HI6005 Management And Organisations In A Global Environment

There are certain basic ideas that can be established from the learning activity. Firstly, Henry Ford introduced changes in the method of producing the cars (YouTube, 2018). The cars in the earlier generation were assembled manually by labourers which would take more time and be expensive. Cars were a luxurious product designed only for the rich. Ford changed this perception about cars by aiming to manufacture cars at a cheap cost and with simplicity. He was greatly content by the expert of efficiency Fredrick Taylor, with the ambition to achieve this objective. Secondly, the theory of management of Taylor was invented on the principle of productivity that suggested that efficiency of workers will increase with the assignment of suitable tasks to their strengths and capabilities. After critical observation, Taylor decided to eliminate physical movement of the workers while assembling the parts of the cars which led to the decrease in the time of production (Huczynski, Buchanan and Huczynski 2013). Even at this stage, the company could not manufacture enough number of cars to meet the target set by Ford. Hence, Ford adopted the idea of an assembly line where the body of the cars would move through the workstations where the individual workers would remain stationary and perform the task specified to them. The introduction of the technique of assembly line, the time of production of each car reduced to an hour and a half, resulting in the mass production and earning record profits by the company. The profits enabled the company to raise the pay for the workers and this resulted in a surplus of applications from people to work for the company. The principle of rewarding then deserving employee for their honest efforts towards the company was promoted. However, trade unions to protect the rights of the workers were not recognized and strict actions were taken against those who joined the unions. This resulted in a lack of job security for the workforce. Furthermore, the working conditions were less than satisfactory due to the strict discipline maintained by the company.

The chief idea promoted by Ford was the fragmentation of long processes to reduce the time of production (Ferreira, Haddad, and Faria 2014). This idea is followed in the information technology sector where I had worked in the past. The organization adopted a restrictive and limited method of working that did not have a chance for deputation of responsibilities (Witzel and Warner 2015). This weakened the employees and resulted in their lack of productivity. Tangible and intangible benefits such as talent retention and maintaining goodwill could have been achieved, had the principle of time saving and reduction of formidable efforts of the employees been adopted by the organization. Furthermore, the company failed to provide job security to the workforce which resulted in the lack of productivity.

Response to Question 1:

Holacracy is a structure of governance that is characterized by the decentralization of management, where the authority is distributed among groups of self-organization. It does not follow the vertical model of hierarchy (Vox, 2018). A flat management structure is provided a holacracy that results in the distribution of authority. Holacracy is aimed at ensuring the individuals responsible for the completion of work should be provided with the authority to decide the process of execution of the work. The advocates of holacracy suggest that it enables increased efficiency, acuteness, clarity, responsibility, upheaval and engagement of the employees.

Bureaucracy is the operating system of the management of technically every medium and large scale organization in the market. Bureaucracy is considered necessary and inevitable. There is a huge population of managers who are interested in the status and are not ready to give up on their statuses. This makes bureaucracy an enormous in nature and the people who are good at it are unwilling to change the procedure. However, holacracy is different from the normal team-based management. Most of the workers in a traditional organization involve themselves in taking the responsibilities that are beyond their job description (Bernstein et al. 2016). Holacracy aims at making these miscellaneous roles obvious by the creation of teams or circles around every possible activity an employee could do for an organization.

Response to Question 2:

The managers of an organization having the responsibility for the design of the organization study the contingency factors that are responsible for affecting the design. The managers of Zappos are hiring the relevant people to handle the associated risks of the company. The people help in planning and strategizing contingency measures to counter the risks (Jones and Jones 2013). In addition, the company is utilizing the talent of such people in countering the risks associated because holacracy is defined by the decentralization of authority to relevant team members who will be working on the tasks beyond their departments but not their areas of expertise. Zappos believes that the unexpected talents of the employees will help in countering the risks more efficiently than the people assigned to take decisions for the same.

Response to Question 3:

Organizational structure is defined as the system that summarises the process of the direction of activities for achieving the targets of an organization. The activities involve rules, regulations, roles and responsibilities. The flow of information from the levels of an organization is determined by the organizational structure. The flow of decisions in a centralized structure is from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy whereas in a decentralized structure, the decisions are taken at multiple levels (Goetsch and Davis 2014). On the other hand, innovative culture is the environment at work that is cultivated by the leaders for the purpose of nurturing unconventional thought process and application. The places of work that promote a culture of innovation usually believe that innovation is not restricted to the top organization but can be generated from every level of the organization. The culture of innovation is nurtured by organizations that are in competition in the rapidly changing markets, where the status quo is insufficient for the effective operation, making the culture of innovation and essential factor of success.

The learning activities mentioned different factors of management some belonging to the orthodox era and some innovative ones which are important for the harmonic operation of an organization (Vox, 2018). The managerial policies of Ford and Taylor were innovations back in the era but some of them are still relevant even today. On the other hand, the industry is moving towards abolishing hierarchy through holacracy which is an innovation in the generation of today.

References

Bernstein, E., Bunch, J., Canner, N. and Lee, M., 2016. Beyond the holacracy hype. Harvard business review, 94(7), p.8.

Ferreira, N., Haddad, M. and Faria, A., 2014. Educational technology and educational management in the higher education: New ways of forming professionals. Open J SocSci2, pp.7-11.

Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., 2014. Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson.

Huczynski, A., Buchanan, D.A. and Huczynski, A.A., 2013. Organizational behaviour (p. 82). London: Pearson.

Jones, G.R. and Jones, G.R., 2013. Organizational theory, design, and change. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.

Tools, P., Works, H., Holacracy, A., Events, T., Program, L., Us, C. and Tools, P. (2018). How It Works. [online] Holacracy. Available at: https://www.holacracy.org/how-it-works/ 

Vox. (2018). Zappos just abolished bosses. Here's why.. [online] Available at: https://www.vox.com/2014/7/11/5876235/silicon-valleys-latest-management-craze-holacracy-explained

Witzel, M. and Warner, M., 2015. Taylorism revisited: Culture, management theory and paradigm-shift. Journal of General Management, 40(3), pp.55-70.

YouTube. (2018). Ford and Taylor Scientific Management (Edited). [online] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8PdmNbqtDdI