Overview and Identification of Issues Valve Corporation uses a flat business structure, in which there are few to no levels of middle management. This is possible because of the highly trained workers, and small organization size at Valve. A flat business structure allows for the employees to be involved in the decision making process of the business, therefore raising their responsibilities. By having more responsibilities workers feel more involved and are more productive, compared to a normally structured business, with many managers. There are many advantages and disadvantages to this type of structure, which affects everyone involved, whether it be managers, the employees, or even the customers. Due to the nature of a flat business structure, …show more content…
The fact that they don’t even have managers to coerce employees into working is evidence of this. They are closer to McGregor’s Theory Y in that they believe that the workers should be motivated by the work itself with no outside pressures. The problem with employees having the ability to control their own schedules, though it is a benefit to the employee, means that Valve needs to be more careful during the recruiting, interviewing, and selection processes than a company without a flat business structure. Valve would need to make absolutely sure that the people they hire are self-motivated and willing to work as much as they can to get the job done. Ideally, Valve would need to be focused on acquiring knowledge workers for their open positions to reduce possible temptations of workers slacking off or toward …show more content…
Under, Douglas McGregor’s theory Y it states that “people enjoy the mental and physical purpose that work provides”. Without having a structure which provides managers, no one person can give formal recognition to good employees, therefore not allowing for more contributions from employees. Without a clear authority figure, such as a manager, employees might not feel that there concern is acknowledged, and may even threaten to strike, or even completely stop working if they don 't receive acknowledgement for their
Management does not communicate with the workers, so they cannot discuss problems that are accruing, and possible solutions that may help the business run smoother. You can see this at Carson’s, the study mentioned that employees had no say in important decisions and were even afraid to address concerns to management. The study also mentioned that employees were not given proper constructive criticism. Instead of management teaching employee’s better ways to handle tasks, they would get upset and punish their employees. This is another aspect to an Exploitative Authoritative structure. According to text, all rewards are given to management. Instead of rewarding good things that their employees do, management punishes and threatens. After looking at the Exploitative Authoritative System that was used to run the Carson’s location, it is easy to see how and why the employees are
The author Tracy Mullen states exactly what all ownerships, supervisors and managers spend time thinking about when it comes to their employee’s, how do we increase morale and productivity? Owning, running and even managing a productive organization is not an easy task to say the least. However to have a productive organization you must have productive employee’s and management staff. Organizational success it is required to implement managerial functions appropriately. How a company is structured can lead to overly productive employees or it can lead to employees whom are ineffective and not trust worthy of your organization. Companies are spending millions of dollars on researching how to hire, train and maintain great employee’s, the flip
All workers are expected to behave in a particular way. There are laid down rules on how to perform certain tasks. It is only what the firm stands for that is accepted, and there is no room for the introduction of new ways of doing work whether they may be beneficial to the business or not. This greatly hinders employee creativity and innovation ability.
Lencioni’s book points out “a direct supervisor needs a genuine, personal interest in an employee, in order to increase that employee’s satisfaction and fulfillment.” Brian learns that are three factors that will make employees miserable on their job: irrelevance, immeasurement and anonymity. Brian discovers that “everyone needs to know their job matters to someone. Anyone” (Lencioni, 2007). If people do not feel that they matter, they will feel irrelevant and will lack job satisfaction. He also concluded that if employees feel “invisible, generic or anonymous” they will not be fulfilled on the job because they feel they don’t matter (Lencioni, 2007). Finally, Brian realized if employees “need to be able to gauge their progress and level of contribution for themselves. Without a tangible means for assessing success or failure, motivation
Motivational theories can be applied in a multitude of situations, but in this case the problems that must be resolved include poor morale, low performance levels, and frequent absences. After speaking with the employees it was found that none of them cared about their performance in the workplace. To properly address these issues, Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory, McClelland’s Theory, and McGregor’s Theory X and Theory Y can be applied. Herzberg’s Two-Factor Theory can be used to improve working conditions and decrease employee dissatisfaction. Doing so would potentially motivate employees to perform better in the workplace and be more inclined to be involved in the job. Applying McClelland’s Theory would allow for the employees three basic categories
While reading this book, one comes to understand the many problems confronting management. Achieving a set goal is one of them. The organization being managed is responsible for some sort of an objective weather is developing a new product, getting new customers or whatever it may be. There are goals associated with that objectives and those goals require effort. Bringing out the best in the employees is another job for management. It’s important that management tries their best to create as many “good days” as possible. Dealing with underperforming employees also confronts management. Not all employees will do their best. Any issue that contributes to an underperforming employee is the manager’s problem and management needs to provide some sort of motivation and counsel. Dealing with outstanding employees is also something management needs to confront. Some employees obviously outperform others. That presents its own set of challenges. Outstanding employees need special treatment. You want them to keep doing an exceptional job which could mean to have to pay them special attention. They need recognition for their talents and efforts as well as knowing that they have a career path ahead of them. Hiring the right people is another problem management needs to face. Hiring is easy, but hiring the right person is extremely difficult. Responding to a crisis is also an extremely...
British Gas has tall structure overhead structures at different levels of employees all reports and take instructions from a person of rank, team and operational management leader. This structure has a large chain of command with narrow span of control and chain of command reflects the number of levels within an organization. The time control is the number of employees who are directly supervised by one person. In this structure it takes time to have a decision making. PowerGen have a flat organisational structure because it has less people working in the organisation. This means lower level employees can communicate with upper level managers more easily and quickly. The decision can be mad...
Firstly Sumantra Ghosal, an Indian guy who had an undergraduate degree in physics and worked as a management trainee to a management guru. When he started his first job, he got more interested in management which lead him to study two doctorates from MIT and Harvard Business School. His theory is that mangers should not control the company because they do not fully understand their role. He also says that employees should learn as much as they can from their managers, then the company can sack some managers and change titles of some employees which will increase the profit. He described his theory through a famous quote “The most important source of a nation's progress is the quality of its management.” (Theeconomist, 2014) A good relation between the employees and their managers will push the company forward and it will build new fields. He also believed that management’s first goal is to increase profit, In other words money machines. Building good relationships between managers and employees could increase the factor of creativity as employees will not be afraid of saying their opinions and sharing their opinions and ideas. Ghosal’s theory is to increase the profit disregarding the discrimination between m...
It is critical that the companies would like to have employees who can work up to their standard and give good performance. Thus, as it is mentioned in the article that if employees are influenced too much by the technology or have to deal with work all the time, in the long run, they will burn out. From my perspective and experience, too much stress from work can be one of the reasons why a lot of people leave their jobs. I found that the real reason behind it is because when people have too much to take on even after work, they cannot enjoy their life or have time to do other things that can relieve their stress. When they come to work, they cannot perform well because of the lack of energy mentally and physically. Employees will then feel bad for themselves for not being able to achieve their goals at work or finish the tasks given well. Eventually, they will need to look for a new job that can give them some time to live their lives too.
In theory, the hierarchy works in this order towards an employee; first they seek to fill the physiological need by getting a job to pay for the basic necessity of the human body. Once that is settled, the employee will want his safety needs being solid, he needs to feel safe at work with insurance policies and medical coverage in case of anything untowardly was to happen. After the first two basic needs are taken care of, he will need to feel a sense of belonging to groups in the social need, humans are not meant to be alone and thus the need to mingle and socialize is important. The esteem needs is automatically achieved after he finally gets a good level of communication with his colleagues, which results in him being acknowledge by people, this is usually the need that needs to be reached in order for an employee to be motivated and also to measure job satisfaction. As an employee feels cherished by their company, they build self-confidence which in turn will motivate them in working hard and efficient. Lastly comes self-actualization, where the employees achieves this by finally getting recognition by his superiors and are rewarded for his dedication may it be some form of promotion at work. Maslow’s theory provides the fundamentals of motivation which is required to be fulfilled to maximize job satisfaction; one cannot feel satisfied if any of the five needs is
After the end of the Industrial Revolution, large corporations were beginning to grow in size and power in order to satisfy what seemed the endless demands for new goods and services. As corporations and labor forces grew, there was a need to develop a more systematic study of organization and management, known as management theory, the significant being Frederick Taylor's Principles of Scientific Management which involved the development of training workers through special incentives and compensation (Boone p.33). In general, early management scientists tended to believe that there was a single way to organize companies and manage employees. By the beginning of the 20th century, there were initial attempts for launching a systematic and scientific study of management; by the 1950's, there were multiple books and articles focused on organization and management theory. Since then, a number of new paradigms, or models, concerning employee motivation and employee-employer relationships have aroused influencing the basic principles of modern management theory.
Growth of an organization tends to bends flat structure that had previously implemented within the organization into more bureaucratic structure if roles are differentiated and roles are specialized (Astley, 1985). Flat organizations is generally possible only in smaller organizations or individual units within larger organizations. As organizations grows and reach critical size, organization can retain a streamlined structure but often times cannot keep a completely flat structure as they were before without impacting productivity.
Douglas McGregor, born in 1906, is considered to be “one of the most popular management writer of all time”( Economist, 2008, para. 3). His best known composition focused on a simple question: “What are your assumptions (implicit as well as explicit) about the most effective way to manage people?” which has resonated throughout management schools around the world. In his composition, The Human Side of Enterprise, McGregor revolutionized Theory X and Theory Y, which was greatly influenced by working along transient laborers at his grandfather’s business in Detroit, MI. Theory X management style, considered “soft” and always prone to failure, speculates people are lazy and irresponsible by nature, gullible, resistant to change, and lacks ambition. Therefore, Theory X manager must be authoritarian, responsible for organizing elements of productive enterprises – money, materials, equipment, people, - providing only the minimum level of human psychology, ego, social, and physical needs to get . In contrast, McGregor’s Theory Y is a libertarian manager, focusing on finding new methods of motivation and innovation though the goals are impossible to reach. By doing this, only then will people reach full potential (PSGoodrich, n.d., p. 24). McGregor’s Theory Y was criticized by other leaders, especially Abraham Maslow, who believed Theory Y is being “too tough on the weaker members of society” (Economist, 2008, para. 8).
If the management works for the career development and social needs of the employees then motivation would increase as stated in Abraham Maslow’s theory of self actualization.
The purpose of management is to utilize personnel, assets, and resources to complete a set of tasks in an effective and efficient manner. Managers have their own styles when managing projects and personnel, and many theories have been made since the nineteenth century to determine the best practices. In the nineteenth century during the Industrial Revolution, as employment in businesses grew, the need for management increased. Large business owners found a need for theory management in the workplace in order to effectively and efficiently produce results. Management became a profession as these theories became common-place in the workforce (Goddard, 2009).