1. Corporate (or Organizational) Culture: What is it? How would you describe corporate culture? Is it a positive or negative force for the firm/organization, owners/funders, employees, suppliers, and other stakeholders? How can corporate culture affect productivity? What is its source of generation? Does it just emerge, or is it cultivated? How can corporate culture affect the productivity of the organization? Share your thoughts and examples.
2. Teams equal Productivity?
Prominent business professors, management consultants, motivational speakers, and firms have lauded the productivity of teams, compared with the results of decision making by individuals. They suggest most firms and organizations have failed to properly use teams. How does this observation strike you? Does it describe your experiences with team versus individual tasking and performance?
How many times have you been on either side, as a team member or an individual? What were your experiences with team versus individual tasking and performance?
3. C. Assignment of Decision Making
Decision management, decision control, and specific knowledge/information are important items for consideration in the process of assigning decision rights. Under what circumstances, if any, would you find it optimal to assign the management and control of decisions to a single individual? Are there any upsides or downsides with the assignment of decision rights which would cause you to prefer either an individual or a team assignment? How could the assignment of power to an individual or a team ameliorate the downside of tasking the decision making to that party? What qualifications (or criteria) would you expect a person to satisfy before you assign decision rights to that person?