Respond to two of your peers. Did any of your peers' responses provide additional insight that was not included in your original Milestone One submission? Did it change your perspective on your submission? Explain and discuss with your peers in your follow-up posts.

1) In milestone one it was all about the relationship of leadership, the culture of the company, employee behaviors within the case study. The case study focused on the ignition switch issue GM was having. This issue failed to be passed on to those in the company who could have made a fix to this issue. There was a lot of lacking in responsibility and ownership to these issues and the fatalities it had caused. Money was more important in this study over the safety of people and the products they were producing. The company was falling under an autocratic leadership and poor communication skills in all departments. Employees behaviors stemmed from not feeling valued and appreciated and being afraid of speaking out on issues due to retaliation. Then Marry Barra stepped in changing the autocratic leadership and making many positive changes in the company and the communication.

I feel since then my view has not changed. In previous employment I worked in a place that team members did not want to do, anything more than what was asked of them. Their behaviors and work were negative impacting everyone in the long run Their work they did was either not done completely or done incorrectly. They then did not ask for the assistance they needed to complete their work or even says that things were left undone. This ended with more work the next day and starting off behind. I feel these employees either did not feel valued, appreciated or possibly did not value or feel challenged with their position and seen it as just a "job" resulting in the behavior and the negative culture of the company.

Kuppler, T. (2014). The GM Culture Crisis: What Leaders Must Learn from this Culture Case Study. Swtich and Shif. Retrieved fromhttps://web.archive.org/web/20161013135112/http:/switchandshift.com/the-gm-culture-crisis

2) Just two weeks to go! Milestone One introduced the article titled "The GM Culture Crisis: What Leaders Must Learn from This Culture Case Study" by Tim Kuppler. The article focused on the culture at General Motors that led to thirteen dead and an ignition switch crisis spanning eleven years. Several of the cultural issues at GM included the reluctancy to raise issues or concerns, avoidance of responsibility (GM salute), lack of urgency regarding problems, non-execution of plans/actions (GM nod), and the finally, the conflicting messages sent by upper management pertaining to cost (Kuppler, 2014). Marry Barra, CEO, later worked to rectify the situation, as she had never been made aware of the concerns with the ignition switch. Rectifying the situation led to the firing of fifteen employees, promoting a new position titled safety leader, hiring thirty-five safety investigators to boot, and implementing a Speak Up for Safety program, a global product integrity program, and overhauling the organizational decision-making process (Kuppler, 2014).

While the organizational behavior models encompass custodial, supportive, collegial, and systems, the model displayed at General Motors was authoritative as "the people (management/owners) who manage the tasks in an organization have formal authority for controlling the employees who work under them. These lower-level employees have little control over the work function" (Organizational Behavior Study Guide, 2015, para. 2). Toyota, for example, uses collegial instead. There may be numerous reasons attributed to the use of different models however, the most prominent is related to the organizational culture, the difference at each organization, and the notion that culture is a driving force in the operation of an organization. The autocratic culture at GM was promoted through the GM nod and salute, upper management spearheaded the decision-making process while also negating responsibility, and solutions often were not followed through.

Through an investigation, Marry Barra, CEO, implemented safety and culture, thus fostering a more supportive organizational culture and model. As mentioned above, General Motors' use of an autocratic model was outdated compared to similar organizations like Toyota and Ford who utilize collegial organizational behavior models centered around teamwork. When GM transitioned organizational behavior models, the motivation within the organization also transitioned from unmotivated to productive; the supportive model "states that employees are self-motivated and have values and insight to contribute to the organization, beyond just their day-to-day role," (Organizational Behavior Study Guide, 2015, para 4).

Related to my individual views for Milestone One, my views have not changed from when I started on the project to editing my final paper, as they are based in facts of the case study and outside research. However, I now understand the influence organizational culture has on operations and overall success. If an organization's culture is negative or similar to GM's for example, the organization will be greatly impacted and may have a challenge hiring and retaining talent, thus effecting the organization's success and collective or individual motivation.

At my previous position, the organizational culture feltvery toxic and caused high turnover rates and employee dissatisfaction. When I was originally hired, my senior supervisor was very attentive, friendly, and worked to create the positive culture through employee recognition and company parties. Additionally, there were several tenured employees, and the organizational behavior model was collegial; the culture was based on teamwork and helping each other through answering questions or general support since call center work is not easy. However, halfway through my time there, the senior supervisor left and was replaced by a supervisor who was never around or available to ask questions, often forgot or made-up events that did not occur, and was much stricter, especially on those who had been there for several years. Our new supervisor also played favorites which made the work environment difficult as you didn't necessarily know what would be relayed to our supervisor. As a result, the majority of tenured employees and even new hires left the organization, creating a massive staffing shortage which the employees who stayed had to make up for; additionally, a large part of the customer base changed organizations due to internal management decisions. I inevitably left because my partner received a job in a different state, however I waited as long as possible to let my supervisor know as I was afraid to be let go prior to my two weeks. Thank you for reading!

References

Kuppler, T. (2014, June 8). The gm culture crisis: What leaders must learn from this culture casestudy. Switch & Shift.https://web.archive.org/web/20180326013055/http://switchandshift.com/the-gm-culture-crisis

Organisational Behaviour Study Guide. (2015, May 19). Five models of organisationalbehaviour. https://www.myorganisationalbehaviour.com/five-models-of-organisational-behaviour/