Managing People For Organizational Effectiveness And The Facebook Data Privacy Dilemma Essay.

Case study 1 : Managing people for organizational effectives

You are an engineering graduate with an MBA and 10 years of management experience, and have just been appointed as CEO of a manufacturing company. The company has existed since the 1950s, but tariff reductions since the 1970s have placed it under increasing pressure. In recent years the company has been on the brink of closing down and your task is to turn it back into a viable enterprise. You were reluctant to take on the obviously difficult job and had a number of other options, but the board convinced you by offering a very attractive salary package and undertaking to support your decision fully, provided that you delivered results within a year.

The senior management team consists of five people, all of whom were appointed by the previous CEO when he took up his job seven years ago. The former CEO’s background was in accounting and his approach to dealing with the company’s difficulties could best be described as ‘cost minimization’ – he sought to rescue falling profits by reducing costs wherever possible. He was, moreover, what he described as an ‘old fashioned manager’ which in practice meant being a strict disciplinarian and asserting his right to make decisions without consulting staff. The approach to encouraging staff performance has been the threat of dismissal. The senior management team were in agreement with him on this strategy and this remains their preferred option.

As a result of this approach, the company’s plant and machinery has not been upgraded for some years. The production process is an assembly line and workers are rarely rotated among different jobs. Further, most staff are employed on individual contracts and paid poorly by industry standards. The only assessment of performance is based on production output (which is low by industry standards), and no staff are formally appraised. In spite of a lack of manufacturing jobs in the area, voluntary turnover – employees resigning – is high and this is compounded by the fact that staff are routinely dismissed for minor errors or breaches of procedure. This is justified by the other managers on the basis that ‘there are plenty more where he came from!’ due to high unemployment in the area. The company has already faced a number of formal complaints about unfair dismissal, some of which have ended up in court.

1. In your role as CEO, outline how you would change the people management practices in the company.
2. How would your proposed changes improve organizational performance?
3. What do you see as the major barriers to change and how would you overcome them?

Vodafone has one of the world’s largest mobile communications networks, with 83,900 employees serving over 370 million customers across more than 30 countries. With 2,200 retail stores and a further 10,300 branded franchises throughout the world. Vodafone products include messaging services for businesses and consumers, smartphones, mobile handsets and tablets. Its current strategy is aimed at increasing the ‘average revenue per user’ through offering more and more added value mobile services.

Detlef Schultz, winner of the 2011 Procurement Leader Award, was brought in to be the Global Supply Chain Management Director and chief executive officer of the Vodafone Procurement Company. His role was to not only manage the complexity of the procurement and supply chains for both goods and services but also fundamentally transform several fragmented supply chains into a single global function.

Case study 2: Vodafone and Global Supply Chain Management

The Vodafone Procurement Company was set up in 2008 with its headquarters based in Luxembourg. Through ‘lean’ procurement techniques it was expected to achieve efficiencies and substantial savings on products such as handsets, network equipment, marketing and IT services. It also runs a China Sourcing Centre in Beijing, with a stated objective of 8% year-on-year cost reduction.

Detlef Schultz, who joined Vodafone in March 2003, has 26 years experience in supply chain management, with previous roles in supply chain, planning and operations management in Germany, the UK, Singapore, Korea and the US. He has also appreciated diversity in his teams and knows how important communication, information sharing and empowerment are to success. When Schultz joined staff were uncertain of the impact he would have, the changes that would be made and whether their jobs would be secure.

To bring about the transformational change required, Schultz used an inclusive process, which involved holding workshops with procurement and supply chain staff as well as consulting with key internal stakeholders across the organisation. He used his natural influence, persuasion and well-developed communication skills to gain consensus and buy-in for his plans across the whole procurement and supply chain.

 Schultz and his team’s efforts resulted in Vodafone taking full advantage of its global scale and achieving ‘world-class’ savings and efficiencies across its business operations. Other benefits include a significant improvement in Vodafone’s working capital position, technology standardisation and policy development for global travel and labour.

One of the key drivers behind these successes has been Schultz’s interpersonal skills. The 2011 Procurement Leader award submission referred to Schultz’s ’inclusive and inspirational leadership style‘ and how it had been one of the critical success factors of the projects he led.

However, in accepting the award, Schultz said ’I’m very proud, this is a great recognition for the achievements of the entire Vodafone SCM team. At Vodafone we aim to be ambitious and competitive and getting this kind of recognition is a great motivator,’. This was deserved praise for a hard-working, committed and enthusiastic team he had built up from a small group of 30 to a team of 170 (from 24 countries), based at head office and localized procurement sites.

1. Propose an appropriate leadership style that Schultz would have needed to adopt when transforming Vodafone’s global supply chain function.
2. Outline an appropriate range of leadership skills that would have been required by Schultz to make the supply chain transformational project at Vodafone a success.

In 2018, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg came under fire from lawmakers, testifying before a U.S. congressional hearing, for the Facebook data-privacy dilemma that angered many users, causing panic in the stock market and intense inquiries from lawmakers and regulators worldwide. Cambridge Analytica, a U.K.-based political data analytics firm, illicitly procured the data of 50 million Facebook users, without their knowledge or consent.

In an interview with MSNBC, Apple CEO Tim Cook criticised Facebook’s handling of the situation and argued that Apple could “make a ton of money” if it chose to monetize its customers’ data. “This is not something that we just started last week when we saw something happening. We’ve been doing this for years”.

In response, Facebook detailed several steps it’s taking to set things right. It said it would investigate all apps that had access to large amounts of information prior to 2014. Further, it announced new plans for restrictions on developers’ data access, adopting tougher policies and terms for third-party app developers, shutting down certain programs, updating its privacy tools that were designed to make them easier to find and use, including an easier to use data management tool called ‘Access Your Information’ to provide a simpler way for users to manage, delete or download their posts or personal profile info, plus enabling users to easily see info that the company uses to serve targeted advertising.

Case Study 3 : Facebook – Data Privacy Dilemma

Consequently, Facebook and other technology companies will be obliged and forced to comply with stricter European privacy protections. The European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which came into effect May 25 2018, required companies to obtain consent before collecting data from consumers. It also gave consumers the right to learn what companies know about them and even ask a company such as Facebook to delete photos or any other data it may have. While that, GDPR technically applies only to services offered to EU residents, given the global nature of many online services and the increased focus on privacy, some of the new rules could apply to U.S. users. It’s important to mention here that GDPR, was first drafted in early 2012, passed despite heavy lobbying against it by big tech companies.

Facebook tracks both its users and nonusers on other sites and apps. It collects biometric facial data without users’ explicit “opt-in” consent. Facebook uses artificial intelligence to analyse users’ behaviour. For example, among many possible target audiences, Facebook may offer advertisers

1.5 million people “whose activity on Facebook suggests that they’re likely to engage with/distribute liberal political content” and nearly seven million Facebook users whom for example, prefer certain goods in certain countries. Facebook uses software tools for tracking activities. For example, when internet users go to other sites, Facebook may still monitor their activities with software like its ubiquitous “Like” and “Share” buttons, and something called Facebook Pixel — invisible code that’s dropped onto the other websites that allows that site and Facebook to track a user’s activities.

Not only, Facebook mine information about users, but in fact many other companies, do similar activities, such as for examples, news organizations like The New York Times. The reason that Facebook was singled out for such practices, it was due to being a market leader and its stockpiling of personal data is at the core of its $40.6 billion annual business. Despite that Facebook requires

outside sites that use tracking technologies to clearly notify Facebook users, and allows them to opt out of seeing ads based on their use of those apps and websites, that did not stop angry users from raising their concerns over Facebook’s practices. Facebook stresses that, when users sign up for an account, they must agree to the company’s data policy. It plainly states that its data collection “includes information about the websites and apps users visit, users’ use of their services on those websites and apps, as well as information the developer or publisher of the app or website provides to them or Facebook.” But in Europe, some regulators contend that Facebook does not obtain users’ explicit and informed consent to track them on other sites and apps. Their general concern, was that, many of Facebook’s 2.1 billion users had no idea how much data Facebook could collect about them and how the company could use it. And there is a growing unease that tech giants are unfairly manipulating users.

To assure and deal with consumers and regulators’ discomfort and anger over the amount of personal data that Facebook collects, Facebook announced an extended data privacy feature in the F8 Conference May 2018 called the “Clear History,” feature for users to view what apps and websites they interacted with on Facebook, allow them to clear their browsing history on Facebook (eg. what they clicked on, websites they visited, etc.) as well as allowing them to bar the social network from collecting it again moving forward.

1. Based on the compiled article above, explain the steps Facebook took to overcome its data privacy crisis. Explore the ‘Data Policy’ section on Facebook.com, and explain how a user can manage or delete his/her own information?

2. Search the Web for the GDPR, then answer the following questions: Explain the purpose of GDPR. Describe at least three the key privacy and data protection requirements of the GDPR.

3. Describe Facebook’s e-business model and revenue model. Discuss Facebook’s business benefits and.

4. Evaluate in general terms, the challenges facing social networking websites and identify ways companies can prepare to facethese issues.

Case study 1 : Managing people for organizational effectives

a. The issues that are faced by the organization are based on the ill- management and lack of motivation to the employees resulting to maximization of the staff turnover rates. The former CEO of the organization aimed at undertaking lean management in order to reduce the costs that were incurred by the business. Therefore, the management undertook the strategy of dismissing staff members for minor errors or breaches of procedure. It has affected the organizational operations largely resulting to system failures. On the other hand, the poor remuneration policy of the organization and the lack of motivation to the employees affected the productivity of the business.

I would take steps to bring forth changes min the workplace conditions in order to facilitate the smooth functioning of the workforce as per the objectives of the business. On the other hand, I would take steps to improve the compensation and remuneration policies of the business in order to adhere to the needs of the employees. The improvements in the remuneration policies of the business will be helping me to motivate the employees in order to enhance the organizational operations. Dries (2013) stated that Appraisal programs help in enhancing the involvement of the employees in the organizational processes and thereby motivate the same in undertaking steps to enhance the operations. I would undertake the employee empowerment strategy to boost the organizational operations.  The identification of the interests of the employees will be helping me to develop different remuneration schemes in order to motivate the employees towards undertaking the smooth functioning of the same.

b. The strategy that is planned by me will be helping to empower the employees and thereby enhance the operations of the workforce through encouraging the engagement of the workforce. I believe that framing a positive workforce culture will be helping the employees in working on the organizational objectives more proficiently. On the other hand, providing the employees with the suitable remuneration scheme will be helping the organization in enhancing the operations of the same. Appraisal programs and enhanced compensation will be helping the management in reducing the rate of staff turnover. Jiang et al. (2012) stated that the management of the employees through identification of the issues and thereby mitigating the same helps businesses in facilitating the smooth functioning of the same.

The strategies that are planned by me will be helping the organization in encouraging the involvement of the employees in the process. The active participation of the employees in the business processes will be helping the same in enhancing the productivity of the same.   Van De Voorde,   Paauwe  and Van Veldhoven (2012) stated that the key elements of change in the organizational operations are dependent on the smooth functioning of the employees through continuous motivation. Appraisal programs will be adding on the performance of the employees through continuous motivation and induction of positive workplace competition.    

c. The major resistances that might be faced by me while implementing the employee empowerment strategy on the organizational model will be from the senior management team, which consists of five people. The people were appointed by the former CEO and thereby they developed an insight of the cost cutting strategies that were undertaken by the former director. The strategies that were planned by me required the organization to bring forth changes ion the processes of the people management through induction of fair remuneration strategy and appraisal programs. Therefore, the senior management team might oppose the strategies that are planned by me as the strategy does not correlate to the activities or the principles of lean management followed by the same. On the other hand, the senior management team of the organization holds the opinion that retention of the employees is a least regarded concept due to the higher rates of unemployment in the operating markets.

Case study 2: Vodafone and Global Supply Chain Management

However, I would take steps to make the senior management aware of the different issues that are faced by the organization due to lack of involvement of the employees in the processes. I will take steps to make the senior management team aware of the outcomes relating to lack of proper motivation provided to the employees as it affects the smooth functioning of the business through lower retention rates.  Kehoe and Wright (2013) stated that providence of  fair remuneration to the employees will be helping enterprises in designing the smooth functioning of the business units.

a. Detlef Schultz was awarded with the Procurement Leader Award in the year 2011, which uncovered the different aspects of strategic research, category intelligence and suitable networking skills in order to enhance the involvement of the communities in the innovations. However, Schultz could have made use of the charismatic style of leadership in order to enhance the operations of the employees by persuading and influencing the same by the characteristics of the leadership phenomenon. Mhatre  and Riggio (2014) stated that the utilization of charismatic leadership assists leaders in influencing the workforce in order to undertake smooth operations of the same as per the objectives of the business. Schultz has undertaken transformational leadership as an approach, which aimed at undertaking consultation with the employees for the development of the workforce through mitigation of different issues that are faced by the same. However, the implementation of charismatic leadership style would have helped Schultz in influencing the employees to operate as per the innovative approach of the business. Charismatic leadership helps in facilitating convictions and commitments in the workforce for undertaking the proposed changes in the business model (García-Morales,  Jiménez-Barrionuevo  and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez  2012). The major function that was undertaken by Schultz was related to the compilation of the fragmented supply chains into a single global function. Therefore, the introduction of the charismatic leadership style in the approach of Schultz would have helped him in maximizing the involvement of the employees in the processes for enabling the smooth functioning of the supply chain and logistics by persuasion.

b. The range of leadership skills, which Schultz should have incorporated while undertaking the transformational change in Vodafone’s structure, are delegation and flexibility of operations. Braun et al. (2013) stated that delegation skills of the leaders assist the same in understanding the needs of the organizations and thereby allocate different tasks to the concerned departments. Delegation skills would have helped Schultz in understanding the different feasible manner in which tasks might be allocated to the different departments in order to enhance the quality and smooth functioning of the workforce as per their expertise. Moreover, the proper delegation skill would have helped Schultz in gaining feedbacks from the employees on the different processes and thereby bring forth changes in the fragmented units to ensure the performance. Delegation skill would have helped Schultz in understanding the capabilities of the employees and thereby assigning tasks as per the priorities of the same.

Schultz would have benefitted through induction of flexibility in the operations, as it would have helped him in treating the employees as individuals. Grant (2012) stated that Flexibility helps in facilitating adaptability to the different changes that were faced by the organization while operating in competitive market structures. The key changes that were planned by  Schultz in the supply chain operations of the business is backed by the adaptability of the organization and the ability of the same in adhering top the different changes efficiently. It would have helped Schultz in enhancing the supply chain operations of the business while operating in diverse economies.  

Case Study 3 : Facebook – Data Privacy Dilemma

a. Facebook was alleged of a data privacy scandal affected the goodwill and trust of the users. The organization undertook steps to testify the issues that are faced by the users relating to data privacy while utilizing the proposition made by the organization (Pinchot  and Paullet 2012). The internal audit department of the organization was entitled with the responsibility of investigating the apps and third party developers. The organization also restricted the activities of the app developers relating to their access over the personal data of the Facebook users (Veltsos 2012). The organization updated its privacy tools in order to restrict the activities of the third party developers in assessing information of the users for the proper development of the applications. The organization also created a data management tool “Access Your Information” for the users, which would enable the same with the actions that relates to the management, omission or monitor over the posts and the personal profile in Facebook (Tankard  2016). The strategies helped the organization in enforcing suitable data management plans for its users. It has also helped the organization in avoiding situations of data breach that might affect the trust of the users.  Previously the organization reviewed the most visited sites of the users and the non- users without the explicit “opt-in” consent of the users in order to develop the applications through the utilization of artificial intelligence technologies (Isaak  and Hanna  2018). However, the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) restricted the actions of the organization relating to the monitoring user activities without the consent of the same (Spiekermann et al. 2015).

b. GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation ) is a regulation under the EU laws which emphasizes on data protection and privacy for every individuals in the European Union. The GDPR aims at providing the users with the control over the personal data exports for reducing situations of data breaches and falsification of user data and misutilization (Boban  2016). The purpose of framing the regulation is to provide the users with the capability of controlling and monitoring their personal information in the web for reducing data theft and breaches for private gains of different business enterprises.

The key privacy and data protection requirements of the GDPR are being discussed in this section:

Undertaking the consent of the users for data processing: The regulation emphasized on the organizational role of undertaking the consent of the users while processing their personal information as it would helps in making the user aware of the organization with whom the data is being shared. On the other hand, the requirement will be helping to avoid different risks of data breach and misstatement from the end of the reviewer (Boban  2016).

Providing data breach notifications: The regulation requires the concerned companies to set up technologies, which will be notifying the users of the data breach in order to keep the same informed during a data theft.

Safe handling of data across borders: The regulation requires the organizations to undertake safe handling of data while operating in diverse economies in order to minimize the risks relating to data breaches.

c. The e- business model of Facebook  is based on the concept of utilizing internet in order to conduct business. Facebook aims at generating revenue through the identification of the data ranging from user account information to the personal behaviors and preferences. This strategy of the organization has helped the same in undertaking a continuous growth process through restricted selling of information to the different marketers (Cadwalladr  and Graham-Harrison 2018). The proposition of Facebook is mainly dependent on the creation of a communication platform, which helps in the growth of different organizations. The organization is the source of Big Data for ensuring the functioning of the targeted advertisements in order to generate revenues. The revenue model that is followed by the organization is to generate revenue over the information of different users. The benefits of the organization is dependent on the wide social media platform that is proposed by the same which has helped in enhancing the communication systems to support the sustainable functioning of the organizations. Moreover, the huge user base of the organization has helped in the sustainable functioning of the same in the competitive markets. However, the major challenge that is faced by the organization sib assed on the data breaches that are faced by the same while operating as per the objectives.

d. The challenges that are faced by the social media platforms are due to the excess competition in the markets. The development of the social media websites are restricted  through the radical expansion of different multinational organizations. Moreover, the data breaches that occur create a situation of distrust among the users, which affects the goodwill of the business (Veltsos  2012). The situation might be controlled by the organizations through maintenance of unique selling proposition in order to gain a competitive edge over the propositions made by the existing players or the new entrants. On the other hand, the organizations might also consider different privacy policies under the guidance of General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in order to restrict data breaches.

References

Boban, M., 2016. Digital single market and EU data protection reform with regard to the processing of personal data as the challenge of the modern world. Economic and social development: book of proceedings, p.191.

Braun, S., Peus, C., Weisweiler, S. and Frey, D., 2013. Transformational leadership, job satisfaction, and team performance: A multilevel mediation model of trust. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), pp.270-283.

Cadwalladr, C. and Graham-Harrison, E., 2018. Revealed: 50 million Facebook profiles harvested for Cambridge Analytica in major data breach. The Guardian, 17.

Dries, N., 2013. The psychology of talent management: A review and research agenda. Human Resource Management Review, 23(4), pp.272-285.

García-Morales, V.J., Jiménez-Barrionuevo, M.M. and Gutiérrez-Gutiérrez, L., 2012. Transformational leadership influence on organizational performance through organizational learning and innovation. Journal of business research, 65(7), pp.1040-1050.

Grant, A.M., 2012. Leading with meaning: Beneficiary contact, prosocial impact, and the performance effects of transformational leadership. Academy of Management Journal, 55(2), pp.458-476.

Isaak, J. and Hanna, M.J., 2018. User Data Privacy: Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and Privacy Protection. Computer, 51(8), pp.56-59.

Jiang, K., Lepak, D.P., Hu, J. and Baer, J.C., 2012. How does human resource management influence organizational outcomes? A meta-analytic investigation of mediating mechanisms. Academy of management Journal, 55(6), pp.1264-1294.

Kehoe, R.R. and Wright, P.M., 2013. The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of management, 39(2), pp.366-391.

Mhatre, K.H. and Riggio, R.E., 2014. Charismatic and transformational leadership: Past, present, and future. The Oxford handbook of leadership and organizations, pp.221-240.

Pinchot, J.L. and Paullet, K.L., 2012. What’s in your profile? Mapping Facebook profile data to personal security questions. Issues in Information Systems, 13(1), pp.284-293.

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Van De Voorde, K., Paauwe, J. and Van Veldhoven, M., 2012. Employee well?being and the HRM–organizational performance relationship: a review of quantitative studies. International Journal of Management Reviews, 14(4), pp.391-407.

Veltsos, J.R., 2012. An analysis of data breach notifications as negative news. Business Communication Quarterly, 75(2), pp.192-207.