Mgmt110 Assessment 2 ontemporary Management Issue in Relation to This Case Study

Management 110 : Assessment 2

Contemporary management Issue in relation to this case study

1. Centralized Authority

• Bureaucracy is defined as an organizational form that consists of a hierarchy of differentiated knowledge and expertise in which rules and disciplines are arranged (Clegg et al. 2011, p459). Communications, control and decision-making authority are centralized in the organizations.  
• Autocratic leadership which is a leadership style characterized by individual control over all decisions and little or no input from group members (Cherry 2016). Alex used autocratic leadership to manage and lead the company.
• Alex Thomson, CEO of Mega Melayu does not consult with others and only hears what he wants to hear. He blames everyone but himself and start sacking key people he felt were responsible for not anticipating the threat from Air Semenyih.
• According to Chester Barnard, the key issue was leadership. Leadership must go beyond deciding the right thing to do and move on to the way to get it done (Gabor & Mahoney 2010). Workers are motivated towards organisational goal. Common values are emphasised rather than common orders to let employees work much more effectively (Clegg et al. 2011, p467).
• Democratic leadership could be used in managing workforce. Democratic leadership is a type of leadership style in which members of the company take a more participative role in the decision-making process (Cherry 2016). Strong democratic leaders inspire trust among followers. Because employees in Mega Melayu are encouraged to share their thoughts, democratic leadership can lead to better ideas and more creative solutions to problems. Just as the Chairman of Air Semenyih, Enchik Lee Chang, consults the Board of Directors for advices.

1. Poorly Motivated Employees

• “Employee motivation is considered as a force that drives the employees towards attaining specific goals and objectives of the organization (Shahzadi et al. 2014, p159).” Poorly motivated employees causes failure in the company to secure sales.
• In this case, Mega Melayu’s employees are demotivated, irresponsible and inefficient. When there is a problem in the company, no one would admit and take responsibility as they were only interested in making the CEO happy. The changes in consumer demands were not identified and adapted to, thus causing customers to search for alternatives. Eventually, Air Semenyih would benefit from Mega Melayu’s failure of giving satisfactory customer services and earn their customer loyalty.
• One way of increasing motivation of employees is developing team at the workplace. “Team can be defined as two or more people psychological contracted together to achieve a common organizational goal in which all individuals involved share at least some level of responsibility and accountability for the outcome (Clegg et al. 2011, p88).” Creating teamwork may solve the problem of not taking responsibility and blaming each other.
• Elton Mayo’s Hawthorne effect, known as Human Relations School, increases motivation and productivity of employees. The emphasis was on informal work group relations. The working group as a whole determines the output of individual workers (The Economist Newspaper Limited 2008), therefore better customer service by Mega Melayu Airlines.

1. Lack of Competition

• The problem for lack of competition is that the customers would be exploited as there is a fixed price in the market causing high prices with low quality services. The customers would not have the choice but to choose Mega Melayu Airlines. Management problems would arise with lack of competitions, such as, incompetence and inefficient employees, irresponsible HR managers and lack of objectives in the company.
• In this case, due to the monopolised market by Mega Melayu Airlines, there is excessively high airline fares, poor services with late and frequent cancelled flights.
• Globalization is a way of solving the problem. “Globalization means business without frontiers, crossing national boundaries, and dealing with the world, not just the home base (Clegg et al. 2011, p572).” Competition will be increased through globalization. In order to be competitive among the companies in the same industry, management in Mega Melayu will need to be improved and adapt to changes in the market environment. Effective human resource management is vital to achieve greater flexibility, productivity and the ability to responds rapidly to consumer needs and wants (Akanbi & Itiola 2013, p88). Consumers would be able to enjoy higher quality services with lower airline fares.

References

Akanbi, P & Itiola, K 2013, ‘Impact of Globalization on Human Resource Practices in a Manufacturing Firm in Nigeria’, European Journal of Business and Management, vol.5, no.6, pp88-90.

Cherry, K 2016, What is Autocratic Leadership?, Verywell, viewed 23 September 2016, <https://www.verywell.com/what-is-autocratic-leadership-2795314>

Cherry, K 2016, What is Democratic Leadership?, Verywell, viewed 23 September 2016, <https://www.verywell.com/what-is-democratic-leadership-2795315>