Organisational Behaviour (OB) Assignment - Essay Example

Download file to see previous pages He tried to change the organizational structure to modify the corporate culture of the company. The company formed corporate tie ups with many companies to build its brand and increase exposure. These features introduced several forms of changes in the company. Firstly due to the redesigning of the product lines the patterns of work system in the company changed drastically. This began with the changes in the job description and skills and techniques of the workers as more emphasis was laid on the electronics goods and products. Changes in the organizational structure were seen in the form of centralizing the electronics department. The hierarchy of authority was modified. Division of labor was re-introduced with more emphasis on the R&D field. The hierarchy levels were reduced and more interaction was provided between the managers and front line mangers of the company. More hierarchy levels mean greater complications which would disrupt the decision making process gradually. The company previously had each unit with its own planning, human resources, finance, and sales functions and operated with considerable autonomy. This was not a very feasible strategy as it led to more troubles than solutions. Firstly, providing each unit with separate departments increased the cost of the company as it would be hiring many employees for each department. The autonomy offered to each unit would further increase the gap between the inter departments as there would be lack of communication. The span of control was reduced with Stringer laying off 10,000 jobs which comprised of 7% of Sony’s global workforce and shut down 11 out of 65 production units across the world (Howard Stringer: Turning Sony Around, 2003). This helped in reducing operation costs, reduced levels in hierarchy and better control by the managers. Sony was not advanced in technology and was redundant in its product designs. With the introduction of Apple iPods, the company felt the need to bring in changes in its working culture. Stringer who had introduced the changes believed that the new structure would streamline and speed up decision making across Sony’s product lines. It permitted uniform software development across the lines so that the products of the company would operate seamlessly with one another. This in turn eliminated the design and product redundancies and optimized the firm’s Research and Development spending. Apart from this, the corporate culture also saw changes in the company. sonSony had been long exposed to its conservative culture. When Stringer decided to introduce change in the company he faced oppositions as the cost of change was thought to be unnecessary by many people in the organization, stringer incorporated the idea of increasing the R&D area. He made them realize that R&D could save the company and it would attract customer attention. He made them realize that the problem with Sony products was not with its technology alone but also the product utility. The change plan also affected specific technologies. For example, Sony executives declared that television was of the utmost importance to the company. The firm scraped the production of cathode ray tube (CRT) television sets and focused on LCD and rear-projection TVs and technology. Also, Sony focused on self-luminous flat –panel organic light-emitting diode (OLED) displays, on high-definition technology, Blu-ray, and ...Download file to see next pagesRead More