- Conceptual
- Human
- Technical
Human skills are important to get the most out of staff and technical skills are important to get the most out of equipment and facilities. The importance of these areas varies depending on the business. This idea relates very closely MacKenzie, 1969, who’s three areas were ideas (which links closely to conceptual), people (which links to human) and things (which links to technical).
Conceptual jobs include advertising, cost for coaching/accommodation and improving facilities. These jobs are important as these are the main reasons for people going to Thornbridge Outdoors. Without advertising nobody knows about them, if cost is too high less people will come and if facilities aren’t very good they won’t come again.
Human jobs include keeping staff and visitors happy, overseeing staff and sorting out the rota (Fairest, 2011). It’s important to keep staff motivated and pulling in the same direction. Motivation is:
‘the direction and intensity of one’s effort,’ (Sage, 1977, page 52).
This is key as motivation the effort of staff as shown by this quote.
Technical skills include updating the website and knowing how to use equipment. An updated website is key as it tells the customer exactly what the business is all about.
The job of the cycling coach is to plan and deliver high quality coaching sessions as explained in the first blog entry. They also must ensure that the session is safe at all times as well as the bikes being cleaned every day and checked for problems (Fairest, 2011).
Organisational theory is key to the business as well. The four areas according to White, 2011, are:
- Technology
- Physical structure
- Culture
- Social hierarchy
The physical structure of Thornbridge Outdoors includes:
- Two separate sleeping cabins which hold 30 people in each
- Three other cabins which are used for teaching, eating and a staff room
- A camping site
- A bike shed
- Mountain biking skills area
- Mountain biking downhill skills area
According to Handy, 1993, there are four main types of organisational cultures which are:
- Power culture
- Role culture
- Task culture
- Person culture
In power culture the central power source comes from one person in the organisation. This is usually used in small businesses and there are few rules and procedures in the organisation.
In role culture organisations the role of the staff is key. Every sticks to their job description as this is more important than the person.
Task culture gives people more freedom to express their thoughts and everyone works together to reach objectives. Power is based more on expertise.
Person culture is where the main purpose of the structure is to benefit each individual. This isn’t seen very often and is more known for groups of consultants and barristers.
Thornbridge Outdoors appears to have a role culture as everyone has their own specific job and they don’t venture away from that. They all know who’s above or below them in the organisation and they adhere to that. Although, I think that both a power or task culture could be used. A power culture would suggest that there's one leader and what he says goes. The disadvantage would be that they would feel less like a team. A task culture could also be used and this would help the cohesion of the group by getting them all to work togethor and be less like individuals doing their own job in their own area. Perhaps a task culture would be the best option as group cohesion is key. Cohesion is:
'a dynamic process that is reflected in the tendency for a group to stick togethor and remain united in pursuit of its instrumental objectives and/or for the satisfaction of member affective needs,' (Carron et al, 1998, page 213).
This would help the cohesion of the group so everyone would work togethor better and more affectively to achieve goals.
The social hierarchy in the organisation is a flat hierarchical structure. This is because:
‘broader spans of control and few levels of authority result in a flat hierarchical structure,’ (Mullins, 2007, page 579).
There are three levels to the business. The span of control of the manager is to specialist staff who coach, teach and/or lead activities as well as cleaners (Fairest, 2011). As they take on work experience staff and other less qualified part-time staff to help the more specialist staff these people come below the specialist coaches and are their span of control.
The key problem with Thornbridge Outdoors is that not enough people know about them and what they provide. This problem is shown by the fact that at a cycling event within five miles of Thornbridge Outdoors I asked 50 people whether they knew where Thornbridge Outdoors was and if they knew that I asked them what they do. Only 7 of these people knew where it was and only five could explain what they provide. According to Craig,1989, if nobody knows about your business no matter how good it is you won’t get any customers.
Due to there being a lack of knowledge about Thornbridge Outdoors in the area they are losing out on a number of potential customers. This means that they are not making as much money as they could be which massively affects how much profit they are making. If the company is just breaking even or losing money the government are less likely to put investments into the business and keep it running (Fairest, 2011).
If custom increased the employees of Thornbridge Outdoors would be able to work longer hours and eventually full-time. According to Fairest, 2011, (who works at Thornbridge Outdoors) the majority of workers at Thornbridge Outdoors would do more hours if needed and he would love to work their full-time. This shows that if there was an increase in demand they will have enough staff to work the extra hours.
Bibliography
Carron, A.V., Brawley, L.R., & Widmeyer, W.N. (1998). The measurement of cohesion in sports groups. In Duda, J.L. (ed.), Advances in sport and exercise psychology measurement. Morgantown, WV: Fitness Information Technology.
Craig, S. (1989). Marketing leisure services. London: Leisure Futures.
Fairest, M. British Cycling Coach. (Personal communication, 13th December 2011).
Handy, C.B. (1993). Understanding organisations. 4th ed. USA: Penguin.
MacKenzie, R. (1969). The management process in 3-D. Harvard business review, November-December.
Mullins, L.J. (207). Management and organisational behaviour. 8th ed. GreatBritain: Pearson Education Limited.
Sage, G. (1977). Introduction to motor behaviour: A neuropsychologistical approach. 2nd ed. Reading: MA: Addison-Wesley.
Torkildsen,G. (2005). Leisure and Recreation Management. 5th ed. New York: Routledge Taylor and Francis group.
White, A. (2011). Models for business analysis. [Lecture] Foundation Degree in Sports Coaching. Clowne Collewge, 23rd September.
Hey Tom I have been looking at your organisational theories. I agree with your view on Thornbridge Outdoor is a role culture which is according to Barney (1986) people have set roles in the workplace and tend not to wonder into other sectors of the job. This means people tend to stick to their job due to fear of not knowing what else to do. I believe this role culture could be adopted to give more freedom to the staff. This could make people more open about talking what needs doing and where it needs doing e.g. investing money into marketing Thornbridge Outdoor. I also believe is this fails to work that a power culture should be adopted as this means there is one leader and if that person has the right drive and desire then the business will thrive. The strength with a power culture is the vision of that person could be better then the vision of say six people, he could see what needs improving better and what doesn’t need much improving. But the weakness with this is there tends to be less rules and discipline from other staff could become a problem, so hiring the right staff is vital.
ReplyDeleteThanks Chris.
References-
Barney, J. B. (1986). Organizational Culture: Can It Be a Source of Sustained Competitive Advantage? Academy of Management Review, 11(3), 656-665.