BUS 101 Ch 8----(part two)

Companies that are the most successful in adapting to change have these common traits:

(1) they listen to customers, (2) they have inspirational managers who drive new ideas throughout the orgs, and (3) they often have had a close call with going out of BUS.

Insourcing

Companies in other countries outsource their functions to companies in the US.

Benchmarking

Compares an organization's practices, processes and products against the world's best.

Formal org

Details lines of responsibility, authority, and position.

Outsourcing

If any orgs can't do as well as the best in, like shipping, it will try to outsource the function to an org like UPS or FedEx. Even small firms are involved in outsourcing. There is one downside to outsourcing, like outsourcing important work to outside firms. In that case, the org should benchmark the best firms and restructure its departments to be try to be equally good.

Benchmarking also has a more directly competitive purpose:

In retailing, Target may compate itself to Walmart to see what , if anything, Walmart does better. Target will then try to improve paractices or processes to become even better than Walmart.

The grapevine

In the informal org's nerve center. It is the system through which unofficial infor flows between and among managers and employees. Key people in the grapevine usually have considereable influence.

Restructuring

Is redesigning an org so it can more effectively and efficiently serve its customers.

----Creating a change-oriented organizational culture----

Is the widely shared values within an org that foster unity and cooperation to achieve common goals. Usually the culture of an org is reflected in its stories, traditions, and myths.

The key to a productive culture is....

Mutual trust.

Core competencies

Occurs when a firm has completed its outsourcing process, and the remaining functions are its core competenices. Those functions are ones that the company can do best or better than any other org in the world.

Disadvantages of the informal system

Often too unstructured and emotional to allow careful, reasoned decision making on critical matters. It's effective, however, in generating creative solutions to short-term problems and creating camaderie and teamwork among employees.

Digital natives

The internet created whole new opportunities. Digital natives are younger people that grew up with the internet and cell phones. On the other hand, companies need to retrain older employees to be more tech-savvy.

Informal org

The system that develops spontaneously as employees meet and form cliques, relationships, and lines of authority separate from the formal org. It's the human side of the org that doesn't show on any org chart.

----Restructuring for empowerment----

To empower employees, firms often must reorganize dramatically to make frontline workers their most important people.

Disadvantages of the formal system

Too slow and bureaucratic to let the org adapt quickly, although it does provide helpful guides and lines of authority for routine situations.

Us-versus-them system of organizations

Very old. It is when managers and employees were often at odds. This informal system hindered effective management. In more open orgs, managers and employees work together to set objectives and design procedures. Overall, informal orgs is good to promote harmony among workers and establish the corporate culture.

Inverted organization

An organization that has contact people at the top and the chief executive officer at the bottom of the organization chart (so, this time the frontline workers are at the top and the CEO is at the bottom). This time, managers have to assist and support frontline people, not boss them around.