Answer

It is not easy to manage a business. Depending upon the kind of company one runs, along with its particular needs, there are a number of strategies and approaches for managing growth, productivity, and employees.  Owing to the fact the fact that running a business can be somewhat overwhelming, several business management theories have been advanced over time with the intention of informing small and large business owners on how they can effectively and efficiently run their businesses (Isaack 1981). While there are a number of theories and frameworks of business management, there is a basic aspect common with all of them: that management entails organizing, planning, leading, and controlling (Kordov and Eminov 2018). Westrenius and Barnes (2015) reason that since employees do not often seen any of the organizing and planning that occurs within the closed doors of their managers’ offices, effective managers, nonetheless, need to engage their juniors in these activities. Planning, as Paprocki (2017) puts it, is crucial to a business since it gives direction to employees and also creates a comprehensive approach for attaining a particular organizational goal. Running a business consumes much effort and time. Small business owners have the responsibility for managing all facets of their businesses. To effectively do this, Hess (2010) points out that business owners employ management skills and knowledge to attain their businesses’ objectives and goals. This calls owners of organizations to employ a mixture of knowledge, education, and expertise in running their businesses. While literature, theory, evidence, frameworks, and studies have shown that there is a great importance in involving employees in an organization’s planning and decision making, the same has not been embraced by companies. Some companies only mention best practice activities in theory in the form of core values yet do not really uphold, translate, or apply the same in their operations and practices, resulting in a gap between literature, theory, framework, and evidence and real practice. It is against this background that this paper, using a small business organization, Dazzling Media Company, and frameworks, theories, and evidences regarding small business management, explores how business behaviour of employees within an organization influence the operations and functions of the business and explains whether the influence are either positive or negative with regard to the success of the small business.  

Overview of Dazzling Media Company

Founded in 2014, Dazzling Media Company is a small business that deals in events planning and organization, supplying tents, chairs, decoration materials, lighting services, and photography and videography services for events, parties, and other social events. By 2014, the company operated as a broker, linking clients to potential service providers. However, in 2015, the company won a tender that enabled it to acquire enough capital for its operations. Currently, the company has about 15 employees with then founder and owner role playing as the company’s manager and CEO. In addition to running and offering events services, the company is also gradually diversifying: it conducts market research analysis for companies and advice companies on trends and best strategies and approaches that such companies can consider for employment. 

While one of the famous events companies, the company has not been without challenges. Reputational challenges have often threatened its wellbeing and survival in the very competitive industry. Kordov and Eminov (2018) reason that a company’s brand and image are crucial in the events industry: it determines clients’ willingness to return to a company, a company’s customer base, a company’s sales volume, and productivity because a company’s brand is directly related to the kind of employees that a company has. Being a shrewd manager, the company owner has considered partnership with other companies within and without the events industry having good reputation so that its image may be redeemed.

Research Process and Methodology

Obtaining information and data from companies is often an uphill task: companies are careful not to release information and data (regarding their operations and their clients) that can be used to harm their survival in an industry (Welsh and White 1981). In addition, Paprocki (2017) reasons that information regarding a company’s employees, clients/customers, and the company’s financial performance are too confidential for companies to expose to the general public. As such, in my search for a company to consider for this analysis, I decided to go to a company in which I had worked in the recent past, banking on the good relationship and acquaintance that I had built in the company.

In May 2016, I was employed in in Dazzling Media Company as a Chief Researcher. As mentioned before, Dazzling Media Company, in addition to dealing with events related services, was engaged in a market analysis for Daily Mail and General (dmg) events, a subsidiary of the Daily Mail and General Trust (DMGT) plc., which is a global portfolio of media, events, and information businesses that are listed upon the London Stock Exchange. DMGT runs a variety of international portfolio of firms and has about £2bn and provides customers and businesses with analysis, insight, news, entertainment, and events. DMG events required Dazzling Media to conduct research on a range of companies falling within construction, energy, transport, hospitality, and design among others within East Africa. Among the information that dmg events required regarding these companies was a contact to the companies’ contact persons, whether such companies had participated in any dmg events/exhibitions, and trends regarding events within the East African region. The research came to an end November 2017.

To initiate the research process, I made a call and followed it with an email to the company’s CEO and founder. Permission was granted to my plea. I then proceeded to making a physical visit to the company in an attempt to establish whether the company would still be feasible and ideal for the study or not. My visit was informed by Gomez et al. (2014)’s view that before going to an area for purposes of study and information gathering, there is need for a pre-visit, a visit that enables a researcher to familiarize themselves with the area/location, gauge the feasibility of the area for the study, and also be informed on the possible ways of collecting data. The outcome of the pre-visit was positive. I, thus, went back to prepare for the study. To ensure that this study conformed to legalities and ethics surrounding research, I equally asked to be allowed to use the findings in my studies. This was allowed on condition that I did not mention the names of the interviewees (Metcalf 1982).

Being a small company, little has been written about Dazzling Media. As such, I had no option but to use primary source of data techniques to gather information from the business’ owner and employees. The main data collection methods that I employed were interviews and questionnaire, which contained both open and closed ended questions. However, alongside the questionnaire and interview, I also employed note taking and observation method. Having worked in the company, I found it somewhat easy to access the company’s information and data both from the company’s owner and its employees owing to a cordial rapport that I had kept with them during my stay in the company. To supplement this analysis and make it more comprehensive, secondary data and information were also gathered from literature, journals, documents, and online authorized sources. These helped in relating evidence obtained regarding business behaviour in Dazzling Media’s employees and what happens in other companies and businesses across the world.

An Exploration of the Business Behaviour

From the research process, it was realized that there are a number of factors that influence organization’s growth and development with reference to its goals and objectives. The factors ranged from organizational to personal factors that influence commitment to work within the company. Dazzling Media’s owner gives its employees their salaries after every fortnight alongside a daily commuter allowance to ensure that the employees do not have to wait for the usual monthly payment and to ensure that his employees have no excuse of making it to the place of work. In an interview, one of the employees said that they are motivated to come to work on a daily basis since some of them consider such daily payments a motivation. According to Metcalf (1982), the level of an employees’ salary influences the employee’s commitment level to work such that employees who are paid small salaries and minimum wages often want to earn extra money either by way of getting promotions or pay rise by their employers or even by looking for work in other places where they can be better remunerated. Nonetheless, an employee observed that their salaries are generally lower relative to their counterparts in other companies within the industry. “Even though we get our salaries after every fortnight, the salaries are much below those earned by our counterparts in other companies and so while some may be happy about their salaries, personally I feel the management should adjust the pay upwards or I quit the company in the near future,” was a remark by an employee at Dazzling. Forsman (2015) reasons that employees are likely to be less dedicated to a company that they consider does not invest much money in them by way of salary, implying that well and highly paid employees will uneasily leave a company for salary issues.

Another organizational behaviour toward the employees at Dazzling Media that is influencing the company is employee training. Most of the company’s employees were recruited to deal with events related jobs. However, with the company still trying to survive in the competition in its surrounding marketplace, the company has been characterised with involvement in activities and businesses that are out of the events services. Some employees have been trained, though not very professional, to conduct analyses and observe market trends, among other activities. Some who were also employed to help in videography and photography have also been trained to carry out activities like setting up a tent and decorating a ground for an event, among other skills. These trainings have been inspired and motivated by the need for employees to improve their individual skills and knowledge so that they may be all round personalities. Gomez et al. (2014) point out that training enhances employees’ knowledge and skills and also enhance their individual development alongside their capability to perform better:  better skilled employees are extra committed to their individual works relative to the less skilled/knowledge workers. By recognising and rewarding efforts and determinations by his employees, Dazzling Media’s owner motivates his employees to always go out of their job descriptions to ensure that the company’s overall objectives and mission are attained. As noted by Metcalf (1982), employee training in the company has resulted in increased employees’ competent and confidence and has also made the employees to positively perceive their company. From the interviews that were conducted, most employees praised and applauded the organization for creating opportunities for them to acquire new skills.

According to the principles of administrative management as developed by Henri Fayol (1841 to 1925), businesses’ managers have six distinct responsibilities: organization, controlling, coordination, planning, forecasting, and commanding all that happen within their businesses. Thus, to be a good manager, Jackson (1977) suggests that a leadership strategy that embraces the principles of administrative management (ranging from the significance of upholding a clean and conducive environment to value or teamwork and initiative) forms the foundation for a business’ success. During the research, it was evidence that Dazzling Media’s owner was not an effective leader and often clashed with his employees on very simple grounds. Employing the dictatorial technique of leadership, the company owner was too authoritative to his employees to the extent that most employees indicated that they have plans to quit the company very soon. One interviewee said, “He does not enjoy working in an environment where his boss shouts at him all times.” Another interviewee said, “I feel scared talking or meeting my employer because he must always find a mistake in a person.” Communication was, thus, negatively affected within the company since most employees, as was revealed in the research, found it hard to communicate directly with their employer and that they would avoid their employer’s phone call and get back to him through text. With the communication impairment, information sharing was very ineffective and poor, making the process of decision making slow, as noted by Mosby (2014). Also, the leader made the business’ structure to be too bureaucratic to allow quick information flow. These cumulatively negatively influenced communication, decision making, and productivity of the organization at large. Evidently, the bureaucratic theory of business management is not well met by Dazzling Media.  

Welsh and White (1981) define leadership as a conduct or behaviour exhibited by a person that result in a non-forced impact when that individual is cooperating and directing the undertakings of a given group towards the achievement of common goals. While this definition holds in most successful small businesses, the same was significantly lacking in Dazzling Media. From the interviews and observations that were made, it was evident that Dazzling Media’s manager and CEO (who is the sole decision maker both regarding recruitment of employees and operations of the organization) is less willing and able drive desired changes within the organization. However, the manager showed commitment towards realizing his company’s success by ensuring that he minimized and blocked avenues that could create anxiety and fear in his employees instead increase opportunities and activities and opened avenues through which the morale and confidence of his employees could be increased. Though his bureaucratic style of organizational management and dictatorial style of leadership substantially negatively affects the company’s success, research show that by minimizing possible causes of fear and increasing opportunities for increasing employees’ morale, the company’s performance has been afloat relative to other companies in the industry. The organization’s structure is set in a way that there are leaders for each section of the business. The leaders were found to be very committed to their duties and this has been important in forging a shared vision, ordering all the resources of the company in their attempts to help realize the organization’s vision.

Despite his commitment to motivate his employees, Dazzling Media manager has not been able to provide a conducive work environment. Being a small upcoming company, the company has not been able to build its premise. For this reason, it has solely depended upon renting of premises. However, due to seasonality of events, sometimes the company is faced with the challenge of paying its rents, making its employees to work under the fear of eviction and job insecurity. Additionally, the premise currently rented is not well customized to accommodate the business’ activities, making the employees struggle to meet the organization’s goals through sacrifices. The employees do not have a proper and well-defined meal program. “We sometimes have to go without meals across a day, especially on those days when our company manager’s away,” an employee said citing “poor communication between the manager and us” about how various functions of the company run. The implication of this quotation is that the employees have no sense of belonging and ownership of the organization. They are only working to get salaries and working to earn rewards. Nonetheless, there is no genuine commitment to their work. Mosby (2014) states that ownership of any kind often gives workers a sense of belonging and significance and that they equally feel integral part of the process of making decision within an organization. This ownership concept entails involvement in the process of making decision regarding new initiatives and developments along with changes in working initiatives/practices. However, since most of the employees are not often involved in making decisions even regarding their daily meals, most employees in the organizations seem to be exhibiting a commitment that is not genuine.

The Effects of these Personal Behaviours on the Organization

Just like other small businesses, it is evident that both organizational and personal factors influence the behaviours of employees at Dazzling Media. These behaviours affect Dazzling in various ways. First, behaviours by managers and employees themselves influence the employees’ dedication and turnover at Dazzling. Madi (2015) reasons that it is not only cost that makes employee turnover significant but interrupted schedules and plans, long working hours, not having skilled employees, long hours of training along with other mistakes by a company’s management can negatively affect a company’s productivity since they are directly related to employees’ dedication and turnover. Owing to poor and unconducive work environment, and many disruptions and redefinitions of employees’ jobs, some employees at Dazzling Media often absente themselves from work in search for jobs that offer conducive and better payments. As such, the company is characterised by high degrees of employee turnover since most of the company’s employees are less motivated and this results in additional costs for periodically recruiting new workers. According to systems theory, a system comprises of several interacting components that are influenced by their surroundings, and due to the interaction, the system has the ability to wholly evolve and self-regulate (Isaack 1981). Borrowing from this system theory, there is need for working collectively, together, and cooperatively so that the various components of a company generate greater produce, a practice that was found lacking in the company. Nonetheless, this systems theory concept of small business management is not very well understood neither is it employed nor embraced in Dazzling Media.

The second effect is that the behaviours have impacted on the company’s employees’ commitment as well as productivity. From the above discussion, it can be gleaned that the employees at Dazzling are less committed to their works. While the employees appear to be working hard, they are not genuinely committed to their work, but instead work to get salaries and per diem. This explains why the company suffered an organizational reputation since employees’ work is only motivated by money and not the organization’s shared goal. This has contributed to the negative trend in the company’s operations and productivity, hence reduced sales and low profits (Jackson 1977). Moreover, Forsman (2015) argues that employee commitment produces high productivity. Other than salary, the employees at the organization are less committed to their work, hence reduced productivity since there is unpredictable job redefinitions that often happen in the company’s attempt to realize profit to pay for its resources. Since employees often change from one job to another, they exhibit very low commitment to their works since there is a low level of accountability in the works. Hence, most workers only gamble with duties assigned to them.

The safety of the employees is also a concern coming up from the above discussion. Employees at Dazzling often work under the threat of eviction from their business premise and job insecurity. Additionally, they are not provided with sufficient daily basic needs and wants that often function as aids to effective and efficient working. With such poor work conditions, Dazzling Media’s employees are less committed to the company, and often quit the company in pursuit of better work places since their safety is not warranted at Dazzling Media. Hess (2010) points out that when workers lack a certain degree of dedication by their employers and companies, they are likely to experience a number of accidents. Lack of dedication to work often take a way employees’ concentration and keenness from assigned duties and with reduced concentration and keenness, accidents are unavoidable (Madi 2015; Westrenius and Barnes 2015). With inadequate resources and facilities, the employees in the company are less committed to the company’s goals and objectives, and these cumulatively negatively affect the company’s future survival in the marketplace.

Conclusion

To sum everything up, behaviours in an organization significantly role play in determining the future of a company. While the struggle by most small business owners should be on making profit and growing, there is need that behaviours be well developed and influenced because there are significant to realizing an organization’s goals and objectives. Like in the case of Dazzling Media, it is evident that the organization’s management significantly influences the degree of commitment of an organization’s employees, and thus should be well taken care of by organization’s managers, especially small business owners.