As organizations continue to diversify, the opportunities for workplace problems intensify. Business and organization owners typically face one or more of three potential levels of conflict — employee, team or organization issues. Most of the time, the underlying causes of these problems are the lack of open communications or using the wrong organizational structure.

SandRidge Energy, for example, has problems in executive pay and benefits related party transactions. Their shareholders have serious concerns about the company’s pay practices. There are unclear relationship between compensation and performance, a short-term policy orientation and concerns about internal pay equity. Even worse, SandRidge’s CEO Tom Ward discloses very little information about its approach to handling its environmental and social risks and opportunities, which may raise concerns for investors.

SandRidge Energy is not the only company experiencing huge management red flags. PPL Corporation also has problems in executive compensation. This company’s annual performance bonus plan is discretionary with payouts, and it’s not based on hitting pre-established performance targets. And its CEO William Spence is entitled to over $24 million in the event of a termination following a change in control.

Both CEOs of SandRidge Energy and PPL Corporation have demonstrated ineffective leadership. They can fail their employees by not defining a compelling vision for the company, not delegating, and not representing multiple constituencies. Moreover, such organizational problems may lead to severe team problems, such as the absence of team identity. Employees of the company may not feel mutually accountable to one another for the company’s objectives. There may be a lack of commitment and effort, conflict between team goals and employees’ personal goals, or poor collaboration as their efforts are not being equally and fairly appreciated and rewarded. Furthermore, the lack of identity will lead to a lack of participation, where employees may fail to complete their assigned tasks and responsibilities. Thus, organizational behaviors are vital to organizational success in the dynamic global marketplace today, failure to do so will put companies with huge management red flags and cause irreversible severe consequences.

Reference:

1. https://workplacepsychology.net/2010/12/17/eight-common-problems-teams-encounter/; EIGHT COMMON PROBLEMS TEAMS ENCOUNTER;  STEVE NGUYEN, PH.D.
2. http://www.businessinsider.com/10-companies-with-huge-management-red-flags-2012-2#hewlett-packard-hpq-1 10 Companies With Huge Management Red Flags, business insider
3. The first picture: http://www.wisegeek.com/what-are-the-most-common-organizational-culture-problems.htm; What Are the Most Common Organizational Culture Problems?
4. The second picture: http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/sandridge-energy-inc-provides-operations-update-and-full-year-2016-guidance-300335604.html ; SandRidge Energy, Inc. Provides Operations Update and Full Year 2016 Guidance
5. The third picture: http://www.insidermonkey.com/blog/ppl-corporation-ppls-ppl-electric-utilities-planning-to-start-a-new-regional-transmission-line-project-324857/ ; PPL Corporation (PPL)’s PPL Electric Utilities Planning New Regional Transmission Line Project

“The greatest continuing area of weakness in management practice is the human dimension. In good times or bad, there seems to be little real understanding of the relationships between managers, among employees, and interactions between the two. When there are problems, everyone acknowledges that the cause often is a communication problem. So now what?” Jim Lukazewski, 2006  

Businesses do not thrive solely by successfully selling goods and services. Providing positive experiences to employees is equally important as offering good services to customers. Such experiences include how staff members engage in their work, how they interact with colleagues, superiors, and customers. A supportive working environment will encourage and model positive organizational behavior among employees, and thus ensuring high productivity in the workplace.

Positive organizational behavior is well-practiced in companies like Starbucks. Starbucks views their employees as more than just workers but also brand ambassadors. Effective employee engagement achieves employees transition from workers who show up every day in the coffee shop to brand ambassadors who incorporate the company’s mission into their daily work. Moreover, Starbucks cares so much about boosting customer service from within, that they spent $35 million to send 9,600 store managers to their Leadership Lab conference and exhibition.

Starbucks Leadership Lab includes leadership training and trade show with demonstrations of new products and signs with helpful sales suggestions, such as “tea has the highest profit margins.” The majority of experiences are educational and beneficial to employees, including giving store managers access to top managers of the company’s roasting process, blend development, and customer service. Employees’ experiences in the Leadership Lab facilitate and deepen their understanding of the brand, which will encourage more engagement with their company. Furthermore, running a small business within a global brand will give managers feelings of autonomy without disconnectedness.

Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Meets With 9,000 Store Managers

Such employee empowerment strategy has a promising impact on work performance and employee well-being. Employee engagement can increase company morale, employee motivation, efficiency and customer service. This may also explain why Starbucks maintains its position as the largest and most popular coffeehouse company in the world.

Reference:

1. http://positivepsychologynews.com/news/timothy-so/200903181667 Positive Organizational Behaviour and Better Work Performance; Positive Psychology News; Timothy T.C. So.
2. http://smbp.uwaterloo.ca/2015/02/social-media-and-employee-engagement-the-starbucks-example/ Social Media and Employee Engagement: The Starbucks Example tinageisel.
3. http://smallbusiness.chron.com/examples-illustrations-positive-organizational-behavior-81818.html Examples & Illustrations of Positive Organizational Behavior, Small Business; Kenya Lucas.
4. The first picture: https://www.insiderfinancial.com/is-this-the-beginning-of-something-more-serious-for-starbucks-corporation-nasdaqsbux/119335/Is This The Beginning Of Something More Serious For Starbucks Corporation
5. The second picture: http://www.gettyimages.ca/event/starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-meets-with-9-000-store-managers-153609281?#howard-schultz-chief-executive-officer-of-starbucks-corp-right-jack-picture-id153377910; Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz Meets With 9,000 Store Managers
6. The third picture: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140605005494/en/Starbucks-Significant-Education-Investments-Develop-Future-Leaders;

   Starbucks Makes Significant Education Investments to Develop Future Leaders in China; Eastern Daylight Time

Organizational communications play an essential role in effective public relations, which would maintain and enhance an organization’s reputation and brand image.

In order to ensure that the public and the target audience clearly understand and correctly interpret the organization’s message and information offered, especially in the modern world today, where customers are overwhelmed by various forms of information and marketing strategies. Organizational blogs, a media adopted by many companies, have become increasingly popular to facilitate the two-way communication between the organization and public.

Unlike traditional Websites, organizational blogs that allow readers to add comments and include hyperlinks, create an opportunity for fully two-way communications between organizations and their publics. Moreover, with the valuable and necessary feedbacks and reviews from the target audience, the organization would understand its potential customers better.

Microsoft actively encourages employees to blog at blogs.msdn.com. They communicate with a sense of humor, admit mistakes when they are pointed out, and provide links to competitors. Microsoft was the single largest host of corporate blogs in 2004 according to data collected by Sifry, who said that ”there is still a tremendous opportunity for forward-thinking companies and management to have a significant positive impact on their public perception’’ by way of hosting blogs.

Organizational blogs are the intersection of personal reflection and professional communication. Moreover, such blogs have evolved from both online and offline modes of communication and have characteristics of both personal and professional communication.

In adapting to the demands of the new market, the large online communities. The shift in approach from markets as targets to markets as conversations, such as being open to dialogue, welcoming conversational communication, and providing prompt feedback, will build a strong and collaborative relationship with publics, and customers will be more likely to remain loyalty towards the company.

With effective two-way communications, the needs of the target audience can be better understood. A more specific and direct targeted public relation activity can then be designed to meet and exceed the expectations of the public and achieve organizational success in today’s dynamic global marketplace.

Reference:

1. The first picture: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com, Microsoft blog website
2. The second picture: https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com. Microsoft blog website
3. http://www.referenceforbusiness.com/management/Ob-Or/Organizational-Behavior.html, Organizational Behavior, Reference for business
4.  https://www.coursehero.com/file/8699175/Organizational-Blogs-and-the-Human-Voice/  Organizational blogs and the human voice, relational strategies and relational outcomes
5. http://www.instituteforpr.org/employee-organizational-communications/ Employee / Organizational Communications; The SCIENCE Beneath the ART of PUBLIC RELATIONS