... Strategic planning must no longer be considered an elitist activity that happens behind closed doors.... Rather, planning must be viewed as a continuous, interactive, and democratic process that empowers managers and employees together to create the future of the firm." (Purser & Cabana)
Lear (1992) blames the downfall of General Motors and IBM in the early 1990s to their reliance on hierarchical management. He recommends banishing the dinosaur. General Motors did just that and transformed its organization into a matrix (Prewitt, 2003). Today the company is on the brink of bankruptcy indicating that the company's performance can't be totally related to its organizational structure.
5. Give a clear and convincing logical argument why this structure is best for Hybrid
Motors. In this argument, you need to also argue that other possible structures are not as good. It is absolutely essential that you clearly state and justify your underlying premises, as well as make a valid logical argument for your management structure.
In many ways, the company is still a startup. It needs marketing, sales and financial...
and, it has outstanding supply chain questions about where components should be manufactured or purchased. For all these reasons, Hybrid Motors requires a closed management structure at the top so that it can clarify goals and define business practices. The consensus required by other management structures would have proven too time consuming and complex for management to quickly reach the vast number of decisions that are on the table. As explained earlier, the advisory board was created to overcome the tendency of closed management to cut off interactions with the rest of the business.
In addition to the need to have decisions made quickly, Hyrbrid Motors has, "the need for extreme efficiency and excellence." Egalitarian groups can best facilitate these needs over closed structures that stifle flexibility. The synchronous management structure was ruled out as an option even though it involves egalitarian groups because the company simply does not have the strong vision and process rules in place for employee alignment. The open option was selected over the random option because the open structure will have a better chance of keeping all of the employees involved in the direction of the company. This is yet another attempt to compensate for the potential that top management will not interact with the business as well as it should because of the closed management structure that has been recommended. The open structure should also foster more cohesion than the random alternative. This will be valuable in a startup that will be bringing in lots of new employees who lack training.
Bibliography
Heiss, M, Stoeckl, S, and Hausknotz, C. (2004, October 18-21). The bottom-up/top-down pattern: an organizational pattern for a balanced management system. Engineering Management Conference, 2004. Proceedings.2004 IEEE International. Vol. 1, pp 317-323
Lear, R.W. (1992, April). Going, going, gone - changing nature of business management - Speaking Out. The Chief Executive. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m4070/is_n75/ai_12289893
Prewitt, E. (2003, September 1). GM's Matrix Reloads. CIO. http://www.cio.com/archive/090103/hs_reload.html
Purser, R.E. And Cabana, S. (1997, May). Involve employees at every level of strategic planning. Quality Progress.
