The Wallace Group Case Study
Introduction This paper will address the most important problems facing The Wallace Group. Recommendations to Harold Wallace, President and Chairman of the organization will be formulated, in an effort to begin the process of restructuring the company for development and growth. Finally, a description of how to educate a manager to manage an organization as it evolves over time from an entrepreneurial structure to a more complex structure will be discussed.
The Most Important Problem Facing the Wallace Group The Wallace Group continues to operate as three independent companies
Plastics, Chemicals and Electronics. In addition, Harold Wallace serves as the Chairman and President of the Wallace Group
…show more content…
The management-labor relationship is by far the most important element in the success or failure of any organizational structure.
· Utilize Rampar Associates to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the existing operation. The outsiders will have fewer reasons to pull punches than staff members that can be promoted or fired. Valuable criticism may come from specialized consultants, owners or board members other than the president or CEO, and even customers.
· Change and develop the personnel services department into a fully operational a HR department.
· Restructure the departments based upon the needs of the new organizational structure and the company goals.
Educating a Manager to Manage an Organization through its Evolution Aside from educating a manager through formal training in managing an organization through change, there are many ongoing activities that will increase a manager's awareness and aid them in supporting a more complex organizational structure as it develops. A company's organizational structure is a road map of its communication patterns. A well-designed structure can also make it easier to identify inefficiencies and new problems as the organization grows. Reviewing the organizational structure on a regular basis will help ensure that the organization set up for optimal growth well into
• Given the changes in the company, there should be some periodic review of the organizational chart to assess whether changes are needed (having the same organizational structure for over 30 years may not be the most effective or efficient)
The relationship between an organization’s strategy and structure are extremely important because it “directly impacts a firm’s performance” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 309). Also, as an organization grows, it should reevaluate the current strategy and structure to ensure that it remains the optimal choice for the organization (Rothaermel, 2013). The four types of organizational structures, listed in order of least to most complex according to Rothaermel (2013), are: (1) simple, (2)
Need to develop communications channels for suggestions and ideas along with feedback regarding employee’s goals
Structure is the basis through which an organization seeks to create control the direction of an organization. This is completed through clear definitions of the allocation of work, differentiation, and the coordination of having those responsibilities working together towards the efforts of the organization, integration (Bolman & Deal, 1993, pp). Through these methods, the organization is able to devise a division of labor that collaborates to bring about the missions and goals of an organization. The structure that comes about from this can be varied in their rigidness and flexibility it allows, and to an extent this is a great contribution to its success.
Organizational structure. Need for expanding size of executive management team and adding new corporate layers in the corporation.
Change is going in the organization. With the help of theories I can easily visualize
a. The Wallace Group suffers from moving back and forth from an entrepreneurial mode to adaptive mode in its decision making. This can be clearly seen from the early days of Harold Wallace running all three businesses, reacting to existing problems as they arise, to the more recent events of settling unresolved disputes between Corporate
Several years ago, Wallace and the Board decided to diversify further because two-thirds of their business was still defense-dependent. They learned that one of the major suppliers of the Plastics Group, a chemical
Effective organizational structures define how job tasks are subdivided, grouped, coordinated, and managed. Six key components of organizational structures include division of labor, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization, and formalization (Remme, Jones, Van der Heijden, & De Bono, 2008, p. 79). Each element influence how employees interact with each other to reach organizational goals. Different structures are common in similar organizations among high performing organizations (Reimann, 1974, p. 707). The most appropriate structure will depend on the unique needs and culture of the organization.
Structure is vital in shared governance where expertise and knowledge serve as guides to actions. It requires a commitment to the organizational mission and the profession of the organization. The practices must be structured within the rules of the employer and the laws that govern the industry. It also requires consistency in definitions, standardization, and the design of the governance with regular evaluations of performance levels.
Manager’s of an organization has to use structure to help the company run efficiently. “The five types of organizational structures are functional, divisional, matrix, team-based, and virtual network” (Draft, 2013, p.316). Functional structure in an organization that is developed by grouping departments by the skills, level of knowledge, activities done daily, and the resource used. “This structure places specific departments from the bottom to the top” (Draft, 2013, p.318). For example, specific departments such as: human resources, accounting, engineering, and manufacturing are placed at the top, while there are mostly seen at the bottom in other organizations. While common functions such as; people, facilities, and other resources are combined together as a single department instead of being divided into multiple departments.
Over the past decades, organizational changes have become recurrent. It then became decisive for managers to perfectly understand this phenomenon in order to lead organizations to efficiency.
This structure and culture will be invaluable to our growth, but it must be able to react and adjust to change. Hence, once our departments begin growing, with each containing at least 5-10 employees, a more formalized and mechanized structure will be useful to manage the company as a whole. This
Organization structure is a system of frame work which clearly defines roles and responsibilities of each job for attaining organization goals with smooth workflow. It gives clear guidelines to employees and also binds them together. The organization structure plays an important role in organization’s development, it may vary or
The chart shown how I think the organisation is before we make changes. The organisational structure determines how the organisation performs or operates. One traditional way of organising people is by function. Some common functions with an organisation include Academic Director, Marketing Director, and Head of department and Administrative Manager. All this structure people have become specialists within their own area of knowledge.