Introduction
Over the years Golden XYZ Company has tremendously invested vast resources geared towards making some developments as well as making implementations on the quality management initiatives. It is vital to note that the culture exhibited by an organization often has a huge impact on the workers as well as on the relationship amongst them (Jones & George, 1998). Every organization including Golden XYZ Company has their unique culture which brings about the differences in their mode of operations (Yoon & Ringquist, 2011).
In this paper, a critical outlook of Golden XYZ Factory is outlined with in order to analyze its organization’s culture and the problems that have faced it. Some recommendations are also presented concerning various approaches that the factory can utilize to stamp out the problem at hand.
Culture and norms of the company
Organization’s culture is a paramount aspect in the business world. Van & Sminia (2010) defines organization’s culture as the belief as well as principles that act as a guide to organizations to enhance smooth running of their businesses.
Quality initiatives are a critical element in Golden XYZ Factory. The management of the factory has been working on development as well as implementation of quality initiative, which is institutionalized in its corporate culture. More importantly, the vice presidents of the factory, directors, managers as well as various supervisors have tremendously integrated an aspect of quality in their strategic as well as operational plans.
Golden XYZ Company seems to have centralized its decision making as a part of their culture. The company does not entrust fully the non-management employees on making decisions about the company. This is one of the instances that the quality manager sees as a challenge in the light of making adjustments in the company.
A good example is an instance where Bailey Davis, the quality manager had brought informal team together as well as vertical and horizontal classification of Golden XYZ Factory’s employees in the verge of developing a quality plan. Surprisingly, when the plan was presented to eth executives, the vice presidents agreed to the plan, however, there were no changes in the culture.
Therefore a culture of distrust between the management and non-management employees prevailed. The belief that non-management employees cannot be trusted to make decisions by the top management has had some impacts on workers communication as well as sours the relationship between them and their managers. This is the reason that made Tommy and Jake to be suspected of goofing off while in fact they were discussing on their ideas about work.
It is clear that the Factory’s culture does not allow empowerment of employees to make decisions or even take part in decision making, something that Bailey, the quality manager has been advocating for change. Disillusionment of the employees as well as disappointment due to lack of incorporation of their views has significantly lessened their morale. However, the plant manager as well as the Corpotrate vice president has recognized the importance of change of the belief that prevails in the management (Block, 1993).
Problems facing Golden XYZ Factory
The major problems that face Golden XYZ Factory is lack of trust and empowerment of the employees as well as lack of implementation of the improvement strategies. Barker & Camarata (1998) argues that employees are considered to be the most essential part in the theories of management especially when an organization wishes to make improvement on the quality.
Causes of the problem
Lack of employees’ empowerment in decision making
Many scholars contend that employees need to be incorporated in the decision making especially when the organization wishes to continuously produce quality outputs (Pryor, Anderson, Toombs and Humphreys, 2007). In Golden XYZ Factory, this is the main challenge since the employees are not given a chance to participate in the decision-making process. Instead, their managers confuse their work discussions with goofing off.
Lack of trust
Lack of trust is a critical issue in the company Golden XYZ Factory. Albert for instance does not seem to trust Bailey when she explain that Jake and Tommy were probably discussing work related issues, instead, he think that goofing off is the problem to improvement of the change process.
It therefore appears obvious that the management does not entrust its employees on work related issues. They are not allowed to participate in decision making as well as change implementation process in the company. Bailey and Larry seem to be the only executives that understand the value of trust in the organization. Bailey has tirelessly continued to fight for both employees’ empowerment and building of trust between the managers and the non-management employees.
What need to be considered by Golden XYZ Factory’s management to address these issues
It is beyond doubts start the problem facing Golden XYZ Factory is purely as a result of unresponsive management. One of the ways in which the issue can be addressed is calling for meetings that incorporate the management and the employees to discuss the issues affecting them. In such meetings, they should address the issues concerning the hindrance to change implementation process.
To enhance continuous quality improvement, the managers should encourage as well as empower the employees in order to come up with various methods of improving operations in diverse areas (Humphreys & Einstein, 2003). The company needs to think of embracing employees training especially on areas such as statistical process control. It is important to note that change initiatives as well as process improvement initiatives in the company need to be incorporated in the establishment and implementation of strategic and tactical plans.
Recommendations
Albers and other managers who are unwilling to allow empowerment of the employees should reconsider their decision and give Bailey a chance to implement some of her proposals.
Managers should transform their thinking concerning what changes requires and the need to allow employees take part in the decision making so as to allow change process to take place effectively.
Employees should be effectively trained on quality management as well as be empowered in order to enhance quality initiatives.
Employees should also be rewarded whenever a success is achieved. This would raise their morale and high level of performance would prevail.
Conclusion
Golden XYZ Factory has heavily invested resources in the verge of formulating quality initiatives. This is a commendable step towards improvement of its operations. It is however disheartening that the organization’s decisions seem to be centralized. Managers are the one who make decisions.
Non management employees are not empowered as well as trusted on decision making concerning work related issues. Despite various improvement strategies being advocated by Bailey Davis, the quality manager, the managers still seem adamant to take the initiatives into consideration.
Quality initiatives should be implemented and not just formulated. It is therefore important that the management entrust non management employees in decision making as well as empower them to make effective decisions. This would be made possible through encouraging employees training on management issues.
References
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Block, P. (1993). Stewardship: Choosing Service over Self Interest, San Francisco: Berrett Koehler Publishers.
Humphreys, J.H. & Einstein, W.O. (2003). Nothing new under the sun: Transformational leadership from a historical perspective. Management Decision, 41(1): 85-95.)
Jones, G. R. & George, J. M. (1998). The experience and evolution of trust: Implications for cooperation and teamwork. Academy of Management Review, 23(2): 531-548.
Pryor, M.G., Anderson, D., Toombs, L., and Humphreys, J. (2007). Strategic implementation as a core competency: The 5P’s Model. Journal of Management Research, 7(1):3-17.
Van Nistelrooij, A. & Sminia, H. (2010). Organization Development: What’s Actually Happening? Journal of Change Management, 10(4): 407-420.
Yoon Jik, C., & Ringquist, E. J. (2011). Managerial trustworthiness and organizational outcomes. Journal of Public Administration Research & Theory, 21(1): 53-86.