Organisation and management

There are two types of project group, those for a short period and those for a long period varying "according to the amount of work being done and the complexity of the tasks". The purpose consists in confronting ideas and points of view and obtaining the motivation of workers through the involvement. Apparently, it is a success because the turnover was low "no one left the company ..." even if "not everyone felt comfortable". Huczynski and Buchanan give us some characteristics of psychological group helping us to understand the operation of Oticon groups: "minimum membership of 2 people, a shared communication, a shared sense of collective identity, shared goals, a group structure" (Huczynski and Buchanan, 2003 p.277/278).

Mayo found that the productivity of a group is influenced by social factors, "people at work are motivated by more than just pay and condition", the need for recognition, security and sense of belongings is more important in workers' productivity than the physical conditions"(Huczynski and B., p.286). In addition, Maslow and the pyramid of needs confirm this idea that if you improve the quality of life and the condition of work of the employees, the productivity will increase because the workers are more pleased to go to work and motivated. Indeed, the money is not the only factor of motivation and Oticon's manager understood it. Lars Kolind has a modernist vision of the organisation characterised by the subjective epistemological view consisting in believing that "knowledge is relative to the knower and can only be created and understood from the point of view of the individuals who are directly involved"(Hatch 1997, p.48).

Moreover, he is managerialist because as the Classical school he thinks that the workers have to be controlled but he exploits them in a different way, by the involvement of the employees who are motivated and become more productive. He has chosen a "genuine laissez-faire" leadership style (Mullins L. 1999, p.267). He also said: "If people don't have anything to do, they need to find something - or we don't need them". He exercises his power unfairly because he obliged the employees to involve. Consequently the employees are "self-disciplining" and monitor themselves for the benefit of the company (Foucault 1979). The radical Karl Marx would have been totally against that because he would have said that it is an exploitation and "alienation" of the workers because of the unbalanced power between the employees and the manager and between the employees and the project managers (Hatch p.28). However, even if the formal hierarchy has disappeared Lars Kolind has kept a Classical vision because the power is still at the top. Indeed, he is the most powerful person because he owns ten per cent of the shares and he exercises a strong power. Indeed, "project groups meet with the top management once every three month to present their work and results". He holds the "bases of the power": coercive, reward, referent, legitimate and expert power (French and Raven, 1958). Moreover, the project leaders are quite powerful because they are "free to manage" their project group in the way they want. They also choose the members of each group and are responsible of the results of the groups, they have the "legitimate" and "reward" power.

According to the results, Oticon's organisational change is successful however that system demonstrates some limits like the problem of overview "no one outside the project can really know what's going on inside the group". In this new organisation the mechanism of communication are simpler and easier however the communication is not better. In addition, the employees work for more than one project and sometimes "people become intertwined", it is a big mess thus the name of "spaghetti organisation".

We saw that the transformation of Oticon is a success but in the same time there are a lot of drawbacks non negligible. We can wonder if Oticon's manager did the right choice in a long term. Indeed, the environment was instable and the competitors had invested consequently Oticon had to react in order to be competitive. Lars Kolind has chosen to adopt a project organisation very flexible and it is a choice among others. However, we also can wonder what will be the Oticon's destiny. Will the problems of overview and "intertwined" projects involve bad consequences for its activity?

References

French J. and Raven B., (1958) The bases of social power, in D. Cartwright (ed.) as quoted in Huczynski A. and Buchanan D., (2003) Organizational behaviour, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, p.807.

Foucault M., (1979) Discipline and Punish as quoted in Huczynski A. and Buchanan D., (2003) Organizational behaviour, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall, p.813/814.

Hatch M.J., (1997) Organizational theory, Oxford University Press.

Huczynski A. and Buchanan D., (2003) Organizational behaviour, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall.

Lewin Kurt, (1951) The Field theory in social science, New York: Harper and Row, as quoted in Hatch M.J., (1997) Organizational theory, Oxford University Press.

Marx K., (1974) Capital, Vol.1, London: Lawrence and Wishart, as quoted in M.J., (1997) Organizational theory, Oxford University Press.

Mullins Laurie J., (1999) Management and organisational behaviour, 5th ed. Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Mayo Elton, (1933) The Human Problems of an Industrial Civilisation, Macmillan, New York as quoted in Huczynski A. and Bucanan D., (2003) Organisational behaviour, 2nd ed., Prentice Hall.

Weber Max, (1947) The theory of social and economic organization, A.H. Henderson and Tallcott Parsons, as quoted in Hatch M.J., (1997) Organizational theory, Oxford University Press.

Bibliography

Huczynski and Buchanan, (2003) Organizational behaviour, 2nd ed. Prentice Hall.

Mullins Laurie J., (1999) Management and organisational behaviour, 5th ed. Financial Times Prentice Hall.

Mary Jo Hatch, (1997) Organizational theory, Oxford University Press.

Pfeffer J., (1978) Organizational Design, AHM Publishing Corporation.

Steven Lukes, (1987) Power, Basil Blackwell.

www.longroad.ac.uk/accreditation/subject_business/bs_as/module_2/motivation/mayo_as.htm