MEM 6970 Engineering Management Problems
Assignment 2
Ileana Rodriguez
January 27, 2013
“Appex Corp.”
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
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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
4) What advice would you offer John Chambers in managing Cisco’s culture through the transition?
* 1.2 Evaluate the specific responsibilities of middle managers in enabling your organisation to achieve its
Describe the organizational forms a company might have as it evolves from a start-up to a major corporation. List the advantages and disadvantages of each form.
Organizational structure. Need for expanding size of executive management team and adding new corporate layers in the corporation.
1. What does this split-department situation do to your efficiency as a manager, and how can you compensate for this change?
The provision and use of personal protective equipment could include using gloves, glasses, earmuffs, aprons, safety footwear, dust masks.
Compare and contrast an existing organization’s three major functions (i.e., finance, marketing, and operations), and then justify the interdependence that operations have to finance and marketing. Provide examples to support your rationale.
'How do the main functional areas of a business interact and contribute to its effective management?'
The third and main thing I have noticed in this scenario is that communication problem between team members in the organization. I observe that communication between team members appears to be strained at times and communication with the other teams within the organization is not as good as it should be. This could happen due to the changes and many other factors. Changes to the personnel of an established team are often challenging to a team as it goes through a new period of storming. This team is mixed with new and experienced members. So there is likely to be some awkwardness between members as new member begins to assert them and challenge the shape or purpose of the team. This could end up with frustration and personality conflict. I would take this thing in prior list to resolve the issue because it could be worst if it’s not been solved in the earliest manner. As I mentioned earlier I would take some steps which includes:
These different functions have their own roles and work together to optimise performance. Different functions work together by communicating with each other and sharing information so that everybody has relevant up to date information on the company’s plans and tenants issues. Each function carries out its own
There was a coordination and collaboration among all departments in the organization that resulted in faster accomplishment of tasks. Also, the goals of the organization were clear for the employees and they were always stressed by their managers.
M2: Analyse the advantages and disadvantages of the interrelationships between organizational functions and its impact that can have upon organizational structure.
* There should be division of segments under each head like marketing, logistics and administration team for the entire company.
Businesses have numerous key departments which keep the structure running appropriately and supports the business to build and embellish in all worldwide markets. This report will consider what the key departments do for the business, in addition, this report will enlighten the research procedure used and significant complications which have been encountered throughout.
Due to the coordination and control problem that surfaced during the 1920s, most large American corporations that include GM had adopted the Multi-divisional organizational structures better known as the M-form structure to respond to the crisis. M-form consists of operating divisions, each representing a separate business or profit centre in which the top corporate officer delegates responsibilities for day-to-day operations and business-unit strategy to division managers. Each division represents a distinct, self-contained business with its own functionality