Case Study Micro Ware Ltd

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

1) Communication Structure and information flow.

a) List three (3) internal stakeholders of Micro-Ware Ltd and Give:

Their personal Agenda.

The influence they are currently having on the organization.

Answer: Manu is an example of an internal Stake holder. He is the General Manager of the company and he has been working since the beginning of the same. He is well respected, reliable and arguably the mast of the company. He assists the CEO with his routine works in the business.

Jeff is another important stakeholder and the head of the marketing department. He is the brain child who drives the company’s sales and stakes. He is a highly influential person even at the CEO level and a person everyone looks upon to.

Sally is the Administration Head of the company and has been working there for quiet some years. She is the nervous system of the company and has pivotal roles of maintaining the communication system, arranging meetings and pretty much all the events in the company.

b) Outline the business demographics f the three (3) key teams and the three individuals Jeff, Ralph and Sally in the software company.

Answer: Jeff runs the marketing department of the company. He holds a crucial responsibility as the marketing department is the revenue creating department of the company. Each and every move he makes create a great difference in the future. He brings new ideas and leads to the company creating new opportunities and customers.

Ralph Yung is the Chief Executive Officer of the company and controller of all the departments. He is the person accountable to the Main board members and answerable to all major happenings in the company. He is helped by Manu, the general manager of the company. He co ordinates his tasks with Manu and he co ordinates it with respective department heads.

Sally is the Administration Head and is the one who does all the ‘housework’ in the company. Her department is in charge of the communication and smooth functioning of all departments. She acts as a buffer in achieving the goals by bringing together all the departments and does all the background paper-works. She is quiet proactive and a hard worker in her department.

C) The meeting Ralph called was not very successful. Outline a four part procedure for organizing and managing meetings that Micro-ware Ltd can adopt.

First Step is to decide the members of the meeting and create memos or emails targeting specific members.

Second Step is to mention the same in a notice board or bulletin board so if at all, anyone was missing out can be made aware.

Third step is to follow the step by step guidelines of the meetings by keeping it short and focusing on conclusions and resolutions.

Fifth step is to get the feedbacks and comments or suggestion and the most important thing is to do it in stipulated time.

d) Explain six ways in which the principles of group dynamics could be used to help solve the problems within the software company.

There are many ways in which group dynamics can be used and the most important thing in a software company is to have well balanced groups. Instead of having a loose and independent group, having self sustained groups with a member from each department can give a 360degree overview of the departments.

Brainstorming sessions are group activities that are very helpful to find fresh new ideas and bring out young new talents.

Achieving targets are more likely if the sales team is also a part of the designing or production or operation as they are more aware of the customer requirements through the sales team.

Group trainings and activities are very helpful.

In a group it is much more easier and efficient if the work is distributed evenly and it also takes out the chances of finger pointing and passing the buck.

Group dynamics support the decision support system of the company especially for the top management.

e) Outline three (3) ways in which a comprehensive intranet could improve internal communications at the software company.

Answer: Internal Intranet gives a cheap and easy mode of communication. This also gives us unlimited time to conduct online meetings and video conferencing etc. and saves a considerable amount of time. It also breaks the accessibility constraint as it can be logged in from anywhere in the company wireless. Thus it helps employees share their ideas, views and comments and make the work more transparent to everyone. It even helps to share videos, picture or any electronic file which is highly useful and productive.

2) Organization goals and policies

Where there are communication problems in a company they can deflect the company from following policies and from achieving its organizational goals.

Identified six ways in which any company can be deflected from its goal by communication problems.

Answer:

Poor communication may cause confusion and misunderstandings in an organization which will act as a hindrance to the achievement of the goal.

It may also cause problems by conveying only half the message and thereby creating a notion that company is in the right track when it’s not.

Poor communication will screen the proper identification of a common problem and also will result in poor execution of a long term project.

Poor communication will cripple the growth as it shunts fresh new ideas from reaching the top level management.

Poor communication will affect the decision making system from the high level if the high level management is not transparent to the low level employees or vice versa.

Poor communication may cause lot of assumptions which will in turn affect the Key Performance Indicators of an organization.

Identify two ways in which Jeff may be deflecting Micro-ware from its goals through his choice of communication methods and mediums.

Answer: The main problem that the staff members were complaining about was that there were far too many meetings and discussions which may make the company lose its valuable time. It affected many people and they started murmuring about it in the beginning and at a later stage openly started complaining. Another mistake that Jeff has done is not being completely transparent to Ralph about the new promotions and policies. He , maybe deliberately, hid the fact that the promotions were not originally from him and could be a lot of trouble if they were caught in front of the legal system. These are the two main serious communication gaps that Jeff has created.

Explain two (2) things he could do to refocus and get everyone working on achieving the key goals.

Answer: There are many things which Jeff can do to get things straight. He can cut short the number of staff meetings and the time spent on them. This will help the employees by giving them time and tension free environment to complete their project. He can use defined and clear goals which will help the employees to give a better view of the pace at which the company is moving right now. He can relax a bit on the marketing side of the projects and focus on other department’s priorities. This will help to bring understanding between departments and other staff members will feel that Jeff is concerned about their problems too.

3) Organizational Culture and Ethics.

a) From the case study outline how any three (3) different aspects of Micro-ware Ltd’s organizational cultures and ethical behaviors (e.g. range of cultures within the company, rituals and routine, power structures, stories) Impact on effective communication and its management.

Answer: There are various ways in which organizational culture and ethical behavior can affect the effective communication and its management. In one instance there was an invasion of privacy by an employee named Soma in which she exposed some private photos of another employee which is not related to work and started a rumor. This was a result of an overwhelming remark made by Margaret prior to this incident which let Soma embarrassed in front of other employees. This shows that employees are not concerned about the privacy of co-workers and no regulations are placed on circulation of private or restricted images.

During the meeting, Instead of using a pleasant way for putting down the problems, Rob used a cheeky and unhealthy tone. This is another instance which shows that the employees are not concerned even about the basic code of conduct in an organization.

Another instance was that there was no firewall or regulation related to the access to the internet as another employee named Jennifer was caught downloading x rated images and has been downloading stolen softwares.

b) What two breaches of privacy can you determine from the information in the case study?

Answer:

First act of breach of privacy happened when there was a rash comment from Margaret about Soma’s apparels and made her look embarrassed in front of everyone and this was followed by a real offensive move by Soma by posting a picture of Margaret, which she took without Margaret’s knowledge, having a beer with a co-worker named Mark at a local pub and spread a rumor that she is in an affair.

Second breach was committed by Rob who took files from Sally’s flash drive without her knowledge. He printed out the information in a company letter head without anyone’s consent and then used that information against another colleague and sent the file directly to the main board of directors for his own benefit.

Beyond the case study provide two other possible ways in which privacy can be breached in a business environment.

Answer:

Logging into another person’s login or username without the person’s permission or knowledge.

Reading the mails which is meant for anyone else but you and sending wrong or concealed information.

Disclosing trade secrets of the company which may or may not be beneficial for a third party.

What copyright infringements can you determine from the information in the case study?

The issue of copyright infringement was caused by Jeff who brought ideas of promotions and policies to attract new companies. This promotion was originally from a powerful and well known U.S. company and he intended to use it without their consent or permission. This is a serious legal issue.

C) What are the possible implications of these infringements for the company?

The company may face serious legal issues regarding the copying of promotions as it is an intellectual asset of another company and it cannot be used without their permission or consent. The company can be sued for a large amount as the intellectual assets can be copyrighted. It may deface the company and destroy the company’s goodwill.

4) Current and emerging communication technology.

a) Name five (5) types of mediated and or face to face organization communication strategies used in this case study.

Answer:

Direct or face to face communication

Online Communication

Verbal

Intranet

Written or through paper

b) Describe the purpose of each strategy.

Direct/ face to face meetings are needed to solve problems come to a conclusion or come up with new ideas which may only attained by group effort. ‘Brainstorming’ and ‘top of the mind’ exercises are more practical in these kinds of session.

Telephones are used to get quick response in case of an urgent issue or emergency.

Memos or emails are targeted to a special group. Memos are hand delivered and this is done to make absolutely sure that the receiver has actually seen the message and usually a signature of the receiver is requested.

Circulars, Publishing, portfolios, newsletters are used to send informal or general information to a wider group.

Intranet is used in certain companies to launch a social networking site or just a public forum to share ideas or as platform to recognize talents and many other things.

c) Give an example of how each type of strategy is used

In Direct /face to face communication the conventional method is actual or physical team meetings and another alternative is virtual meetings and video conferences.

Basic Online Communications are Emails and IM (Instant Messages).

Telephones can be used to sent messages both written and voice.

Intranet is a cheaper way of communication and much easier to access.

Memos, circulars, publishing’s, portfolios are also used to send formal and informal messages.

Give examples of 4 emerging communication technologies the software company could use to improve their internal and external communication.

Intranet is used to launch local social networking site which is for its employees only.

Video conferencing is done to connect different intranet or through internet with people from remote places or from different countries.

Virtual meeting rooms are created for easiness in conferencing.

Cloud technology is used share information or documents which allows a user to access and use information or communicate from anywhere.