Author Question: Discuss how culture constrains managers. Include specific examples to support your answer. What ... (Read 129 times)

jilianpiloj · **on:** Jul 7, 2018

Discuss how culture constrains managers. Include specific examples to support your answer.

What will be an ideal response?

Question 2

Marriott hotels are noted for their fantastic service. Their motto is Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen. To build and maintain this level of service, which of the following guidelines should managers follow?

A) precisely defining employees' normal job requirements and ensuring they perform those actions alone
B) giving service-contact employees continual training on product knowledge, listening, and other behavioral skills
C) designing jobs with rigid rules and procedure that employees should stick to in order to satisfy customers
D) preserving the discretion to make day-to-day decisions on job-related activities at the top level of management

Dominic · **Reply #1 on:** Jul 7, 2018

Answer to Question 1

Answer: Because an organization's culture constrains what managers can and cannot do, it is particularly relevant to managers. These constraints are rarely explicit. They're not written down. It's unlikely that they'll even be spoken. But they're there, and all managers quickly learn what to do and not to do in their organization.
The link between values and managerial behavior is fairly straightforward. For example, in a so-called ready-aim-fire culture, managers will study proposed projects first and analyze them endlessly before committing to them. However, in a ready-fire-aim culture, managers take action and then analyze what has been done. If an organization's culture supports the belief that profits can be increased by cost cutting and that the company's best interests are served by achieving slow but steady increases in quarterly earnings, managers are unlikely to pursue programs that are innovative, risky, long term, or expansionary. For organizations that value and encourage workforce diversity, the organizational culture and thus managers' decisions and actions, will be supportive of diversity efforts.
In an organization whose culture conveys a basic distrust of employees, managers are more likely to use an authoritarian leadership style than a democratic one. Why? The culture establishes for managers what is appropriate and expected behavior. Banco Santander has been described as a risk-control freak. The company's managers adhered to banking's stodgiest virtues conservatism and patience.

Answer to Question 2

Answer: B