1.

Identify at least three (3) management concepts or theories that are illustrated
in the case and discuss thoroughly.

a. Morning Star’s goal, according to its organizational vision, is to create a company in which
all team members “will be self-managing professionals, initiating communications and the
coordination of their activities with fellow colleagues, customers, suppliers, and fellow
industry participants, absent directives from others.”

Personal mission statements are the cornerstone of Morning Star’s management model.
“You are responsible for the accomplishment of your mission and for acquiring the
training, resources, and cooperation that you need to fulfill your mission,”

The applicable management concept that can apply to this practice is the Total Quality
Management (TQM).

Total quality management (TQM) has far-reaching implications for the management of
human resources. It emphasizes self-control, autonomy, and creativity among employees
and calls for greater active cooperation rather than just compliance.

Involvement: A central idea of Human Resource Utilization

At the heart of the TQM is the concept of intrinsic motivation-involvement in decision
making by the employees. Employee involvement is a process for empowering members
of an organization to make decisions and to solve problems appropriate to their levels in
the organization

Employee Empowerment

It is defined as to invest people with authority. Empowerment should not be confused

with delegation or job enrichment. Delegation refers to distributing and entrusting work
 to others. Employee empowerment requires that the individual is held responsible for
accomplishing the whole task. The employee becomes process owner-thus the individual
is not only responsible but also accountable. Employee empowerment requires that the
individual is held responsible for accomplishing a whole task.

Suggestion System
Suggestion systems are designed to provide the individual with the
opportunity to be involved by contributing to the organization. The key to an
effective system is management commitment. It is the responsibility of
management to make it easy for employees to suggest improvements.
Stimulating and encouraging employees participation starts the creative
process.

Five Ground Rules for Stimulating and Encouraging Suggestion System are:

Suggestion System
Suggestion systems are designed to provide the individual with the opportunity to be
involved by contributing to the organization. The key to an effective system is
management commitment. It is the responsibility of management to make it easy for
employees to suggest improvements. Stimulating and encouraging employee participation
starts the creative process.

As, at the heart of TQM is the concept of intrinsic motivation-involvement in decision

making
by the employees, it means more responsibility, which in turn requires a greater level of
skill.
his must be achieved through TRAINING.

b. In Morning Star, when they suggested to Rufer that Morning Star had learned how to
manage without managers, he immediately said “Everyone’s a manager here,” he said.
 “We are manager rich. The job of managing includes planning, organizing, directing,
staffing, and controlling, and everyone at Morning Star is expected to do all these things.
Everyone is a manager of their own mission. They are managers of the agreements they
make with colleagues, they are managers of the resources they need to get the job done,
and they are managers who hold their colleagues accountable.”

This is the principle introduced by Henri Fayol. He was the first to discover the specific
managerial functions of planning, organizing, commanding, coordinating and
controlling (Davidson et al, 2009 p.42). However, it has comprised of only four functions
nowadays (planning, coordinating, leading and controlling). These functions have become the
solid foundation and core management process, playing important roles in diverse
organizations.

The employees of Morning Stars are considered managers of their own. They plan by
themselves and develop strategic objectives and secure the achievement of future goals.
They organize the workforce in an efficient manner and structure and align the activities of
the organization.

The employees harmonize the procedures and activities performed by the company, meaning
that every activity of each organizational unit should complement and enrich the work of
another. Further, they control in such a way that company activities are in line with general
company policies and objectives. It is also the responsibility of the manager to observe and
report deviations from plans and objectives, and to make initiatives to correct potential
deviations.

c. The Morning Star practices Self Management. The concept of self management model
encourages the employees to develop their skills. In this case, it recognizes that when people
are free to act, they are able to sense those forces and act in ways that fit best with reality.
 This is a managerial technique for shaping learned behavior in the workplace which
is behavioral self-management (or BSM). Behavioral self-management is the process
of modifying one’s own behavior by systematically managing cues, cognitive processes, and
contingent consequences.
BSM is an approach to learning and behavioral change that relies on the individual to take the
initiative in controlling the change process. The emphasis here is on “behavior” (because our
focus is on changing behaviors), not attitudes, values, or personality. Although similar to
behavior modification, BSM differs in one important respect: there is a heavy emphasis on
cognitive processes, reflecting the influence of Bandura’s social learning theory.

2. Do you think this can apply in your organization? Discuss if it is or if not possible.
Try to back your arguments with management concepts

The type of management being applied by Morning Star where there are no managers who
command and lead in the organization cannot be applied in my organization because an
organizational structure is being recognized and hierarchy is important to have an organized
and systematic flow of transactions. There must be someone to control the organization and
act as manager responsible for this plan and he monitors the progress of the defined and
planned activities. 

There must be hierarchy in the organization. Hierarchy presents itself in any given
organization. This varies from senior management (executive board) to the lowest levels in
the organization.

Henri Fayol’s 14 management principles are one of the most used concepts in management
and proven to be effective and efficient in the conduct of the operations of an organization.
The Unity of Command, Unity of Direction Authority and Responsibility, Scalar Chain
(Hierarchy) are the principles that require a leader to give orders and get things done in an
organization.
 Henri Fayol ’s “hierarchy” management principle states that there should be a clear line in the
area of authority (from top to bottom and all managers at all levels).

These principles are important to manage organizations and are useful tools for forecasting,
planning, process management, organization management, decision-making, coordination
and control.

Further, in every organization there must be someone to stand up as a leader. Many

leadership theories can be adopted by a manager who acts as a head of a unit or office who
can lead a group or team. There are various leadership styles that can be adopted by a
leader. These are the Transactional leadership style, Transformational leadership style, trait
theory leadership and many others. These styles suggest that in every organization there is a
leader who uses different modes of influencing people to attain the goals of an organization.