Role of Conflict and Autonomy of Employees

Discuss about the Role of Conflict and Autonomy of Employees.

Introduction

Marketing is a highly imperative fragment of management. Marketing plays a crucial role in determining the success of an organization (Armstrong, Kotler, Harker & Brennan, 2015). Maximizing returns and delivering satisfaction to the customers and stakeholders are the objectives of any organization. And therefore, to serve to this purpose, it is vital for a business to fathom the needs and demands of its stakeholders (Eskerod & Jepsen, 2016). An organization’s products and services must suit the needs of its stakeholders. The following report throws light on two leading universities of Australia, their efficiency, effectiveness and different criteria adopted by its various stakeholders to evaluate their efficiency.

LaTrobe University and Australian National University are based out of Australia and cater to educating students across the country and abroad. The purpose of both the universities is to deliver quality education to students and assist them in establishing a future built over a strong educational foundation.

Stakeholders are people who have a stake in the organization (Weiss, 2014). The major stakeholders of the universities are its students. There are various aspects by which students judge the effectiveness of both the universities.

As students who are freshly coming out of high school, the number of courses offered by the university plays a vital role in judging the effectiveness of the university. La Trobe University offers courses in arts, social sciences, business, commerce, health, IT, engineering, law and Science (La Trobe, 2018). This provides students with a one stop shop for their career needs. On the other hand, Australian National University offers over 5000 courses including courses in Science, Criminology, Law, Economics, Management, Literature, Arts, Drama, Dance, Foreign languages, Statistics and life insurance (ANU, 2018).

Another criteria which impacts the university’s effectiveness is the total expense that needs to be borne by the student while enrolling in that university. La Trobe University charges a tution fee of $20,000 to $22,000. On the other hand, ANU is relatively less expensive and the average tuition fee charged is $4000 to $6000. However, ANU is a national university and hence government of Australia offers lucrative scholarships to the university’s students.

ANU has a better brand name and positioning across the globe with a QS ranking of 20 as compared to La Trobe’s QS ranking of 360 (Top Universities, 2018). ANU has a total academic staff of over 1600 professors while La Trobe has the capacity over 1200 staff annually. ANU staff is well known throughout the world and the university aims at recruiting the best quality staff from around the globe.

Criteria to judge the organization’s effectiveness: Government perspective

Both the Universities are funded by the government and hence the government is an important stakeholder for both the universities. Governments fund universities as a step towards a brighter future of the country with the intention of promoting education and enhancing the brand value of their country.

Government judges the effectiveness of a university by analyzing the university’s future plan for growth, appropriate utilization of resources and quality of education provided to the students. It is essential for an organization to ensure satisfaction of all their stakeholders to determine long term and mutually beneficial relationships with them (Davis, 2014).

Organizational structure plays a vital role in the success of the organization by ensuring effective flow of communication and quicker decision making (Bolman & Deal, 2017). La Trobe University’s organizational structure is as below:

A university council is the governing body of the university which is presided over by the chancellor. The Vice chancellor and other members of the university council form the academic board who look into academic issues. On the other hand, managerial decisions are made by The Senior Executive Group.

Australian National University

The current organizational structure of both the universities are appropriate. The structures are detailed and the line of communication as well as decision making is clearly established within the university. Defining clear jobs roles and authorities make it easier for employees to coordinate with one another and work effectively (Belias, D., Koustelios, A., Sdrolias, L. and Aspridis, 2015).

Developing a coherent approach with regards to all the stakeholders of the organization would lead to the following implications:

1. Improved goodwill and positioning of both the universities.
2. Increased student strength and improved quality of education provided to students.
3. Increased funding from the government.
4. Effective universities would lead to increased competency of students. This would in turn attract better job opportunities and hence efficient employees in the workplace. Overall this would form the base of an improved economy.

Conclusion

Effectiveness of any organization is pivotal in the success of the organization as well as its long term sustainability. La Trobe University as well as Australian National University are both leading universities functioning in Australia. However ANU is a national university and hence has better ties with the government of Australia. The fees charged by ANU is also much lesser than that charged by La Trobe University. Moreover, the courses offered by ANU are more detailed and higher in number. This automatically increases the university’s target market. However, it has been observed that ANU has a much difficult entrance exam that needs to be cleared and it is comparatively easier to get to La Trobe University. From the above analysis, it is recommended that Australian National University is more effective than La Trobe University.

References

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M. and Brennan, R., 2015. Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Australian National University, 2018. ‘Study Options’. Available at

Belias, D., Koustelios, A., Sdrolias, L. and Aspridis, G., 2015. Job satisfaction, role conflict and autonomy of employees in the Greek banking organization. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 175, pp.324-333.

Bolman, L.G. and Deal, T.E., 2017. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. John Wiley & Sons.

Davis, K., 2014. Different stakeholder groups and their perceptions of project success. International journal of project management, 32(2), pp.189-201.

Eskerod, P. and Jepsen, A.L., 2016. Project stakeholder management. Routledge. United Kingdom.

LA Trobe University, 2018. ‘Courses’. Available at http://www.latrobe.edu.au/courses. Retrieved on 22 March, 2018.

Top Universities, 2018. ‘La Trobe University’. Available at https://www.topuniversities.com/universities/la-trobe-university/undergrad. Retrieved on 22 March, 2018.

Weiss, J.W., 2014. Business ethics: A stakeholder and issues management approach. Berrett-Koehler Publishers.