魯珀特?默多克傳媒公司管理評估

此案例是介紹商業巨頭—魯珀特•默多克傳媒公司的管理方式和領導力，最早于澳大利亞發展并成為傳媒市場的領頭羊,在52個國家有780家分公司,他的公司在3大洲擁有超過175家報社，每周約發布4000萬篇文章且在傳媒市場的領導者分布在英國、澳大利亞和新西蘭,也擁有著名的電影制作單位和體育娛樂頻道的所有權。經過深入研究,此案例需要討論默多克帝國組織的很多方面，包括缺少關于人力資源管理的基本策略和實踐方法，公司沒有適當的人力資源部門存在,非常差的業績監督和評價系統,缺少對員工的培訓和員工發展的管理,專制型領導風格,決策力是中央集權的，權利實施和控制較多使用。其公司的工作人員對于他們的工作環境和就業保障并不是很滿意的，因為要遵守公司的嚴格要求,否則任何一個人會失去這份工作，員工并不是把他當做是公司的CEO,而是傳媒界的老大。他的商業策略很好，但是在他實施這些策略的同時，卻忽略了員工的內心想法，忽視員工的意見和建議,把自己的工作原則強加給員工。默多克是個控制狂,這就是為什么決策力是中央集權制的,任何人沒有委托工作給下屬的權利,即使在這樣一個商業巨頭公司中也不存在內部員工的分歧現象。
 
The given case is on the management and leadership style of the business tycoon named as "Rupert Murdoch" by origin an Australian and king of media market, owning 780 businesses covering 52 countries , his company owned more than 175 newspapers titles in 3 continents publishing around 40 million papers a week and the leader in newspaper markets in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, also having ownership of renowned film production units and sports entertainment channels, after the thorough study, areas which need to be discussed for Murdoch's organisational empire include lack of basic policies and practices from human resource management prospective like, there is no existence of proper human resource department, poor performance monitoring and appraisal system, lack of training and development of staff, autocratic style of leadership, decision making is centralized and there is high usage of power and control. People working in his organisation are not much comfortable about the working conditions and job security as there is strict compliance required otherwise anyone can loose his job and they do not treat him like company CEO but the king, his business strategy is good but while implementing those strategies he don't care about his staff and imposing his principles of working on them by ignoring their opinions and suggestions. Murdoch is control freak that is why decision making is centralised and there is no delegation of power to subordinates, neither there is concept of internal divisions even in such a huge organisation.
 
分析—Analysis:#p#分頁標題#e#
 
Basically Organisation is group of people who are working for common objective and hence contributing towards the business, how much an organisation can excel and grow, it depends on the skills and talent of the staff not just on leadership, this mean it is an collective effort under the umbrella of supervision by someone who has good in business strategy, people management and experience. To have a trained staff, there is need of proper training and development system through active participation of human resource development, like Porter (1980) has suggested the blend of the human resource with infrastructure of firm, technology and procurement as supportive activities should be used to create value for the company itself and for its clients with the combination of the primary business activities like inbound and outbound logistics, operations, marketing, sales and services, this model is basically suitable for the concerns engaged in production, it emphasizes that if there is any single element out of those four supportive activities is not properly taken care of that organisation can grow and develop itself but if it is constantly ignoring and not taking care of its human resource, it can face some serious problem in future and its prolonged phase of success may come to an end, News Corp. is not focusing on its staff development as suggested by the value chain model, as there are no internal divisions so it is responsibility of the holding company to look after the staff related issues in other business units acquired or established by the parent company.
 
Source: M.E. Porter, 1985. Competitive Advantage
 
In the given case same is the scenario, the media business being the essential part of routine life is growing rapidly but there is lack of proper existence of human resource department in this big international concern, staff is not efficiently utilised, they are harassed and pressurised for the good performance, they are not even allowed to think freely, it feels like there is no good system of training and development for the employees to have quality human resource which is essential for better performance out of the them and that is ultimate purpose of every organisation, in rest of all three areas company is going strong for example its highly technological based. Theorists also suggest motivation and encouragement as something essential for the staff for better output and it should go parallel to organisational growth, to create value human resource of any organisation should be given adequate infrastructure and resources.
 
The research of Fredrick Herzberg (1967) was directed at people in work place also known as two factor theory, it was based on questioning people in companies in different jobs at different levels to establish:those factors that led to extreme dissatisfaction or satisfaction with the job, the environment and the workplace.
 
The factors giving rise to satisfaction he called motivators and those giving rise to dissatisfaction called as hygiene factors, motivators consists of achievement, nature of the work itself, recognition, advancement, level of responsibility and opportunities for personal growth and development. These all factors are related to actual area of the work and job responsibilities, when they are present in a working situation they led to high levels of satisfaction on the part of the workforce. Whereas hygiene factors or dissatisfiers that he identified were, company policy, relationship with peers, status, security, relationship with juniors, salary and supervision and management. Where these factors were bad or inadequate extreme dissatisfaction was experienced by all employees. Organisations that fail to provide adequate hygiene factors tend to have high levels of conflicts and employee turnover. The theory has focused on such factors as;good and adequate supervision that encourages and extends the workforce rather than restricting it#p#分頁標題#e#
 
job satisfaction which can often be increased through work restructuring, job enrichment and enlargement programmes,the setting and achieving of targets based on a full understanding of what they are and why they have been set.
 
Herzberg's work carries many clear implications like;
 
Management style, attitude and approach to staff must be based on integrity and trust, whatever the nature, limitations or technology concerned in the work itself.
 
The working environment is to be comfortable, functional and suitable in human terms, again whatever the operational constrains and limitations may be.
 
General factors of status and importance should ensure that every member of the staff is respected, believed in, treated equally and given opportunity for change, development and advancement within the organisation.
 
Effective and professional relationships between members of staff should in turn promote profitable and successful activities across the entire organisation. This includes recognising the existence of barriers and potential conflicts between departments, divisions and functions and taking steps to provide effective counters to these.
 
Pay and reward levels must meet expectations, as well as providing adequate levels of income so that the individuals feel secure in both life and work, promotions are also part of reward system. There are collective, cultural, and social requirements to increase pay and reward levels, it is also becoming increasingly accepted that there is a moral responsibility placed on organisations to share the fruits of their success. However it is also important to know that high level pay do not make work more interesting or worthwhile, though they do certainly make it more bearable especially in the short run.
 
Administrative support and control process are to be designed both to make life easy for those working in front line and at the same time provide the necessary management information. This particularly refers to the nature and effectiveness of the roles and functions of the corporate headquarters and the relationships between these and the front line operations indicated.
 
Attention must be paid to the work itself, and how it is divided up. There is particular reference here to those parts of the work that are looked upon with disfavour but which nevertheless must be carried out adequately and effectively.
 
Security of tenure ensures that people are employed on the continuous basis as far as that is possible. At the same time steps have to be taken to ensure there is steady and open flow of information, so that when changes do become necessary the staff concerned is both forewarned and positively responsive.
 
Source: F. Herzberg, 1967. Work and the nature of man
 
Above discussed theory clearly highlights the areas that need to be addressed in Murdoh's management style like it talks about an comfortable environment which do not exist actually there, rather there are full of stress and pressurised working conditions, company policies and practices are strict , there is divide and rule policy to control the employees whereas the theory says for better human resource and working conditions there should be conducive and friendly relationships between the employees also purpose of supervision should be to supervise and to help if someone is facing problem while working but not to threatening and abusing. If someone is not happy with his professional life, it will definitely effect badly on his personal life and eventually there will be low moral values and work standard but there are chances that people work and perform better when they are tightly controlled and performance parameters are strictly formed but this can not work for every individual or organisation. Status is also something very important aspect of life now like if somebody say; I hold job x or I work for company y, it can add confidence to that person if that particular company is esteemed one or may make him less confident or sad if the reputation of the said company is not good, for this reasons could be the leadership, management style or any ethical issues regarding the community or staff. Secure job is not less than a blessing for any employee in this era of time, in practical which is real life people bear and do a lot to carry on with their job but when everything is dependent on all those factors that are beyond their reach or even if they are in there reach, a slight mistake or demand for freedom and expressiveness can cause lost of job then the situation is worse for anybody working in that kind of atmosphere and same is the scenario in the given case, people have to obey Murdoch and have to think like him if the want to work with him who can not they resigned. Whereas motivators are the one of the sources of better productivity as shown in the figure, showing the comparison between the satisfiers and dissatisiers, study clearly shows how motivators are high in percentage as compared to hygiene.#p#分頁標題#e#
 
McKinsey 7-S Framework:
 
Source: T. Peters and R.H. waterman, 1982. In Search of Excellence
 
In 1970s McKinsey gave the idea of organisational excellence by the approach of business strategy and organisational effectiveness on the basis of seven factors which are required to achieve level of excellence and all factors are equally important and need to be focused. Actually these factors are combination of hard and soft managerial topics like form the figure its can be understood, Strategy, Structure and Systems are hard topics whereas Skills, Staff, Style and Shared Values are soft topics. It is general prospective that strategy, system and structure management emphasis and time spending is high because these provide foundation to any organisation but generally enough time or energy is not been deployed on staff skills, managerial style, staff and shared values of the whole organisation lets see this model's implications in relation to given case study.
 
Strategic means identification of objectives and planning to achieve them.
 
Structure refers organisational hierarchy, its structure and divisions also the coordination between the different departments.
 
System means the ways and procedures a company operates and gets the things done for instance printing, editing etc.
 
Shared values are the company's very reason for existence, therefore these are placed at the centre of the model and these are shared by the whole organisation.
 
Style is something intangible and it's a way how management fixes its priorities and spend time on different issues also its relationship with the staff.
 
Staff means work force of the company.
 
Skills include the capabilities and expertise of the human resource of the company.
 
While analysing the situation of News Corp. under the above discussed framework it is quite clear that even the said concern has gained a big success but its yet to achieve the excellence and for that it must need to work on some components mentioned in this model and impact of this will be on rest of all components like on first priority company have to focus on its human resource i.e STAFF, according to this framework specifically, the issues in relation to staff which needs to be addressed are training and development, delegation, communication, performance management and recruitment procedure.
 
Main problem with the recruitment system is this usually such kind of people are employed who have originality and free spirit and most importantly they must think alike Murdoch style of thinking, practically means there is very limited scope of getting job in this organisation because such characteristics are not that easy to find and also this is not a standard or some criteria to judge people rather it's a self perceptive system and human resource department is not functioning its real role but obeying the commands from top, organisation is still working on traditional management of style it should change its style and should learn from the cultures of the newly acquired companies they must have some values in them and there could be a chance to learn from them but its only possible when there is flexibility on the system and style of management and selection criteria could be on the basis of critical behaviour, skills, knowledge, expertise and technological proficiency aspects that are to be tested in individuals for capability and willingness to do any specific job. Pilbeam and Corbridge (2006, p.142) state that 'The recruitment and selection of employees is fundamental to the functioning of an organisation and there are compelling reasons for getting it right. Inappropriate selection decisions reduce organisational effectiveness, invalidate reward and development strategies are frequently unfair on the individual recruit and can be distressing for the managers who have to deal with unsuitable employees.'#p#分頁標題#e#

After improving the system turn of staff training and development comes for implementing the concept of excellence for the company, for this company have to do training, development and learning needs analysis (TDLNA) suggested by Dransfeild et al. (2006, p.80) with the coordination of all the departments because only human resource department itself never understand or identify the core type of trainings required by different departments so there is need of consultation with all the department for this activity and this will provide;
 
A competence audit for al or part of the operations of an organisation
 
Confirmation of existing knowledge and skills
 
Identification of skills and abilities required but not available.
 
A recommendation of new trainings provisions required to meet the organisational and human needs
 
A basis n which to plan and implement individual development.
 
If management want to bring any change before that they should bring change in their human resource like one incident is mentioned in the case, when technology was implemented for the printing purpose a lots of people lost their jobs that is the issue which needs attention where leadership comes, old employees must had given training so that they could deal with new change. Beside this, there is no delegation concept in the News Corp. therefore there is high level of control in the organisation and authority is centralised which reflects management do not trust its staff or is not sure about the recruitment decisions or they have any doubts on the capabilities of the staff which generally affect not only the growth of the employees but they also feel bad about it and get dissatisfied, there is no free flow of information throughout the organisation and so nobody has knowledge about his own working place in detail. Performance monitoring system is defective and people are not exactly rewarded on their performances, they do not review performance and match it with previous record, in case of good or bad performance rather there is no room for the poor performance because if any employee has underperformed or badly performed he or she will be sacked immediately whereas theories shows there is always chance of improvement. Appraisal system is old one, 360 appraisal technique can be mixed up with this, Bratton and Gold has discussed the Taylor (1998)'s list of points that shows actual purpose and benefits of the appraisal like;
 
Clarifying expectations and reducing ambiguity about performance
 
Determining rewards
 
Identifying training and development needs
 
Improved communication
 
Selecting people for promotion and talent management
 
Counselling
 
Discipline
 
Planning remedial actions
 
Setting targets and goals
 
Leadership:#p#分頁標題#e#
 
Leadership shows the culture of the organisation and every area of the business activity is influenced by the leadership after reading the given case it is quite clear that Murdoch has maintained control culture in the organisation and decision making is completely centralised, there is no consultation concept in strategy and decision making process, it is Murdoch who call the shots and information is just passed from top to bottom and all have to act upon it. Nobody is allowed to give opinion or right to do his own will. He is excellent in business strategy and capitalizes the good opportunities at right time and not afraid of taking risk and bold decisions, highly capable of identifying the emerging markets also very good at public relationing and forecasting but the focus on the human resource and its development is not much visible that is why it is more kind of one man show, it seems he is too keen to lead and control.
 
Out of three basic leadership styles Autocratic, Consultative and Democratic, the autocratic style is the style of Murdoch's leadership because it highlights following factors;
 
Leader makes all final decisions for the company
 
Close supervision
 
Individual member's interests subordinate to those of the organisation
 
Subordinates treated with out regards for their views
 
Great demands placed on staff
 
Questioning discouraged
 
Conformist/coercive environment
 
All of the above mentioned factors exist in the News Corp. that is the proof that the leadership is authoritarian there. The leadership continuum also can be used as measure to know the leadership nature from the human resource point of view if Murdoch's leadership is examined through this framework it will be quite clear that he use full range of authority over the staff.
 
It is neither possible anyone can be a leader nor leaders are born as leaders. It a highly complex and demanding job in terms of various skills and virtues like, Banathy (1958) suggested eleven critical categories as leadership competencies according to human resource management which are as follow;
 
Getting and giving information
 
Understanding group needs and characteristics
 
Controlling the group
 
Counselling
 
Setting the example
 
Representing the group
 
Planning
 
Evaluation
 
Sharing leadership
 
Manager of learning
 
While analysing the leadership of the Murdoch on the basis of the above points most of them are part of his leadership which are the reason of his success but skills or attributes like exchange of information regarding any issue and supportive communication between different levels of the management is not in practice because for junior staff just have to act upon the instructions. To some extent, Murdoch knows the needs of group but do not show much concern about it neither the human resource department working in the company is efficiently able to do so but when it is the issue of the need of time no one is better than him because even his competitors and rivals in business admit this that he is catalyst of change and act quickly to capitalize the opportunities. When it comes to controlling the people, he knows very well how to deal with it but there no element of the counselling in his leadership because he is too practical and strict in performance and its compliance, only who match his standards can work for him otherwise there is no other way they have but to leave. He has many a times set examples for the group like he knows even how to operate the machineries used in the particular business and once he manipulate the operating system of one machine and the results was great on this all labour was amazed.#p#分頁標題#e#
 
In planning he is excellent and has great industrial experience and some how he is in this media industry since his childhood and he got this business in inheritance so this thing has also helped him, he take bold decision then closely monitor and supervise the particular activity and evaluate it, mostly he is right on the target this is something one of his competencies. No sharing of leadership is the concept for his entrepreneurship and this is what he thinks the key to success but human resource management suggests consultative and participative approach for optimum results but in practical life it depends on culture of organisation and its leadership, last point is manager of learning, it is said nobody is perfect which means everybody makes mistake but a few learn from them that is the concept of learning and development and Murdoch had some bad experiences in his professional life but all know very well and strongly believe in is learning aptitude, he keep on learning from his mistakes to avoid them in future. There are so many theories on leadership like a report was prepared by Centre of Leadership studies of University of Exeter (Bolden et al. 2003), they have discussed following theories;
 
Great man theory
 
Trait theory
 
Behavioural theory
 
Situational leadership theory
 
Contingency theory
 
Transactional theory
 
Transformational theory
 
Here its not important to discuss all these theories in detail but to know the basics of each theory's concept like they show their concept and content by their name some how and every theory is a step ahead to previous one as per the sequence in which they have mentioned above, while analysing the Murdoch's leadership under these theories it has come to the notice that most of the discussed concepts and ideas in the theories exist in his leadership like for example when it comes to contingency he can bear short term losses for long term gains, he is excellent in transformation but transactional theory point out basic deficiency in his management style like he is not good in developing relationship with the employees and not even allow the staff to maintain healthy professional relations between them may be that is how he is strengthening his control and minimizing the chances of creation of unions and other power groups in the organisation.
 
總結—Conclusion:
 
To conclude it is important to mention, there is gap between human resource management strategy and business strategy like sometimes business strategy can be helpful for the business growth but it has nothing to do with the welfare and development of the employees. There is no doubt about the competency and leadership skills of the Murdoch but he should make a few changes in his leadership tactics even without them he is still a king of media industry but if he can include the some of the above mentioned points of discussion regarding human resource management those are incorporated in the management of the News Corp. then there are high chances of its more bigger success across the world because people are the real asset for the company and they have expectations about the work done by them that should be justifiably evaluated as Vroom (1964 cited French 2008)) put forward an expectancy model of work in which he has stated that every employee get motivated if the outcomes of his efforts at certain stage are fruitful, then he makes progress to various levels of work and commitments towards the job according to his expectations and needs, so it is important to meet peoples expectations and if not there should be justification for it, it will make the management structure more transparent and productive. Also while operating globally if regiocentric approach put into practice it may yield better result than to be sticky with the ethnocentricity.#p#分頁標題#e#