Organizational Management WGU Graduate Program - COMPLETE COURSE-all 3 tasks RJFT JFT RJFT2 JFT2 - A+ WORK
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RJFT Task 1
Jennifer Abernathy
Student #000219050
A1. How Bill Bailey might use one theory of motivation to oppose or support the merger
A theory of motivation that Bill Bailey might use to oppose the merger is Adam’s Equity Theory of Motivation. This theory is based on the premise that an individual’s motivation to behave in a certain way is fueled by feelings of inequity or a lack of justice and that people strive for fairness in social exchanges or give-and-take relationships (Kreitner, 2009).
In the case of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera merger, The Utah Opera is much more financially stable than the Utah Symphony. Bill Parker, the chairman of the board at the opera, is concerned that the opera will lose this stability and its flexibility to control things that directly affect this financial stability. With the symphony having set contracts with its musicians that must be honored, this could cause a need to dip into the opera’s reserve fund to cover these obligations. Also, Parker is concerned that the opera will be overshadowed by the symphony if the symphony becomes a tier-one arts organization.
Adam’s Equity Theory of Motivation believes that people evaluate the fairness of their work-related compensations by comparing them to those of others with similar positions or situations. There are two ways of comparing this fairness; negative inequity and positive inequity. When another person receives more or better compensation for a similar job, this is seen as a negative inequity. When another person receives less compensation for a similar job, this is seen as positive inequity. In this case, Bill Parker could rally support in opposition of the merger by pointing out several negative inequities within this merger such as the loss of financial stability and the overshadowing of the opera by the symphony. This could be seen as positive inequities to the symphony because they are gaining access to extra funding to further boost them to become a tier-one arts organization, but will not be viewed as fair by those involved with the opera as they will be forced to support another organization with their money.
A2. How Scott Parker might use one theory of motivation to convince Mrs. Abravanel to support the merger
A theory of motivation that Scott Parker might use to convince Mrs. Abravanel to support the merger is Vroom’s Expectancy Theory of Motivation. This theory can be used to predict motivation and behavior in any situation in which a choice between two or more alternatives must be made and it holds that people are motivated to behave in ways that produce valued outcomes (Kreitner, 2009).
In the case of the Utah Symphony and Utah Opera merger, there are two alternatives, merge the Utah Symphony with the Utah Opera or keep them as two separate entities. Mrs. Abravanel’s biggest concern is that the symphony’s director will not have complete control over the symphony because Anne Ewers will be in charge of both the symphony and the opera. Mr. Parker could put the expectancy theory to work by showing Mrs. Abravanel the instrumentality, or relationship of the performance to the outcome, of the merger such as attracting world-class artists, maximizing efficiency of administration and planning, giving donors a greater return on their investment, and creating new educational opportunities (Kreitner, 2009). He can show Mrs. Abravanel that the merger produces the most positive valence, or valued outcomes, because it will help the symphony with their financial struggles and it will also save the symphony from having to find a new CEO when Mr. Parker is leaves his post as the symphony’s CEO, because Anne Ewers will be made CEO of both organizations.
A3. Describe Anne’s positional power in relation to her personal power
Positional, or legitimate, power refers to the power a person holds due to his or her position or authority. Personal, or referent, power refers to the power that a person holds due to his or her own personality. Personal power is usually gained through personal knowledge and experience.
Anne’s positional power has been gained because of her personal power. Her personal knowledge and experience has strengthened her positional power as is evident in her current job as head of the Utah Opera. Her reputation as being energetic, enthusiastic, and capable, are all direct components of her personal power which has landed her the opportunity to be the CEO of the merged organization, which would further enhance her positional power.
A3a. Discuss how Anne could use her positional power to successfully lead the merger efforts
As stated above, positional, or legitimate power, refers to the power a person holds dues to his or her position or authority. Anne could use her positional power to successfully lead the merger efforts in a number of ways. She could use her positional power to convince the community that the merger would be good for everyone. To do this, she could relay to them her accomplishments while in power at the opera, and lay out some detailed visions and projects for the future. She could also call on those that she leads in the company to follow her position and support the merger. She could take a look at her successful practices while heading the opera, and adapt some of these practices to better conform to the different culture of the symphony. She will need to balance the two environments so that they can retain their own identities if they are going to reside under the same umbrella.
A3b. Discuss how Anne could use her personal power to empower Keith Lockhart
As stated above, personal, or referent, power refers to the power that a person holds due to his or her own personality and is usually gained through personal knowledge and experience. Anne could use her personal power to empower Keith Lockhart by sharing with him her personal knowledge and experiences that she has gained in her many years in the business to help him in his new role. She should work alongside of him instead of above him. This will ensure that his dignity remains intact. She should avoid the use of her positional power, but instead treat him as an equal and encourage him to work with her toward accomplishing the same goal, which will be to make the merger a success. Keith Lockhart likely has his own personal power to contribute to this goal, which Anne should readily solicit and welcome.
A4. Present a potential issue with the musicians that, if not resolved, would jeopardize the continuing organizational performance
The 83 musicians that are employed by the Utah Symphony are unionized and currently receive annual salaries of between $50,000 and $85,000 and various benefits as part of their contracts. A collective bargaining agreement with the musician’s union calls for significant salary increases for the musicians in the coming years, and these salaries already compose over 60% of the organization’s total expenses. The musician’s feel that this merger could potentially jeopardize this collective bargaining agreement.
A potential issue with the musicians is that they fear that their salaries and/or benefits might be cut or might not be increased as a result of the merger. This could lead to discontent among the musicians and could lead some of them to quit or engage in lawsuits against the new organization. In the past, they have enjoyed rather lucrative salary and benefits packages, and have been guaranteed these salaries in their contracts. Their relationship with the board and management of the symphony is already rocky, and with new leadership coming in, it is possible that cuts will be made that could directly affect their compensation. Additionally, since the new leader is from the Utah Opera, it is possible that the focus will shift from being so heavily placed on the symphony to being more about the opera.
A4a. Recommend how Anne could deal with the issue
After learning about the potential merger, the musicians met and formed a committee who then presented a list of guidelines that the musician’s thought were necessary to protect the viability of the symphony. The collective bargaining agreement issue was one of the guidelines on this list. Anne Ewers could deal with this collective bargaining agreement by meeting directly with the musicians and developing a compromise that would satisfy their concerns and also align with her budget plans for the symphony. Prior to this meeting, she should also devise a plan to address the other areas on the list, which include protecting and enhancing artistic excellence, effective fund-raising, and improving the position of the symphony as a major 52-week season orchestra. During the meeting, she should lay out her proposal and solicit any suggestions or comments from the musicians about the proposal. By soliciting their feedback, they will likely feel that they have a part in controlling both their individual destiny and that of the symphony as a whole.
A5. Discuss influence tactics Anne could use to persuade the opera’s full-time staff and artists under contract to endorse the merger.
Anne could use rational persuasion as one influence tactic to persuade the opera’s full-time staff and artists under contract to endorse the merger. Rational persuasion involves using facts or logic to persuade someone to follow your lead. In this case, Anne should provide the staff members with real data from the financial statements about each of the organization’s current situations, along with a future forecast of their condition after the merger to persuade them that the merger would be the best thing for the future of the two organizations.
Anne could use inspirational appeals as an influence tactic to persuade the opera’s full-time staff and artists under contract to endorse the merger. Inspirational appeals persuade people to follow your lead by inspiring their emotions and values. In this case, she could appeal to their emotional attachment and commitment to the individual organizations and show them that this is the best path for survival, especially for the symphony. She could also show them how the merged organization will be something for them and their community to be proud of.
Anne could also use consultation as an influence tactic to persuade the opera’s full-time staff and artists under contract to endorse the merger. Consultation is a method of involving others in the planning and decision making in order to persuade them to follow your lead. In this case, Anne could involve the staff and artists in the planning of the merger and solicit any suggestions they might have about this planning.
Anne could use personal appeals as an influence tactic to persuade the opera’s full-time staff and artists under contract to endorse the merger. Personal appeals involve persuading someone to follow your lead out of friendship or loyalty. In this case, particularly with the opera’s staff who have worked with Anne for many years, she could asked them to support the merger as a personal favor to her because of the long-standing and trusting relationship that they likely share.
Anne could use coalition tactics to persuade the opera’s full-time staff and artists under contract to endorse the merger. Since she will likely already have the support of many of the opera staff members because of their long working relationship, she could call on these members to go out and convince other staff members and artists to support the merger.
References
Kreitner, R. (2009). Organizational Behavior (9th ed).Retrieved July 2, 2013, from McGraw-Hill Learning Solutions: http://online.vitalsource.com/books/0077771788/id/L8-1-2
RJFT Task 2
Jennifer Abernathy
Student #000219050
1. A. Develop an action plan for Anne Ewers by doing the following:
1. 1. Analyze the financial and leadership strengths and weaknesses of the Utah Symphony before the merger.
A financial strength of the Utah Symphony is the government grants received by the symphony, which represent 25% of their total revenue. This is well above the norm of 6% for U.S. arts organizations. Another financial strength is their low management and general expenses which are only 5.5% of their total expenses and 5.4% of their total revenue. This is much lower than those of the opera which are 14% of total expenses and 12% of total revenue. Yet another financial strength is their endowment fund, which was $10 million in January of 2002. Additionally, the symphony only draws 5% from its endowment fund to cover expenses.
A financial weakness of the Utah Symphony is its performance and contribution revenues. These revenues total 66.9% of their total revenues, while the norm is 82% for U.S. arts organizations. Program expenses are another financial weakness for the symphony, which include the orchestra salaries, related benefits, and payroll taxes. These expenses represent 85% of their total expenses and are 84% of their total income. This is mainly due to the exorbitant contract agreements with the musicians that must be paid regardless of the number of performances. Fund-raising expenses are another weakness. These represent 15% of the money raised by the symphony, while the opera’s fund-raising expenses total only 6.6% of the money the opera raises. These fund-raising expenses also include $100,000 in bad debt expense, resulting from unpaid pledges. All of these contribute to the biggest financial weakness of the Utah Symphony, which is its profitability. The symphony’s bottom line profit for 2000-2001 was only $116,308, which is less that 1% of its total revenues and the forecast for 2001-2002 paints an even bleaker picture with bottom line profit projected to be only $2,042.
A leadership strength of Keith Lockhart is his in-depth experience as a symphony conductor. Upon joining the Utah Symphony in 1998, he had conducted over 600 concerts including the Winter Olympic Games and a Super Bowl pregame show, and had created 50 television shows. This experience will help him further the success of the USO. Another leadership strength is his expanding the USO to performing a year-round schedule. This will help the USO gain Group I status, which will lead to a great increase in endowments. Yet another leadership strength is his agreeing to exploring the idea of the merger, rather than just rejecting the idea outright. This shows that he is interested in what is best for the symphony. Lockhart’s main concern is the musicians that he leads. This is a leadership strength as he keeps the orchestra members best interests as a priority, which in turn gains him loyalty and respect from these members.
A leadership weakness of Keith Lockhart is that he is not completely in control. He leads the orchestra and the President and CEO leads the day-to-day operations of the symphony. Both Lockhart and the CEO report to the Chairman of the Board, Scott Parker, who is leading the drive for the merger. Another leadership weakness of Keith Lockhart is a result of the CEO leaving the symphony. This could disrupt the everyday business practices of the symphony, which could affect Keith Lockhart’s leadership due to additional stress and other headaches until a CEO is hired. Another leadership weakness is the relatively short time that Keith has been the conductor for the USO. Though he is a very experienced conductor, he has only four years with the USO, and is likely to feel inferior to the other leaders in the organization that have more tenure.
1. a. Recommend the key steps Anne should take to address these weaknesses to ensure a successful start of the merger
Anne should consider raising the ticket price for performances to increase revenue. She should also consider adding performances, especially for the symphony, since their musicians are paid a set amount, regardless of the number of performances. She could consider more performances outside of the Salt Lake City area, to increase awareness and support of the symphony. Anne should use her fund-raising expertise to devise new fund-raising campaigns for the symphony in order to increase their contributions.
Anne should enter contract negotiations with the musicians in order to curtail the exorbitant salaries that are currently being paid to these musicians. One idea would be to offer more benefits, such as a profit sharing program, in exchange for lower salaries, as the salaries carry such big tax burdens.
Anne should analyze the symphony’s fund-raising expenses and look for areas in which to cut these expenses. As leader of the opera, she has managed to keep the opera’s expenses at 6% of the money that is raised which is less than half of those expenses currently being incurred by the symphony. Additionally, the symphony has $100,000 in bad debt expense due to unpaid pledges. Anne should look at the symphony’s policies for collecting pledges and revise them so that these non-payments are avoided in the future.
All of the above areas should help to improve the symphony’s profitability. Anne could also look into using some of the symphony’s endowment fund to increase income through additional investments, capital asset purchases, etc.
1. 2. Analyze the financial and leadership strengths and weaknesses of the Utah Opera before the merger
A financial strength of the opera is its profitability. In 2000-2001, the Utah Opera has a bottom line total profit of $52,409, which represented 12% of its total revenue. Another financial strength of the Utah Opera is every year it reinvests the interest and dividends from the endowment back into the endowment. Another financial strength of the opera is its ability to adjust the size of the opera or number of performances and could do away with any projects that weren’t reaching their full potential. Yet another financial strength is the opera’s fund-raising expenses. These costs are only 6.6% of the funds that are raised. The opera owns its production studios and 2.9 acres, along with 4.8 million dollars worth of assets in costumes and sets, and a 5 million dollar endowment fund, which are all major financial strengths.
A financial weakness of the opera is its performance and contribution revenues. These total 67.8% of their total revenues and the norm for U.S. arts organizations is 82%. Management and general expenses are another financial weakness of the opera. These costs represent 14% of its total expenses and 12% of its total revenue. Another financial weakness of the opera is that it appears that the expenses related to the rental of sets, props, costumes, etc. to other opera companies are greater than the revenues that are generated from these rentals. For fiscal year 2000-2001, revenue from these rentals was $327,900, while expenses incurred with these rentals were $348,339.
One of the leadership strengths of Anne Ewers is her past experience in running several big city operas, such as the Boston Lyric Opera, and serving as stage director for over 60 opera productions both in the U.S. and abroad.
Another leadership strength of Anne Ewers is the reputation that she has among her current opera and symphony colleagues of being energetic, enthusiastic, and capable. She has shown this capability in her expansion of the UOC’s audience with the addition of another annual production and performances for over 70,000 Utah students, which serves to groom future opera audiences.
Anne Ewer’s reputation as being a great fundraiser is another leadership strength. She has even been able to get contributions from outside of the U.S. She has also seen to it that UOC’s endowment fund has grown to $5 million.
A leadership weakness of Anne Ewers is that she is known to have an autocratic style of leadership. Employees often become resentful of this style of leadership as they do not feel as they are a part of the company, but rather just take and follow orders.
Another leadership weakness of Anne Ewers is that she makes unilateral decisions instead of seeking opinions and suggestions from those who have to put those decisions into practice.
Another leadership weakness of Anne Ewers is that she has no experience in leading a symphony organization, which in many aspects can be very different from an opera. This could lead to challenges and difficulties in managing both organizations under the same umbrella.
1. a. Recommend the key steps Anne should take to address these weaknesses to ensure a successful start of the merger
Anne should try to use a more democratic style of leadership which would involve more of the staff members in the decision making process. This style of leadership is beneficial because it not only improves morale by making everyone feel that they are a part of the success of the company, but it allows the leader access to a larger bank of knowledge by allowing for input and suggestions from other members of the organization that may be more closely associated with the issue at hand. Using this style of leadership would also help address her area of weakness concerning unilateral decision making.
In order to address her area of weakness related to her inexperience with the symphony, she should plan to spend a great deal of time at the symphony prior to the merger in order to observe the everyday business operations at that organization. She should also pledge to work alongside Keith Lockhart in running the symphony, and rely on his experience and expertise to help with all decision-making concerning the symphony.
1. 3. Analyze the four aspects of the scorecard from the attached “Business Scorecards” for each company.
The Utah Symphony’s balanced scorecard
The balanced scorecard for the Utah Symphony is a fairly accurate representation of the cultures and visions for this company. The symphony is dedicated to delivering top-quality performances with top-quality talent. Its vision of being a world-class symphony is attainable with the accomplishment of the goals laid forth on the scorecard.
Financial portion of the Utah Symphony’s balanced scorecard
The strategic goal on the balanced scorecard is listed as being financially stable with sufficient annual profitability. This goal is attainable but not without some major changes to the financial structure of the organization. At the time of the case study, this is a weakness of this organization as it is just barely meeting its obligations.
The critical success factor on the balanced scorecard is listed as having fundraising sufficient to allow ticket prices to stay the same as last year. This weakness was listed as in this financial portion of the scorecard; however it does not want to increase its ticket prices. It is likely that to accomplish their goal of being financially stable with sufficient annual profitability, increases will need to be made in all areas of revenue- ticket prices, number of tickets sold, grants, fundraising, endowments, etc., and this should be addressed on the scorecard. The amount of money needed to bring this organization to a financially stable status cannot be gained by concentrating on one area, but instead needs to come from reasonable increases of all revenues.
The measure on the balanced scorecard is listed as having profitability increase in coming years (from $116K to $500K a year). Increased profitability is certainly attainable but those figures will not be achieved with things as they are at present. Revenues must increase and expenses, in particular musician’s salaries, must be better controlled before any real profits can be realized.
Customer portion of the Utah Symphony’s balanced scorecard
The strategic goal on the balanced scorecard is listed as being attuned to their desires for world-class performances. This goal is realistic as the Symphony is known for its top-quality performances as is evident in its top ranking among Group II Orchestras. This trend should be continued in order to gain boost the organization to Group I status.
The critical success factor on the balanced scorecard is listed as hiring top quality talent. These musicians have been a strength of the symphony as they have allowed them to deliver high-quality performances which has elevated their status to the top among Group II orchestras in the U.S. and Canada. This strength is addressed in this portion of the scorecard. Employing top-quality talent is vital in order to deliver the type of performances necessary to achieve Group I status. However, the cost of this talent must be kept within reasonable limits in order to also maintain profitability.
The measure on the balance scorecard is listed as receiving feedback from exiting patrons. This is a proper way to measure customer satisfaction in order to find out exactly what the customers want and how they feel about the symphony’s performances.
Internal Process portion of the Utah Symphony’s balanced scorecard
The strategic goal on the balanced scorecard is listed as having flexibility in decreasing expenses due to fundraising gaps. In order to become more flexible, the symphony must get better control over its expenses, particularly the musicians’ salaries.
The critical success factor on the balanced scorecard is listed as renegotiating contracts with musicians. The organization has always made its musicians its top priority, so much so that it has led them to be financially burdened with excessive salaries and benefits for these musicians. This weakness is addressed in this portion of the scorecard. This is area represents the biggest part of the organizations expenses and these contracts must be renegotiated to modify the collective bargaining agreement that will impose more increases in the future.
The measure on the balanced scorecard is listed as improving profitability. This will be a good indicator of whether or not the symphony is doing a good job of controlling its expenses.
Learning and Growth portion of the Utah Symphony’s balanced scorecard
The strategic goal on the balanced scorecard is listed as including a wider variety of symphonies offered to appeal to a more varied audience. Audience growth is vital to increased revenues for the organization.
The critical success factor on the balanced scorecard is listed as having a successful marketing campaign that advertises different symphonies to younger audiences. This will do a lot to increase the growth of the audience; however, it should not target only younger audiences, but should appeal to audiences of all ages.
The measure on the balanced scorecard is listed as having improved ticket sales and returning audience. A successful marketing campaign targeted at all age demographics should certainly improve tickets sales and garner regular return customers.
The Utah Opera’s balanced scorecard
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