...Journal of Business Case Studies – January 2008 Volume 4, Number 1 The Impact Of Organizational Change, Structure And Leadership On Employee Turnover: A Case Study Steven H. Appelbaum, Concordia University, Canada André Mitraud, MBA, Canada Jean-François Gailleur, MBA, Canada Marcello Iacovella, MBA, Canada Raffaele Gerbasi, MBA, Canada Victoria Ivanova, MBA, Canada ABSTRACT Purpose - To provide the management team at BTSA Ltd with a practical guideline in managing organizational change through a designated lead change agent. Design/Methodology/approach - This guideline was developed by analyzing various organizational behaviour variables which included organizational structure, leadership and organizational culture. The objective of the case study is to provide a pragmatic approach to dealing with transformational change, particularly the role and responsibility of leadership. Findings – This case identifies a distinct correlation between each above stated variables and productivity/citizenship factors among employees. As a result of the takeover by an international conglomerate, BTSA Ltd was facing major changes and sustained a high level of employee turnover within the company, including the abrupt departure of their lead change agent. This resulted in a sharp decrease in TQM initiatives and major slowdown in R&D projects. The key findings have determined the core elements which explained the turnover issue and the impact of organizational change (for a small Canadian...
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...PT1420 Unit 6 Research Paper 1: “Advantages and Disadvantages of Using Case Structures” Advantages: Because of their many important advantages and extreme popularity, use cases have become a fundamental part of object technology and have been incorporated in one form or another into most major object-oriented development methods. 1.You can create logic flows; in which is a method used to make the reading easier for the reader. 2.Because they are written in natural language, use cases are easy to understand and provide an excellent way for communicating with customers and users. 3.Static depth, in which “if” can be set to however amount the user wants. 4.Low CPU overhead. 5.You can insert certain captions using “< >//” 6.As a user-centered technique, use cases help ensure that the correct system is developed by capturing the requirements from the user's point of view. ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------- Disadvantages: In the rush to jump onto the use case bandwagon, use cases have been perceived by some as either a panacea or as an end in-and-of themselves. Unfortunately, this has often led to the uncritical acceptance of use cases without any examination of their numerous limitations and ample opportunities they offer for misuse...
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...Kenaston Convenience Store The Kenaston Convenience Store (KCS) is a local convenience store located near a subdivision in Regina. KCS offers food staples, basic household goods, newspapers and magazines, candy, drinks, and snacks. KCS opened several years ago and is owned and operated by the Wu family. The store has been very successful and now that the neighbourhood has matured and the population large enough a major chain of convenience stores, Community Mart Ltd. (CML), is interested in buying KCS so that it can establish a presence in the area. It is CML’s usual practice to only move into an area once the population density has reached a certain level. It prefers to buy out an existing convenience store in an area because it gets the benefit of an established location and eliminates a competitor. You are CML’s location evaluator. It’s your job to make contact with the owners of established convenience stores that CMS might be interested in and evaluate their suitability for acquisition. Your preliminary evaluation of KCS is that it is a potential candidate for acquisition and your initial discussions with Mr. Wu were favourable. Mr. Wu has agreed to allow you to look at KCS’s most recent income statements. The income statements are presented below: |Kenaston Convenience Store | |Income Statements for the years ended March 31, | | ...
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...code logic. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 2. In a selection structure, you perform an action or task, and then you perform the next action in order. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 3. Repetition and sequence are alternate names for a loop structure. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 4. In a structured program, any structure can be nested within another structure. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 5. A structured program must contain a sequence, selection, and loop structure. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 6. Because you may stack and nest structures while retaining the overall structure, it might be difficult to determine whether a flowchart as a whole is structured. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 7. As a general rule, an eof question should always come immediately after an input statement because the end-of-file condition will be detected at input. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 8. Structured programming is sometimes called goto-less programming. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 9. No matter how complicated it is, any set of steps can always be reduced to combinations of the two basic structures of sequence and loop. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 10. The case structure is a variation of the sequence structure and the do loop is a variation of the while loop. | a. | True | | b. | False...
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...code logic. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 2. In a selection structure, you perform an action or task, and then you perform the next action in order. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 3. Repetition and sequence are alternate names for a loop structure. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 4. In a structured program, any structure can be nested within another structure. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 5. A structured program must contain a sequence, selection, and loop structure. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 6. Because you may stack and nest structures while retaining the overall structure, it might be difficult to determine whether a flowchart as a whole is structured. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 7. As a general rule, an eof question should always come immediately after an input statement because the end-of-file condition will be detected at input. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 8. Structured programming is sometimes called goto-less programming. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 9. No matter how complicated it is, any set of steps can always be reduced to combinations of the two basic structures of sequence and loop. | a. | True | | b. | False | | | | 10. The case structure is a variation of the sequence structure and the do loop is a variation of the while loop. | a. | True | | b. | False...
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...Project No 2: Omega_Achme Case Submitted by: |Prashant Jaiswal |Amit Maheshwari | |Shilpi Sahay |Jaya Laxmi Tripathi | Q1. Identify the Structures followed by Omega & Achme. Ans. From the case, it is evident that: ACHME was following a very Centralized & Mechanistic Structure. Omega was following an Organic Structure with some amount of decentralization. Q2. Which organization succeeded in developing the prototype better?? Give structural reasons for the same. Ans. Omega. Reasons: 1) The interaction factors were effectively deployed in Omega. Direct Contact was highly visible. Hierarchy of Authority, Jim Rawls reviewed the progress with team regularly. Organic Structure facilitated the participation of different departments to make it happen. The positive results were evident in following ways: • Electrical department suggested an alternative to a sourcing issue of a critical part. • Methods Engineer & Production workmen worked together displaying mutual adjustments to avoid problems that ACHME faced. • People from all crucial departments i.e. Electrical, Mechanical, Industrial & Production worked together to ensure no snag in producing the prototype again displaying mutual adjustments & Team work. ...
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...STRUCTURE The structure of something may be defined as the ways the parts of it relate to each other. It can be forwarded for an organization as the blueprint for formal expectations and exchanges among internal players (executives, managers, employees) and external constituencies such as customers and clients. Structure plays an important role in making an organization able to get competitive advantage in the market (Day 1999). The structural frame is one of the oldest frame in organizational history. It focuses on the architecture of the organizations – designing rules and policies, division into units and subunits to give shape to decisions and activities (Bolman and Deal 2003). For a smooth functioning of an organization, it needs to allocate the work to individuals and groups and co-ordinate roles and units. The organization can employ two primary ways to co-ordinate individual and group efforts. I) Vertically – through the formal chain of command. II) Laterally – through meetings, committees, co-ordinating roles on . network structure. In the case of Google Corporation, it emphasizes more on lateral structure giving more power and autonomy to its employees. The organization provides more recreational amenities to its employees which helps them to remain energetic, enthusiastic and active. Apart from that, all Google engineers are encouraged to spend 20% of their work time on projects that intrests them and as a result of this, the...
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... | | | | |Date issued | Hand in deadline |Submitted on | | | | | | | | |Assignment title(s) |Legal and organisational structures | | |Stakeholders and their influence...
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...understand the effects of leadership, objectives, individual characteristics and action, and employee behavior and attitudes within an organization. It also explains the effects of internal environments, such as culture, the structure of the organization, resource and task allocation, and external environments such as competition or government regulation. These factors contribute to the performance, success or failure, and survival or fall of an organization. Organizational-behavior theories help to explain the collapse of Enron and how leadership, management, and organizational structure contributed to its failure. Organizational Structure With a market capitalization of nearly $74 billion, Enron was one of the world’s leading energy companies by the late 1990s. However, it had gained this status through the perpetration of illegal activities at the very highest levels of the organization. Enron’s fall was because of the organizational-level corruption that grew from its structure and trickled down to the collective behavior of its employees. Enron’s top-down, hierarchical structure by unit grouping meant that the top management team either directly or indirectly through their subordinates influenced the actions of the organization. For example, the structure of the accounting department allowed it to disregard legal requirements through “structural secrecy” that Enron’s executives could exploit (Beenen & Pinto, 2009, p. 283). As part of its strategy to grow its business, Enron’s...
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...college located in Upper Clapton, London in the United Kingdom. It officially opened in September 2002, giving students in Hackney the opportunity to study at a college close to where they live. It provides student courses for the right appropriate level. It provides a-level courses such as chemistry, maths and business. Tesco has a hierarchical structure because it has a lot of layers and a lot of people reporting into more than one person before that information get to the boss. A hierarchical structure has many levels. Each level is controlled by one person. A hierarchical company tends to be a very big company just like Tesco is. In a hierarchy instructions are generally passed down from one person to another until it gets to the bottom of the hierarchical structure. If there was a problem in a hierarchical structure it would move up through the structure again from one person to another until it gets to where it is supported to be. Strengths of a Hierarchical structure are that there is a close control of workers. Workers in Tesco will know exactly what they have to do so they don't wait around until they are told. This sort of structure allows the workers in Tesco to know precisely what they have to do so they don't hang around until they are told. There is clear authority and responsibility within the organisation that makes sure that everybody knows what they are undertaking and know...
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... Conduct an Analysis of Case #10 Nucor Corporation and prepare a (4-5 page report). Discuss the trends in the steel industry and how it may impact Nucor’s strategy. The trend had been major steel production using blast furnaces. New technology using arc furnaces adopted by Nucor led to increased production and cost savings. The arc furnace technology took less labor, increased production, and was considered the new most cost-effective strategy among the steel industry. It was Nucor’s decision to adopt this process and be the first to introduce this new process to the United States. Many steel companies were going out of business due to reduced demand for steel and failing economies across the globe in the late 90s into the 2000s. Nucor chose to buy these failing plants when easily convertible to their production lineup. This also in many cases was a cheaper route than building new plants. The acquisition strategy proved to be essential as these failing firms were already setup for steel production at mass quantities and Nucor was able to inherit their ties and partnerships as well as their presence in their surrounding geographical area. The constant drive for efficiency and cost effective production was another strategy chosen to increase competitive advantage, market share, and ultimately become the number one steel producer among heavy competition. Discuss the organizational structure and management philosophy at Nucor. The management structure of Nucor was very different...
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...Learning Zone Management Structures (Relevant to Paper 2: Business Communication and Organization and Management) Sebastian A. Bombaci, CPA Introduction When a new employee joins a company one of the first things they learn is the company’s management structure. This includes understanding the working relationships with their manager, subordinates and peer group. Management structures appear in every type of organization including government departments, nongovernment organizations (NGOs), charities, and even the local sporting association. Choosing the correct management structure ensures an organization’s continued growth, content employees and profitable returns for the shareholders. Choosing the wrong structure creates tensions between employees and managers, allows inefficient work practices to flourish and reduces company profitability. In the worst case an incorrect management structure can lead to company closure. Unfortunately, many managers take it for granted that their organization’s management structure is correct, static and never requires changing. However, such assumptions are naïve and as the pace of change increases, there is a need to continually assess the suitability of a company’s management structure. A very topical example of an inappropriate management structure is that of the American automobile manufacturers. A combination of out-dated management structures, inefficient business processes, poor work-place relationships...
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...Sector: Does Structure Matter?Wright & Pandey | The Effect Of Transactional and Transformational Leadership Styles on the Organizational Commitment and Job Satisfaction of Customer Contact Personnel Emery & Barker | | | | | | Persistent GCU library link | http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=52860455&site=ehost-live&scope=site | http://library.gcu.edu:2048/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bth&AN=27436222&site=ehost-live&scope=site | | | | | | Purpose of the studyWhat is the author’s rationale for selecting this topic? Does he build a strong case? | To test existing paradigms regarding transformational leadership. The authors suggest that public organizations are not as bureaucratic as stereotypically believed and that the performance measures in place support higher levels of transformational leadership in these organizations than might be expected based on their hierarchical structures. The author builds a plausible argument based on the need for followers to be flexible in order for a leader to motivate them beyond satisfactory performance. In addition, the structure and controls in place for public organizations might impede the effectiveness of a transformational leader. | | | | | | | Research Question(s)What question(s) does the author present? | The more hierarchical an organization’s authority structure, the lower...
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...words « In this age of hyper-competition, organisations should adopt a decentralised structure ». Businesses have entered in a new era, the era of hyper-competition, more competitive as they become more global. Business has shifted dramatically from a slow-moving stable environment to an environment where competitive advantages are no longer sustainable but temporary as new competitors enter the market. Aveni argues that, to have a chance to survive in this constantly changing environment, firms should adopt a new strategy that best suits with these unpredictable variations. In recent years, organisations have been reassessing their strategy and structure because of this growing competition, thinking that their success is widely related with re-matching to its environment. (Johnson, 1988; Miller and Friesen, 1980) Tom Peter (1987) and Michael Porter (1990) claimed that adopting this attribute if changing ability will in some sense guarantee competitive advantage. In this assignment, we will base our discussion on managing theories in order to explain organisations’ structure choice by describing how they respond to their changing context. We will comment on the view that structure depends on the contingency theory and contrast both decentralised and centralised structure in each contingency factor, using resources to support statements. Finally, we shall decide which structure best fits with this context of hyper-competition. It is possible to characterize the...
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...brings strategy, context and structure into a natural integration. For instance, some organisations achieve integration through product innovation while others achieve through efficient machines. However, in recent years, Mintzberg has come to realize that not all effective organizations slot themselves in the any of the above forms. Instead, some organizations have opted to take their own courses to solve their unique problems. Mintzberg’s thus proposes a mix of these two frameworks in order to achieve ultimate effectiveness. This paper will review the configurations model, and review Mintzberg’s modified views on the model. Configurations Model Different organisations operate differently and the results of similar strategies may not be the same across organisations. An organisation may achieve commendable success by using strict controls while a similar organization would fail terribly by employing the same structure. This is one of the reasons why start-up businesses have to evolve their structure as they grow in line with the changes in both structure and environment (Brickley, Smith, Zimmerman and Willett 2002). Successful companies successfully integrate and coordinate core internal and external elements. Determining the best structure can be tricky especially because there are so many factors at play, as well as possible combinations. According to Mintzberg (1989), the structure of an organisation emerges, from the structure itself,...
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