Discuss about the Management and Organisational Culture of IKEA.
IKEA is considered being a globally recognized home furnishing retailer. In the current scenario, IKEA is considered being one of the leading furniture and textile retailers in the world. IKEA is offering more than 9,500 products, which includes an entire range of home and office furnishings, equipment, lighting as well as accesssories. There is the availability of this broad range in every outlets of IKEA, and consumers can do the ordering of various products online on the official website of IKEA. In respect of the customers as well as staffs of the organization, IKEA is an association of distinctive traits. The organization is also well-known for providing similar variety of products in every country. The number of organizational products offered at a single store s ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 products, based on the size of the outlet. Similarly, the global strategy that the organization has adopted comprises of adjusting to the particular atmosphere as well as national traditons of the country where the outet is functioning. The locations of the store, design as well as display are generally adjusted to the overall needs of the market as well as customer behaviour.
The personnel of the organization is considered being an enormously significant asset at IKEA, which tries doing the enlargement of the assortment base, improving the product as well as service quality. The creative approach as well as original designs in addition to the practical pricing policy will be contributing to the competitive advantage of the organization and will be explaining the organization’s success to go through the period of crisis.
The organizational culture of the organization will be incuding the key principles such as simplicity as well as high level of informality, the value regarding teamwork as well as embracing diversity within the staffs as well as varied means of doing things.
In accord to the organizational culture of IKEA, it can be stated that humbleness to approach tasks as well as simplicity in the manner of conducting things are considered being the cornerstones of the cultural aspect regarding IKEA. In regard to organizational culture regarding value for teamwork, it can be stated that executives prefer managing as one-man show will not be fitting into the organizational culture of IKEA. The international furniture retailer wants to make sure that it does the employment of the individuals who will be sharing its values as well as do the appreciation of its cultural aspect. In regard to the organizational culture of embracing diversity among staffs, it can be stated that the almost 48% of the managers at IKEA and 33% of the Group Management team are considered being women. Women are also doing the representation of 54% of all the staffs working at IKEA. The international furnitue retailer is believing that the identification of differences within its staffs will be contributing towards creativity as well as supporting the business growth (Watson 2017).
There are two kinds of organizational culture, such as strong culture and weak culture. Within a strong culture, the core values of the organization are both intensely held as well as shared widely. The core values of the organization are having a strong impact on the behavioual aspect of the staffs. Employees do the understanding of what is significant within the company. There exists an increased behavioural control level. The loyalty, commitment as well as identification of the organization are higher, and as result, there occurs lower turnover of staffs. Within a weak culture, values are often only shared at the top of the hierarchy of the organization (Thompson 2017). The staffs might be perceiving conflicting messages regarding what is significant. The values are having limited impact regarding the behaviour of the staffs and the loyalty, commitment as well as organizational recognition are lower.
The functions of culture does the creation of distinctions within organizations, conveying a sense of identity in respect of the staffs, encouraging organizational commitment, encouraging behaviours that are expected, impacting the attitudes as well as behaviours of the staffs and acting as a mechanism of control (Stanford 2014).
In addition, organizational culture does the creation of organizational climate. Organizational culture is referring to the shared insights that staffs are having about IKEA as well as the environment regardng work. Organizational climate will be strengthening the impacts of general feelings that many individuals hold regarding what is significant. According to research, it was found out that positive organizational climate is having a positive influence upon staff engagement, staff commitment, satisfaction of job, superior performance regarding work as well as higher satisfaction regarding the customers (Smith 2017). A positive culture can be created by building on the stength of employees, through effective communication as well as effective socialization.
This leadership theory does the identification of the particular personality traits that is distinguishing the leaders from the non-leaders. Scholars undertaking the trait approach is attempting to do the identification of the physiological, demographic, personality, self-confidence as well as aggressive behaviours and social traits comprising of the emergence as well as effectiveness of the leaders. Successful leaders are having interests, capabilities as well as personality traits that are different from the leaders that are considered being less effective (Shove 2014). Among the core traits that are recognized, there exists the achievement drive, leadership motivation, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability, business knowledge as well as emotional maturity.
It is focusing on the study of particular leadership behaviours. In respect of the behavioural theorists, the behavioural leader is the best predictor of their leadership impacts and therefore, is considered being the best determinant of his or her success relating to leadership. There exists two behavioural groups, such as consideration as well as initiating structure. Consideration comprises of people oriented behavioural leaders focusing on motivating, observing, coaching, as well as mentoring, whereas initiating structure comprises of task oriented leaders focusing on initiating, gathering of information, clarifying as well as organizing (Riivari 2014).
The situational theory of leadership is suggesting that no single style of leadership is considered being the best. Instead, it is depending upon the present situation and which leadership type as well as strategies are best-suited to the task (Rall 2015). According to this theoretical approach, the leaders that are considered being most effective are considered being those that are having the ability to do the adaption of their style regarding the situational aspect as well as looking at indications like the kind of task, the group nature, as well as other factors that might be contributing to the aspect of completing the job (Pitts 2014).
The motivation theory of Maslow is represented with the help of five stages that includes the physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs as well as self-actualization needs. The physiological needs will be including the attributes such as hunger, sleep as well as thirst. The safety needs will be including the attributes such as security, safeguard from danger as well as relief from pain. The social needs willl be at times referring to the needs for love like friendship, to give as well as receve love, and to engage in social activities as well as group membership (Pioch 2014). The esteem needs will be including both self-respect as well as other’s esteems. The self-actualization needs is relating to the desirability for develping as well as realizing a person’s complete potential. According to this theory, when one set of needs gets actualized, the next needs level turns out to be more of a motivator regarding a person. A satisfied need is not considered being a motivator and only the needs that are not satisfied will be motivating a person (Owoyemi 2014). An individual is having an inherent desire for working their way up the hierarchy, and to pursue satisfaction in higher order needs.
This is a theory that is depending upon three primary needs of human beings such as existence, relatedness as well as growth.
The existence needs comprises of all the material as well as physiological desires. This is similar to the first two levels of Maslow.
The relatedness needs is encompassing the social as well as external esteem, associations with significant others such as family, friends, colleagues as well as employers, meaning to get identied as well as having a feeling of security as part of a group or family. This is similar to the third and fourth levels of Maslow.
The growth needs will be including the internal esteem as well as self actualization, impelling an individual towards making creative or productive impacts on himself as well as the environment. This is similar to the fourth and fifth levels of Maslow. This will be including the desires for being creative as well as efficient, and doing the completion of tasks that are considered being meaningful (Mostafa 2016).
Herzberg’s Dual Factor, also known as Motivation-Hygiene Theory is considered being a need theory that is having the involvement of the Motivators as well as Hygiene factors. Hygiene factors are having the similarity with the lower three needs regarding Maslow’s theory and the Motivators are having similarity with the two higher level needs regarding the hierarchy of Maslow. It can be stated that a person might be having satisfaction regarding the Hygiene factors but unsatisfied due to the Motivators. Better pay as well as project conditions do not offset the project nature itself, or the requirement of a team member or project manager for gaining individual growth. In other words, there isn’t any possibility for substituting the Motivators with the Hygiene Factors (Larsson 2016). This is significant for the project managers in realising when they will do the development of a motivational calculus in respect of the members of their team.
This is focusing on encoding as well as decoding that occurs before the message is send by the sender and before the message is received by the receiver in the respective manner. This model of communication is having majorly, four elements describing the process of communication, such as the sender, message, channel as well as receiver. The factors associated with sender are communication skills, attitude, knowledge, social systems and culture. The factors associated with message are content, elements, treatment, structure and code. The five senses of individuals are considered being the communication flow channel and it influencs the channel’s effectiveness. The five senses are regarded as hearing, seeing, touching, smelling as well as tasting (Lancashire 2016). The factors associated with receiver are the skills regarding communication, attitudes, knowledge, social systems, as well as culture.
The designing of this communication model is done for developing the effective communication amongst the sender as well as reciever. The model will be dealing with different concepts such as sender or information source, encoder or transmitter, channel, decoder or receiver, receiver or destination as well as noise. The sender is the person who is making the message, choosing the channel as well as sending the message. The encoder is the sender who is using machines, converting the message into signals. The channel is the medium for sending the message. The decoder is consdered being the machine used for converting signals into message or the receiver translating the message from the signals. The receiver is the individual who is getting the message or the place where the message should be reaching (Hough 2013). The noise is the physical disturbances such as the environement, individuals and so on that will not be letting the message being received by the receiver as it was sent.
The advantages regarding trait theories of leadership states that it builds on the basis that leaders are unique, and this theory is providing the benchmarks regarding the identification of leaders. Moreover, unlike other theories of leadership, Trait theory is boasting of many years of research for confirmig the approach. The disadvantages of this theory is stating that it is considered being leader-centric, and only concentrates upon the leader, not the follower or the circumstances. Another disadvantage associaed with this theory is that it fails to see in what ways particular traits does the influcing of outcomes relating to leadership like performance, productivity as well as the satisfaction of the staffs (Holma 2017). Moreover, certain findings are considered being vague that leads towards the improbability relating to the validity of the approach.
Within IKEA, trait theory will be associated with the successful managers who are having interests, capabilities as well as personality traits that are different from the managers that are considered being less effective. Among the core traits that are recognized, there exists the achievement drive, leadership motivation, honesty and integrity, self-confidence, cognitive ability, business knowledge as well as emotional maturity of the organizatinal managers (Gilles 2015).
The advantages associated with this theory states that the traits of leadership can be learned with the help of development as well as experience. The disadvantage associated with this theory is concened with the aspect of adaptability. There exists very limited knowledge as to how there will occur the use of behaviour theory in different cultural contexts as well as circumstances (Fröding 2017).
Within IKEA, the organizational manager following the behavioral theories can be considered being the best predictor of their leadership impacts and therefore, can be considered being the best determinant of his or her success relating to leadership within the company (England 2014).
The advantages of situational leadership is associated with its ease of use as well as simplicity. It identifies the requirement in respect of flexbility on the leader’s part and the follower’s significance as determinants relating to the behaviour of the leaders. The disadvantages associated with this leadership theory is that it disregards the manner in which the other cultures are communicating and also does the ignoring of differences amongst the female managers as well as male leaders (Duffield 2015).
Within IKEA, the organizational managers who will be considered being most effective are considered being those that are having the ability to do the adaption of their style regarding the situational aspect as well as looking at indications like the kind of task, the group nature, as well as other factors that might be contributing to the aspect of completing the organizational work (Douglas 2014).
The advantages of this theory is that it is providing an effective summary regarding the human requirements that can be used in designing of product, positioning of product as well as pricing. It also assists the marketers in focusing their appeals regarding advertising relating to particular requirements whose sharing is done by a huge segment of their target market (Clark 2013).
The disadvantage regading this theory is that its testing cannot be done in an empirical manner, and the model is considered being very much simplistic, which states that it is lacking validity across varied cultural aspects.
Within IKEA, when one set of needs gets actualized, the next needs level turns out to be more of a motivator regarding the organizational manager. A satisfied need is not considered being a motivator and only the needs that are not satisfied will be motivating the manager. An organizational manager will be having an inherent desire for working their way up the hierarchy, and to pursue satisfaction in higher order needs within the organization (Cadden 2013).
The advantages of this theory is states that it does the elimination of potential dissatisfaction relating to job as well as maximization of satisfaction relating to job.
The disadvantages of this theory states that its dependability is not reliable, it does the overlooking of the situational variables, and it is not free from discrimination (Bruno 2015).
In respect of IKEA, it can be stated that better pay as well as project conditions will not offset the project nature itself, or the requirement of a team member or project manager for gaining individual growth. This is significant for the organizational project managers in realising when they will do the development of a motivational calculus in respect of the members of their team.
The advantages associated with this model of communication is that there occurs proper emphasis on the association amongst the individual who sends the message as well as the receiver.
The disadvantages associated with this model of communication is that it is not mentioning about the communication barriers, the model is considered being complex and one of the major limitation is that it does the omitting of the use of sixth sense being a channel.
In respect of IKEA, this theory of communication will be focusing on encoding as well as decoding that occurs before the message is send by the sender and before the message is received by the receiver in the respective manner withn the organization (Boateng 2016).
The key opportunities regarding IKEA states that there is occuring a growing scope of demand regarding the products that are considered being environmentally friendly. Also, in order to do the attainment of market value, the company can do the following of the basic strategies of marketing associated with the aspect of penetrating as well as scheming the competitive industry for functioning internationally (Biggs 2013).
The key challenges regarding IKEA states that the upcoming social trends can pose a threat regarding the business of IKEA. A significant percentage of potential customers are sceptical about using new products. Moreover, the furniture market is faced with strong competitors that will be influencing the market value of IKEA.
It can be recommended that IKEA should continue with its use of the positive strategies related with branding. Moreover, IKEA should be paying more attention towards its goals relating to sustainability. IKEA can also do the retention of its market value by making concrete plans for counteracting the organizational threats. The organization should also take into consideration both the advantages as well as disadvanatges of each theory of leadership, motivation as well as communication before implementing them within the organization.
Conclusions
To conclude, it can be stated that IKEA is a globally recognized brand, having hundreds of stores all over the world. From the above discussion, it can be stated that the organization is required undertaking further assessment of its markets, while the competitors are posing new challenges in respect of the organization. It is therefore, important that the organization should be making new strategies to maintain its strong financial position. This will be revealing the necessary opportunities it might be using as well as the challenges, which should be dealt with for the retention of the share in the market.
References
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