...Question 1 Outline the management control system at Xerox. What are the key elements that make the system work? Management control system prior 1980 Xerox focused more on accuracy and rigid systems rather than listening to the customer’s need and preference. For them, their business activities have to operate according to their business plan. The controllers were the numbers people and there have been never sufficient data or analysis to support management decision. Xerox also did not take care of the employees’ welfare and neglect to the good ideas from them. Therefore, some good people left the company. The corporate reporting and planning process was very long and bureaucratic, with more detail than most managers could absorb. Even worse, the reporting formats were not consistent between divisions that lead to the difficulty for the management to make decisions and analyze data. Management control system after 1980 David Kearns who was newly appointed as the chairman in 1982 was well aware of the problems faced by Xerox and hence developed a corporate revitalization plan called “Leadership through Quality” (LTQ). This plan emphasized on three major components which are; employee involvement, competitive benchmarking and the quality improvement process. Employee involvement as mentioned in LTQ is the problem solving process that uses quality circles, people empowerment, Ishikawa’s fish bone chart, and other tools. Competitive benchmarking is a standard for comparing...
Words: 2558 - Pages: 11
...Assignments for Tuesday: 1. Read the article on Xerox and the Management Fiasco. Bring a write-up of the following: (Typed; proper grammar, sentence structure and punctuation.) * Describe the behaviors of Xerox management noted in the article. * How do you believe the behaviors of the management team contributed to the issues the company faced in 2000? 2. Find/print a news article on a topic you believe is relevant to Organizational Behavior. Provide a brief summary of the key points of the article and how you believe this content is relevant to OB. (Concept Application #1) | | | | | | | | COVER STORY | | | | | | Xerox: The Downfall The Inside Story of the Management Fiasco at Xerox One morning last May, G. Richard Thoman arrived for work to find an urgent summons from Paul A. Allaire, the man he had replaced as chief executive of Xerox Corp. (XRX) just 13 months earlier. Allaire, who had remained as chairman, was waiting next door in his office at Xerox headquarters. A man of few words even on happy occasions, Allaire delivered the bad news without preamble. He said that Thoman's colleagues had lost confidence in him and that the next afternoon the board would announce his resignation. In other words, Thoman, who had left IBM in 1997 to join Xerox as heir apparent to Allaire, would be out of a job in about 30 hours. Thoman was livid, but obligingly fell on the sword Allaire handed him. Late the next day, after the board had announced Allaire's...
Words: 4624 - Pages: 19
...Xerox HRM 530 April 24, 2011 Xerox Xerox was originally founded in 1906 as the Haloid Company, which later became Haloid Xerox in 1958 and finally Xerox Corporation in 1961. Xerox currently has 136,000 employees in 160 countries (www.xerox.com/about-xerox, 2011). With over 130,000 employees, human resources is vitally important to the corporation. This paper will examine how human resource professionals can ensure that top organizational leaders encourage managers and employees to follow laws and guidelines. It will also discuss how hiring women and minorities improved Xerox’s profitability. In addition, the changes that Xerox made to become a more attractive employer for women and minorities will be identified. Finally, there will be an evaluation of whether or not hiring and promoting women and minorities has been unfair to Caucasian men. Ensuring Top Organizational Leaders Encourage Managers and Employees to Follow Laws and Guidelines Human Resource professionals play a major role in ensuring that top organizational leaders encourage managers and employees to follow laws and guidelines. A human resource professional is responsible for educating those within the organization the laws and guidelines that must be followed in order to prevent any legal compliance issues that could potentially cost the organization exorbitant amounts of money. A human resource generalist is expected to be knowledgeable in all areas of the law and compliance, though it may be difficult...
Words: 1683 - Pages: 7
...Hierarchy and Centralization of the Company; Ann Mulcahy as CEO of Xerox Gersi MUCA Columbia Southern University Because of an aggressive competitor, a company may face with huge losses and go near bankruptcy. Immediate changes in direction and structure are needed for reducing costs and finding ways to revitalize the business. According to Max Weber (1900) are six principle of Bureaucracy in which people can be held accountable for their action because they are required to act in agreement with well-specified and agreed-upon rules and SOP. “The first principle of the bureaucracy is founded on the concept of rational legal authority. This principle indicates that choices affecting the design of an organization’s hierarchy should be based on the needs of the task, not on the needs of the person performing the task. Based on this principle, Xerox searched for a new CEO, who had the management skills to revitalize the Company’s product line. The second principle means that the organizational roles are held on the basis of technical competence. In a well-designed hierarchy, people occupy roles because they can do the job, not because of who they are or who they know. In the case study, we saw that persons chosen to direct company have begun in the company from low levels and arrived at the top level from their work. Anne has a vast experience in the company; she began her career as copier salesperson and climbs the scale of career through the use of leadership and communication...
Words: 1069 - Pages: 5
...in Decision Making: The CEO and Organizational Culture Profile at Xerox Corporation Johan Patel Dr. Carla Henryhand BUS520: Leadership and Organizational Behavior November 30, 2014 Introduction What is a company that comes to mind when thinking of a world-wide leader in office printing and supplies? Xerox Corporation is the leader in business process and document management solutions. They provide goods, such as printers, copiers, and fax machines, as well as services, such as document management, solution planning, and application design and development services (Professional Support Services, 2010). They are located in 180 companies and provide these goods and services throughout the world. Culture The culture that is present at Xerox Corporation is unique to those of its competitors. The CEO for the company is a female that has been with the company for a long time and it is rare to see females in that type of leadership role. Also, Xerox has over 140,000 employees all over the world and that gives them a cultural edge over the competitors (Xerox Diversity, 2009). With the different goods and services that Xerox provides, they have multicultural expertise in fields such as healthcare, IT, transportation, document management, and HR. Also, by bringing in cultural differences into the company, they are able to get different viewpoints of how things might be more effective if done a certain way. Xerox has made three commitments to better their business and to become...
Words: 1808 - Pages: 8
...Assignment 2 Benny He 09/12/2013 Xerox was founded in 1906. The company was the world’s leading photocopier producer until the 90’s. The Xerox 914 (9X14) was the first one-piece plain paper photocopier. Xerox has ruled the office equipment market for more than 70 years in the last century. But with the invented of scanners and use of the portable document format (PDF) become the main force in office, the market of the traditional copiers is dropping quickly. Xerox has multiple business pressures, but the company also has response strategies to survive in the market place. The business pressures on Xerox are not only from the traditional competitors such as Canon and HP, but also from the new entrant of information technology such as portable document format (PDF). The developing in IT is the major negative impact of the whole copier industry. In today’s business world, most of the companies seeking a low-cost strategy in order to increase companies’ profit. The digital document requires less paper that can lower the cost in paper. Also the PDF document is easier to store compare to the traditional way that using folder to store paper document. PDF can send by email, and people can view PDF documents on the screen. The traditional copier no longer a necessary office equipment in today’s business world. According to the Porter’s competitive model. Xerox’s network rivals: Canon and HP are facing the new challenger (new entrant) PDF. PDF also the substitute product and service...
Words: 602 - Pages: 3
...Caso XEROX CORPORATION 1. Describa el sistema de control de XEROX ¿Cuáles son los elementos fundamentales para que el sistema funcione? El sistema de control de Xerox es participativo, involucra a las áreas de control con las unidades de línea, es el caso del consejo ejecutivo financiero “CEF” que ayudaba a los gerentes de línea para que tomaran decisiones más informadas. El CEF cultivo la confianza en la comunidad financiera de Xerox. El sistema de control se concentraba en la responsabilidad y el desempeño de las unidades operativas. Estas unidades funcionaban en forma autónoma ya que cada unidad operativa de una división fijaba sus planes anuales y de largo plazo, que se consolidaban en los planes de la división que se medían en términos de una combinación de objetivos financieros y operativos. Por otra parte, el sistema de control se rediseño para ser más eficiente al reducir la cantidad de informes y el detalle de información que se preparaba en cada unidad. Las operaciones individuales seguían proporcionando los datos necesarios para manejar cada negocio, pero se redujo un número importante de personas que participaba indirectamente en el proceso Los elementos fundamentales para su funcionamiento son la cultura organizacional reflejada en la comunicación participativa y activa de sus empleados y grupos de responsabilidad. 2. ¿Qué tendencias recientes de Xerox influyen en el proceso de control Administrativo? La patente original de la copiadora...
Words: 406 - Pages: 2
...Scanners and Xerox This paper will identify the multiple business pressures on Xerox and describe some of the company’s response strategies. Also it will identify two roles of IT first as a contributor to the business technology pressures and secondly as a facilitator of Xerox’s critical responses activities. Identify the multiple business pressures on Xerox and describe some of the company’s response strategies. In the beginning Xerox with its introduction of the Xerox 914 automatic, plain paper copiers) Xerox was empire of the copying industry (Xerox, 2014). With all they had accomplished Xerox had a unique position in the industry. What they did was synonymous with what they performed. In any company to say “I am going to make a Xerox “was a common place. Xerox as time passed new technology and new entrants in the industry began to arise. Between 1995 and 2010 the digital world's challenge for Xerox began to impact the company in a way that they seem to be struggling in with staying vital Domination over Xerox's empire of paper, and paper copiers, seemed inevitable (Scott D. Anthony, 2011). Xerox was stammering with the fierce competition of the Japanese .Xerox was facing extinction and they were in debt. They were in trouble with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and they had fallen behind in keeping up with the movement of updating with new technology its copiers. , Xerox failed to create growth in new markets, and found itself on the...
Words: 1228 - Pages: 5
...Xerox Corporation was founded in 1906 in Rochester, New York. Xerox manufactures and sells a wide range of color and black-and-white printers, multifunction systems, photo copiers, digital production printing presses, and related consulting services and supplies. Xerox is headquartered in Norwalk, Connecticut. Barry D. Romeril, Xerox’s chief financial officer (CFO) and Paul Allaire, Xerox’s chairman and corporate executive officer (CEO) were leading Xerox through a difficult period in the late 1990’s. During this time Xerox was faced with tough competition from foreign markets while losing a large portion of their small copier business to desktop printers. During this period, Xerox also lost millions of dollars on their diversification effort into insurance and financial services. In spite of that, Mr. Allaire and Mr. Romeril continued to keep Xerox’s stock prices and earnings high. By the mid-1990s Xerox management had decided they were going to have their accountants come up with creative accounting if they were going to continue to show the Wall Street and their stockholders that they were still able to meet their earnings expectations (SEC Release No. 18174, 2003). Xerox revealed in 2002 that over the last five years prior to 2002 it had improperly classified over $6 billion in revenue which led to an overstatement of earnings by $2 billion. The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) was investigating Xerox and it charged the company with accounting manipulations...
Words: 1382 - Pages: 6
...Mohammad Salahuddin Chowdhury, Lecturer, Department of Finance, University of Dhaka, who has assigned us a fictional case about a corporate scandal. We choose to work with Xerox scandal that took place in 2002. We use our knowledge of audit while working in this report. Also we learn about the ways of accounting manipulations that took place in the real world. Letter of transmittal 12th Nov, 2011 Mohammad Salahuddin Chowdhury Lecturer Department of Finance University of Dhaka Dear Sir Here is a report on the “Corporate scandal of Xerox Corporation”. In this report we have presented the whole history of the scandal, identified the cause of the mishap and showed the result of the scandal. At University of Dhaka, we appreciate having this assignment. If you need any assistance in interpreting this report or if you have any query, please contact with us on the given mail address starz@yahoo.com Sincerely yours, Shahriar Azad Shashi On behalf of the group 2nd Year 2nd Semester B.B.A 16th Batch Department of Finance. Executive Summary On April 11, 2002, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a complaint against Xerox. The complaint alleged Xerox deceived the public between 1997 and 2000 by employing several "accounting maneuvers," the most significant of which was a change in which Xerox recorded revenue from copy machine leases – recognizing a "sale" when a lease contract was signed, instead of...
Words: 6021 - Pages: 25
...Culture of Xerox Organization BUS520 11 February 2014 Culture of Xerox Organization Xerox is an American multinational company with its headquarters based in Norwalk, Connecticut. Along came Joseph C. Wilson, who bet his family’s business on Carlson’s invention. As the company’s founder and the first chairman of Xerox, he was a man of deep social consciousness long before the phrase was part of the language of business, to promote a health environment. Xerox's rich heritage is based on customer-focused and employee-centered values that help deliver profitability and growth. Because of their commitment to customer-focused it has cause a diversity of culture to sustain the greater good of the company. The company does not look at the person it looks at what the person has to offer is why the company has thrives. Company Overview The company was established in 1906 as a photographic paper and related equipment company under the name The Haloid Photographic Company. In 1958, the company changed its name to Haloid Xenon and later to Xerox in 1961 (Hoover's, 2013). Joseph C. Wilson communicated a set of core values in 1960, less than a year after he launched the modern-day Xerox that focused on customers, our people, excellence, innovation and, behaving responsibly as a corporate citizen. Xenon was derived from xerography, which refers to the technology of dry printing. Through the world's leading technology and, services in business process and document management...
Words: 1126 - Pages: 5
...XEROX CORPORATION “SWOT is an acronym for the internal strengths and weakness of a firm and the environmental opportunities and threats facing that firm. SWOT analysis is a widely used techniques through which mangers create a quick overview of a company’s strategic situation. The technique is based on the assumption that an effective strategy derives from a sound “fit” between a firms internal resources ( strengths and weakness) and its external situation ( opportunities and threats) a good fit maximizes a firm’s strengths and opportunities and minimizes its weaknesses and threats. Accurately applied, this simple assumption has powerful implications for the design of a successful strategy. XEROX CORPORATION XEROX CORPORATION is a supplier of photocopier’s, printers, and other document systems. It also offers document management services and customized solutions. The company provides one of the document industry’s broadest portfolio of offerings. Digital systems include: colour as well as black- and - white printing and publishing systems, digital presses and book factories. Multifunctional devices, laser and solid ink network printers, copiers and fax machines. Xerox also offers associated software, support and supplies such as toner, paper and ink. The company primarily operates in the U.S. It is headquartered in Stamford. Connecticut and employs about 54,000 people. XEROX CORPORATION STRENGHT’S, WEAKNESSES, OPPURTUNITIES AND THREATS (SWOT) LOCATION OF FACTOR INTERNAL...
Words: 451 - Pages: 2
...Xerox Case Assignment Angelo Logan Strayer University Dr. Zelphia A. Brown HMR 530 October 27, 2011 Discuss how human resource professionals can ensure that top organizational leaders encourage managers and employees to follow laws and guidelines. Human resource professionals can communicate to the top leaders about the consequences of not abiding by the federal laws, and explain to them how it does have an effect on the bottom line (Wagner, 2011). When human resource professional include top organizational leaders on training and how organizational profits can be sheltered it will make top organizational leaders think twice about not following laws and rules that are set before them. A basic awareness of what is expected of leaders will motivate them to implement programs and policies that will demonstrate that the organization has a strong working relationship in place to protect workers. Discuss how hiring women and minorities improved Xerox’s profitability. The CEO of Xerox David Kearns knew that hiring women and minorities would allow Xerox to select from a larger labor pool; this would allow Xerox to be in an improved position to beat out the competition. Being in a better position to compete increased Xerox’s profitability and gave employees something to strive for. Xerox also received large government contracts because of their plans to hire women and minorities. Another reason for Xerox’s profit increase is the fact that, because women and minorities found...
Words: 763 - Pages: 4
...Running head: Xerox CASE STUDY Xerox Case Study January 29, 2012 Introduction In 1960 Haloid Xerox founded Haloid Company. After a few name changes and a few years it changed its name to the Xerox Corporation in 1961("Who we are," 2011). Xerox currently operates in 161 countries with over 136,000 employees. Xerox is currently running into a tuff scenario with a large portion of its staff preparing for retirement and the replacement staff all being a bit wet under the years. So Xerox has been considering many different methods of communication to be able to pass the knowledge between the elder members of the workforce and the newer members of the workfoce. Communities of Practice Communities of Practice (CoP) around Xerox may be driven by technology, however without the mentors and mentees of the company; they do not have the opportunity to survive (Nikols, 2003). The members of the CoP are the people who are feeding and utilizing the information provided. These will assist in the generation gap between the multiple generations because this creates an opportunity for Baby Boomers to learn from Gen X’ers and allows Gen X’ers to learn from the Baby Boomers. Since CoP’s are technology driven, the information that is provided by all levels of members is saved in an accessible manner that provides for future review and consideration when needed. There will come a time that the information that the Baby Boomers has provided will be needed and the Baby Boomers will not...
Words: 871 - Pages: 4
...Why was Xerox in trouble in the early 2000s? What do you believe were the root causes? In the early 2000’s Xerox was reported to have been facing bankruptcy after years of mismanagement, piles of debt, and mounting questions about its accounting practices In December 2000, Xerox announced that it had exhausted a $7 billion line of credit, but that $1.4 billion in cash remained. By January 2001, it was rumored that Xerox had hired a bankruptcy advisor namely from the Blackstone Group. However, in an attempt to further hide their financial woes from the public, Xerox officials denied that rumor, stating that they called on Blackstone for financial advice and nothing more. Their financial struggles continued until Xerox Corporation did what no one expected it to do; the company survived a brush with bankruptcy under the direction of a new CEO, Anne Mulcahy, who had no prior experience heading a company although she had served in multiple areas of the company’s business before becoming CEO. In an interview with CNN she was quoted as saying: “although it wasn’t necessarily done with the intent of running the business, I found out that it was a pretty good set of skills and capabilities to have coming into the job.” Although it was believed that Xerox was in trouble in the early 2000’s due to its financial woes, I believe that competition stifled their copier sales. Prior to Ms. Mulcahy taking over, the company was guided by leaders that did not move with...
Words: 919 - Pages: 4
