Structure, Communication, Culture, and Motivation of a Company

Structure

The structure of a company is very important in order to be a successful company. Some companies tend to leave all the decisions and ideas to the top executives or consultants. Other businesses let anyone who works for the company to have a proposal introduced no matter what position the employee holds in the company. The company I work for would be considered "bottom- up", which means any employee can come forth with a suggestion. An employee can write an email, or write it down on a comment/suggestion card and drop in the box which will be read later. Some times the request will be discussed with an employee and other times it will be denied. I think this makes employees feel more needed and more significant to the company. There have been several policies that have changed in my department because of employees constantly making suggestions. When an employee feels that they can participate in changes, new products, and enhancements to the company, they consider themselves as part as the company. Any employee, who feels as though they are part of a company as a whole, will take more pride in their work and give a more noble effort to every assignment whether it is small or extremely important.

Not only can an employee implement new fresh concepts, but in some cases that employee might be dealing with customers daily which provides them with the inside information about what buyers want. For example, in my floor we have the reservations department which deals with travel agents and directs everyday for eight hours day, so who better to know what people are looking for than them. On the contrary, top-down companies like to be in control and employees have no say to what needs to be done.

This can present a conflict between workers and upper management simply because management might think one way, but the workers know exactly what should be done, however they can't voice their own opinion.

Besides being a bottom up company it is also decentralized and divided into groups. By decentralized I mean the company scatters the decision power and influence throughout the organization. My group is a self-managed team which Nelson and Economy (2003) state is to meet together to find solutions to common worker problems. Different departments have there own supervisors, managers, or director. Each sub-department on the floor is divided into groups which possess a particular supervisor. These supervisors oversee about 15 employees per group, which is considered a narrow span of control. A narrow span of control gives more attention to the employee on a one-on-one basis. A supervisor with 50 - 75 employees can not possibly attend to every employee that has a conflict with someone or something. So a narrow span of control lets the employee feel free to approach a supervisor without hesitating or feeling as though the supervisor is not interested in what the worker has to say.

Not only is the company decentralized, bottom-up, grouped, and has a narrow span of control, but its also structured tall. By this I mean, every employee has a supervisor to report to, and every supervisor has a manager, and the managers have a director. Although there seems to be a chain of command, an employee can go directly to a director. I find this to be a very good method of allowing the employee to feel free to approach the director if he/she feels they have been treated unfairly by a supervisor or manager.

Communication

The department I work for has a large amount of employees and yet communication feedback is fast and efficient. Our department consist of every employee with a computer so new policies or regulations get to every employee rather quickly.

We have a section in our reservations system that updates any new information that needs to be known, and employees are aware that they have to check that section on a daily basis. This technique is extremely useful, and guarantees that every employee will receive any new material that needs to be relayed. On top of the appropriate section with constant updates, supervisors steadily send out emails to there agents about any new notifications. Without a doubt, communication is the lifeblood of any organization (Nelson and Economy, 2003).

The Mission Statement is a crucial element in the strategic planning of a business organization (Cardani, P. 1). Our department has created a mission statement that we are all happy and proud to abide by. Our mission statement is: "To consistently provide quality cruise vacations that exceed the expectations of our guests." I believe this statement is exactly how a customer would like to feel about a company in the travel industry. Any and every guest wants a quality vacation that will exceed the guest expectations in order to be completely satisfied and content. Our mission statement is posted on the wall as soon as we clock in and during our training it is a test question in one of the exams. So our department managers don't really enforce the mission statement but every employee is aware of it and should know it by heart. I do believe that management can make more of a valiant effort to emphasize the mission statement to fortify that every employee knows what the company stands for and what its goals are.

At times, a worker can forget what's the purpose of his/her job, and that's when the mission statement can refresh the staff member's memory.

The overall communication in my department is excellent and adequate. Any new changes can spread quickly to the floor. Managers have it easy to communicate to employee through email swiftly. Information is power, and as the speed of business accelerates, information must be communicated to employees faster than ever (Nelson and Economy, 2003). I consider the procedures to be well- organized and instantaneous to a worker. An employee with information is more productive and knowledgeable to a company than a worker who doesn't have a clue to what's going on. Our department does a wonderful job of making sure every employee is on the same page with same wisdom as everyone else on the floor.

Culture

The one thing our department thrives on is rituals and ceremonies. My department has routine rituals that are done daily or monthly but that are always consistently carried out by our supervisors. The first ritual that I would have to mention in our department is lunch. All of us have exactly half an hour to clock in and out for lunch. We all agree that is definitely too short of a lunch but there's nothing anyone can do about it. Another ritual is our supervisor at the end of every month gives us feedback and an evaluation of that month. In the evaluation,