Timothy Willis Ltd and the Editorial Department Headed by McCullem Essay

Introduction

The two organizations under analysis, Timothy Willis Ltd and the editorial department headed by Ian McCullem illustrate that organizational structure, culture and management behavior have a great impact on relations between employees and performance of the organization. The nature of organizational behavior can be interesting in a number of ways. In the research paper, organizational behavior will refer to the structure of relationships among individuals. A static approach regards organizational behavior as a process or a part of management concerned with change or growth of the structure. Organizations (like a weekly newspaper publisher) are primarily complex goal-seeking units which in order to survive must accomplish tasks, e.g. they must maintain their internal system to coordinate the human side of enterprise and must adapt to and shape the external environment.

Organizational Cultures

Timothy Willis Ltd and the editorial department headed by Ian McCullem have positive organizational cultures based on strong leadership and mutual understanding. According to Mullins, “Organizational behavior does not encompass the whole of management; it is more accurately described in the narrower interpretation of providing a behavioral approach to management” (Mullins, 1993, p.2). At Timothy Willis Ltd., organizational behavior includes people behavior, management processes, organizational context and processes, and the influence of external environment. The term “behavior” is used to explain “a selective, interdisciplinary approach to the study of human behavior” (Mullins, 1993, p.2-3). In both organizations, culture is a part of business action that is socially as opposed to genetically transmitted. It comprises ideas through which managers perceive and interpret the world, symbols they use to communicate these ideas, and institutions which enable individuals to become socialized and satisfy their needs (Robbins, 2004).

The main difference between the organizations is that Timothy Willis Ltd follows formal structure in relations while Ian McCullem establishes informal communication and interaction patterns. Informal communication has a great influence on management decisions and their implementations. At its most visible it represents those arte-facts and goods that most readily distinguish one culture from another, such as architecture, food, ceremonies and language. At a deeper level it comprises their notions of ‘right’ and ‘wrong’, their norms, and their notions about what is ‘good’ and ‘bad’, their values (Hersey et al 2001).

Organizational Structure

The similarity in organizational structure is that Timothy Willis Ltd and the editorial department are considered as a single system. In both organizations, structural factors are interdependent, and “cannot be studied in isolation” (Mullins, 1993, p.2). The main headings include the individual, the group, the organization and the environment. The individual can be seen in isolation or as a part of a group, “in response to expectations of organization” or environmental influences (Mullins, 1993, p.3). For Timothy Willis Ltd, an individual represented by a founder of the company and employees, while in the editorial department – by a head of the department and managerial staff members. An important aspect of the study of organizations is the study of people -behavior in groups. This can give indications of why certain groups are effective and others are not. Group members in an organization will have one or more goals in common, such as students groups, teaching and management staff. Communication is essential within each group and members of a group have roles to play in order to achieve the group task. Expected behavior patterns are developed within each group and these are referred to as norms (Bolman and Deal 2003).

The main difference is that Timothy Willis Ltd adopts hierarchical structure based on delegation. The organization is the basic framework within which individuals and groups behavior occur. Timothy Willis Ltd itself represents a formal structure of organization within which individuals and groups interact in order to reach the common goal. The quality and nature of the decisions made are influence by the nature of the structure. The environment contains a range of influences that affect an organization. The editorial department recognizes that the social system is in a dynamic relationship with its environment, whereby inputs are received, transformed and outputs are passed on. Morgan in “Images of Organization” (1986 cited Mullins 1993, pp.6-7) singles out “contrasting metaphors” which help to understand organizational behavior. According to Morgan “viewing organizations as machines can provide the basis for efficient operation in a routine, reliable and predictable way”. In both organizations, the structure can be viewed as a bureaucratic structure which consists of parts that are managed in accordance with changing environment.

Ian McCullem’s department has a functional structure. The department means leaving systems which are able to adapt changes of rapidly changing environment. The structure of Timothy Willis Ltd is a flexible system which reacts on changes and adapts itself to them. The function of brains means ability to think which helps to be creative and flexible. To work successfully, the department needs critical thinking and analyzing the problems exist. Organizations as cultures imply development and acceptance of values and norms, traditions and ideology. The department will create its own unique code of norm and traditions followed by all members of this organization (Hersey et al 2001).

Relations between Culture and Structure

For both organizations, organizational structure has an impact on culture and relations. Timothy Willis Ltd has a bureaucratic structure based on formal relations and communication. In contrast, functional structure of the department leads to information and more close communication between employees. The editorial department structure is based on superior-subordinate relations between students and teachers, teachers and management staff, teachers and board of directors which help to direct staff. This metaphor means that the editorial department as a structure has “mythical past places constraints”. It adopts the structural pattern, norms, the form of organization used by other departments. Flux and transformation means that organizations should be flexible to changes and be able to transform their structure accordingly to them. For the editorial department, this is a very important aspect because economic and social changes require that the organization be able to transform its structure and functions accordingly to their norms (Bolman and Deal 2003).

Individual behavior and performance

In both organizations, individual behavior and performance is a part of leadership and management. Most employees pay attention to the big picture of business but neglect small details. Also, transformational leadership is based on change while most of the employees resist and fear constant change. Thus, the ability to focus on goals and the issues surrounding them is the primary concern. If team members respect each other’s competence, most personality problems will work themselves out. Furthermore, the more time a team spends on interpersonal relationships, the less effective it becomes. There is an inverse correlation between the time spent on “people problems” and team effectiveness. Effective and successful teams focus on issues pertaining to the team goal.

Both relate to how the leader manages the team and both bring focus on the task to be done; however, they are different in very specific ways. Combining individual strengths means influencing rather than directing. Influencing requires a different skill than managing in a hierarchical structure, where direction is more common. One of the most potent ways in which the leader can exert influence is by example. Ay Timothy Willis Ltd, leaders and managers can introduce training and learning courses in order o ensure high professionalism of workers. This strategy will help managers to create positive culture and organizational environment. This method emphasizes their ability to make decisions and solve marketing problems in a way that enhances the objectives of the whole corporation. The manager is a specialist in managing markets and marketing resources; production, finance, and personnel executives are his corporate counterparts (Carlopio et al 2995).

At the editorial department headed by Ian McCullem, the strategy is to introduce conflict management techniques aimed to prevent and foreshadow conflict situations. Effective leadership includes the following precepts:

1. acceptance of change as a constant;
2. recognition of the centrality of consumer wants and needs;
3. adoption of a systems approach to marketing issues;
4. recognition and application of meaningful concepts from other disciplines, and the acceptance of theoretical constructs and findings as helpful in managing marketing effort; and
5. recognition of the relationship between marketing and other aspects of management.

All these changes, from the harsh competitive realities of the marketplace to the complexity of new organizational forms, pose demands on corporations to transform themselves frequently, rapidly, and effectively. These trends have made obsolete many of the traditional sources of competitive advantage, leaving organizational design and management as one of the few available sources of significant, sustained competitive advantage. It is one thing to argue that organizations need to reinvent themselves and develop new, more effective approaches to organizing, and quite another to accomplish it. Large-scale organizational transformation is, at best, a developing art that has yet to produce any clear formulas for success, but more and more attention is being turned to executives as the principle agents of change and adaptation. It is increasingly common to assume that leadership plays the crucial role in an organization’s successful adaptation to a changing world (Hoyle and Wilmore 2002).

Organization management and Leadership

The industry depends upon effective leaders who establish clear goals for the entire organization. Ay Timothy Willis Ltd, proclaiming decision-making and problem-solving skills that have made them so successful, managers readily take responsibility for other people’s problems and give them back ready-made solutions. Indeed, top managers gain authority in the first place because they take responsibility and solve problems with such aplomb. Managers rarely receive promotions for providing the leadership required to do adaptive work. Management gains commitment to performance through contractual arrangements, leadership through empowerment. As the corporate world has become better aware of these essential distinctions, more and more resources have gone into training and educating about leadership competencies.

Timothy Willis Ltd can be seen as an organization that paying record compensation to attract the best and brightest executive talent to lead them safely through today’s turbulent business environment. Many boards and executive recruiters assume that there exists an elite corps of individuals who possess leadership skills that have almost universal application. With the realization that organizations once considered paragons of management effectiveness were faltering in the face of dramatic competitive challenges, many began to suspect that the two roles involved different skill sets. It was conceivable that a company could be well managed but poorly led. In good times, a well-managed company might enjoy great success. Adopting a marketing (diversity-based) approach, it again seems unfruitful to argue that research should be structured to yield analytic knowledge or that research should be structured so as to produce intuitive knowledge (Carlopio et al 2995).

In the editorial department headed by Ian McCullem leadership plays an important role in organizational performance and effective management. The department needs strong leadership able to motivate and persuade employees and create positive culture within the organization. Leading function of management is seen as a process of persuasion. This leadership style will benefit the budgeting process and helps to resolve EEO complaints (Hoyle and Wilmore 2002). The main advantage of this style is that it starts with a vision and objectives development. So, it will help the company to establish clear goals and transform them into a budget.

Thus, the focus of transformational leadership is on human interaction. Great transformational leaders have the gift for inspiring and motivating people; they have vision and lift the spirit of people to accomplish great ends. The release of human possibilities is a basic leadership goal. However, there is also a dark side of leadership. Today, it is difficult to develop an ideal budget so it will be important for the Romanization to ensure effective change process and stable performance. The transformational leadership task is to make certain that there is a goal. The second task is to ensure that the goal is clear. Transformational leadership must confirm that the team members understand the goal. Different theories of leadership propose different interpretations of leadership styles and leaders’ relations with subordinates. Thus, the task of leadership is not one of motivating people, for they are already motivated (Charan et al 2001).

The editorial department headed by Ian McCullem follows transformational leadership which has a positive impact on conflict resolution and problems. Transformational leadership is influenced by motivational factors and intellectual capital. Shifting leadership functions can often lead to confusion, which should be avoided with the effective management of team communications. Effective communication ensures that the team will know who is in charge and glues the team together. It is the lifeblood for goal achievement. One would think that with all the interaction necessary for effective teamwork interpersonal skills would be at a premium, but such is not the case. Exceptional interpersonal skills are not a key requirement for effective teamwork. That is, team members do not have to like each other socially (Hoyle and Wilmore 2002).

The examples of both organizations demonstrate that the leader of the 21^st century should be flexible and creative in order to meet new social and organizational challenges. The leadership task is different than the leadership task. The leadership task concerns influencing and the leadership function, team process. The leadership function has more to do with who is in charge or leading the team at a particular point and time. Objectivity is also important. The thoughts and feelings of others cannot be accurately predicted–even in closely mixed groups. In other words, we are not good at judging what other people think of us. Rather than worrying, team members are more productive if they concentrate objectively on the issues at hand. Objectivity is another of the ground rules for team membership, and is a topic in which team members should be schooled. People can be taught to act more objectively and to sort out personality issues from substantive issues. Teams that can objectively concentrate on issues are more effective (Charan et al 2001).

Good leadership of Ian McCullem requires the acceptance of risk, the adjustment to new situations, and the recognition of opportunity. Leadership is concerned with the grit of basic and fundamental company values and is reflected in the kinds of marketing strategies chosen and decisions made. Top managers can only be effective through other people, for decisions are valueless until someone does something about them. Through good leadership, organization should help human corporate resources reach high levels of accomplishment. The leader’s task is to ensure that the team sets and maintains explicit high-performance expectations (Cole, 2005). With high-performance standards, the team is committed to achieving challenging goals. Clear goals and high-performance expectations are at the heart of the leader’s task–independent of his or her style. Gender stereotypes influence the perception of leaders and their impact on other people. If the leader sets high performance standards, chances are that the goal will be reached. This phenomenon is known as a “self-fulfilling prophecy” (Robbins, 2003). Teams that constantly expect more of themselves perform at higher levels. While actions such as refereeing, resolving, and even monitoring the teams are within bounds, a leadership task that the team leader must not perform is to evaluate ideas (Robbins, 2003).

Conclusion

The two cases under analysis show that organizational behavior and structure, such notions as developing, encouraging, facilitating, integrating, stimulating, resolving, listening, coaching, sensing, monitoring, meshing, guiding, refereeing, and deciding are still important. At last, the staff must decide, the employees must be in control, and the staff must be the hero and get the credit. Clearly, the leadership aim is multidimensional, requiring extraordinarily diverse personal skills. Leaders come in many forms, with many styles and diverse traits, and with each developing the right personal direction. Their sole common attribute is their knowledge and professional skills to make sure the goal is clearly defined and high-performance expectations are set.

How aims and expectations are established is a matter of style, but setting them is a matter of performance and positive results. In order to improve leadership skills, an individual should take into account situational variables and consequences of his decisions. Other leadership tasks include ensuring that the team is staying on the topics at hand and not wasting time. A danger to staff is that it may become a social forum. This is because people generally try to get along in teams. The expectations in both organizations include professionalism and honesty, acquiescence, ability to inspire and motivate students, good communication skills. Every mander of staff should feel as a part of its team accepting views and traditions of the publishing industry. It is important to distinguish between intent and manner of implementation, because only actions has an influence on organizational performance and its successful planning. Intent has no influence on actions, training and participation, changes and efficiency of employees being a speculative assumption.

Bibliography

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