1. Discuss how organizational architecture and corporate culture are related. Use an example of a real-life firm and discuss how its corporate culture blends with its organizational architecture.
2. Billy Riggan is in charge of all technical developments at Always Round Tire. He makes all the choices concerning product innovations in the company. He finds that he is overworked and that several of his research scientists seem to be spending work hours playing tennis. What is going on?
3. Always Round Tire tries to base its promotions on seniority (where education and training requirements are not necessary). The company finds that this system seems to work most of the time with shop floor supervisors and team managers. But the system breaks down for higher-level positions. Why?
4. Economists believe the free rider problem is very important in complex business organizational structures. Still, businesses continue to build teams to solve problems or to deliver products to consumers. Often special rewards or bonuses are provided to the team rather than to the individuals on the team. Write a brief essay that either defends the economists' concern or explain why economists are wrong on this issue.
5. Many firms today use 360-degree performance evaluations. Make a case for this type of evaluation based on the informativeness principle. What problems may be encountered from implementation of such a system?
6. Reflecting on what you have learned in this course, discuss the relevance of Responsible Stewardship in the context of economic analysis and organizational architecture.
7. Choose a real-life example of a firm that you think is part of an oligopoly market and describe the characteristics of the market structure that explain why the firm would be classified as such.