Introduction Of Agilent Technologies Company

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

‘For the next three years, China will be the main target for foreign investors to expand their businesses. From year after year, China has managed to increase Foreign Direct Investment tremendously from US$6.6 billion in 1990 to US$62.4 billion in 2000,’ said Md. Saad Hashim, Deputy Head of the National Economic Action Council (NEAC) Secretariat.

The awakening of China poses great threat to countries in South-East Asia. China offers lower-cost and lower-tax environment, ideal manufacturing sites especially for the current economic slowdown. Furthermore, foreign investors hope the market opening will bring them new customers through easier access to the country’s 1.3 billion people, and offer a more predictable business environment in which to locate low-cost manufacturing bases. The economic downturn has also triggered the senior management of most multinational companies to ensure cost effectiveness of their manufacturing plants. Therefore, many multinational companies have made prudent decision to relocate their manufacturing operations to China with the hope of cutting down the cost and gaining China’s market share. In the Bayan Lepas Free Industrial Zone (FIZ), Penang, the relocation of several multinationals to China has resulted in a few thousand workers losing their jobs.

Lowering cost structure is the key focus of many multinationals; they moved to contract manufacturing and improved productivity. Align with this effort; there is a trend of work schedule change among the multinationals such as Intel, Agilent, AMD and Komag. They switched from eight-hour three shifts to 12-hour two shifts, compressed work schedule. Would this trim down the manufacturing cost?

In order to stay competitive, Semiconductor Company in the Bayan Lepas FIZ recently embarked on cost reduction by changing work shift. The company is operating in a shift work system where the workers are divided into four crews called as crew A, B, C and D, running in three rotating shifts in order to be able to cover 24-hours operation in a day and seven days a week. The coverage is such where in any day there will be three shifts working for eight hours each in day, afternoon and night. In this rotating shift system, at any one day there will be a crew of workers on ‘off’ or rest day. Each crew will work for average of 10.5 days every fortnight, of there is any absenteeism, the ‘off’ or rest crew can be called to come in to work overtime to cover for the absenteeism.

The new shift system is operating with four crews, but its operating in 12-hours per shifts, two shifts a day. This means at any one day, there will be two crews of people working in a rotating two shifts, day and night. This working system even has a direct stretch of 12-hours working in a day, but the shift worker need to work for a stretch of three or four days in a week then they will be entitled for three or four days off or rest day. Each crew will work for average seven days, per fortnight. The total working per week or the total working hours per month still remained unchanged and it is within the labor law requirement.

Beside the shift pattern changes, the day shift working hours formally started t 6.45am is also changed to 7.00am. This change subsequently leads to other changes such as the employee attendance system, production operating system, charted busses schedule, etc. With the implementation of the new system, Mr Zulkifli, person responsible for the change, is having anxiety form the employees’ negative responses related to the long working hours, work environment and wages. The employees’ resistance might lead to even lower productivity. He needs to overcome all the resistance without fail.

Source: Adapted from a case developed as part of class assignment for AGW613 Management and Organizational Behavior, 2002-03 by Kesvakumar M, Henry Wong Kim Seong, Ang Choo Keong, et al., School of Management, Universiti Sains Malaysia.

Tasks:

Compare and contrast 2 types of organizations in terms of their structures and culture citing relevant examples.

Discuss the organizational theory that underpins the principles and practices that this company has taken to its management and leadership.

Discuss the different relevant motivational theories, and hence, apply one of the theories within this company in order to motivate its employees towards effectiveness.

Discuss the nature of group behavior within this company, and hence, evaluate the factors that lead to effective teamwork using relevant examples.

Table of Content

TITLE

PAGE

Introduction

4

Task 1

5 – 10

Task 2

11 - 12

Task 3

13 - 17

Task 4

18 - 21

Conclusion

22

Bibliography

23 – 24

Introduction

An organization is a consciously coordinated social unit, composed of two or more people that functions on a relatively continuous basis to achieve a common goal or set of goals. Organizational Behavior is a field of study that investigates the impact of individuals, groups, and structure on behavior within organizations. The aim is to apply such knowledge toward improving organizational effectiveness. It interprets people-organization relationships in terms of the whole person, whole group, whole organization, and whole social system. Its purpose is to build better relationships by achieving human objectives, organization objectives and social objectives.

It is the study of human and group behavior within organizational settings. The study of organization behavior involves looking at attitudes, interpersonal relationships, performance, productivity, job satisfaction, commitment of employees, levels of organizational commitment and industrial relations. There are different factors which can affect organizational behavior in different ways which are corporate culture, leadership and management style.

Organizational behavior includes three major elements which are individual, groups and structure. The organization’s base rests on management’s philosophy, values, vision and goals. This leads to the organizational culture which is composed of formal organization, informal organization and social environment. The culture determines the type of leadership, communication, and group dynamics within organization. The workers perceive this as the quality of work life which directs their degree of motivation.

(221 words)

Task 1: Compare and contrast 2 types of organizations in terms of their structures and culture citing relevant examples.

1.0 Introduction of Agilent Technologies Company

Agilent Technologies is the world’s premier measurement company, offering the broadest range of innovative measurement solutions in the industry. The company’s four businesses – Chemical Analysis, Life Sciences, Diagnostics & Genomics and Electronic Measurement – help scientists, researchers and engineers in more than 100 countries address their toughest challenges with precision and confidence.

  Agilent’s operation in Malaysia is a key center of excellence for the company. Agilent Technologies Malaysia began operations in Penang in 1972 as Hewlett Packard Malaysia. Over the last 40 years, Agilent Technologies in Penang has expanded to today’s 42-acre site employing over 3,000 people, of which a majority is professionals. Malaysia hosts Agilent’s largest integrated campus populated with high-value added operations such as business management, marketing, sales, R&D, worldwide supply chain management, order fulfillment and customer service.

Agilent's pioneering spirit was kindled more than 60 years ago, when two engineers - Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard - invented the future in their garage. In 1999, Agilent was spun off from Hewlett-Packard Company, and have continued to support the values so important to the two visionary founders. While, physically, Agilent have outgrown HP's garage, continue to live the values handed down from Bill and Dave: uncompromising integrity; trust, respect and teamwork; and innovation that makes a difference.

2.0 Introduction of Organization Structures

The organization structure is defined as the way the job tasks are formally divided, grouped and coordinated in an organization. The way an organization organizes itself in terms of who does what, and who reports to whom, is basically what organizational structure is concerned with. The structure of an organization needs to ensure that it is able to achieve its mission and objectives in an effective and efficient manner. In other words, an organization needs to be structured in an appropriate way to get things done, while also enabling d degree of flexibility that will enable it to meet what can often be fast-paced changes in the external business environment. Sometimes, management may decide that the structure of an organization needs to be change, and this is referred to as organizational design.

There are six key issues to consider in terms of organizational culture which are specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, degree of centralization and formalization. Specialization is that the work is divided into specific jobs and departmentalization is that the jobs are grouped together, often by function. Chain of command is explains who reports to whom and span of control is the number of staff a manager can effectively and efficiently manage at a given time. Degree of centralization is concerned with the question of whether decisions are made higher up the hierarchy, or further down the hierarchy and formalization is concerned with the level of formality required in the behavior of staff.

3.0 Structures of Agilent Technologies Company

CEO

William (Bill) SullivanAgilent Organization

President& COO

Ron Nersesian

Finance

Didier Hirsch

Diagnostics & Genomics

Lars Holmkvist

Legal & Crop Relations

Marie Oh Huber

Chemical Analysis

Mike McMullen

Human Resources

Jean Halloran

Electronic Measurement

Guy Sene

Corporate Development

Shiela Robertson

Life Sciences

Nick Roelofs

Global Order Fulfillment

Gooi Soon Chai

Agilent Labs

Darlene Solomon

Infrastructure

Rick Burdsall

Agilent has the same organizational structures in Bayan Lepas and also China. It offers the broadest range of innovative measurement solutions in the industry. Agilent has amny businesses such as Chemical Analysis, Life Sciences and Electronic Measurement which provide customers with products and services that make a real difference in the lives of people everywhere. And at Agilent Research Laboratories, they conduct research that anticipates customer needs and produces breakthroughs that power growth.

4.0 Introduction of Organizational Culture

Culture is defined as the set of key values, beliefs and understanding shared by a group of people. So, the organizational culture is a system of shared meaning held by members that distinguishes the organizational from other organizations. There are seven characteristics of organizational culture which to help to define the organizational culture more clearly. These included innovation and risk taking, attention to detail, outcome orientation, people orientation, team orientation, aggressiveness and stability. Organizational culture has three main functions: it is a deeply embedded form of social control; it is also the "social glue" that bonds people together and makes them feel part or the organizational experience; corporate culture helps employees make sense of the workplace.

5.0 Organizational Culture of Agilent Technologies Company

Agilent Technologies Company in Bayan Lepas, Penang

The work culture is a good. Not a very stressful company to work with. No punch card system. Sometimes, there will be flexi working hours for employees. The pressure only will come once in a while, if there are any quality issues or before an audit. At Agilent, they offer a culture dedicated to the values of creativity, trust, respect, accountability, teamwork, and uncompromising integrity. Agilent is the one that draws on the full range of people's skills and aspirations.

Agilent is capitalizing on change with a sense of urgency. They move quickly and act decisively, adapting as conditions warrant. They set the few, high-impact customer-centered objectives and align the organization to reach them. They focus on anticipating and satisfying customers’ needs with a passion, and focus our investments on the right opportunities for maximum growth impact. They make straightforward commitments, and then do what they say. They manage by ambitious but realistic performance objectives, rewarding those who meet them and prizing those who exceed them, while addressing poor performance directly and specifically.

They believe that people want to, and will do a good job if they are given proper tools and support. They strive to create an inclusive environment that fosters respect for individuals, their ideas and contributions, while recognizing the full power of their diverse and global teams that work without boundaries to fulfill the expectations of their constituents. They adhere to the highest standards of business ethics and acknowledge anything less as unacceptable. Openness and honesty are much valued to earn the trust and loyalty of others. They want to invent and discover awesome technology that creates new fields of interest, new markets and new businesses. They seek great ideas from anywhere and reward sharing, adopting and applying them to solutions everywhere. These values, together with Management by Objectives (MBO) and open communications with employees reflect Agilent’s work culture.

Agilent Technologies Company in China

Agilent provide employees a proper environment and believe they will make a great contribution to the company and to their own self-development. This environment includes a diversified and people-oriented culture, excellent training and career opportunities, a truly international environment, competitive compensation packages and a strong commitment to work-life balance. As the new millennium begins, Agilent sees a bright future for the China communication, electronic, and life science markets. China will develop into a major pillar for Agilent business. Agilent offers their employees with the better organizational and working cultures with the flexible working time, health care for employee and their family, education assistance for the employees, professional development curricula, life insurance and service awards.

In addition to very competitive salaries, their compensation package also includes Agilent Results Bonus which is supports their culture of performance by providing rewards based on the achievement of results. Besides that, Agilent also provide Stock Option Plan which provides an opportunity to reward and retain high-performing employees and promote employee ownership of the company. On the other hand, Reward Bonus also is there for employees to rewards them based on results achieved, reinforcing individual accountability for meeting business objectives.

Agilent also have an Open Door Policy for their culture. They're both encouraged and permitted to confer on issues with any level of management. Their CEO even has his own internal web page, which keeps Agilent employees in touch with his activities and messages. They also provide time to play and relax which is essential to the creative process, so they offer all kinds of outlets for doing exactly that. It could be on-site massage or yoga classes. There have fitness rooms and outdoor sports facilities, sports teams and clubs and even free vacation retreats. Every location has its own offering, designed to meet the unique interests and needs of the people who work there. But wherever the employees are, they will never be far from a great way to refresh themselves and their ingenuity.

(1386 words)

Task 2: Discuss the organizational theory that underpins the principles and practices that this company has taken to its management and leadership.

1.0 Introduction of Leadership Theories

1.0.1 Fiedler Contingency Theory

The theory takes into account both the context and the situation and try to match up a particular leader to them. The theory purposes that an effective leader will be dependent on the setting. For example, depending on the type of relationship that exists between supervisors and workers, a particular type of leader could be chosen. If the relationship is a relaxed one, the organization may decide they do not require a tough leader. However, if relationship were strained, the organization could decide to appoint a leader with firm style.

1.0.2 Path-Goal Theory

This theory is all about employee motivation and how leaders motivate followers to achieve organizational goals. Here, the leader will work to remove any obstacles that are hindering the employees as they move towards their goal. This theory extends Fiedler contingency theory by taking account of the leader in addition to the particular context of task. The theory suggests that it is dependent on particular leadership styles being used at the right time to enable followers to achieve their goals.

2.0 Leaderships Theories of Agilent Technologies Company

Agilent is carry out an Open Door Policy which is both encouraged and permitted to confer on issues with any level of management. Their CEO even has his own internal web page, which keeps Agilent employees in touch with his activities and messages.

Agilent has their own corporate values to guide its future which are speed, focus, accountability, uncompromising integrity, innovation, trust, respect and teamwork. With a clear understanding of the need for strong individual leaders to build and sustain the company, an intermediate requirement emerged to construct the leadership development strategy.

The Agilent Business Leader Inventory which consists of delivers superior market-driven performance. The leader encourages the employees that they must be focuses on external customers. The employees must have the models of speed, focus and innovation to driven for results of their businesses.

Agilent is practices active leadership. In this type of leaderships, the leader must be able to lead the employees and actively manages talents. Besides that, the leaders must be also having the models of trust, respect, and teamwork with the members. The leader may build the equity in the Agilent brand. This may include practices strategic portfolio management, promotes a global brand and creates a boundary less organization.

Agilent become the successful and effective organization with these all leadership strategy and values the leaders and the employees work together for. Leadership is very important for the organization to become more success in the future. (428 words)

Task 3: Discuss the different relevant motivational theories, and hence, apply one of the theories within this company in order to motivate its employees towards effectiveness.

1.0 Introduction of Motivation

Motivation can be dined as the process that account for an individual’s intensity, direction, and persistence of effort toward attaining a goal. Motivation is the driving force for any individuals to achieve the goal under certain circumstances. In the organizational context, it is an integral part of the organizational activities to motivate employees. Basically each individual is different from others. Some are interested in work and some are assumed lazy. The organization should understand the needs of the individual and implement motivational programs that meet the needs of the individuals and to encourage them to achieve the organizational goals and at the same time achieve their personal goals.

2.0 Introduction of the Theories of Motivation

(i). Maslow’s Theory

Maslow proposed that human motivation was influenced by our needs, and argued that these needs had a hierarchy of importance. He proposed that the lower-level needs had to be achieved (at least to a satisfactory level) before a person would be motivated by the subsequent level. In terms of motivating people at work, this theory implies that you need to understand what level the person is at in order to be able to select the most appropriate strategy to positively impact on their motivation.

If a manger attempts to motivate an employee through greater autonomy via promotion (which does not include any pay increase), this would be highly unlikely to motivate the employee if she/he was having major financial problems. In fact, the extra responsibility would probably have demotivating effect in this scenario. Therefore, it is important that managers know their employees well enough so that they do not make such errors. However, if this person had been offered a promotion with a significant pay increase and/or bonuses the outcome would be likely to be different as the employee needs the money to satisfy their physiological and safety needs.

The orders of the hierarchy are physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. Physiological needs include a person’s need for, for example, food, water and shelter. Safety needs is a person’s need for protection and security from emotional and physical harm. Social needs are a person’s need for belongingness, affection, friendship, and acceptance. Esteem needs is about a person’s internal esteem needs such as autonomy, self-respect, achievement, and external esteem needs such as attention, job and social status, recognition for achievements. Self-actualization is about a person’s need to grow and become as much as she/he is capable of becoming.

(ii). Herzberg Two-Factor Theory

Herzberg’s research concerning what employees felt made them feel exceptionally good or exceptionally bad about their job consistently showed there were two sets of factors that affected motivation at work. These two factors were referred to as hygiene (or maintenance) factors, and motivators (or growth) factors. Hygiene (or maintenance) factors are salary, job security, working conditions, level and quality of supervision, company policy and administration, and interpersonal relations. Motivators (or growth) factors are sense of achievement, recognition, the nature of the work itself, responsibility, and personal growth and advancement.

Herzberg found that no matter how good the motivators/growth factors were, they would not serve to motivate employees if the hygiene/maintenance factors were lacking. In other words, the first place to start in terms of building a motivated workplace is to make sure the hygiene/maintenance factors are attended to. Only then will the presence of motivators/growth factors impact in any positive way on employee motivation.

(iii).Vrooms Expectancy Theory

This is one of the most widely accepted explanations of human motivation. It argues that a person tends to behave in a particular way based on the expectation that what they are doing will result in a particular outcome, and that the outcome is deemed attractive to the person. So, expectancy theory of motivation proposes that the amount of motivation a person has for a given task is the result of a mental process/calculation where the person considers expectancy, instrumentality and valence.

So, the goals that a person has at any given time are vital in helping to explain a person’s degree of motivation towards particular tasks. If any element of the equation is missing such as the person does not value the outcome, then there will be no or very little motivation. If correct, expectancy theory is important for managers, who would need to ensure: employees feel they possess the necessary skills, knowledge and abilities to do their jobs, at least to an adequate level (= expectancy); employees feel that if they performed their jobs well, or at least adequately, they would be rewarded (= instrumentality); employees feel the rewards offered for successful job performance are attractive to them (=valence).

This theory helps to explain why many employees fail to exert much effort in their jobs. This is because evidence shows that many employees do not believe that if they put in more effort this will have any impact on the reward they receive. Also, employees may not have the skill set to do any better, so irrespective of the amount of effort they put in, their performance will not improve, there will therefore be no impact on reward, and the result will be lack of motivation for the given tasks.

3.0 Motivation Theory of Agilent Technologies Company

Agilent Technologies Company is applied Herzberg Two-Factor Theory to motivate its employees. This theory said that employees are motivated by two factors were referred to as hygiene (or maintenance) factors, and motivators (or growth) factors.

Agilent provide its employees the Annual wage supplement and there is Result Bonus Program for employees too. This program is supports their culture of performance by providing rewards based on the achievement of results of their employee. There is also has Reward Bonus which rewards employees based on results achieved, reinforcing individual accountability for meeting business objectives. Agilent also provide Stock Option Plan which provides an opportunity to reward and retain high-performing employees and promote employee ownership of the company.

Agilent also has a good condition of working environment for employees. Agilent has provides meal subsidy and an award-winning cafeteria, free snacks and coffee/tea daily to employees. It has also convenience store, automated-teller machines, and prayer rooms. Besides that, it also has on site sport and recreational facilities for employees to carry out sports activities. Libraries of Agilent are consisting of technical, management and leisure reading for their employees. There is best-in-class learning centre of Agilent to provide their employees about computer aided training, technical labs and media centre.

For the parts of healthy of employees, Agilent provides Panel outpatient medical consultation, dental benefit, Dependents medical benefits, and 24-hours in-plant clinic for its employees. However, Agilent also provides group personal accident insurance and Extensive medical insurance for hospitalization & surgical procedures for the safety of employees’ purposes.

(1125 words)

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Task 4: Discuss the nature of group behavior within this company, and hence, evaluate the factors that lead to effective teamwork using relevant examples.

1.0 Introduction of Group Behavior

Think of the different groups you encounter or belong to in the workplace or where you are studying. Can you describe the similarities or differences between these groups in terms who are the members (composition), how many members (size), how do the members behave (role), what guides their behaviors (norms), and how well they work together (cohesiveness)? These different characteristics called properties may help us explain and predict group behaviors as certain properties shape the behaviors of the members as well as the performance of the group itself.

1.0.1 Composition

Composition refers the nature and attributes of team members. Team composition is a combination of team expertise, team size adequacy and team stability. Whereas these are large and small groups or teams within organizations, the more important point is the composition of groups or teams. There is no point of including many people into a team or group if they do not have the complementary relevant skills to contribute to the team’s goals. In many organizations, what generally happens is that individuals get appointed onto teams or committees where they feel that they are wasting their time in the meetings rather than being a contributing member. Thus, it is imperative that a team has a combination of the right mix of workforce, expertise and right people skills.

1.0.2 Role

It is imperative that members understand their roles in their teams or groups. Roles are expected behavior patterns attributed to someone occupying a given position in a social unit. There are many roles that members can play within their teams or groups. Team members may play multiple roles but more importantly they need to match the roles with their skills and preferences. This is why it is important for managers and team leaders to carefully select individuals whose skills and preferences match the roles that they are expected to play.

1.0.3 Norms

Norms are a form of expectations with regards to the behavior of its team members. They are a set of informal rules and values that guide the team member’s behavior and define the boundaries of acceptable and unacceptable behavior. According to Cohen et al. (1996), when a norm becomes well internalized, there is a high degree of agreement among group members about the amount of approval or disapproval associated with particular behavior, which in turn encourages team performance.

1.0.4 Cohesiveness

Cohesiveness refers to the degree to which members are attracted to each other and motivated to stay in a group. High cohesiveness will bring about positive effects to job satisfaction and communication. It is important that all team members build cohesiveness through understanding and respect each other’s roles and contributions in trying to accomplish the group’s tasks and goals. However, cohesiveness may also become primary factor that gives rise to certain problems to some decision making groups.

2.0 Factors for Effective Teamwork

Organization depends on team delivery for overall performance. Some suggestions for enhancing effectiveness involve small team size, continuous re-skilling, clearly outlined task, structural support to accomplish goals, setting of rules for interpersonal and behavioral dealing, innovation and newness in team decision making. Tools to achieve team effectiveness are cooperation, communication, training and rewards.

2.0.1 Cooperation

A spirit of cooperation for systematic integration of team members’ work effort is important aspects of team management. The researches have documented the gains from cooperation to be more than the competition for achieving productivity and quality in organizations.

2.0.2 Communication

Management of various communication and patterns is another important aspect of effective team management. Communication helps in generating trust and harmony in team work.

2.0.3 Training

It must be provide training for technical and interpersonal skills or mandatory for good team work. Continuous upgrading for knowledge, skills and attitudes will lead to behaviors that result in effective team work.

2.0.4 Rewards

Team based incentives and rewards like gain sharing where the team members share in the gains accrued by cost savings motivates team members to work for shared goals.

3.0 Group Behaviors of Agilent Technologies Company

Group behaviors are very important in Agilent due to the businesses that they are doing. Their businesses need a lot of team work, communication between each other, trust between members and the role each member are plays. In Agilent, there will be always carry out the tasks by group. There will be a small of groups or a greater groups, but whatever it is, there must be carry out the best nature of group behaviors.

The group in Agilent will be some composition between the employees such as there will be some of the professionals or skilled-employees in the groups while carry out the tasks. Each of the group members must play their roles efficiently and effectively. In the working environment, there will be some rules and conditions or targets for the tasks or works. In the groups, there must be also having the motivation between each of the members for achieve the goals or the targets to the tasks.

Agilent has provides rewards to their employees for their performance. This is one of the factors to motivate their employees for achieve the goals of the company and carry out their tasks effectively. There will be some training provided by Agilent to their employees for better skill and increase their knowledge about the businesses. This may help each other while performing the tasks. The groups of employees in Agilent also have the good communication between each other while working together. (896 words)

Conclusion

As a conclusion, in an organization, there will be many different people with different behaviors working together for a common goal. Therefore, the leaders in the organization must be able to understand the human behavior, which is the underlying factor of managing an organization successfully. Human relations and organizational behavior play a significant role in the development of the skills of employees and the improvement of organizational performance. Various studies and theories in the field of organizational behavior have given new insights into the behavior of people at work.

Organizational behavior provides the study of human behavior, with respect to organization along with the other fields of sciences like psychology, sociology, anthropology, and political science with the clear understanding of these sciences, the leader can think methodically and systematically to design plan that motivates the employee to improve the productivity and fulfill the organizational goals. Thus, the study of organizational behavior is a complete science of human behavior in the organization.

(161 words)