Organizational Behavior High Performing Organizations

OB and Customer Expectations TQM: Continuous Improvement Meeting Customers ’ needs

OB and the Work Force Diversity Flexibility Empowerment

Quiz coachingandmentoring.com/Quizzes.htm “ How in step are you with Gen X ”

OB and Organizations The New Economy Constant Change Electronic Commerce Shamrock Organizations: Part-time employees/ Permanent employees

H.P.O Bringing the best out of people Free agents & Shamrock structures Intellectual Capital

Key Components of HPO Employees involvement Self-directed teams Technologies Organizational learning: Adaptation Anticipating future change TQM

Management Challenges Strong Leadership Commitment Environmental Linkages Internal Integration Middle Manager Roles High Level Leadership Greenfield Sites Versus Redesigns Environment

Environment Open system Inputs: worksite ’ s problems and opportunities and the organization ’ s purpose, mission, and strategy. Outputs: individual, group, and organizational effectiveness and contributions to society.

Integration A difficult challenge is the integration of all five HPO components. The design of an HPO involves a combination of top-down and bottom-up decision making Sometimes HPO “ islands ” exist within a larger, more traditional organization. Saturn Corporation with General Motors is one such example.

Middle Managers Resistance to Change: Lack of appropriate Educational Skills Need for Training for the middle managers in order to enable them to perform their new duties and keep up with the competition.

High Level Leadership How far to go in becoming an HPO. Many organizations implement only one or two of the components and are not true HPOs. In countries with other values it can be very difficult to implement HPO components like self-directing work teams and employee involvement.

Greenfield sites vs. Redesign 1 A final challenge is the question of starting a high performance organization from scratch or redesigning a traditional organization to become one. Those started from scratch at a new site are called greenfield sites.

Illustrative Case: How Does a High Performance Organization Operate?

Introduction Southwest Airlines is an example of an organization that reflects many features of a high performance organization. The founders of the airline, and those following them, emphasized many of these features as part of the culture. Essentially, they established a greenfield site, even though no one called it that at the time. Herb Kelleher, the long-time board chair, joined with several other individuals to lay the groundwork of Southwest ’ s culture.

The five-component HPO model Employees involvement Self-directed teams Technologies Organizational learning: Adaptation Anticipating future change TQM

Employee Involvement 1 Southwest ’ s organizational hierarchy has always been flat and lean. There was a heavy team emphasis throughout the organization. People were empowered to do “ whatever it takes ” to get the job done. The culture has insisted that high involvement notions and practices be continued despite the rapid growth that the airline has experienced.

Self-Directing Work Teams. 1 Whether long-term teams such as service teams, or short-term ad hoc teams these kind of teams exist at Southwest. The Southwest culture promotes these kind of cooperative activities.

Integrated Production Technologies. The operative word with Southwest is “ integrated ”. Southwest ’ s heaviest use of information technology has been in distribution with special emphasis on web site sales that now account for 27% of the airlines revenues. Integrated Technology is now used to pair crews, dispatch flights, and revenue management in terms of prices and seats. IT is also being used for parts replacement and, possibly, schedule planning. A key concern for Kelleher has been the effect of IT on organizational culture.

Organizational learning 3 Employees are kept well informed about the company business through a wide variety of learning devices. The airline ’ s culture and this variety of learning devices are used for both individual and organizational learning. This learning is needed to better deal with fast-changing environments and information sharing across functions.

Total Quality Management. The TQM commitment to high-quality results, continuous improvement, and meeting customer needs emanates from Southwest ’ s culture. The airlines “ Southwest Spirit ” encompasses: a strong work ethic, a strong desire for quality work, a desire to go beyond the call of duty, helping others, and doing the “ right ” thing. These qualities are reinforced by empowerment and the learning and communication devices.

Assignment Please go to this web site and get me the mission statement of South western Airlines: mer_service_commitment.html

Discussion What is your ideal Job? Do you believe that HPO are able to offer more attractive job characteristics than LPO because they are HPO? Or, do you believe that HPO are high performance organizations because they offer more attractive job characteristics?