Listo Systems the Challenge of a Growing Organization free essay sample

The Challenge of a Growing Organization Defining the Context Listo Systems, one of the world’s top graphic service companies, was established in the 1990s when technological advancements were increasing and creating a more competitive market. After going through a period of great success and growth, the company decided to hire a number of new employees and adding new layers of managers and supervisors. Defining the Key Issues or Problems The main issue is that Listo Systems has been growing too quickly, and the company has not been able to cope with this growth appropriately. Due to this situation, causal variables such as lack of proper training for new employees, management becoming less concerned with workers’ opinions and more concentrated on production and profit have eroded. As a consequence, there has been a lack of clearness regarding the company’s objectives and goals, and as a result of this there have been intervening variables such as decreasing employee motivation and productivity which provoked personnel turnover rate to increase and amount of sick days taken doubled. Applying Concepts Organizational Level 1: Key Players (Stakeholders) and Business Ideas (Purpose) In this level, â€Å"(†¦) implementing business ideas in the internal and external environment is affected by the stakeholders, key players, or factors whose helping or hindering roles determine success or failure to the organization. † This level involves establishing, refining and monitoring the vision of the company so it can synchronize stakeholders and key players with the business ideas and purpose of the organization. Listo System’s vision statement mentions that the company aims â€Å"to be recognized as a leader in supplying quality graphic design products and services (†¦) and to be respected by our clients and staff. † They also mentioned that they plan to do so by developing superior graphic design products and services for clients through state-of-the-art technology, innovation, teamwork, and leadership. Even though the company has well defined aims and goals, elevated personnel turnover and lack of proper training for new employees has caused workers to detach from the company’s objectives. In order to make sure that everyone (employees and key shareholders) is aware of the company’s goals and objectives, these should be re-established. In order to make workers stay focused, the goal-oriented behavior theory could be applied. This could be done by using the Hawthorne experiments theory. If the attention is brought back to the workers, they will feel like part of the company once again, and therefore make the company goals their own and attempt to reach these. Also, Homans’s Informal Work Groups will promote this sense of moving together in the same direction. By re-establishing the goals, and maintaining the employees focused and motivated, employees will respect the company. Once employees feel respect for the company, they will gain respect from clients, thus fulfilling the goals set in the vision statement. Organizational Level 2: Entity (Culture) Strategy (Mission) This level finds strategic initiatives carried out within the corporate culture. It involves defining, shaping (publicizing) and energizing the company’s vision by synchronizing the corporate culture and individuals with the strategies and mission. Due to the restructuring Listo Systems went through, employees have become detached from the company’s goals and as a result have become demotivated. In order to improve the coherence between the company’s corporate culture, individuals and the company mission, the stated mission needs to be energized. A concept that must be mentioned here is Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs. If this is applied, the reason why workers are underperforming is because they are not meeting the required level of social, self-esteem and self-actualization needs. This lack of completion of needs is due to the fact that people are constantly leaving the company, which does not allow a proper community to develop. Once this problem is solved, employees will be more motivated as they will feel more comfortable in this new environment of closer friends and trust. This lack of motivation from the employees could also be explained with McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y. Before, the company was under a Theory Y model, where employees were constantly asked for their opinions regarding direction of the company. Now, management is less concerned with their opinions and more directive orders are being given. If employees are treated in a Theory X way, they will lose the motivation they had as they will feel they are no more than some cogs making the machine run. This will clearly have an impact on the company culture, however, if we want this negative impact to be smaller, we could ask the managers to return to the Y theory form, and inform new managers that this is a theory Y company with some control over goal-oriented employees. This way not only first line worker will feel comfortable, but managers will also feel safe. Once both parties have their needs fulfilled, they will be motivated and will automatically energize the company mission. Organizational Level 3: Departments (Units) Key Results (Success Factors) Level three communicates key results and success factors to the organizational units and department divisions. The leadership challenges at this level are: involving, facilitating, and communicating the vision in order to synchronize organizational units and department division to achieve its goal (key results). Since the restructuring of the company made the workers detach from the â€Å"Listo family† and feel uninvolved, the company should try to make the workers feel more involved again. Once this is done, they will feel motivated to work for the common good again. As individuals start working for the common good, they will become more mature and as a result will be promoted (Argyris’s Maturity Theory). This way, employees will be more involved in the managerial position to which they were promoted, and it will also serve as an example for other employees to follow and look up to. Organizational Level 4: Teams Entity (Groups) Goals (Objectives) Level four suggests that goals are achieved by teams. This is done through focusing, unifying, and connecting the vision. In this particular case, Listo Systems’ main aim should be to connect team members with each other as well as with the team’s goals. Once again, goal-oriented behavior should be applied. This method will help motivate the workers, which will be beneficial for both individuals as well as the company. Also, connecting workers inside groups will help increase performance and as a result motivation. Since the current environment is a Theory X one, workers are in a controlled environment, with a highly structured system. This, according to the theory of interpersonal competence, is causing individuals to maintain only superficial relationships, and as a result not fulfilling their self-esteem and social needs. If management is encouraged to promote group work, workers will have to interact more and become more involved with each other, the decision-making process, and the company. Organizational Level 5: Individuals (People) Tasks (Jobs): In level five, tasks are performed by people. It involves enabling, engaging, and empowering the vision. The proper leadership challenge response to be applied is engaging. As we know, due to the restructuring of Listo Systems, employees have been detached from the company and its goals. Employees are demotivated and because of this they feel like changing jobs. According to the expectancy theory, if the relationship between the amount of effort invested and a task is positive, the worker will be motivated. The complication of the company’s organization and increase in manager layers have made the employees hold a much smaller position. The employee, who was used to putting a certain amount of effort into the job, has less decision-making power and less important position, which decreases the effort/task achievement ratio. This will cause the employee feel less important in turn and as a result less motivated to contribute with his effort. Another theory that could be applied is Herzberg’s Motivation-Hygiene Theory. Since the employees were receiving recognition, this was working as a motivator. Nevertheless, once this recognition from part of the company stopped, there was no extra motivator. Alternative Courses of Action An alternative course of action could be to eliminate some of the manager layers and simplify the organization’s structure. This will increase the level of participation from employees at the bottom of the hierarchy and as a result motivate them. Another option would be to encourage a combination of goal-oriented behavior and promotion of group work. This way employees’ motivation will increase due to self-esteem and social needs being fulfilled, and the sense of belonging to the â€Å"Listo family† will provoke everyone to move in the same sense and aim towards the same goals. Something else that could be done is to give clear individual smaller tasks to each department. A theory Y must be maintained in the way of treating employees at the bottom of the hierarchy, however some of theory X must be applied as employees will need to be subtly controlled and assisted in order for them to reach the department or group’s task. Once again, the Hawthorne Studies theory could also be applied. Employees should be asked for their opinions and make them feel like they are being considered. However, a CII managerial decision style should be used. The problem should be shared with the workers so managers can get their ideas and suggestions, but keep the decision-making part for the top part of the hierarchy, as lower ranked workers might not be able to see the bigger picture. Choosing a Course of Action Listo Systems needs to encourage goal-oriented behavior. This implies that goals must be re-established and made clear. This will help ameliorate workers’ motivation level and as a result their performance. Also, Theory Y must be applied when treating workers at the bottom of the hierarchy. This will fulfill workers’ self-esteem needs, and in exchange energize them to work towards the goal. The company must also promote group work. However, they must aim to connect the individuals’ and groups’ smaller tasks with the main goals the company has. Finally, management must try to keep the employees involved in the decision-making process. Nevertheless, a CII managerial decision style must be kept, this way new ideas and solutions will be brought up by the lower ranked workers, but in the end managers will be the ones making the decisions. This will make employees feel more involved and part of the company. Developing an Action Plan In Organizational Level 1, the company needs to re-establish the company goal and control and support the workers on their way to the goal. Employees at the bottom of the hierarchy will need to be treated in a Theory Y manner, but managers will need to maintain a slight form of Theory X because of the control required. In Organizational Level 2, if the company wants to energize their vision, they will have to energize their employees first. In order to do so, they’ll need to treat their workers according to Theory Y and promote group work to fulfill their social and self-esteem needs. In Organizational Level 3, the company needs to increase the employees’ involvement with the company. In order to do this, management should use the Hawthorne Studies as an example, which also involves treating workers in a Theory Y manner. Group work could also be applied at this level. In Organizational Level 4, Listo Systems needs to connect workers with each other as well as workers’ and work groups’ individual goals with the company’s main goal. In order to do so, goal-oriented behavior must be encouraged. This way, workers will stay focused on goals and productivity will increase. In Organizational Level 5, the company needs to focus on engaging workers in their individual tasks. This can be done through goal-oriented behavior and by recognizing the employee’s progress and work, which would work as a motivator for them. All these changes would improve overall performance of the company and maintain the same level if employees are kept motivated properly. As a result, employee satisfaction would also increase, decreasing the personnel turnover, also maintaining the company’s goals clear for the satisfied employees.