Review Chapter 9

Organizational Agility

The Responsive Organization

The formal structure is put in place to control people,decisions,and actions. But in today’s fast changing business environment, responsiveness, agility, the ability to adapt to changing demands-is more vital than ever to a firm’s survival. The mechanic organization a form of organization that seek to maximize internal efficiency. The organic structure an organizational form that emphasizes flexibility.

Strategy and Organizational Agility

·         Organizing around Core Capabilities

A recent, different, and important perspective on strategy and organization hinges on the concept of core competence. A core competence gives value to customers, makes the company’s products different from and better than those of competitors, and can be used in creating new products. Think of core competencies or core capabilities as the roots of competititveness and products as the fruits.

·         Strategic Alliances

A strategic alliances is a formal relationship created with the purpose of joint pursuit of mutual goals. In a strategic alliance, individual organizations share administrative authority, from social links, and accept joint ownership.

·         The Learning Organization

A learning organization is an organization skilled at creating,acquiring, and transferring knowledge, and at modifying its behavior to reflect new knowledge and insights.

·         The High-Involvement Organization

In a high-involvement organization, top management ensures that there is consensus about the direction in which the business is heading. The leader seeks input from his or her top management team and from lower levels of the company.

Organizational Size and Agility

      The Case for Big

Bigger was better after World War II, when foreign competition was limited and growth seemed limitless. Size creates scale economies; that is,lower costs per unit of production. Size also creates economies of scope; in which materials and processes employed in one product can be used to make other related products.

      The Case for Small

But a huge, complex organization can find it hard to manage relationships with customers and among its own units. As customers demand a more diverse array of high-quality, customized products supported by excellent service, giant companies have begun to stumble.

      Being Big and  Small

Small is beautiful for unleasing energy and  speesd. But in buying and selling, size offers market power. The challenge, then, is to be both big and small to capitalize on the advantages of each. Downsizing is the palnned elimination of positions or jobs. Rightsizing a succesful effort to achieve an appropiate size at which the company performs most effectively.

Customers and the Responsive Organization

·         Customers Relationship Management, A multifaceted process focusing on creating two-way axchanges with customers to foster intimate knowledge of their needs, wants, and buying patterns.

·         Total Quality and Six Sigma,Total Quality management is a way of managing in which everyone is committed to continous improvement of his or her part of the operation. Six sigma quality A method of systematically analyzing work processes to identify and eliminate virtually all cause of defects, standardizing the processes to reach the lowest practicable level of any cause of customer dissatisfaction.

·         ISO 9001, A series of quality standars developed by a committee working under the international organization for standardization to improve total quality in all businesses for the benefit of producers and consumers.

·         Reengineering, Ofrten requires a fundamental change in te way the parts of the organization work together.

Technology and Organizational Agility

Technology can be viewed as te metods,, processes, systems, and skills used to transform resources( inputs) into products (outputs).

1.       Types of Technology Configurations: small batch technologies, Large batch Technologies and continous process technologies.

2.       Organization for Flexible Manufacturing: Computer-integrated manufacturing, Flexible Factories, and Lean Manufacturing.

3.       Organizing for Speed: Time- based Competition

-          Logistics: the movement of the right goods in the right amount to right amount to the right place at the right time.

-          Just in time operations: A system that calls for subassemblies and components to be manufactured in very small lots and delivered to the next stage of the production process just as they are needed.

-          Concurrent Engineering: A desiggn approach in which all relevant functions cooperate jointly and continually in a maximujm effort aimed at produsing high-quality products that meet customers’ needs.