wgu organizational management task 3

JFT2 – Task 3

Utah Opera Company & Utah Symphony Orchestra

The UOC is an Adhocracy Culture.

Thrust: CREATE Means: ADAPTABILITY, CREATIVITY,

AGILITY Ends: INNOVATION, GROWTH,

CUTTING-EDGE OUTPUT

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The Utah Opera embodies an adhocracy culture. This type of culture is one that is externally focused and values flexibility. It is adaptable, creative, and quickly reacts to change. (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2010). The opera exhibits these qualities in their culture. The UOC values flexibility, and has tailored their business model to allow for adjustments in both the size of the organization and fundraising projects. This allows them adjust their operations quickly as needed in order to meet profitability goals. The general nature of the UOC fosters the creativity that is required for the adhocracy culture, considering they are an organization focused on the art of music and performance. The organization focuses less on their budget and more on their fixed assets in comparison to the USO. The Opera Company is also externally focused out of need. A majority of their income comes from ticket sales, so they must deliver enough high-quality performances to please their patrons. Additionally, the opera is structured in such a way that decisions lie with a variety of directors who have the skills and knowledge to make decisions about their departments (DeLong and Ager., 2005).

The USO is a Hierarchy Culture

Thrust: CONTROL Means: CAPABLE PROCESSES,

CONSISTENCY, PROCESS CONTROL, MEASUREMENT

Ends: EFFICIENCY, TIMELINESS, SMOOTH FUNCTIONING

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The Utah Symphony Orchestra operates as a hierarchy culture. A hierarchy culture is one that is internally focused and emphasizes stability and control. The USO values standardization, control, and a well-defined structure for authority and decision making. This is supported by having a Chairman of the Board as well as a music director. This type of culture also puts more emphasis on monitoring people and processes. The USO exhibits these qualities in their culture. The symphony is presently classified as a Group II, however, the director of the music program (Keith Lockhart) is attempting to elevate it to a Group I symphony organization. The USO is made more stable employing unionized musicians, and the organization is slow to change. The symphony is also more budget focused in comparison to the opera. In addition, the leadership control within the symphony lies with an executive committee (DeLong and Ager, 2005).

UOC = Adhocracy Board of Trustees Anne Ewers Director of Ops. Dept. Directors

USO = Heirarchy Board of Directors Keith Lockhart Artistic Admin CEO (vacant) Operations

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The distribution of authority and decision making differs between the Utah Opera Company and the Utah Symphony Orchestra. The UOC, as an adhocracy, is managed by Ms. Anne Ewers, who reports to the Board of Trustees. Ms. Ewers makes most of the financial and fund raising decisions, as evidenced by her ability to increase the annual budget from $1.5 million to $5 million. Subordinates have some decision making authority within their respective roles. For example, directly reporting to Ms. Ewers is the Director of Operations, who is responsible for managing the various department directors. These department directors are in charge of the smaller units and have some decision making power and authority. Ms. Ewers designated such duties as the technical and artistic facets of opera production, music administration, and community education to these subordinate groups. This adhocracy culture allows employees to be empowered with some authority and decision making. The organizational structure shows that greater power is given to Ms. Ewers and the Board of Trustees; however, the department directors are primarily responsible for their respective departments. (DeLong and Ager, 2005). The USO, on the other hand, is a hierarchy culture. This type of culture places authority and decision making power with management, not with empowered employees. Mr. Keith Lockhart, director of music for the organization, describes the symphony in this statement: “From the public’s perspective, I am the head of the symphony, but the reality is that this is a two-headed organization. One person provides artistic vision…and the other person seeks, secures, and manages the financial resources.” The USO’s decisions and authority fall onto the shoulders of Mr. Lockhart and the CEO (whose position is currently vacant). Both Mr. Lockhart and the CEO report to the Chairman of the Board. It should be noted, the union also has some decision making authority within the symphony. The contracted musicians receive a salary that is negotiated by the union. There are no empowered employees within this organization who are permitted to make decisions on their own. (DeLong and Ager, 2005.)

Three Stage Approach to Successful

Merger • Awareness • Respect • Reconciliation

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In order to be effective, the merged organization will need to be aware of the critical key factors in their culture that will help them reach their goal. Merging two cultures into one is a delicate process that requires a three-stage approach. These three stages are awareness, respect, and reconciliation (Trompenaars & Prud’Homme, 2004). Awareness occurs when people within the two organizations understand that there are cultural differences between their workplaces. It is important to map out the differences, determine what opinions they have about the company they are merging with, determine which organization is in a more dominant position, and learn how the two organizations deal with differences in power and culture. If there is no awareness of the cultural differences between the organizations, “all of this will eventually lead to conflicts after the merger or acquisition has taken place if these differences are not fully recognized and respected.” (Trompenaars & Prud’Homme, 2004). The second stage for merging differing organizational cultures is respect. This stage requires an organization to acknowledge the problems within their own culture and to see the benefits of the other company’s culture. This will help each organization gain respect for each other, which will ultimately lead to trust. This may also help each organization determine their own weaknesses, so that they can come together to learn how to improve via the merger (Trompenaars & Prud’Homme, 2004). The third stage, reconciliation, involves resolving the differences between the organizational cultures in a way that it benefits both companies. Both organizations will learn how to use other viewpoints to improve their own and will reconcile their differences. While approaches other than reconciliation are possible, they do not encourage respect for other cultures, which makes them ineffective. (Trompenaars & Prud’Homme, 2004).

Utah Opera Company & Utah Symphony Orchestra

Integrate the business processes of the two companies

Reduce overall expenses as a % of profit Retain key employees Maintain audience base for both orgs. Identify & pursue synergistic

opportunities between the two orgs.

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The opera and the symphony have developed five main strategic goals for the first year after the merger. These goals are: • Integrate the business process of the two companies • Reduce overall expenses as a percentage of profit • Retain key employees • Maintain audience base for both the opera and the symphony • Identify and pursue synergistic opportunities between the two companies The three-stage approach mentioned previously can be used to bring about compromise between the symphony and the opera, and to develop a new organizational culture after the merger. Once the organizations reach the reconciliation stage, they will have to examine their strategic goals for the first year after the merger to determine what changes will need to occur. Both the UOC and the USO will be required to change. The first strategic goal identified is to integrate the business processes of the two companies. The UOC is headed by Ms. Anne Ewers, with authority and decision-making distributed among those employees who are able to make them. The USO is headed by Mr. Keith Lockhart and a currently vacant CEO. These two positions retain most of the decision-making power. (DeLong, 2005.) To effectively integrate these two leadership styles, the merged organization should use the decision-making and authority distribution of the UOC with the top leadership of the USO. The merged organization should be a two-headed organization (as is the symphony now) with distribution of authority among those subordinate employees who are capable of making decisions (as is the opera now.) The second strategic goal is to reduce overall expenses as a percentage of profit. Currently, expenses within the USO are very high. The musician’s salaries total 60% of the total expenses, with each musician earning between $50,000 and $85,000 per year. These musicians have also negotiated raises that will significantly increase their pay over the course of the next two years. However, it would cause a lot of employees to become very upset if these negotiated raises were altered. (DeLong, 2005.) One viable option is to increase profits. This can be accomplished within the merged organization by increasing fundraising. Ms. Ewers possesses exceptional skill in this area. The UOC will have to learn to become more goal-oriented for this to be successful, but this change will serve the merger well. The third strategic goal is to retain key employees. This is in all essence the most important goal to meet, because these employees hold a wealth of knowledge about their specific organizations that they can bring to the merged company. Key employees should be given incentives or bonuses for remaining with the company for at least two years after the merger. Currently, neither the symphony nor the opera is very employee-oriented (with the exception of the relationship between the USO and the musicians union.) (DeLong and Ager, 2005.) Therefore, incorporating an employee-oriented ideology into the merger will help retain key employees, and will build a better work environment. The fourth strategic goal identified for the merger is to maintain the audience base for both the symphony and the opera. This can be accomplished by adapting the symphony’s customer-focused approach, while preserving the opera’s cutting edge performances. The UOC patrons expect to see high quality performances, so restructuring or discontinuing them would most likely decrease their customer base. However, both groups should strive to ensure customer satisfaction by tracking and monitoring ticket sales, completing customer questionnaires, and providing high-quality performances. Finally, the fifth strategic goal is to identify and pursue synergistic opportunities between the two companies. With the symphony and opera having so many similarities, this should be a fairly simple goal to attain. Possible ways to achieve this goal are to put on shows together, share accounting departments, and share the human resources department. Pooling resources together will allow for the merged company to be a stronger, more successful organization than they were individually. Taking advantage of the synergies between the two companies will give the merged organization a real identity, in addition to showing employees the benefits of working together.

Who is your audience? What do they know? What do they feel? How can you persuade them?

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In order to effectively communicate with the employees and managers of both organizations, Ms. Ewers will need to develop an audience strategy to discuss the merger. An audience strategy is the techniques used to tailor your communication toward the audience’s needs and interests. This method is most effective in increasing the chances of being understood and achieving your objective. (Munter, 2005.)


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Presentation Notes

In order to effectively communicate with the employees and managers of both organizations, Ms. Ewers will need to develop an audience strategy to discuss the merger. To communicate with these groups, Ms. Ewers must first identify who her audience will be. In this case she will be speaking with members of both the opera and symphony. She should also consider who the key influencers of both groups. Ms. Ewers should focus on Keith Lockhart and Scott Peterson as the key influencers for the USO, and Bill Bailey and Herb Livsey as key influencers for the UOC. These individuals should be considered her primary audience, and she must cater her message to persuade them that the merger will be beneficial to both organizations. By accomplishing this, these key influencers of both organizations should garner additional support for the merger with her secondary audience – the remaining staff of the UOC and USO.


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Ms. Ewers will also need to consider what her audience will need to learn about the merger. This consideration will lead her to one of three levels: High information needs, low information needs or mixed information needs. If their background information needs are low, she can avoid wasting her time with unnecessary history or definitions. If their needs are high, she must take time to explain the background information using clear structure and definition. If the audience needs are mixed, she can gear the communication toward the key decision maker and provide background information in a separate format. (Munter, 2005.) Based on the information provided, the audience would most likely be a mixed information needs group. Several employees of either organization are not in support of the merger based on their personal feelings and or biases that may exist, rather than on subjective facts. Others are in support of the merger based on the benefits that could be realized post-merger. With this in mind, Ms. Ewers should prepare handouts and other documentation supporting her position and gear her message toward the key influencers.


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Presentation Notes

When developing her audience strategy, Ms. Ewers will also need to determine the emotions of the audience members. The current emotions of the employees of the UOC and the USO vary greatly. For example, the USO musicians are suspicious of the merger and convened their own ad hoc committee to represent their concerns to the board. The trustees of the UOC have expressed concerns regarding the financial strength of the opera and a loss of identity after the merger. If Ms. Ewers can give the audience a positive attitude about these concerns, she will stand a far greater chance of persuading them to support the merger. Determining the interest level in her message will also be an important part of the presentation. If there is a high interest level in supporting the merger she will be able to get right to the point without taking time to arouse their interest. On the other hand, if the interest level is low, Ms. Ewers should consider keeping the presentation short and/or allowing the audience to participate. (Munter, 2005.) Additionally, the biases for both groups should be considered. Ms. Ewers will need to address the negative biases held by the members by beginning with the points they all find beneficial to the organization. This can be accomplished by making the group members aware that this merger is being considered in an effort to reduce administrative costs to both organizations through consolidation. Ms. Ewers will also need to respond to any anticipated objections from the group members. The contracted musicians of the USO will most likely feel the merger will result in a reduction in their salaries. The UOC employees will most likely want to know how the merger will impact their contracts and the length of their performance season. By responding to these objections up front, Ms. Ewers will be more persuasive by stating and rejecting alternatives herself, instead of allowing the members to devise their own, which they will be less likely to reject. Most importantly, Ms. Ewers will need to be open and honest about the changes that are going to occur. The employees and contractors will be much more receptive to open honesty than they will be to lies or avoidance of issues and potential problems.


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The group members may be persuaded if they are informed of tangible benefits that can be obtained and of “what’s in it for them.” Anne Ewers could further her cause by explaining that by moving forward with the merger, the symphony has the opportunity grow into a Group I orchestra. She could also explain to the staff of the UOC that the option of salaried positions could be considered. She should also discuss with both groups the reasons for pursuing the merger; to keep both organizations financially stable by cutting administrative costs. While addressing the group, Ms. Ewers should touch on the benefits that will affect both organizations together as a whole in an effort to persuade them to support the merger. She should clarify that, by merging the two groups, the possibility exists to increase attendance at the performances and gather additional patrons from a wider variety of backgrounds, thereby generating more interests in the arts while increasing revenues and profitability. Additionally, Ms. Ewers could use her credibility as a tool for persuasion. She could describe her fundraising ability and previous successes, as well as her management experience and her experience with other arts organizations.

Audiences can be motivated based upon the structure of the message communicated.

Consists of an emphasized conclusion and organized ideas.

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Anne Ewers could further gain support from the group for the merger and persuade them to adopt a positive outlook by skillfully crafting her message strategy. This method can also help her to ensure that key staff members are retained. When doing this, she should ask herself 1) How can I emphasize? and 2) How can I organize? There are several steps that Ms. Ewers can take to prepare her message. First, she should organize her talking points and ideas to make sure they are clear and easy to understand. She should also begin her discussion by emphasizing the conclusion – that the merger between the USO and the UOC is a positive move for all parties involved. She can then communicate the message that all employees of both organizations are critical to the success of the merger and to the organization, ensuring that they are informed of their value. Ms. Ewers should consider using an indirect approach to delivering her message, as opposed to a direct approach. This method involves reserving the main ideas until the end of the message. This approach is advantageous in that it allows Ms. Ewers to provide her supporting arguments before sharing the main idea (and thereby lowering the risk of negative mindsets.) It will also arouse interest and increase the tendency of the audience to view her as fair-minded. This approach does require certain criteria to be met before use. These criteria are: a. the message is sensitive (with emotional overtones), b. the audience bias is negative, c. the audience is analysis-oriented. (Munter, 2005.) To help ensure that key members of both organizations are retained, Ms. Ewers must reach out to them at the most favorable time. The best time to deliver her message is prior to any employee resignations or groups formed in disagreement with the merger. Ms. Ewers will also want to reach out to employees before rumors or misinformation spread throughout the organizations. For these reasons, Ms. Ewers should begin reaching out to in the early stages of the merger process, and communicate to them throughout the entire progression. Finally, the best method suggest for the delivery of Ms. Ewer’s message is a face-to-face group meeting. This will allow for several advantages: Ms. Ewers can elicit ideas from members of the group Group discussion is fostered and input received Group issues can be resolved A consensus can be reached and actions taken

Technology can help the UOC and the USO merge admin functions • Oracle PeopleSoft HCM Software • Microsoft Office Professional Software

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During and after the merger process between the UOC and the USO, the new organization may benefit from technology to merge the administrative functions of the separate companies. I have chosen two technology tools that the organization can use to efficiently merge these processes. According to the Oracle website, their PeopleSoft HCM software enables companies to architect a global foundation for HR data and improved business processes. Their software delivers robust resources that help increase productivity, improve performance, and lower the cost of ownership. With PeopleSoft, the newly merged organization can manage their human resource function on a single platform, forecast and manage labor with a workforce management platform, reduce costs and increase productivity with service delivery suites, and recruit and motivate a superior workforce with a talent management program. This software is available directly from Oracle at a reasonable cost. Microsoft Office 2010 Professional Plus software suite is powerful software specially designed to assist businesses track financials, create presentations, and track inventory and customer information, along with many other functions. It includes programs such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Publisher, Access, InfoPath, SharePoint Workspace, and Lync. This software is designed for volume licensing and can be purchased from directly from Microsoft. Microsoft Office can help the new organization tracking ticket sales, manage general fundraising projects, and communicate with members of the board of directors, employees, and the general public.

Recap of Strategic Goals • Integrate business processes • Reduce overall expenses • Retain key employees • Maintain audience base • Identify & pursue synergies

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The technology tools recommended can help the organization reach its strategic goals. These goals, which were discussed previously, are listed on the slide shown. The use of these software programs can help achieve the goal of pursuing synergistic opportunities between the two companies. It will allow for a more efficient means of sharing information as well as reducing costs and combining the business and administrative functions of each organization. The Oracle PeopleSoft program will be very useful in integrating the business functions of the companies, as well as helping to retain key employees and reducing expenses. This software can combine the functions of the two separate HR Departments into one, which will reduce expenses. It can also be used to track ticket sales and donor information, which would provide a tool for measuring their audience base. PeopleSoft can also provide a forecasting function as well as a talent management program, which will not only help motivate and retain key employees but also bring on additional talented employees. Microsoft Office software can also be used in the same manner to help the organization build budgets and track expenses and revenue. It can also be used to create communications within the organization and to the public, such as in a marketing capacity, to help maintain and build their audience base.

DeLong, T. & Ager, D. (2005.) Utah Symphony and Utah Opera: A Merger Proposal. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.

Kreitner, R. & Kinicki, A. (2010.) Organizational Behavior, 9th ed. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill

Munter, M. (2005.) Managerial Communication, 7th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall

Trompenaars, F. & Prud’Homme, P. (2004.) Managing Change Across Corporate Cultures. West Sussex, England: Capstone Publishing

wgu organizational management task 3

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