Human Resource - 3 papers, 3000 words each
Deepak Baid
Running Head: ANALYSING ORGANIZATIONS 1
ANALYSING ORGANIZATIONS 15
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Table of Content
Content Page
Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………3
Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………..4
Background of the company (Burger King)………………………………………………….5
Pluralism perspectives………………………………………………………………………..7
Mainstream Organizational Control (Hopwood)…………………………………………….7
Control……………………………………………………………………………………….12
Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………14
References……………………………………………………………………………………15
Abstract
Introduction
Power is the ability of an individual to use his or her position influence as well as make sure people perform as well as act effectively while control is the ability to direct the actions of others. Control as well as power is present in companies such as Burger king, managers’ use both of the two instruments to direct employees as well as to ensure that the company attains its stated vision and overall goals. Without power it would be difficult for the managers of the company to assign work as well as conduct managerial roles such as supervision. Also control ensures that those with power or those at the top of the organizational hierarchy can positively influence those at the bottom of the hierarchy.
Company: Burger King. Topic: Power and Control
Company introduction
Burger King is a fast food restaurant whose head quarters are located in the US. The Company was formed in the year 1953. The ownership of the company has changed hand several times over the last 50 years. The company became a public company in the year 20003G capital, a Brazilian company acquired majority stake in the company, a deal which was valued at 3.26 million US dollars.
Burger King has over 12,700 outlets in 73 countries worldwide. Majority of the companies’ restaurants are located in the United States. The company expands through the franchising of its businesses. It does this by offering franchise licenses to potential investors. The company offers sodas, French fries, milkshakes as well as salads to its market (Regina S. & Joseph F. 2010). The company has an organizational structure, shareholders, organizational leaders, managers, franchises, suppliers, the company managers’ uses delegation as well as the leadership style. The stated avenues, instruments as well as individuals are used during the exertion of either power or control within the organization.
Power
Power is the ability to make people perform or act effectively. Power thus gives leaders as well as the heads of companies the ability to influence employee performance. Individuals with power are those with high levels of positions. They are mostly found at the top of the organizational hierarchy. Individuals with less power have low level positions. They are mostly found at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy (Regina S. & Joseph F. 2010).
There are two different categories of power when it comes to a company such as Burger King. Power can be from within the company or from its external environment. From within the company, we can talk about or analyze the power that the management has over the employees while in the companies’ external environment, we can analyze the power that the company has in the external environment.
Within the company, there are different sources of power that the management can excerpt over its employees. There were five different sources of power were developed by John R. P that include,
Reward power where it is believed that employees are only likely to perform if they are remunerated better. Thus, managers have the power to control the allocation of resources to employees. They can thus use reward power to award employees with promotions, recognition, bonuses as well as days off.
There is also the pretence of legitimate power within the company, the source of such a power can be acquired through the use of management positions as well as the various roles that management play within the organization. For example, if a manager exerts power to a low level employee, it will be fair to the employee since he/she is at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. Thus an employee at the bottom of the hierarchy will have to respect the manager because of his position as well as title.
We also have referent power which is the power that is as a result of the relationship between the manager and his employees.
Lastly, another power that is evident within the company is expert power. This is the power that is acquired as a result of the qualifications or the vast experiences that the manager has. The employees will thus respect the orders from the manager as well as do what is told of them simply because the manager is more competent than them.
Pluralism perspectives
The pluralistic approach to management when subjecting power towards employees within Burger King is mostly used. While using power, Managers recognize and appreciate the importance of diversity within the organization, conflicts are recognized as being normal, and negotiations are normally used when competing over interests.
Mainstream Organizational Control (Hopwood)
The main mainstream organizational controls used by Burger Kings management are. Administrative controls. These are mechanisms, techniques as well as processes that are used in order to control the behaviours of employees within the organization. Social controls. This is the use of techniques such as obedience, compliance and conformity when adhering to standards. Self-control. These are norms whereby the organization adheres to social beliefs as well as social standards when its employees are conducting their activities that involve the society.
· Organization structure
Power can also be exerted due to how the organization is structured. Employees at the top of the organizational hierarchy have more power than the employees at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. Thus, employees at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy can order those at the bottom levels of the hierarchy. Those at the top of Burger Kings hierarchy are regarded as powerful (Alesia Denker 2012).
· Stakeholder power
Stakeholders are important individuals when it comes to making decisions within Burger King. Different stakeholders’ posses’ different levels of power, some stakeholders are more powerful than others. The different stakeholders of Burger King and their influence within the company include;
· Organizations leaders
Leaders show high levels of command as well as authority. The most powerful person in the company is the companies CEO Bernardo Hees. Alexandre Behring the company’s chairman is also viewed to be powerful. The companies CEO uses his power during the assigning of work to employees. The companies head also uses his position to assign tasks to low level employees. He has also used the right leadership style to command as well as get work done by his employees. He also uses his power to allocate as well as distribute resources to employees within the organization (Alesia Denker 2012).
· Managers
Management is the act of supervision employees as well as guiding them through their various activities while leadership is the ability to guide and influence people in order to achieve organizational objectives (Janet Moyles 2006), Managers possess high levels of powers that are the same as those of the leaders, but the levels of powers differ slightly. Examples of managers within the organization are those who head departments. Departments that possess high levels of power as those such as the, human resource department as well as the managers in the finance department, these are the departments that influence employees as well as decision making within the organization.
· Shareholders
Shareholders are the individuals who own shares in the company. Burger King is listed in the New York stock exchange. These individuals also have high levels of power within Burger King. Voting is their only source of power. They make decisions concerning who the board members should be. Voters also posses resource power, they are referred to by the management whenever the company needs additional funding. They also advice management on decision making while at the same time, they have the authority to question managements action.
· Suppliers
Suppliers’ posses high levels of resource power. They are a source of the companies’ inputs. Most of which is used by the company to convert input to output. If suppliers do not supply the company with inputs, the company’s operations will be halted. They are of high importance to the company (Robert Kreitner 2009). Examples of individuals that supply to the company include farmers, soda companies as well as electrical companies. Examples of inputs that give suppliers high power include machinery, vehicles, and equipment as well as farm inputs.
· Franchises
There are also levels of centralization as well as decentralization within Burger King. They enable one to identify how power is distributed within the organization. The management of the company has overall power over the companies’ restaurants that are located within the United States. This type of power is centralized. When it comes to international franchises, power is usually decentralized; this is because franchises are owned by private investors. Thus decision making with regards to the operations of franchises is done by private investors who own franchises of managers of franchises.
· Delegation
The management of the company also uses delegation to exercise or to show their levels of power. Delegation is whereby a manager assigns task to a low level employee when he is either too busy or he is out for official business. Without power, an employee cannot delegate work to another. Managers of the company thus use their powers to delegate work to employees.
· Leadership styles used
There are various types of leadership styles that are used by the management as well as the heads of departments all across the company’s organization structure. For a leader to be effective, he must use the appropriate leadership style. A leadership style is a leader's way of providing direction, implementing plans, as well as the motivation of people. The various leadership styles that leader can use include,
Authoritative where the leader in charge uses authority in order to get employees to perform, here, the leader maintains high levels of strictness and puts in place strict regulations and policies that leaders must follow, In an organizational environment where such a leadership style is used as well as the leader supervises employees in order to ensure that employees succeed while disseminating their activities. An example of authority in an example can be an employer ordering workers to complete work on time, a supervisor ordering an employee to clean a work station or organize files.
Laissez-faire is another example of a leadership style that is widely used within the company. It was first developed by Lippitt, Lewin as well as White in the year 1938. Leaders who mostly use this type of leadership style mostly delegates or assigns work to low level employees without providing any direction or guidance. This type of leadership style is mostly proffered by employees because very little supervision as well as authority is used by the leader. This leadership style may result to low productivity but its main aim is to enable the employees to make decision on their own with the absence of the manger. Low supervision from the leader results to freedom of decision making by the employees. The leader however offers guidance as well as support when he/she is requested but does not participate in any way during decision making. This leadership style is mostly proffered when the employees are highly skilled, when employees work in teams such as multi-professionals team, when outside experts such as consultants are being involved in the organizations activities or decision making and when the leader trusts his/her employees.
Leaders within the company also uses the democratic leadership style also referred to as participative leadership style that was initially devised by Lewins. Leaders who use the democratic leadership style involve members during decision making but the leader has the overall say in decision making. This type of leadership style encourages employee motivation as well as creativity. This type of leadership style promotes equity. In this type of leadership style, there is the sharing of ideas as well as employee engagement during decision making (Toliver J., Ruth H., & Malcolm E. 2009).
Control
Control is to exercise authoritative, to dominate influence over or to direct.
· Organization structure
Top level employees or managers have control over employees at the bottom of the organizational hierarchy. Resources such as finances as well as infrastructure are controlled by individuals who are at the top of the organizational hierarchy. Those at the top of the hierarchy control how resources will be distributed within the organization (Ricky W. 2012).
The Elements of structural power
The managers of the organisation at times, moves away from personal power or individual power, towards power that rests in the position, location or department within the structure of the organisation. The elements of structural power are thus used to control scarce resources, for purposes of centrality, the visibility of high profile employees, to form coalitions as well as for the purposes of flexibility as well as autonomy within the organization.
· Franchising
When it comes to franchises, the management of the company has very little or no control over the running of franchise businesses outside the United States. However, the company’s heads have overall control of the company’s business operations within the United States. The reason as to why the management does not have full control over franchises outside the United States is because it does not fully own the franchise businesses and is only interested in royalty sales as well as licenses renewals. However, there are clear guidelines on how franchises should operate as well as the levels of services and products they should offer to their respective markets.
· Shareholders
Shareholders on the other hand use their voting rights to show their levels of control within the company. They have control over the company’s assets as well as financial resources. They also control decision making within the company.
· The government
The government in this case exerts its control of the company through the imposition of legislations. The government somehow dictates how the company should treat their workers, how much the company should pay them, the kind of products as well as services they should offer to the market, the levels of hygiene as well as safety that the company should maintain and many others. For example, the government has set the minimum wage at $7.50 in most states. The company also ensures that it follows government legislations that prevent companies that sell food that is of high fat content and that contains harmful or banned substances.
· The management
The company’s management has high levels of control over much of the companies systems as well as makes decisions regarding how they should operate. Control by the management can also be exhibited when the management is directing some of its employees. The management thus controls the companies resources such as financial resources, what type of tasks should be conducted by the company’s management. They also posses high levels of control over other activities such as the conduction of market research, the advertising avenues that should be used, where funds should be invested as well as the type of resources that are needed for the company to operate effectively and efficiently (Chuck Williams 2010).
Conclusion
The contents of this document has analyzed as well as explained power as well as control within Burger King. It has also highlighted some areas where power as well as control is exerted. The areas where power is excreted from within the company that the document has looked at includes, organizational structure, shareholders, organizational leaders, managers, franchises, suppliers, delegation as well as the leadership style. The document has explored how the organizational structure can influence as well as enhance the use of power, how shareholders use their shareholding rights to form a powerful force when it comes to making major decisions within the company, how the leaders as well as the managers of the company expert their various powers while conduction their roles within the company, the levels of power exerted in franchises, the role played by power during the delegation of work as well as the roles of power during leadership. This document has also identified how control is used in different areas within the organization, which includes organizational structure, franchises, the government as well as the company’s management. The document has thus explored the relationship between control and the organizational structure, whether the organization has control over franchised business, the various ways that the government sues to control the company’s operations as well as the use of control by the company’s management.
References
Regina S. Baraban, Joseph F. Durocher (2010) Successful Restaurant Design John Wiley & Sons Publishers
Alesia Denker (2012) Elaboration Case Study: Burger King GRIN Verlag Publishers
Robert Kreitner (2009) Principles of Management Cengage Learning Publishers
Chuck Williams (2010) Management Cengage Learning Publishers
Ricky W. Griffin (2012) Management Cengage Learning Publishers