3m Case Study

Communication: Leaders and executive must gain employee trust and confidence and communicate the execution strategy and share the expected results.

The above statement makes a huge impact, and in the role as manager this is so true. Communication both professionally and personally starts with

carefully planned out and considered, the total closure or failure of the organization could be at hand in the near future. In our modern age, employers know that salary is not the only factor that should be considered and that salary alone will not lead to better or more highly profitable workers alone. This is why compensation planning is important and why pay should have some connection between performance and compensation. This is why the human resources department should consider many monetary and non-monetary factors when considering how to properly compensate and motivate employees (Dessler, 2013).

Through trusting interpersonal relationships staff members are empowered to discuss openly concerns and proposed solutions without consequence from the leader. It is important that followers feel comfortable with approaching the leader with complaints or concerns. Leadership demonstrating a neutral position and maintaining a non-judgmental attitude when faced with difficult situations is much easier to approach.

A well-articulated compensation philosophy drives organizational success by aligning pay and other rewards with business strategy. It provides the foundation for plan design and administration and anchors current and future plans to the company's culture and values (Kaplan, 2006, p.32). Recognizing and rewarding achievement is the cornerstone of the company A’s compensation philosophy. The mission of the company is to attract, select, place and promote all individuals based on their qualifications. The company believes that performance-based compensation helps attract, develop and retain talented professionals. In addition to base pay which based upon local market conditions and targeted to be above market, the company provides the following types of potential compensation to reward performance:

C.E. Woolman, the first leader of Delta Air Lines, believed that the company should take care of its employees so that, in return they would take care of customers. At the root of this care included effectively communicating with his teams and empowering them to make the right decisions. As Debra Nelson and James Quick reference in Organizational Behavior: Science, the Real World, and You, (2013, p. 283) “…communication, especially between managers and employees, is a critical foundation for effective performance in organizations…this is especially critical when leaders are articulating vision and achieving buy-in from employees.” The buy-in that Woolman received from his employees stemmed from his intentional engagement with them and expectation to provide the best customer service in the airline industry. Throughout its history, Delta has deliberately engaged its employees and has modeled a human resource management (HRM) system, which is the “term increasingly used to refer to the philosophy, policies, procedures, and practices related to the management of an organization’s employees” (Sims, 2002, p. 2). The HRM system at Delta has impacted its organizational structure, corporate communications, and shared decision making.

Pivotal in that philosophy development is how and to what extent pay will be tied to specific types of performance.  This issue will not be treated the same in every organization.  However, every business should be able to identify certain performance objectives it wants its workforce to fulfill and the financial outcome that will be achieved if that result is attained.  Such a projection can be translated into an increased shareholder value figure.  (The VisionLink Advisory Group)

The book proceeds to support its arguments and suggestions on leadership with evidence drawn from relevant psychological theories (Atwater & Waldman, 2012, pp. 101). The book provides an excellent and well researched review and discussion of the key characteristics of open communication. The characteristics are critical in leadership as managers use them to ensure that all feedback,

There is evidence for specific relationship between communication, trust, and organisational openness. Managers develop trust among employees to meet organisational goals. Top management of an organisation always depends on their supervisors for an effective communication between management and employees. While workers depend on top management to set the strategy and determine methods for organisational achievement, managers must be trusted to show workers the association between workers' tasks and the organisational objectives and to give more particular and high standard information required to perform their jobs well (Thomas, Zolin, & Hartman, 2009). Openness is a key element of communication to predict one’s level of involvement in a work. Therefore, if an employee sees the organisation is a free place to express himself, he is more likely to be involved in the organisational goals and this could foster a better work environment. (Thomas, Zolin, & Hartman, 2009).

It is essential for business leaders to have excellent verbal and non-verbal communication skills, as leaders are often a symbol of a company’s integrity and this affects not only how customers perceive the company, but also impacts the thoughts and actions of lower positioned employees. For example, a leader that speaks using improper grammar, or writes correspondence with spelling errors throughout it, could project a negative image that can be harmful to a company. Customers might conclude that the leader is incompetent and they might decide that they do not wish to purchase goods from a company that hires inept leaders. Furthermore, employees might become less apt to respect an authority that appears to be uneducated, as well as employees might feel that if the leader disregards using proper communication than it is not necessary for them to use it either. Business leaders need to know when to listen, when to talk, and how to share ideas effectively. Clear and concise communication states exactly how, who, what, and when and serves to guide, direct, protect, persuade, and to inform. Communication is essential for decreasing miscommunications and for increasing productivity, motivation, and efficiency. When someone uses effective communication, he or she is more apt to have favorable results and his or her requests will become granted more often. Furthermore, communication builds goodwill. Having excellent communication skills is

The research draws attention to key findings that the organisation fosters open communication and there is a strong commitment from top management towards employees. The communication channels applied most

3M heavily based its business on innovation and while doing this it always supported its employees in terms of being innovative. 3M also always followed the alternative ways in order to increase their profit and market share, and they found that one of the best ways is through organizational innovation. Therefore, in order to improve their business 3M developed 6 different strategies over its history. These strategies helped 3M to promote entrepreneurship and increase customer satisfaction within the market.

The Minnesota Mining & Manufacturing Corporation (3M) was founded in 1902. It reported sales revenues of $16.7 billion during the year 2000. These revenues came from 3M's six business divisions: industrial; transportation, graphics, and safety; healthcare; consumer and office; electro and communications; and specialty materials. All business divisions were profitable in 2000. The same year, the company made more than 60,000 products and about $5.6 billion sales came from products that had been introduced during the prior four years and

Q1. How has 3M’s innovation process evolved since the company was founded? Why, if at all, does 3M, known as the “hothouse” of innovation, need to regain historic closeness to the customer?

Communication is essential in all facets of an organization. It can aid in decision making, planning and conflict resolution. The ability to effectively communicate allows facilitation of relationships between superiors and subordinates; essentially this creates higher job satisfaction (Dogra, A., 2012). Open communication where employees have opportunity to voice their ideas and concerns, corelates to employees feeling a sense of value within the organization, which creates motivation (Dogra, A., 2012). Furthermore, in conjunction with these ideas, a sense of partnership and loyalty begin to develop between subordinates and superiors. The responses to this are typically seen in greater responsibility being given to the subordinate.