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 in its employees the right values and norms. The memo examines the issues with the organization’s old culture. It also evaluates the characteristics of the changes made that helped to transform the company’s overall performance.

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 include an analysis of the key issues to determine how they impact the company’s performance. Third, the memo includes several proposed solutions for improving the company’s culture further. Lastly, the memo provides the final recommendation for designing the right organizational culture and values for the organization.

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 have a meeting with a top manager to discuss his role in the organization. The response of the organization was that a subordinate is not to 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 is promoted by the company’s manager. According to Mark Fields, you are not allowed to admit that you do 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 the continuous improvement of the company’s performance.

Analysis of Issues/Problems

Communication is essential for good organizational performance. Good communication is key to the development of 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 is a big contributor to its poor performance.

Cultivating a learning culture is vital to the sustainability of a business organization. A learning culture is defined by a set of organizational processes, values, and systems that encourage employees to develop their knowledge and competence (Serrat 58). By discouraging employees from admitting they are wrong, Ford limits their learning potential. To develop knowledge and competence, a person must first identify their knowledge gaps. When people hide the fact that they do not know everything, they reduce their potential to learn. Ford limits its employees’ potential to learn 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 will need to open its organizational structure to improve communication and learning. An open organizational structure allows the free flow of information in both vertical and horizontal levels of the organization (Baldwin 23). The open structure will make it easier for superiors and subordinates to connect about issues affecting the company. 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 be active in pursuing new knowledge (Jiang and Rita 229). 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 those gaps 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 a lot of 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, giving them a chance to communicate their ideas and learn from each other through good communication.

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.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

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 Fords Culture 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.

You identify and write descriptively a key issue(s)/problem(s), analyze the issues/problem, provide 2-3 possible solutions, and choose one of the solutions as a recommendation. You look at a specific issue or two issues interconnected in the case, and you don’t take a broad approach that defines little to nothing about what you think. Be precise and add direction for the problem/issue identification so the reader can make a decision from 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, made up of 6-7 lines per paragraph, not exceeding eight lines. I count lines per paragraph and deduce a point or two for excessive paragraph 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 max paragraph length of eight lines. I count the lines in paragraphs, and if you exceed the limit of eight lines, you will be deducted points. This standard applies to all paragraphs.

The third header will present an opening paragraph that describes the content in 2-3 solutions made up of 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 issue(s)/problem(s).

For the Conclusion and Recommendation header, you will provide a conclusion paragraph that summarizes the main ideas in the memo and end with a recommendation paragraph at the bottom of the second page. The conclusion paragraph provides a high-level summary of the key items discussed in the memo, not to exceed 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. 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.

• Issues/Problems
• Analysis of Issues/Problems
• Proposed Solutions
• Conclusion and Recommendation