In Chapter Five, eight common characteristics were highlighted after Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman Jr. researched the sixty-two most successful companies. The eight common characteristics that were found are: 1) a bias for action, 2) close relations to the customer, 3) autonomy and entrepreneurship, 4) productivity through people, 5) hands-on, value-driven, 6) stick to the knitting, 7) simple form, lean staff, and 8) simultaneous loose-tight properties.
1) A bias for action means that the company makes decisions quickly.
2) When a company has close relations to the customer, their customers are accustomed to quality service, innovation, and reliability.
3) A company that practices autonomy allows their employees to take risks and assume responsibility.
4) Productivity through people means that employees are on task.
5) Hands-on, value-driven companies have a common vision that guides employees.
6) Stick to the knitting means that the company sticks to what they know and are good at.
7) Simple form, lean staff happens when a company keeps a relatively manageable work group and their is a simple structure throughout the group.
8) Simultaneous loose-tight properties promote individual and group making decisions.
The company I worked for is successful, but they were hanging in there and making ends meet. I am going to examine the eight characteristics and see how well they fit with my company.
The company was not action oriented. All decisions had to pass through my boss and she was extremely wishy-washy when it came to making a decision. The company had close relations to the customer and clients were always coming in to the office to express their gratitude. There was very little autonomy within the company because my boss micromanaged you, which lead to less productivity among workers. All employees knew the common focus, which was the kids, and because they wanted to help the kids they were value driven. The company stuck to what they know and never strayed away from swimming. There was a simple structure and a small staff, but they were not able to make individual decisions. I would say that my old job possessed about half of the quality characteristics, which may explain the reason as to why they are barely hanging on.
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It is difficult when an organization has a manager that seems stuck in the past and not willing to update company procedures. People do not understand that when they first implement something it may work but they need to change it with the constant employee turnover. It sounds like your manager was stuck in the past and in the end that hurt the company. As an employee, not being able to make your own decisions really can make work unbearable. Many business books I have read state that an employee will never fully be productive if they do not feel important, and who feels important if they cannot make their own decisions? Sounds like your boss needs to go take some business courses!
ReplyDeleteAll of the characteristics are great little bit of informatioon to take into account. The one i find that is the most effective in my opinion is the 6th one which is "Stick to the knitting means that the company sticks to what they know and are good at". THis one is importanct because sometimes when organizations become involved in offering too many goods or servies they seem to lose sight of their primary focus. Id you are havintg to divert your attention to a bunch of different services then they are all not getting the attention needed. If you focus on what you are truly good at and keep working to make it better and better you can work on making it well known for one thing and it may build an empire!
ReplyDeleteGreat example and practical application of the characteristics to your past company dynamics. But the real challenge for us, as organizational communication students, is what steps can we recommend to the company to turn it around and make it thrive. Below are few suggestions that I thought of:
ReplyDelete1) Since the manager is not action oriented, we can first investigate what are the real impediments that prevents her from taking actions or making decisions quickly. These impediments could be emotional, physical, environmental or something else. Once we identify these impediments, we can take steps to reduce the effect of these impediments on decision making and action taking.
2) To infuse more autonomy in the company, employees need to first unite among themselves and draft out solid examples of occasions/situations where lack of autonomy led to real damage to the company. Then they can present these to the management and request a trail period to have some autonomy & authority on the problematic aspects of the organization's operations. After the trial period, employees and management can regroup and reassess and evaluate the results of autonomy. If the results are positive, management is more likely to implement autonomy permanently among employees.