OBAT WORK
360 Part 4Sharing the Organizational Vision
WORKING WITH OTHERS EXERCISE
The Beacon Aircraft Company
Objectives
1 .To illustrate how forces for change and stability
must be managed in organizational change pro-
grams.
2.To illustrate the effects of alternative change tech-
niques on the relative strength of forces for change
and forces for stability.
The Situation
The marketing division of the Beacon Aircraft Company has
undergone two reorganizations in the past two years.
Initially, its structure changed from a functional one, in
which employees were organized within departments, to a
matrix form, in which employees from several different
functions reported both to their own manager and to a
project manager. But the matrix structure did not satisfy
some functional managers. They complained that the struc-
ture confused the authority and responsibility relationships.
In reaction to these complaints, the marketing manager
revised Beacon’s structure back to the functional form. This
new structure had a marketing group and several project
groups. The project groups were managed by project man-
agers with a few general staff members, but no functional
specialists, such as people from marketing, were assigned
to these groups.
After the change, some problems began to surface.
Project managers complained that they could not obtain
adequate assistance from functional staff members. It not
only took more time to obtain necessary assistance, but it
also created problems in establishing stable relationships
with functional staff members. Since these problems
affected their services to customers, project managers
demanded a change in the organizational structure—
probably again toward a matrix structure. Faced with these
complaints and demands from project managers, the vice-
president is pondering another reorganization. He has
requested an outside consultant to help him in the reor-
ganization plan.
The Procedure
1 .Divide yourselves into groups of 5 to 7 and take the
role of consultants.
2.Each group identifies the driving and restraining
forces found in the firm. List these forces.
The Driving Forces The Restraining Forces
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
3.Each group develops a set of strategies for increas-
ing the driving forces and another set for reducing
the restraining forces.
4.Each group prepares a list of changes it wants to
introduce.
5.The class reassembles and hears each group’s
recommendations.
Source:Adapted from K. H. Chung and L. C. Megginson,
Organizational Behavior,Copyright © 1981 by K. H. Chung and L. C.
Megginson. Reprinted by permission of HarperCollins Publishers, Inc.
ETHICAL DILEMMAEXERCISE
Cultural Characteristics and Unethical Behaviour
An organization’s culture socializes people. It subtly con-
veys to members that certain actions are acceptable, even
though they may be illegal. For instance, when executives
at General Electric (GE), Westinghouse, and other manu-
facturers of heavy electrical equipment illegally conspired to
set prices in the early 1960s, the defendants invariably