Littleton Manufacturing

Littleton Manufacturing facilitates poor upward and downward communication throughout all levels of the organization.

As a result of the ineffective communication system, Littleton faces a number of issues which ultimately has affected the bottom line of the company. Key challenges to note are low employee morale, low level of unity within the organization, poorly designed organizational structure and confusion in interpreting procedures and rules. Improving the accuracy and speed of the flow of communication should be an important first step in the resolution of the presented issues, thus allowing the organization to function more effectively and efficiently.

The importance of organizations and their reasons for existence are outlined in Exhibit 1. Littleton currently is performing poorly across all of these factors, decreasing their importance and contribution towards society. Littleton is categorized as a large-batch, mass production manufacturing system (Daft, 246). Based on this, Littleton should be, but arenЎЇt carrying out properly, a mechanistic organizational structure with standardized jobs and formalized procedures to ensure efficiency (Daft, 248). Top management seems to be aware of this point, but they are not communicating the rationale and need for a mechanistic structure to the rest of the organization.

LittletonЎЇs two units (fabrication and components) serve different domains and therefore Ў°have different performance and accountability needsЎ±. Although these two units obviously require different structures, they are viewed and treated as one by management and employees, which causes communication barriers through inconsistencies in management style and rule implementation.

All three symptoms of structural deficiency are present at Littleton. There is delay and lack of quality in decision making. Information linkages in either the vertical or horizontal direction may be inadequate to ensure decision quality (Daft, 120). The organization does not respond innovatively to a changing environment, this is caused by the fact that departments are not coordinated horizontally (Daft, 120). Also, too much conflict is evident. Organization structure has to specify a single set of goals for the entire organization (Daft, 120).

Littleton seems to have a lack of strategic direction. Ў°One of the primary purposes of a mission statement is to serve as a communication toolЎ± (Daft, 55). A mission statement can clearly communicate what the goals of Littleton are and what it hopes to achieve in the long run. All employees should have a clear idea of LittletonЎЇs operative goals. All levels can benefit from both a mission statement and goals, as they will provide direction and motivation and give everyone a standard of performance to try to achieve.

An organization should be designed to provide both vertical and horizontal information flow as necessary to accomplish the organizationЎЇs overall goals (Daft, 88). A balance needs to be achieved. Littleton should focus more on vertical linkages because of the emphasis on efficiency in manufacturing firms, however horizontal linkages are also needed to communicate and coordinate across departments. Through these linkages, the lack of unity will be alleviated to a degree within Littleton.

The lack of unity can also be attributed to organization differentiation. Differentiation is the differences in cognitive and emotional orientations among managers in different functional departments, and the difference in formal structure among these departments (Daft, 146). Differentiation and integration, which is the coordination among departments (Daft, 147) need to be balanced to match LittletonЎЇs environment and characteristics.

Communication of upcoming change at Littleton is poorly managed. Ў°Implementation is the most crucial part of the change process, but it is also the most difficultЎ± (p423) Following the three stages of the Change Commitment Process, will enable Littleton employees to better cope with changes. (p 425) The first stage is preparation,