BUSI 363 - Organizational Design & Development
This course focuses on how to design and maintain organizational effectiveness through
developing appropriate levels of control and coordination. This course introduces and critically
examines the current theories and approaches to the management an...
Business 363
Case #6: Is Anybody Listening?; Daft, Chapter 8
Answer the following questions and submit your answers before class meets to the drop box in
MOODLE.
Your answers should evidence you completed the assigned readings and the case study.
1. What type of assumption (see Exhibit 8.2: Hierarchical & Decentralized Methods of
Control) is the automotive company operating from?
the assumption that the company follows is a Hierarchial Control assumption. We can
see this in the way that they are unsure what to do and they wait to let middle
management tell them what to do, even if they believe that it should be fixed right away.
They go along with management’s decisions, even if they think that it is a safety problem
they wait to see what management will tell them to do in the future.
How does this impact the consequences or outcomes?
This possibly causes the death of three children and opens the company up to an
investigation. The consequences are aligned with the consequences of a typical
hierarchical method of control.
2. The three engineers are resistant to put their concerns in writing because they know the
possibility of investigations and lawsuits on the company and if there is writing saying the
company knew about it then the company and the three engineers could be in a lot of
trouble. It is bad to find a dangerous mistake in a car that causes deaths, it is worse to
find out that they knew about it and sold it to the public anyways. The three engineers
also did not was to sound panicked, even though they were unsure about what to do
because of their tight hierarchical control. Another reason is because the company was
doing really well in sales and they did not want to disturb top management in such a
good time at the company. This makes the automotive industry seem super shady. It
shows that this organization cares most about sales and marketing. It also shows the
distrust that the different layers of employees and management have in the company
and culture. The consequences align with the consequences of a typical hierarchical
method of control.
3. The company is not very focused on customers or learning and growth. Instead they are
mainly focused on financial then probably internal business process.The financial
balanced component of the scorecard control could be used to have a more long term
approach to the financials. Instead of being focused on scaling the one sale and having
each one sale do really well, to think of the long term financials and how quality and care
will impact the company reputation and income in the far future. The internal business
scorecard looks at the internals of the company. For example the care taken, the
employees, fixing the car so it’s better quality, and communication. This could also make
it so in the future the engineers don’t need to ask what needs to be done if they see a
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