Organizational Strategy and Leadership: A Case Study

This report provides an in-depth analysis of organizational strategy and leadership, with a specific focus on Microsoft Australia. It explores how Microsoft leverages data and information technology to drive its organizational strategy, structure, and leadership, emphasizing the importance of workplace cultural diversity and effective communication. The report examines real-time data technology projects and services implemented to enhance workplace balance and work-life balance, highlighting the challenges faced by frontline managers and the solutions implemented to improve employee engagement, processes, and communications. The discussion centers on Microsoft's efforts to improve employee collaboration, digital transformation, and the use of technology such as Microsoft Teams and Office 365 to improve employee engagement. The report also addresses the impact of mobile workforces, the importance of flexible work arrangements, and the role of technology in facilitating seamless communication between management and frontline workers. The case study of Queensland Ambulance Services (QAS) further illustrates the benefits of Microsoft's technology in improving communication and collaboration within the organization.

Organizational Strategy and Leadership
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Organizational Strategy and Leadership
Contents
1. Introduction to the Organizational Strategy........................................................................................2
2. Discussion on the Organizational Strategy..........................................................................................2
3. Conclusion to the Organizational Strategy..........................................................................................8
4. References.........................................................................................................................................10
Appendix...............................................................................................................................................11

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1. Introduction to the Organizational Strategy
The general business structure of any organization is critical, should have a workforce cultural
diversity and dynamics of working within the organization. It also should have essential points to
note such as how performance levels affect employees and the effects of communications within
the frontline staff and business managers. The organizational dynamics of Australia in Microsoft
is data-driven. Data and information technology are essential aspects in driving organizational
strategy, structure and leadership.
The examples sighted in the case study about Microsoft Australia, its submissions and citations
are real-time data technology projects and services deployed to enhance workplace balance and
work-life balance. The case study sights notable examples and workplace cultural diversity
dynamics which have an impact on people in the frontline activities of companies. The
implementation of data technology transfer from management to frontline workers has shown a
remarkable improvement.
All the below-stated examples are based on case studies that have been shared by Microsoft
Australia and the challenges faced by the frontline managers are exact real-time hurdles that they
face daily. Addressing their hinderance, the company works with management groups within the
organization and help improve the quality and performance of the people involved. Employee
engagement programs, processes and communications have improved remarkably since
technology enhancements have been introduced. The report aims to investigate the
organizational strategy and leadership.
2. Discussion on the Organizational Strategy
Microsoft, as an organization, is always trying to improve these dynamics and encouraging the
workforce to engage and share. By helping people collaborate and build better lines of
communication with the help technology can improve the health of the organization’s employees
and staff (Shipton et al., 2016). Australia has a large number of workers who are a part of the
mobile workforces. They are employed in rural regions and metropolitan areas, the unlimited

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number of staff and frontline workers hardly get to take time off due to work pressures and
continually workplace job requirements. Roster changes and communication require all of them
to travel to the main communication centre which is time-consuming and also can have
exhaustive reactions on performances.
Hence, by introducing new and improved technology that helps frontline staff and members of
the business teams communicate and share critical information; Microsoft has launched
Microsoft Teams and Office 365 among other team management applications that are employed
by Australia’s public and private sectors to improve employee engagement and
communications.The general business strategy built in Australia at Microsoft is pushing
organizations to adopt digital transformation(Wang, Kung, & Byrd, 2018). Microsoft is a global
brand and an organization which delivers data information and customer support platform that
helps businesses grow and achieves their organizational goals. The company established
Microsoft Australia in 1985 which is a subsidiary of Microsoft Corp, which is a world leader in
software, devices, services, and solutions that help people and business realize their full
potential.
Although, the Australian economy is rated higher amongst other economies world over. Today,
Australia ranks at #14(refer to Figure1 in Appendix) as the global statistic and analytic data
collected by the IMF (Source: International Monetary Fund).The generic business strategies of
the organization speak volumes in support of technology transfers and fostering new ways of
working by reinforcing instant updates for staff. According to Microsoft, digital transformation is
key to bringing a positive work-life-balance among people. (Schotter and Beamish, 2011)
The company believes that data is the DNA of an organization. The potential of organizational
dynamics and understanding of the daily functions are all captured and analysed by technology.
The exercise is called data collection. Data collected can derive diverse solutions for an
organization that can be used in many different forms and methods. It helps deliver experiences
that translate to happy customers, employees and a successful and sustainable enterprise
(Palinkas, et al., 2015).According to a Senior Management member at Microsoft, Australia
primes itself in becoming the most connected market in the world. Because of the fact, the nation
aims to ensure that half of all mobile connectivity would originate from the region. The
dynamics behind be connected would set into motion a restructured workforce with the right

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policies, infrastructure, and culture to maximise their full potential(Rosa, Dörre, & Lessenich,
2017). The restructuring would result in collaborating with organizations and people via devices
from anywhere in the world.
At this point, business leaders need to take into consideration that implementing empowerment
means that they have to evaluate changes to counter cultural and management challenges(Grover
et al., 2018). It may be hindering employees from functioning and working seamlessly from any
part of the globe; it may also cause challenges in progress when it comes to digital
transformation. However, only half the population of Australia’s workforce feel empowered by
their organizations who embrace the demands of a digital workspace. The others still feel that
there are factors that are hindering progress in a mobile-driven workplace facing digital
transformation(Draghici & Steen, 2018). It is changing the work culture and engagement efforts
by Microsoft. Hence, the company is trying to encourage organizations to adopt flexible work
hours. It also helps in confronting and introducing solutions to challenges in a different situation
when implementing new work methods. (Chiang et al., 2018).
Microsoft Australia continually works to reinforce workplace engagement. According to
Microsoft, employee engagement is a core business value and makes a business unique.
Connected and passionate workforces which are engaged help propel innovation and drive the
business to higher achievements. The majority of Australia’s workforce who work as frontline
managers and frontline staff have zero or nominal interaction with management level
staff(McLinton, et al., 2018). This creates a gap in organizational communication echelons.
Technology can play a critical role in helping alleviate the work pressures and challenges faced
by frontline employees and business managers. The strategic clarity that technology can bring
and change the forms and norms of communications is essential for communication to flow
seamlessly between the management and the workforce in the frontline. It is vital for workforces
to receive training on a scheduled basis, and if this is lacking in any form, it can cause
communications gaps and errors. It also leads to a lack of interest at work, therefore leading to
significant work pressure. Microsoft recognizes the value of having access to the latest
technology and workforce training needs including devices and tools that alleviate the workforce
and workplace pressure. (Van De Voorde and Beijer, 2014). For example, Microsoft’s Surface
Go is designed to address workplace pressure challenges(Kennedy, 2016). It was decisively

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introduced into workplaces, so that employee engagement and satisfaction levels improve.
Hence, workers areempowered and able to collaborate and function in a structured manner which
involves all frontline workers and business managers.
It is vital to encourage transparency within the organizational to improve the cultural dynamics
of the workforces(Cho, Kim, & Mor Barak, 2017). Microsoft encourages transparency and
timeliness and emphazises that it brings about critical communication support to the workplace.
According to a survey which was carried out on the Australian public sector of the mobile
workforces which was a combination 20 and 28 per cent of frontline workers and business
managers, who operate in areas in different locations. The survey results show that the public
sector workforce is better equipped in communicating with their management in comparison to
the industries such as health, manufacturing, and the retail industry when it comes to mobility.
The survey also demonstrates the ability of the public sector to manage a mobile workforce
that’s spread over rural, metropolitan, and regional Australia. It shows that there are clear
benefits offered to the mobile workplaces. It also demonstrates the workforces abilities and their
capabilities in staying agile. It serves as an advantage as the work hours for staff are flexible. By
providing them with flexible work shifts and hours; workers in the frontline to feel empowered,
and productivity levels are higher(Kim, Lee, & Jang, 2017). It also highlights the fact that the
mobile workforce is more agile in terms of being able to work anywhere at any time. Such
workforce changes alleviate pressure among the workers and improve their performance.
Organizational culture is essential for improving growth among employees and challenges faced
at work and the pressures that might come with the job. Microsoft continually endeavors to
improve the workplace culture and introduced improved methods of engagement among
employees and also between the management and employees in the frontline.The research
generated from the survey and findings came at the right time when Microsoft introduced a team
with new capabilities(Kim et al., 2018). The new team would facilitate, streamline, and improve
communication levels and it would help collaborations between frontline workers and frontline
business managers. Thus, they would be equipped with the latest technology which would enable
the frontline managers to create shift schedules and swap employees shifts. The new technology
would benefit the frontline workers because they would be able to request time-off and it can be
granted by swapping shifts. Also, mobile workers have access to their rosters, and they would be

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able to communicate with the team using the mobile app which also updates the employees about
organizational announcements.
The new technology that has been introduced to ease the public sector worker and business
managers in the frontline also has its advantages. The system regularly updates the mobile staff
about events and live-on-demand events as well. All updates are seamlessly communicated via
Microsoft 365. It is an excellent tool for creating, and streaming events live on the screens
available to all the workforce from their locations and mobile regions. The introduction of the
latest technology including training sessions that are broadcast via Microsoft Yammer, Stream,
and Teams was an added advantage. It gives the frontline staff a direct link to the management
and helps in engaging and informing employees about the organization’s progress and other
critical messages that need to be passed on for improving performance.
For example, one of the largest ambulance services in Australia and the world – the Queensland
Ambulance Services (QAS)lead by example. During the Commonwealth Games on the Gold
Coast, it deployed Microsoft Teams so that its management could provide clear updates to all the
frontline workers and this enabled collaborations within the organization in a structured form.
The QAS leveraged the Microsoft 365 solutions and used Office 365, SharePoint, Microsoft
Teams which enabled the workforces and created a positive way of working and collaborating
among the frontline workers and business managers. It also reduces workplace pressure, with the
use of the mobile app, the staff did not have to attend meetings at the command center, they
could instead receive live updates on their devices at any time and from anywhere.
This new technology that Microsoft launched has changed the dynamics and culture of the
organization(Kranz, Hanelt, & Kolbe, 2016). According to a senior member in the ICT – the
introduction of communication tools and office solutions from Microsoft has improved the
communication structure of the organization. Plus it meets a broad range of communication and
organizational needs which demonstrates functional solutions. The communication hub enables
workers to collaborate in a practical manner and reduces the number of phone calls to the
communication center and emails. Therefore, boosting performance levels and pressures at the
workplace reduce. It is a huge benefit in the QAS regions and an added advantage where real-
time consolidated communication capabilities are essential.

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For change-leaders, a formalized and structured organizational change can have both good and
bad results when it comes to transforming people practices in the public sector. Organizational
and cultural transformation in the public sector is as tough as it is in the private sector. Both
sectors need to emphasize the fact, and the relevance behind the effects of change and
organizations’ employees need to experience the journey and embrace change. Technology has
been an excellent tool to achieve organizational change and cultural changes as well.
If government agencies cannot access critical data and access the health of an organization, the
performance of the organization will reduce resulting in limited capacities to encourage, engage
and empower people (WHO steps up its role in health emergencies, 2015). Also, it will allow
limited or negligible automation of processes, optimisation of its resources and the lack of agility
to digitally transform products and services as desired.
The public sector also has incumbent regulations which punish civil servants on the grounds of
failing to perform and on the other hand they can be marginally rewarded if the exercise or task
is successful. Unlike their peers in the private sector, where performance and awards are
rewarded to deserving employees under formal performance guidelines. Therefore the public
sector is exposed to a risk-averse culture(Arundel & Torugsa, 2017). Hence, unlike the private
sector employee and the civil servant will view positive change projects with extreme caution.
There are other challenges that civil servants and change leaders face in the public sector, and
that is the limitations in political mandates. This is a result of the pollical mandates which can be
held back by the government. The public sector mandates can be held back for several reasons,
and the most evident can be short term tenure and mostly elections held in a region or general
elections. All mandates, unlike the private sector, are subject to government approvals and it has
a limited application process. Therefore, civil servants tend to treat ambitious projects with
precaution.
The advantage the public sector has over their peers in the private sector is that they can mobilise
people to live their values and social outcomes and achieve their goals(Debating The Sharing
Economy, 2016) .Although, the challenge in the public sector is that as government
organizations cultural and structured change makes people more resistant to change than
business lead organizations, thus reducing the overall health and effectiveness

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organizationally.According to reports, government leader and change leaders in the government
organization can effectively make a change and help people embrace new systems and methods
of improving workplace pressures.(Schor, 2016).
Public sector organizations mostly have short tenure positions, unlike the private sector. Hence,
for most civil servants technology transfers may be implemented during their presence.
However, by the time the process of implementation is completed, the position is filled by a new
person. Therefore, as change-leaders, a majority of civil servants reserve their capacities or are
averse to cultural change implementation as they may not be in the organization to further
improve the process in the event of a change in leadership.
With the advancements in technology, changes in the organization can be easily achieved(Cui et
al., 2015). People practices and the health of the organization can be measured, and corrective
course of action can be taken as sighted in the below example (refer to Figure 2 in
Appendix).Organizations can measure the health of its people and systems through surveys such
as one where McKinsey’s studies show the measurements of 2000 companies and corporations.
These have a mix of public and private sector companies in the listings through the
Organizational Health Index Survey. The research index indicated that more than 75% of public
sector organizations suffer from poor health or below average health(Asante et al., 2016) Due to
these gaps in the system, public sector organizations have lower cultural inclusions and
coordination. The only dimension where public sector match with the health of the private sector
is the leadership rankings. (Loukis and Sapounas, 2010).
Microsoft Australia continues to introduce new and improved digital transformation application.
Services, and devices to improve public sector digital transformation efforts. The company
understands that such significant changes can be slow when it comes to transformation
implementation in the public sector. Also according to management at Microsoft, to transform an
organization it means to reimagine the structure in every possible manner. (Lagarde and Palmer,
2018).
3. Conclusion to the Organizational Strategy
As per the discussion conducted above, it can be concluded that the effect on health in
organizational and cultural changes can improve if the people in the middle management and

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frontline staff can alleviate the pressures at the workplace. Microsoft aims to achieve better
results in this sphere by introducing more technological advancements to help organizations
work in a structured manner. It will further assist the new generations in adjusting into the
system and by quickly adapting to the organizational goals.
The dynamics of the formalisation of organizational culture lie within the organizations' roots
and its people. The ability for people to helps their peers realize their potential is directly linked
to the lines of communication adopted by the organization. At any point, if there is a case where
the solutions provided may fail, technology helps and supports managers and management
members take decisive action and implement corrective measures.
Digital Transformation is inevitable and large corporation have already started to embrace the
systematic change that technology brings to the forefront. In the public sector, people practices
and improvement in health by change leaders is a challenging yet significant step ahead in
making the workforce agile. Agility will lead to clear communication efforts, and the frontline
workers will be empowered with apps and rosters which are adaptable. Contributions in the
workplace will improve when worker and business managers have a work-life balance and a
well-structured routine. It will help support their life goals and also help them achieve better
performance in health. Improvements in organizational health lead to better cultural changes and
a high performing environment.
Hence, formal organizational culture is a critical part of building a stronger workforce, and it
also adds more transparency within the company. Microsoft Australia commissioned a study
which was conducted by business-to-business research agency that highlighted the digital
transformation strategy. It was found that less than 30 per cent of the organization’s digital
transformation strategy data was sharing data.
Major data transformation is directly related to the heart of any organization, and it requires an
integrated digital strategy. At the same time, it encourages management to make better decisions,
and they have informed insights, and hence it can deliver enhanced outcomes. In such cases
democratizing data can be an effective method to perceive change. It will help government
agencies and public sector organizations identify blind spots and tackle challenges in an

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organised manner. It will enable leaders to make policies changes and processes, and technology
transfer with the help of data that will draft the transformational organizational blueprint.

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