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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4-page paper discusses three companies and talks about what types of organizational structures they have encompassed, and how such structures can change corporate culture. Bibliography lists 1 source.
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4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_MTcomstr.rtf
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based on those structures. All of the companies moved from the more traditional way of employee management to service teams, cross-functional product teams and others. The purpose of the teams
is to eliminate red tape and bureaucracy, and to help promote customer service in a more efficient and effective manner. When a potential
customer requested information about insurance coverage from Sun Life, the several steps it required resulted in lost business. Management reorganized the company into cross-functional product teams, in which employees from
sales, customer service, order fulfillment, and so on became members of "service teams." Rubbermaid, in an effort to streamline innovation, created 20 cross-functional
teams composed of five to seven people from marketing, manufacturing, R&D, finance, and other functions. Each team focuses its energies on a particular product line such as garden products,
bathroom products, or kitchen products. Owens-Corning, employs 100 people in its Tennessee plant, all reporting directly to the plant manager.
Employees are jointly responsible for all operational decision making, with plant managers stepping up to the plate only during times of crisis or when some potential conflict situations would need
sorting out. In these examples, what elements of organizational structure are managers working with to enhance performance and competitive advantage? Its interesting to
note that Sun Life, at least, moved from a functional structure (in which employees were grouped around one function) to a team structure. Functional structures tend to be what many
businesses follow these days (George and Jones 510). One element of organizational design represented in the above examples consists of market structure - in other words, grouping divisions into one
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