Enterprise week

In this blog I am going to explain one of the event s I attended and highlight how it has inspired me at me time in new Bucks University.

After attending two events at the enterprise week, which was Yasimina the BBC winner of the apprentice and the advertising conference, of the two, the talk from Yasimina was very detailed and interesting, she is a 29 year old woman with a drive to succeed in life, and she spoke to us about how she opened up a restaurant with her brother named Mya Lacarte.

Even though Yasimina was doing well with her brother running the restaurant, she told us she still aspired to be on the BBC apprentice show and she did, Yasimina got to the finals against Kate Walsh, she won in the end and landed herself a £100,000 year salary.

During the talk she connected with audience she even described the atmosphere as being at home while giving here talk, she proved the saying “you can have what you want, in life if you work at hard at it”. She reminds us on how it was difficult working under film 24/7, and portraying her real personality at all times.

 However she didn’t tell us how it was behind the scenes but she did tell us, how it was working with sir Allan Sugar, and went on saying it was a great experience for her, and has helped her with her business ambition and helped her drive hard to achieve goals

This talk for the award winning Yasimina, has helped influenced me to drive harder to achieve the career I aspire to gain after my time at new bucks university, the reason why it has encouraged me so much, because she was already doing well before she went on the apprentice, but she was still determined to excel, so that has encouraged me to excel.

To conclude this talk was event was great and precise compared to the 2^nd event I attended, however the talk from Yasimina, could have come with a little bit more information about Sir Allan sugar.

Conflict

The group that I have taken part in, within the last few years, was Phones4u, while working in this organisation we had to continuous had to work in teams to maximise sales, this was a good experience, because it helped us all get to know each other, and it made it easier for ever employee in the team to hit assigned targets, and group targets.

The group consisted of 4 males and 2 females; all from different backgrounds and different parts of the world, the problems we had all of us had different perceptions, most of us viewed the world in different views, which conflicted with the other employees view, perceptions  are usually seen as peoples reality

Working at Phones4u, entailed each employee to share resources, such as planners, computers to sell contacts, and phones, this created conflict between workers, also when targets were not substantially met, and conflict arose.

Violation of territory is a very common with people who are in touch with their personal space, for example these employees sit on a specific chair, specific tables, specific tables, this can easily bring about conflict in the work places, and working at Phones4u this generated problems between staff, territory at work is taken very seriously by some workers and is compared to the home.

Phones4u made use of Human recourses management and policies and procedures, a review on the HRM policies can reduce conflict in different areas of the organisation, for example this can be done by reviewing the recruitment centre and the system of punishments and rewards. Mullins, (2007). To review conflict situations between staff with different views

After been sent away for group activities in a hotel in central London, so staff could get to know each other better it came to realisation that, Group activity may overlap one group’s problem with another, Mullins (2007). Overlapping different membership with the ‘linking-pin process’ and careful selection of teams can bring out problems, but what may be affecting one group can be beneficial to the other.

After continues disputes amongst staff other resources and different duties, Making it clear to staff that no matter your position once a duty is assigned to you, the employee has to do it, this made it clear that no matter your position in the organisation, every was under the same rules.

Different sources of power

Coercive power: people obey to avoid punishment and dispute from the person in charge. For example the army has coercive power to control people by all means possible.

Expert power: this is where a person has a vase amount of skill and possesses a certain amount of information in this area. For example an engineer has a great amount of information in his job.

Referent power:  this sort of power, people obey the person in charge, because they have respect for them, for example, a lawyer respecting a judge at court

Reward power: the person in control sets targets so people can get rewards. For example, working at Phones4u, bonuses were given for hitting targets, and selling the most stock.

Legitimate power: from being in a legitimate position where, the person has been voted into power for example Barack Obama has legitimate power.

An organisation can make use of,

1.      Non monetary reward- rewards that don’t make use of money

2.      HRM policies and procedures- policies that ensure equal rights

3.      Group activities.–group activities that allow staff to get to know each other and find out if one group’s problem could another group’s benefit. Mullins (2007).

To conclude, organisations make use of different techniques to try to eradicate, conflict however, what organisations cannot prevent is people having different views on life, so their will always be conflict, but these techniques can reduce it. 

references 

Mullins (2004) management and organisational behaviour.  (8^th edition).

Culture

Organizational culture refers to the values that are taken for granted. It represents the way we do things are around here. (Handy,2003). It carries a sense of identity, provides unspoken guidelines for how to get along and improve the stability of the social system to which they belong. However McLean and Marshall (2001) differ by defining it as a collection of traditions, beliefs, attitudes and values that constitute a universal setting for everything we do in an organisation.

Deal and Kennedy (1982) argue that culture is the single most important factor accounting for success or failure in organizations. They identified four key dimensions of culture which are:

1. Values – the beliefs that lie at the heart of the corporate culture.

2. Heroes – the people who embody values.

3. Rites and rituals – routines of interaction that have strong symbolic qualities.

4. The culture network – the informal communication system or hidden hierarchy of power in the organization.

The two organisations mentioned have also different culture by which they operate.

Working at Hilton hotel for a while made me embrace the culture of the organisation so easily, after been explained what their culture was all about once, Hilton believe in friendliness and great customer service, Once walking into the building, directly from the entrance guest are made to feel at home, very rarely would you see a member of staff without a smile or unwilling to help a customer in need, this leaves you with the question why are staff so willing and more than happy to help?, well Hilton provide great perks and incentives which ends up motivating staff and improving performance.

Table showing In culture

Paradigms	Hiltons Hotel
Stories	This company is a multinational.
Rituals and Routines	The ritual and routines of the employees here are the basis of their customer satisfaction.
Symbols	The hotels are beautifully designed suiting both customers and employees making it a comfortable and a conducive environment to work in
Organisational Structure	As mentioned, the structure of this organisation is a tall one. Therefore there is bureaucracy.
Control systems	As a more bureaucratic system, the control systems are tighter; here employees are punished for making the wrong decisions or choices.

Power culture: entails having a central figure or a head that makes vast amount of decisions, having a leader, in an organisation may build up a level of trust between the leader and co workers under him or her, decisions are made faster than normal because co workers are not consulted this may de motivate staff and may have an effect on their performance. For example, the CEO decides the office should open on Sundays and everyone has to work on this day, this decision has been made with consultation of co workers, and may have a great affect on staff performance.

Role culture: consist of a bureaucratic system according to (handy), work in the organisations is decried by rules set, and not just appointed by the leader, this type of culture has a high level of communication between the different levels of hierarchy.

Tasks culture: this kind of culture is made up of freedom and flexibility, this is common in some organisations and high level of team work, working in teams at work builds stronger communication amongst staff an example of this Fatramz properties, everyone has their own rolls but it’s very flexible, with mutual objectives in the organisation to hit targets, but believe greatly in team work and less of individual rule.

Person culture: this type of culture is based on personal interest that forms an organisation; most of these organisations have members in trade unions, people who fall in to this category a people with professional jobs, i.e. teacher, with everyone basically on the same level.

The problem trying to classify culture around task, power and person culture is that, some people may just not fit in, it’s just like society today, even though there so many different pressure groups form rooms and niche cultures, some people don’t fit, just for the simple reason everyone is different. People come from all parts of the world is it then fair to categorise culture into four, this is the problem of classifying culture into power, role ,person and task

To conclude Schein (1992) says that organisational culture is even more important toady than it has previously been before. Globalisation, increased competition and technological change have created a greater need for innovation, coordination and integration across organisations in order to improve efficiency and meet the expectations of increasingly more sophisticated clients.

globalisation has improved and increased competition, however also has its negative effects 

references 

Mullins (2004) management and organisational behaviour.  (8^th edition).

Improving staff performance

The relationship between an organisation and its members is greatly affected by what motivates them to work and what reward, incentive and fulfilment they get from it. (Mullins, 2007)

The content theory points out great emphasis on what motivates people and are concerned with identifying and classifying people’s needs and their relative strengths. Examples are Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model, Herzberg’s two factor theory. While the process theory stresses on the actual process of motivation, and are made up of Expectancy theory (Vroom, Porter + Lawler) ,Equity theory (Adams)

And Goal theory (Locke).

The organization that I am going to look at is McDonald's the reason being is that the general stereo type is that McDonald’s staff are said to work very hard, so I am interested to know what keeps them going, McDonald's give their staff the following benefits:

·         Free Meal Allowance

·         Paid Holidays (4 weeks per annum)

·         Free Life Assurance (value dependent upon service)

·         Private Health Care (for employees aged 19+ with 3 years service)

·         Sponsorship Programme

·         Stock Purchase Scheme

·         Employee Discount Card

·         Service Awards (at 3, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 years service)

·         Stakeholder Pension

 All these perks are given to motivate McDonald’s staff. After doing primary research at McDonald's i found out some

information from some of the workers that they didn’t mind working hard because they knew by the end if the day the

company was going to reward them one way or the other, they also mentioned from the time they started they felt at

home and it motivated them to work hard and not be the employee lacking behind in the team, this falls into Maslow’s

hierarchy theory, feeling socially accepted in a work environment and feeling comfortable. It would be fair to say that the

expectancy theory plays a major part in influencing their staff.

Workers at McDonald's are seen to put in that effort not just an individual but as a team to, this encourages employees to give 110% effort knowing they are going to be reward at the end of the day, 

McDonalds’ just doesn’t make use of the expectancy theory but also the equity theory too, McDonald's states on their website that

“join us and you'll not only become part of one of the largest global brands, but a constantly evolving organisation that offers a culture of flexibility, opportunity, equality and diversity. You just need to come and have a look at what we have to offer.

Reflective of the society and communities in which we operate, we offer probably one of the most diverse work cultures

in the UK. But while our people come from all walks of life, they share a common approach: a positive one.”

This also relates back to Maslow hierarchy theory which relates to different levels such as the esteem level, social level and the self-actualisation providing a chance for promotion

After reviewing a few of the process theories in practice, its deems to me that equity should be reviewed, equity is one of the theories that determine if staff are going to stay or leave or even be motivated in the slightest to work hard, if a member of a team is felt to be treated unjustly or unfairly it can have a great affect on improving the performance of the worker.

Bibliography

Mullins (2004) management and organisational behaviour.  (8^th edition).

http://www.bized.co.uk/compfact/mcdonalds/mc18.htm

http://www.mcdonalds.co.uk/career/crew-page/crew-page.shtml

 

motivation

The underlying concept of motivation is driving force within individuals by which they attempt to achieve some goal to fulfil some need or expectation (Mullins, 2007). The content theory which I feel is relevant and is going to be explained is Maslow; this theory has outlined different stages ,with different levels of hierarchy, these needs begin from the simplest needs such has physiological, safety, social, esteem and self-actualisation, each of the five forms of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has its purpose, for example the physiological side provides good wages and salary with suitable working conditions, also Maslow outlined safety has another level, when an employee knows he has job security at work and works in a safe surrounding  then they are less likely to job search, Maslow also pointed out social this is an important level of the hierarchy, this basically points out workers are more likely to feel comfortable when they are working in teams and have social events to relate with other workers .

 Another level of the hierarchy that motivates workers according to Maslow is the esteem of a worker, when an employee is being encouraged by managers, director’s etc also producing positive feedback in any way possible when the chance arises, and open opportunities for promotion. And finally the last part of the hierarchy is self-actualisation which to some or most workers considered very important to them, for the very reason that the workers goal is achieved, after the challenge is presented

This theory in content is relevant to me because each individual works for different reasons, i.e. some people work for the money ,some people work because they love their desired jobs, and Maslow presents different levels of hierarchy to present  this, so this theory is not just relevant to me but to the general work environment .

  Deciding to go to university, came from an inner desire to think and achieve, the course picked human resources management come from the situation of the credit crunch and the major job losses since 2008 right through to date. Applying for a job was to be hard but after acquiring a job at a property agency and was told at the interview that I seem like a people person, and repeatedly hearing that statement thrown at me I decided, that I’m better off in that type of field, which fits into the social part of the hierarchy. However not to ignore the physiological part, plays a role in coming to university to acquire a better salary in the near future. However self –actualisation also fits in, it motivates me to work hard to overcome a challenge and face a new obstacle or challenge.

The situations I have been greatly de-motivated at work is when my two store managers consistently looked down on the sales assistants, and rarely provided positive feedback, which was seen to de-motivate me and my work colleagues and the working conditions were not up to the basic standards , however this contrast’s from Maslow’s theory of motivation, and has the complete opposite effect from the esteem part of the theory, not providing positive feedback or no feedback at all made it easier to de-motivate me during busy, and complex days at work , also this went against Herzberg theory of motivation of working in good working conditions to encourage staff and make us feel comfortable   , Me being in the manager’s position, I would do 1 or 2 things differently   such as influencing my staff with positive feedback which goes hand in hand with Maslow’s theory, also try and bond with my staff. To enhance a greater level of understanding and communication.

To come to a brief conclusion kreitner et al (2007) suggest that motivation within various work places is a tool to fulfil a goal however, the points outlined above show how the different stages of, Maslow’s theory play major parts in day to day work activity however what it fails to outline that people have different needs some people neglect minor needs for greater ones, also the theory is said to lack scientific back up. In all motivation is important in an organisation as it brings about high recruitment and employee retention, also it enhances creativity and productivity, ultimately leading to generation of revenue.

Bibliography

Mullins (2004) management and organisational behaviour.  (8^th edition).