Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE 4 Organizational Culture and Change Name: John Blair Institution Affiliation: Rasmussen College Author Note This paper is being submitted on 11th December, 2018, for John Blair MAN4240CBE Section 01CBE Organizational Behavior Analysis. Organizational Culture and Change NoJax employs a hierarchical organizational culture where the work environment is formal and structured since the company follows a centralized power and decision-making process. There are set out procedures to guide what people should do within the company where for instance employees are expected to conduct weekly status meetings with managers and presence of daily activity reports that must be filled out by all employees. There is great supervision of employees to achieve a high level of efficiency. The employees are expected to work for an average of 50 hours a week which could probably be said to be higher since the normal working hours in a week should be 40 hours. The relationship between employees and the management is formal since decisions must be approved both by direct managers and someone from senior management, this is due to centralized management. NoJax was formed on a general partnership between Noah and Jaxson Williams who form the senior management of the company and are responsible for the major decisions of the company. The company follows a functional organization structure which was suggested by F.W. Taylor as one that selects specialists to head the important positions in an organization (Schermerhorn & Bachrach, 2017). This is seen where there are different product managers to oversee the different products of the company as well as departments that consist of design, marketing, and research and development. The existence of this form of structure makes the culture to be hierarchical in that communication and decisions move from the senior management, to the heads of departments, and finally to the junior employees who have to follow the rules. The management leadership traits show that majority of the individuals in management are social, few are emotionally stable, few are open, majority use conscience, and a majority are able to agree with others on issues affecting the company. This shows that employees are able to approach the management due to the good level of extraversion but they may not benefit from the management emotionally since there is low emotional stability and openness among a majority of the management. Many of those in management show a high level of conscientiousness meaning that they are in a position to do what is good for the company and employees. The leadership style seen as a result of the company’s structure is autocratic since decisions are finalized by senior management and this limits the employees from developing their own leadership skills. This can bring a feeling of dictatorship and fear leading to poor emplo.

1. Running Head: ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND
CHANGE
ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE AND CHANGE
4
Organizational Culture and Change
Name: John Blair
Institution Affiliation: Rasmussen College
Author Note
This paper is being submitted on 11th December, 2018, for John
Blair MAN4240CBE Section 01CBE Organizational Behavior
Analysis.
Organizational Culture and Change
NoJax employs a hierarchical organizational culture where the
work environment is formal and structured since the company
follows a centralized power and decision-making process. There
are set out procedures to guide what people should do within the
company where for instance employees are expected to conduct
weekly status meetings with managers and presence of daily
activity reports that must be filled out by all employees. There
is great supervision of employees to achieve a high level of
efficiency. The employees are expected to work for an average

2. of 50 hours a week which could probably be said to be higher
since the normal working hours in a week should be 40 hours.
The relationship between employees and the management is
formal since decisions must be approved both by direct
managers and someone from senior management, this is due to
centralized management.
NoJax was formed on a general partnership between Noah and
Jaxson Williams who form the senior management of the
company and are responsible for the major decisions of the
company. The company follows a functional organization
structure which was suggested by F.W. Taylor as one that
selects specialists to head the important positions in an
organization (Schermerhorn & Bachrach, 2017). This is seen
where there are different product managers to oversee the
different products of the company as well as departments that
consist of design, marketing, and research and development.
The existence of this form of structure makes the culture to be
hierarchical in that communication and decisions move from the
senior management, to the heads of departments, and finally to
the junior employees who have to follow the rules.
The management leadership traits show that majority of the
individuals in management are social, few are emotionally
stable, few are open, majority use conscience, and a majority
are able to agree with others on issues affecting the company.
This shows that employees are able to approach the management
due to the good level of extraversion but they may not benefit
from the management emotionally since there is low emotional
stability and openness among a majority of the management.
Many of those in management show a high level of
conscientiousness meaning that they are in a position to do what
is good for the company and employees. The leadership style
seen as a result of the company’s structure is autocratic since
decisions are finalized by senior management and this limits the
employees from developing their own leadership skills. This can
bring a feeling of dictatorship and fear leading to poor
employee satisfaction and subsequent high employee turnover.

3. The change in management style to a more democratic
leadership style can bring a lot of positive change to the
company culture and its employees. This type of leadership will
ensure that the opinions of all are brought on board and rules
and policies are set putting the concerns and interests of
everyone. This will bring a sense of belonging and see more
commitment and productivity from the side of employees. The
culture will change from hierarchical to an adhocracy culture
which will inspire a creative and dynamic work environment
(Waddell, Creed, Cummings, & Worley, 2016).
References
Schermerhorn, J. R., & Bachrach, D. G. (2017). Introduction to
management. Hoboken: NJ Wiley.
Waddell, D., Creed, A., Cummings, T. G., & Worley, C. G.
(2016). Organisational change : development and
transformation. South Melbourne: Cengage Learning.
Running Head: DECISION MAKING AND CONFLICT
MANAGEMENT
DECISION MAKING AND CONFLICT MANAGEMENT 2
Decision Making and Conflict Management

4. Name: John Blair
Institution Affiliation:
Author Note
This paper is being submitted on 11th December, 2018, for John
Blair MAN4240CBE Section 01CBE Organizational Behavior
Analysis.
Decision Making and Conflict Management
The constraints in the structure of NoJax Inc. that may hinder
effective decision making the centralized form of serious
centralized decision-making structure, the matrix organizational
structure and the personality difference among the employees in
management. The centralized form of making decisions means
that the opinions of other management officials are not welcome
and decisions not fair to all may be made. The matrix structure
involves many people working together and different people
have different capabilities to deal with changes and the need to
establish stable relationships in the work environment can cause
psychological stress. The personality characteristics that hinder
decision making are openness, emotional stability, and
agreeableness. Some managers are less open, agree less and
show emotional instability.
NoJax can make decisions more effectively by reducing the
level of bureaucracy between the departments through
decentralization. There should be the empowerment of the
managers through delegation such that the managers can give
final views on matters affecting respective departments rather
than waiting for the approval of senior management. The
company should also allow rotations through positions so that

5. majority of the people can have hands-on experience in
different areas which will allow more reliable information to
allow informed decisions. The company should ensure a
functional human resource department which airs the views of
the employees who are an integral part of the company
(Phillips, Phillips, & Smith, 2016).
The elements of negotiation include interests, options,
relationship, communication, legitimacy, commitment, and
alternatives. The interests, needs, and concerns of all should be
considered when setting up policies and rules to inspire a sense
of belonging and commitment to the company’s goals. The
options of solving conflict should transparently consider the
interest of all so that in the event of any issue, all is factored in.
The company should have policies that build good working
relationships between employees and management so that issues
are raised openly without fear. Communication should be at its
optimal so that information is clear and void of contradiction.
Legitimacy brings a sense of fairness in running the affairs of
the company so that no one’s rights and freedoms are infringed.
For there to be minimal conflicts, all and sundry should be
committed to the objectives of the company and this will make
the finding of solutions rather easy.
In solving issues of conflict, NoJax should first identify what
could have caused the conflict by allowing more information
from the conflicting parties without bias. The management
should look beyond the incident for it could be an event that
happened long ago or the working environment that could be
causing stress leading to conflict. The third step is asking the
conflicting parties to suggest solutions they all agree on for this
will allow commitment to the solutions suggested (Moore,
2014).

6. References
Moore, C. W. (2014). The mediation process : practical
strategies for resolving conflict. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, A
Wiley Brand.
Phillips, J. J., Phillips, P. P., & Smith, K. (2016).
Accountability in human resource management : connecting HR
to business results. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis
Group.
Running head: BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION
1
BARRIERS TO COMMUNICATION
3
The Communication Barriers at Nojax Company
Name: John Blair
Institution: Rasmussen College
Author Note
This paper is being submitted on 11th December, 2018, for John
Blair MAN4240CBE Section 01CBE Organizational Behavior
Analysis.
Barriers to Communication at the Organization
Within the management structure, a major barrier to
communication entails age difference between the senior
management team. For instance, Alice Bloom belongs to the
baby boomers generation while two of her colleagues belong to
the millennial generation. The latter is more inclined to modern
and digital tools of communication such as instant messaging
while the former is used to old methods of communication such
as memos and meetings (Femi, 2004). The differences may need

7. to be harmonized. Due to this barrier, communication is not
able to flow freely.
On the other hand, the functional departments do not work in a
complementary manner as a team but as independent functions.
For instance, it has been pointed out that there are occasional
disagreements between the functions which are never resolved.
When independent functions are not willing to work together as
a team that amounts to a barrier to communication as no
functions are openly willing to take part in communication
processes. The functional teams should be able to work together
in order to communicate effectively. Essentially, the company’s
structure does not create an effective channel for flow of
information. It needs to be streamlined to allow free and two-
way flow of communication.
One of the management’s major problems entails quick and fast
communication with the employees. From the structure,
employees are only assigned to specific establishments within a
particular function meaning that communication from the
management must be directed to all workers. This means it may
take longer time before every employee has been communicated
to. In the event that a message needs to be delivered urgently, it
may take longer than expected. The organization also faces
problems when it comes to gathering feedbacks from the
employees. The matrix structure has not been able to establish a
two-way communication process where junior workers should
relay their feedbacks to the senior management team. Actually,
it has been stated that managers act as the link between
employees and the managerial team. This shows the gap
between the two levels which needs to be addressed. All
employees should be accorded a medium through which they
can relay messages and feedbacks without any difficulties.
There are a number of factors that might be obstructing
communication at the organization as follows. Nojax still clings
to its traditional hierarchical structure meaning that the work
environment is formalized and structured and tasks are normally

8. done procedurally. Actually, every employee is closely
monitored as a way of improving their efficiency. This tends to
negatively impact communication as employee have no
autonomy. They cannot convene and discuss a particular
plausible idea. Their strict adherence to rules means that
communication is structured and complies with the established
policies. Communication should be flow freely within an
organizational culture for efficiency to be guaranteed.
Management backgrounds are also a major obstruction to
effective communication. The management is made of; a
Pakistani, a Hispanic, two Caucasians, and two African
Americans. The managers are oriented to different cultural and
ethnic backgrounds and are not equipped with communications
skills and cultural competence when they join the organization.
This means that cultural barriers to communications may be
leading to obstruction. Also, three of the managers have been
recently hired meaning that there may exist differences in
communication due to age difference. They may have varying
preferences in choosing tools to use for communication.
Reference
Femi, A. (2014). The Impact of Communication on Workers’
Performance in Selected Organisations in Lagos State, Nigeria.
Journal Of Humanities And Social Science19(8), 77-81.
DELIVERABLE 3 - NOJAX STRUCTURE ANALYSIS 1

9. Deliverable 3 - NoJax Structure Analysis
Student Name: John Blair
Institutional Affiliations: Rasmussen College
Deliverable 3 - NoJax Structure Analysis
Organizational behavior structure characteristics
According to the organizational structure of the NoJax
Company, it structure characteristics include:
a) The control span of the company’s operations is based on the
closely project teams and managers. For instance, according to
NoJax Company, the employees work on teams and are not
allowed to change teams or groups.
b) There is functional classification of the operations of the
company. It uses a functional utility, but, control is based on
the classified managers in marketing, design, and research and
development.
c) Finally, it is chain of command. The chain of command of
NoJax is created and controlled by product managers and direct
chain to the manager under supervision; marketing, design and
research and development.
d) The company’s structure: the company’s structure affects the
positivity performance and retention of employees in the long
terms. There is also a challenge for making informed decisions,
which does not the many different conflicts arising due to
different views of managers.
Organizational structure that NoJax is currently using
The organizational structure of NoJax is a matrix structure,
which does not develop a positive organizational behavior due
to different chains of commands and control. For instance, there
are managers in design, marketing, and research and

10. development. These managers have others working either in
running shoes, running apparel or weight lifting products. Thus,
making decisions requires consulting of many managers and this
might be a redundancy, which hinders effective decision making
for the company. There is also poor decision making in the
company due to lack of centralization of leadership. As a result,
it is a challenge due to the poor centralization of decision
making. Nojax also has different chains of commands, which
might affect the development of a positive working culture and
organizational culture. The matrix structure also has different
cultural affiliation. For instance, the managers are of different
ethnic cultures, which makes the company a multi-cultural
organization.
Rank decision-making power, creativity, and ease of
communication from most important to least important for
NoJax's success
Based on the operations and success of the NoJax, creativity is
the most essential element, which has helped the company to
focus on successful launching of the company’s business. It is
also a means to ensure, develop, and improve effective
launching to increase, develop, and motivate the essential
features gained through product creativity. Closely followed by
rank decision making power. This is only needed when
considering making the core decisions. For instance, decisions
on marketing of apparel will be made between marketing,
apparel or product managers. It will time to make the necessary
decisions. But, the least important is ease of communication due
to the different command chains, which makes the process of
communication difficult, especially, due to the lack of a conflict
methodology to improve communication between managers and
managers.
Explain if you think NoJax's current structure is effectively
cultivating the characteristic you have ranked as most important
Due to the different structures and chains of command, the

11. company does not support effective decision making to achieve
the needed creativity. Secondly, the chain of command affects
the optimum need and expectations towards transition making
and achieve the necessary processes to ensure the challenges of
making the core decisions within the different company
operations. This does not support and help in advancing and
increasing effective decision makings. Third, there is the need
of reducing different commands and consider using product
structuring or functional structuring to help in ease of
communication and decision making. But, it is a challenge
affecting and impacting effective decision making. Finally, the
company does not allow teams to interact, which also affects
creativity in the long run.
References
Carley, K. M., & Prietula, M. J. (2014). The" virtual design
team": Simulating how organization structure and information
processing tools affect team performance. In Computational
organization theory (pp. 19-36). Psychology Press.
Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and
cases edition. John Wiley & Sons.

12. Running head: NOJAX INC. COMPANY EMPLOYEE
ANALYSIS 1
NOJAX INC. COMPANY EMPLOYEE ANALYSIS 2
NoJax Inc. Company Employee Analysis
Student’s Name: John Blair
Date: November 13,2018
NoJax Inc. Company Employee Analysis
Most Important Personality Trait
NoJax Inc. Company seeks to offer quality options for people
living an active lifestyle especially those who regularly visit a
gym. To offer these options, the company has to hire and
sustain a team that ascribes to the company’s needs and meeting
customer expectations. The big five personality traits NoJax
management needs to identify are extraversion, neuroticism,
openness, conscientiousness, and agreeable. Extraversion means
a manager is outgoing, neuroticism represents managers who
can control their emotions, openness is when managers are open
to new challenges, conscientious people are more dependable,
and agreeable managers are able to put their self-interests aside
for them to get along with others. Most of the managers at
NoJax have most of the five traits required by the company.
The main personality trait required by NoJax should be
extraversion which means that managers are open and willing to

13. meet new people. Extrovert managers are willing to try new
things which are the key to the company especially when they
are new to their assignments. Managers are bound to face new
challenges and extrovert managers accept the challenges as new
learning opportunities (Frieder & Wang, 2018). NoJax has three
managers each with high and medium extraversion and only one
with low extraversion. High extraversion is preferred but NoJax
has a well-distributed combination because the manager with
low extraversion is complimented with high levels of
agreeableness and conscientiousness.
Least Important Personality Trait
NoJax management needs to put a high premium on good
personality traits but having a priority on the most important.
The least important personality trait is agreeableness which
means a manager would set aside their own goals to improve
their relationship with others. High levels of agreeableness have
both positive and negative predicaments because managers need
to decipher key decisions to make, rather than, follow other
people’s preferences. High levels of agreeableness can reduce
the quality of leadership in managers by having the decisions
been dependent on their employees’ actions. NoJax should
emphasize on managers been leaders to ensure they are in
charge of their employees. Managers with high agreeableness
levels will have a tendency of changing their plans for them to
please a set of employees. NoJax has three managers each with
high and medium levels of agreeableness and one manager with
a low level of agreeableness. It is challenging for managers to
please all employees as they may wish.
Management Pairs Working Together
Collaboration between two managers is important to NoJax
because they will offer consulted inputs in a project. Alice
Bloom and Jessie Mercado would partner well because Alice has
low levels of agreeableness and openness while Jessie has a
high level of agreeableness and a medium level of openness.
Both Alice and Jessie complement each other in their
personality traits. However, the big 28-year age gap between the

14. two can pose challenges in levels of experience and exposure.
Jessie, for example, is young and maybe well versant with
modern technology while that may be a challenge to Alice
(Fleming & Harris, 2017). Anam Basra and Orlando Grant
would partner will because Grant has high levels of
extroversion and openness while Basra has a high level of
conscientiousness. Grant has a low level of conscientiousness
and these would complement their partnership. The only
challenges between both managers in the gender difference
which can be distracting to both managers if they do not focus
(Frieder & Wang, 2018). Basra might also feel more
knowledgeable because of her master’s degree which is superior
to Grant’s associate’s degree.
Orlando Grant would also work well with Carrie Durant because
of the complimenting personalities. Durant has a medium level
of openness, emotional stability, and extroversion while Grant
has high levels of each of the three personality traits. Despite
the high level of compatibility between the two, an 8-year
experience gap can threaten the pair’s cohesion. Durant may
underestimate Grant’s capabilities while Grant may be more
conversant to technology which can lead to conflict. Janet
Johnson and Lynn Bryant can also work well together because
Janel has a low level of consciousness and emotional stability
while Lynn has high levels of both traits which act as a
compliment between the two. Janet has a medium level of
conscientiousness and low level of emotional stability while
Lynn has both a high level of conscientiousness and a high level
of emotional stability. The main challenge between Lynn and
Janet is the medium level of agreeableness which can lead to
arguments. Lynn also has more experience as compare to Janet
despite both been in the same levels of management and this can
also lead to future arguments.
References
Fleming, D. E., & Harris, E. G. (2017). The productive service
employee: personality, stress, satisfaction and performance. .

15. Journal of Services Marketing, 31(6), 499-511.
Frieder, R. E., & Wang, G. (2018). Linking job-relevant
personality traits, transformational leadership, and job
performance via perceived meaningfulness at work: A
moderated mediation model. Journal of Applied Psychology,
103(3), 324.
Running Head: NOJAX ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
ANALYSIS 1
NOJAX ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR ANALYSIS 4
NoJax Organizational Behavior Analysis
Name: John Blair
Institutional Affiliation: Rasmussen College

16. NoJax Organizational Behavior Analysis
Question 1
The micro organizational behavior focuses mainly upon the
habits of a specific person. One observation I have made on
NoJax Company employee profile is that they have a wide array
of habits for their employees. These workers are all from
different cultures thus exhibit different behaviors in the
company.
I also noticed that NoJax has a lack of male employees filling
positions. Out of all their employees Orlando Grant is the only
male. I believe this can have a negative effect on the company
as it may indicate some gender bias, discrimination, and can
lead to an increase of employee turnover (Lo, et.al, 2017). More
males in this situation can help to increase their performance by
creating more diversity. They could put ads out to target males
directly to increase the male presence within their employees.
Question 2
An observation made on the meso level of NoJax company’s
employee profile is that they have a great mix of personality
within their employees. This is positive as it sets the scene for
positive group cohesion. As if all employees had the same
personality they would not be able to produce good quality work
output. For example, a group that may work together could be
Orlando Grant, who is the Research and Development
Department Manager, and Alice Bloom who is the Design
Manager. Alice has a very outgoing extraversion type of
personality, but is not very open. She also has a medium level
of conscientiousness, and is not very agreeable. While on the
other side Orlando is also has a high extraversion level, is not
very conscientious, and is somewhat agreeable. He is also very
open about things.
Question 3
According to macro organizational approaches, the entire NoJax
Company ought to have a roaster on what contingencies they

17. follow, the strategies they aim at as well as how they adapt to
them. In this case, they should also make it more clear as to
how you can move up these rankings and what is needed to be
done so that employees understand better how job performance
can affect this incentive of a raise. Two macro factors that
influence NoJax company include legal factors, that is, dealing
with the government and taxes. Secondly, there are the
technological changes. For the company to get ahead in the
macro world, they ought to ensure that they stay ahead
technologically.
One policy observation that was made that can have a negative
effect on NoJax company is that they give out raises based on
ranking. Giving the top workers up to 6% raise and the bottom
employees no raise. To create a more positive organizational
behavior I believe that this needs to change as it is hard to be
successful when employees see only certain groups of
employees receiving benefits. Putting special efforts in to
highlight employees and their performances (Parks-Leduc, et.al,
2015).
Question 4
After viewing NoJax Inc. I would say that the company has a
medium dissimilarity level. I believe that this level can have a
negative impact on the business if not changed. This conclusion
was decided upon based on the diversity of the company on
multiple levels such as micro, meso, and macro levels of
behavioral organization (Ghobadi & Mathiassen, 2016). NoJax
does a great job with having diversity within the ethnicity and
education of employees which helps to give their business a
well-rounded group of minds. Although, they do not have much
diversity of gender, and their policies and company structure
could be improved upon to create a more open, and
communication friendly organization for their new employees.
Making changes such as implementing policies open
communication, discrimination, as well as being open about
how employees can advance and succeed I believe will help to
improve the organizations behavior. As well as adding more

18. gender diversity to NoJax.
References
Ghobadi, S., & Mathiassen, L. (2016). Perceived barriers to
effective knowledge sharing in agile software teams.
Information Systems Journal, 26(2), 95-125.
Lo, M. T., Hinds, D. A., Tung, J. Y., Franz, C., Fan, C. C.,
Wang, Y., ... & Sanyal, N. (2017). Genome-wide analyses for
personality traits identify six genomic loci and show
correlations with psychiatric disorders. Nature genetics, 49(1),
152.
Parks-Leduc, L., Feldman, G., & Bardi, A. (2015). Personality
traits and personal values: A meta-analysis. Personality and
Social Psychology Review, 19(1), 3-29.