Organizational Behavior

Memorandum

Date: February 17, 2020

To: HR Management

From: Management Consultant

Subject: Designing Organizational Culture and Values

Developing the right organizational culture is crucial for an organization’s performance. This memo aims to examine how to design an appropriate organizational culture. The memo is based on the case of Ford Motors. This company’s CEO helped transform the organization’s culture by instilling the correct values and norms in its employees. The memo examines the issues with the organization’s old culture. It also evaluates the characteristics of the changes that helped transform the company’s overall performance.

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In this memo, I will address the key issues and problems with Ford’s culture that influenced the company’s performance. The memo will also analyze the key issues to determine how they impact the company’s performance. Third, the memo includes several proposed solutions for further improving the company’s culture. Lastly, the memo provides the final recommendation for designing organizational culture and values.

Issues/Problems

One of the main issues that affect Ford’s culture is poor communication. The organization is designed to create communication barriers between managers and their subordinates. There are significant bureaucratic structures that prevent information sharing vertically in the organization. For instance, when Mark Fields was appointed to the organization as a mid-level manager, he wanted to meet with a top manager to discuss his role. The organization responded that a subordinate should not ask a superior for lunch. Such communication barriers prevent the development of the organization.

Another issue with Ford is its lack of a learning culture. Learning is not a value that the company’s manager promotes. According to Mark Fields, you are not allowed to admit that you know something when working at Ford. This kind of culture encourages people to remain ignorant. Employees are not encouraged to admit when they do not know something. Therefore, there is no room to identify the knowledge and skill gaps of the employees. This culture limits the organization’s potential for innovation, which is crucial for continuously improving the company’s performance.

Analysis of Issues/Problems

Communication is essential for good organizational performance. Good communication is critical to developing a healthy culture in a business organization. Effective communication between top management and the rest of the employees enhances information sharing (Jiang and Rita 227). The information sharing ensures that all people understand issues affecting the organization and that ideas for solving the issues are effectively shared. Ford Motors’ poor communication culture limits the employees’ understanding of issues affecting the company’s performance. Employees are limited from sharing ideas with the management to improve the company’s performance. Therefore, the organization’s poor communication significantly contributes to its poor performance.

Cultivating a learning culture is vital to the sustainability of a business organization. A learning culture is defined by organizational processes, values, and systems that encourage employees to develop their knowledge and competence (Serrat 58). Ford limits their learning potential by discouraging employees from admitting they are wrong. To develop knowledge and competence, a person must first identify their knowledge gaps. When people hide that they do not know everything, they reduce their learning potential. Ford limits its employees’ learning potential by discouraging them from identifying their knowledge gaps. This practice reduces the company’s ability to innovate and be sustainable for a long time.

Proposed Solutions

Ford needs to develop a communication plan to encourage information sharing. The first step to change is developing a plan. The company needs a baseline from which progress and success will be examined. The communication plan will act as the baseline by clearly showing the communication procedures and practices expected from the managers and employees. If the plan is successfully implemented, employees will be better connected to their superiors in the organization.

Ford also needs to eliminate rigid structures that separate managers from employees. This company’s bureaucratic structure makes it hard for employees to communicate with their managers. The company must open its organizational structure to improve communication and learning. An open organizational structure allows the free flow of information in the organization’s vertical and horizontal levels (Baldwin 23). The open structure will make it easier for superiors and subordinates to connect about company issues. It will also enhance learning by encouraging information sharing within the company.

This company also needs to implement motivational strategies that will encourage learning. Employees need to be rewarded for learning to be motivated to let go of the fear of admitting ignorance. Motivation can encourage employees to pursue new knowledge (Jiang and Rita 229) actively. This solution aims to enhance employees’ skills and knowledge. The employees will be happy to evaluate their knowledge and skill gaps and learn to fill them when the organization appreciates their effort. The learning culture will eventually benefit the overall performance of the company.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Ford Motors’ organizational culture needs much improvement to enhance the company’s performance. This memo identifies some key issues that affect the company’s culture. In particular, this company is limited by its poor communication and lack of a learning culture. The company can improve these issues by creating and implementing a good communication plan, eliminating rigid management structures, and motivating employees to learn and develop their knowledge and skills.

The final recommendation for the organization is to change its organizational structures. The rigid structures of the organization contribute to most of the problems of the organization. Rigid and bureaucratic organizational systems limit employee communication and eliminate the learning culture of the organization. By changing the company structure to an open one, the employees will be more connected to the organization’s superiors, allowing them to communicate their ideas and learn from each other through good communication.

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Works Cited

Baldwin, Mark. Social Work, Critical Reflection, And The Learning Organization. Routledge, 2016. pp 23

Jiang, Hua, and Rita Linjuan Men. Creating An Engaged Workforce: The Impact Of Authentic Leadership, Transparent Organizational Communication, And Work-Life Enrichment. Communication Research 44.2 (2017): pp 225-243.

Serrat, Olivier. Building A Learning Organization. Knowledge Solutions. Springer, Singapore, 2017. pp 57-67.

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Question

Human Resource Management: Organizational Behavior

You will turn in a two-page memo addressing the situation in the case study about How a CEO transformed Ford’s Culture into the current state you see in the case in the opening paragraph of the memo and end the paragraph with a description of header formatting in the memo, ending with a recommendation. The memos do not read like a book report about the case.

Organizational Behavior

You identify and write a critical issue(s)/problem(s) descriptively, analyze the issues/problem, provide 2-3 possible solutions, and choose one of the solutions as a recommendation. You look at specific or two issues interconnected in the case and don’t take a broad approach that defines minor to nothing about your thoughts. Be precise and add direction for the problem/issue identification so the reader can decide on your memo.

The first header after the introduction paragraph will address what you see as a problem(s) and/or issue(s). Write two paragraphs about this header content, comprising 6-7 lines per paragraph, not exceeding eight lines. I count lines per paragraph and deduce a point or two for excessive length.

The second header section will provide an analysis of the issue/problem, composed of a couple of paragraphs with a general length of between 6-7 lines, which applies to all paragraphs, with a maximum length of eight. I count the lines in paragraphs, and you will be deducted points if you exceed the limit of eight lines. This standard applies to all paragraphs.

The third header will present an opening paragraph describing the content in 2-3 solutions comprising the same number of paragraphs. You write a paragraph for each solution, not one paragraph for all three solutions for the issue(s)/problem(s) the team will address and/or design to meet what is/are identified as an issue(s)/problem(s).

For the Conclusion and Recommendation header, you will provide a conclusion paragraph summarizing the memo’s main ideas and end with a recommendation paragraph at the bottom of the second page. The conclusion summarizes the essential items discussed in the memo, not exceeding eight lines. A recommendation paragraph selects one of the solutions to address your analysis and chosen solution. You don’t introduce new information in the conclusion and recommendation.

Use these headers as the outline for the memo, which I described above. The opening paragraph describes the basic situation, and the last sentence describes what the reader will read in the memo, ending with a recommendation.

Use these headers below for the memo after your introduction paragraph.