hi I would like to resubmit my essay( I already submit it to the university but unfortunately I did not pass and the instructor ask me to rewrite it again )
so I need to rewrite it again in academic style with supported theory and I should not be descriptive .
the essay is below (pls. use the information on the essay below and add to it supported theory .) :
Introduction
Organization behavior is a field of study the affect of organization structure, motivation system , culture and leadership style on employees behaviors .In this assignment I will study and analyze the Organization that I am working with in term of its individual, motivation system, group dynamics, Leadership style, structure and culture.
Section 1: Case study organization
Jarir Company established on 1972 as family business. It was only one store selling Arabic books and some stationary materials in old town of Riyadh .In 1979 holding company established under the name of Jarir marketing which consist of two companies under its operation. One company for retail and the other one were for wholesales. In 1980 the Jarir expand its activity and started selling stationary and office furniture to government agencies in tender basis. This gave the company new business opportunity which enhance sales and improve profitability. During gulf war in 1990, government was the main customer for Jarir, and there were huge demand for stationary, office supply and furniture. After the war, the company started opening showroom in large scale “ 4000 sq feet “ and expand its operation around the kingdom .also , corporate sales division was establish at that time to cover all corporate companies stationary requirements . In beginning of year 2000, the company converted from family business to public company. The founder family sold out 40 % of the company share to investor and public and in the begging of 2001 its share started trade in Saudi stock market.
During 2005 company introduce smart phone to its product portfolio which added a tremendous growth to the company sales. In one year later the company expand its operation to Gulf countries and its open branches in Qatar, Kuwait and UAE. Today Jarir have more than 33 showrooms cross the kingdom of Saudi Arabia and GCC, with total sale of 4.5 billion SR. Jarir plan to open another 30 showrooms in the next five years with expectation of total sales to reach 10 billion SR.
Section 2: Individual
Personality is award come from Latin word persona, which referred to a theatrical mask work by performers in order to either project different roles or disguise their identity (3).According to Kraus Kopf,C.J &saunders,D.R,(1994) ,personality is a dynamic and organized set of characteristics possessed by a person that uniquely influences his or her cognition , motivation and behavior in various situations .Personality trait (big five) play major role between employee relationship in work and how they do their job. Managing people with different personality require awareness of those personality traits and how manager should match between job and employee personality. In my organization we pay little attention to personality trait during hiring process .our selection to the new employee especially in the operational level is mainly based on interview, employee past experience and references or recommendations from others .this way of hiring some time cause that we need to change the job assigned to the new employee after discovering that he cannot do that job due to personality miss matching with job requirement.
In some cases employee decide to resign from the company due to this reasons. In the other hand, personality trait matching with job is much better in most of our sales function. Most of our salesmen have high conscientiousness and low in agreeableness, this is why most of them achieving their sales target and able to collect money from customers on due date. salesmen with high agreeableness trait, however, fail to collect money from customer due to their low level of aggressiveness and their tendency to bless the customers or they are not able to disagree or reject their customers request of delaying due payments .The main weakness of our salesmen personality trait is their low ability to adapt change and accepting new way of doing work; in this perimeter they have low openness to experience. Most of them focus in selling fast moving items and bay little attention for other product which have good margin. For senior management job , selection depend on some of personality test in addition to deep and frequent interview for the new manager .its noticeable that due to mixing selection process between personality test and interview , we have good match between manager personality trait and job assigned to him .
For me I have completed my personality questionnaire; which indicate that I have same level of score between agreeableness and emotional stability, which is helping me to work with different group and solving many work problems and conflict. My openness trait is in moderate level and that explain why some time I do not accept big change in work process .also, I need to work on improving my conscientiousness trait, so I will be able to enhance my productivity level. Based in the above analysis our organization clearly has weak hiring process in term of not considering personality trait very well in our selection process. as I say above most our operational job selection based on interviewing new employee .this cause for us waste of time and effort .for senior management position ,considering personality test and frequent interview with new manager help us in good matching between manager personality and job requirement . It also, give us indicate o about type of the training new manger need to perform his job in better and productive way.
Section 3: Motivation
Motivation is important factor in human life, it is continues process that help employees to maintain their momentum toward achieving their goals. In my organization motivation is one of major methods which help employees to achieve company annual target and their personal goals. All departments have their own budget and it is department manager duty to motivate his team to achieve his goals. Our Organization mainly motivates employees in many ways; it depends on employee level and job type. Basically, yearend evaluation considers major evaluation elements for all non sales jobs. It identifies employee need and company gaols. Based on employee performance for the previous year, he gets salary increase and annual bonus. We are applying the economic model of motivation, by this model individual are rewarded mainly by economic reward. However, applying this concept creates some time dissatisfaction among employees due to the gap between what they expect and what company gives. These differences in expectation consider one of main factor of employees turn over. For sales job, the main motivators for salesmen are achieving their annual sales budget. This will motive them in the way that increasing sales and customers’ base eventually will lead to improve their income. achieving sales budget will make salesmen feel more responsible in front of management and they gets more respect among their colleague .we are mainly applying David Mc Clelland need theory to motivate our salesmen .For manger and senior managers, there are many motivational factors, which includes achievement and recognition from board of directors in addition to the profit sharing scheme .Some senior managers gaining power is their main motivator, other’s getting more shares are their main motivator. Also, some of senior management in our
organization whom they are one of company owner are motivated by doing what they feel interesting in job itself, other owners growth of the company is their main and maybe sole motivator. Goal setting as motivation method does not exist in our company .most department puts goals in their business plan, however it never be the motivator for most of employees. One reason is that employees usually not involve in goal setting process and they feel it is management obligation to achieve those goals. Personally, the theory that best describe why I work hard as I do is motivation – hygiene theory. In the beginning of my carrier the main motivator was money (economic model of motivation). The reasons were to fulfil a lot of family obligation and self financial need .after fulfilling most of my obligation and needs, belongingness to work and relationship with other was my main motivator. As of advancement in carrier I notice that I’m more motivated through job itself and how is it challenging .I’m now more motivated throughout achievement and recognition. So in the early stage of my work life the economic model best describe my motivation in work. In the following year’s motivation –hygiene theory is more describing as my work motivation.
Finally, motivation plays the role of engine in our work. All mangers including company owners should make sure to understand the main motivator of their employee .they should examine and understand employees’ needs and what the main motivator to them is and enhance their performance and productivity.
Section 4: Group
Group is a collection of two or more people, who share same goals and purpose, and they are either connected with each others in social or formal way.
In our organization we have different type of group and these groups are varying in their goals and purposes. Also, they have diffident size and composition, which most impacted our group performance and activities in many ways. In some cases we establish sub group for special task (for example, product development team to new ball pen introduction in the market).I’m managing sales department, and it’s consist of 9 groups. Each group has 6-9 salesmen and one supervisor to manage the group activity. The composition of our groups is a mix between homogenise and diversified , our sales group consist of different nationality ( Saudi 20 % , Jordanian 50 % ,Yamani 20 % ,and others 10 % ), experience ,and customers type ( office supply or school supply ) .Salesmen in homogenise group ( same nationality ,customer type .. ) , which represent the majority of our group composition ,have better communication between them in term of new products knowledge ,prices in the market ,competitors activities in the market and customers requirement . Generally they have better performance compare to other group and they are more satisfy and motivated. However, these groups in some cases and due to its homogeneity become a good environment to form cohesive groups which lead to group thinking. One of these cases for example they slow or postpone sales once they achieve their budget. In other case they reject or difficult to accept price increase for some of fast moving items (like copy paper) by informing management that the prices in the market still not increased, and these are some of major failing of these groups .Marketing and product development group in our organization is a good example of diversity group in term of its consistence of different nationality, education level, and age and experience in the field. They have creative thinking for products development and packaging design. Also, they study the market and evaluate competitor’s products and prices compare to ours items.
There are two dimensions we have to look at it when we want to evaluate our group size.
The first dimension is the number of salesmen in each group and the second one is the number of customers with each salesmen. Large group size (more than 9 salesmen) leads to less concentration of their supervisor in sales activity and collection of money from customers. Sales supervisor is not having enough time to review sales and collection performance with each salesman in regular basis. He is focusing only with salesmen whom have high sales budget (he will see and visit only key customers).also salesmen having too many number of customers (more than 25) concentrating only with customers having large order value per invoice and neglecting small one. In the other hand, supervisor with only 6 salesmen is more focus and he is able to visit most customers and has more time to review sales budget with his salesmen. the group have better communication between its member and more productive compare to other sales group .also, salesmen with less that 20 customer have excellent record of growth for most of their customers and wide range of products display and assortment in customers showrooms.
In conclusion , we have mixed group composition , some of our groups have high homogoncty which enable them to have better communication and performance .they are more satisfied compare to diversify group and they have low level of turnover .group size is also important to our operation in term of h of efficiency and customer service . the ideal group size in my opinion fit our business operation and gives good performance is compose of 6 salesmen with 20 customers with each one of them .this size of the group enable sales supervisor to spend sufficient time with ach salesman and also allow salesman to have more time with customers.
Section 5: Leadership
I’m reporting to one of our company owners (shareholder). The leadership questionnaire shows that he is more toward people concern. He is lower than medium in term of task completion (his score in task is 9, and 12 for people).
He is in my opinion more toward democratic leader. He delegates a lot of responsibility for his subordinates and gives full support. He some time focus in certain task and make sure the necessary action has been taken. He is more concern in all task related to government regulation and legal issue.
I believe his leadership and management style in this stage (he was more involved in tasks before) is good and it added value to our work.
In my opinion the balance between manager concern toward task or people is the factor of leadership .if manager focus only on task and he is not communicating with people, this will effect employee moral and productivity .on the other hand if he is only care of people and not looking for task completion, work productivity will be effected .so the most important thing to be effective leader is to communicate and motivated employees’ to achieve goal and company strategy.
Section 6: Structure
An organization’s structure is the formal system that provides the map
for how its parts fit together. It dictates the means, by which people are
assigned to task, are allowed to exert authorities, are required to
coordinate activities, and are held responsible for their
actions (.put source …..).
Formalization
Our organization is having a relatively high formalized structure for
most of its work process wherein all activities of the organization are
registered in system as a rule or procedure. There is clear and defined
work process for each activity and each employee knows exactly what
he’s suppose to do in terms of following work procedure and
formalities. For example each salesman has a defined customer and sales
budget and budget for each product category. Also, each customer has
define credit limit and there is a clear procedures as to how to increase
credit limit for him .the positive aspect of this is reflected in our
organization’s performance in terms of reducing ambiguity of work
and increase management control over operation of outside branches and sales offices. Also, it preserves company’s and customers right and
money , through documenting all selling and shipping activity between
them . However, this high work formality in some cases reduce
employee flexibility in certain circumstances ,wherein they require
to make little adaptation to work procedure in order to meet
Customers’ needs or respond to their complaint immediately.
Standardization
My organization exhibits relatively low level of work Standardization in
sales departments, which enables the sales team to do their work in more
flexible way to meet customers’ requirements. The drawback of this in
some cases salesmen do not utilize their time in proper way. Due to low
standardization of route plan assigned to salesmen, sometime they waste
their time visiting customers in different part of the city which
reduce productivity and time utilization.
Centralization
My organization exhibits high level of Centralization . Most decisions
are made by top management with very limited authority given to
middle manager. This affects the performance negatively in terms of
increasing decisions at times process and time which lead to
delay of many work tasks. Some times and due to this we miss
opportunities and quick response to market changes. In other cases it
slow down business expansion and increase frustration among middle
managers. In conclusion, our organization structure having high formality
, low standardization and Centralized decision process. Work formality helps
us in conserving company and Customers rights . it also, help in
controlling outside operation . Low standardization of the work process gives
our employee more flexibility to do their job .however , centralizing decision
delay and slow work flow .
Section 7: Culture
Management theory describes an organizations’ culture as its set of
shared meaning and values within a system that work to influence the
daily thinking , behaviour , and interactions of its members the basic
assumption that I think effect our organization’s culture, are (1 ) the
natural of human relationships and (2) the nature of time.
The first assumption is manifested in the stories that show how the
company establishes and all the difficulties happened during that period.
Also, who are the heroes of the company during time of gulf war I&II.
Language, also, Cleary in our company value, respect of senior staff is
example of that .on the other hand, there is no dress code in our
company which is reflects of one of owner’s value of
casualty in work and humbleness. Most employees express same value
during meeting and discussion .however ,
in reality , and during work pressure , some employees act in different
way ( they show their enacted value ) . Management in this situation
involve to correct wrong act . In this since the nature of human relation
between our employees effect positively in term of cooperation between
them and the company value encourages culture based on spirit of group
work and cooperation .however , and in my opinion , this type of culture
in the organization create relaxed environment between employees so they
do not need much effort to comet in goal achievement .actually they feel
that they do not have to challenge and compete with each other and there
is no necessary of having stretching their goals .as result of that and due
to that cooperative culture , it is become difficult to grow in new
market and adding new products line .The second assumption is
reflected in the importance of time .as we are a distribution company,
time is very significant for our business. It’s very important for us to
delivery our products to customers in the right time. We always review
past history of our customer buying cycle to be able to plan for
future orders .end of the year is also important for us in term of
reviewing our performance and evaluating its progress.
Since most of our products are used by schools students, we should
deliver it in the right time of the season. So we always make sure all our
supply go on timely manner and our delivery to customer as will.
otherwise we will end up with high inventory and a lot of non-moving
items .finally , I can consider our organization as consistent culture ,
since we are operating in almost stabile market , high level of value
agreement between employees ,most operation done in orderly basis and
most of the employees predict and follow company norms .
Section 8: Recommendations for improvement
In conclusion of this assignment, I think in our organization there are two areas needs improvements ,they are (1) individual (employee selection) and (2) employee motivational system.
For individuals we have clear weakness in new employee selection process , as we depend mainly on job interview and past experience ,we never consider employee personality traits ( big five ) .This is definitely effect over all work performance , company citizenship , counterproductive behavior of the employee and employee interpersonal behavior with others in the organization to improve our selection process of new employees is to introduce cognitive ability and big five personality tests like Wonderlic Personnel and NEO-FFI (neo-five-factor inventory )Test , which is not expensive if we compare it with the cost of hiring wrong employee .These kind of assessment for the new employee at least gives an indication about his personality and helps in matching job requirement and employee trait , capabilities .In addition to this , educating the HR managers about the importance of these personality trait will enhance to improve selection process and future career of employee . For motivational part, I think the main problem we have is, there is no participation of employee in goal setting, so most of them they do not see achievement of their goals as motivator factor for them .To improve this we should let our employees involve in goal setting for their jobs so it will be meaningful for them and they become committed and excited to achieve it. Also we can link between goal achievements and reward systems so they can anticipate the future outcomes.
Finally, in my opinion the most important thing in employee motivation is to educate and train company managers and owners about how to select, and motivate employees. Building awareness among our company managers about personality traits and motivational theory will have greater impact on company success.
Section 9: Engagement in the module’s Activities
There are 7 activities in this module. I have completed all three elements of the activity, i.e. completed the required analysis using the Activity Questionnaire, posted a message on the Discussion Board addressing the topic(s) suggested in the activity, and discussed the topics with other Study Group members, for less than 4 of these
activities. The main reason behind that is I am not familiarized with interaction through black board, its consider the first time for me to study online
