Boundaryless Organizations
In the traditional business setting, organizations have defined structures and responsibilities for every worker. The companies have rules, boundaries, and extensive plans within which everyone in the company must operate. The personnel in these businesses are constrained by some measures such as communication and duties which are made into job descriptions which are filed in the human resource department. Such a company is at risk of going down due to the changing face of technology and the changes in the value chain command. A mistake in planning can cause the firm to lose opportunities, to sink in a competitive environment, lose revenue, or have its market niche slip away due to new technology, failure in marketing, or an alteration in the global market. This gives us the opportunity to think of another model where the constraints are limited and are known as a boundaryless organization.
A boundaryless organization is a term used to refer to a business whose management has broken down the constraints and barriers between both the external and internal levels ( Ashkenas et al., 2015) . It transcends the traditional rigid structure of bureaucracy and the boundaries while ignoring the borders which separate the business itself from its stakeholders, markets, and customers. In a boundaryless organization, there lack the usual vertical, horizontal, and external constraints that are always visible in the old models. The absence of such borders brews an environment for a close relationship between the managers, employees, suppliers, and customers hence encouraging sharing of ideas and employment of the best course for the organization to follow.
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Challenges and Advantages of Boundaryless Organizations
Just from the discussion above, it is imperative to state that this kind of organization structure has several advantages for the stakeholders. The primary form of communication of such organization is through virtual methods such as email and phone rather than the traditional face to face. This telecommunication helps the company remove the geographical barriers that may hinder productivity by allowing for flexibility in schedules ( Ashkenas et al., 2015) . The workers are free to work away from the office, and at any time they wish as they are not bound by the time constraint of being in a place at a particular time. The other advantage is that the employees are given the power to make their own decisions that may be best for them to drive their results. The freedom makes the employees have autonomy over some of the decisions in the departments that may be helpful for the company in the long run. The freedom to make choices also helps the companies to change quickly and meet the needs to function in a harsh environment. The boundaryless organization embraces technology making it able to be fast in changes making it competitive for long as it gives them an upper hand in producing quality products and services.
However, there are considerable concerns that come with the boundaryless organization structure that makes it challenging. To begin with, it is problematic to manage all the employees that are spread across a wider geographic area (Rodrigues et al., 2015). There is a lack of coordination in activities and goals of every area representative. The major problem is communication and cultural aspects. The departments of the company may be located in areas where the languages are different and thus jeopardizing an effective communication across the divide. The other thing is that their different time zones may affect the consensus on what time to meet. Bringing together people who are from different cultural values and principles from the different regions may be a problem as some areas are used to the boundary structure of an organization. Since the boundaryless organization has allowed for the freedom of making decisions that affect the company, there can be instances where there arise poor strategies and coordination thus causing problems.
Cultural Challenges in a Boundaryless Organization
An example of a boundaryless organization is the NewSkool Groove which operates in different part of the world. In such an organization, numerous cultural challenges arise due to the difference in the geographical locations of the departments (Kim et al., 2015). The conflict is also due to different national backgrounds, different people activities, and different cultural backgrounds. Some of the challenges that are associated with this issue are different traditions, language barriers, time relationships, and individualism compared to coordination.
NewSkool is a music software company that operates in regions like America, Germany, Ukraine, among others. While the company dwells in these different environments, it is deemed to meet different work philosophy of each of the countries (Caligiuri & Lundby, 2015). In America for instance, the main issue is individualism which encourages every person to struggle on their own during problem-solving. In Ukraine, the culture is affiliated with groups and joint function to achieve success. Whereas the employees in Los Angeles are well versed with the notion of each own pursuing goal, those in Kiev rely on one another to move ahead. This brings the confusion on the autonomy to make decisions as lacking coordination across the two regions and about each person pursuing own objective.
The difference in time value is also another conflict eminent in the NewSkool Groove model (Kim et al., 2015). While the Kiev employees are continually calling the L.A. office to offer a solution fast, the Response is always they wait until the employees in L.A. meet before solving the issues. The language barrier is also eminent in the whole NewSkool Groove organization. The employees are drawn from America, Germany, and Ukraine and placed in L.A, Berlin, and Kiev respectively. Given the need for constant communication, there results in a boundary in the languages, and there are just extents to which the employees can discuss.
The American and Ukrainian traditions are two worlds apart, and this is a problem for the organization. While the L.A. employees believe in autonomy and the lack of supervision, the workers in Kiev believe in a strong leadership figure in operation.
As seen in the above discussion, it is therefore evident that the cultural challenges that the employees at the NewSkool face is not as a result of the different duties or different types of work that the worker has to accomplish in the company. It is instead a complex manifestation of relationships and people’s cultures, education principles, national tradition and philosophy, and their language (Kim et al., 2015).
Motivation and Personality
A challenging environment such as that of NewSkool would require the management to design an elaborate motivation plan. Concerning Maslow’s Theory of Motivation, before an individual is motivated, there most basic needs have to be met at the level they are currently. This means that the different job levels have different needs. Each of the lower levels of Maslow’s hierarchy must be satisfied before the person can achieve a higher level. A necessity stops to be a motivator once it has been completed. These levels of motivations and the measures the management can take are explained in the section below.
Physiological and biological necessities depict the basic needs that inborn and are necessary for the survival of each human being. They include air, shelter, food, sleep, sex, and warmth ( Niemela & Kim, 2014) . The needs are the motivators for the entry-level employees. The management can motivate the workers by offering house allowance, food allowance, among others. When we come to the second level, there is the sense of security, stability, and protection and thus the needs are for experienced employees who seek survival and job security. The management can satisfy the requirements by offering contracts that provide employment insurance over a period. They can also ensure security and safety in the workplace. For instance, NewSkool can open a dispensary within the company to offer health services to the sick employees and those facing security challenges.
The third hierarchy level is the need for love, and this targets the motivation for the stable relationships, affection, and belongingness in the workplace ( Niemela & Kim, 2014) . The NewSkool management is therefore required to design the place of work to encompass the familial and social aspects and allow people to function together as a unit and nurturing connections between workers to achieve higher success rates. Thus, the issue of autonomy should be revised, and the company should encourage teamwork and the thriving of informal relationships by introducing time for lunch breaks and coffee.
The two final hierarchy levels are meant for the personal status and closely relate to one another. The fourth is related to esteem while the fifth level targets for self-actualization. The two needs can be achieved through peak experiences, self-potential, dominance, independence, self-esteem, among others ways ( Niemela & Kim, 2014) . NewSkool Groove can motivate such employees by designing challenging assignments, public acknowledgment, and giving them managerial responsibilities.
Human Resource Practices
Given that NewSkool Groove is a transnational organization it is required to follow the international human resources practices. These standards advocate for the equal opportunities of employment for every person without discrimination on their sexual orientation, race, and gender, political or religious affiliation. Besides, the company will have to follow and support the health and safety act that advocates for the security and safety of the employees in the workplace. The organization has to make sure that all the workers are protected from any imminent threat or hazard that may jeopardize their lives or health. The other international standard that NewSkool Groove is required to uphold is the proper remuneration and compensation of employees. Employment is a tedious job for any organization, and thus for the company to retain the best talent in the industry, they have to carry out the recruitment process efficiently. They must look for individuals who are both competent and experienced. The top values that the human resource should go for during recruitment include tech-savvy, creativity, frugality, hard work, and the ability to work under minimal supervision.
Performance Assessment
To ensure quality is maintained, NewSkool Groove will have to assess the performance of its workers in all its departments and branches from time to time. The measure of performance in every section will be different with regards to the line of business. In case of the outsourced programmers in Ukraine, the company will gauge the performance by reviewing the new coded products and programs. The offices in America are mainly for marketing function, and thus the performance will be measured by the volume of sales regarding units and the returns. Also, the other way in which the organization can gauge performance is by reviewing the marketers through adverts. For the German offices where the primary task is production, the output will be measured regarding development of new products.
Socialization Program and Creativity
Socialization is essential in the workplace to forge informal relationships and coordination through communication. NewSkool is therefore required to promote a social environment to encourage these ties. They can do this by creating events and activities that bring people together, and they include coffee breaks, lunch breaks, fun day, end of year celebrations, and the like. All these activities are aimed at making the people interact and engage in an informal environment hence forging strong ties.
The different divisions of the organization require varying levels of creativity concerning the responsibilities and duties to handle. The German producers require a relatively lower creativity level as compared to the rest. The marketers in L.A. will need a higher level of creativity as they are responsible for the transformation of the products into a profitable business for the organization.
References
Ashkenas, R., Ulrich, D., Jick, T., & Kerr, S. (2015). The boundaryless organization: Breaking the chains of organizational structure . John Wiley & Sons.
Caligiuri, P., & Lundby, K. (2015). Developing Cross-Cultural Competencies through Global Teams: In Leading Global Teams (pp. 123-139). Springer New York.
Kim, S., Kim, J. D., Shin, Y., & Kim, G. H. (2015). Cultural differences in motivation factors influencing the management of foreign laborers in the Korean construction industry: International Journal of Project Management, 33(7), 1534-1547.
Niemela, P., & Kim, S. (2014). Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs: Encyclopedia of Quality of Life and Well-Being Research , 3843-3846.
Rodrigues, R., Guest, D., Oliveira, T., & Alfes, K. (2015). Who benefits from independent careers? Employees, organizations, or both? . Journal of Vocational Behavior, 91, 23-34.
