Organizational Structure, Workplace Culture, And Leadership Style: Recommendations For Philips Financial Services

Chain of Command for Philips Financial Services

Discuss about the Foundations of Work Place Success and Culture for Philips Financial Services.

Philips Financial Services company deals with the provision of financial services such as accounting and tax, self-management super funds and general advisory to businesses. Nick Philips is the sole owner of the company and he makes all the decisions for the company since there is no other director. The firms’ staff consists of marketing manager, chief financial officer and employees only. This team comprised of individuals from diverse places like India, UK, Brazil and New Zealand among others with majority of them being Australian.

In addition to this, the staff members are of different cultures and religions. Men workers constitute 65% whereas female workers are 35%. Both of them age 23-68 years. This essay outlines and suggested the organizational structure to be implemented by the firm, the organization work place culture, leadership style and strategies to implement the same, workplace bullying causes and prevention strategies.

The organization structure of Philips Financial Services comprises of one shareholder, one marketing manager, chief financial officer and employees only. I would propose and recommend an organizational structure with the following elements; 

According to Clark & Polesello (2017), this refers to chain of authority from top management to the lower management. It helps identify who reports to who in an organization to ensure smooth running of processes. This chain usually starts from the chief director officer at the top and employees at the bottom. Philips Financial Services company has a short chain of command consisting of the sole owner, marketing manager, chief financial officer and employees only.

This deals with who makes decisions for the company (Erwin & Garman, 2010). Centralization involves concentration of decision making at one level whereas decentralization involves decision-making inclusive of staff members like employees. The Philips Financial Services should implement decentralization structure whereby all staff members contribute ideas in decision making process. This helps promote democracy in the organization. Employees would love working in an environment where they can be heard and their contributions relating to the workplace acknowledged. This will increase their morale resulting to increase in the companies’ profits.

Consistent with Giles & Yates (2014), this refers to how jobs are structured and distributed in an organization. It also entails how employees’ tasks are governed by regulations and procedures set by the management. This in some way involves job rotation whereby the position remains the same and the holders are changed. The firm should employ this structure because it reduces work pressure and job stress unlike the informal structure. 

Decentralization of Decision Making Process

This refers to forming job groups in relation to common tasks or activities (Jason & Pauline, 2015). This helps increase interactions and relationships between the co-workers. The Philips Financial Services company should implement this structure to reduce work stress and bullying among workers as well as increasing employees’ morale. It also enhances collaboration among the staff members and this leads to increased productivity and profitability levels.

Jim & Annelie (2014) argue that this refers to the general culture, values, beliefs and attitudes of an organization.

The Philips company is a multi-cultural firm. The staff members are of diverse culture and religions. There are some from India, New Zealand, Brazil and UK among others. However, majority of them are Australian. The firm employs both male and female workers with the male being 65% and female 35%. Moreover, the firm promotes religion diversity. Around five of the staff members were gay, there is also a lesbian and a married man with six-year-old twins. The firm acknowledged diverse cultures of the employees from different countries (Kapoor & Solomon, 2011).

As per Luciane & Reinaldo (2013), leaders influence workplace culture. They influence employee’s perception on their work experience. The importance of leadership style and its influence on culture are discussed below;

• It enables the leader to have control over the subjects; a leader can influence organization activities and the outcomes.
• Enables distribution of the organizational responsibilities to other workers in the organization which makes it easy for the organization to achieve its goals.
• Allows for easy decision making in the organization especially in cases where emergent decisions are required. Leaders should create a culture that is customer-focused and their behaviors should reflect high ethical morals. They should consider employees’ views in decision making process as this helps change their perception towards job role and increases their morale.
• It also maximizes employee engagement in the organization roles. This is achieved by making employees understand the status quo of the firm and the role of their individual jobs towards achieving the firm’s goals.
• It enables organization leaders to work on building trust as it is the centerpiece of culture. For instance, an organization could be having excellent strategy, innovative skills and a skilled team, however, when the leaders are not trusted, the organization goals and objectives become unattainable. Leaders, therefore, should work to create good relationships with their followers, ensure transparency and be exceptionally consistent in approaching matters (Mel, 2012). 

Ethics in the work place is an important element because it ensures the organization operates in an ethical and legible manner as well as promoting good customer relationship (Patricia, Mieke, Loek & Robert?Jan, 2012).

People tend to follow the behavior of others in an organization. For instance, employees would follow the management and leaders’ behaviors as their role models. Those in the lower level normally follow the practices of those in top management levels. Therefore, leaders and management should practice high ethical standards and present desired behavior models to its employees. In order to achieve high ethical standards, ethical leaders should demonstrate this accordingly and even beyond expectation (Robles, 2012).

Many organizations have ethical policies and procedures governing the general operations of the firm, the kinds of behavior expected and customer relationships among others. However, they should also focus more on strategies to develop problem solving skills. This helps employees in solving ethical issues or dilemmas as they arise. This can be done by training though seminars, workshops and providing other reference materials to employees to enhance ethical decision making.

Work place bullying is a major concern and many organizations are working to prevent it. Bullying in the work place is also called corporate violence. Extreme cases of bullying can result to injury or even death of an employee in the work place. According to Steven, Medea, Owen & Thai-Son, (2015), work place bullying refers to an interpersonal hostility that is deliberate, repeated and sufficiently severe as to harm the targeted persons’ health or economic status.

Job Structuring and Distribution in Philips Financial Services

Bullying can result through verbal or non-verbal means of communication, assassination or even hostility actions. It makes employees uncomfortable, ashamed, humiliated and isolated from other workers. The targets have a belief that if the action is reported to the top management, the situation could be worsened and they even risk losing their job. Individuals who are likely to be bullied in an organization are those who are co-operative and demonstrate high performance levels. 

• Abrupt Change in Organization

This occurs when an organization initiates change abruptly. For instance, change might be unfavorable for employees thus exposing them to risk job conditions or poor working environment. They may complain but the organization may impose strict rules.

• Workplace Stress

This occurs when an organization imposes restrictions and high demands on employees’ effort. It is likely to cause misunderstanding among the workers resulting to incivility. Also, when employees are over worked, successful and dedicated employees are likely to be bullied.

• Inadequate Workplace Values and Policies.

This normally arises where there are no or inadequate polices or procedures set aside to govern the employees’ behavior and regulation.

• Informal Group Norm

This refers to norms that support ridiculing or even imposing punishment on employees who try to access formal grievances.

Review of Current Procedures and Policies: the management should regularly review workplace policies and procedures to ensure that employees adhere to essential values governing their behavior in the firm. For instance, they should relate well, interact and respect each other. It should also formulate ways and provide a clear channel to which bullying cases are reported to ensure fairness and equal treatment of all employees (Williams, 2017).

Training Programs: the management should also formulate training programs for staff members dealing on organizations’ regulations and expectations. They should be trained to execute important workplace values such as good relationships and respect. The management should regularly hold seminars and inform the staff of the companies’ regulations and guidelines and the possible consequences of not adhering to the same. Employees can also be trained on the necessary skills to recognize, handle, respond and prevent incivility incidences in organizations.

Support System and Communication Channels: the management should implement a standardized process to investigate incivility issues as they are reported. For instance, a disciplinary department for investigators should be established. It is also important that information relating to bullying is thoroughly investigated and cautious exercised while making judgements pertaining incivility on any co-worker.

The firm doubled its staff within six months but this caused discomfort to employees as they became stressed, their workplace morale reduced and increased cases of bullying were noted. The sole owner aspires the firm to compete with companies such as Deloitte and PWC among others. The aforementioned strategies are the recommended organizational structure for the company – Philips Financial Services. 

References

Clark J.M. & Polesello D., 2017. Emotional and cultural intelligence in diverse workplaces: getting out of the box. Industrial and Commercial Training, 49(7), pp. 337-349.

Erwin D. G & Garman A. N., 2010. Resistance to organizational change: linking research and practice. Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 41(5), pp. 39-56.

Giles, D. & Yates, R., 2014. Enabling educational leaders: qualitatively surveying an organization’s culture. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 11(5), pp. 94-106.

Jason C. & Pauline A.F., 2015. The effect of resistance in organizational change programmes: A study of a lean transformation. International Journal of Quality and Service Sciences, 61(4), pp. 274-295.

Jim A. & Annelie A., 2014. Deconstructing resistance to organizational change: a social representation theory approach. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, pp. 342-355.

Kapoor C. & Solomon N., 2011. Understanding and managing generational differences in the workplace. Worldwide Hospitality and Tourism Themes, 3(4), pp. 308-318.

Luciane R. & Reinaldo G., 2013. Relationships between environment, culture, and management control systems. International Journal of Organizational Analysis, 12(3), pp. 219-240.

Mel, F., 2012. The Impact of Leadership, Management, and HRM on Employee Reactions to Organizational Change. In: A. J. H. L. Joseph J. Martocchio, ed. Research in Personnel and Human Resources Management. s.l.:Emerald Publishing Limited, pp. 177-208.

Patricia C. B., Mieke B. B., Loek N. & Robert?Jan S., 2012. Community development in the school workplace. International Journal of Educational Management, 26(4), pp. 403-418.

Robles, M., 2012. Executive Perceptions of the Top 10 Soft Skills Needed in Today’s Workplace. Business Communications Quaterly, 75(4), pp. 453-465.

Steven H. A, Medea C. D, Owen M. & Thai-Son N., 2015. Organizational outcomes of leadership style and resistance to change (Part Two). Industrial and Commercial Training, 12(3), pp. 135-144.

Williams, B. R., 2017. Disability in the Australian workplace: corporate governance or CSR issue?. Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: An International Journal, 36(3), pp. 206-221.