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Organizational Behavior Assignment 1
Organizational Behavior Assignment 1
Organizational Behavior Assignment 1
STUDENT
DATE
SIGNATURE:
1.1
1.2
1.3
2.2 2.3
M1
M2
M3
D1
D2
D3
Feedback
Assessors
decision
1.3
discuss the factors which
influence individual behaviour at
work
Outcome(s)/ Assessment
Criteria
Possible evidence
Feedback
Assessors
decision
Grade descriptors
Possible evidence
Feedback
Assessors
decision
Merit
M1
Identify and apply strategies
to find appropriate solutions
M2
Select/design
and
apply
appropriate methods/technique
M3
Present
communicate appropriate
findings
and
1
2
Grade descriptors
Possible evidence
Distinction
D1
Use critical reflection to
evaluate
own
work
and
justify valid conclusions
2
D2
Take
responsibility
for
managing
and
organizing
activities
D3
Demonstrate
convergent, lateral
creative thinking
1
2
1
and
Feedback
Assessors
decision
NOTES TO STUDENTS
Word process the report, print out in A4 papers, Times New Roman, font 12,
one and half line space, with 2.5cm page margin
Write approximately 4,000 words for the report; tables, table of content,
references list and appendixes are excluded in the word count.
NOTE: if you are caught plagiarising, you could have your grade
reduced to zero, or at worst, you could be excluded from the course.
Suggestions
1) You may need to search for more materials to support your
analysis. Try to find more information concerning the two
organizations in the following two scenarios from their corporate
websites. You may also search references by Google, or from some
professional sites, e.g.,
Financial Times (http://www.ft.com),
Business Week (http://www.businessweek.com),
McKinsey Quarterly (http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com),
Harvard Business Review (http://www.hbr.org).
2) Keep the report concise and original. You can refer to other
business reviews, but please write your report by yourself.
3) For all articles you cited, please use the correct format of
referencing in Harvard system.
Scenario 1
The following media reporting concerns management issues of Huawei.
In October 2007, 7,000 Huawei employees resigned and were then rehired on shortterm contracts, thereby apparently avoiding the unlimited contract provisions of the
Labour Contract Law of the People's Republic of China. The company denied it was
exploiting loopholes in the law, while the move was condemned by local government
and trade unions.
Huawei's treatment of its workforce in Guangdong Province, Southern China also
triggered a media outcry after a 25-year-old software engineer, Hu Xinyu, died in
May 2006 from bacterial encephalitis, as a result of what is believed to have been
work-related fatigue.
In its 2010 Corporate Social Responsibility report, Huawei highlighted the importance
of employee health and safety. In 2010, Huawei provided annual health checks to all
full-time employees and performed 3,200 checks to employees exposed to
occupational health risks.
Also, in 2011 Huawei initiated a Scholarship program, "Huawei Maitree Scholarship",
for Indian students studying in China.
Huaweis Culture
Is corporate wolf-culture devouring Chinas over-worked employees?
Adapted from China Labor Bulletin 27 May, 2008
On 6 March 2008, Zhang Liguo, a 36-year-old employee at a Huawei Technologies
plant in Shenzhens Bantian Industrial Park, jumped off the third floor of the
companys cafeteria; he died on the spot. Just nine days earlier, another Huawei
employee, Li Dongbing, had jumped to his death from the companys research and
development centre.
The violent deaths of two of its employees in close succession were a public relations
nightmare for Huawei. The companys aggressive and predatory wolf culture and
mattress culture, which compels overworked employees to sleep in their workplace,
became the focus of heated debate. Particularly since Zhang Liguo was the sixth
Huawei employee to have died of unnatural causes in recent years, and allegedly the
38th to have died of unnatural causes since the company was founded. Is there
something about Huawei that leads so many young people to end their lives
prematurely?
Before Huawei employee Zhang Rui committed suicide in 2007, CEO Ren Zhengfei
wrote a letter to a member of the Communist Party committee which began with the
following admission: At Huawei, employees are continuously committing suicide or
self-mutilation. There is also a worrying increase in the number of employees who are
suffering from depression and anxiety. What can we do to help our employees have a
more positive and open attitude towards life? I have thought about it over and over
again, but I have been unable to come up with a solution.
Because Huawei has yet to grant an interview to answer questions about the suicides,
we dont know how serious Ren Zhengfei considers this problem to be. The only time
Ren has ever mentioned wolf culture was in the early 1990s, in a conversation with
a manager from a well-known American consulting company. Ren said that if
multinational corporations were elephants, Huawei was a mouse in comparison and
argued that because Huawei was no fighting match for an elephant, it had to have a
wolf spirit, a keen nose, a strong competitive instinct and a spirit of cooperation and
sacrifice.
Huaweis current success is widely thought to be the result of its corporate wolf
culture. Were it not for its wolf culture, it is likely that if Huawei, a privately
owned company that faced a fiercely competitive market from the start, would have
never pulled ahead of the pack. However, as Zhang Liguos death has shown, it can
also drive its employees to the edge of a cliff.
Almost half of Huaweis employees work in the research and development division,
which is the companys biggest division as well as the one that pays the highest
salaries. But the high salaries also mean higher pressure and higher performance
demands on the employees. According to one employee who wishes to remain
anonymous, competition has become more intense throughout the IT industry and all
companies are under pressure, but Huawei employees are particularly stressed out and
just about every Huawei employee thinks that his fate is closely bound up with the
companys. Consequently, no one thinks that he can relax for one moment.
Most Huawei employees who agreed to answer journalists questions acknowledged
that they dared not lag behind their colleagues. Not that this is peculiar to Huawei
employees; it is true of the IT industry in general and arguably also of contemporary
society as a whole.
The wolf culture has a broad social base in todays fiercely competitive
environment, as is evident from the fact that business books about wolf culture sell
like hot cakes. People thrive in adversity and perish in soft living. Its the survival of
the fittest out there. Its like rowing upstream; not to advance is to drop back,
explains one employee.
Ren Zhengfei has a stated policy of weeding out five percent of the worst-performing
employees. Within the company, employees have been told by managers that in
practice only one to two percent of the worst performing employees are laid off. But
that is small comfort to this employee, who sums up his feelings as follows: I still
feel like somebody is cracking a whip behind me.
The phrase Mattress Culture was first coined to describe Huaweis fighting spirit
during the companys early days. Company managers regularly put their health on the
line for the company, and this policy continued and was even lionised until 28 May
2006 when Hu Xinyu, a 25-year-old employee at a Huawei plant in Shenzhen, died of
viral encephalitis. Before his death, Hu had frequently worked overtime and spent
nights sleeping on a mattress in his office. After Hus death, Huawei issued a rule
stipulating that employees had to get permission from their supervisor to work
overtime past 10 p.m. and forbidding employees from spending the night at the office.
However, the implementation of this policy has not particularly effective. Everyone at
Huawei, from top to bottom, understands that hard work is rewarded. As one
employee put it, If theres a job to be done, you cant drag your feet and let down
your colleagues.
Scenario 2
The following media reporting concerns management issues of Foxconn.
customer of his superior manufacturing techniques. Now, armed with his new robots,
Mr Gou wants to move up the technology ladder. We are a high-tech manufacturer,
not a traditional contract manufacturer, he says of a company that made $80bn in
revenues last year.
Delivering this vision will be far from easy, especially given that rising wages and a
dwindling supply of workers are pushing up costs in China, where most of Foxconns
factories are based. But it also comes after an event that introduced Mr Gous
company to the world in tragic circumstances, when 11 Foxconn workers last year
took their own lives, by jumping from buildings in the Shenzhen plant.
Initially Mr Gou dismissed the suicides as statistically insignificant and indeed,
measured against the companys 1m headcount, the numbers were below the national
average. But the image of overworked and poorly paid Chinese factory employees
slaving over iPods destined for wealthy consumers struck a chord around the world
and the company found itself facing a huge public relations crisis. I believe it was the
first time Terry Gou started seriously thinking about the workers as human beings,
says Qing Tong, a former Foxconn employee who has written a book about her life as
a migrant worker.
Over the past three decades Mr Gou has built a record of flexibility and adaptation to
new challenges and having finally taken the problem seriously, he responded firmly.
Bright yellow nets were installed around each high-rise dorm building, to catch
anyone falling off, while panels of psychologists and other experts were drafted in to
explain the suicides. For the Foxconn chief it was nothing less than a highly personal
defence of the business he had spent a lifetime building.
Task 1
1)
Organizational Structure
Introduction:
In Chapter 1,we introduced the organisation,in general termes, as social arrangements
for the controlled performance of collective goals.We suggested that those social
arrangements were formalised in an organisation structure.In tis chaoter,we look in
more detail at what that involves.
My objectives:
In this chapter you will learn about the following:
(a)The nature of and influences on both formal and informal organisation
(b)Different organisation structures and networks,and organisation charts
Organisational structure
Forma stucture
Informal stucture
What influences the
structure?
Types of organisation
Organisation and
departmentation
Organisational
networks and
linkages
Organisation chart
Foxconn
Huawei
2)
Organizational culture
Definitions
Foxconn
Huawei
3)
Task 2
Please discuss the main factors leading to the suicide behavior of some
employees of Huawei and Foxconn. What are the different factors of the two
corporations?(1.3)
Task 3
Please identify and evaluate the same and different approaches and theories
of management underpinning the practices of management in Huawei and
Foxconn. (2.2, 2.3)