Westchester Region Summary

Jon Fries (CEO), Fletcher Anderson (COO), Craig Schuster (CFO), and Catherine Sprauer (division controller) were the four central figures in this case. Identify the key responsibilities associated with the professional roles these individuals occupied. Briefly describe the

Do you buy your insurance at Progressive because you like Flo? She may be the current face of Progressive as a company, but a strong cultural emphasis over the past few years has produced significant results for their customers, their shareholders and their employees. Coleman (2013) discusses building a differentiated culture and a lasting organization through the six factors of vision, values, practices, people, narrative (a historical review of the culture) and places (work environment). This paper will use these six factors to review the significant growth at Progressive in overall revenue, earnings, and employee satisfaction through a gradual evolution of the Progressive corporate culture. It will discuss particularly people and customer focused changes in culture, their impacts on the workforce, and their effectiveness. It will close with a discussion of how the lessons learned could be applied at other companies that have high turnover, a poor image, and/or a culture that detracts from their competitive landscape.

Today’s companies are challenged by frequent changes in market demands and consumers’ desires for new products and services. Companies which fail to adapt to these changing conditions often find themselves struggling to survive. This is the situation for the Texas Plant, as described in the case study by Pryor, Humphreys, and Taneja (2011). The Vice President, Human Resources Director, and Organizational Development Manager find themselves not only facing the struggles of transforming the Texas Plant, but also the difficulties of working together to achieve it. The following paper describes these difficulties and examines how the actions of the leaders impacted the change process. Recommendations to assist the plant’s leadership in moving forward will be offered.

Modify the organizational structure to facilitate collaboration among the company's various regional and local offices and central office; and

Nassau County is a cosmopolitan society with different people from various demographical features. The most recent population census pegged the population at approximately 1,361,350 people (www.census.gov/quickfacts). Thus, it is safe to conclude that the population is slightly over 1.3 million people who have diverse cultural features or backgrounds. It is important to note that 76% of the total population is comprised of whites alone that are roughly 1,034,626 of the total population. The African American community has an approximate population of 12% that is 163,362 people. The Asian population is 7.6% that translates to 103,462 people (www.census.gov/quickfacts).

Executives of government agencies are in competition with other departments, and use specific strategies in the process of competing, for “turf”.

Governmental organizations have captivating business plans that outline the overall vision, key performance indicators, and work teams of expertise. Chew Ling Tan wanted to implement changes within the Estate Administration and Property Department. The aim was to initiate modifications to further the organizations operation and objectives. Employees at HBD were over-staffed and overworked while resources were stretched (Jick & Peiperl, 2011).

This case was prepared by Associate Professor Marc L. Lipson. It was written as a basis for class discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2010 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation.

The cultural norm was to operate only within your function. This “decentralized managerial philosophy” hindered proactive communications between departments that that could have assisted in the company’s transition to project management.

According to the Organizational Life Cycles, Shoe Company Illinois is currently in between the ‘Collectivity Stage’ and ‘Formalization Stage.’ [the] Problem in[in?] which SCI currently encounters throughout [in its] the collectivity stage include: workers feeling constrained by upper level manager, departmental managers do not want to give up control, and SCI must discover a method to coordinate the divisions. During the formalization stage communication is less frequent, there is difficulty and confusion with planning and strategy, the company is bureaucratic, and specialization is high with extensive division of labour (Daft and Armstrong, 2009, 303-305). [this is especially true] Especially when there are currently eighteen departments within

This case was prepared by Professor Mark E. Haskins, Darden Graduate School of Business Administration, and has benefited from collaborations with various colleagues over the years on earlier versions. It was written as a basis for discussion rather than to illustrate effective or ineffective handling of an administrative situation. Copyright  2012 by the University of Virginia Darden School Foundation, Charlottesville, VA. All rights reserved. To order copies, send an e-mail to sales@dardenbusinesspublishing.com. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, used in a spreadsheet, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise—without the permission of the Darden School Foundation. ◊

This case discussed the events that occurred during a change in DSS Consulting’s organizational structure. Three retired school district administrators established DSS Consulting during the late 1990’s. The company offered administrative support to small school districts located within the mid-west and mountain west region. They specialized in handling the negotiating of labor agreements as well as implementation of permanent system solutions designed to enable those organizations to run efficiently.

The core constraint of virtually every organization The Goldratt Institute has worked with over the past 16+ years is that organizations are structured, measured and managed in parts, rather than as a whole. The results of this are lower than expected overall performance results, difficulties securing or maintaining a strategic advantage in the marketplace, financial hardships, seemingly constant fire-fighting, customer service expectations being rarely met, the constraint constantly shifting from one place to another and chronic conflicts between people representing different parts of the organization, to name a

In this paper we will be talking about organizational structure and cultures, and what strategies Ken Dailey will have to consider as he starts building on the team concept in the company. We will also talk about how to keep Green River moving forward in the facility and organizing the planning to make them successful.