Research

Organizational Problem Research

Tracey Urban

CTU Online

Mr. Karlberg

November 5, 2014

Organizational problem

The effect of the managerial values on the performance of the organization

Problem statement

Managers have various roles within the organization. Apart from being the leaders, their role also includes motivation, employee evaluation, communication and supervision. In most cases, they appear as demi-gods and employees are afraid of them. Most of them assume that managers are perfect and cannot make any error in regards to their tasks. However, many factors have an influence on the organizational performance (Badke, 2004). These range from personal to organizational factors, personal factors to environmental factors that have a strong influence on the attitude of the manager. It therefore makes them evaluate between several courses of action during decision-making and ultimately decide on the most appropriate to them.

A manager has an important role within the organization. Their main duty revolves around ensuring that the organization is able to meet its objective by use of the available resources. However, various factors that affect the values and attitudes of the manager and these will ultimately affect the organization (Guest & MacQueen, 2008). These factors play an important role in the development and the formation of strategies that are applicable within the organization. Some of these factors may be technological, organizational and historical in nature. In most organizations, managers are seen as supernatural beings with limited allowance for error. Employees perceive them as outstanding in their execution, and do not consider the impact that their actions as employees can have on the organization. In reality, most managers are also employees and they have superiors above them to whom they are accountable. As such, they may have little control over the management style that they may adopt within the given organization.

The society is one of the factors that play an important role in regards to the decisions made by the leader. A manager has to consider the ethical values that are applicable within the environment, so that the decisions made do not have a negative impact on the society. Each organization also has its core values that are considered by the manager when coming up with appropriate strategies. These values act as guidelines to both the managers and the employees, and let them know their expectations. Although the manager may have some role in creating the values of the organization, the founders of the organization mostly develop them. It is the role to ensure that these values are upheld by the organization in all its activities.

Despite all factors that affect their behavior, the managers have a duty to bring all of them together to ensure a successful organization. `Positive elements from these differences should be tapped and reflected in the operational behavior of the organization. Some of the activities carried out by the managers include time scheduling, supervision, communication, motivation and evaluation of the employees (Guest & MacQueen, 2008). To be effective, managers have power that enables them to offer direction to their employees in an appropriate manner. Personal values have a major impact on the actions of managers. An action may be allowable by the organization’s core values, but may conflict with the beliefs of the manager. In such a case, it would be difficult for such a manager to implement such strategies even though they may lead to increased profitability for the organization.

Research strategy

A research strategy will provide a clear outline about how the research investigation will occur. It indicates the manner in which data will be collected, the type of instruments to be used, how they will be used and most importantly, the method of analyzing the data that has been collected.

The research strategy used to explore this problem is qualitative research.

Research question

Do the personal values of managers have an effect on the performance of the organization?

Rational for selecting the research strategy

Qualitative research

The main aim of this type of research is to analyze record and attempt to cover to uncover the inner meaning of human experience, behavior, and factors that influence their decisions such as beliefs and emotions (Bergh & Ketchen, 2009). As such, it is more straightforward in its approach and involves up close contact to gain an understanding of people’s experiences. It is focused on the personal angle of an individual and cannot be generalized. The procedure that is followed in case of qualitative research involves the determination of a hypothesis, and then the researcher adopts a bottom up approach to determine its viability. Data that is required is collected through observation and interaction with selected participants.

Unlike quantitative research, qualitative research gives participants the freedom to be expressive and describe their thoughts and feelings towards a certain subject matter. It is the role of the researcher to create an enabling environment for participants to feel fee, this can be done by the use of a less formal approach while interviewing them (Guest & MacQueen, 2008). As such, the method used to collect the data may be open ended and more exploratory in nature. The responses of the participants can be used to structure more questions as long as they relate to the research. In this case, the ideal research instrument used is interviews, which will be supplemented by a questionnaire. The researcher will approach several managers and try to assess the criteria used when they are making decisions in regards to the organization.

Research questions

What factors affect your decision-making?

What is the role of personal values in making organizational decisions?

Do you consider the input of the employees while making organizational decisions?

Describe your process of decision-making?

Have your decisions always led to an improvement in the organization’s performance?

Ethical considerations

In the course of the research, there were several ethical considerations. Various interviews were conducted and these involved several participants. All of them received notification of the role they were playing regarding their submissions and signed consent forms to allow the publication of information that they provided (Bell, 2005). They were informed of the potential use of the information by third parties, although they should be expressly informed whenever the data collected would be used for financial gain.

In some scenarios, data collection was through observation. Permission was obtained from such groups of people before the process began, in this way, they were aware of the role they played in the research. Different people have varied beliefs and customs; the researcher considered such differences and none of the questions asked were sensitive in nature. To ensure that personal views and opinions did not affect the final research, the researcher approached the research process with an open and inquisitive mind and was receptive towards all the information collected. Finally, every detail recorded by the researcher was reported in the right context to avoid any misrepresentation from the actual facts that had been collected.

Sample population

The sample population plays an important role in the research process; they provide the information used through out the research. The general population is large and cannot all be involved in to gathering information. As such, the sample group, which is a representative of the whole population, is selected. It must portray a balance across various areas, such as gender and racial background. There are various ways by which the sample group can be selected; however, the main factor that influences this is the type of information that is required by the study. In this case, the type of sampling used was random sampling. It resulted in the selection of several individuals that formed the sample population (Walliman & Baiche, 2001).

Data analysis summary

Collected data was grouped into various segments. For easy analysis and comparison, representation was in the form of charts and percentages. In this way, various characteristics of the data are easily assessed. Such a summary makes it easy for the determination of the conclusion, based on the collected statistics. There are many users of published research; therefore, the analysis must be in a simple manner for easy understanding. it is only then that it can be scaled upward to reflect the situation in a larger public setting.

Measurement strategy

The strategy used in measurement should be reliable and able to generate the results that is required from the collected information. In this case, survey research was applied. It analyses the initial design and the implementation of the various questionnaires and interviews. The use of questionnaires enabled the collection in a manner that was unobstructive and did not interfere with the research context. Data is then recorded in its raw form and analysis done when all relevant details are obtained. Selection of the measurement strategy should be carefully done, as it will determine the efficiency of the research results.

References

Badke, W. B. (2004). Research strategies: Finding your way through the information fog. New

York [u.a.: iUniverse.

Bergh, D. D., & Ketchen, D. J. (2009). Research methodology in strategy and management.

Bingley: Emerald Group Publishing Limited.

Guest, G., & MacQueen, K. M. (2008). Handbook for team-based qualitative research. Lanham,

MD: Altamira.

Bell, J. (2005). Doing your research project: A guide for first-time researchers in education,

health and social science. Maidenhead, England: Open University Press.

Walliman, N., & Baiche, B. (2001). Your research project: A step-by-step guide for the first-time

researcher. London [u.a.: SAGE Publ.