Case Issue

The significance of the report is in the higher withdrawal rate of the student and its effects on the organizational culture.  The report aims at ensuring appropriate means for reducing it. The report also tries to signify that there is difficulty in recruitment of new instructor for the education centre as no one is ready to sign the stringent contracts put forward by the organization. In this context, the report aims at suggesting means for dealing with the situation and overcoming it effectively in order to protect the organizational image. The high absenteeism amongst the instructors is also a matter of concern as it affects the organizational image. The report also focuses on suggesting ways for reducing absenteeism amongst the instructors that is indirectly affecting withdrawal of students. 

The organization chosen here is My Little Genius that aims to provide early childhood education for children between the 6 months to 5 years old. January 2016 saw the establishment of My Little Genius with two branches in Singapore and one branch in Vietnam. The education centre operated with a total work force of 20 employees (Mylittlegenius.com.my  2017). The aim of the education centre was towards not only enhancing the multi-language ability of the children but also ensuring that they have high-speed visual ability for absorption, enhanced ability of concentration, ability for sharp imagination and development of fine and gross motor skills. 

The issue of the case study that needs analysis includes high withdrawal rate of the student. The primary reason for the withdrawal rate however focuses on the absence of the instructors and the need for a change in class schedule. The withdrawal rate may also be higher due to the availability of teaching materials that is unable to attract the attention of the children. Another issue signifies that there is also difficulty in recruitment of new instructor for the education centre (Teachers 2017). The reason is that the instructors asked to sign a bond for two years of training and made to work on weekends. Focus on this issue is necessary because the lack of availability of instructors will hamper the working of the organization. The third issue deals with the higher absenteeism for the instructors. This is because the instructors made to teach in 6 times slot a day that becomes not only overloading but also pressurizing and tiring. Thus, analysis of the issues is important with an attempt to reduce them so that the organizational image of the company remains protected. The aggravation of these issues will lead to a negative impact on the culture of the educational centre that might push it towards running into losses (Playground 2017)

The assessment of the organizational culture and comparison between the existing situation and the desired one considered as efficient and useful tool that can help in supporting the development of an organization and in the achievement of a sustainable performance. The organizational culture explained with the help of various models like the focus model also known as the model of competing values, the human synergistic model and the Denison model.

Literature Review

According to Büschgens, Bausch and Balkin (2013), the model of competing values based on some dimensions that possess opposite values. Organizations not only need to be flexible but also adaptable with the requirement of organizational control and stability. There is a development need in organizations for attracting external support and resources and at the same time ensure proper management of formal communication and internal information. The model though emphasizes the needs human resources in an organization but there is also the need for establishment of appropriate planning and objectives. This model created by American researchers R.E. Quinn and J. Rohrbaugh (2012) but adapted later by K. Cameron and R.E. Quinn that emphasized on the complex nature of the organizational culture according to internal and external focus, stable and flexible structure. This model also known as the focus model helps in guiding the organizational objectives according to the external environment and internal integration.

There are four quadrants of the model. The upper left quadrant also known as the human relations model depends on internal control and flexibility. The right upper quadrant also known as the open system model focuses on external focus and flexibility. The lower quadrant on the right refers to the rational targets characterized by external focus and predictability (Ford and Richardson 2013). The quadrant to the lower left also known as the internal process model that focuses on internal focus and predictability. Thus, each of the quadrants offers some functions from which the company can choose and function in an effective manner. Therefore, according to the model these quadrants represent some features from which the company can effectively choose and function in an effective manner.

The quadrants represent the basic assumption like beliefs, elements and values that are necessary in making up the culture. However, according to (Cameron et.al 2014), none of the quadrants are better compared to the other as similar as the fact that no culture considered better. Some cultures are appropriate in certain contexts in comparison to others. However, the secret of using the culture for improving the performance of the company depends on adapting to it for achieving the objectives of the organization.

The discussion now focuses on the Human Synergistics Model that is a graphical representation of an integrated conceptual model referred as Circumplex. This theory depends on various acknowledged management and psychological theories including the MCClelland theory. The model created by psychology specialist Clayton Lafferty (2013) and American Professor Robert A. Cook. There are twelve styles and attitudes of leaders in an organization. This includes:

Being humanist and encouraging- The leader shows an interest in others and their development

Ensuring Affiliation- The leader is interested in the establishment of the relationship and thereby helping in communication of others

Determination of Results- The leader focuses on challenge and on getting good results. Therefore, they remain focused on achieving excellence.

Ensuring Self Development- The leader is happy and self-confident and in a position in trying newer things. Here the leader is also knows her strengths and limitations.

Being Approval- The leader is interested in the opinion of others thereby portraying an attitude of getting whatever the employees want.

Being Conventional- The leader tries to abide by the organizational rules and regulations thereby trying to integrate them into the organization.

Support from Subordinates- The leader here makes sure that they have enough support for implementing their decisions.

Avoids Risk- Avoids risk and prefers not working in conditions that are complex.

Avoiding Opposition- The existing criticism in the organization influences the leader and makes them feel alienated.

Ensuring Power –The leader’s attitude guided by the motto of power since they dos not trust anyone.

Being Competitive- The leader remains under lot of pressure since they constantly have to answer questions related to others thought about them.

Being Perfectionist- The leader guided by the motto that they ensure perfection in whatever they do.

However, the Circumplex Model is not necessarily a personality test but an instrument for measuring the behavior, attitudes and styles adopted by the organization. The model works on the premise that one can make a choice of a particular behavior for any given situation thereby resulting in renouncing of the inappropriate and inadequate attitude (Olson, Russell and Sprenkle 2014). The styles presented by this model categorized into three sections which are the constructive style that focus towards the satisfaction of the staffs, passive defensive style which focuses on promotion of people/security and aggressive defensive style that focuses on safety/achievement.

In this context, the Denison model for determining the organizational culture also finds a mention.  The model is based on research and studies carried out for 20 years. This model of organizational culture emphasizes on a strong link that exists between performance and culture (Gholamzadeh and Yazdanfar 2012). The model created by an American professor Denison focuses on various cultural dimensions that include involvement, consistency, adaptability and mission. Each of the dimensions comes with three features. Involvement refers to the fact that empowering employees is the basic need for effective organization where the focus is not only on teamwork but development of human skills at the organizational level. This dimension comes with specific features that include empowerment, orientation to the team work and development of skills. Consistency is another dimension that focuses on defining elements and values that forms the base of the culture of an organization. The distinctive features of this dimension however include consensus, core values and integration and coordination. Adaptability is another dimension that helps in transforming external business environment into action (Momeni, Marjani and Saadat 2012). The features include creation of change, orientation of the customer and organizational learning. The mission focuses on long term direction for the organization. However, mission is characterized by aims and objectives, vision and strategic direction.

Organizational culture plays a key role in the implementation of an organizational change according to (Mozaffari, Soltani and Bozorgzad 2012). There is a dominant culture in every organization that helps the organization in responding and adapting to the environmental challenges. The organizations that are capable of meeting the four quadrants mentioned by the model of competing values considered balanced for achieving performance (Kokina and Ostrovska 2014). Moreover, the leaders of this organization can balance the conflicting requirements thereby suggesting that high performance is a reflection of simultaneous mastery of paradoxical and contradictory capacities. If the example of the case study organization is drawn in this regard then one will be able to find that the organization did not have a balanced culture since there was high student rate withdrawal, difficulty in recruitment of new instructor and higher absenteeism rate of these instructors.

However, there has been the prevalence of constructive culture in many organizations that have led to the achievement of set tasks which can help in achieving personal satisfaction. But the culture that that prevailed in case study organization was not satisfactory. This is because there was no balance created between initiatives taken, independent thinking, consensus and teamwork (Fullan 2014). The organization lacked appreciation of inter human relationships which was reason for instructor recruitment as well as absenteeism. Seeing the present state of the case study organization it can be quite confidently admitted that the organization did not follow passive defensive culture or aggressive defensive culture. However, in passive defensive culture the behavior of individuals gets characterized by the security need and minimum predisposition existing towards risk. Here the individuals’ acts in manner so that other’s behaviors are not injured thereby leading to the avoidance of interpersonal conflict (Alvesson and Sveningsson 2015). Therefore, in this case the procedures, rules and orders get fulfilled without any question. The controlled environment that prevails ensures that the supervision is intense and positions well defined. The managers’ does not emphasize the good results but does not miss the opportunity in portraying the negative aspects of the activity of the employees within organization. On the other hand, the aggressive defensive culture stresses on the defensive behavior of the individuals that shows the necessity for maintaining a hierarchical position within an organization.

The measurement of culture shows that it directly impacts the activities of the employees and the operation of the company. This measurement also links to staff satisfaction, teamwork, motivation, service quality and meeting the efficiency criteria of the organization.

The analysis is now done with the help of Denison circumplex model that focuses on contradictions that is a result of the lack of coordination between the internal integration process and external adaptation (Michael?Tsabari and Lavee 2012). According to this model, organizations that focus on the external environment often have problems related to internal integration whereas those focusing on the internal environment face adaption difficulties to the external environment. Organizations that are able to resolve contradictions without any kind of compromises are effective.

Dennison model is divided into four quadrants with two axes, a vertical one and a horizontal one. The vertical axis shows the type and degree of organizational culture and centralization. However, the horizontal axis is the degree of flexibility of the organization. According to Denison, companies that have strengths in all four quadrants considered highest performers. They know the reason for their existence and their mission. As per this model, the employees too support and share the vision of the company and thereby use their abilities and skills for achieving organizational goals. The model put forward by Dennison is used for profiling of organizations in highlighting the weakness and strengths and also suggest ways where organizational culture is able to influence its effectiveness.  

Therefore, in the light of the Dennison model, the organization of the case study can be analyzed (DeYoung et.al 2013). Denison focuses on involvement which the organization of the case study very much lacked. There was lack of employee empowerment, teamwork and development of skills at the organizational level. Therefore, the educational centre faced difficulty in instructor recruitment that was followed by their absenteeism. They never could feel themselves as a part of the organization. Therefore, they had no power to influence the decision of the organization which can finally lead to the fulfillment of the organizational goals. Their lack of involvement is therefore reflected as a high withdrawal rate amongst the students thereby leaving a gap in the fulfillment of the organizational goals. The consistency factor mentioned by the model was not followed by the organization of the case study. The educational centre did not have any defined set of values that determined strong organizational culture. Moreover they also not well coordinated and lacked integration. There were no well defined values for determination of the employee behavior and therefore the organization lacked the support of the staffs. The organization mentioned in the case study organization showed no signs of adaptability which is the third aspect of the Denison model. Adaptability helps an organization in transforming the internal requirements for meeting the business requirements externally (Lehmann 2012). Thus, to run the business as an educational centre the organization must become more adaptable by learning to take risk, learning from their mistakes and possess the ability for creating a change. Therefore, the educational centre to achieve its goals must possess the ability of retaining the employees, increase employee employment through change of its policies and also try to reduce absenteeism.

5. a. Conclusion 

The report concludes in the light that organization culture is an important aspect of implementation of an organizational change. There is however several dimensions of an organizational change that involves innovation, stability, respect for people, outcome orientation, detail orientation and team orientation. Organizational culture therefore remains at a critical stage for adaption by organizations. The report has put forward various perspectives and has analyzed the case study organization based on these perspectives. However, culture is something that will not only allow an organization to response to its problems but also helps in its internal integration and external adaptation. 

The educational centre can improve the present scenario through the process of adaptability as mentioned in the report. Thus, to reduce the withdrawal rate of the students the educational centre can increase the number of instructors so that whenever one person leave may not hamper the activities of the organization. Reviewing and improving the current teaching materials can also help in student retention. The centre must also bank on its fees structure by providing an attractive offer for the initial six months. The educational centre can focus on increasing the number of instructors through change of some of its policies. The reduction of the bond period to 6 months from 6 months in addition to providing an additional allowance for weekend workers will definitely motivate employees towards work. The company can also provide attractive offers for yearly travel. In order to deal with absenteeism the educational centre, by reducing the time slot for teaching, arranging for dinner or lunch once a month so that the staffs feel motivated. 

References: 

Alvesson, M. and Sveningsson, S., 2015. Changing organizational culture: Cultural change work in progress. Routledge.

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