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Overview

Your active participation in the discussions is essential to your overall success this term. Discussion questions will help you make meaningful connections between the course content and the larger concepts of the course. Conducted over a time period, these discussions give you a chance to express your thoughts, ask questions, and gain insight from your peers and instructor.

Assignment Details:

For each discussion, you must follow up with at least two response posts.

For your response posts, do the following:

· Reply to at least two classmates outside of your own initial post thread.

· When responding to at least two of your peers’ postings, your responses should show that you have given thought to what the original post said. They should also push the conversation forward, offering insights or asking clarifying questions if necessary.

Consider the following questions:

· Does your response push the conversation forward?

· Does your response offer your perspective?

· What about your peers’ stories can you relate to?

· What can you learn from your peers’ stories?

· Are your responses clear?

· Have you considered the viewpoints or insights of the original posts?

Review the posts by your peers and provide your feedback by answering the following questions:

· Do you agree or disagree with your peers’ initial posts about the relationships between organizational culture, capabilities, and performance? Explain.

· What is different about their perspectives, and how do you think it will affect the overall performance evaluation of these companies?

RESPOND TO EACH PEERS POSTING MINIMUM 2 PARAGRAPHS.

PEER ONE:

I can definitely agree with Bititci’s statement of successful companies worrying less about performance.  While performance is of course important, that success is more easily found when things are running smoothly internally and employees feel valued.  I believe it all comes down to proper treatment of employees.  I personally, having worked for both an inspiring manager and a difficult one, am definitely more motivated to perform my best when I feel valued and appreciated. 

            Organizational culture plays a huge part in performance.  When companies are more concerned with things such as financial results over the well-being of their employees, that is when the unethical decisions tend to be made.  Many businesses talk about establishing relationships with their customers but the truth is, valuing employees and building a great relationship with them is of the same absolute importance. If companies or businesses manage good relationships with their employees, all other important metrics will show tremendous improvements (Keay, 2018).        

            When it comes to Companies A and B, based off their interview note memos, there are definitely some red flags that can be addressed about their current cultures.  For example, the COO of Company A was quick to mention how outdated their processes are.  However, he never noted any plans in place to make a change.  These outdated procedures can be making the employee’s jobs more difficult and unnecessarily time-consuming.  Therefore, addressing them could help improve performance and efficiency.  Another issue in Company A comes from the HR Director.  She herself pointed out she was concerned they were losing top talent, and even she appeared to be burned out.  This could be because there is too much workload placed on employees.  According to a report from Harvard Business Review, “When you have a workload that matches your capacity, you can effectively get your work done, have opportunities for rest and recovery, and find time for professional growth and development. When you chronically feel overloaded, these opportunities to restore balance don’t exist.” (Saunders, 2019).  Therefore, increased workload pressures on employees can actually cause poor performance.

            Company B has its organizational culture concerns as well.  The sales team appears to be highly unmotivated, and perhaps an investigation into the cause of this can improve seat sales.  There is also a concern with the turnover of the maintenance and operations teams.  There is a risk that now that many of them are at retirement age, there may be a loss of knowledge transfer.  This shows the need for more investment into the training and development of employees.  A recent article from Indeed, details the benefits of a thorough training process, including employee satisfaction, more innovation, higher productivity and efficiency, and improved reputation (Team, 2021).  There is a glimmer of hope to be found for Company B in the form of the new President, as she has strong values in empowering employees and innovations.  While her ideas may sometimes be overboard, she has strong potential to improve the overall culture of the company if hard but necessary changes are made.           

References:

Keay, R. M. (2018, July 2). 4 Reasons Why Valuing Employees is as Important as Valuing your Clients. Retrieved from Mapovate: https://www.mapovate.com/4-reasons-why-valuing-employees-is-as-important-as-valuing-your-clients/

Saunders, E. G. (2019, July 5). 6 Causes of Burnout, and How to Avoid Them. Retrieved from Harvard Business Review: https://hbr.org/2019/07/6-causes-of-burnout-and-how-to-avoid-them

Team, I. E. (2021, March 24). 7 Ways To Effectively Train Employees. Retrieved from Indeed: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/train-employees

PEER TWO:

Q.1) Do you agree with the statement above? Why or why not?

I do agree with the above statement. Organizational capabilities and performance go hand-in-hand. When an organization can improve their capabilities, their performance will be improved. Capabilities are otherwise known as the employee skills and abilities that they obtain and bring to the organization. Employee skills and abilities are assets to the organization. (Hawkins, 2016). Thus, the skills and abilities that the employees bring to the organization can encourage high organizational performance. 

Q.2) How does organizational culture affect capability and performance? For example, an active, participative culture is essential for encouraging organizational learning.

Employees bring capabilities and performance to the organization. Also, it is the employees and their traits and behaviors that also contribute to the organizational culture. In addition, when employees are motivated to succeed through the support from their leadership. When leadership offers support to their team, it can provide a more improved employee experience. (Leonard, 2019). This can increase employee performance and capabilities as employees will be more motivated to succeed. Thus, organizational culture can be affected capability and performance of the organization and its employees. 

Q.3) What do you think about the organizational culture and capabilities of Companies A and B and their role in the two companies’ performance?

Referencing company, A, their customer experience and performance is exceptional. Customers are frequent fliers of company A and are also loyal to the organization. Their customers appreciate their offered product and services, such as first checked-bag free. First-class is also a popular commodity for their customer base. For the employees, it appears that the organizational culture is poor. Approximately 15 percent of their employees have voluntarily separated from the company within the last year and has been a trend experienced throughout the last three years.  Thus, this can affect the organizational culture. Also, the company is not making the most of their organizational capabilities and performance, as they do not make the most of their employee skills and abilities. They do not invest in training and development of their employees. The organization is not prompting effective performance. Employees including leaders (Human Resource Director) is believed to be experiencing a potential burn-out and may also be soon to voluntarily separate themselves from the company. Thus, there is not an effective organizational culture or performance present within company A.

Referencing company B, their sales are poor. This could indicate that their customers are not satisfied or showing an interest within the  products and services offered. For the employees, it appears that there is not enough corroboration on employee performance and satisfaction to further draw-up a conclusion on this topic. However, the employees have invested in a union. In addition, they are also undergoing extensive hiring. The  organizational culture and performance of company B should be improving following the increase within their work force. Their capabilities and performance should also improve from this hiring initiative. 

 

                                                            References:

            Hawkins. (2016). What are your Organization Capabilities?: Summit Leadership Partners. https://www.summitleadership.com/what-are-your-organization-capabilities/

            Leonard. (2019). Organizational Culture & Employee Performance: Chron. https://smallbusiness.chron.com/organizational-culture-employee-performance-25216.html