Management Assignment: Understanding Of Organizational Behavior In A Global Context

Question

Task:

Purpose: This individual management assignment is an opportunity for students to demonstrate their understanding of Organisational Behaviour in a Global context.

Details Answer All FIVE (5) of the following questions.

1. Summary: A tornado devastated Greensburg, Kansas. The mayor stated the tornado was actually an opportunity to rebuild a “green town.” There was opposition from the town residents.

Task: Read the “City of Greensburg Kansas” case and then consider the following questions.

(a) Describe rational decision making.

(b) Cite 3 reasons for and 3 reasons against rebuilding Greensburg as a “green town.”

2. Summary: The healthcare industry today is changing rapidly. There actually seem to be two different—and conflicting—sets of pressure affecting healthcare that relate to communication. Intermountain Healthcare is a nonprofit healthcare system that provides hospitals and other medical services in Utah and Idaho. Intermountain uses clinical data to improve patient outcomes. The importance of communication is highlighted in the way Intermountain works, especially in a field where information can be a matter of life and death.

Task: Read the “Intermountain Healthcare” case and then consider the following questions.

(a) What is horizontal communication?

(b) How is the horizontal form of communication more prominent in Intermountain Healthcare? (4 marks)

3. Summary: The morning after the powerful EF-5 tornado whipped through the area, everyone knew Greensburg was gone—perhaps forever. But in a subsequent press conference, Mayor Lonnie McCollum announced that the town would rebuild as a model green community, and named Steve Hewitt as a full-time administrator to make the changes. While Mayor McCollum offered a vision for rebuilding Greensburg, it is Hewitt who stepped up to ensure that the vision became a reality. Hewitt quickly went to work on a plan for rebuilding. City workers give Hewitt high marks for his handling of the crisis. Like most good leaders, Hewitt hasn’t been afraid to ruffle feathers as needed.

Task: Read the “City of Greensburg, Kansas: Leadership” case and then consider the following questions: (a) Where does Hewitt’s leadership fall on the Managerial Grid discussed in the chapter?

(b) What deficiencies or shortcomings would you identify in Hewitt’s leadership?

4. Task: Read the “Numi Organic Tea: Value Chain, IT, and E-Business” case and then consider the following questions:

(a) Based on this case study, what issues with China-based suppliers require Numi’s managers to use influence and persuasion tactics?

(b) How does Numi get suppliers to comply with its policies?

5. Summary: Honest Tea (U.S.) is a bottled organic tea company based in Bethesda, Maryland. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the CocaCola Company. Honest Tea is known for its organic and fair trade products and is one of the fastest-growing private companies. Honest Tea started off with a handful of employees bringing out five products, three of which are still in the market. Today the company has over 35 package varieties of not only tea but other beverages as well. Honest Tea caters to a group of customers that prefer organic or low-calorie beverages over other types of beverages. Honest Tea finds that it must continually adapt to changing circumstances and environments. Initially organic or low-calorie tea was the only product, but the firm has expanded to various other beverages. Honest Tea believes that growth is continuous; the firm should never consider that they have finished achieving what they set out to accomplish.

Task: Read the “Honest Tea: Organizational Structure” case and then consider the following questions.

(a) Does Honest Tea have more of an organic or mechanistic structure?

(b) How can you tell (Justify)?

Answer

Week 7 Pre Recorded Case Study
(a) As per the case undertaken in this management assignment, rational decision making is a "multi-step process” so that the correct choice can be made between several alternatives. Making a decision rationally involves using logic, analysis, thinking objectively and having an insight. A proper analysis of the situation is formed instead of using intuition or subjective thoughts. Forming a decision rationally suggests that the choices made will have maximum benefits and reduce any extra costs (Hill, 2019). In the case of the city of Greenburg, people had to choose over building a green city or improving the businesses that can help with the taxes. Rational decision making was not successfully done in the city as the city was more focused on building sustainable and green complexes, which may have impacted the long-term decisions.

(b) The reasons for a green city are:

• As the tornado had lost some houses, it was an opportunity for the city for rebuilding it by using fewer materials and using more efficient techniques.
• Using sustainable techniques suggests less waste and efficient utilization of resources such as energy and water. It is a long-term goal and can even be effective in the future.
• Green buildings also help in improving the indoor environment quality. Constructing green buildings make sure that the stress level is low; air quality is better by installing operation windows and reducing the use of items that can be dangerous to health (Iravani et al. 2017).

The reasons against are:

• Building green and sustainable building can be costly due to the use of materials, which may not be able to be afforded by every citizen of Greensburg.
• Green construction materials can be difficult to find which can delay the construction. This can be difficult for the people whose homes are already destroyed by the storm and have nowhere to stay (Iravani et al. 2017).
• The funding for the projects is difficult to get from any investor in this condition as there are a lot of technologies used that are new.

Week 8 Pre Recorded Case Study
(a) Horizontal communication takes place between team members and groups and individuals who are at the same hierarchical level. Horizontal communication can help in promoting internal communication between the employees who have the same functional positions in an organization. The information in this communication flows in the same direction through different sources. An example can be the information and resources that are communicated between managers of several departments in an organization (Voinea et al. 2015). Horizontal communication helps in properly coordinating the work among several departments for achieving the goal. Informal communication in the form of oral method is usually used in this communication. Horizontal communication can be easily understood by the other person as it uses simple language. As no written method is used in this type of communication it is imperative the people involved pay proper attention to avoid any misunderstanding. The most important principle that must be followed in horizontal communication is that the message listened must be remembered. The conversation taken place must be recalled so that the information can flow smoothly. Intermountain Healthcare follows horizontal communication as information is properly communicated between the managers of different departments and the goals are reached.

(b) Intermountain Healthcare follows horizontal communication as the patient data and information has a smooth flow across the different debarments and different hospitals across the city. The departmental managers make sure there is effective communication between them so that the information can reach to the physicians and clinicians. The hospital emphasizes physical communication and maintains transparency in the conversations (Purpora et al. 2015). The hospital also organizes meetings between the departments between the physicians of different facilities so that they can have communication between them. The hospital also makes sure that the points are mentioned in the bulletin board with the help of flyers.

Week 9 Pre Recorded Case Study
(a) Hewitt’s leadership falls on the high management team. He had the courage and the initiative to lead a team of 20-35 members. He does not micromanage and allows every department to have its department heads. He can delegate tasks. He is open to maintaining communication. He has good leadership skills as he has included a full-time fire department team in his office, and also included new people and departments (Gallo et al. 2016). He sets out clear goals that are followed by the departments. He has an efficient management ability and focuses on the roles and responsibilities of every individual. He maintains strict codes and instructions with the people and has a goal to build a better and safe community. He is straightforward in his instructions and analyses each situation properly before giving out instructions. He motivates and inspires others to work clearly and reach the goal of building a green community.

(b) There are no real shortcomings in the leadership of Hewitt. Daniel Wollok and Kim Adlefer considered Hewitt as an analytic, strategic and big-hearted person. He had a developing vision and implemented strategies and therefore provided a clear direction for the future of Greensburg. He knew the fact that for the change to occur there is a requirement of several adjustments (Taucean et al. 2016). According to Aldefer, Hewitt had managerial issues before the storm, but after the storm, he delegated the responsibilities to different people for handling the managerial tasks. He keeps an open line of communication and respects the idea that his work has to be known by someone else. According to the mayor, Hewitt has an analytical approach and maintains a strategic and calculating tendency in performing tasks. He has the endurance and the capacity to perform the task of managing the people and does it efficiently.

Week 10 Pre Recorded Case Study
(a) The managers of Numi need to use persuasion in dealing with the issues of maintaining product quality, maintaining the level of sustainability that the company desires in the supply chain and ethical treatment of workers. The ethical treatment of the workers in Chinese factories is one of the reasons that the managers use persuasion and spends most of the time in Asia (Markman et al. 2016). The suppliers located in china needs to treat the workers fairly, provide them with fair wages keep a proper cost of supplies and not use exploitation. As production of tea is a labour-intensive process, the managers of Numi’s make sure that the factories maintain ethical sourcing and maintain the quality in the products by maintaining sustainability in the supply chain.

(b) Numi has urged the suppliers to be environmentally and socially conscious and thus help the people receive an increase in the wages of 20%. This will make sure that profitability is maintained and their suppliers have efficient functioning. The company makes the suppliers comply with the policies by travelling overseas for building personal relationships (Silvius et al. 2017). The company also builds personal relationships with the suppliers by explaining to them each of the policies and cause of the product. The company for improving the policies spend a lot of time with the suppliers for improving their factory conditions and providing the funds to acquire better workers so that proper work conditions and a proper factory can be implemented. The ERP system of the company also helps the suppliers understand the policies that the company follows as the same software is used in different locations.

Week 11 Pre Recorded Case Study
(a) Honest Tea has an organic structure, as it maintains a reporting structure throughout the company. The organization also maintains a horizontal interaction. The decisions in the company are made by consensus and each innovative and different idea is taken into perspective. Honest Tea follows an organic structure as information is widely available to each employee that helps in making better decisions. The departments have cooperated between each other and operate efficiently in an environment that has skilled employees (honesttea.com, 2020).

(b) The company maintains an organic structure as it has a transparent communication and efficient leadership. The ideas of each person are validated and are used for making the business successful. The company with this structure has been able to develop is business by inventing new flavours, understanding the preferences of customers and acting accordingly. As the ideas, if all the members are used and open communication is maintained the company was able to introduce new variety in the products and also include juice drinks other than tea. The company continues to innovate and develops new strategies for advancing the mission. The ideas of the employees are considered and therefore the company by understanding the preferences of customers has offered low calories and healthy products. The company supports sustainable system and creates economic opportunities for many people (honesttea.com, 2020).

Reference list
Gallo, P., Tausova, M. and Gonos, J., 2016. Leadership style model based on managerial grid. ????????? ???????? ?????????, (4), pp.246-252.

Hill, B., 2019. Confidence in beliefs and rational decision making. Economics & Philosophy, 35(2), pp.223-258.

honesttea.com, (2020), honest, available at: https://www.honesttea.com/, accessed on: 7.6.2020

Iravani, A., Akbari, M.H. and Zohoori, M., 2017. Advantages and disadvantages of green technology; goals, challenges and strengths. Int J Sci Eng Appl, 6(9), pp.272-284.

Markman, G.D., Russo, M., Lumpkin, G.T., Jennings, P.D. and Mair, J., 2016. Entrepreneurship as a platform for pursuing multiple goals: A special issue on sustainability, ethics, and entrepreneurship. Management assignment Journal of Management Studies, 53(5), pp.673-694.

Purpora, C., Blegen, M.A. and Stotts, N.A., 2015. Hospital staff registered nurses' perception of horizontal violence, peer relationships, and the quality and safety of patient care. Work, 51(1), pp.29-37.

Silvius, A.G., Kampinga, M., Paniagua, S. and Mooi, H., 2017. Considering sustainability in project management decision making; An investigation using Q-methodology. International Journal of Project Management, 35(6), pp.1133-1150.

Taucean, I.M., Tamasila, M. and Negru-Strauti, G., 2016. Study on management styles and managerial power types for a large organization. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 221(1), pp.66-75.

Voinea, D.V., Busu, O.V., Opran, E.R. and Vladutescu, S., 2015. Embarrassments in managerial communication. Polish Journal of Management Studies, 11.