Leadership Factor in Organizational Functioning

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Abstract

Organizational structure and leadership are among the key factors influencing the functioning of large organizations. Positive leadership styles can help to improve employee attitudes and promote higher productivity. Moreover, leadership is a crucial part of change processes, as it affects the success of implementation and compliance. Organizational structure, on the other hand, affects internal communication within the organization. Large corporations are more exposed to communication issues due to their tall organizational structure, which might affect work processes and productivity. Using the example of Bechtel Corporation, this project aims to outline the effects of organizational structure and leadership on business processes, especially at a time of a major change.

Project Outline

The project is separated into seven distinctive parts, each one reviewing a particular aspect of the topic. The first part will review the current concept of organizational structure and its relation to work processes. The second part will provide personality type assessment results based on Carl Jung’s and Isabel Briggs Myers’ typology. The third section will attempt to interpret the results from a leadership perspective, outlining the personal leadership strengths and weaknesses. The fourth part of the project will review the results of the impact analysis focused on Bechtel Corporation’s recent efforts to attract young graduates from different parts of the world into the company. The fifth section of the project will aim to review Bechtel’s current relationship with the stakeholders and provide recommendations to fit into the company’s stakeholder management plan. The sixth part will review communication challenges and opportunities at Bechtel to develop a communications plan. Finally, the seventh part of the project will focus on the negotiations strategy and plan. The conclusion section will summarize the findings and recommendations offered in the project, thus bringing it to closure.

Organizational Structure

Tran and TIan (2013) offer an extensive analysis of the concept of organizational structure in modern-day enterprises. The researchers note that, although there are many definitions of organizational structure offered in research, the term is normally used to define the established patterns of relationships between the different parts of the company (Tran & Tian, 2013). For instance, organizational structure can represent the hierarchy of authority within the organization or indicate the connection between various departments. Organizational structure is affected by a variety of factors, both external and internal. For example, severe competition might lead companies to centralize the decision-making authority, which would result in a taller organizational structure (Tran & Tian, 2013).

Internal factors, such as the scope of products or services offered to customers, might also influence organizational structure. In a large international corporation such as Bechtel, the organizational structure would be a lot more complex than in smaller companies, which can cause certain difficulties. For instance, organizational structure affects communication within the company and its decision-making capacity, thus influencing its productivity. Moreover, the organizational structure was found to influence individual employee performance (Uddin, Luva, & Hossian, 2013). Overall, the organizational structure is among the key factors affecting the functioning of the company. Ensuring that the organizational structure is effective can help to achieve better performance results.

Personality Type Assessment Results

The personality type test indicated the result of ENTP-T, which stands for an extroverted, intuitive, thinking, prospecting, and turbulent personality. This type of personality is also called the Debater, and its most distinctive qualities include honesty, analytical thinking, and rationality (“Debater Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2017). Debaters enjoy the process of accumulating and sharing knowledge; moreover, they enjoy the process of the debate, viewing each issue from different perspectives in an attempt to determine a single truth.

Personal Leadership Strengths and Weaknesses

The Debater personality type has a variety of strengths and weaknesses when it comes to leadership. First of all, Debaters are quick and original thinkers, which allows them to come up with new solutions to persistent issues, thus making them effective in leadership positions (“Debater Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2017). Moreover, Debaters are usually charismatic and knowledgeable, which attracts people and helps them to establish a certain degree of authority (“Debater Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2017). Perceived expertise and charisma can lead to positive followership behavior, which positively affects the Debater’s success in leadership positions.

Nevertheless, Debaters might be very argumentative and intolerant (“Debater Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2017); this might affect their leadership by causing conflicts in the workplace. They dislike thinking about practical matters and can find it difficult to focus, which impairs their ability to solve boring everyday tasks and perform routine work (“Debater Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2017). Moreover, they are quite insensitive to other people’s feelings and emotions (“Debater Strengths and Weaknesses,” 2017). Although this allows them to be more rational in decision-making, it also influences their communication style and causes difficulties in collaboration. Overall, the Debaters function best in creative and challenging environments with tall organizational structures and a limited number of close interpersonal interactions.

Impact Analysis on Organization Implementing Change

Bechtel Corporation is a fairly stable company, with few changes taking place at the moment. However, one of the significant efforts undertaken by Bechtel in the last few years was the scheme to attract new minds into the company from all over the world. For instance, Bechtel has recently launched a program to increase the inflow of Saudi Arabia graduates into the company and established a collaboration with the U.K. Science Museum Group to inspire young engineers. These efforts fit into the overall development of the organization, as it undertakes more and more projects in developing regions. The primary result of such efforts would be increased diversity, which has both benefits and limitations in the context of Bechtel Corporation.

Increased diversity will most likely result in the inflow of new ideas into the company; young workers from a variety of cultural backgrounds might offer a new perspective on resolving persistent issues, including ecological concerns and inefficient work processes. However, diversity might also bring new challenges to management due to possible barriers to communication, cultural considerations, and other issues. To prevent potential problems, the company would have to ensure that there is equal cultural diversity among the management staff, which would enable them to collaborate and solve issues more efficiently, by viewing them from a variety of perspectives. Culturally competent leadership would help Bechtel to yield all the benefits of increased diversity while at the same time reducing the probability of undesirable consequences.

Stakeholder Management Plan

As Bechtel moves its production efforts into new communities, stakeholder management becomes one of the key concerns of the organization. To ensure a positive relationship with new and existing stakeholders, the corporation must ensure the presence of culturally competent leaders and efficient functioning of public relations workers. Moreover, the company’s focus on sustainability will most likely help it to appeal to a wide variety of stakeholders. A communications plan would thus become an integral part of Bechtel’s stakeholder management strategy.

Communications Plan

Regarding communications, Bechtel faces both internal and external challenges. First of all, due to the company’s complex structure, Bechtel has to ensure efficient communication between the different workers and departments. Reviewing and upgrading information technologies and offering sufficient IT training to all employees would help to ensure that internal communications are effective. Secondly, with the increasing role of media in shaping organizational reputation, Bechtel needs to use efficient communication channels to maintain its reputation. For instance, sharing its sustainability goals and progress on social media would help the company to appeal to local stakeholders, whereas providing accurate and transparent information to media executives would help to avoid conflicts and negative publicity.

Negotiation Strategy and Plan

Bechtel’s existing negotiation strategy is fairly efficient, as the company has managed to maintain its market leadership in a highly competitive environment. However, with the growing concerns for sustainability, it would be important for Bechtel to stress its sustainability efforts and existing solutions for reducing the environmental footprint during the negotiation process. Moreover, for projects in developing regions and communities, it would be useful for Bechtel to offer employment opportunities, thus assisting in the development of local communities.

Conclusion

Overall, this project aimed to review the concepts of organizational structure, leadership, and change in the context of Bechtel Corporation. The current position of the company in the global construction and engineering market is fairly stable; however, construction projects in new communities and increased workplace diversity might result in challenges that the organization will have to overcome to continue its growth. Using simple strategies to promote transparency, sustainability, and cultural competency would help the company to resolve any issues and to function efficiently in new environments.

References

Debater’s strengths and weaknesses. (2017). Web.

Tran, Q., & Tian, Y. (2013). Organizational structure: Influencing factors and impact on a firm. American Journal of Industrial and Business Management, 3(2), 229-236.

Uddin, M. J., Luva, R. H., & Hossain, S. M. M. (2013). Impact of organizational culture on employee performance and productivity: A case study of telecommunication sector in Bangladesh. International Journal of Business and Management, 8(2), 63-77.

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