INITECH EXAM (Essay Sample)

INITECH CASE STUDY
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Question 1
1.1
From INITECH's case study, the company's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Daniel seeks to change the traditional functional structure to ensure the company competes in the industry. Given the rapid increase in technological advances, Daniel implements a team-based working structure that would lead to organizational development. According to Butler & Rose (2011), teamwork has been associated with positive performance and growth when accompanied by good Human Resource (HR) activities. Implementing a team-based working structure provides an avenue for INITECH to maintain long-term viability and competitiveness in their ever-changing market. There are several aspects of team-based working that support the organizational development of INITECH, such as; efficiency improvement and performance and fostering creativity and learning. Therefore, implementation of team-based working proved to be a promising strategy in ensuring Daniel's vision for viability and competitiveness are achieved.
INITECH implemented the use of real teams, and this aspect supported organizational development. According to Kozlowksi & Bell (2003), a team is real when members work towards a shared objective. These teams have constant and regular effective communication that reflects on their performance. Working in teams inspires individuals to work harder and motivates them to be productive. INITECH divided its groups into various divisions hence creating an avenue for efficiency improvement and performance. The teams created were given the authority to implement their departmental objectives in working for a common goal. Groups created at INITECH by Vera were divided along with the various organizational departments. This ensured that the workload was minimized and employees could focus on maintaining efficiency in their departments. The long communication chain that employees had, which slowed down decision-making, was restructured to effective channels involving team leaders. The performance of each department increased since it offered an avenue for members to exchange ideas and responsibilities, allowing them to perfect their tasks. Although implementing a team-based working structure supported the organization's development, various internal struggles such as a breakdown in communication between Robin and Vera ultimately led to mixed results from the team-based working structure established.
Another crucial area of INITECH development that implements a team-based working system would be fostering creativity and learning. Daniel, the company's CEO, wished for the company to compete in a technologically changing environment. Establishing team-based working would ensure that employees at each departmental level can develop innovative aspects as per their tasks. The difference in the knowledge possessed by individuals would provide an effective avenue for brainstorming ideas, therefore enhancing creativity. Through interaction at the team level, skills are shared among individual members, making them a cohesive unit. This aspect of learning and creativity can be shown from the case study where one of the teams specializing in audio devices came up with an innovative idea that the company's executives later turned down. Working in these teams created a sense of combining unique perspectives on increasing sales or creating better products. This aspect of creativity and learning was a significant factor in ensuring the viability and competitiveness of the business.
1.2
According to Robbins & Judge (2019), several factors affect implementing a team-based working approach in an organization. They include factors such as; leadership, social loafing, and group thinking and are cited as essential components in impeding the successful implementation of teamwork. From INITECH's case study, various factors affected the successful implementation of the team-based working method. Although the team-based working aspect would have ensured the company reaches its development targets of viability and competing in the industry, the case study showcased factors such as leadership, group thinking, and social loafing as aspects attributed to the failure of the approach. Understanding the extent of these factors and how they affected the proposed team-based working would offer a comprehensive insight into why it was unsuccessful.
Under leadership, which led to the failure of team-based working, the company failed to implement a steady foundation for the proposed structure. According to Butler & Rose (2011), a successful team-based approach requires all managers and supervisors to work coherently. Under this aspect, the teams created had formal managers and supervisors who were not on the same page. INITECH failed due to internal management problems; for instance, Robin, an executive director, did not believe in implementing team-based working. The company also had two conflicting behavioral leadership traits, with Vera practicing a person-oriented approach while Robin exhibited a task-oriented approach. These conflicting behavioral traits led to setbacks in implementing the approach. For instance, Robin's skepticism impeded the implementation of the approach by influencing Daniel's decision regarding the team-based approach. This, in turn, restricted the creative approach of each team and a sense of ownership that team members were entitled to since Robin had control of the budget and resource distribution. The difference in authority between Vera and Robin's approach disrupted the overall cohesion among the teams since some members were torn between conforming to Robin's or Vera's authority. The effects of these leadership problems ensured that the company's adoption of team-based working did not succeed.
Another aspect explaining why implementing the team-based approach did not work in INITECH would be group thinking and social loafing. According to Janis (1972), group thinking is a phenomenon that occurs when group members make low-quality group decisions without critically thinking through. It is a common factor in many team-based working approaches that leads to the ineffectiveness of the affected group. On the other hand, social loafing is defined as when the number of individuals in a group increases; there is a tendency of reduction in efforts of each member (Latane et al., 1979). These aspects have been witnessed in INITECH as per the case study; for instance, several teams had complained about certain members not contributing to team decisions. These factors slowed down each group's creativity, impeded the success of each team and therefore contributed to the failure to implement team-based working in the organization.
1.3
INITECH is an organization experiencing problems due to various factors such as internal leadership problems and a failure to implement a team-based working approach to their business correctly. There are several measures that INITECH could have undertaken to ensure that the implementation of their approach was successful. This would lead to the company mitigating the current problems they faced. For instance, issues such as the various views in leadership where Vera portrays a person-oriented aspect that focuses on the individuals in the company while Robin offers a task-oriented approach had