Organisational Behaviour

write an essay of 750 words answering only 2 questions from the case study Case Study - ONLINE BUSINESS SOLUTION Introduction ONLINE BUSINESS SOLUTION (OBS) was incorporated as a private limited company in 2006 by the founder, Ms Jaslyn Foo, who was a local university graduate. OBS offered consultancy and digital marketing services to help small and medium-sized businesses get more results online with web optimization, email marketing and social media marketing. From a new venture that survived with tactical techniques, OBS evolved and progressed into a company with a defined sense of vision and purpose in bringing the business to a higher level of excellence. In December 2010, Ms Jaslyn Foo was contemplating the challenges and opportunities ahead to raise digital marketing standards across East Asia (both South-east and North-east). Organisational Structure and Management Practices As a small set up, Jaslyn wanted to keep the organisational structure lean and nimble in order to keep the overhead and breakeven point low. The two key divisions of the organisational structure were the Operations Division and the Marketing Division. The Operations Division was led by Jaslyn herself while the Marketing Division was led by Joyce Li whom Jaslyn met during her university days. In terms of management practices, Jaslyn was a results-oriented person. She provided the autonomy needed to the staff as long as the goal could be met at the end of the day. Her staff were rewarded based on the attainment of their goals. In OBS, the key to attain results was to stay focused on the goals. In operations, Jaslyn embarked on developing and introducing new product lines to the business and she diligently did extensive planning and strategizing before embarking into each new market. Over the years, the scale of the business had increased by several folds. However, the biggest challenge of the Operations Division was the recruitment of IT professionals. Like many other SMEs, Jaslyn faced many challenges in recruiting local IT professionals. At times, she resorted to recruiting non-locals when she had exhausted the option of recruiting the locals. In order to partially solve her manpower shortage, Jaslyn had employed more than 30 freelancers or part-timers both locally and abroad. However, one of the key challenges was leading and motivating cross-cultural workforce from over five different nationalities and ethnicities and working from different locations. BUS103e Group-based Assignment SINGAPORE UNIVERSITY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (SUSS) Page 5 of 6 Marketing Division The current Marketing Division structure was as follows: Ms Joyce Li faced the challenge of coordinating the marketing activities among the three department heads. All the Head of Departments operated independently with little knowledge about what each other was doing. There was very little synergy among the three departments. In addition, the personality and leadership style among the three departmental heads were very different. The Departmental Head for the domestic market was Ms Rosaline Ng, a Singaporean. She joined the company at the inception of the company. She was a very cautious person and would normally work till very late in the office. She was known to be workaholic and a very task-oriented person. The Departmental Head for South East Asia market was Mr Mike Tan. He strongly believed in developing good interpersonal relationship with his staff. Recently he forgave his staff for making mistakes without meting out any punishment. The Departmental Head for North East Asia market was Mr Johnson Chen. He had joined the company for only one year but had many years of relevant working experience in North East Asia before coming to Singapore. He was a very result-oriented person and very efficient in his work. All the three departmental heads were unable to work well with each other. Mr Johnson Chen did not think highly of Ms Rosaline Ng as he did not feel that women were as efficient as men. Mr Johnson Chen also could not agree with how Mr Mike Tan forgave his staff. From that instance, he believed that Mr Mike Tan was a weak leader and someone who was too people-oriented. To Mr Johnson Chen, the company should reward good performers and should not tolerate poor performers. In addition, Ms Rosaline Ng could not see eye-to-eye with Mr Mike Tan on how their teams should work towards divisional and departmental goals. The Challenge and Opportunity Ahead Jaslyn was very optimistic about the future of the digital business in Singapore as Singapore could serve as the gateway to the other nations in Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia. However, she was aware of the tension within her organisation and the challenges of working with staff from different countries as well as part-time staff and free-lancers. Question 1 (Word limit: 1,200 words) (a) Shaping positive perception among the employees is essential to reinforce harmony at the workplace. Define perception and discuss two (2) perceptual shortcuts among the Heads of Department in the Marketing Division. Suggest two (2) ways to reduce or eliminate such perceptual shortcuts. (20 marks) (b) Ms Jaslyn Foo would like to improve cooperation among the three departments. She approached you to show three (3) ways which the organisation can create team players among the current staff of the three departments. (12 marks) Question 2 (Word limit: 1,400 words) (a) OBS has a well-diversified workforce from over five different nationalities and ethnicities. Define workplace diversity and the two (2) levels of diversity. Which level(s) of diversity is/are present in OBS’s workforce? (8 marks) (b) You have been asked to advise Jasyln Foo on the issue of improving organisational commitment and employee engagement among the diverse workforce. Define organisational commitment and employee engagement. Discuss three (3) ideas to better integrate the diverse workforce. Relate your ideas to improving organisational commitment and employee engagement. (19 marks) (c) Besides diversity, identify and discuss three (3) challenges or opportunities relevant to OBS for managers in applying organisational behaviour concepts. (15 marks) Question 3 (Word limit: 1000 words) (a) One of the ways to face the challenges in motivating and leading a digital company is to improve the job design. Illustrate three (3) ways of redesigning a job. Which way would be most suitable for OBS? Explain your choice. (14 marks) (b) Explain two (2) ways to motivate OBS staff using the contemporary theories of motivation. (12 marks)