Challenges at Tel-Com-Tek - Article Example

Case Study -- Tel-com-TEK Q1. Which candi should the company nominate for the assignment? Why? The company should nominate Atasi Das the new managing director for TCT India. The major reason for her nomination to the post of managing director is her interest in managing global positions with wider responsibilities and her vast experience in strategic planning and other areas that would help Atasi in managing the Indian operations well. Already, she is on the planning staff team in the TCT headquarters. It has been her career goal to manage international assignments. She has reiterated recently her interest and career aim of taking charge of global positions. Atasi Das has an MBA degree from a UK university and has 12 years of experience working in TCT. She won’t be a foreign national in the sense that her parents are first-generation immigrants; she is rooted to Indian culture and speaks Hindi well. She can devote on her job better than other candidates, being unmarried, therefore free from the family responsibilities unlike other candidates. Although her birth country is not India but her parents are Indians and she has many relatives in the North of India. Q2. What challenges might each candidate encounter in the position? The new assignment might be very challenging for Atasi Das as she has no experience of the Indian work environment. Her earlier assignments in staff and line positions may not help her in the role of managing director of the Indian division, as profile of the managing director is totally different from her previous and current job rankings. Ravi Desai has been in the position of assistant managing director of Southeast Asian markets for production and sales only. Managing the functions singularly of all departments might be challenging for him. Tom Wallace has experience of only technical and sales portfolios of TCT, which might be challenging in taking the overall in charge of the Indian division because of little experience in other areas. Brett Harrison has been in supervisory roles and is fine-tuned to take senior level responsibilities but the rank of managing director might prove to be too high with the related challenges. Jalan Bukit Seng also falls short because of his sigular expertise in assembly operation, which has been outside india. Saumitra Chakraborty although might be the most suitable man for the post of managing director of TCT because of his profile of assistant to the outgoing managing director besides functioning competently in operations, customer relations and to some good extent the employee relations but lacking in direct-line experience might prove a big hurdle to the responsibilities attached with the rank of managing director. Q3. How might TCT go about minimizing the challenges facing each candidate? For minimizing the challenges facing all candidates, the TCT should conduct a small orientation program customized to sharpen the management skills attached to the role of managing director. Other than Saumitra Chakraborty no other candidate has the acumen of job functions related to the rank of managing director. Saumitra should be given a chance of functioning in direct-line while the nominated candidate Atasi Das should be given different portfolios before directly assigned to India posting. Ravi Desai should be given an opportunity to work as an assistant to managing director of a global division before assigning him the new rank so that challenges could be managed with expertise. Likewise Ravi Desai, Tom Wallace should also undergo the same experience to enable challenges as both have expertise of production department, sales department and technical departments, bringing them in-line for similar tuning. Considering the case of Brett Harrison, he should be appointed assistant to managing director for 2 years before promoting him to the rank of managing director. Jalan Bukit Seng should be given an assignment based on his line of expertise in Indian operations besides some two-to-three other portfolios to reduce the risk attached with the new assignment before considering him for the new job. Q4. Should TCT offer all candidates the same compensation package? If not, what factors should influence the features of each package? All candidates should not be offered the same package. The compensation package should be determined on the basis of each candidate’s previous work experience and appraisals done before as based on their performance in their area of expertise. Education should also be a governing parameter other than related and not-related job experiences. Previous rank and compensation should be a consideration in awarding a compensation package. Q5. Returning to material covered in Chapter 15, specifically that dealing with the idea of a matrix organization, do you see any benefit to appointing two of the individuals described here to the post? Operationally, one individual would be in charge of internal affairs, and the other would manage external affairs. What might be the benefits and problems with this arrangement? In Chapters 15, the functional structure of the organization, crucial to developing a global strategy and attain cost leadership in the context of local responsiveness is discussed. The matrix organizational structure is one of the common organizational structures for global business, as shown below. In the matrix structure strategies are formulated to attend to pressures for global integration and local answerability at the same time. This format of organizational structure offers the advantage of functional and divisional structures. In stead of ignoring the stakes of any one against the other, the matrix structure provides the advantages of both. As per its functionality, reporting is made to more than one division out of functional, product or geographical division structures, providing a common focus to all. Benefits to this arrangement where a country division like India has two bosses at the rank of managing director, one would manage the business function while the other would oversee the stakes of the specific product. Such a relationship between different structures has related benefits and drawbacks. Sharing responsibility between different stakes encourages “knowledge generation and decision making relationships.” As per the matrix structure, different organizational groups –product, functional, or geographic -- bargain resources and payoffs. Quoting the example of Dow Chemical’s operations in Mexico, the two groups, namely the functional group into manufacturing and the product group such as industrial chemicals bargain the organization for beneficial functions. As a result, the matrix structure becomes the catalyst for systematizing business activities in such a way that accommodates and harmonizes quality parameters with the pressures of particular environment. TCT can also leverage by appointing two of the candidates for internal and external matters. Like it can appoint Saumitra Chakraborty for internal matters of the Indian division of TCT for his experience and competency in operational matters and customer relationship management besides employee relations, and his ranking of assisting the job functions of the departing managing director in India. For external matters, Atasi Das could be the right alternative because of her experience in strategic planning. She has handled the product group efficiently for two years. Problems with such an arrangement can emerge in dispute resolution, misbalancing the matrix center in favor of one or the other group, creating harsh environment. It can happen over the competition for resources and payoffs. Intervention by the top management can cause delay in taking decisions. The opposing group of middle level managers could find the behavior of management partial to one group. In the context of TCT, operations functions team could feel that the attitude of production group is biased. General opinion of staff could change on the power of the matrix structure, not in the locus of the matrix but with a specific group. Selfish motives and unsupervised opportunistic behavior can come in the way of cooperation between the two groups managing internal and external matters of the firm. Such inclinations can affect the knowledge sharing and decision making relationships that are leveraged from the matrix structure. Read More