Oticon: Building a flexible world class organization
Oticon was a business founded in 1904 by HansDemant, who got inspired by his wife who suffered from hearing impairment. He started the hearing aids importing business from the US for his business, as well as for his wife. The products range from hearing aids, church hearing aids, hospital receivers and patients receiver systems. The company continued until the beginning of the World War II when importing hearing aids became impossible. The company came up with a radical change program aimed at altering the structure process, organization job content and careers. Despite the company aiming at its new innovative structure at Oticon, there were revolutionary new assumptions of what and how one worked. At Oticon, the management gave employees the power to drive change and opportunities to pursue new challenges without ceasing. In this way, employees would be the ones setting up change.
The major function of the hearing was increasing the volume of sound heard by the user through sound amplification. It improved the communication process in the organization, as well as its ability to function. Hearing impairment is a condition in individuals caused by environmental factors including birth complication effects. Hearing loss can result in social isolation. Depression and other psychological problems can develop as a result of this isolation and affect an individual’s cognitive function (Lin et al., 2013). In order to also improve the reception and the communication system, there is a need to improvise the aids for optimum condition.
In Oticon, there are majorly two problems facing the company. Firstly, there is the individual that is hearing impaired. The hearing loss and impairment reduce their cognitive ability. The people with higher cognitive ability can benefit from fast compression than people with poor cognitive functioning because of hearing impairment. In a well working organization or a company, communication is key in its operation. Worker members with learning impairments receive hearing aids to improve their hearing and communication process. The Oticon Company faced challenges because its competitors worked at a fast rate in the provision of advanced hearing aids. Furthermore, Oticon had the uphill task of providing quality products to customers and maintaining their trust.
Secondly, there was a communication breakdown in employees during the World War II that manifested as poor communication skills and language barriers. Poor communication can have serious implications on an organization’s ability to carry out its operation. It is evident that interrelating factors such as organizational structure, culture and leadership must be considered a general limitation with communication. When faced with the most difficult listening situation, noise reduction can significantly make the visual task easier (Sarampalis, Kalluri, Edwards, & Hafter, 2009). In organizations, the positions that people occupy in organizational space determines their perception and interpretation of information, which appears in the organizational hierarchy. Thus, differentiating roles of the managers and the frontline staff.
Contextual factors such as the organizational structure, organizational culture and technological process impact on the communication process. Therefore, organizational communication as a whole cannot be considered in isolation from the context that it takes place.
In this case, to provide solutions, employees with hearing impairment conditions should not get exposed to external environmental conditions that could worsen their conditions. The employers should be cautious of the working conditions of the employees with or without problems. In addition, some working conditions require protective wear. That will reduce the cases of a number of people affected by the loud sounds in the workplace. In addition, employers should run a medical test before employment of persons to have them treated, or their conditions controlled. Finally, there should be worker education and training on prevention of accidental situations as they work.
References
Lin, F. R., Yaffe, K., Xia, J., Xue, Q. L., Harris, T. B., Purchase-Helzner, E., Simonsick, E. M. (2013). Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline among Older Adults. JAMA Internal Medicine, 173(4), 293-299. doi: 10.1001/jamainternmed.2013.1868. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3869227/pdf/nihms536265.pdf
Sarampalis, A., Kalluri, S., Edwards, B., & Hafter, E. (2009). Objective Measures of Listening Effort: Effects of Background Noise and Noise Reduction. Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, 52(5), 1230-1240. Retrieved from http://artefactual.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/376AAd01.pdf
