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Understanding Organisations Essay

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| MMM262 | | UNDERSTANDINGORGANIZATIONSTRIMESTER 2 2012 | [assignment 1 – decision analysis]Ford Australia’s decision to cut 440 Jobs – July 2012 | AUTHOR: | | SHAUN VICTOR PICKERING | | Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 2 PART 1 - Modernist Analysis 3 1.1 Environment 4 1.2 Social Structure 6 1.3 Technology 8 1.4 Culture 9 PART 2 - Symbolic Interpretive Critique 11 2.1 Environment 11 2.2 Social Structure 12 2.3 Technology 13 2.4 Culture 14 PART 3 - Postmodern Critique 15 3.1 Environment 16 3.2 Social Structure 17 3.3 Technology 18 3.4 Culture 19 CONCLUSION 20 REFERENCES 21 INTRODUCTION Ford Australia is one of the leaders in Australia’s automotive manufacturing industry. However …show more content…

As this decision to axe jobs does not completely align or alleviate the pressures which Ford is under, further decisions (e.g. offshore to Thailand) could be expected for Ford Australia to stay ‘afloat’. 1.2 Social Structure The focus on social structure analyses the relationships between individuals whom contribute to Ford Australia and by extension, the individuals who give rise to the decision. As claimed by Lex Donaldson, organizational strategy, technology, size and task uncertainty are all contingent factors which affect the social structure of a company (Hatch & Cunliffe 2006). Therefore, the level of uncertainty of Ford’s environment can also have great impact on the structure of the organization. Ford’s industry and manufacturing plants give their company a mechanistic structure. As a result, decisions are handed down from the top of the ‘power hierarchy’ and work procedures are mostly standardized and simplified. Following from that categorization, Lawrence and Lorsch were quoted to believe that the better a company’s social structure fits its environment, the higher their rate of success. Implying Ford would succeed better if its mechanistic structure were to change and mould to the volatility of its environment. As Rolfe and Drill (2012) outlined, the industry had been suffering with numerous job cuts in the recent past. Ford’s

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