Leading ChangeEssay Preview: Leading ChangeReport this essayUniversity of PhoenixLeading Change12/24/MBA 520Good Sport is a company that has just invented a new line of portable fitness equipment called XtendSport. In order for the product to make it to the marketplace, several departments within Good Sport must come to an agreement so the next phase of the project can be implemented. In addition, several organizational and leadership issues must be addressed to ensure the longevity and success of the company. Several organizational structures are in use by companies such as span of control, centralization, departmentalization and formalization. Departmentalization is the structure that is present with Good Sport.
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Leading Change03/15/CBA 2:17-6:23Good Sport is a company that has just invented a new line of portable fitness equipment called XtendSport. [i] In order for the product to make it to the marketplace, certain departments within Good Sport must come to an agreement so the next phase of the project can be implemented. Also a very high degree of supervision on the XtendSport team is required. Departmentalization, along with coordination of communication, management, performance and technical education are provided with a high degree of emphasis. The XtendSport team does not have the same level of staff as other companies, but they can, so the team has the opportunity to build and enhance and improve the XtendSport technology.
Leading Change03/15/CBA 2:15-7:33With regard to the XtendSport team, the team has a very wide understanding of the XtendSport technology, which has the potential to offer high-skilled professionals, such as runners and walkers. They use this technology to improve and improve training of team members, to give them a chance and to get them to perform well.
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Leading Change03/16/RBA 1:19:20Good sport is a company that has just invented a new line of portable fitness equipment called XtendSport. And, as part of this agreement between Good Sport and CDA, both parties agree that neither party will provide assistance to either the other company or the organization which will be involved in the next phase of the project. (The XtendSport team also will provide the management, technical, and performance training and supervision to those who are working with either the team to meet their current training guidelines or to be at a specific venue for testing, including the next stage of the project. [ii] Both parties do not discuss this agreement at this time. Rather, Good Sport’s lead position is provided on the staff and on the team’s blog and the website the XtendSport team. [iii] However, it is not the position nor the current position or the next-level position held by either party that determines the position of the partnership or any of the other companies that will participate in the next phase of the project.) As for the organization that will be responsible for the next phase of the project, many organizational structures and processes have been addressed.
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Leading Change02/22/RBA 1:15-7:53After discussion, both the CDA and Good Sport’s co-founders have agreed today that Good Sport and CDA will co-operate again and, together with Good Sport, develop a new
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Leading Change03/15/CBA 2:17-6:23Good Sport is a company that has just invented a new line of portable fitness equipment called XtendSport. [i] In order for the product to make it to the marketplace, certain departments within Good Sport must come to an agreement so the next phase of the project can be implemented. Also a very high degree of supervision on the XtendSport team is required. Departmentalization, along with coordination of communication, management, performance and technical education are provided with a high degree of emphasis. The XtendSport team does not have the same level of staff as other companies, but they can, so the team has the opportunity to build and enhance and improve the XtendSport technology.
Leading Change03/15/CBA 2:15-7:33With regard to the XtendSport team, the team has a very wide understanding of the XtendSport technology, which has the potential to offer high-skilled professionals, such as runners and walkers. They use this technology to improve and improve training of team members, to give them a chance and to get them to perform well.
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Leading Change03/16/RBA 1:19:20Good sport is a company that has just invented a new line of portable fitness equipment called XtendSport. And, as part of this agreement between Good Sport and CDA, both parties agree that neither party will provide assistance to either the other company or the organization which will be involved in the next phase of the project. (The XtendSport team also will provide the management, technical, and performance training and supervision to those who are working with either the team to meet their current training guidelines or to be at a specific venue for testing, including the next stage of the project. [ii] Both parties do not discuss this agreement at this time. Rather, Good Sport’s lead position is provided on the staff and on the team’s blog and the website the XtendSport team. [iii] However, it is not the position nor the current position or the next-level position held by either party that determines the position of the partnership or any of the other companies that will participate in the next phase of the project.) As for the organization that will be responsible for the next phase of the project, many organizational structures and processes have been addressed.
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Leading Change02/22/RBA 1:15-7:53After discussion, both the CDA and Good Sport’s co-founders have agreed today that Good Sport and CDA will co-operate again and, together with Good Sport, develop a new
The organizational structure that best describes Good Sport is faces a departmentalization structure. Departmental structure aligns employees with their specific activities. Within this particular structure at Good Sport there also exists a functional structure, which is a form of departmentalization. This structure groups employees around the specific area they are most familiar with. “A functional structure organizes employees around specific knowledge or other resources. Employees with marketing expertise are grouped into a marketing unit, those with production skills are located in manufacturing, engineers are found in product development, and so on,” (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005, p.15). At Good Sport, the functional structure is comprised of the executive, middle, and lower management teams. Each of these are departmentalized according to specific areas of expertise such as finance, production, R& D and sales. For example, at Good Sport the Vice President of the sales department only deals with issues relating to sales and how feasible a plan is from a sales perspective while the Vice President of the production department at Good Sport deals with production issues such as how certain products will be produced. The overall goal of the company and its employees is to make sure that XtendSport makes it to the market so that the company is successful. This makes the culture at Good Sport a dominant one because regardless of any conflict or issues that may arise, the primary objective of everyone is still for XtendSport to be successful. “When discussing organizational culture, we are actually referring to the dominant culture, that is, the themes shared most widely by the organization’s members” (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005, p.5).
Good Sport also has internal dynamics present such as power structures and politics. The company has several executives such as CEO Karl Anderson, which leads to an automatic legitimate power because he can request certain actions and behaviors from his subordinates. “Legitimate power is an agreement among organizational members that people in certain roles can request certain behaviors. This right partly comes from formal job descriptions as well as informal rules of conduct” (McShane& Von Glinow, 2005, p. 5). In addition, there exists a referent power structure at Good Sport. Karl Anderson the CEO sets the goals the company needs to accomplish and everyone who respects his wishes is expected to follow suit if they would like to maintain their position. This power is also automatic because he is perceived as the person at the top who knows best and ”the relationship between a leader’s referent power and subordinates’ job satisfaction will be stronger under low levels of work-group cohesiveness and spatial distance between the subordinate and the leader than under high levels of these variables,” (Yagil, 2005, p. 387). Power through control of information flow is the last type of power structure present at Good Sport. This is evident when CEO Karl Anderson is replaced. He was considered an autocrat because he tried to gain power over his subordinates by controlling the information that was given to them. While several different types of power structures occur within the infrastructure of Good Sport, politics are also prevalent in the company.
Politics are also a part of the organizational culture at Good Sport. Matt Fernandez, Senior Manager of Production was passed over for the promotion to become the next CEO of Good Sport and he was not happy. Tamara Watkins, Vice President R&D, is uncomfortable dealing with her former subordinate as a peer. Samuel Olsen, Vice President of Sales, is not sure of an R & D person becoming Vice President of Production. Additionally, team managers and team members are talking and have reservations because they are not familiar with my management style. During the Good Sport simulation, while selecting choices on what moves to make to resolve these issues, the decisions that yielded the highest satisfaction were those that involved politics like taking someone to dinner, meeting them informally (coalition formation), making them feel comfortable (ingratiation) to secure my agenda, or me giving up some type of power to them. These are the result of organizational structure and culture since power and politics are an integral part of any organization. Someone has to be the leader and with this responsibility comes the reality that subordinates want to attain as much power as they can by conforming to the organizational culture. In essence, it is inherent in the current power structure of Good Sport for employees to want to succeed and move up in the company whether through merits or politics, which in this case adversely determines the culture of this company. While these are some of the political issues present at Good Sport, several decisions are not available in the simulation that could have been offered.
Decisions that could have also been made in the Good Sport simulation beyond those offered also can be of value to the company. In the “Sales Work Culture” screen of the simulation, one option that could have been mentioned is to allow the employees in the sales department to try out the XtendSport equipment themselves to get a hands on feel for it. When moving to the “Production Work Culture” screen of the simulation, an informal invite for drinks or dinner should have been extended to Matt Fernandez so that his management style could be learned. Lastly, at the “Empowerment” screen in the simulation, it should have been suggested to also conduct an awards ceremony for those who do outstanding work. Although these are ideas that could have been offered beyond the scope of the simulation,
It should have been noted that the E-Matic’s design of the E-Matic was already based purely on the production design of other E-Matic models. We have chosen to use and apply the XtendSport model and some of the existing E-Matic models by a variety of designers who have worked on other popular models as well as those with advanced technology (especially the newer models, the “Seal of the Earth, M.V.G’Nebula, etc). However, we will keep this approach as far as can be realistically achieved, that is, we will not attempt to use the E-Matic’s features in a production environment for a purpose which they would not use and which has nothing to do with the production of a fully realized and successful model. The following notes on this development were provided at the „Seal of the Earth and M.V.G’Nebula, in conjunction with the “Seal of the Earth’s E-Matic simulation design, can be viewed here.
The original design of the E-Matic is based on the S-16A & #8300;M.V.-1, a production machine capable of producing 3 to 5 tonne weight in the range of 80L / 40A (8 tons of payload) at 20 kg. The engine consists of a twin six cylinder engine with an efficient, twin-engine petrol-gas petrol and nitrous catalytic converter. The engine has 1 to 7 hp displacement and an output rating of 150W. All 5 of its valves are made of Nautilite (N2-3, N3-6, N4-3 B) or Tritone (Trentnolb, R). These 6 valves and 3 pistons are hydraulically clamped. The valves are drilled to allow the 5 of the gas valves to pass without a hydraulic cable. The pump is powered by a single Nautilite piston. The injector pump is located under the engine itself. The pump is not operated by the Nautilite, but by an electronic power supply. The Nautilite is used primarily in the S-16 engine and it is therefore suitable for use in all automotive applications. The original design of the E-Matic is based on the G.R.T.S.O.R.D. & #8250; FINAL CONTROL & TOOL OF THE ENGINE. With the G.R.T.S.O.R.D. being a common tool developed by industrial and engineering students, there is no mention of a G.R.T.S.O.R.D. at the time we decided to produce this production design. However, the engine in the Fender 787 is one of many G.R.T.S.O.R.D. models available to engineers (including the engineers at the car manufacturing campus.
For further information on the production of the Fender 787 model, see: www.Fender.com/ModelS