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The introductory chapters describes things such the forces within SABA management environment and their impact in either influence positively or negatively the SABA, as well as the factors that influence their organizational structures and the resistance resented by some employees about the impact of the turnaround strategy. In addition, in the final part of the article, an overview of what methods must be made available to maintain the values and norms of its early culture and how their senior leadership should use their influence over the employees in a bid to successfully lead the organization in their glory days, it is presented.
Paging 2 Question 1. The SABA s management environment was suffocating at the time of writing the extract. Identify the forces within SABA management environment, and comprehensively discuss the impact of such forces in influencing the success or allure of the SABA. If there is anything that is stead fast and unchanging, it is change itself. Change is inevitable, and those organizations who do not keep up with change will become instable, with longtime survivability in question. There are things, events, or situations that occur that affect the way that business operates, either in a positive or a negative way.
These things, events, or situations that occur that affect a business in either a positive or negative way are called Driving Forces or Environment Factors . There are two kind of driving forces: a) Internal driving forces are those things, vents, or situations that occur inside the organization, and are generally under the control of the company; and b) External driving forces are those things, events, or situations that occur outside of the organization and are by, and large beyond out of the control of the company.
For the definitions above we can see that SABA management environment was facing both the Internal and External forces, which unfortunately their top management did not have any control over them, but yet they could respond and adapt to their opportunities and treats. From now on, I will discuss the impact of such forces in either success or failure of SABA. ё Impact of the internal driving forces.
SABA management environment was largely criticized among the other things, for mismanagement, corruption and nepotism, lacking long-lasting top leadership, drop in the quality of news and documentaries, heavy staff base and too few local productions. In short, there is rising discontent that very little has been materialized of the vision for public service broadcasting. ё Impact of the external driving forces. Out of the control of their top management, SABA management environment was facing the impact either positively or negatively of the following external driving ores. A) Economic Forces.
Economic forces may well influence for the success of an organization in the sense that low level of unemployment and falling interest rates for example, may give people more money to spend and as result, organizations such SABA can sell more goods and services. Good Organizational Behavior Paging 3 economic times can affect positively the organization because supply of resources becomes easier or more inexpensive to be acquired, and with that SABA can be able to respond effectively in terms of their customers demand, and the organizations have a big opportunity to flourish.
In contrast, damage macroeconomic conditions for example, pose a major threat to them, as they reduce SABA manager s ability to gain access to the resources their organization need to survive and prosper. Poor economic conditions make the environment more complex and manager s Job more difficult and demanding. Organization such SABA often need to reduce the number of their employees, streamline their operations and identify ways to acquire and use resources more efficiently and effectively. B) Technological Forces.
They can have a good impact in SABA management environment in the sense that tit the changes in technological advances that it s observed in the last decades, have also spurred technological advances in the SABA. While the most obvious benefit from technology is increase productivity, which can be translated into a lower cost structure for example, there are some other benefits that can help the bottom line of SABA as well. It can improve speed, the ease sharing and storing of information and a decrease of employees error through automation resulting in a reduction in costs and increase in revenue.
In the other hand, with technological advances, have greatly increased the competitive nature of the economic business oral. Technological changes can create competitive pressures for broadcasting companies because as the technology advance, so do the desire of the consumers which will demand better and appropriate supplier of goods and services. If SABA deploys a new communication system for example, they will have to pay an extra fee to train employees to use that technology effectively. C) Demographic Forces. Demographics refers to study of people, such their age, sex, marital status, occupation, family size etc. Hough, demography is uncontrollable because managers cannot control the sex, age, marital status in their external environment, but accurate recast future trend and consumption of their organization goods and services. Example: the aging of the population has several implications for the workplace. Most significant are relative decline in the number of young people Joining the workforce and an increase in the number of active employees who are postponing retirement beyond the traditional age of 65. These changes suggest that organizations need to find ways to motive older employees and use their skills and knowledge. ) Political and Legal Forces. Political processes shape a nation s laws and the international laws that govern the relationships between nations/organizations. Laws constrain the operations of the organizations and managers and thus create both positive and negative impact in an organization. For example, has been a strong trend toward deregulation of organizations like Organizational Behavior Paging 4 SABA previously controlled and owned by the State. Many analysts described that in order to come up strong again, SABA should already formed partnership with private companies.
Another important political and legal force affecting managers and organizations is the political integration of countries/organizations that has been taking place during past decades. Increasingly, nations and organizations can form political unions that allow free exchange of resources and capital. Beyond the opportunities that international agreements to abolish laws and regulations that restrict and reduce trade between countries and organizations can bring, it also pose a serious threat as they can easily increase competition in task environment for organizations like SABA.
To conclude, it s better to remind that there still a lot of forces that can influence either in the success or failure of SABA management environment, but here, I tried to focused on the ones that I think are the most relevant to do so. Figurer . The forces within a management environment) Paging 5 Question 2. The change management team set up by the minister will likely encounter stiff resistance from the majority of the SABA employees for some reasons. Outline the sources of resistance and provide coping mechanism to such resistance.
In order to understand the reasons behind the resistance, it is critical to define what is meant by the term resistance. Folder and Garlicky, early researcher on the subject, define resistance to change as employee behavior that seeks to challenge, disrupt, or invert prevailing assumptions, discourses, and power relations . If management does not understand, accept and make effort to work with resistance, it can undermine even the most well intentioned and well conceived change efforts. So, here are some reasons why I think employees may act reluctant or show resistance about the SABA turnaround strategy: a) Fear of Job losses.
One of the potential reasons why people may be suspicious and fearful towards a organization s change initiatives, is when they perceive the proposed change as having the potential break the continuity of a work environment and thereby creating a climate of uncertainty and ambiguity. According key informants, some of the objective of the turnaround strategy was the cutting of the wage bill. As a result, most employees were concerned that they might lose their Jobs. B) Negative attitude. Most of the SABA employees seemed to exhibit negative tendencies and attitudes towards the organization s turnaround strategy.
The impact has also been felt in terms or lowering employee s morale, disillusionment, fear and anger and the work space was considered not to be conductive for engaging in meaningful work. For example, one employee contacted seemed not have faith in the organization s turnaround strategy as she alleged that it was disjointed and that some of activities ere not well monitored . C) Poor consultation by management. The consultation by the SABA s management towards the employees was not efficient. It seems as if the strategy was planned from and by the top management without any input by the rest of the employees. ) Communication and lack of understanding. The way that you communicate the changes that will occur within an organization can have a significant role in how the turnaround strategy is perceived and understood by the employees. The different communication channels and networks should be employed to communicate the turnaround strategy to employee pending on their levels of understandings. According Paging 6 many employees, some of information about the turnaround strategy was disseminated through e-mails and internet of which not all employees had access. E) Top down decision making.
The use of medium such as intranet, posters and flyers by the management did not provide an opportunity of feedback by the employees at the grass root level. For example, one of the employees said: we Just saw posters and other promotional items and stickers in the toilet and some of us were not even sure what they were all about . ё Recommendations on how the SABA to management can cope with this aeries presented by the employees: It is therefore recommended that the SABA should invest more money in ensuring that the turnaround strategy is disseminated clearly and comprehensively to all its employees.
That is to make sure that all employees are on the same page in as far as understanding the turnaround strategy is concerned. The SABA should also ensure that all communique© about the strategy reaches all the employees at various levels and that the strategy is communicated at the level, and through the channels that will be understood by all employees. It is important that any decision that affect employees working environment should be implemented in partnership with all the employees that are or will be affected.
The SABA should afford all its stakeholders particularly the employees full and meaningful participation, that is from the planning phase, implementation phase and monitoring and evaluation phase. After the introduction of the turnaround strategy, the organization s climate was dominated by uncertainty and rumors of Job losses, which could have been averted by engagement processes by the SABA. This implies that the organization ought to create a climate of trust between itself and its stakeholders. There is need for accountability and transparency and a climate of climate of trust needs to be re- established.
In view of these findings the researcher recommends that the SABA should not overlook the positive contribution that its employees can make, but also strike a balance between the needs of the organization and that of its employees. Paging 7 Question 3 A number of factors have a considerable influence on the choice of the organizational structure and designing the SABA structure remains a thorny issue for top management. With regards to these assertions, identify these factors and impressively discuss how each factor can influence the design of SABA s organizational structure.
Designing an organizational structure is not a simple task for everyone, especially for big organizations such SABA. Managers design organizational structure to fit the factors or circumstances that are affecting the company the most and causing the most uncertainty. The challenge that the top management of SABA will face is to design a structure that (a) motivate managers and employees to work hard and to develop supportive Job behaviors and attitudes; and (b) coordinate the action of employees, groups, functions and divisions to ensure they work together effectively and efficiently.
Thus, for the problems that SABA s top management was facing, the factors that they should look for to design their organizational structure are as follows: v Organizational size. The larger an organization becomes, the more complicated it s his structure. Running a broadcasting company like SABA it s not simple as running a small organization that may not even require a formal structure, as their individuals simply perform tasks based on their likes, dislikes, ability and/or need.
For large organizations, it becomes increasingly difficult to manage without more formal work assignments and some delegation of authority. Therefore, large organizations as SABA must develop formal structures, with tasks being highly specialized and detailed rules and guidelines must dictate work procedures. Inter- organizational communication must flow primarily from superior to subordinate, and hierarchical relationships must serve as foundation for authority, responsibility and control.
The type of structure that develops will be one that provides the organization with the ability to operate effectively. That is one reason large companies are often mechanistic mechanistic systems are usually designed to maximize specialization and improve efficiency. V Strategy. From the article we saw that SABA was struggling with problems such increased competition, unsuccessful methods to survive, change in ownership regulation and many more. The big problem that time was the incapacity to choose the right means to implement a strategy to cope with those problems.
Different strategies often call for the use of different organizational structure and cultures. Let take in consideration increased competition for example: after being the monopoly roads for more than 4 decades, the SABA now has find herself competing with 14 private radio stations, 1 free-to-air private national terrestrial television channel, e-TV and melancholic. Paging 8 After find themselves in that condition, they should choose how they could position they self in the market in terms of its goods and services.
They should focus on strategies that require a structure that helps the organization face the competition or its objectives. In other words, they should adopt a structure that must fit the strategy. Maybe for example, they ought to decide to be always the first on the market with the sweets and best goods and service (differentiation strategy) or it may decide that should produce a product already on the market more efficiently and more cost effectively (cost-leadership strategy). Strategy is how an organization is going to position itself in the market in terms of its goods and services.
Many companies have been divesting business because managers have been unable to create a competitive advantage to keep them up to speed in fast-changing industries. They need to design a flexible structure to provide sufficient coordination among the different business vision, doing that, managers gain more control over their different business. V The environment. The environment is the world in which the organization operates and includes conditions such as economic, socio-cultural, legal political, technological and natural environment conditions which can easily influence the organization.
Environments are often described as either stable or dynamic. By the criticism imposed on the SABA, I can conclude that they are operating in a more dynamic/flexible environment, where customer desires are continuously changing and are being difficult to solve. SABA is dealing with an external environment changing quickly and with that, the greater is the uncertainty within it and greater are the problems their top management face trying to gain access to scarce resources.
In this case, to speed decision making and communication and make it easier to obtain resources, their top management should typically make organizing choices that result in more flexible structures and entrepreneurial cultures. They must likely decentralized authority, empower lower-level employees to make important operating decisions and encourage values and norms that emphasize change and innovation a more organic arm of organization. V Technology. As Van Sly (2002:3) observes: The most powerful and technologically advanced public broadcaster in Africa was condemned by the very constituency that brought into being .
SABA one of the most powerful and technological advanced public Broadcasting Corporation in Africa, even so, its criticized among other things, for drop in the quality of news and documentaries and too few local productions. How can such powerful and technological broadcasting organization facing all this problems? The more complicated the technology that an organization uses, the more difficult it s to regulate or control it because more unexpected events can arise.
Organizational Behavior Paging 9 One of the major targets on the turnaround strategy is to finally ensure the launch of digital terrestrial television (TTT). With all these revolution in mind, the SABA top management must come up with a strong and capable flexible structure and progressive culture to enhance managers and their subordinate s abilities to respond to unexpected situations and give them freedom and desire to work out new solutions to the problems they encounter.
In order to create competitive advantage of genealogy, technological tasks must be accomplished using tools, equipment, techniques, and human know-how. V Human resource. A final important factor affecting an organization s choice of structure and culture is the characteristics of human resource it employs. SABA was characterized by lacking long-lasting top leadership, corruption and nepotism, mismanagement, weak and inappropriately skilled and experienced executive management.
It is possible to see that is was far behind all expectations that is expected from a large company as SABA. To cope with this problems, when designing organizational structure and culture, heir top management must pay close attention to the needs and kinds of the workforce that they employs and to the complexity and kind of work that employees perform. (Figurer. Factors that influence the design of an organizational structure) Paging 10 Question 4 The founders of the organization have a major impact on the early culture of the organization.
Critically discuss the various ways through which the SABA can maintain culture. An organizational culture, particularly during its early years is inevitably tied to the personality, background, and values of its founder or founders, as well as their vision or the future of the organization. Many organizations as well as SABA start out with exciting ideas and concepts, but as they grow, they can lose that culture that made them successful or they can continue growing and keep that culture they created. What separates one type of organization from the other?
One of the key factors to keep business culture is to define the culture you want to create from the beginning, and integrate it into how you hire people, how you treat employees, the type of customer service you provide, and the general environment of your organization. So, unfortunately, nowadays SABA does to incorporate all these factors effectively as we saw that they are far for hiring the best and the most capable to perform the tasks, do not motivate the employees, they are far as ever from keeping happy their customers by providing a quality customer service and are operating in a very turbulent organizational environment.
The only ways that SABA can recover and maintain its culture or to ensure that its own culture lasts through growth and change, they should adopt the following steps: v Define the culture and how it is different from the other concepts. The core values that the menders instilled in the organization should remain the same and separate from other ideas, and of course, should be observed in the current company s devotion to work and in achieve the goals proposed by the founders. Develop a strategy plan for implementing that culture. SABA must create a systematic process of envisioning that culture, and translating this vision into broadly defined goals or objectives and a sequence of steps to achieve them. V Implementation of the culture. SABA senior management must implement that culture in all they do, including hiring, compensation, rewards and incentives creating the environment, marketing etc. V Make sure employees at all levels know what the culture is and that they buy into it.
First of all, be aware of that all employees clearly understood how the top management of SABA want the organization to be running , what kind of values and norms they seek. Make all of them understand the SABA founder s basic principles. In other words, their subordinates must clear understand what is waiting for and what is expecting from them, and Organizational Behavior Paging 11 must know how to actually do the old behaviors, once they have already been defined and/or established.