Essay: Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company analysis

Delivering Results means that leaders are ultimately responsible for providing the expectations set upon them. This must be done consistently, providing value to the companies stakeholders and showing priority to the customers. A leader must also Shape the Future by maintaining a forward thinking vision for the future (Lockheed Martin 2017). They must set the direction and appropriately determine the necessary steps and changes required to make the mission continue (Lockheed Martin 2017). While thinking of the future endeavors and navigating through them, a leader should Build Effective Relationships to be able to establish and maintain a strong bond with employees, as well as customers. The relationships do not stop within the company but reach out to the community for cohesion and acceptance (Lockheed Martin 2017). These community relationships are especially important in different countries or areas of the world where morals and ethics are dissimilar. Energizing the Team is also critical for work performance. Leaders must have this trait to create a positive, engaging work environment such that people can develop and succeed. This helps foster a diverse culture to be inclusive and builds trust. Modeling Personal Excellence, Integrity and Accountability at all levels of leadership enables an environment for employees to look up to their leadership (Lockheed Martin 2017).  

Perception, Attribution and Learning. Lockheed Martin is very intuitive when it com
es to their organizational influence on employees in obtaining a professional image perceived by customers. Perception is the process in which people select, organize, interpret, retrieve and respond to information from the world around them (Uhl-Bien Schermerhorn, & Osborn 2014).

Understanding the characteristics of the perceiver, the setting and the perceived are what make for best perception throughout the workforce, and also the customer. Managers at Lockheed Martin provide sufficient attention to things like career development, performance goals, and supervisory support. These focuses help keep the workforce on the same page, avoiding miscommunication and misunderstandings that could potentially lead to inadequate performance.

Lockheed also has annual training for the complex reality of perceptual distortions. This training is conducted via online management training. The training offers informational tutorials of bad management that use negative traits like, stereotyping, halo effects, selective perception, and contrast effects (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). The training showcases scenarios where management and other employees exemplify these traits. The situations also provide an interactive approach for the trainees to give input on methods to better these virtual situations and avoid them from happening in reality as well as mitigate the risks associated with them.

The implication of stereotypes in the workplace is extremely counterproductive. It takes away the individual differences of a person and creates a false interpretation of whom they are. Managers can accurately understand the needs and preferences of the individuals at Lockheed by maintaining a good understanding on how to avoid representing the stereotypes across others. Just like the damage that stereotypes may cause for productivity, halo effects do similar damage to the workforce. Halo effects occur when one personal attribute of a person is exploited to their advantage and used to develop an overall impression (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). This is similar to the ‘golden child’ or the ‘can do no wrong’ club of individuals.

The damage resulting from the halo effect can hinder performance of others. For example, if one person is never late with good attendance records, they could be viewed as intelligent or responsible despite their work efforts, while the other workers without the good attendance may automatically be vectored into the poor performers despite their actual performance. Lockheed Martin is great at viewing performance for what it is, partly due to the annual training and management efforts.

Motivation Rewards and Performance. Motivation is defined as the force from within the individual that accounts for the direction, level, and persistence of effort output towards work (Uhl-Bien 2014). Many of the workers at Lockheed Martin stay motivated to do their jobs and exceed beyond expectations. The company does really well at adding incentives for workers daily. There are small extrinsic rewards that are recognition driven that can be given by anyone. These rewards are no more than a card that is written on, describing the awardee’s actions that lead to the recognition. These cards are then read aloud to the other workers while being presented. This method alone brings to light a level of appreciation for hard work. This can boost productivity for the simple fact that workers are aware that there can be benefits for their work; this is how positive reinforcement works. It keeps the workers from showing up day-in day-out just for the reward of a paycheck. The hard work of going above and beyond gets noticed, introducing more hard work by others.

Other rewards can be recognized at higher levels of management. Lockheed implements rewards such as spot awards. These awards come from local management and get introduced to upper management. They also get read aloud only on a larger scale in front of many different work centers as opposed to the smaller more intimate reward. The reward is a $250-500 and a picture of getting presented the award gets sent out through emails for everyone to see, as well as a miniature foam F-35 to display on an office desk or at home. The reward is a huge achievement for one person to get; they are rare and only come with above and beyond results. Those that receive these rewards in front of others bring the need for achievement for others to excel, essentially leading to a snowball reaction of productivity. Providing a sense of achievement

In order for a company such as Lockheed Martin to succeed with their workforce, they need these motivational factors. Achievement in the workplace followed by achievements goes a long way and provides higher job satisfaction while keeping productivity high. This falls in line with Frederick Herzberg’s two-factor theory as motivator factors found in job content and affect job satisfaction, the other is hygiene factors found in job context and affect job dissatisfaction (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014).

Communication. Communication in any environment will always be important. Within Lockheed Martin, this is especially true given the many industrial environments that interact with standard office environments. As Uhl-Bien et al. (2014), explains it, “Communication is the lifeblood of the organization. Yet, despite the fact that we spend most of our lives communicating, we are not always very good at it.” Communication is a process of sending and receiving information, whether it is via email, voice or signals, it is crucial in any capacity for the message to be understood from one end to the other. Lockheed Martin has several industrial areas that require high levels of communication. For example, while working on the flight line, and your instructions are to connect an electrical component on an aircraft under a panel and install the panel, if you only understood that you were supposed to install the panel, the aircraft would have issues, possibly crash or have some sort of adverse affects; this is why it would be imperative to understand your duties when being instructed by supervision. Completing tasks that can mean loss of life, limb or eyesight makes communication crucial. In scenarios like this one mentioned at Lockheed Martin, there are steps that prevent the message from being misinterpreted.

Lockheed Martin uses more than verbal communication for tasks such as working on aircraft. For these tasks there is computer software that stores the requirements for aircraft configurations. The configurations have specific tasks under them to be complete, and once those tasks are all checked off, the configuration could be complete. For example, in the previous instance, although the sender’s information did not get through to the receiver properly, the software would show that there is still a connector disconnected under the panel that was installed. This is not specific to Lockheed Martin but is a method for the aviation community to keep from missing key steps. Other methods of communication present within Lockheed Martin pertain more to the office environment but still have influence throughout the industrial areas.

Within the communication process lie communication barriers such as interpersonal issues, physical distractions, meaning barriers and cultural barriers (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). These barriers can be evident when working with other foreign nationals since their culture and language, and non-verbal language would be completely different. For example, in Middle Eastern cultures it is considered rude to shake hands with the left hand, it is also forbidden to shake a female’s hand. It is important to understand these specifics for each region and country due to the amount of damage that can be done, especially when making multimillion-dollar business deals.

Lockheed Martin has specific training called “Cultural Sensitivity Training” tailored to each environment that a workforce may be operating in. The training includes understanding the terms ethnocentrism,
cultural diversity as well as a proper ethical understanding of what to do while in country and what not to do. It is designed to minimize communication barriers and prevent giving the receiver a representation that Lockheed Martin cannot be trusted for business. When these barriers are present, the sender or receiver may distort communication by judging the message or failing to communicate effectively (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014).

Decision Making.  Decision-making is the process of choosing a course of action for dealing with a problem or an opportunity (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). This process is defined in five key steps and Lockheed  Martin does this process daily from manager to lower level employees.

The first stage of the decision making process is Recognize and define the problem or opportunity. This is where information is gathered on the decision and what it should accomplish. Lockheed Martin employees are able to do this through basic training and fundamentals. While fixing the aircraft at Lockheed Martin may require an in-depth knowledge of mechanics and engineering, a basic understanding of recognizing and defining the problem occurs when there is an issue with the aircraft or instructions. There is a “cookie cutter” process as to how to fix this by checking the aircraft technical data first, then moving up to senior engineer levels for guidance.

The second stage is to Identify and analyze alternative courses of action. Evaluating alternative courses of action can mitigate the problem but can also have risks associated with choosing this plan. It is imperative to make certain that the benefits outweigh the cost.

Choosing a preferred course of action is the third step in the decision making process. This is where the choice needs to be made. This is a critical point in the process because from here, the problem should cease and it should begin to improve. Making an ethical decision that involves things like timeliness of results, impact on mission and ethical soundness. The issue with this is who makes this decision, and if it is appropriate on the level of which it was found. For example, at Lockheed Martin, there are levels of decisions that can be made on a basic worker level, after a severe problem occurs, the solution can be found at the worker level, but it should be made by a higher level of supervision. This can be a simple electronic issue that makes the aircraft good to fly to a higher impacting problem that may cause future problems in flight; those decisions should be made at a supervisory level or even management level.

The last step in the decision making process is to Implement the preferred course of action. Teams may struggle with this step as they might suffer from a lack of participation error due to the fact that certain people have not been included in the process (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). Using all resources and specialties required for the decision should have already been done but with the fast paced environment of launching and fixing aircraft with narrow windows, getting the amount of resources required can be overlooked. This is where the employees at Lockheed Martin can do better, although there has not been any mishaps, this type of behavior invites the issues that plague decision making with errors every time one needs to be made.

Power and Politics. Power and politics are vital tools that leaders and workers use to complete the job and set the tone for the organization’s cultural activity (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). Lockheed Martin leaders look for ways to align the company’s interest with the employees’ interest to create a more inviting environment for all. This requires various types of leaders that balance the use of power, to manage a culture that promotes innovation.

When it comes to power and politics, Lockheed Martin takes this seriously on all levels. The company has a political action committee Lockheed Martin Employees’ Political Action Committee (LMEPAC). The committee is funded exclusively through voluntary contributions from employees that are eligible to include directors. This specific committee supports all federal and local political candidates who support the business of national defense as well as other issues that may benefit Lockheed Martin. Lockheed Martin uses their power to influence government control in some aspect or another, legally of course. They advocate for more business and will do what they can to get more of it.

Since a lot of the company’s money comes from the government, Lockheed Martin is committed to participating in the political and public policy process in a responsible and ethical manner (Lockheed Martin 2017). The company complies with all the applicable laws and regulations when dealing with government agencies. Using their positional power through large amounts of resources such as lawyers and committees, Lockheed Martin can expand their business by getting the message across that their technology can help certain conflicts. Without a voice in politics, the company would have significantly less advancements being used by the government today.

Organizational structure and design. In most organizations, there is an obvious separation of authority and tasks (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). For example, managers typically are not doing the grunt work and hard labor in the industrial areas; they are more for supervisory actions as well as upper level decision-making. In Lockheed Martin, this is the case where the company is designed as a vertical specialization. Vertical specialization creates a hierarchy of authority and arrangement of work positions (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). This method of supervision is simple to understand and creates division from workers, supervisors, managers up to directors etc. Lockheed Martin also has a narrow span of control, leaving less employees that report to a supervisor (Uhl-Bien et al. 2014). This can be an effective way for employees as the supervisors have less supervisory duties to attend to, making each supervisor less likely to be overtasked with supervisory responsibilities.

Conclusion

Lockheed Martin is a global leader in the technological defense platforms that are distributed. This can only be done through excellent care of the workers involved with accomplishing each task towards the mission. With over 25,000 employees world wide, Lockheed Martin is able to focus on the organizational behavior that is the quintessential fabric of the company. Providing proper perception, attribution, and learning focuses enhances employee’s success in becoming motivated toward the mission of providing technology. Lockheed Martin also continuously rewards employees, which keeps progress high throughout. Also, their efforts of making communication one of the main focuses shows how important it is for the company when decisions are to be made. Their involvement within politics ensures that they will keep their business and technology alive for over the U.S. and over 70 countries to benefit from. Lockheed Martin will continue to progress and stay relevant in the aeronautical industry as long as they focus on their organizational behavior skills.