BIZM503 Communication- One Tech Business Analysis

Case Study: One Tech Business Analysis

Introduction

From the case study information, One Tech Company is an Information Technology (IT) business organization. It specializes with the manufacture and sale of electronic equipment and information technology machines and devices. Having hired a new Deputy CEO, who is young, the company must anticipate a lot of change and development for the business operations practices and methods. Basically, every IT business should always be updated on the new technological developments and improvements all the time (Cummings et al, 2014). However, for the case of One Tech Company, it had always used old and outdated technology and operating techniques until the new CEO came to the picture. The following analysis will be able to help the CEO and the company employees in improving their roles and responsibilities for the business as well as making the business environment better.

Analysis: list of findings

Current Internal Communication Scenario and Organizational Structure

The general communication structure in One Tech Company is very dysfunctional and ineffective for every employee. Apparently, the communication process had always been vertical, which is basically means from the top to the bottom. In this communication structure, the top management persons make all the decisions and pass the information to the common or inferior employees who definitely have no say but follow the decision. The lower employees are never involved in the decision-making process at any time which if done frequently they will feel left out and in the end, don’t bother how the decision will affect their work or the business operations. Such a structure also creates a lot of tension between the superior or top managers and the employees. For instance, since the managers are the ones with more say, more pay, more authority and are certainly the ones to make every decision, then this makes the employees think less of themselves. This scenario does not help the employees build a relationship with the managers because they will seem to be of different levels in every way and completely opposite. When it comes to employee relationships and internal communication, there is a lot of disagreements between employees from different departments as well. This can impact the organizational operations by discouraging information sharing, discourages team work, disorientation when it comes to overall objective achievement, lack of morale among other things.

Recommendations

The managers should change their communication structure to include a structure that will include their employees in making decisions as well. The structure should be able to accommodate the ideas and opinions of the common employees, especially when making decisions that will directly affect them and their responsibilities. This will be a way to motivate them and ensure them of their value in the company (Proctor, 2014).

As for the managers’ leadership style, they should focus on being role models to their employees and not just being their superior. Apparently, they can learn to get along with each other even though they are from different departments. In addition to that, they should focus on acquiring good, strong, effective and efficient leadership skills that will help them become better managers to the organization.

The employee relationship and communication structure should be well addressed and dealt with. The employees should choose to help each other in their responsibilities and underestimating each other’s abilities. This can be achieved by creating bonding scenarios for them, e.g. organizational parties, business trips, conducting conferences and business training together (Husain, 2013). They should also be encouraged by rewarding the best employee and recognizing a well-performing employee. This will certainly bring them closer and improve their communication style (Christensen et al, 2013).

Leadership Styles

The leadership style in the company is completely Autocratic and laissez-faire leadership style. The managers are not acting as leaders towards the employees. On the contrary, they are acting like their overall superiors in every manner and field. The managers are not working together to improve the business operations and instead, they are criticizing each other. They even do not see eye to eye with each other unless during the monthly meetings. The managers are reluctant when it comes to doing their duties and acting on requests. This shows that they are not ready to work as a team or as leaders to the employees who definitely look up to them for assistance and help. According to Chuang 2013, such negative practices and physical outlook of the managers clearly bring a lot of negativity to the business as well. They end up affecting the other employees by encouraging them not to do their work effectively and efficiently. Also, they encourage other employees to either not communicate effectively or disrespectfully and unprofessionally.

Recommendation

I would recommend the managers to upgrade their leadership styles to modern and professional style. The styles that these managers can implement include, democratic, team leadership as well as transformational leadership styles. These styles will help them involve their subordinates into the decision-making process which will improve information sharing and relationship building (Ejimabo, 2015). These styles will also help the managers transform the organization and therefore practice their own leadership techniques and methods. The managers should also focus on working as a team with each other at all times. This will certainly encourage team work, collaboration and cooperation in their own specific departments and hence the whole company. The managers should also work on how they carry out themselves in front of the employees. They should always perform their duties and responsibilities effectively and efficiently. This will encourage other employees to also work harder in completing and succeeding in their responsibilities.

The departmental managers can also arrange their own meetings with their departmental employees to discuss the departmental issues. This will help the managers and employees to build professional relationships with each other and reduce the tension that may be between them (Chuang, 2013). This will increase the bond between them and therefore improve the communication style as well.

The managers should also be able to acquire certain leadership and management skills that are supposed to help them succeed in their management responsibilities. Apparently, they can acquire the skills through training, practice or be taught (Hao et al, 2015). These skills include aspects like innovative and creativity skills, strong communication skills (both written and oral), team work skill, proficient team player, effective and efficient leadership skills, positive attitude, effective and efficient problem-solving skills to name just but a few.

Conflict Management

In One Tech Company, there are a lot of conflicts and disagreements occurring at frequent times. The managers get into conflict with one another often which affects the business operations. They are not able to work together or even share information as openly or as comfortably as they should. The employees are also experiencing a lot of conflicts with each other which directly affects the company’s business operations. For instance, when there is an argument, some employees storm out of the company’s business or out of their work place and never return till the later in the day or even the next day. In addition to that, there is a lot of disrespect between employees in same or different departments whereby one employee thinks that the other is not capable of performing a certain job. Therefore, some employees feel underestimated and disrespected which causes conflicts and arguments. In such a case, there is tension between the two conflicting parties or even between the two departments involved which create serious problems. However, the employees and the managers are not able to manage their disagreements and conflicts effectively which means that they actually do not solve the problems between them.

Such conflicts affect the business in different ways, e.g.: it hinders smooth working with each other, reduces the productivity of the employees and the whole business, discourages team work and collaboration, creates an unhealthy working environment for the employees among other things (Chaudhry et al, 2015).

Recommendation

I can recommend One Tech Company employees to focus on better methods and techniques of handling and solving any conflict that may occur during business operations. The following are methods that employees and the managers can use to avoid, reduce and prevent conflicts in the business (Boateng et al, 2014):

Ignoring the issue- in the natural sense, not all conflict needs to be addressed. If the people or one of the persons involved feels that the issues are small and trivial, then one does not have to discuss anything. This will avoid confrontation and misunderstandings.

Establishing guidelines- in every workplace there should be rules and regulations that are set for all the employees to adhere to. There should be rules to guide different employees on how to carry out their responsibilities, how to conduct themselves in the workplace, how to treat each other among other things. One Tech employees and managers should also develop a set of rules and regulations to be followed by every employee when working to avoid conflicts.

Keeping an open communication. This method addresses talking openly to the people involved in the conflict. The employees should address the problem or issue directly while aiming at solving it not making it more serious. One Tech employees should therefore not storm out of their work without speaking with the person involved in the conflict but should rather confront them with an open mind and solve the situation. 

Conclusion

From this analysis, I have realized that One Tech Company has some serious changes to make before it starts developing and growing for the better. Apparently, the communication styles and structure, leadership styles and structure, conflict management and resolving techniques, management style etc. are all negatively placed and presented. This should, however, not be the case for such a large and potentially growing company. Therefore, it is important for the business to hinder all the recommendations listed above so that it succeed and grow as it should.

Additionally, the business management team should be ready to focus on the business future not only look at the current business operations and progress. They should have effective strategies for the future as well as effective and efficient decision making capabilities to be used during the decision making processes.

The management should focus on motivating and encouraging the whole group of employees to work as a team to increase business development and growth.

References

Boateng, I. A. (2014). Conflict resolution in organizations-an Analysis. European Journal of Business and Innovation Research, 2(6), 1-8.

Chaudhry, A. M., & Asif, R. (2015). Organizational Conflict and Conflict Management: a synthesis of literature. J Bus Manage Res, 9, 238-244.

Chuang, S. F. (2013). Essential skills for leadership effectiveness in diverse workplace development.

Christensen, L. T., &Cornelissen, J. (2013). Bridging corporate and organizational communication: Review, development and a look to the future. In Organization’s Communication und Public Relations (pp. 43-72). Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

Ejimabo, N. O. (2015). An approach to understanding leadership decision making in organization. European Scientific Journal, ESJ, 11(11).

Hao, M. J., &Yazdanifard, R. (2015). How Effective Leadership can Facilitate Change in Organizations through Improvement and Innovation. Global Journal of Management and Business Research.

Husain, Z. (2013). Effective communication brings successful organizational change. The Business & Management Review, 3(2), 43.

Proctor, C. R. (2014). Effective organizational communication affects employee attitude, happiness, and job satisfaction (Doctoral dissertation, Southern Utah University. Department of Communication. 2014.).