Organizational Design and Culture

Many companies find they are forced to remodel their traditional hierarchical structures, which were originally built around functional specialization and centralized authority, to compete in today’s marketplace. Companies often draw on the following five tools of organizational design to make their organizations leaner, flatter, and more responsive to change. The five tools are:

• Empower managers and workers
• Reengineer work processes
• Implementing self-directed work teams
• Rapid incorporation of Internet technology applications
• Networking with outsiders to improve existing capabilities and create new ones

In addition, there are many managerial tasks that shape corporate culture and the leadership skills needed to engage the full organization to produce great results. Examine the dynamics of the elements that must be brought together to create a corporate culture, such as core values and business principles, operating practices and behaviors, ethical standards and attitudes, and work climate and people management practices.

Considering the five tools of organizational design, managerial tasks and leadership skills, examine the practices followed by your selected organization and include the following in a 8–10 page APA formatted paper in MS Word:

Describe which of the five tools of organizational design your selected organization uses to maintain and improve productivity while achieving cost savings. Use detailed examples in your response.

Explain how work groups are utilized in your organization to accomplish the stated goals of the company.

Describe the motivational practices used by the organization to promote better strategy execution. Include some illustrative examples in your response.

Explain how, if at all, the reward system in the organization ties incentives directly to achieving higher productivity and performance targets.

Explain the evaluation and feedback process used in your company to assess employee performance.

Identify the elements in the organization that affect how cultural change is implemented.

Describe the ethical model being used by the company.

Present your overall opinion of the organization’s corporate strategy approach. Is the strategy execution effort delivering the expected results? Explain and illustrate your conclusions.

Describe what specific actions have been taken to delegate authority to middle and junior managers and to create a sense of empowerment among employees. Explain and illustrate your answers.

In your final paper for this course, you will need to write a Methods section that is about 4 pages long where you will assess and evaluate the methods of research.

In preparation for this particular section, answer the following questions thoroughly and provide justification/support. The more complete and detailed your answers for these questions, the better prepared you are to successfully write your final paper.

Please submit your answers as a single 4- to 6-page document as a numbered list; this will ensure you do not inadvertently miss a question.

Additionally, please submit a title page and a reference page in proper APA format.

1. 1. What is your research question?

 

1. 1. What is your hypothesis or hypotheses? What is the null hypothesis?

 

1. 1. How many participants would you like to use and why? What are the inclusion characteristics, i.e., what must they have in order to be included in your study (for example, gender, diagnosis, age, personality traits, etc.)? Are there any exclusion characteristics, i.e. are there certain characteristics that would exclude them from being in your study? Does the sample need to be diverse? Why or why not?

 

1. 1. What sampling technique will be used to collect your sample? What population does your sample generalize to?

 

1. 1. What are the variables in your study? HINT: Refer back to your hypothesis or hypotheses.

 

1. 1. Provide operational definitions for each variable.

 

1. 1. How will you measure each variable? Discuss the reliability and validity of these measures in general terms.

 

1. 1. What technique will be used for data collection (e.g., observation, survey, interview, archival, etc.)?

 

1. 1. What type of research design is being used?

 

1. 1. Briefly discuss the procedure that would be followed when conducting the research.

 

1. What are some POTENTIAL ethical issues? How might they be addressed?

1. Write an essay consisting of at least 500 words addressing all of the following topics (a through e):

a. Describe the U.S. Bureau of Land Management including when it was formed and its purpose.

b. What was the purpose of the Wilderness Act of 1964? Was the act effective?

c. How does the Clean Water Act impact wetlands?

d. How has implementation of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act of 1968 varied from 1968 to the present?

e. Describe a lawsuit related to the Endangered Species Act.

You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

 

 

2. Write an essay consisting of at least 500 words addressing all of the following topics (a through e):

a. Explain the history of the U.S. Department of the Interior and how it regulates the use of natural resources.

b. What was the purpose of the Healthy Forests Restoration Act of 2003? Was the act effective?

c. Has the 1972 Marine Protection, Research, and Sanctuaries Act been effective?

d. List the pros and cons of the 1973 Endangered Species Act.

e. Describe a lawsuit related to the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act.

You are required to use at least your textbook as source material for your response. All sources used, including the textbook, must be referenced; paraphrased and quoted material must have accompanying citations.

 

In Chapter 7, Lopez emphasizes the importance that standards have on a school’s accountability to its students and their parents. He also acknowledges that many disagree with the need for standards and/or they have different expectations for standards. Consider what the author shares regarding the importance of aligning standards as well as the common mistakes made when aligning.  If you do not have direct classroom experience, you may respond to these questions based on your own understanding of what occurs in your own children’s school, or a professional or volunteer position you have held outside of a school setting.

Using first-person language, address the following points in your journal;

• How has your own viewpoint regarding educational standards changed or been validated by what you read? What will you differently and/or add to your current/anticipated professional role to reflect this?
• What can be done to change the mindset of the naysayers the author addresses in his disclaimer on p. 82?
• Can you name the standard or sub-standard that is your grade level or department’s greatest area of need? If so, how do you know?
• What encourages you to make changes?

This assessment task requires that you synthesise the understanding of organisational culture and leadership with your theoretical and practical knowledge of Organizational Behaviour in Australian organisations. The focus of this activity is to determine how the practice of Organizational Behaviour must be redesigned and realigned in multiethnic/multicultural contexts to ensure cultural appropriateness and to achieve organisational effectiveness.

Scenario:

Australia has one of the world’s most culturally diverse workforces. Managing different cultural workgroups has ongoing implications on the success of the organisation. However, cultural differences leading to conflicts caused by ineffective communication and increasing moral and ethical degradation at workplaces continue to be issues of growing concern. Furthermore, as the workforce becomes more diverse and multigenerational, labour power may force improvement in the employment relationship and call for different kinds of leaderships. Recently, exploratory studies conducted in Australia have examined the blend of leadership styles/behaviours that different cultural workgroups preferred their managers to exhibit.

Using both literature and publicly available data:

1. Identify and critically analyse and discuss the communication challenges that a leader would expect to encounter in relation to the cultural diversity of many Australian organisations.

2. Critically discuss how leaders can address the ethical issues related to the cultural diversity in many Australian organisations.

3. Identify, synthesise and critically discuss an optimal mix of leadership styles/behaviours which would be aligned with managing culturally diverse workplaces; these should be sufficiently flexible, and able to be appropriately adopted in Australian organisations.

The purpose of the assignment is to build up a specific understanding of managing a multicultural workforce and behavioural practices. This is a multi-strand knowledge gathering research that focuses on critical strategic issues in leadership and employee behaviour.

This assessment assesses the following subject learning objectives:

-be able to critically examine assumptions and propositions of theorising about organisational behaviour in general;

-be able to compare and analyse the strengths and weaknesses of organisational behaviour theories relevant to managers with human resource responsibilities;

-be able to critique and to apply organisational behaviour theories and concepts to case studies and/or issues in their own workplaces;

– and be able to evaluate current organisation practice and to develop strategies that may assist in the understanding and management of employee behaviour.

There are three key themes to be addressed, all in relation to culturally diverse Australian organisations.

1. Identifiy, critically analyse and discuss the communication challenges that a leader would expect to encounter in culturally diverse Australian organisations (Information; Critique; Application).

2. Critically discuss how leaders can confront the ethical issues related to culturally diverse workforces in Australian organisations ( Information; Critique; Application).

3. Identify and critically discuss the appropriate leadership models/styles for managing culturally diverse workplaces in Australian organisations(Information; Critique; Application).

4. Correct use of spelling, puncuation, grammar, syntax, and sematics; well-organised structure; the use of academic style of writing and the correct use of APA6 referencing.

The assignment should be in the form of an academic essay. Use a concise title that reflects the key issues. Use appropriate subheadings to organise the material.

The essay should begin with an Introduction that orientates the reader towards how you are going to approach the material that you intend to cover. It provides a brief overview of the key questions, the logical progression of the argument, and main conclusion/s.

The Discussion section should integrate your research and ideas into key arguments.

The Conclusion should comment on the significance of the arguments in relation to the key issues and consider the implication for practice

Use an article that discusses brand elements, brand equity, legal aspects of branding, or any other interesting aspect of brand management.

 

Address the following:

1. Summarize the article and discuss the author’s main points.
2. Relate the theoretical aspects of branding to the article. At a minimum, be sure to include the creative aspects of the brand elements.
3. Discuss the relevance of this article with respect to its benefits to a marketer when developing new product brands.
4. What questions might you pose to the author of this article?

 

Your APA-formatted response should be a minimum of two double-spaced pages (not including the title and references pages).

Should include atleast one reference.

Learning Activity 1: 

1. Chapter 5 of Mastering Strategic Management, four generic strategies are outlined!  Research a company that exercises one of the four strategies. Explain how the organization operationalizes the strategy. Attach the article (ensure the link works) as part of the reference.

 

Learning Activity 2:

1. Describe limitations and advantages of either the Boston Consulting Matrix or Quantitative Strategic Planning Matrix!

Financial Analysis Assignment (18%) Case Study attached

This assignment focuses on Dun and Bradstreet’s key business ratio analysis,a current financial situation analysis, and strategy development.

Fourteen Key Business Ratios Used by D&B https://www.dnb.com/product/contract/ratiosP.htm

The Seven Key Ratios Used in Key Ratio Analysis

http://ezinearticles.com/?The-Seven-Key-Ratios-Used-in-Key-Ratio-Analysis&id=5873597

Required Elements to include in Financial Analysis:

• There are numerous qualitative and quantitative issues to address.  Develop a strategic plan addressing both qualitative and quantitative  issues;
• Review the financial data provided at the end of the case study and calculate the key financial ratios important to Sheldon, potentially to his bank or other investors, and apply them to your analysis;

Required Formatting of Paper:

• This report should be double spaced, 12-point font, and five to six page written analysis excluding the title page, reference page and .spreadsheets;
• Provide projections of the company’s financial position.
• Title page with your name, the course name, the date, and instructor’s name;
• This paper should be written in the third person.
• Use APA formatting for in-text citations and reference page. You are expected to paraphrase and not use quotes. Deductions will be taken when quotes are used and found to be unnecessary;
• Submit the paper in the Assignment Folder.