factors are those factors, which are essential to the worker (Singh et al. 2010). The presences of these factors do not motivate the employees directly; however, the absence of these factors make the employees dissatisfied. The dissatisfaction of the employees resulted in the increment of employee turnover. The hygiene factors may include worker’s security, the decent environment of the workplace, health insurance, pay, benefits, company security etc. On the other hand, the motivators are those factors whose presence motivates the employees but do not de-motivate the employees in absence.ction 4
The mechanism of fostering effective teamwork within the organization
Group behavior in the organization
The Subway Group has one of the most diversified groups of employees as the branches of Subway Group are expanded all over the world. This international company hires their employees from different countries, who also belong to the different religion and races. Therefore, it is important for the company that they should foster the effective teamwork within the organization. The effective team first needs to embrace the diversity of cultures, personalities and talents possess by the employees (West 2012). It is found that the diversity can foster innovation and creativity, which are essential for the development of teamwork. However, the management system of Subway Group may face the communication gap, as not all of the members in team are fluent in English.
Factors that may inhibit or promote the development of effective teamwork in an organization
It is found that, to develop effective teamwork, the prior step should be taken by the company is to promote open as well as clear communication. All team members should respect each other. However, to foster the teamwork, the main responsibility goes to the team leaders (Tohidi 2011). The strong and effective leadership is able to develop the efficient teamwork. The team members get inspired by the personality as well as the direction showed by the leaders of the company. On the other hand, it is the duty of the team leaders to encourage the team members to speak up openly in the team meetings, which in turn is helpful in the development of the company. Another step can be taken by the company to develop effective teamwork is to promote team-building exercises. From the previous researches, it is found that the effective teamwork could be developed through the sharing of experiences as well as practices (Weaver et al. 2010).
Impact of technology on team functioning within a given organization
In the growing age of technology, the team members in the Subway Group rarely get opportunities to talk face to face with each other. Today, most of the team meetings are arranged through web-chats, which is very easy and time saving. It is found that the team members work with each other but do not develop any relationship, which is no desirable for the growth of the company. Therefore, team-building exercises can create opportunity to talk face to face and share experiences in order to develop effective teamwork within the organization.
References
Demetriou, C. and Schmitz-Sciborski, A., 2011. Integration, motivation, strengths and optimism: Retention theories past, present and future. InProceedings of the 7th National Symposium on Student Retention, Charleston, SC (pp. 300-312).
Ivancevich, J.M.K. and Matteson, R., 2011. Organizational behavior and management (No. 658.4 I9).
Linnenluecke, M.K. and Griffiths, A., 2010. Corporate sustainability and organizational culture. Journal of world business, 45(4), pp.357-366.
Schaubroeck, J.M., Hannah, S.T., Avolio, B.J., Kozlowski, S.W., Lord, R.G., Treviño, L.K., Dimotakis, N. and Peng, A.C., 2012. Embedding ethical leadership within and across organization levels. Academy of Management Journal, 55(5), pp.1053-1078.
Schein, E.H., 2010. Organizational culture and leadership (Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons.
Singh, S., Lewis, R.L., Barto, A.G. and Sorg, J., 2010. Intrinsically motivated reinforcement learning: An evolutionary perspective. Autonomous Mental Development, IEEE Transactions on, 2(2), pp.70-82.
Tannenbaum, R., Weschler, I. and Massarik, F., 2013. Leadership and organization. Routledge.
Tohidi, H., 2011. Teamwork productivity & effectiveness in an organization base on rewards, leadership, training, goals, wage, size, motivation, measurement and information technology. Procedia Computer Science, 3, pp.1137-1146.
Weaver, S.J., Rosen, M.A., DiazGranados, D., Lazzara, E.H., Lyons, R., Salas, E., Knych, S.A., McKeever, M., Adler, L., Barker, M. and King, H.B., 2010. Does teamwork improve performance in the operating room? A multilevel evaluation. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 36(3), pp.133-142.
Wery, J. and Thomson, M.M., 2013. Motivational strategies to enhance effective learning in teaching struggling students. Support for Learning, 28(3), pp.103-108.
West, M.A., 2012. Effective teamwork: Practical lessons from organizational research. John Wiley & Sons.
Zheng, W., Yang, B. and McLean, G.N., 2010. Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management. Journal of Business research, 63(7), pp.763-771.
