Rondell Data Corporation - Case Study Example

Task Rondell Data Corporation A hierarchy ity in an organization is usually employed when the number of employeesincrease to such levels that the managers find it hard to monitor or motivate employees to work effectively. However, organizations today are phasing out hierarchies in their entities and as such making more useful the empowerment of teams of employees. This paper seeks to establish the structure of organization established in Rondell Data Corporation, the relationship that exists among individuals and the departmental levels. It will also counter the query as to how Rondell can modify its structure in order to achieve a balance of power among departments and individuals. Structure of the Organization Rondell Corporation uses a functional structure, a design that entails grouping of people because they possess similar knowledge, skills or use the same resources. The employees in the Rondell are sourced mainly from one particular field, that of engineering, and they are then grouped in specialized departments because they use the same skills and resources. In the case of Rondell, for example, Doc Reeves was preferred by Dave Schwab to move from Frank Forbus department to work in his. This shows that Reeves possesses skills that can enable to work in another department. Reeves are generally and engineer. Most organizations usually begin with a functional system because the development of functions empowers trades to contain an augment in specialization and the division of labor most competently. The structure assists competences within the organization and increases an organization’s capability to control both its people and its resources. Different roles come out as an organization becomes more established and as such gets to respond to increasingly more demanding task requirements. As in the case of Rondell, the organization back in began 1920 to manufacture electrical testing devices, which Rondell had invented. The firm then branched into radio broadcasting equipment and later into data conduction paraphernalia. It diversified its products, a characteristic associated with functional structure. Functional structures are however faced with several challenges as experienced by Rondell Data Corporation. These problems usually emerge when a corporation produces more products and becomes more extensive geologically, or faces arise in competition over customers. In the end, there usually arises impeding problems over the ability of the managers to coordinate successfully organizational activities. Individual and Department Relationships at Rondell Based On the Structure As an organization gets to nurture together with its hierarchy, departments become progressively more far-off from each other and as a result, communication problems tend to rise. The level of coordination and mutual adjustment, therefore, reduces making it more complex for the organization to attend successfully to its customers’ demands. Customer problems also tend to arise. As the company’s variety and quality of products swells, customer demand is also likely to increase. Poor communication is then likely to increase, as the different departments will have to put pressure on each other to ask for satisfaction from those departments. This was witnessed in Rondell where the sales department was characterized with meddling in a matter related to other departments due to customer demand. This situation usually led to more problems than a solution within the company. Strategic problems are also not left out in this type of structure. When an organization grows and as a result becomes more complex, the management personnel is likely to spend much of its time in trying to solve the coordination problem arising every often rather than focus on improvement of scale production. In the end, the organization is likely to have more problems. This was witnessed in Rondell Data Corporation where there arose many problems with regard to strategic problems. Directors of engineering such as Frank Forbus and his predecessors were often fired, though the problem was never solved. Rondell has a structure that has a President who is subordinated directly by an executive president, a vice president of sales, a director of engineering and the director of research. Rondell’s history dates back to 1947 when it had grown to 100 employees. As of 1978, the Corporation had grown to over 800 employees. As such, the association between a worker and the managerial team is liable to be distanced. The President in Rondell Data Corporation is the head of the entire organization. He was subordinated by a director of engineering, a vice president of sales, an executive vice president and indirectly, the director of research. These officials are mandated to have control over other departments designated within their dockets (Seeger, 505). This hierarchical structure in Rondell Data Corporation, however, seems not to be in effect as junior employees seem to find their way straight to the President of the corporation rather that file their reports or complaints to the relevant directors. As was elaborated in the case, although Doc Reeves is subordinate to Frank Forbus, he has an unswerving link to the President without consulting the director of engineering. Additionally, the President is said to be too busy to meet director of engineering yet he goes to meet employees of junior rank. A junior director was also quoted as saying that he would rather report straight to the president as the director of engineering seems to be ‘afraid.’ Factors such as structural vertical and horizontal dimensions have to be administered by the managers persistently. How Rondell Can Modify Its Structure to Achieve a Balance Of Power among Departments and Individuals As the organization gets to grow, it becomes more intricate, hence need rises to change the structure to meet the changing needs. It is therefore important for Rondell Data Corporation to seek ways in which it can change its structure, as it is the present structure in its system that presents the many challenges it faces. An organization has to adopt a more multifaceted structure upon its expansion. Such needs could include production of new products as the situation in Rondell over the production of the 802; need to deal with different types or groups of customers and even handling growth or expansion. In order to achieve a balance of power between the departments and individuals of Rondell, a new structure has to be brought in to bring cooperation and assistance within these parties. The most suitable structure to be adopted therefore is the There are ways in which Rondell could modify its structure to achieve a balance of power among its departments and individual. To begin with, just like any organization, Rondell has to improve its ability to control these two parties; departments and individuals. This can be ensured by adding the number of levels within the managerial hierarchy and as such, make the hierarchy of authority taller, or by ensuring an increase in the number of managerial personnel whose function is to monitor, evaluate and reward employees. Such changes do augment vertical delineation and provides the business with an unswerving control over its members. Managers get to control their subordinates personally. For there to be a balance of power within the departments of Rondell Data Corporation, the managers must keep on analyzing and restructuring the design of the organization so that it may sustain its personnel and resources within its control. This can be achieved by augmenting the quantity of managers and hierarchical echelons as the number of employees’ increases. The managers of Rondell should look up to the most suitable structural system to use in the organization. The most apt for the organization is the product group configuration. This is a divisional structure where experts from the support functions are brought together into various production development groups that concentrate in the needs of a specific kind of product. Members from different departments get to communicate with each other and the result is proper coordination. The main loyalty of the various departments however remains within their areas. This structure tends to focus on customizing products to suit needs of the customer as opposed to the functional structure (Rummler 9). Due to increased competition within companies, this structure is the most suitable as it tends to reduce the time required to bringing a new product to the market, as the process of product development is sped up. This structure involves centralization of the support functions and adoption of multidivisional structure whereby each department will have its own support functions. Specialists from the support functions are put together into product development groups that concentrate in the needs of a specific kind of product (Weick 361-386). The result is that each group becomes an independent division led by a product team manager, whose role is to oversee the operational activities related to the development and production of the product. The product groups specialize on the requirements of the product and they put their effort in it to ensure customer satisfaction. The managerial team gets to become responsible over their managerial positions (Muczyk 304). Each team also gets to be answerable for the upshot of the product. Works Cited Muczyk, J. and Reimann, B. "The Case for Directive Leadership," Executive 1 (1987): 304. Rummler G. and Brache, A. Improving performance. Jossey-Bass Publishers: San Francisco, 1995. Weick, K. and Quinn, R. “Organizational change and development.” Annual Review of Psychology 50 (1999): 361-386. Read More