Unit 1 HL Flashcards

1
Q

What is Organizational culture?

A
  • The shared values, attitudes, and beliefs of the people in a group or in a business
  • Influences the way employees interact and make decisions
  • The way we do things around here or what is normal
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2
Q

What might influence organizational culture?

A

What type of business is it?

  • Mission and vision statements
  • NGO vs investment bank

Organizational structure

  • Vertical vs horizontal

Location

  • Country, city, etc

Management

  • Centralized or decentralized
  • Autocratic or democratic

Other

  • Personalities, Age of firms, etc…
  • Coffee room behavior
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3
Q

What is Culture clash?

A
  • Conflict between two or more cultures within an organization
  • Often when businesses go through change
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4
Q

When do culture clash happen?

A

Growth

  • E.g. traditional, family business go public
  • Traditional values vs shareholder profit

Mergers

  • E.g. from different countries
  • E.g. Daimler (German) and Chrysler (US) merger in 1998

Leadership styles change

  • E.g. autocratic leadership takes over from a lassez-faire one
  • E.g. new leader encourages teamwork when previous employees worked on their own
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5
Q

Types of organizational culture

A
  1. Charles Handy’s “Gods of Management”
  2. Schneider Culture Model
  3. Quinn & Cameron’s Competing Values Framework
  4. Deal & Kennedy’s Cultural Model
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6
Q

Zeus
(Charles Handy’s “Gods of Management”)

A
  • All decision-making authority and control are held by the leader or board of directors in the organization
  • Autocratic leadership
  • Centralized decision making
  • E.g. private car park, management rooms
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7
Q

Apollo
(Charles Handy’s “Gods of Management”)

A
  • Employees have well-defined roles and responsibilities
  • Cultures with formal chains of authority, command, and responsibility
  • Traditional and lack of creativity
  • E.g. military, bureaucratic organizations, government departments, businesses with traditional values
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8
Q

Athena
(Charles Handy’s “Gods of Management”)

A
  • Teams are formed and empowered to solve problems
  • Focus on teamwork and getting things done
  • Authority is given to groups and creativity is encouraged
  • Teams are provided with clear goals, with their performance being measured by the results achieved
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9
Q

Dionysus
(Charles Handy’s “Gods of Management”)

A
  • No emphasis on teamwork
  • The interest of individuals within the organization is placed above that of the organization itself
  • Dominated by individuals who strive to achieve their personal goals
  • The success of the organization depends on the skills, talents, creativity, and drive of individuals rather than teams or the management
  • E.g. firms of lawyers
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10
Q

Sources of Conflict in the Workplace

A
  • Lack of job security
  • Salary and benefits
  • Working hours
  • Poor communication
  • Inequity
  • Personality clash
  • Leadership style
  • Expectations - e.g. overtime
  • Values
  • Redundancies - make people leave the business (lay off)
  • Organizational change, e.g. new offices
  • Resistance to change
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11
Q

Approaches to conflict in the workplace by employees

A

Industrial Action

  • Actions to put pressure on the other side to solve conflict

Collective bargaining (Unions)

  • EEs negotiate with the employed together, usually using chosen EE representatives
  • EEs should have more power when working together
  • EEs can also form/join a Trade Union

Work-to-rule

  • Only do work that is outlined in the contract and refuse to do any additional work
  • E.g. stop working at exactly 5 pm (overtime ban, no work during lunch break)

Strike action

  • Stop working for a period of time and refuse to work
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12
Q

Approaches to conflict in the workplace by employers

A

Collective bargain with ERs

  • Saves the business time and makes EEs feel listened to

Threats of redundancies

  • Make them redundant if they don’t agree to terms

Changes of contract

  • Increased working hours or job requirements when renewing contracts

Lock-outs

  • Temporarily close the factory so workers do not get paid

Closure

  • Completely close the factory - leading to redundancies
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13
Q

Approaches to conflict resolution

A
  1. Employee participation and industrial democracy
  2. No-strike agreement
  3. Single-union agreement
  4. Conciliation and arbitration
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14
Q

No-strike agreement

A
  • Union members agree to not strike
  • Usually in return for an agreement - e.g. pay will always increase in line with inflation
  • Reduce EEs power in the future
  • But will hopefully increase the image of the Union, leading to more members
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15
Q

Employee participation and industrial democracy

A
  • Achieve a closer working relationship between EE and ER. Give EEs more say in the running of the business
  • E.g. Employee on the Board of Directors, Employee share ownership, Democratic Leadership style
  • Increased motivation EE should hopefully reduce the likelihood of conflicts in the future
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16
Q

Single-union agreement

A
  • ER only negotiates with one Union, rather than multiple unions
  • Different unions may have different objectives, so only negotiating with one may increase the likelihood of an agreement
17
Q

Conciliation and arbitration

A
  • The use of a 3rd party to help resolve a dispute
  • Conciliation = use of the 3rd party to encourage EE and ER communication and reach a compromise
  • Arbitration = use of 3rd party to listen to both sides and make a binding decision (3rd party makes a decision, and EE and ER must follow the decision made by 3rd party)
18
Q

Pros of using Gantt Charts

A
  • Gives planners the big picture of the projects - key tasks, timings, etc.

Can identify:

  • Projects that can be done sequentially (saves times)
  • Minimum time needed
  • Can track progress against the Gantt chart to see if the project is on track and make changes
19
Q

Cons of using Gantt Charts

A
  • Can become extremely complex for large projects
  • All information in the chart are predictions, which may be inaccurate
  • Need to regularly updated if timings change or there are delays