Revitalizing Culture in the World of Hybrid Work

 

Executive summary

Although businesses and employees can benefit from new policies, organizations must consider how best to implement the modern approach to ensure it delivers what is required for the business and its employees. The report will utilize the historical financial performance of Tesla to determine how the performance has been affected by the hybrid functional approach, which has become the new typical. With many employees revolting against returning to offices today, businesses have been forced to deal with the challenges of adapting to the new world of hybrid work. Organizational leaders such as Tesla's CEO, Elon Musk, have presented their concerns that remote and hybrid work is undermining their organization's culture (Nicholas & Hull, 2022).  The report will utilize the historical financial performance of Tesla to determine how the performance has been affected by the hybrid functional approach, which has become the new typical. The analysis also shows that the company's HRM team should focus on introducing new strategies to drive solutions that support TESLA's successful future in today's world of hybrid work. The approach to be utilized by human resource management can involve training programs to orient the leaders and employees to the features of its new operational strategy and how it affects the organizational culture. The strategies should consider the benefits of the modern hybrid and remote workers workforce, which is vital for continued success in the next two to five years. With the help of the approach of hybrid working, Tesla can provide a better work-life balance for the employees to create more time for family and friends. The modern working approach also helps resolve the people and organizational-related challenges identified in TESLA. The approach provides the workers with a more remarkable ability to focus with fewer distractions, saved commuting time and costs, and Tech up-skilling.

 


Introduction

The modern business environment is characterized by changes that have impacted how business is operated and managed today. As different organizations implement their post-pandemic work models, the modern business approaches in organizational and Human Resource Management (HRM) are increasingly becoming an irreversible part of modern (Teevan, 2022). However, there are concerns that the changes in the modern business environment can also result in negative challenges to business operations and management among organizations in the global economy. Moreover, the key roles played by HRM have been captured following the challenges presented by modern working approaches such as hybrid working. With many employees revolting against returning to offices today, businesses have been forced to deal with the challenges of adapting to the new world of hybrid work. The HRM can help to resolve the people and related organizational challenges identified by different organizations in efforts to revitalize culture in the world of hybrid work.

As a result, the paper will present a report that evaluates recent media news and the decision by Tesla's CEO Elon Musk on compulsory return to the office. It will focus on building on the case study about revitalizing culture in the world of hybrid work to address the concerns presented by the assessment. The evaluation will include an overview of challenges Tesla may be faced with and would need to address. It will also identify and discuss the primary HRM role(s) captured and how HRM can help resolve the people and organizational-related challenges identified in Tesla. The report will utilize historical financial performance to predict Tesla's success in the next two to five years. It will also consider how HRM can drive solutions that support Tesla's successful future in today's world of hybrid work. 

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Tesla is among the top automotive company that manufactures electric vehicles by focusing on clean energy. The company also designs and manufactures solar panels, battery energy storage, and roof tiles. Tesla employs a functional organizational structure of hierarchical structure characterized by functional centers covering all business activities. The company utilizes an organizational structure that supports business growth by defining the interactions between the operational systems and the team members. The company's organizational structure is characterized by transformational management that manages the operations in the global hierarchy. Tesla is known for aligning its organizational structure with the business's mission and vision statement (Thomas & Maine, 2019). Tesla has introduced a companywide policy that demands the employees to spend a minimum of 160hrs per month in the office. However, introducing a hybrid work approach has affected the organizational structures, operations, and performance among the companies like Tesla. The impacts of hybrid work can be analyzed using historical financial performance for a given period. Thus, the report utilized the data for Tesla's stock prices to analyze the financial performances for the last decade.

Organizational culture at Tesla Company

An organization's culture can be defined as the cultural and organizational values and briefs that define the employees' perception, understanding, and behavior. Organizational leaders establish, communicate, and reinforce them using different strategies. The culture governs performance and promotes a company's competitiveness in the changing business environment. According to the studies, an organization's culture should be created by trust between employees and leaders (VLAD & STAN, 2013). Furthermore, it inspires the employees to exhibit more innovative qualities by motivating a sense of healthy competition. Therefore, there is a close relationship between adopting hybrid work and performance because a company's culture is related to operations and productivity. Besides, adopting a flexible organizational culture can be useful for HRM leaders when introducing a modern working approach to boost overall business performance (Fatehi & Choi, 2019). 

The modern business environment is characterized by changes that have forced companies to address people and organizational-related challenges. Similarly, an outbreak of covid-19 resulted in new company policies that allowed employees to work remotely from home. In addition, the outbreak of covid-19 resulted in the introduction of social distancing rules, which made it hard for organizations to keep their workers in offices. However, many leaders worry that the new working approach of remote and hybrid work is affecting the organizational culture (Evetts, 2016). Thus, the primary HRM role(s) in resolving the people and organizational-related challenges identified in TESLA includes introducing an adaptable culture to remain competitive in the evolving organizational context. Instead of viewing hybrid work as disrupting the cultural experience, organizational leaders have been encouraged to view the modern working approach as an opportunity to build culture differently.

Internal Organizational Analysis

The information presented in graph 1 below shows the historical trends of the stock prices for Tesla, Inc. (TSLA) for the period between 2018 and 2020. Tesla uses its corporate structure to facilitate extensive control of the organization's operational activities and maximizes its ability to implement new strategies. In addition, the organizational structure creates business capabilities that enable solid managerial control despite growing international operations. Currently, the company employs a global centralization approach in its organizational structure, which emphasizes control of the entire organization where the decisions are made in its headquarters.

 

Graph 1: Tesla’s Stock prices performances (2018-2022)

 

An overview of challenges TESLA may be faced with and would need to address.

Coordination of resources

The hybrid working approach has presented the need for better coordination of resources to ensure that the right tools are available at home and on-site for effective working. Hybrid work is creating a need for better coordination of resources to ensure maximum productivity among remote and on-site employees. Adopting the modern working approach of hybrid working might force Tesla to ensure that the employees are fully equipped with the resources required for productivity. The resource-based view (RBV) is a model that can be utilized to determine the company's resources and relate them to the firm's capabilities (Akingbola, 2013). The model considers the profitability and the value factor associated with coordinating the company's resources. According to the theory, a company's sustained competitive advantage relies on the available resources considered rare, non-substitutable, valuable, and inimitable (Akingbola, 2013). In today's hybrid work world, Tesla's capability to acquire and coordinate resources affects its performance and competitiveness over its competitors. Such resources can include functional and permanent workstations that maximize individual and group productivity. Additionally, the company faces challenges installing workstations that will allow team collaboration and communication in the modern work environment. Therefore, resource coordination is required to ensure that Tesla introduces remote-capable collaboration stations so that the remote participants can be fully included in team interactions.

Impaired collaboration and relationships

The increasing use of remote and hybrid workers has also been associated with impaired collaboration and relationships among team members and disrupted work processes (Nicholas & Hull, 2022). Effective communication has been identified as a critical element in organizational cultures (Jackson, 2019). However, the modern working approaches fail to create the opportunity for employees to spend meaningful time together in the office, collaborating and building relationships. For example, a lack of communication might affect the culture of building meaningful relationships among employees at Tesla. The modern working environment will require Tesla to adopt a regular meeting and schedule strategy to address the changes in establishing strong collaboration and communication among the team members.

Disruption to the organizational culture

Tesla is currently facing the challenge of managing the disruption to the organizational culture. While organizational culture is substantially more difficult to cultivate in a fully remote environment, the hybrid working approach impacts the connections among remote workers with the company's culture. The new working approach of Hybrid work is flexible, allowing employees to choose whether to work in the office or work from home (Evetts, 2016). However, the potential downsides to remote and hybrid work arrangements can include an erosion of the organizational cultural norms such as cohesion, shared experience, and trust among the employees.

Thus, many organizational leaders, such as Tesla's CEO Elon Musk, have presented concerns that employees can quickly feel disconnected from the business and their colleagues while working under the modern approach of hybrid work. Adapting a modern organizational culture that focuses on flexibility is crucial for Tesla Company to remain competitive in the evolving modern business context (Maamoun, 2021). As a result, HRM leaders should consider post-pandemic strategies such as remote and hybrid work as an opportunity to build culture differently instead of viewing them as disrupting the cultural experience.

The primary HRM role(s) in resolving the people and related organizational challenges identified in TESLA

The company's HRM department is responsible for inspiring desired cultural practices, behaviors, and beliefs as the stewards and keepers of the company's culture. They connect the dots between the behaviors, expectations, and activities of the employees through people and organizational management practices (Holbeche, 2022). The HRM leaders work with other organizational leaders to turn the cultural vision into tangible actions. As a result, the HRM strategy adopted by Tesla should train middle-level management on managing a team that includes remote and on-site workers effectively.

Cultural values are among the factors that influence HRM exercises because they are used to manage employees' behaviors. For example, a company that employs a strategy that supports collaboration and involvement is likely to have higher employee satisfaction, positively affecting its operations and performance (Warrick, 2017). The HRM department in a company like Tesla is mainly responsible for fostering a positive workplace culture by deploying engagement and feedback tools. The HRM can focus on relying on proven agile practices and techniques, gaining credibility and confidence in achieving Tesla's preferred cultural norms.

Moreover, the HRM strategy employed by Tesla Company is known to support corroboration and employee involvement. It allows the leaders and the employees to voice concerns and opinions while the company's leaders employ it to issue directives and policies. HRM can help create a thriving hybrid work culture within an organization by actively aligning the recruitment process with the company's vision and desired goals (Teevan, 2022). The sustainable development of an organization in the current modern hybrid workforce can be related to the culture of that organization because it aligns employee values with organizational values. Organizations have been forced to utilize cultural theories to redefine their operations, vision, and performance in the current competitive global economy. In the current hybrid work environment, the change initiatives can only be successful due to the lack of consideration for organizational cultural variables. 

The cultural theories and strategic planning can be useful in increasing the chances of success in implementing the operational changes for TESLA to adapt to the current environment. The Competing Values Framework (CVF) is various companies' most dominant theory to diagnose organizational culture worldwide. Tesla can employ the model to assess its organizational culture by determining the quality improvement implementation, team functioning, and employee satisfaction, among other outcomes. The CVF framework is based on the two cultural dimensions that form four quadrants of cultural types used to identify the criteria, key factors, and indicators of organizational effectiveness (Buhumaid, 2022). 

What success would look like for TESLA in the next two to five years in today's world of hybrid work

For the last decade, the organization has faced a lack of profitability, resulting in staff layoffs and high turnover rates. Tesla is an international organization that deals with various cultures from diverse parts of the world. According to Warrick (2017), different cultural values and behaviors significantly influence an organizational culture's influence. The introduction of hybrid work can be considered an innovation that can be used as a means for companies to improve their performance with the help of HRM strategies.

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Figure2: Tesla Share performance for the last 5 years

Based on the insights presented in Graph 1 above, Tesla has improved their revenues and capabilities, resulting in a positive stock price trend. The company is more likely to benefit from adopting the new approach of hybrid work by facilitating collaboration between on-site employees and those working from home. Thus, a new HRM strategy that combines Tesla's current management approach with the hybrid approach can enhance employee and leader productivity (Corbett, 2022). 

Figure 3: Tesla Growth Estimates

The historical financial performances can be used to predict what success would look like for TESLA in the next two to five years. Table 1 below shows TESLA's Income Statement between 2018 and 2022. The information to predict the future performance of Tesla's shares has been portrayed in Figure 2. The analysis shows that Tesla had reached the lowest point after reporting a net income of -976,091 in 2018 in 2017 (Almenhali et al., 2021). However, the performance has been improving since it recorded a net income of $11,190,000 for the last 12 months of 2022, as shown in the table above. Therefore, its future performance can be estimated to be excellent, given its continued financial performance improvements over the last decade. The analysis in figure 1 above shows that the company reported an increase in net profit of $721M and $5.5 under the income statement for the period ending in 2020 and 2021. It has also reported revenue of $74,863,000 in the first 12 months of 2022, which portrays a successful performance despite the challenges faced during the pandemic.

Innovation has become necessary for success in today's business world, where tight competition exists in every business industry (Holbeche, 2022). The current business context is marked by a growing need for creative problem-solving strategies to find suitable solutions to improve productivity and gain a competitive advantage. As a result, the estimated growth for Tesla is expected to increase by 85.01% for the next five years, as shown in Figure 3 above. Since 2018, the company has focused on utilizing the organizational culture to maintain a mindset that supports performance and developmentThe analysis shows that the hybrid work approach has presented an opportunity for Tesla to improve its future financial performance with the help of the modern workforce and maintain employee motivation. 

Tesla HRM Strategy evaluation and recommendation

A company's HRM team creates and maintains a high-performance organizational culture. An organizational culture entails the collection of values, traits, and policies that define the company. In addition, it includes the practices and expectations practices that guide and inform the actions company's team members. According to the research, a clear, strong, well-communicated, and positive culture can attract and maintain the right talent from the diverse modern workforce (Kelliher & Richardson, 2018). In addition, the culture motivates a sense of healthy competition, which inspires the team members or employees to exhibit more innovative qualities.

Given that the culture employed by an organization can impact the happiness and satisfaction among the employees, it determines how employees feel or interact with their work and the organization. Tesla's current management strategy focuses on training and orientation programs, especially for new employees, to the features of the company's organizational culture. In addition, the leadership vision emphasizes high outputs among the employees through a culture of collaboration and teamwork (Maamoun, 2021). Thus, Tesla's HR leaders should aim to develop a new HRM strategy that accommodates the modern hybrid workforce to maintain positive financial performance in the current market. 

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Tesla's historical performance for the last since 2018 has been noted by adopting an organizational culture that emphasizes various social causes. It focuses on providing opportunities for cross-cultural employment, environmental protection, and energy conservation. The company is also focused on introducing and adopting new innovative business strategies. Therefore, it is clear that the management has managed to incorporate a flexible culture (Corbett, 2022). By adopting the hybrid work approach, the company will perfectly align the organization's culture with social responsibilities, its vision, and strategies. However, the current organizational culture utilized by the company has resulted in internal disruption and poor performance.

Therefore, the Company's HRM team can utilize the intercultural and modern working models as practical strategies to help develop adequate communication skills among diverse cultures. Shuang et al. (2015) suggested that the strategy can be helpful for managers to foster organizational performance by utilizing the modern approach of working to collaborate with talented individuals from diverse cultures. In addition to improving overall productivity, hybrid work and intercultural models will also assist Tesla in reducing cultural barriers due to ineffective communication strategies among the employees. The awareness of the cross-cultural workforce and the modern working approach is critical to developing productive relationships and operating efficiently in the current competitive markets. 

Conclusion

Since the hybrid functional approach has become the new normal, employers and employees can benefit from new policies. However, organizations must consider how best to implement the modern approach to ensure it delivers what is required for the business and its employees. The research has shown that Tesla's organizational culture mainly focuses on the company's vision which emphasizes high outputs among the employees through collaboration and teamwork. Thus, Tesla's current leadership is disconnected from what truly matters to the employees within the organizational performance in the current world of business. Despite the increasingly modern approach of hybrid working. The report recommends that Tesla's HR leaders develop a new HR strategy to utilize the modern workforce to accommodate the modern hybrid workforce.

Tesla's HR department can help create a thriving hybrid work culture by actively aligning the recruitment process with the company's vision and desired goals. The HR department in a company like Tesla is mainly responsible for fostering a positive workplace culture by deploying engagement and feedback tools. In addition, the HRM department is responsible for inspiring desired cultural practices, behaviors, and beliefs as the stewards and keepers of the company's culture. The HR strategy employed by Tesla Company is known to support corroboration and employee involvement. It allows the leaders and the employees to voice concerns and opinions while the company's leaders employ it to issue directives and policies.

Similarly, the connection between HR management and culture can influence the organization's performance. The management strategy to be utilized by Tesla can present a new organizational culture that is flexible to modern working models. Therefore, a new organizational culture can be useful for Tesla to remain competitive in the current evolving business environment. As a result, organizational leaders should see the approach of hybrid work as an opportunity to build culture differently instead of viewing hybrid work as a disruption to the cultural experience. However, organizational cultural values are part of the factors controlling employees with various HRM strategies, such as recruiting more hybrid workers and increasing wages. The HRM strategies can be useful in redefining the existing organizational culture by promoting a company's competitiveness in the changing business environment context. The trust between the employees and leaders of an organization determines culture. Higher employee satisfaction and encouragement can be seen in organizational cultures where employee engagement and involvement are typical. A collaborative organizational culture can help employees to exhibit more innovative qualities. It motivates a sense of healthy competition among the members of the team.

 

 

 

 

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