General motors case study project
Name of student
Institutional Affiliation
General motors case study project
Introduction
The case describes the organization as having a clearly defined structure in how the organizational duties and activities are performed. The organization seems to have an overlap of roles, a factor that leads to the mal performance of specific duty and the failure of the performance of others. The lack of defined roles is evident following the fact that the inefficiency of the ignition switch produced was evident in the organization for at least eleven years, yet it was not addressed.
The key attributes of the organization include the fact that other than the CEO, the rest of the employees are not ready to take responsibility for the failures in the workplace. Through the case, there is the assertion that following the recall, the CEO admitted to the failures of the organization. However, even at this point, the engineers and the investigators investigating the incident fail to effectively carry out the work they are tasked with. Another key attribute of the organization is the failure of the organization to acknowledge the real problem present in the organization. Despite acknowledging the failure in the processes, the CEO, in her address, fails to recognize the real problem in the organization that fails.
The strength of the organization includes that following the failure in the manufactory of the gm ignition switch, the top leadership was able to accept the mistake on its part and apologize on behalf of the organization. Rather than blaming the victims for the occurrences, the organization acknowledged the failure on the part of the organization and further apologized to the victims.
The major weakness presented by the organization is that despite acknowledging the existence of a problem, it fails to determine the real course of the problem. According to the case study, the problem has existed in the organization over a long period of time. Rectifying the problem would consequently require determining the real course of the problem and finding a solution. Rather than doing this, the organization attempts to solve the problem at face value, a factor that could fail in finding a permanent solution.
Organizational modeling
The organizational model exhibited in the case is the collegial organizational model. The case illustrates an organizational model that suggests that there is no clear definition of the roles of the employees (Wibowo, 2017). It further illustrates that there is no clear definition of the managerial structure. As a result of this, the roles of the employees significantly interact. The organizational model is structured in a way that there are no clear leaders to check on the works of the subordinates, and there is no clear definition and division of roles.
Other than the collegial model used in the organization, other industry models include the autocratic and supportive models. The autocratic model exhibits an organizational model in which the top management of the organization makes all the decisions and pass them to the subordinates who follow them without questioning (Al Khajeh, 2018). Through this model, the upper management levels are seen as the organization’s sole decision-makers and are responsible for organizational performance. They are charged with faking production decisions and passing them to the subordinates who must follow the set decision and work per the passed instructions to facilitate the required organizational goals. The supportive model of organizational functioning entails the organizational model that focuses on the welfare and well-being of the employees. The employees work together and with the top management to ensure that in the production process, the well-being of the employees is taken into consideration in determining the achievement of organization goals. It acknowledges that the achievement of the organizational goals depends on the well being of the employees.
Different organizations use different organizational models as a result of the differences in organizational cultures. The organizational cultures affect the running of an organization and various organizational processes by impacting the employees’ values, behaviors, and ethics (Ellinas, Allan & Johansson, 2017). Following the availability of various organizational cultures, various organizations adopt various models supported by the different cultures in the organizations.
The current organizational culture and organizational models ate significantly intertwined and supported each other. The organizational culture significantly dictates the nature of the organizational model. If the organizational culture exhibits a supportive system where employees care about the well-being of other employees, the ultimate model of the organization will also be supportive. However, if the organizational culture involves the employees functioning as independent entities without the interactions with one another, it is likely like the ultimate model of the organization will also be a freestyle model that does not illustrate coherence in the work performance processes. In the past, however, the organizational cultures and the organizational model were not essentially related. In essence, the organizational model significantly relied on the contract of the management rather than the employees.
The organization fails to operate within the organizational model that is unique to its industry. While the organizational model unique to the industry requires efficient cooperation between the employees and that the top management and the subordinate work incoherence, the organization exhibits a type of organizational performance that depicts significant independence on the operations of the employees. It fails to exhibit the cooperation required in the employees. As a result, there is significantly no accountability required for employees in the industry in which the organization is based.
The case study shows that motivational models have significantly shifted compared to the organizational modeling trends. Similar to the shift in organizational models, employees are increasingly motivated by different factors, in contrast to the fact that traditionally .the employee motivation was thought to be financial incentives the current motivation models have shifted to include factors that ensure the comfort of the employees in the workplace, including safe working environment and effective organizational culture, in the case of the gm motors, following the fact that the organizational culture presented fails to take the needs of the employees into much consideration, and that it does not follow up on the employees, the employees are significantly not motivated, as a result, the employees are evidently not efficient in their work, and they fail to take the work in the organization seriously.
Leadership Theory
The leadership style used in the case study is the laissez fair leadership style. The laissez-faire leadership style involves an approach in which the leader takes a hands-off approach in the decision-making process and task completion. Through the leadership approach, the leaders provide the organizational members with a high privilege concerning the management problem solving and the solving of disagreements that occur with the organization and employee interactions. The role of the leaders in this leadership approach only involves the provision of a clear set of expectations for the work performance process, the resources necessary in the performance of the various duties, and the necessary accountability to the shareholders, the public, and other interested parties. The leadership style changes through the case following the failure of the GM ignition switch that led to the recall by the company.
The characteristics and decisions of management that led to the shift in the leadership style entailed the accountability approach adopted by the CEO of the GM company in the case. Through the case, the CEO takes responsibility for the failure of the ignitions witch. Following the ability to take up responsibility for the failure, the leader attempts to push for reform strategies that would make the organization more efficient. The need for the reforms further pushes for the change in leadership approach to change the organizational structure and culture. The decision of the management to evaluate the organization and evaluate the employees highly thought to overlook the organizational process and eventually led to the continuous manufactory of the malfunctioning ignition switch led to the change in the leadership style.
The internal influence that caused the shift in leadership is that the organizational employees failed to take up organizational responsibility to ensure that the organizational goals are achieved through the effective performance of the organizational processes. Despite the knowledge that the GM ignition switch was faulty, none of the employees to rectify the problem failed to take up the mandate and the responsibility of rectifying the problem. The external factors that caused the shift entailed the reactions of the customers and the outside environment towards the failed GM ignition switch. The failure of the ignition switch led to the death of individuals, a factor that led to faulting the organizations for the deaths of the customers.
The leadership style in the case significantly relates to the decision-making process portrayed in the case. The Laissez-Fair leadership style used in the case involved the decisions and performing the organizational responsibilities freely without the supervision of the leaders. The leadership style affects the decision-making process following the fact that the employees make critical organizational decisions without the direct supervision of the management. The decision-making process is affected following the fact that each of the employees makes decisions on their own due to the leadership style. The employees consequently engage in the decision-making process by making decisions that benefit them in the workplace.
Assess Organizational Culture
The internal culture present within the organization includes that the employees of the organization lack the drive required in facilitating effective work performance and the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. Following the facts presented in the case, the organization employees do not have the necessary drive required to achieve high-quality work performance. The employees lack the personal driving force and will essential in ensuring that they undertake their required roles in the organization without being micromanaged by the leaders. In this sense, the employees seemingly do not engage in roles necessary to fulfill organizational objectives unless the management directly coerces them. The lack of work commitment of the employees is evident following the fact that the GM ignition switch failed to meet the required standards. The employees who were aware of the malfunctions failed to take up the necessary steps in correcting the problems.
The internal cultures present in the organization are also characterized by the lack of accountability o the employees. In essence, the employees do not account for the work that they perform in the organization. The lack of accountability is mainly exhibited because none of the employees is directly linked to the malfunctioning GM ignition switch. In essence, the employees charged with the manufactory of the ignition switch failed to take the matter seriously and report it to the authorities before high levels of damages that threatened the lives of the consumers and damaged the reputation of the organization was done. The lower-level management also exhibits a lack of accountability following the fact that management levels failed to realize the problem in the company and report it to higher-level management. Also, for a period of approximately eleven years, all the managers that realized the problem failed to rectify it or report it to higher-level authorities.
The specific example presented in the case that demonstrates the internal culture present in the organization includes the fact that the organization has been making the faulty GM ignition switch for a period of approximately eleven years. Arguably through this example, there is the fact that for the eleven years that the faulty ignition switch was produced, there were no employees who had pointed out the problem that the organization was both getting the customers and getting the organization itself into. While there is the possibility that a significant number of employees were aware of the faulty GM ignition switch, they all chose to cover the issue until when a significant number of accidents were associated with the failure of the ignition switch. The internal culture in the organization is also demonstrated by the engineers charged with the responsibility of investigating the failure of the ignition switch. For these engineers, despite the seriousness associated with the issue, they still took the issue likely, as demonstrated by the fact that they sent a fisherman for fish scales to equate the removal of the scales with the failure of the ignition switch. Another way the internal culture presented is the case is demonstrated by the fact that following the problem in which the organization got into, the organization laid off a total of fifteen employees who were allegedly accused of expressing negligence in their duties. The laying off of the fifteen employees elaborates the lack of accountability in the organization. Rather than effectively considering the entire organization, determine the faults in the organizational culture that led to the problem. The organization seemingly took a high road to quickly solve the problem that had evidently been in the organization for a significantly long time.
Insights and Conclusions
In this case, the leadership style and organizational culture do not complement each other. The laisses fair leadership style -used in the organization is a free form leadership style that is characterized by the fact that the managers do not significantly engage in the micromanagement of the employees. In this form of leadership style, the managers trust the employees to make effective decisions associated with the factor that affect employee performance in the organization. The leadership style does not match the organizational culture following the fact that the culture presented in the organization is denoted by employees who are not significantly concerned with achieving high performance of organizational roles and organizational duties. Being left to make decisions that relate to work performance without the supervision of the management results in the failure of the employees to make effective decisions with the potentiality of facilitating the achievement of organizational goals and objectives. The employees present a significant lack of motivation, which consequently requires the management to adopt a leadership style that would be focused on encouraging the employees to undertake the organizational responsibilities in the required way.
as presented in the case the change in the leadership style, is likely to influence the internal cultures of the organization. In essence, following the failure of the GM ignition switch, the CEO case up to address the issues affecting the performance. Through the public address of the CEO, there is the fact that some of the organizational employees thought as having contributed to the failure presented in the organization was eventually laid off from the organization. The factor demoted in this fact is that the management took up an approach that does not solely leave the employees to discuss the work performance approached and processes. The management is elaborated as eventually taking up the role of making the organizational decision. The change in the leadership style is likely to affect the organizational culture as the employees are likely to shift their ways of engaging in the organizational work practices to take up their roles to match the requirements provided by the organizational top leadership and management.
The leadership styles and internal culture of the organization may have influenced the behavior of the employees within the organization by promoting a sense of negligence and lack of motivation among the employees. Through the case, there is by the fact that the top management rarely made organizational decisions that elaborated the roles of the employees. As a result, the employees adopted the behaviors of not willingly taking up organizational roles, especially the roles they considered challenging. The organizational culture also influenced the behavior of the employees. The internal aspects of the organizational culture are characterized by the lack of accountability from the employees. The employees in the organization are characterized as significantly overlooking the responsibilities that they consider challenging. Through the case, the major issue that stands out is that the issue of the faulty ignition switch had been in the organization for a period of approximately eleven years. As a result of the previous employees and the longest serving employees in the organization failing to take responsibility for the fault and facilitate the rectification of the existing problem, it is likely that the newer employees take over the trend that they find as existing in the inorganization. For this reason, all the organizational employees for a period of approximately eleven tears failed to bring up the issue of the faulty ignition switch.
References
Al Khajeh, E. H. (2018). Impact of leadership styles on organizational performance. Journal of Human Resources Management Research, 2018, 1-10.
Ellinas, C., Allan, N., & Johansson, A. (2017). Dynamics of organizational culture: Individual beliefs vs. Social conformity. Plus one, 12(6), e0180193.
Wibowo, G. (2017). Comparison of the models of organizational behavior: A review. Manag Econ Res J, 2(2016), 1264.