Week 8-5 Systems of Control In Organization

Chapter 9 page 263 discusses about Systems of Control in Organizations and ideal types for it.

1. Simple: Supervision is direct, personal, and arbitrary, and monitoring of work processes is also direct and personal.
2. Technical: Supervision is mostly indirect, impersonal and highly standardized.
3. Bureaucratic: Supervision exists in variety of forms, but is chiefly done through implementation of rules, regulations, standards, procedures, and policies.
4. Concertive: Self Supervision, employee empowerment, and team-based peer supervision are encouraged within a broader mission or vision and within parameters set by top management.

The last one as the textbook mentions is similar to what most high-tech companies follow with some adjustments.

Week 8-4 With Power Comes Responisbility

I guess most of us know where we heard "With Great Power Comes Great Responsibility". This is one of the statements that I really like. Any kind of power if properly used will help any organization. For example, In some countries where corruption is a big issue people with power use it to exploit people and make money. In those situations they are not responsible with the power they have and are misusing it. Also, people with power should try to analyze how they need to communicate and Box 9.1 on page 247 gives very nice explanation of this. In some situations persuasion might be better and in some others you might need to be authoritative

Week 8-3 Deming' 14 Points

Page 221 in Chapter 8 list the Deming's 14 points for Total Quality Management (TQM). One of the points is to Break down barriers between departments. This is one thing we hear about almost everyday. Issues between Sales and Marketing etc., I see some companies now trying to integrate the different with issues into one like Sales & Marketing so that the management chain has control over both functions and can try to achieve better communication between the teams. Another interesting that happened few years back in our company was IT was made part of Finance group which when i told people they were surprised. But this decision was made because they can have the finanical expertise working closely with the IT experstise as lot of money is spent every year over IT infrsturcture and projects.

Week 8-2 Employee Participation

In Chapter 12, page 219, authors present three main categories of management-sponsored programs.
1. Employee participation as problem-solving or decision-making groups that are to some extent outside of or beyond regular work activities.
2. Employee participation as a restructuring of work processes and activities, using self-directed or semi-autonomous work teams.
3. Employee ownership as economic investment in and/or overall governance of the organization.

I think the first approach is more suitable for Japanese culture, where spending lot of time at work and time with co-workers after time is common. In Silicon Valley, I think the third approach is widely seen where employees are commonly involved in stock plans, Incentives linked to companies performance etc.,

Week 8-1 Teamwork

In Chapter 8 page 214, authors talk about how terms like "Teamwork" means something very different in Japan than in the United States, in Sweden than in Israel. This is the exact issue that makes teamwork more important in United States. The definition of these terms and understanding is developed from a persons culture. In United States there are people from different countries especially in fields like Computers. This makes is really challenging to instill the sense of these terms as the meaning associated by various people is different. But by trying to clear explanation and written expectations of what the words mean in a particular organization the task will become easier for employees as they can then try to follow the instructions and adapt and understand.

Week 7.5 The Human Touch

In Chapter 7 box 7.9 talks person-centered organizational principles:

1. Pay attention to "golden gripes". The things people complain about the most are the most important to them, and they often have great ideas about how to fix those problems.
2. Encourage open communication between associates at all levels of the organization.
3. Provide all associates with access to leadership.
4. Promote an honest, open, humane culture.
5. Support employees personal and family lives and needs.

Often in organizations, when people go and complain about somethings a lot of managers i knew would say they would look into it or something. They normally never used to ask for their suggestions on how to fix it.

In some organization, they have a open door policy where if the door to a manager or senior executive is open then people can go in and talk to them if they have something to discuss.

Week 7.4 Life-Cycle Model of Leadership

Chapter 7 Page 191 talks about Hersey & Blanchard's Life-Cycle Model of Leadership. They say that Leadership Style is the pattern of influence behaviors used, especially directive (task behavior) and supportive (relationship behavior).

The initial stages in learning involve more of the directive style and the directive behavior is gradually reduced as the person gains skill and confidence, and supportive behavior is increased to encourage the person. Supportive behavior is reduced as the person gains confidence to work their own. For someone at high maturity level they recommend delegating style.

I think the most difficult and important task for leaders in this approach is to understand in which stage the people he is leading are in. For example, a kid might know how to do their math homework and just need guidance when they ask questions, but parents might still try to sit with them and guide through each step as they did when the were learning the initial numbers. I think the challenge is to understand that which is difficult when you are not looking from outside.