Understanding of Organizations

I consider it a great honor to get the chance to work for the company as a project manager in charge of the IT division. Due to the fact that this department falls under my area of expertise, I am quite eager to start working there. I am aware of the obstacles the project will present, especially given that it spans two countries and a variety of geographic regions. These difficulties are made more difficult by the fact that these nations have various administrative and cultural practices. This company has a local office in the United States and an international office in Australia. The nature of the project in hand is most likely to be implemented by a for-profit organization. Laying out an information technology system spanning two countries necessitate huge capital outlay which a non-profit entity may struggle to raise. Whereas a profit concern entity may plow back its revenue into its business activity such as implementing IT system, the non-profit organization will have to rely on donations which may not be enough to undertake certain projects. Also, due to financial constraints, non-profit concern entities are not attractive employers to highly qualified and talented personnel such as me. Maintenance of such personnel requires attractive and competitive remuneration and pension package to prevent them from being poached by competitors (Staber, 2013). As such, financial capacity majorly determines the type of an organization and projects it can undertake.
Both forms of organization; profit and non-profit concern organization face certain risks unique to each type. Both forms of organization are faced with a similar risk of government interference in the form of imposing policies and regulations. They are aimed at regulating organization either through creating an enabling environment or a more controlled environment to avert instances of rogue organizations. Profit concern organizations are usually faced with the risk of fluctuating exchange and interest rates, in that it raises the cost of available credit. High exchange rates reduce an entity's ability to import its inputs, thereby limiting its growth. Also, multinational profit concern faces the risk of taxation in the host country. Some governments adopt certain tax policies that are intended to protect the domestic organization against foreign companies. This gives the domestic organizations competitive advantage. Mostly, non-profit concern organizations are faced with the risk of lack of capital which reduces them to depend on the mercies of donors (Goetsch & Davis, 2014).
Every organization is faced with numerous uncertainties which it can neither predict their occurrence nor the severity. The occurrence of these uncertainties can cripple or even lead to the total collapse of an organization if they were not adequately prepared for. Consequently, it necessitates an entity to arrange for insurance so that the insurer can compensate for the loss if the uncertainties materialize. To ensure that an organization takes care to avert the occurrence of a certain peril or take care that is aimed at minimizing the effects of such occurrence, the insurer place a certain duty on the entity (Staber, 2013). Terms of agreement dictate the amount the insured will contribute if the loss exceeds certain to be catered for by the insurer. The project manager should engage a number of insurers so as to ensure the organization will not be prejudiced in time of a loss. Also, the project manager should ensure that the excess amount borne by the organization does not threaten its financial capacity.
The value of teamwork toward the realization of organizational goals and objectives cannot be underrated. An entity should cultivate an organizational culture that motivates employees to embrace teamwork and cooperation. The ability of employees to embrace teamwork will not only lead to the achievement of organizational goals but it will also greatly reduce regular conflicts experienced in the workplace (Voyer, 2015). The main way of reducing conflicts in the teams is through the project manager understanding the workforce in the organization through undertaking a research among them. This will enable the project manager to know which employees share the same goals, attitudes, and objectives to place them on one team. Although this will result in more efficient teams than others, more efficient teams can coach and inspire less efficient ones. In addition, the project manager should establish conflict solving mechanisms to allow for a grieved team member to express their grievances thereby reducing problems in teams.
The fact that technology has enhanced life cannot be underestimated or ignored. It has eroded the traditional reasoning that work is someplace employees go to, to give it its actual meaning of something that is done regardless of where an individual is. This has led to the evolution of virtual teams. To ensure that these virtual teams achieve organizational objectives regardless of their geographical location, the project manager should; schedule regular online meetings. This will establish a routine enabling the teams to always feel the office atmosphere and keep them focused. Secondly, institute numerous communication tools to enable teams efficiently communicate urgent concerns to the right individual at the right time and to unify processes creating an internal feeling of togetherness (Waldman, Belson & Pearce, 2016). Lastly, the project manager should establish a meritocratic system to recognize and reward employees on basis of their performance and skills. This will motivate and stimulate employees to work harder and better.
An organization is made up of various departments whose efforts and expenditure have to be coordinated and aligned to the overall organizational objective. For each department to undertake its duties, it needs resources. These resources have to be budgeted for in order to ensure they utilized appropriately. Budgetary controls measure performance and expedite assessment across departments. The project manager can adopt various budgetary controls such as; financial budgets which outline how an entity anticipates getting its cash and also shows how it is planning to use the cash. It discloses organization activities that will give it cash and those that will make it utilize those cash. Operating budget, which is an outlay of an entity's pre-meditated operations for a certain time. It outlines business activities that each department will engage itself in to achieve the overall goal. Non-monetary budgets are conveyed in non-financial sales or returns and expenses (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). If the expected margins are too little; it may necessitate actions aimed at increasing the sales budget or reduce the expenditure budget.
Achievement of any objective will be greatly influenced by the time management. Consequently, every organization develops its own set of actions consisting of how it plans to achieve every objective in a stipulated time frame. At the end of each time frame, an entity conducts an evaluation to determine whether the actual results have met the expected results. As such, the project manager will be required to effectively and efficiently manage time and avoid procrastination within the virtual teams. To achieve this they may need to; define work systems through setting the required standards which shorten the time needed to attain the anticipated results (Hogan & Coote, 2014). Work systems have to be tailored to allow for creativity and application of one's capabilities and to be consistent to permit utmost effectiveness and efficiency.
Secondly, state precise and detailed deliverables which involves providing more thorough explanations of chores with examples of what the expected result resembles. It allows the employees to exercise a certain degree of freedom when executing their responsibilities. Lastly, according to Hogan & Coote (2014) project managers should ensure that work hours overlap in order to have most of the team members online at the same time at least for three to four hours every day regardless of the time zone. Even though some teams do not need each other to complete their chores, being online at the same time will bring them closer.
A multinational organization will definitely consist of employees of different races and ethnicities. From the onset, an organization should cultivate an organizational culture that is accommodative and gives equal opportunities to all. It should capitalize on the diversity of its workforce. All individuals are unique in their own way; that is talents, creativity, and innovativeness and have their own way of doing things. The project manager should harness these traits for the betterment of an organization. This can be done through conducting induction regarding the values, beliefs, and norms of the organization to new employees. It can be done through an entity's code of conduct which outlines how individuals are supposed to behave in the organization so as to bridge the cultural gap (Gluyas, 2015).
This course has taught me about handling virtual teams and how to bridge cultural gap among the workforce in an organization. Since effort of every employee in the organization is vital and has to be aligned with efforts of others, harmonious relationships have to be nurtured. It is the duty of the project manager to nurtured good and mutual working relations in an entity. Therefore, as a project manager, I will have minimal problems leading my team.

References
Gluyas, H. (2015). Effective communication and teamwork promotes patient safety. Nursing Standard, 29(49), 50-57.
Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hogan, S. J., & Coote, L. V. (2014). Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein's model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), 1609-1621.
Staber, U. (2013). Understanding organizations: theories and images. Sage.
Voyer, B. G. (2015). Understanding teamwork and leadership: the role of self-construal. Psychology at LSE.
Waldman, D. A., Belson, Y., & Pearce, C. L. (2016). Enhancing Our Understanding of Vision in Organizations. Toward an Integration of Leader and Follower Processes.