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Organizational Behavior

In: Business and Management

Submitted By tzhu022
Words 816
Pages 4
Organizational Analysis for Management (202)
Reflection Paper

Tong Zhu
November 13, 2012

Superior Communications Inc. is a leading provider of a complete line of wireless products and services to major cellular carriers, OEMs, and retailers. The organization is a tall and multicultural diverse organization. Each department is culturally diverse and consists of a vice president, a manager, and sometimes a supervisor. The department that I work in is the Product Development department where all creativity, innovation, and development happen. For three years that I been with the company, I have identified that the company struggles on innovation. SCP must bring fresh ideas, new technology, and never seen materials to the market to become the leading provider of wireless accessories. However, this has been very difficult because the organization does not offer a creative working environment nor does it provide enough motivators. A successful organization is one that fosters on creativity and innovation. Creativity is the first step in innovation and innovation is vital for long-term corporate success (Amabile). In the Product Development department at SCP, designers are required to come up with innovative ideas for every quarter. However, the working environment does not encourage creativity. Some creativity obstacles are the limitations or capabilities our oversea vendors have. Our engineers and vendors are trapped under the status quo because they are afraid to take responsibilities (Raiffa), and to avoid risk they would always tell us that our new ideas are unfeasible. Eventually, our designers are discouraged from all the rejections and began to believe that there is no point to be creative because our vendors do not have the capability to produce it. Poor communication flow is another problem I experienced at SCP that hinders innovation. SCP is a tall organization. Whenever we have an idea that the customer provided, the sales director would communicate the information to the program manager. The program manager would then translate the customer’s request to the director of the Product Development and he would notify me and I would notify the designers. This level of passing down information will cause miscommunication. By the time the messages reach to the designers, information might be lost and time is delayed. If not all the information were given correctly to the designers then the designs designers created will most likely not be what the customer had requested. If the designs were not what the customer requested then we would lose this business opportunity.
Last factor that hinders innovation is that the designers are low motivated themselves. The company does not provide intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for the design team. Since most designers are contractors the company does not offer them with employee benefits and high incentives. However, the company treats them as employees and expects them to work based on employee schedules. The company also does not provide intrinsic motivators. Since oversea vendors rejected most of their innovations, the designers do not desire to perform a behavior for their own sake (Jones). Designers are discouraged because they feel that being creative is meaningless if the products do not get produced. They feel unaccomplished and the company does not offer any accomplishment rewards for them either.
From these three root causes as to why SCP is struggling with innovation I recommend the following changes, which currently the company is already improvising on. First, we must remove the status quo trap from our vendors and engineers by enforcing the project managers to communicate efficiently with the vendors. Their daily communication with oversea vendors needs to identify goals and vision. Our vendors need to establish a common goal with SCP and identify alternatives for the designers to consider. Instead of saying no to building new products, they should come up with options and suggestions to how can it be done. For example, ask questions like what changes does the designers need to make yet still keep the concepts the same (Raiffa)? Second, communication across departments needs to be more specific and clear. Since there are many levels of communication that are done before the information gets passed down to the designers, program managers and sales team need to sort through the information given by the customer to avoid overload. This also could clear up any confusion that we might have and provide only the important information needed for the designers to know (Greenberg and Baron). Lastly, the company should provide better intrinsic and extrinsic motivators for the design team. The company should consider changing all contractors to employees so they receive benefits and rewards. The company should also consider research programs that can induce creativity and motivation.
In conclusion, Superior Communications is continuing to become an industry leader in research, development, and manufacturing of wireless accessories. In 2010, the company established an internal team named Innovations Lab with a mission to develop a state of art accessories using the latest technology, material, and environmental engineering.

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