The Organisational Culture And Ethics

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Ralph Yung- the CEO of the company. His personal agenda is to overlook the staff in regards to the current operations of the company. He is not a fan of meetings but in order to solve the current problem he decide to call a meeting. Wants to solve the without involvement of the board of directors. He also ‘is look forward to receive his 10% of his performance based bonus at the end of the quarter year. Ralph does not want any changes in the structure of the company before the month end as it would lead to the disruption in the output.

Jeff -is a young marketing graduate and used to lead the marketing department, currently is the general manager in place of Manu. Has got big plans of the company, has got himself in the CEOs good books after getting two big budget clients Jeff hailing from the marketing background is eager to change the standard guidelines of the organization database to make it better in serving the needs of the marketing department. He is also trying to convince the technologists into making the software user friendly for the customers. This has led to the staff starting to complain as they do not see the changes suggested by Jeff to be feasible. In his venture to prove himself as the best candidate Jeff has used some copyrighted information belonging to a powerful USA company in his proposal for new promotion. This risk may be fatal for Micro-ware Ltd in the future.

Rob – the oldest and longest serving staff in the technological department. His aim was to get the post of Manu in leading the productions department. Since Jeff has been given the post of the new general manager in place of Manu, Rob is trying to prove to the management of the organization that he was a better candidate. He has started resenting Jeff and has started having personality clashes in a diplomatic way. Rob is trying to impress the CEO at the same time with a hope that there will be a change in the leadership of the productions department. He even goes to the extreme of sending the consensus contribution of the participants in the meeting to the chairman of the board. This act can be seen as very unprofessional and will cause more disturbances in the organization in general.

b) Outline the business demographics of the three key teams and the three individuals; Jeff, Ralph and Sally in the software company.

Production team- consists of young technologists who work independently to complete their given task. The team is led by the former general manager Manu. Manu is in-charge of the day to day management of the company.

Marketing team- Led by Jeff who is also the general manager is seen to be having the interest of the company as a priority. He is however coming into a stage where he is not able to perform the tasks effectively and is taking the wrong path to prove himself to the CEO.

Administration team – Led by Sally. Her team comprises a number of older women and one man. She liaises daily with the various team leaders and their senior staff using a range of communication methods matched to the preferences of each individual. Sally feels undervalued and is looking for another job. Administration staffs are not familiar with electronic communication and social networking therefore prefers to communicate face to face or over the phone.

c) The meeting Ralph called was not very successful. Outline a structured four part procedure for organising and managing meetings that Micro-Ware Ltd can adopt.

Introduction

A business meeting begins with introduction. This is important because participants get to know each other and learn who will be delivering information during the meeting.

Agenda and administrative tasks

After the introduction, then someone has to read the agenda. This lists all of the items that will be under discussion, and in what order. Everyone should agree with the agenda. After presenting the agenda a business meeting moves into a series of administrative tasks.

Presentations and discussions

Following the agenda and administrative tasks, the participants make their presentations and respond to the questions from the other speakers. The record keeper takes notes for future reference of whatever is being discussed.

Conclusion and adjournment

When all the speakers have spoken the floor is than open for any further discussions. The dates for next meeting is usually finalised at this stage so that every participant is well aware of the expectations.

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

The group dynamics are:

Cohesiveness - If a group is to be used effectively as a medium of change, those who are to be changed and those who are to wield an influence for change must have a strong sense of belonging to the same group.

Norms - Successful efforts to change individuals or sub-parts of a group would result in making them conform to the norms of the group.

iii) Roles – Every member of a group has roles to play which determines how they function in a group. Each role has certain expectations which determine the behaviour in the group.

iv) Conformity – every group member agreeing with one idea, rules or principles set by other members.

v) Groupthink – all members of the group should be encouraged to give their views and ideas. And should agree that there may be more than one solution to any problem and also belief that we always have the best solution.

vi) Conflict – many members avoid conflicts thinking that it will detract groups purpose and goal. In fact conflict should be part of a meeting for group interaction.

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

i) Intranet can improve internal communications that is it can save time.

ii) It is easier to communicate using intranet to send the same message to every person in the system at the same time as compared to the mode of face to face communication that can be either be over the phone or in form of written note.

iii) Using intranet minimizes expenses such as stationery expense. Intranet is quite effective, saves time and message reached to people on time and accurately.

2) ORGANISATIONAL GOALS AND POLICIES

Identify six ways in which any company can be deflected from its goals by communication problems.

How communication problems can deflect an organization from its goals:

i) Physical barrier such as immediate context at work – the aspects of the building, temperature of the room, the way furniture’s are arranged and noise can affect communication.

ii) Linguistic barrier – language can be a barrier. Ignorance of grammar, vocabulary and tone can lead to misunderstanding a message. The members not taking information from the superiors in a clear way due to the fact information being passed is not in a standard format.

iii) Cultural barrier – affects the way we communicate. A person with a culture can understand another from the same or similar culture. Whereas the same person will have difficulty in understanding from a person with a totally different culture.

iv) Technology barrier – electronics devices are always open to disturbances, faults and failure. This leads to delay in work.

v) Gender barrier – Men and women communicate in different ways. Women are thought to be a weak problem solver or decision maker and are too emotional to handle problems. This need not be a barrier.

vi) Making assumptions too quickly – this is a barrier when people jump to a conclusion too quickly without thinking or based on previous experience. Before making assumptions it is good to ask questions and consider the other persons point of view.

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

Two ways in which Jeff is deflecting the company are:

Jeff is basically seen to be trying to prove himself in the position as a General Manager and head of marketing at the same time by going to extremes. He has taken the software of another company and is going to use it as his own work which may lead to legal issues if found.

Inability to perform and motivate the staff to meet the company deadlines. He chooses only one method of communication i.e. meeting which is not fruitful to the company.

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

Two things that can be done:

Jeff taking responsibility of his actions and trying to be a better leader in all the three different departments that he is heading. He has to keep separate strategies for each department and need to follow contingency theory practice in order to be effective.

Having a proper management control is important in order to get the departments working. The departments’ heads are not seen to be practicing proper work ethics and this is flowing down to the subordinates.

3) ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE AND ETHICS

a) From the case study outline how any three different aspects of Micro-Ware Ltd’s organisational culture(s) and ethical behaviours (e.g. range of cultures within the company, rituals and routine, power structures, stories) impact on effective communication and its management?

i) Those that depend on technology – depend on electronic communication e.g. email. In Micro-Ware Ltd Marketing and Production staffs are very familiar with electronic communication and social networking. This saves time and message is reached fast.

ii) The marketing department are very social people so prefers face to face communication. Time is wasted in this type of communication. If you have any message to be given to a person, it will take time to look for that person and convey the message. This process takes long, organising for a meeting and conveying the message whereas electronic communication is more effective. Just have to send the same message to everyone.

iii) Administration department are very traditional so prefers face to face or over the phone communication. Again the time is wasted, if a message is to be given to a department staffs the same message has to be repeated over and over again. This slows the communication in an organisation and can result in production or poor performance in an organisation.

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

i) Rob breached privacy by downloading a copy of report of the staff notes complete with names when Sally was not at her work station. He will then send this report to board of directors so that they can take action against Jeff and he can be promoted as a Team leader. He is breaching the privacy act by not keeping the organisations information private and secure.

ii) Soma breached the privacy by taking Margaret’s photograph with a male colleague at a pub without her knowledge and emailing everyone the photo with the message "Margaret’s New affair".

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

i) Sharing information collected by one company with another company.

ii) Breaking the confidentiality or secrecy clauses that many state sector employees have to sign as part of their contracts.

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

Jeff has used some copyrighted information belonging to a powerful USA company in his proposal for new promotion and he thinks that it is very unlikely they would ever find out.

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

The punishment for infringement could be sentence or fine.

The company can loose reputation.

4) CURRENT AND EMERGING COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY

a) Name five types of mediated and/ or face to face organisation communication strategies used in this case study.

i) Email

ii) Phone

iii) Meetings

iv) Mobile phones

v) Social Networking

b) Describe the purpose of each strategy.

i) Email – the message is sent much faster when compared to other strategies. And it saves time. The messages are kept in the sent folder for further reference.

ii) Phone – verbal communication which is much quicker.

iii) Meetings – people gather together to plan and review their joint activities.

iv) Mobile phones – it is a means of communication and these days it is the number one medium.

v) Social Networking – the purpose is simply to keep in touch with family and friends.

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

i) Email - the marketing and production staff are familiar with the electronic communication and they use daily to interact with other departments.

ii) Phone – administration staff are traditional and they prefer to communicate over the phone.

iii) Meetings – Jeff is a big fan of team meetings and therefore he has regular meetings with the staffs of making their software customer friendly.

iv) Mobile phones – Soma uses phone to take pictures of Margaret drinking with a friend and sending it to everyone.

v) Social Networking – marketing staffs are very social people therefore they use social networking sites.

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

i) Teleconferencing

ii) Videoconferencing

iii) Text Messaging

iv) Mobile Phones