Analysis of the Dynacorp Case
The political lens looks at an organization from the perspective of "how power and influence are distributed and wielded, how multiple stakeholders express their different preferences and get involved in or excluded from decisions, and how conflicts can be resolved" (Ancona, Kochan, Scully, Van Maanen and Westney M2-10) . It is an arena for competition and conflict among individuals, groups and other organizations whose interests and goals differ dramatically. The roots of conflict lie in different and competing interests and disagreements require political action, including negotiation, coalition building and the exercise of power and influence. The steps in using the political lens for an effective
…show more content…
Middle managers, especially the branch managers, like Martha Pauly and product managers in Business Units pay more attention to the changed performance measurement system than focusing on the customer teams and making sure they are being more responsive to customer needs. Martha Pauly seems very confused and inattentive to what's happening in her branch and sales team. While talking about the change in organization, says that, "It involves the knowledge of the industry and the company, the full line of products, our various software, applications and concepts of system integration. Exactly who handles all the pieces of sale like this is still unclear" (Dynacorp revisited, 1999: M2- 88-89)
The team members are still operating under the old attitude, that the equipment, sells itself and that the customer will do all the integration of the products into their operations. The notion of helping the customers from initial call through implementation and use of the system is still quite unknown to many of them. Customers are more particular about the service/product, and looking for complete system solutions, more customized software, and more value-added services.
In the course of this change, senior managers wish the whole organization can fit with the changed situation and the operation of the new reorganized structure can be more smooth and efficient. But also through this change, the middle managers, especially branch managers and
As a member of management Clive Jenkins is responsible for boosting employee morale to ensure that company goals are met
Note: Due to the issuance of certain new accounting literature, changes in the status of ongoing projects during the past year, or evolution of practice, the following updates to the existing cases should be noted.
1) if you were on the Dynacorp task force, what would be your first choice for an alternative design? what would be your second choice? 2) Which of the problems of the current design would your chosen design address? what problems (if any) would it not address? Are there any new problems to which it might lead? 3) What linking and alignment mechanisms would you propose to make the “grouping” of your first choice design more effective?
Contrary to the situation at E-Z RP, there is no linkage of customer service representatives to development teams. For instance, CRSs are often the last to gain access about new information or new products. In terms of the organization of customer service, E-Z RP uses a specialized call center where customer service representatives deal with a single product. At Datatronics, the call center is centralized and CRSs deal with all products. E-Z RP uses the second tier support while Datatronics uses a minimal second-tier support. In terms of the training of CSRs, Datatronics only provides minimal on-the-job training while E-Z RP provides extensive training. Datatronics hires employees with basic customer service ability while E-Z RP recruits employees based on customer service skills, business knowledge, and communication ability. The performance metric at E-Z RP is the level of customer satisfaction, while the metric at Datatronics is the time on call or between calls. Although Matt does not intend to reproduce E-Z RP’s customer service system at Datatronics, these are the key issues that he ought to consider in making recommendations for changes at Datatronics.
Given our analysis of the motion picture industry, we recommend that Arundel carefully select the major film studios from which they intend to purchase sequel rights. The net present value of hypothetical sequels taken from the available previous years shows not only that the industry is highly volatile, but also that certain production studios are more volatile than others in terms of their recent performance. In addition, some studios are consistently less profitable than others. (See "NPV for Each Production Company" chart in appendix) Since the success of film studios are relatively stable in the short term (see "Rental Shares of Major Film Distributors" table and graph) Because of this stability, it is possible for Arundel to approach more profitable studios with their offer to purchase sequel rights. Out of all the major film studios, only MCA-Universal, Warner Bros., and The Walt Disney Company generate a positive net present value on a per-film basis. However, according to casual inquiries, it is unlikely that any movie studio would enter negotiations with Arundel on a per film price that is less than 1 million. Instead, the film studios seem to
The ability to manage information plays a critical role in developing a firm’s capabilities in customer relationship management, process management and performance management (Mithas, 2011).
b.What are the amounts and timing of the acquisition investment’s free cash flow from 2013 through 2022?
The strategic design lens assumes organizations are deliberate, goal-achieving entities (Ancona, Kochan, Scully, Van Maanen, & Westney, 2005: M-2, 10). In this view, managers can achieve organizational goals by understanding the fundamentals of design and fitting design to strategy, as well as to the larger organizational environment (Ancona et al., 2005: M-2, 12). In this paper, I discuss the five major elements of strategy – environmental fit, strategic intent, strategic grouping, strategic linking, and alignment – and identify two specific elements as causes of the problems Dynacorp is experiencing with its redesign. These elements are strategic linking and alignment.
When USAA started in 1922, they were a property and casualty insurance company however, with time they expanded their services to their members and became a financial institution.
• The Political Framework is very important. As Bolman and Deal note, the political leader understands the reality of the politics in the organization and deals with them (1991). The framework is developed primarily by political scientists who believe that an organization is an arena wherein different interest groups compete for a limited amount of power and resources leading to conflict and coalitions being established (Bolman and Deal 1991, p. 15).
The clear and concise abstract of the article makes it clear that this is no simple task. The thesis was clearly stated multiple times and discussed. The author used research articles to explain the neglected connections between political power and organizational forms. Another strength of the article was the organization. The literature review was detailed and clearly written. Finally, the author provided an ample about of research to explain each respective category throughout the
The political frame addresses organizational and personal politics. It is important to identify who opposes your projects as well as who supports them. This step will help discover the main interest groups that would be most affected by the project outcome. The important issue in IMS project related to the political frame is the power shifts from functional managers to project managers after the initial stage of the project. This unplanned power shift to an inexperienced project manager who does not have much knowledge about the organization to deal with internal and external politics resulted in failure of the IMS project.
1) Estimate the WACC that is appropriate for discounting the Collinsville plant’s incremental cash flows. You should estimate and present each component of the WACC separately, explaining briefly but clearly what assumptions you are making for each of them. In the same spirit, estimate the appropriate all-equity cost of capital for the APV-based valuation.
The third group is management. The change is strategy and the task of implementing these changes will be a challenge. The possibility of losing loyal employees whom no longer trust the company, pending litigation from the union, lack of technology,
Have you ever wondered what role politics and power play in organizations? When used effectively they can be compatible in reaching the organizations goals. Power is defined as the ability to get someone to do something you want done or the ability to make things happen in the way you want them. (Schermerhorn, Hunt, and Osborn, Chap. 15). Power is important within organizations because it is the way in which management influences individuals to make things happen. When power and influence combine, most of the time 'politics' become involved in some manner which may pose some problems. Organizational politics is best described as management influenced by self-interest through the use