Mechanistic Design for SEI - Essay Example

Mechanistic Design for SEI 1. Is SEI using an organic or mechanistic design? Provide support for your answer. To my personal belief, SEI uses an organic organizations design, and there are several reasons why I think so. Speaking about organic design, we mean that organization develops and re-organizes spontaneously as a living organism, but not because of directives issues of CEOs (this approach is considered to be ‘mechanic’). In our case, SEI is definitely has this kind of organic organization design. Firstly, it allows its employees to rearrange groups they are involved in by changing their teams. It reflects the principle of ‘empowering employees’ used in SEI approach to organizational behavior (West, and Wind, 27). Employees in SEI should not wait until they will get orders from the CEO to leave their current team and join a new one, they do not request permission. They do not have to arrange a meeting with a boss to discuss the internal problems in their teams to consult on the issues what team should they join now. As branches of a tree do not ask permission from a tree to grow in any direction they ‘consider’ appropriate, employees behave the same. Secondly, employees are mobile in choosing the place of work. In traditional organizations with bureaucracy and mechanic approaches to organization design, usually CEO or his executive vice-presidents are those responsible for changing roles and consequently places of work of employees. A change of a place from a typical ‘box-alike’ office to a private office is considered a big success and cannot be achieved only by internal motives of an employee. However, SEI being involved in a kind of business where they have to compete by the power of brains of their employees, understands that the better its employees perform the better performs SEI. So, if changing physical place of work might stimulate the productivity of a particular worker, so be it. According to a case study, employees in SEI usually change the physical place of work up to two times a year (West, and Wind, 27). They do it themselves, without requesting permission, because management empowers them as if they were owners. The same we can find in nature. Bees for example, have no directions from their queen where particularly should they pollinate flowers, so they ‘have their own ideas’ where to do it. However, they know and understand the ‘corporate’ rules and goals of the hive. Pollen should be delivered no matter from where. They are free to choose the location of their ‘work’ and the same could be said towards the employees in SEI (in reasonable limits, of course). Thirdly, apart from a mechanical organization design with its clear hierarchy levels and structures, SEI has a flat organization structure that also very common for living organisms that we consider as ‘ideal’ state of an organic organization design. If we refer to the ideas of ‘natural selection’ mentioned by Darwin in his work in 1859 we can see that the world of living species has only one way to form a hierarchy and this way is the power of fangs and claws. However, in modern organizations employees have another weapon to prove that they are the best, which are ideas. Traditional bureaucracies consider ideas to be a prerogative of top-executive or at least vice-presidents. Employees are treated as ‘Doers’, but managers as ‘Thinkers’. This separation is often supported by the organization of offices (‘Thinkers’ usually work on the top-floors of the building whereas ‘Doers’ work below them), so ‘Doers’ have to arrange a meeting with ‘Thinkers’ if they want to discuss any of their ideas. However, SEI got rid of it. Everybody works in big barn-like buildings at the same kind of tables. Even CEO has no separate working place or a private office and has the same desk as others. This approach delivers to new and existing employees of organization th message that the hierarchy here means nothing, but the quality of your ideas is what reflects our success. Because of this, we encourage you to share and discuss them no matter what level you have in organization and as often as you might need it in case you do not bother your colleagues. Therefore, the flat organization structure is one of the key features of the organic organization design. Lastly, teamwork is among of those features that distinguish organizations using organic organization design from those using mechanic organization designs. Teams are very mobile and active cells of modern organizations and are common for SEI. Teams are better than individuals, because teams generate more ideas, more able to turn this ideas into projects and more active than individuals because compete internally. Therefore, to put it simply, teams have more chances to succeed than individuals. Teams and different types of teamwork are common for nature and organic design. Bees, mentioned above, work together competing internally to reach the common goal. Wolves hunt in teams, but never alone, and share the catch. Gophers work in team to provide the security of the whole big family. Nature has showed us that teamwork approach is more able to reach a success. Now, we have transferred it and fit into the concept of organic organization design. SEI has mobile teams that are formed spontaneously, but not by orders of the CEO to accomplish some project. Teamwork spirit is everywhere there: In big cafeteria where everybody loudly chats and share impressions and ideas, in small sitting areas where employees can meet for a small conversation and even in the construction of desks, because there is no something higher than it, so employees can communicate freely. 2. What kinds of technological interdependence are present at SEI? As it is quite often met, some organizations hire technologies to make them more agile, open and mobile. However, most of them consider a technology to be a ‘magic bullet’, whereas a huge shift in corporate culture and self-identification needed to reach mentioned above goals. In case of SEI, they have used a technology as an enabler or a supporter for the big shifts in their organization design than the basement of these changes. As organization decided to become more agile, mobile and open it had to decrease the number of levels needed to overcome in order for an employee to get to a manager. Going from other floors to working in the same room was a good, but not fully reaching this goal idea. Secretaries were those ‘barriers’, ghosts of a prehistoric times of bureaucracy that by their role had to limit the access to managers from their employees while organizing the time of the manager to the best advantage. SEI decided to get rid of secretaries. The initiative started by its CIO who considered technologies to be powerful enough to provide substantial information flow between managers and employees was more than successful. SEI decreased one more level of ‘invisible’ hierarchy by eliminating secretaries and became more open than before. Despite the technology basement that was put in this organization change is only slightly mentioned in the case study, it’s evident that any technology implemented that results in increased exchange of ideas boosts up the level of technological interdependence between employees in organization. Moreover, one more technological initiative made SEI more technologically interdependent. This is application of team phones (West, and Wind, 27). Team phones made employees able to answer for their absent colleagues to solve clients’ problems. Because of this, more employees became aware of what was happening in organization. So, overall success of organization became something more than a combination of successes of its employees. Now employees became technologically interdependent on each other, because anybody could pick up the phone to speak to customers. Any employee was obliged by technologies to contribute to the whole organizational success. 3. What type of organization design would work best for SEI? Why? There are two often discussed types of organization design: Organic and mechanic. Mechanic type of organization design is common for very big corporations or federal agencies. It involves strict hierarchy with subordination, direct orders that regulate the way employees interact with each other and what kind of activities they are responsible for in the each of performed tasks, closed offices that highlight the status or the inaccessibility of managers from ordinary employees etc. Organic type of organization design is fully opposite to the mechanic type. It supports open interaction and ideas interchange between its employees by decreasing or eliminating most of possible levels in corporate hierarchy, has an office organization that support the idea of flat structure in it, hires technologies to make it even more open. SEI is one of the top companies in its niche and considered to be the number one place to work in US according to Fortune rating (West, and Wind, 27). SEI involved in a business where the power of intellect rules and might try to employ the brightest possible people. SEI also works in a very dependent environment where changes might occur overnight and ability to react very fast is vital to reach success. What is clear from the case study is that SEI really understands that in this changing environment, people are the main assets and that it has to work hard to create conditions in which these main assets can reach a peak of their performance. In this sphere of business, several things are very important: Creativity, mobility and agility. Organizations should be able to react with bright ideas, fast and despite the great changes in the external environment. Therefore, for SEI the best type of organization design to use is the organic type. This type apart from mechanic helps organization to promote the culture of interexchange and innovations, makes it more responsive to the needs of external environment and more able to react fast apart from its competitors. Employees feel more connection between their individual performance and corporate performance and consequently work better to contribute to corporate goals. As in organizations with such a type of organization design information spreads faster than electricity in wired, they react faster, form teams independently being empowered to behave in such a way by their wise management team and invent new ways of how to deal with the problems occurred. Taking into consideration the fact that despite some major economic declines, SEI was able to grow by 30% a year, we can assume that the type or organization design chosen by its management suits its goals and the environment it operates in to the best advantage. In addition, being titled number one company worth working in US by Fortune, makes it as appealing for top-talents as a honey for a bear. Eventually, this position reached by the unique culture and supported by the organic type of organization design developed by SEI made it one of the top companies and will continue to contribute to its success in future. Works cited West, Alfred P., and Yoram Wind. "Putting the Organization on Wheels: Workplace design at SEI." California Management Review (2007): 27. Print. Read More