Introducing the Modern Workplace
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Introducing the Modern Workplace
Executive Summary
The modern workplace is experiencing change due to globalization and increased diversity. The management need to learn how to lead the diverse organizations to remain competitive, and increase the competitiveness of their organizations. The organizational structure and organizational culture determine the way operations in an organization are conducted, thus the success of the business. The organizational structure shows the flow of information and authority in the organization thus guiding the workers on the chain of command. The organisational culture aligns the employees to the vision and mission of the organisation, thus leading the workers on how to relate with each other and their environment to achieving the purpose for which the organisation exists. The task will analyse how organizational structure and culture influence the organizational performance and the factors that affect individual behaviour in the workplace. The report will then give a recommendation to the organization on how to improve the organizational and individual performance.
Keywords: Organizational culture, Organizational structure
Modern Workplace
Introduction
The modern workplace is dynamic where work-life balance is championed, the culture is valued and workers seek an opportunity to grow their career. As a result, the organizations are striving to provide a positive work environment to retain the talent and create a positive image for the organization to create a competitive advantage (Mullins and Christy, 2013). Therefore, organizations are changing the traditional approaches to business including the structures and cultures to incorporate more flexible approaches to meet the growing needs of the modern workplace. The management makes the decisions and provide direction for the organization. The management determine the organizational structure to guide the chain of command in the organization and the culture to give direction of how the employees should behave in the organization, the attitudes, norms and values to guide them to create a conducive work environment to achieve set goals.
Organizational Structure
Organisational structure is a system that outlines the order in which activities in an organisation are carried out to achieve the goals of an organisation. As Mullins and Christy (2013) described, these activities may include the responsibilities, roles, and rules that guide an organisation and determines how information flows within the company from one level to another. There are different types of organisational structures depending on how information flows from the top management to other levels and how the procedures of the organisation are executed. The centralised organisational structure is where information flows from the top management to the lowest level of employees in the organisation (Mullins and Christy, 2013). On the other hand, the decentralised organisational structure is where decision-making is distributed among various levels of the organisation. Organisations can also adopt a mixed structure where the critical decisions are made from the top while departments are also allowed to make decisions that concern their departments (Mullins, 2016). Organisational performance can be influenced by the organisational structure that it adopts. Successful organisational structures define the employees’ job roles and responsibilities, thus making them understand the role they play in contributing to organisational success (Adair, 2010).
A centralised structure may cause delays in work as the communication chain may be long, leading to slow decision-making. The employees may need to wait for a communication from the top management before proceeding to the next task thus wasting valuable time. The bureaucratic leadership may result in poor performance in the organisation due to the lack of motivation from the employees and the lack of creativity among the workers (Adair, 2010). Therefore, organisations must consider a more flexible organisational structure that involves the employees in decision-making and allows creativity to make the organisation innovative and competitive.
The decentralised structure allows flexibility of decision making, thus making work easier for the management, saving the time involved in communication, decision making, and implementation (Bloisi, Cook and Hunsaker, 2007). The approach also empowers the employees to remain creative and innovative, thus boosting the organisational performance. However, the approach may result also in an additional cost for duplication of staff and resources in various offices. The approach may also lead to increased conflict in the organisation. Different department heads may conflict over control and coordination thus destabilising the work environment leading to unproductivity (Armstrong, 2012). The management should ensure proper control of core activities in the organisation while allowing the employee’s space to make their own decisions and be involved in decision making to boost innovativeness and creativity, thus boost their morale and loyalty. As a result, the organisation will register improved organisational performance. Such type of structure is used in organisations with high level of specialisation in each department. For example, Accounting and Law firms are using such models effectively.
Organizational Culture
From the other side organisational culture is also highly influential for the organisation. The organisational culture is how a company’s employees behave, based on the values, norms, and beliefs of the organisation. The organisational culture is derived from the company values while making various assumptions. These values are reflection of the leader’s vision of the business (Bloisi et al., 2007). First, the culture assumes that human beings are inherently good or bad, proactive or reactive, mutable or immutable and thus their interactions should be managed to achieve what the organisation desires. Additionally, the culture assumes that the organisation has a relationship with the environment which defines how the employees should act to be acceptable in the environment and uphold the values the community upholds. Culture determines how the employees see the world and themselves thus guiding the ways of thinking, norms and attitudes of the employees. The culture also observes the emotions that people are encouraged express and which ones to hold. An effective organisational culture is supported by an effective organisational structure and business strategy. The organisational culture can manifest itself in different elements in the organisation including communication style, leadership style, corporate celebrations, and CSR activities, among other interactions with the stakeholders (Armstrong, 2012). A culture can be aggressive, customer-focused, fun, innovative, risk-taking, innovative, technology-driven, and ethical, among others. An effective organisational culture enhances teamwork, collaboration, and effective communication within the organisation which creates a positive work environment and thus increases employee growth and morale, boosting productivity. An effective culture should also be flexible and resilient, to adapt to changes in the environment with ease, thus increase the competitiveness of the organisation.
The people play a critical role in the performance of an organisation as they bring together all the other factors of production and offer services to the customers. People also provide leadership to the organisation to help remain focused on the vision, thus achieve organisational objectives. Therefore, the organisations should strive to hire people fit in the roles and culture of the organisation (Mullins, 2016). The human resource department must ensure that all employees are motivated to contribute to the vision of the organisation and remain loyal to avoid employee turnover which is expensive for the organisation (Bloisi et al., 2007). Furthermore, the people within the organisation affect organisational culture based on the shared beliefs they have and their motivation to achieve personal and organisational goals. Therefore, the organisation should ensure the employees are empowered and trained to understand the organisational structure and culture from the beginning of their working process.
How organizational structure influences organizational performance
The organizational structure helps the employees know their defined roles thus helping them work efficiently. This helps to ensure that no part of the workload is overlooked. It is essential for the organisation to have the right human resource to be on the top management positions in order to implement a successful organisational structure. A centralised organisational structure has a long and specific hierarchy of superiors and subordinates. Centralisation gives a clear chain of command as every person in the organisation knows whom they report to (Adair, 2010). As a result, there is an order in the organisation and the employees at all levels take responsibility for their actions. A centralised structure also allows for a focused vision as there are clear lines of communication in the organisation, thus improving the organizational performance. A centralised structure allowing smooth implementation of the organisational strategies and visions (Adair, 2010).
Organizational structure help reduce the cost of running the organization as there are standardized methods and procedures thus reducing the number of specialists and equipment required for different management levels. The centralised structures also help create standardization and uniformity throughout the organization. As a result, there is uniform performance of activities, which shows consistency to the clients, thus boosting the organizational performance. A decentralized structure creates flexibility in the organization which help the management make decisions faster in their departments and regions, thus avoiding the wait time which would delay action (Mullins and Christy, 2013). Therefore, the organization performance improves as decisions are made more swiftly. Having a defined structure in the organization gives the employees a guideline on how to work, thus promoting team work and job satisfaction. Collaborative work efforts promote productivity helping the employees achieve greater individual and organizational performance.
How organizational Culture can influence on organizational performances
Organizational culture has different effects on the employees and their performance. The culture an organization adopts defines the motivation levels of the workers, their job satisfaction, intention to remain in the organization and their performance. A culture which involves and engages the employee makes the workers feel valued and part of the vision, thus put effort to achieving the organizational goals (Mullins and Christy, 2013). However, a culture that is not employee friendly creates resistance to change and desire to leave the organization, thus increasing the employee turnover. As a result, the organization looses valuable talent reducing the organizational performance. Apple Inc. has a creative innovation culture which has contributed to the success of the company. The culture guides the employees to remain focused on the company objective. As a result, the employees become innovative and creative to contribute to the growth of the organization improving the performance of the company. The culture maximizes human resource support for corporate growth in various markets in the world. The culture supports the leadership in terms of product design and innovation creating a competitive advantage.
Factors that can influence on individual behavior at work place
Leadership influences the employee behaviour in the workplace. Managers are tasked with four main functions that includes; planning, organizing, leading and controlling. Employees with bosses who are very strict and fail to listen to the employees experience high absenteeism and unpleasant behaviour (Knights and Willmott, 2012). However, managers who appreciate their employees and give them the space to be creative and to share their ideas and acquire new skills boost the employee morale thus influencing their behaviour in the organization to remain focused to achieve the organizational goals. The work culture also influences individual behaviour at work place. A culture that makes the employees comfortable in the workplace enables them to remain happy and positive, the making them behave differently in the organization. A culture that treats employees with equality creates job satisfaction, thus encouraging positive relationships and interactions in the organization thus influencing their behaviour positively. Employees individual behaviour can also be influenced by their personal life. Workers desire to have a balance on their jobs and personal life. Employees who are not able to meet their family responsibilities due to tight job schedules and financial restrains remain restless and irrational even in the workplace. Other factors include relationships at work, job responsibility and communication styles used in the organization.
Recommendations
The senior leaders need to consider the various factors that influence the organisational performance before deciding the organisational structure to use for the company. The organizational structure should meet the needs of the organization including the size of the company, the number of employees and the nature of the organization (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2013). Smaller organizations can use centralized structures; however, international organizations can use decentralized structure to reduce the wait time of making critical decisions in the different department. The organizational culture should also help the organization achieve the vision and mission by aligning the employees to work towards a common vision (Mullins, 2016). The culture should encourage teamwork, effective communication and growth to give the workers a safe working environment and boost their morale.
Conclusion
The dynamic workplace is influenced by the organisational culture and structure and the management’s approach to leadership and managing the people as a valuable asset. The managers perform managerial decision-making as an entrepreneur, resource distributor, resolving conflicts, and negotiator. Additionally, the management leads the team to prepare strategies and empower the workers and control them to ensure the goals are met. The organisational structure and culture influence how the manager performs and the scope of their work. In a centralised structure, the top management makes the decisions and communicates to the employees in the appropriate hierarchy. In decentralised structures, the employees are involved in decision making and the job environment allows flexibility which reduces leadership bureaucracies.
References
Adair, J., 2009. The inspirational leader: How to motivate, encourage and achieve success. Kogan Page Publishers.
Adair, J.E., 2010. Effective strategic leadership. London: Macmillan.
Armstrong, M., 2012. Armstrong’s handbook of management and leadership: developing effective people skills for better leadership and management. Kogan Page Publishers.
Armstrong, M., and Taylor, S., 2017. Armstrong’s handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page.
Bloisi, W., Cook, C.W. and Hunsaker, P.L., 2007. Management and organisational behaviour. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill
Huczynski, A.A., and Buchanan, D.A. 2013. Organisational behaviour. Harlow: Pearson.
Knights, D., and Willmott, H. 2012. Introducing organisational behaviour and management. London: Thomson.
Mullins, L, 2016. Management and Organisational Behaviour. Pearson Education.
Mullins, L.J., and Christy, G. 2013. Management and organisational behaviour. Pearson education.
