As senior staff move up and obtain other positions internally or externally, organizations risk decay as the likelyhood of best practice is not being adhered to and task and customs become distorted and or changed. This means policy must be asserted at every moment. Having a slogan backed by values, vision and mission helps reduce organizational decay which then results in better social normativity, productivity/ efficiency and focus.
Allen Sens describes a bureaucracy as such, a body with units that have divergent perspectives on political views (2005). In these organizations a “pulling and hauling” occurs. This means individuals within the bureaucracy negotiate and bargain. Oftentimes the bureaucracy becomes inefficient or bloated where tasks are segmented to multiple workers causing many checks and balances to the work that is produced. This occurs in places that adhere to strict liability. Strict liability can be defined as liability for damages without carelessness (Yates 2017). Workers are not only privy to “strict liability,” however, organizations can also be under strict liability for example, if the government has an agreement with the financial institutions whereby it guarantees its cheques- widely practiced in Canada (GST/ HST Cheques). Within this agreement, pertaining to the issuance of cheques, the government is at fault if the cheque wrongly cashed- fraud. And in this situation, per the agreement, the government shalt shoulder the loss at which point the financial institutions are relieved from finding fault because the agreement has provisios of strict liability. Hence, any fraud that occurs with regards to the cashing of said cheques becomes the issue of the government to solve rather than the issue of the financial institutions to rectify. Strict liability says that harm that is caused in the aforementioned example could be fraud. The employee under the government has a fiduciary duty to the people but the government is vicariously liable for that employee and further, it is strictly liable to the harm (fraud) that occurres within the financial institution such as CIBC, RBC, HSBC etc as a result of the cashing of the government cheque. The government cheque is cashed by the bank- the drawee, the government becomes the drawer (the issuer of the cheque) and the payee is the citizen (the owner of the cheque). In common law, there is the idea of “bailment.” Bailment is the transference of property from bailor to bailee. The contract enforced by the government and the financial institutions is a contract involving bailment referred to as a “service agreement bailment”. The bailor relinquishes property chattel to the bailee but retains ownership. The government is the bailor and the employee is the bailee. During the relinquishing of the cheque, the government retains ownership of the cheque until it reaches the payee the true owner per above at which point the cheque is surrendered by the bailee to the payee. The payee must then go to the drawee for his account within the financial institution for the account to be debited while the account of the drawer be credited hence completing the cycle. Monies and coinage are part of the Canadian Constitution under s91. Government cheques have guarantees such as, cashing it at a financial institution is free, it can be cashed no matter how old the cheque is and the type of clearance required to cash the cheque (Government of Canada 2023). Clearly the agreement between the government and the bank is a high security agreement which as mentioned is considerate of strict liability under a bailment like service agreement.
Within an organization there is a relationship between the company’s strategy and it’s business model. A business model is a document that details products that generate revenues and it has two parts, the customer value proposition and the organizations profit proposition (Thompson 2019). A strategy is then how the company is positioned in the market- what its moves are going to be with regards to competition and its comparative or absolute advantage. A comparative advantage is described by Kreuger as the ability to produce a product at a lower opportunity cost than others (2018), while an absolute advantage is described in the same text as the ability to produce the same good or better quality with less inputs (2018). This means that the company’s strategy sets the company apart from rivals and aims to deliver a superior proposition (both value and profit) which is where the business model and strategy collide. The organizations mission, vision, values and slogan are essentially its operational basis. According to Coutler, companies can make offensive and defensive moves (2010) which is why plans are sought out and enforced in the hopes that the company succeeds. This requires tactical planning or for example, in Politics, contingency planning is used as a means of offense and defense. Coutler says that organizations can release products or conduct ad campaigns etc., which serve to reduce the value that is produced by the organization. This then concurs with Miles and Snows theory of business strategy wherein companies can have a strategic type of “prospector,” “reactor,” “defender,” and or “analyzer.” What is important to note with these strategy types is that these are enforced by corporate and these approaches are backed by values and operational focus (mission, vision, and slogan) of which serve the corporate strategy of the organization. Further, these categories all have specific offensive and defensive approaches.
With that in mind, Diagnosing and Changing Organizational Culture says that there are four cultures in the workplace enforced vertically by the corporate strategy which are “The Clan Culture,” “The Adhocracy Culture,” “The Hierarchy Culture,” and “The Market Culture” (1999). Selecting a culture to be used within the company becomes increasingly important from an operational, tactical and strategic- offensive or defensive disposition or inclination. Internal/ external focus, integration/ differentiation, flexibility/ stability and discretion/ control (1999) become the reasons why companies have a certain disposition within its corporate strategy by which it enforces it through its business strategy and its functional strategies. A corporate strategy is a means to manage resources, risk and returns while a business strategy is a means to manage the company’s competitive edge (Long et al. 2018). If the organization is dealing with highly sensitive information such as high clearance demographic information (Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, Privacy Act and Personal Information Protection Act), it can be speculated that those employees are under strict liability enforced vertically by a hierarchy culture as this type of culture is rigid and controlling opting for stability/ control and internal focus/ integration. Within careers and professions such as Nursing or Policing, these individuals are bound by the regulatory bodies that permit their practice. Hence these individuals are professionally liable as they serve citizens in the domestic environment through fiduciary duty. More often than not, these professions have Codes of Ethics enforced to solidify their professional liability of which the Code of Ethics is a corporate strategy designed to manage resources, risks and returns within the regulatory body.
With the above example explained. It becomes clear that hierarchy cultures could employ a Standard of Practice or Code of Ethics along with Policy and Procedures and a generic Code of Conduct enforced by many companies to fulfill its customer value proposition and the organizations profit proposition. The New Public Management Model views the client as a customer and can be implemented by nonprofit organizations (Britannica 2023). With this innovation, the Market Culture is brought into the organization (could be government, nonprofit societies etc.). This means that the government employs the offensive move of having a functional strategy of sales. When this happens the client becomes a customer and it results in the enforcing of the traditional contract laws that govern the sales of products. What is important to note here is that organizational decay occurs when the corporate strategy of the company is not enforced adequately which results in the business strategy and the functional strategy of the organization being distorted or not in line with the corporate strategy. This happens because, the company’s literature (Ex. Standard of Practice, Code of Ethics, Policy and Procedures, Code of Conduct) is not adhered to meaning that a cultural problem exists within the organization. Hence having a strong corporate strategy (management of resources, risk and returns) enforced by Management and Leadership that details the mission, vision and values and slogan is imperative along with a good business plan resulting in adequate business strategy (management of competitive edge) and functional strategies.
If the Pubic Management Model is implemented within a corporation, it is the proceeds of the net sales of its products that must be put back to programs which involve a cause. Such is the case with Girl Guide cookies where the proceeds go to “fund year- round education programs, outdoor experiences, travel, and scout- led community projects” (Romper 2018). Another precedent is when a Vancouver Surgeon started a business to provide jobs. The sales of those products go to fundraise charities. Hence the company must adopt a social cause by which to send proceeds to (products involving a social cause). At Erations Conglomerate, this part of the company is used to generate a baseline of activity where the sale of certain products allows for venues which employ the target demographic in obtaining equity as it pertains to that cause (in this case, legal literacy). Specifically, as a start-up, Erations Conglomerate is targeting an audience of employees and this audience is going to be the basis by which a social cause can be extracted to keep the companies’ activities maintained. In short, the nonprofit part of the company serves to affect organizational decay because through its social cause it maintains practice.
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