Organizational Design

Founded in 2007, Noida Lab was conceptualized with a vision to provide a competitive R&D platform in wireless technology. Headquartered in Noida, aligning with ABC’s vision, Noida Lab is one of the fastest-growing companies in the mobile software sector. Noida Lab produces efficient and dynamic mobile software that continually pushes the boundaries of innovation to meet latest technology and provide the high quality products. Journey
ABC Ltd. has established Noida Lab in 2007 in India with a firm belief towards success and the realistic goals. Noida Lab has transformed itself into one the most competitive and proficient R&D centers of ABC Ltd. worldwide. It is focused on embedded and PC software development for ABC Ltd., in a variety of areas related to Mobile Phones. Noida Lab started its operations with Regional Adaptation and Multimedia testing while focusing to bring great innovations and latest technologies in the era of wireless communications. Noida Lab is engaged in development of latest mobile software for all range of handsets.
Noida Lab also focuses on Quality assurance which includes automation Testing, protocol testing, white box testing and GCF certifications Noida Lab is involved in development and testing of extensive range of mobiles software by the combination of exceptional talent and superior technology. The focus of Noida Lab is to produce best quality mobile phone software in both CDMA and GSM technologies.

The center has talented engineers for carrying out R&D works having development and quality teams. The research and development activities are carried out in ideal manner to stabilize every model in terms of quality, features and enhancement. The dedicated team works in coordination with other centers across the world to produce high quality mobiles considering various factors such as market research, target customers, competing products etc.
Organizational’ Size & Hierarchy
Total employee size of the organization is approx. 2000 employees and the average age of employees 30. Majority of senior management is home-country based and work in line with the local managers. Also many have come through transfer from other group’s subsidiaries.
Chapter 1
Consider your organization and identify the stage where it creates maximum value? What are the reasons? Also identify untapped opportunity for value creation by HR department of your organization. In growing complexities, it’s utmost important for the organization to redesign and transform its structure and culture to move from present state to the desired future state and thus increase effectiveness , also creating value and enhanced performance Creation of Maximum value.
Since the company has recently developed its operations, it’s essential to focus at every level and identify strategies to engage human resources. HR team identified various initiatives during entire employee life cycle. Noida Lab has laid down some of the best example in their transformation process since the company is willing to have an impact: Flattening: Too many levels of hierarchy slow decision-making and are a barrier to empowerment. During the initial growth of the organization, ABC had many levels between the employee and the senior management.
Decisions had to pass through many levels of approval before anything got done. Budding Bureaucracy was crushed and de-centralized was encouraged to tap the younger workforce’s mind. This change not only helped the employee but also the customers/ clients linked with the company. Strong emphasis on Onboarding: Comprehensive onboarding programs have been shown to have dramatic and lasting positive effects on retention and engagement rates of new employees. HR created on-boarding toolkit to for every department which included full series of trainings and seminars over an employee’s first year aiming to bring newest employees up to speed efficiently.
Research shows that employees make the critical decision to stay or leave within the first six months and that having the newest talent participate in an onboarding program can “maximize retention, engagement, and productivity” (HCI White Paper, 2008). More inclined workforce can serve client with better inclination through achieving results with passion.
Organization’s success depends in large part on how well employees communicate – with each other as well as with various stakeholders. ‘We Learn’ Club is launched to engage employee to enhance communication and provide healthy engagement platform at workplace. There are various meetings conducted among teams, team-managers, team-HR, and employees-senior management. Also included are monthly meetings through which all the organizational updates are shared with the employees and changes are launched. These approaches encourage information sharing amongst each and every level in the organization. With effect, employees are more compassionate while dealing with client’s requirements, proving success in the projects.
Learning & Development: ABC has a vision that it can’t develop unless there are strategic options for an employee to develop himself. There has been training programs right for a new joinee to a long lasting employee. Employees should observe that there is a growth opportunity for them and perceive the company as a development institution. Company has made tie-up with 2-3 top universities to provide higher education assistance program. On-line learning platforms like Learntrak and Harvard Mentor are available free of cost, also certifications options are available. Company has also identified SMEs (Subject Matter Expert) to identify and highlight budding talent within the company. With improved “Internal processes’ and focused “internal Customers”, company can achieve the success in its value chain.
ABC has recognized certain values as important to corporate ethics and operational success. To make these values pervade at all levels there are many un-tapped opportunity. Creating a values statement for an organization involves examining the organization’s purpose and goals. Once it is clear where the organization wants to go through the value creation process (input, conversion, and output), objectives can be achieved. ABC vision laid emphasis highly on customer satisfaction with effectiveness whereas same can be achieved if employees are treated highly valued and their attitudes, interests and preferences are more stable. Customer value proposition play an important role in meeting above objectives.
Chapter 2
Identify important conflicts involving employees and other stakeholder groups in your organization. Explain inducement and contributions for relevant stakeholders involved. Is there any ethical issue involved in above
mentioned conflict? Which ethical model is appropriate for solving identified ethical issue?
Stakeholders can be defined in many ways and different kinds of entities can be stakeholders, such as persons, groups inside as well as outside an organization. The stakeholders act according to their interest and use their power to influence the product in the direction they desire. To develop good working relationships with colleagues and stakeholders, and to avoid conflict, it is essential to share a common purpose. Often conflicts are observed which can induce the scope for inefficiency.
a. Interventions: Ambiguity in roles and demand often lead to interventions which displace ownership and hinder performance. Through management skills, stakeholders should be able to identify what these conflicts might be before entering into the communication process and hence the opportunity to intervene early.
b. Clear Communication: There are no gaps if communication is clear. In organization, right from main vision to mission and even team goals, all should be strategically aligned and link in meeting each other’s objectives. One process output should be value input for the next, hence clear communication through positive relationship is important to prevent conflicts of interest and find a common purpose to agree on.
c. Complex behavior: Since organization deal with human which is complex, hence difficult behavior are encountered often within stakeholders. It’s necessary to be assertive but use neutral language to defuse any aggression. Stakeholder mapping using power/interest matrix as adapted from Mendelow (1981) and Johnson & Scholes (1993) can be used as a powerful tool to identify contribution of every stakeholders. ABC ltd. has developed similar approach as mentioned in the fig below. They indicated that power and dynamism are relevant factors; low to high and static to dynamic.
Too often relationships with stakeholders are conducted in an ad hoc or intuitive manner. A strategic approach (a plan with clear objectives, milestones and an evaluation) builds better ongoing relationships and is more likely to realize the benefits for the department and the stakeholders. There can be enormous ethical issues if the stakeholder management is not proper in the organization. Keeping in view working model of ABC Ltd, below are some instances records: Stakeholders Group and Issues
indicators
Employees
Pay and Benefits
Atleast minimum legal wage or local cost of living is incorporated Employee diversity
Percentage of diverse groups and designed policies to cater different gender and races as equal Communication
open-door policies/ ombudsmen
Customers
Product authencity/ quality/ safety
No of defects/ recalled projects
Customer complaint management
Availability of set procedures and system to cater all queries Customer service
Measures/ practices adopted to ensure effective service delivery
Investors
Transparency
Availability of procedures to inform shareholders about corporate activities Stakeholder rights management
litigation involving violations of shareholder rights
Community/ Society development
Public health and safety protection
Availability of emergency-response plan
Minimizing the use of energy
Type, amount, and designation of waste generated
The model of human behavior called the economic man model has been identified to solve ethical issues, which assumed the following: The decision-maker had access to perfect information concerning all aspects of the decision situation. The decision-maker could process all the relevant information when identifying and diagnosing problems. The decision-maker could identify all possible solutions to a problem and evaluate the outcomes of each alternative solution.
Multiple goals of an organization could be combined into a single, simple mathematical equation. A rational decision-maker would always select the alternative solution that would produce the maximum benefit to the organization. All decision-makers process information in the same manner and make similar decisions.
Chapter 3
1. Map generic and specific environment related to training initiatives in your organization. How will you rank identified elements. As a statistically-based method to reduce variation in organization’s processes, Six Sigma is used as an all-encompassing business performance methodology. This has helped ABC labs to Align their business strategy to critical improvement efforts thus Mobilize teams to attack high impact projects, accelerate improved business results and also govern efforts to ensure improvements are sustained. Since the launch of Six Sigma, it helped the organization to increase their effectiveness by 60% and provided ample security checks for improvement. Other important aspect is developing leadership skills in the organization which is itself a very complex task.
Amongst senior cadre in the company are people from diverse background, ethnicity and race, hence was key focus area. As part of its HR initiatives, the company conducted advanced programmes such as Foundations of Organization Learning (FOL) and Visionary and Leadership Planning (VLP). It also conducted a series of communication exercises about the change initiatives to all its employees across the country. ABC labs are also using 360 degree purely as a leadership development tool, completely separate from annual appraisals, which are mostly about meeting targets. ABC’s top executives have each been assessed by at least four subordinates, four peers and their immediate boss. Each executive, in turn, has assessed at least ten others. Given that the 360 degree assessment form is five pages long and contains 50 questions, this makes for a massive logistic exercise.
But assessing only the top management doesn’t quite serve the purpose, since it is the middle managers that need to be promoted to senior leadership positions to meet the organization’s talent needs. Also to get around this, ABC labs has designated counselors, called Leadership Group Facilitators (LGF), senior managers who are not in the recipients immediate work orbit, assigned the task of presenting the feedback dossier and immediately discussing its findings.
Strategy mapping is a powerful business tool. Strategy maps show graphically how organizations create value for customers and stakeholders. Good strategy maps communicate strategic intent internally and externally, and are one of the most effective communication tools an organization can use to build alignment, accountably, and a focus on results. Hence ABC labs has created well defined performance management system which binds individual KRAs with identified Organization’s competencies.
Out of strategic initiatives, Balance scorecard is the most prominent and identified element. ABC labs started with critical approach about “what” and “why”, before “how”. Remember, performance improvement initiatives are “how’s”; organization vision, goals, and strategy are “why’s” and “what’s”. This strategy was entirely focused to develop all the stakeholders within and outside the organization. Missing pieces like customer value proposition, strategic themes, mission and results in financial perspective was aligned through the Balance card.
2. Based on resource dependence theory, identify one good and one bad illustration for inter-organizational relationship (which involve some other organization) involving your chosen firm.
Key researchers Dean and Sharfman, (1993); Dutton, (1993) & Haley and Stumph,(1989) studies the nature of the decision and says that research into decision making cognition and labeling suggests that the same internal or external stimulus may be interpreted quite differently by managers in different organizations or even within the same organization. Resource Dependence Theory tries to explain the relationship of different variables that affects decision making and also acts as a dominant approach in contemporary strategic management.
Mergers and acquisitions have been one of the primary domains of inter-organizational action to be analyzed under a resource-dependence perspective. In past 1 year, ABC labs have acquired 2 business entities which lead to power imbalance. During acquisition, it was priority to ensure to enroll matrix structure as a way to create a balance between global product groups. As per the ABC Labs strategy, in this way management attention would be focused and balanced dimensions. Also given a clear specification of the purpose of a unit and of type of relationship with other units, unit managers will be able to work out most of the details for themselves.
However the stakeholders of acquired companies were quite firm on maintaining the pre-dominant structure in their groups when got acquired. This created conflict, however with the series of management discussion and meetings, all were synced for the intended outcomes which include: An improved reporting structure that is helpful in complex decision making Efficient usage of shared resources that provide opportunities for skill development Competencies to deal with legitimate multiple sources of power, and The sharing of knowledge between divisions
There were some inadvertent outcomes too which included excessive overheads in management, time losses with the frequent meetings also to resolve conflict and power struggle between divisions. ABC Labs is however being able to conceptualize now its organization structure and bring strategic power in action. Different theoretical approaches, such as institutional theory, strategic contingencies theory, resource dependency theory and decision-making theory were explored.