TerraCop Case
Communication is one of the key tools in business and planning. If communication lacks between employees, departments, and partners business transactions will face a significant amount of challenges that can limit if not diminish the success of an organization. TerraCog has been in operation and business since 1977. From the time the organization, begin to the present there has been an immense amount of success in the fish and gaming industry because of the unique and usable products TerraCog has been an innovative and strong competitor that slowly introduces new products to underserved markets. One of the products that made the company extremely popular is the addition of the GPS system to fitness equipment. As the organization progressed and time passed the popularity dwindles and the need for new and innovative products progressed. Currently, the company is working on their Birds product. This product provides the GPS satellite and it is accompanied by GPS imagery. The concept is like no other on the market, and will help the organization boost and generate more revenue. The main issue with the product lies with communication that is between the different departments and contributors to this project. For this reason a case has been developed which will play a key role in examining how communication or lack there of has played a vital role in the challenges of introducing the Birds project to the open market. In this paper the communication in the organization will be examined through a situation analysis which is designed to evaluate factors that contribute to the dysfunctional meeting culture, Purpose/Products, Participants, and Possible Issues to determine who should be in attendance as well as the predicted outcomes of this meeting based on the group dynamics, and process steps that will help the group achieve the purpose of the meeting overall.
Factors that contribute to the dysfunctional meeting culture
The culture in TerraCog is one of dysfunction because there is a lack of cohesion between the departments and upper level management. There is no project manager to monitor and delegate the necessary tasks for adequate project completions, and upper level management does not give adequate time for project completion.
Cultural Dysfunction
Before identifying all of the factors that contribute to organizational dysfunction, it is most appropriate to provide a definition of the concept. According to the According to the Balthazard, Cooke, and Potter (2006) “organizational dysfunction is characterized because it exhibits markedly lower effectiveness, efficiency, and performance than its peers or in comparison to societal standards” (p 710). Several contributing factors can play an integral and significant role in the dysfunction in an organization. Some examples of dysfunctional catalysts are organizational history, power levels between management, status, and professionalism. In the TerraCog organization, there are distinct and apparent differences in the way that management operates the organization. Historically, the organization operated on prehistoric principles and exhibited reluctance for being the first to introduce innovative, advanced, and technologically savvy products. TerraCog wanted to reap the benefits of expansion and sailing products without taking any risks. After several years of using this technique, the organization begins developing products that were not like their competitors.
Cultural dysfunction is also exhibited in the way that each department communicates with one another. Three is a disconnection due to the conflicting views in business practices of the upper level management. TerraCog operates on a bureaucratic organizational structure, which gives the responsibilities of delegation to upper level management, which is from the top down. The issue with this type of organizational structure and communication technique ids the lack of cohesiveness of the upper level management, which creates tension among lower level employees. Past practices have shown that the company lacks planning and organizational strategic initiatives that align all aspects of the organization with the organizational goals. The lack of the aforementioned factors cause meeting and the communication at the company’s meetings to be disorganized and unproductive. The issues related to projects and dysfunction display issues related to differences in opinion and unrealistic goals. Overall the issues in TerraCof that have contributed to dysfunction in the organization are organizational history of limited innovation and risk taking, bureaucratic organizational structure, unleveled power struggles between upper level management, and communication challenges. Hence, a recommendation to ameliorate the dysfunction in the TerraCog organization is to create strategic initiatives that are well planned, monitored, controlled, and implemented.
Purpose/Products, Participants, and Possible Issues
The purpose of a meeting or a gathering is significant because it provides a rationale for having a meeting in the first place. Before actually calling a meeting it is necessary to conduct the following steps: determine the meeting’s objectives, goals for the meeting (what do you wish to accomplish from this meeting), focus on the information that will be discussed or decided on, and decide who will be in attendance.
Determining the Meetings Objectives
The meetings objectives also known as an agenda is significant to the function and meeting process because it provides guidelines and an idea of what will be discussed in the meetings. In addition to the aforementioned, other benefits of an agenda are the feedback that is gathered from colleagues and other professionals when developing the agenda, and the considerations to discussed similar or overlapping topics that coincide with the agenda format (Hamel, 2016). . In both of the TerraCog meetings, an agenda would have kept the meeting more organized and everyone in attendance would have been provided with a list of the items that were up for discussion. In addition, the attendees could have provided ideas of what they wanted to discuss better prepare figures related to expense. Tony Barren, Ed Pryor, and Allen Roth clearly displayed the conflict and confusion related to cutting cost. These issues should have been organized in a manner where each meeting participant had `an understanding of how the meeting was suppose to be scheduled and topics. The three leaders also showed the lack of communication that was transpiring on a daily basis. Hence, agenda provide guidance, structure, topics, and manage meeting time.
Goals for the meeting
The goals that are necessary for the TerraCof mangers should discuss the need to cut costs, potential ways to cut costs, options for prices for the Aerial product in comparison to competitors and regarding projected outcomes, and a contingency plan that can be used if product sales decline in the projected productivity. This contingency plan includes alteration that need to be made to reduce employee’s hours as a preventive measure to laying them off completely. The goals of meetings highlight areas of concern and that require time and discussion. The goals also limit the room for unrelated topics impeding the meeting discussion. Hence, setting goals for TerraCog would reduce the gaps in communication between managers, and ameliorate the success of the Aerial project because all of the managers are collectively creating goals that align with the organization, and develop cohesiveness between the different departments.
Focusing on the information that will be discussed
The information that is most pertinent to the organization and the productivity should be the focus for TerraCop. Each meeting participant should be asked to bring three questions and three concerns regarding the Aerial project. By getting the leaders to participate in this manner, the facilitator ensures that everyone participates in. Rebori (n.d.) expresses the need to determine what needs to be discussed before the meeting occurs. For this reason it is imperative to create objectives that correlate with the goals, and projected outcomes of the meeting (p 1). The leaders at the Hence to have a efficient and effective meeting it is beneficial to have a working knowledge of the information that should and will be discussed.
Decide who will attend
Part of strategically creating a successful meeting is to select an include people who take an active role in the decision making process, and who are responsible for taking part in the subject matter that is being discussed. The attendees for the TerraCop organization should include Robert Fiero, Emma Richardson, Ed Pryor, and Harold Whistler (BEER & YONG, 2008). The aforementioned people should be present at the meeting because they all play an active role in the decision making process. Another reason why they should participate in the meeting is because a few other people that attended the previous meetings were disruptive a negative to the purpose and meeting process. An example of a negative individual was Allen Roth. H exhibited negative attitudes towards the inability to reduce costs based on the design of the Aerial project by voicing negative commentary and disposition. Allen Roth’s Boss can be a representative.
Possible outcomes
The possible outcomes that can transpire during or after the meeting are brainstorming techniques can be applied to ameliorate the discrepancies of the Aerial Project risks and costs. On the contrary a nether possibility is that no solution is reached between the meeting participants which requires either a facilitator or a neutral party to guide the decision making process. Projecting possible outcomes is important to the overall business plan because it encourages the facilitator a team members to create strategies that can negate these challenges.
Process Steps that will help the Group Achieve the Purpose of the Meeting Overall
The steps that involved in the conducting an effective, purposeful, and efficient meeting. In the TerraCog case due to high tension and uncertainties below are the necessary steps and facilitation techniques that can ameliorate the tension and communication between upper level management and the alignment of organizational goals. In the Terra Cop organization, a facilitator would be most beneficial to the meeting because she can provide guidance and keep the meeting on track. This is an issue in previous meetings when Emma Richardson expressed her frustration with the structure of the meeting.
The first step is determining the purpose of the meeting. Part of determining the purpose of the meeting. The purpose of the meeting at TerraCog is to discussed the Aerial project in totality. This is significant to the development and communication between participants in the meeting.
The next step is to present an agenda to guide the order of the meeting. In this agenda the role of the participates, the ground rules, and insurance that all members are in agreement, also known as the ground rules. This is important because this gives all participants an equal opportunity to speak and address the issues that are surrounded by the objectives of the meetings.
The third step is to make sure that you are taking notes and simultaneously engaging the participants in the meeting by asking questions with a purpose and that draw them into the discussion. This step is to decipher the type of meeting that will be held. In the TerraCop, case the best type of meeting will be structured and facilitated.
Useful Techniques
Techniques that will be useful in the TerraCog meeting are agenda setting as previously mentioned, starting the meeting with an energetic tone that captures the meeting participants attention. Questioning is a vital tool to encouraging meeting participant to encourage and to keep the meeting on track. Recording who and what was said pertaining to the topics that were discussed in the meeting. Lastly, closing the meeting by ensuring that there are no loose ends and that decisions have been made will ensure that issues have been resolved.
Conclusion
Communication, planning, and facilitation are three skills that one should have to be capable of effectively running a meeting. The culture in TerraCog is one of dysfunction because there is a lack of cohesion between the departments and upper level management. Several contributing factors can play an integral and significant role in the dysfunction in an organization. Some examples of dysfunctional catalysts are organizational history, power levels between management, status, and professionalism. Cultural dysfunction is also exhibited in the way that each department communicates with one another. Three is a disconnection due to the conflicting views in business practices of the upper level management. The purpose of a meeting or a gathering is significant because it provides a rationale for having a meeting in the first place. Before actually calling a meeting it is necessary to conduct the following steps: determine the meeting’s objectives, goals for the meeting (what do you wish to accomplish from this meeting), focus on the information that will be discussed or decided on, and decide who will be in attendance. The meetings objectives also known as an agenda is significant to the function and meeting process because it provides guidelines and an idea of what will be discussed in the meetings. The goals that are necessary for the TerraCof mangers should discuss the need to cut costs, potential ways to cut costs, options for prices for the Aerial product in comparison to competitors and regarding projected outcomes, and a contingency plan that can be used if product sales decline in the projected productivity. The information that is most pertinent to the organization and the productivity should be the focus for TerraCop. Part of strategically creating a successful meeting is to select an include people who take an active role in the decision making process, and who are responsible for taking part in the subject matter that is being discussed.
References
BEER, M., & YONG, S. (2008, April 11). TerraCog Global Positioning Systems: Conflict and Communication on Project Aerial. Harvard Business School , 1-10.
Dysfunctional Culture, dysfumctional organization:Capturing the behavioral norms that form organizational culture and drive performance. (2006). journal of Managerial Psychology , 709-732.
Hamel, G. (2016). The Importance of Having an Agenda Before a Business Meeting. Retrieved June 15, 2016, from Chron: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-having-agenda-before-business-meeting-25867.html
rebori, M. (n.d.). How to Organize and Run Efective Meetings. Fact Sheet, Reno.
