Organizational Behavior (Stephen Robbins)

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