The Boundaryless Environment

Traditional companies with boundaries, rules, and extensive plans are at a supreme disadvantage in today’s globalized world, where technology changes daily and the value chain commands changes of its own. In a traditional company where people are categorized into neatly defined positions with their job descriptions filed in triplicate in the human resources department, the way a company plans its business can cause it to sink or swim.

Bad planning can mean lost opportunities, being overtaken by the competition, loss of revenues, or watching its niche slip away because of a new technology, an alteration in the global marketplace, or simply a failure to market its product effectively. When changes occur, they happen too quickly for its organizational processes to meet them. As a result, opportunities are quickly lost, problem situations take over rapidly, and before the company can respond appropriately, it has lost customers, opportunities, and market share.

Although that company likely has more than enough talent within its walls to offset all of those disasters, the talent is never put to use, because employees are constrained to operate within the confines of their job descriptions, where only the prescribed talents can be put to good use. The answer to this dilemma lies in boundaryless organizations. The boundaryless organization does not operate according to volumes of planning documents, job descriptions, or tradition, instead it regroups and innovates.

The boundaryless organization has developed primarily due to the widespread dissemination of information and the presence of information technology. But if you have great innovative companies such as Newskool Grooves that is always ready and ahead of the game, with a little guidance, the company can make it through. The company has to always be alert of impacts of every decision made. Employees must always feel like they are a part of this transition, and help must be giving to employees for adjustment to Newskool Grooves 3 new structure and product.

Boundaryless organization structures are a new concept that has emerged in the modern organization architecture. Boundaryless organization is an organization that seeks to eliminate the chain of command, have limitless spans of control, and replace departments with empowered teams (Robbins ; Judge, 2011). It is a highly adaptive and flexible structure that’s more suitable for the uncertain condition. The greater the uncertainty is, the greater this structure to be needed. Boundaryless organizations communicate mainly through email, phone and other virtual methods rather than more traditional face-to-face communication.

The freedom to telecommute with international employees removes geographical barriers to productivity and allows for schedule flexibility. By organizing expert employees in groups and giving them decision-making authority, these companies can change quickly to meet needs and function efficiently in an ill-defined hierarchy (Griffin, 2011). Over the yearsNewskool has been a successful and innovative company, always ahead of the industry. Transitioning to a boundaryless organization has its advantages as well as disadvantages.

In a boundaryless structure, there is a high level of collaboration in all the aspect of the organization. In this case there is collaboration between the management, customers, suppliers and the competitors. This means that there is no unit which is considered superior to the other and there is reduced chain of command in the organization. Advantages are that there is leverage of talents for all the employees. This means that all Newskool employees are engaged in the management of the organizations. There is also enhanced cooperation, coordination and information at all the levels of the organization.

There is enhanced information sharing among the different divisions in the organization and the different external constituencies of the Newskool Grooves 4 organization. A boundaryless organization structure also enhances a quicker response to the market changes by using a single focus. This helps the organization to adapt to the changes quickly. Newskool is no stranger to this adaptation because they are already a decentralized culture. A disadvantage that Newskool would have to be aware of is the possibility of downsizing. Newskool is trying to get their feet wet in a new industry, and revenue is not going to generate like their used to.

So divisions that are not adding value may need to be cut. More disadvantages to Newskool as a boundaryless organization is communication and cultural issues. Communication is already at a disadvantage now amongst the Los Angeles office and the office in Kiev. As we know, communication must include both the transfer and the understanding of meaning (Robbins ; Judge, 2011). Each office will have to try harder as a cross-functional team to effectively communicate whether via email or video conference, for that face to face meet.

Each office needs to consider the different time zones that the offices are experiencing and come to a common ground on an allotted monthly meeting date and a specific time where it is appropriate for both time zones. Cultural difference will be another disadvantage to the company because the Kiev office is in a culture setting where they are used to structure and directions. This means within the Kiev office the decisions and innovative ideas may not flow as frequent as it would be here in the states.

I recommend that the boundaryless structure of the Kiev office be implemented and motivated with caution not all at once. You don’t want to hinder their production. Newskool Grooves 5 In order for Newskool to deal with the advantages and disadvantages collectively and move forward successfully, the company must take action by forecasting who is best for the new structure of the company and motivating those left. With downsizing, you have to be careful with who you are letting go as well as who the company chooses to retain. An employee performance may not have been the best if they were not in the right position.

Their attributes toward the company development may differ in a positive way once they find out what is right for them. Newskool managers need to know how to measure personality within their culture. The most important reason managers need to know how to measure personality is that research has shown personality tests are useful in hiring decisions and help managers forecast who is best for a job (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, p. 135). This is especially important because of the downsizing; you don’t want to let good people go if you don’t have to.

I would recommend to Newskool an observer-ratings survey. Observer-rating surveys provide an independent assessment of personality (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, p. 135). If management is utilized as the observer, that is great but for a more effective job I recommend the use of management and peer evaluation. I think that before going through the downsizing, Newskool can reduce negative impacts by preparing for the post-downsizing environment in advance, thus alleviating some employee stress and strengthening support for the new strategic direction (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, p. 02).

This deals with investment, communication, participation, and assistance. If before, during, and after the downsize, the company invests in “high-involvement work practices” for the new structure, communicate with employees throughout the entire ordeal, involve the employees, and assist them with some form of compensation, the employees see that the company really do care Newskool Grooves 6 for their past attributions toward the company as well as the employee. This can make the transition and new structure more efficient and productive.

Other recommendations that I have for Newskool that would help with downsizing, is utilizing performance measures. In the past employees has only been evaluated based upon the task listed on a job description. Today, there is less hierarchical and more service oriented organizations that require more (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, p. 565). There are three major types of behaviors that help evaluate performance at work, and they are task performance, citizenship, and counterproductivity.

Task performance is performing the duties of responsibilities that contribute to the production of a goods or service or to administrative tasks (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, p. 565). Citizenship is actions that contribute to the psychological environment of the organization, such as helping others when not required (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, p. 565) . Counterproductivity are actions that actively damage the organization, including stealing, behaving aggressively toward co-workers, or being late or absent (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, p. 565).

These methods will help management make general human resource decisions bout promotions, transfers, and terminations (downsizing). I recommend these evaluations to also identify training and development needs within each office. Culturally each office is different and should have similar but different training and development needs. Along with performance measures I recommend specific selection practices of the employees. The employees should have to go through substantive selection for the new structure. For the Kiev offices, performance-simulation tests would be put into place.

Those offices are used to leadership structures and well defined work processes. The performance-simulation Newskool Grooves 7 recommended, is work sample tests that focuses more on the employees ability to work in a boundaryless organization. The other locations are recommended to do the same performance-simulation but the tests focuses more on the employee’s knowledge and skills. When those steps are carefully treaded, when it comes to motivation, the remaining Newskool employees won’t have to be pushed so hard to adapt to the new structure.

They will be more self-motivated and willing to work because, they’ve already liked their work environment but, now because of the companies downsizing techniques, they know they are with a company that puts the employees first. So ultimately the goals of the individual employees will be the same of that the companies. The intensity of the employee will go higher but with direction that benefits the company. The employees will remain persistent in all that they do for Newskool, because of all that Newskool does for them.

No matter how good a job the organization does in recruiting and selection, new employees are not fully indoctrinated in the organization’s culture and can disrupt beliefs and customs already in place. The process that helps new employees adapt to the prevailing culture is socialization. Socialization is a process that adapts employees to the organization’s culture. (Robbins ; Judge, 2011, pp. 528-529) Newskool Grooves should implement socialization. Even though the employees aren’t new, the structure is fairly new and the product being produced is new as well.

Every employee should participate in the prearrival stage before the implementation of the new product. So that when the new product arrives and the employees has a set of values, attitudes, and expectations about both the work and what is expected to be done and the new culture of the organization. Once the product arrives, we have the encounter stage. The Newskool Grooves 8 employees first encounter with the new product and way of doing things. The employee should be able to confront the possibility within themselves that company expectations can or cannot be met.

The metamorphosis stage occurs when the employees adjust to the new way of the organization. This model can be used for future new employees as well. This socialization process can be used in all of Newskool Grooves office settings.