Introduction
It is impossible to imagine the modern world without economical relations. The whole world is involved into global economy system and Australia is not an exception. Still, there are a lot of different models and practices in the economical relations. Various countries apply the economic and management systems which may be focused on contradictory issues.
Thus, it is obvious that human resources play crucial role in running business. But, there are companies which pay less attention to human resources thinking that economy results are more important. On the contrary, there are companies where human resources are valued greatly and the company is eager to lose some money but will keep a valuable employee.
Getting down to discussing Australia and the management in that country, it is crucial to point to the fact that there is an idea that Australian managers have a tendency to focus on economic results at the expense of more important things, such as downsizing, workplace diversity, restructuring, globalisation and quality. This paper is going to focus on this problem with the purpose either to support this idea or contradict it.
According to the findings presented by Australian Management Practices and Productivity global benchmarking project, Australia is the country where operation management is developed more than people management (Australian Government 21). Therefore, the economic results are really important for the Australian managers rather than other issues, which are also core for business and economy in the whole.
Organisational Culture and Its Effectiveness
Australia is the country where business is subordinate to the government. Australian managers value the policies implemented by the government greatly. This also relates to the organisational culture. The research shows that “Organisational vision and mission statements from the public providers demonstrated the close alignment between government policies and the stated goals for each of the registered training organisations” (Clayton, Fisher, Harris, Bateman, and Brown 16).
The same research shows that when the government considered some specific financial loss, the organisational changes were applied by means of the agenda created by the Council of Australian Governments (Clayton, Fisher, Harris, Bateman, and Brown 16). Thus, it may be concluded it is Australian significance to regulate the business organisational culture by means of the government policies.
To check whether this organizational culture is effective or not, it is important to follow the changes in the employment for the recent several years. It is natural that when the Australian budget experienced deficit, the measures were directed at the employment sector. To balance the situation, the government have decided to reduce the working time and keep all employees at work. These actions led to the situation that “Falls in full-time employment have been more than offset by higher part-time employment (“Economic policy” 13)”.
As a result, the working efficiency had reduced and the workers did not want to work better. The change of the situation is observed for now as people become full-time employed that appeared to be possible after the elimination of Australian budget deficit by means of higher tax payment from the companies which was not expected (“Economic policy” 12).
Management’s Role in Managing Organisational Culture
Having considered the role of government in organizational culture and the factors which influence business and economic decisions, it is high time to talk about the role of managers in making decisions and where these decisions are mostly directed at, economic results, quality, globalization, etc.
The organisational culture is influenced by the national culture. Due to the specifics in the political and social relations, the organizational culture in Australia is democratic and bureaucratic. The control is decentralized and in most cases it is aimed at giving tasks, coordinating activities, and providing purposes.
Considering the results of the comparative research conducted by Peter Lok and John Crawford, it is possible conclude that Australian management value equalitarianism and participation, “authority is legitimised more on performance and merit” (Lok and Crawford 324). The information from this research helps us make some important conclusions.
Firstly, managers play important role only on the level of giving tasks and checking the results. The Australian managers got used to the fact that their demands are followed and the work is completed as the employees in the country always follow the instructions they are given.
The employees work on the result and sometimes do not notice that the work could have been done more effective and with greater efficiency in the future if some changes in the task were implemented. This is the first confirmation of the fact that Australian managers are focused on economic results. The work must be done in time. This is the central condition for business in Australia. The quality and other important issues are sometimes ignored.
Secondly, giving some freedom for employees in the relation to the task performing, the managers as if relieve them of responsibility for the methods used by the employees. It may be concluded that downsizing and workplace diversity are not their problem if the task is not ready in time. This is one more supportive argument in the relation to the thesis statement of this paper.
Focus on Economic Results with the Increase of Management Participation
To understand whether the economic results from such strategy and organizational culture are high, it is important to consider the factors in management performance and relate to its effectiveness.
Analysing the results of the research conducted by the Australian Government, it is possible to states that due to the fact that operational management is more developed in the country, the managers usually “lag in their deployment of advanced people management practices” (Australian Government 7). The main reason for this is the misunderstanding of company success.
The main purpose of the report is to show that in case if the company pays more attention to the workplace diversity, training and management performance, the economic results are going to increase greatly. It is obvious that to reach the highest results in business, the companies should not only direct all their attention to the economic results, but also introduce “more flexibility in their management styles, decentralising decision-making processes and fostering self-managing work environments” (Australian Government 7).
The research has been provided to understand what is more effective, either the capital investment or the management practice. The increase of management practice on one point in both capital and labour sectors led to the following results, the capital increased on 44% while the labour presentation increased on 56%.
This proves that management empowerment is really important for the whole working process. If the employees are managed by some specific facilities, their economical performance is going to increase (Australian Government 14).
The same source shows that most of the Australian companies work on reaching the results rather than on the strategic improves of the company functioning. The information that operational management is more developed in the country along with human recourse management is supported with the exploration in different areas of the country. The average score of the operational management in the country is 3.22 of 3.5.
Other activities are rather lower, performance management score is 2.96 and human resource score is 2.71 (Australian Government 22). Thus, it can be easily concluded that the companies in Australia direct all their working force on economic results paying fewer attention to the human resource management product quality, globalization, etc.
It has already been mentioned that the implementation of the human resource management along with the focus on the economical results may give good profit.
Jones, Jimmieson, and Griffiths have conducted research to show that “employees who perceive a human relations cultural environment within their division would report higher levels of user satisfaction and system usage” along with higher economic results (396). The research showed that the companies should care not only about economic results but also about the quality of the product as the dissatisfied customers are not going to return to the company one more time.
Furthermore, the universal globalization of the economy is also important and if the companies in the country do not pay necessary attention to the problems of workplace diversity and environment, downsizing, structure of the workers and product quality it will have to lag behind in a couple of years when other countries will go ahead.
Conclusion
Thu, it may be concluded that the hypothesis that the Australian managers pay more attention to the economic results rather than to the downsizing, workplace diversity, restructuring, globalisation and quality. Moreover, this high attention to the result in the economic relation is usually paid at the expense of those important facilities.
The information is considered via numerous research which shows that operational management is highly developed in the country apart from performance and operational ones. The companies in the country got used to the fact that they follow the instructions and polices provided by the government, and the government usually directs it attention of gaining more profit.
Moreover, the organizational culture in the companies of Australia follows the same principle, the employees perform their tasks directly, they are aimed at reaching the final result, economic profit rather than being inspired by the healthy and supportive environment at the workplace or high quality of the products.
Using this method for running business, the companies in Australia should remember that the whole world has changed the strategy and pay much more attention to the human resources. The government should create a policy which points at the importance of human resources and their role in gaining profit. The companies should pay more attention to training their employees as this is aimed at increasing the working performance and increasing the profit.
Works Cited
Australian Government. “Management Matters in Australia: Just how productive are we?” Department of Innovation, Industry, Science and research November, 2008. Print.
Clayton, Berwyn, Fisher, Thea, Harris, Roger, Bateman, Andrea, and Mike Brown. “A Study in Difference: Structures and Cultures in Australian Registered Training Organisations. Full Report.” National Centre for Vocational Education Research, 2008. Print.
“Economic policy.” Country Report. Australia (2009): 12-13. Print,
Jones, Renae A., Jimmieson, Nerina L., and Andrew Griffiths. “The Impact of Organizational Culture and Reshaping Capabilities on Change Implementation Success: The Mediating Role of Readiness for Change.” Journal of Management Studies 42.2 (2005): 361-386. Print.
Lok, Peter and John Crawford. “The effect of organisational culture and leadership style on job satisfaction and organisational commitment: A cross-national comparison.” The Journal of Management Development 23.3/4 (2004): 321. Print.