The Hexadecimal Company

The Hexadecimal Company

Throughout this course you will complete a series of Case Study Applications that will allow you to apply your learning at a deeper, more comprehensive level. The cases will give you the opportunity to practice the skills of an OD practitioner. You will be presented with realistic scenarios that OD practitioners regularly experience in their work. This week, your case study is the Hexadecimal Company (attached). As you read through the case, consider the facts, organizational objectives, policies, strategies, problems, unresolved issues, and roles of the key participants. Also, consider the critical competencies you, as an organizational change practitioner, might apply to this case, as well as any ethical issues that might arise within the organization.

To prepare:

Read “The Hexadecimal Company” case study located in Chapter 6 of the course text.

Analyze the case using “The Hexadecimal Company Case Analysis Form” located at the end of the case study.

To complete:

Submit a 3 page paper that addresses the following:

Identify the organization’s objectives and policies.

Describe the organization’s problems and unresolved issues.

Describe any ethical issues faced by this organization.

Explain what steps the organization should take to improve.

Identify the critical competencies that an OD practitioner would need in order to help this organization effectively improve. 

Describe your plan of action if you were the OD practitioner in this situation.

 

Solution

The Hexadecimal Company

Introduction and the objective of the company

The Hexadecimal Company is a computer-focused manufacturing organization that supplies accessories to other firms around the globe. The sole aim of the enterprise is to ensure sufficiency in the production and assembling institutions providing leeway in various settings. Technically, the industry faces stiff competition from across the globe forcing the players to focus of ways to enhance sustainable development in the market. As such, the leadership of Zoltan as the president have a huge task to perform in such an environment. In this case, the paper intend to evaluate some of the prevailing issues in the business environment as well as the management front owing to the significance of such firms in the universe.

The organization’s problems and unresolved issues

 Ideally, organizations are accustomed to two types of problems in any set of industry. Such problems include macro and micro issues affecting their operations in the system. The former points at the interest of the general company strategies while the latter concentrates on the individual and sub-unit issues affecting the prosperity of the institute within the market. One of the major concern involves inadequacy of effective leadership initiate to champion for the missions of the firm in the arena. The current president tend to portray minimal character of quality leadership owing to the emerging concerns within the settings. His lack of initiation abilities exude in their failure to mobilize and restructure the resources to help them raise the standard of operation in the industry. Likewise, this character portrays in their avoidance to include the OD members in sorts of management and development decisions within the same firm.

Another macro issue in the company is division among the OD members as most of them fail to recognize the importance of colleagues in the managerial positions as well as their production roles in the same industry. Further, such positions ooze in the differentiated approach to evaluation of the OD members. It seems like they work for separate organs when they are employees of the same enterprise. In addition, every member of the OD team tend to have personal approach to production within the same system making operation difficult to fathom. Seemingly, no common goal exists among the employees and they tend to function from different worlds under the same roof.

Ethical concerns in the company

The main ethical concern in the leadership of the current president relies in his lack of effective communication and inaccessibility to employees in the firm. Evidently, he fails to avail himself whenever Bill and Peter want to air matters of concern to him. Communication is the backbone of every successful development in any set of company around the world. A good manager should be ready to listen to the concerns of both the staffs and the consumers availed through feedback or formal interactions as well as the informal engagements around these environments. Similarly, Zoltan fails to show up to his per as he neglects emerging issues to allow them compound into critical problems among the stakeholders. Such leadership qualities may slow down the progress of an organization in several ways since human resources forms the pre-requisite for success in a firm (Brown, 2011).

At the same time, it is clear that most of the problems realized in this case are a result of inconsistencies portrayed within the managerial scopes of Zoltan. He failed to unite the juniors and created wrangles among them because of his negligence towards their cries during the early stages of operations. As a leader and a manager, it is unethical to brush off issues that can grossly affect the progress of any department in the company. Thus, the moral standards dictate for equal treatment and accessibility to all members in the chain of command based on the interest.

Steps to improve the standards in the company

Change is a complex element of development within organizations that requires substantial understanding and inclusion of all members of the system. Therefore, the standard requirements for effective implementation in this case should include proper analogy of the required contents in the drive. Ideally, Zoltan should endeavour to identify the underlying problem with the prevailing policies relative to the position of the firm in the market. In doing so, he will establish the best department within which the OD members can deliver to their best in the firm. Subsequently, the new set objectives will find lineage to the operating structures within the organization allowing the members to adopt to the changes in the policies.

The second step should focus on motivating both the OD practitioners and the staff members in a bid to ensure that they commit to their course of duty delivering the best input in production and services around the industry. This procedure may involves trainings and seminars that tend to empower each individual in the system. Likewise, the president should initiate monetary motivators to help his people work towards a common goal in production. Regardless of the private opinions and prevalent gaps in relationships and communications displayed, monetary prizes may tend to trigger hunger for quality improvement to meet the required standards in the market. The other approach include improve the level of customer relations and enhance compliance in the market system.

The critical competencies

Some of the fundamental qualities required for effective management in this case includes effective leadership. Structural guidance coupled with timely communication among members of OD teams and the other segments should have intrigued prompt dialogue within the organizational management to find solution to any emerging problem in the same system. Thus, the two competencies go hand in hand to ensure that the proposed policies are implementable and inclusive in nature. Similarly, problem-solving techniques are fundamental in this case since the approach to OD system requires practical approach to issues in the industry (Cummings & Worley, 2014). Thus, Zoltan should embrace effective listening skills as crucial competencies in his quest to unite and propel the company to greater miles in future.

Plan of action as an OD practitioner

As an OD practitioner in the Hexadecimal Company, it would be ideal to focus on common goal for the betterment of our organization. The first course of action would be to mobilize all other team members to work within similar objectives and commit to effective and productive communication among each other. Such step will eliminate the prospects of personal difference emanating from the recent design of leadership.

Secondly, I would advocate for peaceful negotiation and inclusivity in every step of decisions made to change the firm’s operations. Engagement with each member is a critical tool in ensuring that there is ownership and prosperity at each step of the production system. In addition, it would be appropriate to advocate for open leadership and effective managerial skills in the company to ensure that the resources merge the mission of the premise within the market. Thereafter, it would be practical to engage every member in substantial dialogues that tend to boost their morale over the periods of operations.

References

Brown, D. R. (2011). An experiential approach to organization development (8th Ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G. (2014). Organization development and change. Cengage learning.

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