It is important that the functional areas of IKEA are combined effectively, if the organisation is to meet its objectives. To do this, each function of IKEA have to create a set of company objectives that, can be translated down into functional objectives, so that each function is driven by the organisation’s objectives. This is known as corporate objectives. Many of these corporate objectives are concerned with these issues:
- Providing the customer what he or she want each and every time
- Providing the right quality at all times
- Valuing everyone within the organisation and treating them as internal customers, etc
I have given some examples of how the functional areas within IKEA work together to achieve the company’s objectives, on page 32 and 33.
The communication flow will also help IKEA to achieve its objectives, as the departments can communication with each other, efficiently and this helps each other by; swapping ideas, covering each other on breaks, being trained on each other’s departments, etc.
The culture of Wednesbury IKEA
The culture of Wednsbury IKEA is known as role culture. Role culture is often known as bureaucracy. A bureaucracy is an organisation where all staff has to perform a specific job or role. This culture is often divided into a number of functions that are arranged in hierarchical way. IKEA would divide themselves into several functions such as, marketing, human resources and finance. These functions also have hierarchical ordering of office. For example, the human resources department of Wednesbury IKEA has a Store Human Resources Manager, Human Resources Manager, Human Resource Specialist and Training Co-ordinator. The culture is best suited to IKEA’s organisational structure because; it has a hierarchy structure.
The advantages of this culture to IKEA are the main source of power and the main source of influence. The main source of power is the employee’s position in the organisation. For example, the Store Manger of Wednesbury IKEA, at the top of the organisation has more power than the supervisors, at the bottom of the organisation. The main source of influence is the rules and regulations of the organisation. The rules and regulations of IKEA will stimulate staff members to work their best.
If the culture of IKEA is poor, it can strongly affect the number of absenteeism and punctuality. For example, if IKEA had a hard and unfriendly culture, it can influence their staff not to come to work because, they might be teased every day by other staff members, or they might dislike their job that they were given so, they might come in late or take a day off from work. This would cause the business to lose out on work and less time to call in for a replacement.
The culture of IKEA can have a direct affect on industrial relations, among managers and staff. This means that if IKEA had a hard and unfriendly culture, it can guide to further disagreement between staff and managers, and staff will be de-motivated to work. However, if IKEA had a warm and friendly culture (which they do) the relationship between managers and staff would be strong and committing, and staff would have a friendly environment to work in.
I have already explained how the culture affects the objectives and structure of an organisation, on page 52.
The Management Style of Wednesbury IKEA
The management style of IKEA is democratic management style. In a democratic management style, leaders (managers) would pass on their responsibilities to individuals and teams to make decisions. This process is called empowerment.
Democratic leaders would consult their employees before making decisions. Individuals would be held responsible for making any wrong decisions. This type of management style will allow democratic leaders to feel comfortable letting other employees in IKEA to make decisions. Democratic leaders need constant feedback from their employees on decision being made. Leaders with this management style, are good communicators and listen, and act on the opinions of the workforce.
I think this is the ideal management style for IKEA because; it leads to high level of morale, motivation and productivity. With this type of management style, IKEA can listen to employee’s thoughts and suggestions. This will make employees to feel respected and their thoughts are convincing. This sort of management style will also make sure that the workforce is well aware of the objectives of IKEA and will work their best to achieve them. With this management style, IKEA can use various methods of communications (see E5).
However this type of management style could make decision-making slow and is not appropriate to some businesses such as, manufacturing industries.
The organisational structure, culture and the management style of IKEA have to perform successfully so that, together they can achieve the company’s objectives. For example, to increase profitability: the communication within the organisation have to be clear so that, staff can understand what jobs have to be carried out; staff have to be motivated to perform the job; the relationship between managers and staff have to be strong and committing; the organisation have to encourage staff to create new ideas and share them amongst others; democratic managers have to listen and act on the opinions of workforce, democratic managers have to make sure that the workforce is well aware of the objectives of IKEA, etc.
If the performance of the organisational structure, culture and management style of the organisation is poor, the overall business will have difficulties in achieving its objectives.
