Assignment:
"Analyzing Managerial Decisions: Eastman Kodak"
"Analyzing Managerial Decisions: Medford University"
"Analyzing Managerial Decisions: Chapter 14 Bagby Copy Company"
"Analyzing Managerial Decisions: Granting Stock Options"
Case Study: Eastman Kodak
1. What factors motivated Kodak to change its organizational architecture?
2. What mistakes did Kodak make in changing its architecture?
3. What might it have done differently?
4. How does this example relate to the concept of economic Darwinism?
Medford University
1. Why did President Kobayashi appoint a task force to consider the issue of fringe benefits? She could have asked the university's human resources department to design a plan.
2. Should the president anticipate that all members of the task force will strive to cut university expenses? What actions can the president take to increase the likelihood that the task force members have this objective as a major priority?
3. Why did the president appoint the administrator of the hospital as the chair of the task force? The chair, in turn, has delegated much of the work to subcommittees (a health insurance committee, a retirement committee, and so on). What advice would you offer the chair in appointing subcommittee chairs? Explain.
4. Does the president want to commit to accepting the committee report or does she want to reserve the right to make modifications? Explain.
5. Why did the president appoint a key assistant as secretary of the task force?
Bagby Copy Company
1. What are the trade-offs that Bagby faces in choosing between specialized and broad task assignment?
2. What are the trade-offs between these two methods of grouping wire harness makers into subgroups?
3. Which trade-offs does Bagby face in choosing among the country, product, and matrix forms of organizing its international operations?
Structuring Compensation Plans
1. Why do you think the compensation plans differ at the two firms? In particular, why do you think Kaufmann's pays commissions to salespeople, while Parkleigh does not? Why does Parkleigh offer employees discounts on purchases, while Kaufmann's does not?
2. Assume, for the moment, that neither store pays sales commissions. Parkleigh offers an hourly wage plus the employee discount. Kaufmann's offers only an hourly wage. Do you expect Kaufmann's hourly wage to be higher or lower than Parkleigh's? Why?
Granting Stock Options"
1. Critically evaluate the proposed stock plan.
2. Discuss other ways that Bobby Jones might motivate increased effort at the units.