When coming into or starting an organization, many things need to be decided upon for that organization. The organization’s mission statement, its business plan, and its structure are a few of the many things that need to be decided for that organization. One element that is extremely important to establish within an organization is the organization’s culture. An organization’s culture is extremely significant within an organization, and an organization’s culture can be determined from a variety of different types of cultures. Organizational culture can also be called a corporate culture and is defined as the set of shared, taken-for-granted implicit assumptions that a group holds and that determines how it perceives, thinks about, and reacts to its various environments. Each and every organization has its own type of organizational culture that sets it apart from other organizations. One reason organizational culture is vital to an organization is because the type Continue reading
Management Principles
Five Important Organizational Cultural Models
Culture is often said “to eat strategy for breakfast” the implication that, regardless of how good a strategy is, unless specific initiatives are concentrated on changing people’s attitudes, behaviours and work practices, the strategy will fail. Understanding culture of an organisation can be quite the task especially in large companies with a number of employees and staff being very diverse culturally. With the help of Cultural Models, understanding the cultural situation becomes easier. Following are some of the existing Cultural Models. 1. Edgar Schein’s Model Edgar Schein’s model is one such which helps interpret what the cultural position is within the firm. To Schein, culture is dynamic and multi-faceted; it cannot be easily judged as good/bad, strong/weak, or effective/ineffective. Culture is contextual and lives within us as individuals as well as within groups of people. Edgar Schein believed that as employees go through various changes and adapt to the external Continue reading
What is Transformational Leadership?
In any organization, the focus is based on yielding high profits. The key to this lies in the leader, who in turn inspires the staff. Leadership in an organization is usually classified into different categories based on the style the leader uses. Different leadership styles are used to attain desired goals, but the secret to an organization that is effective in achieving its goals lies in the use of transformational leadership. A leader usually uses power and influence to exercise authority. In transformational leadership, however, the idea is to emphasize influence to manage the teams and bring them aboard to understand the leader’s vision. Transformational leadership can be defined as implementing new ideas through adopting a more flexible and universal method of influencing and continually ameliorating those around them. This type of leadership calls for the leader and the staff to improve one another’s motivation levels. Motivational leaders bravely work towards making Continue reading
Benefits and Drawbacks of Scientific Management Theory
Management has changed from traditional methods to more modern forms of leadership. The change has been brought by the need to change and to try to make the organizations work better. Different approaches to organizational design can affect the company’s work differently, so the management style should be chosen individually for each case, depending on the organization’s goals. One of the options is scientific management, based on applying scientific theories and principles to design work in organizations. Since the early 20th century, scientific management has been at the forefront of organizational design. The design development was spearheaded by Frederick W. Taylor, who aimed to boost workplace productivity using scientific techniques. Scientific management has substantially influenced work design in contemporary companies, with its virtues and flaws under everyday discussion. The prediction of scientific management is based on the notion that efficiency in the workplace may be increased via scientific methodologies and Continue reading
SMART Goal Setting: Definition and Components
In the pursuit of personal and professional success, individuals often set goals to guide their efforts. However, not all goals are created equal. The concept of SMART goals, which stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound, offers a structured approach to goal setting that enhances the likelihood of success. Originating from the business management domain, the SMART framework has been adopted across various fields, including education, healthcare, and personal development. By promoting clarity and accountability, SMART goals enable individuals and organizations to systematically track progress and make necessary adjustments. SMART goal-setting was first introduced by Dr. Edwin Locke in the 1960s. According to Locke, setting goals that fit into the SMART criteria provided motivation and empowerment to people, which was crucial to ensure that the goals are achieved. Today, SMART criteria are applied to the goal-setting process in many organizations, regardless of their size and area of business. The Continue reading
The Impact of Technological Developments on Remote Working
Remote working is a form of arrangement where the employee does not have to commute to the workplace. The rise and success of remote working have been facilitated by technological development. Technological advancements offer the ability to get work done despite the worker’s location and enable communication with coworkers and clients. These forms of technology include local area networks, collaborative software, conference calling, internet access, private visual networks cloud computing, video telephony and Voice over Internet Protocol (IP) technologies. Teleworking has been assisted by the technology involved in telecommunication, such as smartphones, tablet computers, laptops, landline telephones and desktop computers. There have also been developments of software that have come in handy to facilitate remote working, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams, Cisco WebEx, Stack, WhatsApp and Google Meet. The history of remote working is traced back to the 1970s when Jack Nilles developed the name telework or telecommuting. Technology was Continue reading