The Role of Technology in EIFM Company

Using Charles Perrow’s classifications, EIFM Company falls under the Craft Works Technology because it deals with technical problems with few exceptions (Jugend et al. 2015, 220). EIFM Company uses the latest technology to match with time. The company takes part in projects such as plasterwork, painting, plumbing, electrical system, firefighting, block Work, tiling and air condition system. Besides, EIFM departments include the Inspection, contracting, finance, administrative, cleaning and Calibers Recruitment. Other Departments include the HR, PR, and Transportation, marketing and recruiting. Studies show that Technology is a combination of skills, abilities, techniques, machines, skills, ideas, materials, knowledge and services. According to Perrow’s classification, a company with this type of technology usually involves personnel with the most excellent expertise to solve problems. The technology is suitable at the departmental level because the departments have been categorized based on their techniques.

Employee Training

The elements of change at EIFM are such as employee training and development to enhance efficiency and productivity. According to (Foltys et al. 2015, 166), employee training has enabled the company to stays competitive in the market environment. That is, the management understands the great value in human capital, which has made them a great organization in the achievement of the short-term and long-term advantages. Numerous studies indicate that employee training has developmental significance and at the same time induce new quality of existing and new employees. In other words, this organization takes part in a series of activities that lead to the acquisition of new knowledge and skills thus resulting in the growth and well-being of social capital. Besides, EIFM takes part in employee development through development programs that enhance their capabilities. In this, employee development has become an imperative issue in today’s business environment. Therefore, the organization has forecasted need to invest in continuous employee development as a way to maintain them and at the same time lead to its success.

Technology Use

As mentioned earlier, EIFM takes part in craft technological systems, which are advanced and up to date that help them remain competent in the current market. An inherent value exists in the use of use technologies that innovators develop in the company. In a study by Jugend et al. (2015), they found that technology is a cornerstone of organizational development as it helps the company overcome its challenges. Besides, technologies are strategies that managers can use to support the organization overcome its challenges. Emirates International Facility Management has separate facility management function that helps to conduct safe and secure maintenance of assets using the latest technologies. Also, there are many perspectives in which the company uses new technology; this includes the improvement of product design, communication, and marketing strategies. The organization has a number of managers that believe that they can progress through technical superiority and development of technology. Although implementation of technology requires massive investment, EIFM has sustained high levels of investment in resources. All employees have the knowledge on the new ways for innovation, which has helped it plan and approached its projects accordingly.

Organizational Structure

The organization has a highly centralized environment, which is not usually great but it does not suggest that the company has a less right structure. EIFM has a centralized organizational structure because its managers have formal powers to decision-making. Although the organization has delegated powers to its division managers, in the practical, the General Manager makes all decisions. Therefore, proponents of centralized organization structure suggest that centralized authority is necessary for solving general organizational problems. Besides, scholars argue that sometimes-divisional managers may forget matters of the whole organization and focus on their units only (Raffaelli & Glynn 2014, 566). However, there are situations when the overall organization requires decision-making processes that centralized management can help to accomplish common goals. In one way or the other, centralization provides a clear chain of command whereby executive leadership has the confidence to delegate duties to mid-level managers and other employees. Another reason why EIFM uses a centralized structure is for natural fulfillment of its vision. For instance, there is a good flow of communication from the top management to the employees and offer guidance on how to achieve the organizational vision. Usually, direct communication from senior management allows suppliers, customers, stakeholders, and communities to receive the same message. Another argument for adopting this structure is that EIFM may have thoughts on reducing office and administrative costs by allowing decision-making process to come from the main headquarters.

On the other hand, centralization of leadership at EIFM may show some dictatorial type of leadership since the structure expects employees to deliver resulting that alight to management’s expectations. This way, it is a risky structure to the organization especially when the decisions are critical and do not succeed in their implementation stages. Sometimes, centralized structures may not work well if employees lack motivation and control over the implementation process. As a result, lead to employee reluctance because executives may end up with too many decisions, that employees ignore or poorly implement them.

Organizational Structural Issues

EMIF organization structure will make a good architecture if it adopts it strictly. However, there still exists a gap in the environment structure especially during the appointment of employees. For instance, EIFM appoints its employees from high power distance communities. Given that the company is in the Middle East, the cultural context plays a vital in the decision making process. According to Torova et al. (2014), the Middle East society has a high power distance, which grants the superior ability to make decisions without encompassing the subordinates’ participation. In this the there is a high level of inequality between the superiors and the subordinates. In the high power distance societies, people have fears for demanding justification on inequalities of power they may receive punishment for disagreeing with the management’s decisions.

Strategies for dealing with Ethical Issues

Like any other organization, this one has procedures for dealing with ethical issues concerning employee well-being. In this, EIFM addresses employee wellbeing based on work performance and personal appraisal. Scholarly works show that all organizations battle with the question of employee motivation which may include extrinsic, intrinsic or both. For many purposes, the motivation of employees aims at their retention. Besides, the performance appraisal system is a vital aspect that aims at having a better more accurate and cost-effective strategy for evaluating employee motivation and job performance. This is the most critical way that organizations use to enhance the performance of their employees. Performance appraisal is a proper mechanism used to bring positive effects to the work environment and at the same time boost the quality of service.

Moreover EIFM employees and terminates employment contracts based on the UAE labor law. In some cases, the company gives employees any assistance needed and they may not cancel their visa until they access a new job and adjust accordingly. The UAE immigration accommodates only employees with valid work permit or those who received sponsorship through a local entity that is licensed and registered.

Political Perspective

Structure vs. authority

As mentioned earlier, the company’s organizational structure grants absolute power to the General Manager, who approves all decisions before they take effect. That is, the General Manager draws technical advice from middle-level managers and then makes the final decision. Being a top-level manager, the GM cannot take decisions alone and buys ideas from units in the intermediate level managers. At EIFM, The Structure gives the managers to act superior to the subordinates and take their orders downwards. However, the possible outcome centralized organizational structure is that the headquarters can restrict the powers of the division managers (Raffaelli, & Glynn 2014, 563). For instance, the GM may show his or her superior image preventing them from undertaking specific duties for purposes of cost-cutting or avoiding the possible business risks. As indicated earlier, the GM has the authority and power in decision-making, therefore, may prevent accomplishing specific goals because he has the potential to revoke or approve any decision made as presented in Hoffmann et al. (2017). On the hand, there is an advantage in the centralized structure experienced in this organization; this is the ability for the superior leader to coach his subordinates. That is, every coach expects that his team excels and therefore take the entire role of guiding team players to translate their goals into action.

Powers of other employees

Apart from the centralized structure, the company also distributes powers to all branch managers who decide the best for their departments. However, these managers have no sole authority to determine anything they want, but their decisions should mean good for the company lie within the limits of the company policies and procedures. Whereas giving Unit Managers power to make decisions for their department s may boost their morale, studies show that this may create to destroy the strategic plans for the company as it is in McBride (2016, 413). Therefore, EIFM believes that departmental managers should make their decisions within the company’s goals and should abide by all its decision-making procedures.

Organizational pluralism

In this assessment, pluralism of EIFM depends on its many branches and department that require employees from diverse skills and knowledge backgrounds (Raffaelli, & Glynn, 2014). Therefore, the company has five departments with managers whose responsibilities include the distribution of roles to his subordinates following their job description. In such, there is a probability that the unit manager will make efforts to involve employees from different cultural and racial backgrounds.

Sources of resistance to management

In a review to an earlier paragraph, it indicated that the GM has central powers to decision making. Therefore, there is a high probability that the GM may discard decisions from other managers if he has a different opinion over the same issue. However, it is not in all cases that the GM’s revocation of a decision may convince the employees. In most cases, they may feel discouraged, and therefore, the HR may take another course of action by going to the main headquarters, which is DAS Holding, the HR Director’s office. While there, the HR cab raises a complaint against the GM. Therefore, the DAS group’s senior management will consider the request and cancel the GM’s decision if found unfit. In this, the lack of coordination in decision-making may lead to resistance to the managerial authority.

Whistle –Blowing and employee rights

EIFM has fundamental ways of conducting whistle-blowing activities. For instance, the most identified method is sending emails to a designed mailbox, which will send the message to the higher management of the entire DAS Holding group and not EIFM Company only. Moreover, the company gives employees the power to file their complaints on their unit Managers to the HR. However, this process has policies to guide employees not to present false or biased accusations. Examples of the correct complaints to submit to the HR is such as the misuse of power from the managers, the HR then will assess the matter and raise it to the Group HR Director, who will request investigations by the senior management of the group such as the CEO or the COO.

Conclusion

In conclusion, EIFM has limitations in areas of organizational structure, which is likely to lead to conflicts between the General Manager and the other managers. As much as departments are decentralized, they are not useful since the decision-making process is centralized. With this in place, there is a high likelihood that resistance to the Management may become a frequent issue. The most appropriate way to reduce this is through effective decentralization of powers so that decisions made at each of the five departments may reflect the final organization's decisions. For instance, there is a need for a roundtable decision- making system so that other managers may come on the same table with the GM and approach issues jointly. On the other hand, the organization also experienced a power distance problem in the appointment of employees. However, they can eradicate this through the formulation of diversity policies to accommodate a variety of employees.

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