1. What were the challenges that Appex CEO Shikhar Ghosh faced when he joined Appex? Why were “structure and control” deemed necessary? Following were the challenges which Ghosh faced when he joined Appex: * The organization was initially small and the decision-making was centralized among the key executives. All other employees were only involved in developing and selling products. * People had expertise in definite sectors but everybody did nothing. * There was no functional structure, roles were not defined and there was no job description * As the market was growing, more projects poured in and people worked on many projects at once * The environment started becoming chaotic and the company was spending cash quickly without monitoring its expenses. * Employees were only “fire-fighting” with the existing operations and there was no development or underlying planning structure. * Customer complaints started increasing and Appex was unable to handle the increasing demand and volume of customer requests.
* Company started missing the installation dates and fell behind schedules, there were failures in product development. * Information flow started becoming difficult, there were clashes in the product development process and coordination and integration started falling apart. * There was no financial planning, the operations became unproductive and looseness of projects didn’t work. 2. Evaluate the importance of each of the structural changes Ghosh implemented with respect to importance, problems resolved, and problems created;(a) start-up, (2)circular, (3)functional,(4)teams, and (5)divisional. As the company was rapidly growing and there was a need for organizational structure change, Ghosh started by implementing innovative structures. There were a series of problems and limitations that followed after each structural change in the organization and hence Ghosh kept on implementing new structures to address the issues at each level. Following are the stages of Appex Corporation’s structural changes done by Ghosh: I) Innovative Structures
The Essay on Ecosystem Structure Function and Change
Select a representative natural ecosystem in your area or one that you are interested in—such as a lake, preserve, or park—that is managed for native species. * The major structural and functional dynamics (processes) of that ecosystem including change over time The major structural and functional dynamics on Elizabeth River Parkway in Elizabeth, Union & Hillside, and Union County NJ regarding ...
a) Circular Structure – Concurrent circles with inner most circles containing the senior executives followed by the functional managers and employees respectively. The environment around the circle represented the Appex’s customers. Importance: It was a non-hierarchical structure with continuous and free flow of information within the organization and with the environment (customers) Problems Addressed:
1. Introduction of a flat structure with defined roles and less chaotic atmosphere 2. Improvement in coordination, integration and planning over the earlier Problems Created or persistent:
1. Employees could not relate to the unfamiliar circular structure – New hires couldn’t understand how they fit in organization, with whom to talk to get things done, how the performance was evaluated, what was the power structure and who had authority to make which decisions. 2. There was a mentality developed that the customer was the enemy 3. It was aligned with responsiveness but had no accountability for planning and the task s that required planning were not get done b) Horizontal Structure – The traditional, vertical organization chart turned on its side Importance: It was a non-hierarchical structure in which employees could fit themselves Problems Addressed:
1. Employees could now relate themselves with the new structure 2. It was similar to traditional organization structure with clarity of responsibilities and reporting structure Problems Created or persistent:
The Essay on Cell Structure And Function 2
On your own and without assistance, complete this Lab 3 Answer Form electronically and submit it via the Assignments Folder by the date listed on your Course Schedule (under Syllabus). To conduct your laboratory exercises, use the Laboratory Manual that is available in the WebTycho classroom (Reserved Reading or provided by your instructor) or at the eScience Labs Student Portal. Laboratory ...
1. Employees didn’t respond to the new structure enthusiastically 2. There was a lack of authority and control because of which employees were not responsive II) Hierarchical, Functional Structure
a) Stage 1 – Functions were organized as teams in Feb. 1989: Sales/Marketing, Software Development, Services, Engineering and Technology, Operations, Finance, Human Resource and Administrative Importance: It was a more broadly classified structure with clearly defined functions and a division of teams that had better hierarchy and flow of authority. Problems Addressed:
1. It provided clarity of responsibilities and authority across different functions 2. The structure succeeded in focusing the company on completing tasks 3. It accounted for a greater degree of control
Problems Created or persistent:
1. Confusion in defining the functions – How many distinct functions should be created, should marketing be a part of sales, should there be separate finance, human resource and accounting teams, etc. 2. Confusion in assigning new management roles – Who should head each of the teams, could the same management personnel handle the responsibilities with the rapid growth of company, etc. 3. Horizontal reporting structure of the functions displeased the Board of Directors. The board wanted a traditional hierarchical structure. 4. Politics came into existence – People became concerned about their titles and desk locations
5. Heads of the teams started creating sub -functions within their team – Organizational chart grew vertically and horizontally and managerial roles kept on increasing within sub -functions. 6. Teams became polarized – The distinction between various departments inhibited working relationships and involvements. The cost of resource allocation separately to the teams increased. 7. Role of personalities came in dominance -Standards were set by individuals rather than the company policy 8. The source of authority was functional and not managerial expertise – The best engineer was the head of engineering b) Stage 2 – Ghosh hired external people experienced in management to head the teams Importance: This was the first step towards external integration that focused on role assignment based on expertise. Problems Addressed:
The Term Paper on Solve Business Problems 2
1.1 Describe ways of recognising when a business problem exists In most organizations recognition of a business problem typically relies on measures and management reporting of measures against expectations. Usually each performance area measures quality, cost, and speed of service – plus possibly customer satisfaction. If one of these measures starts to vary from expectations then ...
1. Now the persons with functional skills could focus on the product development and the managerial role was handle by hired experts Problems Created or persistent:
1. The hired external managers didn’t know about the product as well as the existing team 2. It was difficult for new managers to gain respect of the teams 3.Ghosh found it very difficult to measure the managerial competence c) Stage 3: Product Teams – Based on the suggestion of Paul Gudonis, Senior Vice-President of Sales and Marketing, Ghosh set up separate product teams for each of Appex’s main products Importance: The structure was made more products centric with product team managers assigned with the role of writing business plans for the products and integrating the functions. Problems Addressed:
1. The product teams co-existed with functional teams and there was no need of having the knowledge of each other’s responsibilities. 2. Functional teams were informed about the product happenings on a daily basis. 3. Business and operational plans were put in place for multitude of projects and product managers could handle extended managerial activities which went out of capabilities of some personnel. 4. Tactical planning, scheduling of meetings, checks and balances systems and financial forecasts were done effectively. Problems Created or Persistent:
1. There was no system which specified who had the authority to make which decisions within the multi-functional product teams 2. The conflicts between the product managers and the operations personnel became acute 3. Product teams didn’t know the limits of their authority – decisions related to sales price, allocation of resources and prioritization o f activities d) Stage 4: Business Teams – Ghosh created business teams as intermediaries between product teams and corporate management team in Nov 1989 Importance: Business teams included representatives from senior management and had the authority to make decisions including those related to resource allocation and products. Problems Addressed:
The Essay on The Five Organizational Structures Are Functional
The five organizational structures are functional, divisional, matrix, team based, and virtual network. The functional structure is a channel of communication and authority from HR and the team itself. This is the simplest approach in the chain of command because it allows employees to feel comfortable and helps to simplify training. This has some down sides because of all the different levels of ...
1. The conflicts of authority and resource allocation was resolved 2. The burden of final decision-making at the corporate management level reduced Problems Created or Persistent:
1. Ghosh realized that there were a lot of people planning, counting and greasing the wheel as compared to the revenue-producing people. 2. There were a lot of managerial levels and the infrastructure, hiring and training costs increased considerably. 3. Customer focus diminished and people became concerned regarding internal processes rather than company-wide financial goals III) Divisional Structure
In Aug.1990, Ghosh implemented divisional structure. He established two broad divisions or businesses: Inter-carrier Services (ICS) and Cellular Management Information Systems (IS) Importance: Appex’s product could be divided into one of these two businesses. A separate Operations division could service both the businesses with utility functions. Problems Addressed:
1. Accountability, budgeting and planning were improved across the businesses. 2. Employees could relate themselves to the divisions and there was a sense of cooperation. They now focused on meeting the financial targets. 3. The role of Ghosh changed – He could now dedicate more time on planning and strategy building rather than involved in everything. The company could run without him. Problems Created or Persistent:
1. The resource allocation between the divisions now was not perceived as equitable 2. Politics again came into existence and a lot of second-guessing started happening in the divisions 3. Divisions wanted control over all their resources and didn’t want to share resources thus increasing the input costs 4. The divisions started functioning as different companies with barriers between them and there was a little flow of communication and ideas 5. New product ideas reduced significantly as they needed interaction between the divisions 3. What would you have done differently? Why?
I would have introduced a Matrix structure for integrating the product teams with the businesses or divisions that were usually divided in terms of resource allocation and decision-making and acted as separate companies. Since there always seemed to be differences between the product teams and the functional teams, a matrix structure would be an ideal resolution for simultaneously grouping the employees on the basis of function and product while maintaining the vertical and horizontal integrations between the two. The matrix structure will give a product centric view of business operations as well as a functional view thus encouraging the flow of information, idea sharing and focus towards new product development and customer oriented strategy planning. Advantages of Matrix Structure:
The Essay on Corning Electronic Products Division
The By 1968 Coring realized market conditions were changing, technology was shifting to a commodity based market. Corning did not know if they wanted to be in this market. Some of the internal technical leaders were willing to turn away from this market claiming Corning developed high margin and highly technical products. Mean while sales and marketing were pushing hard to win new work in these ...
* Cross-functional teams will reduce the functional barriers and overcome the problem of subunit orientation that is evident in almost all structures of Appex. * It opens up communication between functional specialists and provides an opportunity for different functions to learn from each other and develop skills. This was needed for Appex as the new ideas had stopped coming from the divisions because of the barriers. * The continuous movement of specialized employees from product to product in a matrix structure enables the organization to effectively use the skills. * The dual functional and product focus promotes concern for both cost and quality while creating the matrix-structure, a parallel plan for the performance monitoring and reward system should be designed to provide incentives to both the functional and product members. All these changes should be well communicated with the employees along with the benefits plan.
4. Would all the changes Gosh made make sense if Appex were an engineering organization? Why and why not? Gosh radically kept on introducing new structures very rapidly which, in some cases, was not necessary. Instead of focusing on the creation of new roles and organizational levels, he should handle the issue of assigning authority and control to the respective executives and managers first. With each organizational structure change, he should communicate the implications to the employees clearly and also gather feedback from them. Necessity of structural changes:
Circular structure: Not necessary. This structure was not oriented towards providing a solution to current problems. Being non-hierarchical, issues regarding accountability, control (authority) cannot be solved. Long term planning would not be effective. Horizontal structure: Not necessary. This structure does not answer questions regarding accountability and lack of control (authority).
The Term Paper on Birth Control Product Source Message
Persuasion Theories in Advertising We are bombarded daily with a variety of communicative devices that attempt to influence our thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes in some way. The primary role of this advertising methodology is to persuade, to change the way we construct a certain meaning in our head. Persuasion is a very powerful tool in affecting our idea of how, what or who people should be. ...
Functional structure: Necessary to gain control and provide direction for the company. Product Teams structure: Necessary for a clearer definition of job responsibilities. Better planning and inter departmental working. Issues of resource allocation and goal setting could have been handled by aligning them with goals and financial target of the company. Divisional Structure: Necessary for better resource allocation and providing better accountability.
Incentive scheme to bolster teamwork (inter divisional activities) as well as alignment to company’s financial targets were required. Following factors need to be taken care of while designing a new structure: * Balancing centralization and decentralization of control and authority by means of a mix of functional and divisional structures * Balancing between the Standardization and Mutual adjustment for the key decision making processes * Using the contingency approach to handle the uncertainties and coming up with Organic structures * There should be a balance between Vertical and Horizontal differentiation to maintain the needed level of control, bureaucracy and functional activities related to the product development 5.What are the lessons to be learned in this case?
Change management methods may be applied to any type of organizational change, including departmental changes, technology implementation, creating team based organizations and professional development.
