CODE: MBA 1002

ORGANISATIONAL BEHAVIOURS

WONG CHIN YIK

940117-10-5616

201679

DECEMBER 2017

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7.0 COURSEWORK

Q1: Organizational effectives is vital section for an array of people that includes

managers, stockholder and more. The organizational effectives consist of four

dimensions. Explain briefly the four dimensions.

Goal accomplishment is the most widely used effectiveness criterion for

organizations. Key organizational results or outputs are compared with previously stated

goals or objectives. Deviations, either plus or minus, require corrective action.

Effectiveness, relative to the criterion of goal accomplishment, is gauged by how well

the organization meets or exceeds its goals. Productivity improvement, involving the

relationship between inputs and outputs, is a common organization-level goal. Goals

also may be set for organizational efforts such as minority recruiting, pollution

prevention, and quality improvement. Given today's competitive pressures and e-

commerce revolution, innovation and speed are very important organizational goals

worthy of measurement and monitoring. At Xerox, innovation is a key goal under the

leadership of chief technology officer Sophie Vandebroek. In contrast to some

companies, such as Google, that give employees wide latitude to create, Xerox asks

researchers to target their efforts on "six Ss": innovations that make systems simpler,

speedier; smaller, smarter, and more secure, and that are socially responsible (for

example, using less energy to operate). To ensure that innovation contributes to other

business goals, Vandebroek defines three roles for innovation at Xerox: "an explorer

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role, where we push the limits of the technology ... the partnership role, [where Xerox

people] work with the business-group engineers to make sure these cool technologies

actually end up in a product or service ... [and] the incubator, [in which] we try to

understand fully the business value of these ideas." In this way, the structure of Xerox's

Innovation Group keeps innovation efforts directed toward practical goals.

The second criterion, resource acquisition, relates to inputs rather than outputs. An

organization is deemed effective in this regard if it acquires necessary factors of

production such as raw materials, labor, capital, and managerial and technical expertise.

An organizational design that made resource acquisition more difficult caused major

problems for Boeing in the production of its 787 Dreamliner. To achieve the goal of

operating faster and more efficiently, the company had outsourced the production—and

even the design—of components to manufacturers around the world. However, as the

planned launch date for the new jet came and went, Boeing was forced to acknowledge

that suppliers were running into quality and scheduling problems, and in some cases,

Boeing's management wasn't even fully aware of the extent of the difficulties.

Some refer to the third effectiveness criterion—internal processes—as the

"healthy systems" approach. An organization is said to be a healthy system if

information flows smoothly and if employee loyalty, commitment, job satisfaction, and

trust prevail. Goals may be set for any of these internal processes. Healthy systems,

from a behavioral standpoint, tend to have a minimum of dysfunctional conflict and

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destructive political maneuvering. M Scott Peck, the physician who wrote the highly

regarded book, The Road Less Traveled, characterizes healthy organizations in ethical

terms:

A healthy organization, Peck says, is one that has a genuine sense of community:

It's a place where people are emotionally present with one another, and aren't afraid to

talk about fears and disappointments— because that's what allows us to care for one

another. It's a place where there is authentic communication, a willingness to be

vulnerable, a commitment to speaking frankly and respectfully—and a commitment not

to walk away when the going gets tough. Betty Eaton Keyes would likely say that these

qualities exist at her workplace, Richardson, Texas—based AMX, which develops

remote controls and electronic touch panels. Keyes tried retiring but found that she

missed the people too much and returned as a part-time receptionist. Bobby Ramoz

echoes her sentiments: "Coming to work every day is like going to a friend's house."

AMX's chief executive, Rashid Skaf, explains that these attitudes are actively pursued

by management as a way to help the company thrive: "When people are happy, they are

more productive, and they achieve more than even they thought was possible."

Organizations both depend on people and affect the lives of people. Consequently,

many consider the satisfaction of key interested parties to be an important criterion of

organizational effectiveness. A strategic constituency is any group of individuals who

have some stake in the organization—for example, resource providers, users of the

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organization's products or services, producers of the organization's output, groups

whose cooperation is essential for the organization's survival, or those whose lives are

significantly affected by the organization. Strategic constituencies (or stakeholders)

generally have competing or conflicting interests. This forces executives to do some

strategic juggling to achieve workable balances. For example, in recent years, it has

been difficult for many organizations to satisfy the needs and preferences of employees,

in part because of investors' pressure to operate more efficiently to withstand global

competition at the same time many employees are demanding more flexibility so that

they can fulfill competing roles. Besides employees and investors, another key

constituency is, of course, customers. To learn how Citigroup designed its organization

to help satisfy an important segment of this constituency.

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Q2: There are five bases of power: Reward power, Coercive power, Legitimate

power, Expert power and Referent power. Explain in your own words the

mentioned powers.

A popular classification scheme for social power traces back to the landmark

work of John French and Bertram Raven. They proposed that power arises from five

different bases: reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, expert power, and

referent power. Each involves a different approach to influencing others. Each has

advantages and drawbacks.

Reward Power

Managers have reward power if they can obtain compliance by promising or granting

rewards. Pay-for-performance plans and positive reinforcement programs attempt to

exploit reward power.

Coercive Power

Threats of punishment and actual punishment give an individual coercive power. For

instance, consider this favorite technique of Wolfgang Bernhard, a Volkswagen

executive and 'ruthless cost-cutter": "He routinely locks staffers in meeting rooms, then

refuses to open the doors until they've stripped $1,500 in costs from a future model. ,

Bathroom break, anyone?

Legitimate Power

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This base of power is anchored to one's formal position or authority. Thus, managers

who obtain compliance primarily because of their formal authority to make decisions

have legitimate power. Legitimate power may be expressed either positively or

negatively. Positive legitimate power focuses constructively on job performance.

Negative legitimate power tends to be threatening and demeaning to those being

influenced. Its main purpose is to build the power holder's ego.

Expert Power

Valued knowledge or information gives an individual expert power over those who

need such knowledge or information. The power of supervisors is enhanced because

they know about work assignments and schedules before their employees do. Skillful

use of expert power played a key role in the effectiveness of team leaders in a study of

three physician medical diagnosis teams. When growth slowed at Starbucks, the

company brought back its former CEO, Howard Schultz, because he was seen as

someone with enough expert power to bring about significant change. A reporter

described Schultz as "highly respected for turning Starbucks into one of the hottest

growth stocks in the 1990s and creating a retail powerhouse. Because of this track

record, the board of directors and investors expect that the company's employees will

believe Schultz has good ideas for success and therefore will follow his lead.

Knowledge is power in today's high-tech workplaces. Just ask any IT (information

technology) manager who is struggling to maintain control over the company's

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computer network even as tech-savvy workers download the latest Internet applications

and software updates.

Referent Power

Also called charisma, referent power comes into play when one's personality becomes

the reason for compliance. Role models have referent power over those who identify

closely with them.

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