Organisational Theory & Practice Assignment with Thomas Cook (GC01951)
Table of Contents
Introduction.
Management style and the principle and functions of management used by the CEO of Thomas Cook
The steps are taken concerning organizational structure to achieve high performance and the organizational culture of THOMAS COOK and its impact on its employees.
Describe the leadership style of the CEO of THOMAS COOK to enhance organizational effectiveness.
Analyze the effects of power, influence and conflict at the chosen firm.
Discuss the various types of motivation used at THOMAS COOK.
Use appropriate corporate examples and literature to justify your stand.
Recommendations to increase organizational performance.
Conclusion.
References.
Introduction
Every organization works in a socio-economic environment by a group of people to meet the demand of people. To run those organizations properly, organizational theory and practices help to make a sustainable decision for all. The organizational theory is a study that analyses the benefits of the organizations by determining their common problems and solving those. This case study on Thomas Cook will discuss the organizational theories and practices that it has followed over the year until the bankrupt.
However, it will discuss principles and concepts of management that will include management’s skills, roles and their function to the organization. Later, the collaboration between organizational functions and structure to achieve high performance will be analyzed by stating the organizational culture and its impacts on the employees. Then, the leadership styles of the CEO of Thomas Cook will be discussed. The effect of power, influence and conflict in the organization would also be evaluated. Various theories of motivation used by the organization will be discussed with developing a guideline for motivating employees to get the most out of them.
The report will end with suitable corporate examples to justify the views in this report and a set of recommendations for the organisations will be delivered to overcome similar problems that face Thomas Cook. By following those, it is hoped that no other organization will be bankrupt for the same reason.
Management style and the principle and functions of management used by the CEO of Thomas Cook
Management is an ongoing process of operating an organization and its people by planning, organizing, controlling and directing.
Principles of management used by the CEO of Thomas Cook:
The former CEO of Thomas Cook Peter Fankhauser has followed Henry Fayol’s principles of management. For following those, the CEO segregated the tasks in Thomas Cook to achieve work efficiency (Awofeso, 2013). Then he provided the authority and responsibility of tasks to the group or individuals to make them responsible. Discipline, unity of command, unity of direction also be followed carefully.
He also focuses on the organizational interest instead of personal and proper remuneration was provided to the individuals at the beginning. As the organization was operating worldwide, he tries to centralize it in London except for their executing power in the region. However, he also followed the rest of the principles like equality, scalar chain, spirit de corps etc.
Basic roles of the management of Thomas Cook: Peter Fankhauser was followed by Mintzberg’s set of management’s roles that includes 10 roles in three categories as shown in figure 2. He did his interpersonal roles like performing symbolic duties, for example, signing legal documents, he was a leader who directs and counsels’ subordinates, maintains communication with internal and external parties of the organization (Brambilla, 2015).
In informational roles, he was monitored and collected information, forwarding those to the organization and outside as needed for the best of the company. In decisional roles, Peter Fankhauser did as a CEO should do. He evaluates new projects and invests in those, handles any kind of crisis or disputes in the organization, prepares budgets responsibly and negotiated with parties in sales, purchases, union contracts etc.
Skills of managers of Thomas Cook: Managers must have some unique skills that will make them able to direct people towards the best benefit of the organization. Every manager including Thomas Cook’s must have technical, human and conceptual skills for managing people (Ronald, 2017). Here technical skills mean having the ability to perform a task efficiently like a computer scientist, engineer, accountants, market researcher etc.
Human skill means the ability to cooperate with others. A manager must have strong human skills that he could analyze people, their needs and motives. He must be able to convince people towards a purpose. Human skills are generally possessed by born but one may gather them through experience and practice.
Conceptual skills include the ability of one’s critical thinking so that managers can break down the problems to make them smaller and solve them. Higher conceptual skills provide more experience about handling different situation and managers has to deal with such long-term problem and consequences (Donaldson, 2017). Besides those, the manager also needs leadership skills, they must need to able in good oral and written communication, tolerance and self-objectivity skill also makes a people good manager.
Organizational functions of management: A good manager must be a master of his function as Peter Fankhauser did in his operation of Thomas Cook. It includes planning for the organizational vision and mission, setting up its strategies, goals and objectives (Pickard and Gist, 2015). Then he must work for organizing things like organization design, setting up its culture and social networks.
Then he must lead the people towards the plan by the way he organizes the organizational structure. Leading is not only showing the path, but it also includes decision making, communications with parties, managing groups or teams, motivating employees etc. Then he must control the things regularly on an established system.
The steps are taken concerning organizational structure to achieve high performance and the organizational culture of THOMAS COOK and its impact on its employees.
Interactions between the organizational structure & different functions: Interactions between organizational structure and its functions are very important because it ensures the highest outcome from a decision and achieves high performance. Thomas Cook followed a matrix organizational structure in its operation as it was headed by the board of directors (Shalabi, 2019). The company also has a different committee for different functions like HR, Finance, Auditing, Health & Safety etc. That committee was responsible for reporting to the body of directors and different segments are also controlled by the different boards who are linked with each other…………………