Case Study Micro Ware Limited

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Ralph - CEO, over ten years of good record in Micro-Ware Limited. Relies heavily on Manu, a well respected general manager, for the day to day management of the company. He is aiming to get his 10 percent performance based bonus at the end of the quarter year.

Jeff - Young marketing graduate, seen by CEO Ralph as the potential star. He recently assumed a General Managers role. He tried to impressed Ralph with his exciting new marketing promotion however, the information he sent him is copyrighted to a powerful USA Company and he planned to use it without seeking permission because he thought that it is very unlikely they would ever find out.

Sally - Administration team leader, been in the company for some years. CEO Ralph relies heavily on her too for maintaining the communication lines, liaises daily with the various team leaders and their senior staff using a range of communication methods matched to the preferences of each individual. Currently, she is feeling undervalued and is secretly looking for another job.

Business Demographics

Production team was formed by Manu, he ensure that goods and services are produced efficiently and that the correct amount is produced at the right cost and level of quality. Presently, Rob is the oldest and longest serving member of the technologists and he thought he was in line for team leader of the production department when Manu left.

Sally led the Administration team, they are involved with the coordination and implementation of office procedures and frequently have responsibility for specific projects and tasks for the executive officer. In addition, the work pertains to both written and oral communication, word processing and typing, and requires relevant skills such as IT, organisational and presentation skills. The team comprises of people whom mostly have been in the company for over 8 years hence, the team are precarious of electronic communication and preferred it the classic way including face to face or over the phone.

Jeff is the newly appointed General Manager of Marketing department. His role includes planning, advertising, product development, and distribution. He is very familiar with electronic communication and social networking. The company does not have an effective internal intranet yet, the marketing and production teams were able to use alternative ways of marketing strategies, a range of contacts and sources within the wider marketing industry.

Procedures for Organising and Managing Meetings

1. Agenda - Laying out an agenda gives you and your participants the framework of your meeting and, in doing so, makes it possible to reach more actionable decisions, make more relevant comments, and create more significant ideas within the time limit.

2. Time Limit - Have your meeting structured such that you have reserved a larger block of time than you might expect to use. That way, the meeting would not be thrown off-tract by surprise topics that may arise, items that require longer discussion than you anticipated, or questions.

3. Goal - Strive to give that gathering a goal, whether that be to set priorities in updating a computer network, to review a direct mail piece or to decide the assembly line responsibilities for a new product.

4. Evaluate - What worked and what did not? If the meeting is one that is regularly scheduled, consider handing out periodic evaluation forms to be filled out anonymously. With these surveys, you can more readily ascertain others perspectives, and if you receive overwhelming responses in certain areas, you can adapt your meetings accordingly, making them more streamline and productive.

Principles of Group Dynamics

1. Conflict is part of the being of group interaction, nonetheless, there should only be conflict of issues and not of personalities.

2. The individual function should be clearly depicted, and the person behaving in a certain expectation of the group.

3. Group support for or recommendation of a particular cause or policy should be encouraged.

4. Group cohesion exists when its members have mutual positive feelings towards one another, on the other hand, they do not necessarily require all members to have the same goal. For that reason, understanding is required then the members of the organisation can live in harmony.

5. The organisational goals should be clearly defined and staff should be

motivated to work in alignment with these.

6. Ground rules and norms should be constructive and staff should be in agreement with the group.

Comprehensive Intranet in Internal Communications

1. Commercial or confidential data is kept secure within the organisation and all information specifically tailored to the organisation or staff's needs can be published.

2. Emails remain private and may also be encrypted.

3. Reliable and the company will have dedicated IT personnel to keep things running smoothly.

Organisational Goals and Policies

Ways in which company can be deflected from its goals by communication problems

1. Poor structure to the communication

2. A weak delivery

3. The use of the wrong medium to deliver the communication

4. A mixed message

5. The message is delivered to the wrong audience

6. A distracting environment

Ways in which Jeff may be deflecting Micro-Ware from its goal through his choice of communications methods and mediums

1. With his choice of marketing the product, Jeff should consider to ask What is the fixed cost of production, are there ad agency fees, broadcast or print fees that must be paid, irrespective of the number or volume of items produced?

2. Jeff's changing of the company's standard guidelines in the database should not be an option only to make it meet better the marketing standards.

To refocus and get everyone working on achieving the key goals Jeff should :

1. In the first instance send a simple memo in group to direct them on the problem at hand.

2. On the second instance, a simple announcement on their networking sites would equally have gotten the message across.

Organisational Culture and Ethics

Aspects of Micro-Ware Limited organisational culture and Ethical Behaviour

1. The range of culture within the company such as their activities, task, standard ways of doing thing from the administration, to production and marketing deviates the organisation to its goals and philosophies.

2. The rituals and routine of each organisation members greatly affect the work performances of the other members.

3. The stories create a gossip among each member and it destroys the individual reputation.

Breaches of Privacy from the case study

1. Breaking the confidentiality or secrecy clauses that many state sector employees have to sign as part of their contract as what Jennifer did by possessing stolen software downloads and accessing a pornographic site.

2. Sharing information collected is an example of what Rob did when he downloaded Sally's notes and send it to the chairman of the board.

Other ways in which privacy can be breached in a business environment

1. Giving information to competitors.

2. Giving out personal details to the press.

Copyright Infringement occurs when someone other than the copyright holder copies the "expression" of a work.

Jeff using someone else's material in his writing a business report and he did not acknowledge that this is someone else's work though he is aware of it, in the hope that the copyrighted company will very unlikely found out is an example of copyright infringement.

Possible implications to Micro-Ware Limited

1. Prosecution - When you illegally download, reproduce, or distribute information, you risk legal action.

2. Penalties may range from warnings and mandatory removal of all references to costly fines.

3. Depending on the severity of the crime, jail time may also be a possibility. To offset their own court costs and the money they feel they lose because of the infringement, vendors may increase the prices of their products.

Current and Emerging Communication Technology

Types of Organisational Strategies used in the case study

Team - The purpose is for all members of the team to realise what each other is doing, what problems they currently have, what targets they are aiming for and what steps they will take to rectify any problems. For example, organisations monthly meeting.

Phone - The main purpose of the phone is to send a message across wherever the other person may be without having to meet face to face. For example, calling the CEO for an update in the organisation.

Text Messaging - The purpose is sending of messages through someone else's device in an attempt to inform the other party. For example, sending a text message of the meeting time and venue.

Email - A message whether a picture or plain text that is send through a created account in a network. For example, memo of upcoming project proposal.

Networking - in the field of technology is the practice of linking computer devices together to support digital communication among them. For example, acquiring contacts through people of the same network group.

Emerging Communication Technologies

VOIP

Teleconference

Video Conference

Intranet service

Micro-Ware Limited with its Marketing department, Production, and Administration members working as a team and living out to the company's standard guidelines and policies will therefore bring the company to the new heights in business industry.