term paper 2 lf

Term Paper 2 XS

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Wells Fargo and Company (Domestic ethics issues) Interventions to Create and sustain highly ethically run Organizations

Review Each of the Following OD Criteria – Apply as Found Appropriate to Your Intervention

10-2a – Individual / Group Interventions-Process (270)

Individual and group interventions are designed to enhance effective communication among members in a group. This involves giving the correct feedback to individuals of the same group. The process consultant in an OD intervention process should engage in effective communication with members of the group on matters concerning the progress of the process and even drive away from some evil characters and behaviors. To have effective feedback, the OD practitioners should; have a consensus on the receiver's goals, emphasize description and appreciation, have constructive motives, and lastly, the relevance of the feedback should be considered (P 269). On the other hand, group interventions are aimed at the group's process, content, or structure. The process intervention is concerned with the internal activities; the range enables the group to determine the questions, and observations about the group membership, interpersonal issues, and inputs on related topics. Wells Fargo and the company need structural interventions to deal with the most conversant methodologies to apply in the group, such as monitoring progress and addressing group problems and leadership relationships.

11-2a – Process Interventions – Application Stages (299)

Application stages are vital to an organization in unprioritized problems requiring broader coordination. An organization, therefore, goes through the following steps;

i. A group meeting should be called for and the conference held at an appropriate venue to identify the challenges faced by the organization.

ii. Appointment of groups representing all the departments(sales, finance, purchasing, or quality assurance)

iii. The groups are urged to remain open and honest to work towards unraveling some of the practical challenges of the organization.

iv. The OD practitioner takes the responsibility to walk to every group to encourage them to be open and help them where necessary.

v. A central meeting is then convened, and each group presents the identified problems and suggests solutions to them.

vi. The participants are divided into problem-solving groups which are different from the original problem-identification group.

vii. The problems are prioritized, and a tactical action plan is developed.

viii. The prioritized problems are reported to management

ix. Follow-up meetings are arranged, and project management resources are involved in monitoring and supporting the progress. The team leaders must register to top management or the group as a whole regarding their team's progress (p 292).

Figure 12.5/Table 12.4 – The Process Structure (346-349)

The process structure comprises the process owner, which involves supporting the customer usage process, a small senior executive team, heads of strategic planning, human resources, and finance. The process structure takes over several hierarchical and departmental boundaries, which makes it suffer some drawbacks such as slow decision and organizational performance. To have an effective process drive structure, the following must be considered: a well-organized structure with three to five processes that define the organization's work governed by a "process owner ."Work adds value which increases efficiency and simplifies work processes by eliminating non-essential tasks and reducing layers of management (p 347). Wells Fargo and the company should define customer expectations and design team functions to meet the expectations. The teams should be rewarded for performance.

The process structure has advantages, disadvantages, and contingencies. Some of the benefits include enhancing employee involvement, lowering production costs, rapid response to environmental change and customer requests, and also improving the speed and efficiency of the OD intervention process. Some of the process structures include; changing the layout can negatively impact the middle managers and staff, is ineffective if wrong processes are identified, and requires new skills and knowledge to manage lateral relationships and teams. Some of the contingencies include; moderate to high size, customer-oriented goals, highly interdependent technologies (p 348)

Figure 13.1 – How Employee Involvement Affects Productivity (378)

Employee involvement results in improved communication and coordination, improved motivation, and improved capabilities (p 378). Poor communication and coordination resulted in the decline of the productivity rate in Wells Fargo and the company. The company should motivate the employees to have a better outcome.

Figure 13.2 – Secondary Effects on Productivity (379)

The secondary effects of productivity include employee wellbeing and satisfaction and attraction, and attention (p 379). The productivity level of a company implies the well-being and happiness of employees. When a company fully involves its employees, high productivity will be realized. Wells Fargo and company productivity rates clearly show that the employees were not adequately engaged in the organization's activities. Instead, they worked under pressure to achieve a set target to get rewards; this was done through unethical means of opening customers' accounts without their consent.

Features of High-Involvement Organizations (393)

High-involvement organizations possess various features which facilitate the OD intervention process. The features include the following;

i. Flat, clean organization structures contribute to involvement by pushing management and staff groups' planning and control of the shop floor.

ii. Career systems provide different grounds for advancement and counseling to help the management to select appropriate ways that can help employees to plan and prepare for the long term development in the organization ( aware of jobs)

iii. Having open information systems that are connected to work teams to provide the necessary information for employees to participate in decision making

iv. Training employees to acquire the necessary knowledge and skills relevant to decision making (393).

Other characteristics of high involvement organizations include physical designs, reward systems, job design, and personnel policies (p 393). Wells Fargo and the company emulate the features of a highly dynamic organization to achieve its objectives.

Figure 14.1 – Relationships among Core Job Dimensions, Critical Psychological States and Personal and Work Outcomes (406)

The core dimensions of work affect three critical psychological states, producing personal and work outcomes. The outcomes produced include high internal work motivation, high quality work performance, satisfaction with work, low absenteeism, and turnover. Whereas the five core job dimensions, skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, and feedback, influence the extent to which a work is perceived to be meaningful. Skill variety entails the number and types of skills required to perform a particular task. Task identity shows the extent to which an individual performs a work. Task significance is the impact that the work has or carries (p 405). Feedback is the information received by workers in alignment with the effectiveness of the work.

Figure 14.3 – Model of Self-Managed Work Teams (416)

The self-managed work teams are the members performing interrelated tasks and are responsible for a whole part of a more extensive production process. They also control members' behaviors and make decisions about task assignments and work methods. They are paid based on their knowledge and skills rather than seniority and are entitled to learn most jobs within the team's control (p 415).

Figure 15.1 – Performance Management Model (441)

A performance management model is an integrated process of defining, assessing, developing, and reinforcing employee work behaviors and outcomes. Performance management includes practices and goals, performance appraisal, training and development, and reward systems. The top management of Wells Fargo and the company should clarify the company's objective and engage the employees in organization activities to monitor the employee work behaviors. The above factors must be aligned jointly with the contextual factors (business strategy, workplace technology, and employee involvement) for performance management to occur. The business strategies are the objectives, policies, and intended relationships between the organization and the surrounding. (441 & 443) Appraisal improves individual and group performance, the importance of feedback ((p 452)

“Management By Objectives” (MBO) (444)

This is a form of goal setting used in organizations to align personal goals with the business strategies by increasing communications and shared perceptions between the managers and the subordinates. The MBO managing approach is applied where there are misunderstandings about the organization's goals if they are not clearly stated. The problem-solving process is beyond one–on–one and manager-subordinate. Its focus is on the entire work team. This management approach best suits Wells Fargo and the company in that it experienced poor communication leading to different views regarding the organization from employees' perspectives. It allows participation of the subordinates in goal setting, with an open, problem-centered discussion among team members, supervisors, and associates (p 444). To effectively implement the MBO process, it has to undergo some basic steps: workgroup involvement, joint manager-subordinate goal setting, establishing action plans for goals, the establishment of criteria, and review and recycling (p 445).

Section 15.4 – Reward Systems (452)

Rewards serve as motivation tools for workers in every organization. They improve employee and workgroup performance as well as employee satisfaction. OD practitioners should adopt the reward system approach \to motivate employees, other than relying on intrinsic motivation alone to have the best performance outcome. The rewards should align with other organizational systems and practices such as organization structures, top management's human relations philosophy, and work designs (p 452). About Wells Fargo and company, tan appropriate and accepted reward systems should be incorporated to motivate employees. Rewards include performance-based pay, gain sharing and promotions, and skill-based pay (p 455).

Review Each of the Following OD Criteria – Apply as Found Appropriate to Your Intervention

Figure 16.1 – Individual Career vs. HR Planning (485)

Career development enables individuals to achieve their career objectives. Individual career planning entails personal goals and lifespans, occupational and organizational choice, job assignment choice, performance and development planning and review, and retirement. On the other hand, human resource planning is concerned with business objectives and plans, ways to attract, recruit and orient new talent to the firm, methods for matching individuals' interests and capabilities with job opportunities, ways to help people perform effectively, and coming up with ways for assisting employees in preparing for satisfying requirements (p 485). Wells Fargo and the company should adopt proper human resource planning to achieve the organization's set objectives fully.

Table 17.1 –Work Diversity Interventions (500)

Work diversity is the current workforce characteristics, particularly gender, age, disability, cultural values, and sexual orientation. Based on the current trends, organizations register an increasing number of people with disability, an increasing percentage of the number of women entering the workforce, and a changing distribution of age of the force. With the varying age of the crew, good job designs, career planning, and reward system should be taught in an organization. The disabled staff requires adequate and simplified training to keep in touch with the current labor requirements (p 502). There should be modified jobs and facilitate job sharing to accommodate the particular demands of working mothers. It is important to understand peoples’ culture since organizations are multi-ethnic. Therefore, management practices should be designed to consider various cultural values to support career and family orientations (p 502).

Figure 17.2 – Stress Management (508)

Stress causes discomfort among people and should be highly discouraged. Everyday workplace stressors include stressors from the physical environment such as excessive light, noise, unfavorable temperatures, and pollution. Stressors include role conflict and ambiguity, lack of control, and opacity from an individual. Whereas from a group, poor peer poor subordinate relationships are categorized as stressors. Stressors also come from the organization. They include poor structural design, politics, and poor human resource policies. To manage organizational stress, there should be good communication strategies and good relationships between the top management and the juniors, and the adoption of employee assistance programs. Role clarification can control individual pressure by visiting a health facility for assistance under severe conditions (p 508). Wells Fargo and the company suffered both personal and organizational stress, characterized by poor managerial control, which significantly led to violation of the customer's rights. To avoid this, the company's top management should adopt employee assistance programs and attend organization management training forums.

Figure 18.1 – Systems Model of Organization Design (534)

Organization design reflects on the organization’s structures, work design, human resource practices, and management practices to guide members' behaviors strategically. A system model contains various components of organization design and their inter-relatedness. The different design elements must align with the given strategy, called strategic fit. It has five business components: business strategy, structure, work design, human resource practices, and management processes. The business strategy outlines how the organization will utilize the competitive advantages to achieve its objectives. Structure determines how the organizational tasks are divided, assigned, and coordinated. Work design specifies how studies are performed and given to individuals. The human resource section is concerned with recruiting, selecting, developing, and rewarding people. Lastly, the management process describes the goal-setting, decision-making, and resource allocation process often done by managers (p 534 and 535). Wells Fargo and the company lacked a proper system model of an organization design based on the failures witnessed in the organization. The company needs to have a strong human resource management team in charge of selecting and rewarding employees appropriately based on their performance. The human resource team also ensures elaborate training of the team members to ensure employees have the required skills and a deeper understanding of customers' rights.

Table 18.1 – Organization Designs (536)

Organization design components are further grouped into two different organization designs: the mechanical design that supports efficiency and control and is the most widely used, and organic design that promotes organization innovation and change (p 535). Due to organizations' current flexibility and competitive nature, the organic strategy is being adopted by many organizations. Wells Fargo and the company can significantly benefit from adopting the organic organization design. With the organic structure, employees will be rewarded depending on their performance. Therefore, the organic design will inculcate healthy competition among the employees to achieve the organization's goals. The unhealthy competition witnessed among the employees of Wells Fargo and the company will cease with the adoption of organic design.

Figure 19.3 – Organization Learning & Performance (586)

Organization learning is the most widespread OD intervention in organizations. It makes an organization capable of acquiring and developing new knowledge and skills and a source of strategic renewal, enabling an organization to be ahead of its competitors, thus maintaining a long-term competitive advantage. The acquired knowledge and skills can be translated into new goods and services to yield more wealth in an Organization. (p 582). The organization learning process includes discovery, invention, production, and generalization. (p 586). Organizational performance can significantly impact Wells Fargo and the company. The organization members should be taught new skills and knowledge and later put them into practice for maximum benefits. Through this, the company will refrain from engaging in unethical practices.

Figure 19.4 – Ladder of Inference (591)

Ladder inference is a method that helps members to discover their mental models and theories in use (p 590). From the ladder of inferences, it can be observed that concrete experiences are connected to the assumptions and beliefs that guide behavior. It can be observed from the ladder that the member's theories in use can also be ineffective. Of importance is that the ladder of inference help members to understand why their theories can be invalid, leading to unproductive behaviors and organizing efforts. One should carefully observe data and experiences, select appropriate data from the observations, add meanings based on culture and personal beliefs, make assumptions concerning the added intentions, and then make relevant conclusions. You should also adopt world beliefs and act accordingly (p 591). For Wells Fargo and the company to bring back their customers and clear their name from public damage, the organization's members should understand their behaviors to achieve the organization's objectives.

Table 20.1 – Major M&A Phases and Activities (609)

The M& A involves three phases with different activities at each step. The precombination phase consists of planning activities. Other activities involved in this stage include creating an M & A team, establishing the business case, performing due diligence assignments, and lastly, developing merger integration plans. This is the most critical phase (p 609). The second phase in the M & A process is the legal combination. It revolves around the legal and financial aspects of a transaction. It requires knowledge and expertise beyond OD, though the OD practitioner can negotiate a fair agreement (p 611). Lastly is the operational combination phase and the final stage. It involves implementing the merger integration plan (technical and cultural integration activities). (p 611). Wells Fargo and the company should engage in the three phases of the M & A process to have desired outcomes and to bring back their customers.

Figure 21.1 – Components of Organizational Identity (663)

Organizational identity is an organization's central and enduring attribute that singles it out from other organizations. It gives meaning to an organization's culture. The components of an organization's identity include brand, image and reputation, and feedback (p 664). Wells Fargo and the company suffered a bad idea due to their unethical practice of opening accounts with their customers' names without their consent. This made them unreliable. They also violated customers' rights, thus making customers lose trust in the company.

Analyzing Data (133)

Qualitative Tools

Content Analysis – This is a technique that's is majorly used for analyzing qualitative data, particularly interview data. The method of analyzing data compresses significant comments into a few themes. It is a formal method of data analysis. It involves three major processes; reading questions, generating pieces, and placing respondents in a given category (p 133).

Force-Field Analysis of Work-Groups – This is a method of data analysis that organizes information about organizational change into two significant categories, forces for change and forces against change. OD practitioners' personal beliefs or corporate efforts determine the most potent positive and most negative details (p 134).

Quantitative Tools

*Means, Standard Dev., Freq. Distr. – To summarize quantitative data, the mean and standard deviation is calculated for each variable used. The results can be compared across different subgroups.

Feeding Back Data (142)

Contents (1-9) – The feedback content should be relevant, understandable, descriptive, verifiable, timely, limited, significant, and comparative (p 142).

Possible Effects (possible flowchart outcomes) – Feedback can be positive or negative. When the feedback is positive, the organization welcomes it, and appropriate changes are made. Negative feedback is resented, which implies resistance to change (p 142).

Process of Feedback (1-5) - The process of feedback involves providing data to the organization members in a meeting, where the input will be discussed, relevant conclusions drawn, and some preliminary action plans. The OD practitioners should manage the feedback process (p 144).

Survey Feedback (1-5) – This is the process of collecting and feeding data received from an organization through questionnaires or surveys. Survey feedback has limitations such as ambiguity of purpose, distrust, inappropriate topics, and organizational disturbance (p 152).

ODP Recommendations going forward for the organization

ODP recommendations for the organization (Fargo, Wells, and company) are;

· The company should improve their sales efficiency

· The company should adopt proper OD practices to ensure effective organization management.

· The company should engage in healthy organizational practices to uphold customer needs.

References

Chapters 10 to 21