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... theories that emphasize the importance of empowering employees, as such that do not have a solid ground. At Wal-Mart, workers are being hired and laid off on the progressive scale; however, this does not seem to affect Companys competitiveness. In fact, Company was able to benefit on the fact that American society is becoming increasingly marginalized.
This is why, for many people, the prospects of being paid 8 dollars an hour, represent a very good incentive. There is no need to pay employees more if they are willing to work for less. This kind of attitude, on the part of Wal-Mart, would prove to be disastrous if the essence of Companys commercial activity was different. Still, being Wal-Marts salesperson does not require the knowledge of nuclear physics; it even does not require the good knowledge of English language. All this allow us to conclude that Wal-Marts motivation policy is actually adequate. Decision making Wal-Mart is known for its reluctance to delegate much of executive authorities to the local managers.
Company practices authoritarian management style, where the instructions are being passed down from the main office for the purpose of implementation. This deprives Wal-Mart of commercial flexibility, which is the main reason why it falls behind of its competitors, when it comes to addressing the needs of the market. In his article Wal-Mart, a Nation Unto Itself, Steven Greenhouse quotes Simon Head, the author of many books about Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart is certainly a template of 21 st-century capitalism, but a capitalism that increasingly resembles a capitalism of 100 years ago. It combines the extremely dynamic use of technology with a very authoritarian and ruthless managerial culture (Greenhouse).
Wal-Marts functioning is based on hierarchical principle. It is understood that, in order to protect its reputation; Company encourages its employees to attend empowerment through participation classes, which is supposed to make them feel better about the fact that they are being mercilessly exploited. However, only very naive people hold the illusion that Wal-Mart would ever be willing to endow its local managers with executive independence. One of the reasons for this is that Wal-Mart is actually owned by one family, which does not want to lose control over it. We can say that Company officials unwillingness to delegate executive authority to the subordinates often deprives Wal-Mart of its competitive edge; however, Company can afford it, because of its sheer size. (3) Human Resources (Microsoft) According to Wikipedia, Microsoft Corporation is American multinational computer Technology Corporation with 76, 000 employees in 102 countries and global annual revenue of US $ 51. 12 billion as of 2007. Unlike Wal-Mart or Starbucks, Microsoft has only one qualification standard to all of its potential employees high professionalism.
This is one of the reasons why 60 % of Companys programmers consist of people who were born outside of U. S. Apparently, the professional adequacy of people with university education from abroad is much higher, in comparison to their American counterparts. It is very remarkable that, even though Microsoft does not enforce celebration of diversity upon its workers, 20 % of them represent racial minorities, namely Asians and Indians. As practice shows, these employees are the most productive of all, because they think about executing their professional duties as the main priority. They appreciate being able to work in America, while being simply unaware of such things as affirmative action, sexism or male chauvinism, which in its turn, allows them to do their jobs with utmost efficiency.
The article Gates Wants End to H 1 -B Visa Limits suggests that Microsoft actually experiences the shortage of qualified employees in America: Microsoft chairman Bill Gates has urged the Bush administration and lawmakers to abolish immigration limits on foreign engineers who can be hired by US companies, a sensitive subject among American technology workers watching their own jobs increasingly move overseas (Fairfax Digital). This proves that Company is committed to the idea of quality above everything else, as it should be the case with all commercial institutions. Microsoft did not embrace the affirmative action concept, as the main principle, upon which its hiring policy is based. This allows Company to only hire those professionals that it thinks are suitable for the work, regardless the color of their skin. If persons IQ is 85, there is no chance he can be hired, no matter how hard is he willing to celebrate diversity. Motivation One of the biggest incentives for Microsoft employees is good salary.
It is not an unusual for Microsoft programmer to make as much as $ 300. 000 - $ 400. 000 a year. Anyone who can make quite as much instantly forgets about the importance of its emotional needs being addressed by the Company or about importance of working in healthy environment. This is especially the case with programmers from former Soviet Union or India, who were barely able to meet ends, before they moved to America. Microsoft does not play games with its workers they are expected to remain loyal to the Company, but there is a good reason for them to feel that way. Companys owners make huge profits and allow their employees to be part of it.
Microsoft is fond of Japanese version of corporate culture, which views employees commitment to their work only within a context of providing them with good salary and various benefits. This is why workers actually enjoy working for Microsoft, without the help of hired psychologists, whose task is to convince employees to remain loyal to the company with the mean of instilling them with team spirit. Decision making Microsoft employees enjoy personal and professional freedom to the full extent. One of the reasons for this is that, being programmer requires individual to exercise its creativeness on the continuous basis. Michael Brundage in his article Working at Microsoft, shows that Microsoft actually does not only entitle its employees with executive powers but also considers it as an essential part of them being able to benefit Company as whole. Personal freedom is not just an abstract concept for Microsoft employees: Microsoft gives software developers a lot of personal freedom over both the work and the work environment.
I order my own supplies, customize my office as I see fit, schedule my own trips and meetings, and select my own training courses. I choose when I show up for work and when I leave, and what to wear while I'm there. I can eat on campus or off, reheat something from home in the kitchen or scavenge leftovers from meetings (Brundage). Microsoft main office provides regional managers with an outline of what needs to be done and they are allowed to implement their own approach in reaching the task. Therefore, Microsoft's managing style can be described as truly democratic.
Within the Company, decisions are made on collegial basis, which is the reason why Companys business strategy has never failed to address the needs of consumers. It is very remarkable that 64 % Microsoft's employees are Companys co-owners, as they own a considerable share of the stock. This is the main reason why Company allows a significant degree of personal and executive freedom, within its body. It simply cannot be otherwise. We need to understand that Microsoft is not committed to implementing progressive managerial style throughout its offices because of some abstract considerations, but because it benefits Company, in most pragmatic sense of this word.
Conclusion There can be only one indication of whether the particular organizational behavior concept benefits the organization, where it is being deployed its effectiveness. In all three analyzed cases, it appears that three different managing styles do correspond to the specifics of organizations functioning. Given the fact that Wal-Mart employs mostly uneducated and often illegal workforce, it would be a counter-productive for the Company to manage the behavior of its employees with the mean of progressive decision-making techniques. On the other hand, Microsoft would claim bankruptcy within the matter of few years, if it decided to treat its employees as an expandable human material, the way Wal-Mart does. The specifics of coffee retailing business require companies as Starbucks to emphasize on the emotional aspects of increasing employees professional efficiency.
Its managerial style is neither authoritarian nor democratic. Thus, we come to conclusion that there can be no standard approaches, when it comes to managing workers behavior, within organization. Organizational behavior concepts cannot be discussed in terms of being right or wrong. All that matters is whether they prove their usefulness or not.
We cannot talk about employees as standard sets of individuals with burning desire to make money. At the same time, it would be wrong to suggest that modern employees are preoccupied with celebrating their uniqueness more than with anything else. When it comes to managing organizational behavior, we need to remember a very good old saying: if there is something stupid, which nevertheless works it is not stupid. There is no need to invent bicycle again, as many todays self-proclaimed experts do, in order to appear sophisticated. If managers strive to make organizations employees to work more effectively, they need to come up with the right kind of incentive. For as long as we live in capitalist society, nothing can motivate people better than the prospect of making more money.
Bibliography: Brundage, M. Working at Microsoft. 2006. Brundage. Com. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from web Become a Starbucks Partner. 2007.
Starbucks Coffee Company. UK. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from web Gates Wants End to H 1 -B Visa Limits. April 28, 2005.
Fairfax Digital. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from web Goldberg, J. Selling Wal-Mart. April 2, 2007. The New Yorker.
Retrieved September 6, 2007 from web Greenhouse, S. Wal-Mart, a Nation Unto Itself. April 17, 2004. The New York Times. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from http: // 209. 85. 135. 104 /search? q = cache: of 7 WqMXs 4 J: web Microsoft Corporation. 2007.
Wikipedia. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from web Starbucks Human Resource Management Policies and the Growth Challenge. 2005. Center for Management Research. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from web Starbucks Corporation SWOT. January 25, 2005. Datamonitor.
Reuters Investor. Retrieved September 6, 2007 from web
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Research essay sample on Organizational Behavior Part 2
