Managing Across the Business

Running head: MANAGING ACROSS THE ORGANIZATION

Managing Across the Organization

Tokwiny Da-Thong

University Of Phoenix

Managing Across the Organization

Good Sport (GS), a Florida based manufacturer of fitness equipment has fifteen years of experience providing quality product to clients. In recent years GS has pioneered health awareness and the use of fitness equipment in hospitals, expanded into North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia providing equipment for clubs, hotels and residences. The latest fitness trend was identified by GS prompting the design of new equipment called the XtendSport, interactive holistic exercise equipment. The prototype has been developed by a new designer but has not yet been approved for production. Production, Research and Development (R & D), Sales and Marketing are the different department that need to be involved and approve this new equipment before it can go into mass production. There exists a certain political strategy at GS that a manager in R & D needs to identify in order to decide on the right strategy to pursue in getting approval and collaboration for this new equipment from all departments. The right strategy is the use of specific political tactics to increase power within the company to leverage decisions and develop allies which are dependant on the culture and structure of each department at GS.

“Organizational structure refers to the division of labor as the patterns of coordination, communication, work flow and formal power that direct organizational activities” McShane & Von Glinow, 2004, p.446). Each of the four departments at GS have a specific group of tasks that are performed on a daily basis each of which are undertaken due to their importance. R&D does all of the market research on customer needs, and comes up with a prototype design to meets those needs. Form prototype to production is a very long and intense and sometimes stressful journey because it is dependant on the culture and politics of the organization as a whole and the other departments. With the prototype available, marketing needs to be familiar with the product in order to come up with a plan to introduce it to the public. Sales need to also be familiar in order to answer any questions that may arise about the use of the product and production finally is responsible for mass production. With each department’s objective different and specific it is an iterative process that takes coordination, communication of all involved. Each department possess a different level of power that is exercised at different times making it easier of difficult for the other to accomplish their tasks.

Power for the most part is used as leverage to prioritize projects and tasks within the organization. By exercising this, a department can create allies and obstacles for present and future projects. “Organizational Culture is the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values, and beliefs governing the way employees within an organization think about and act on problems and opportunities”(McShane & Von Glinow, 2004, p. 476). Both the organizational culture and structure are related in the sense that it is within the structure that communication and workflow exists which incorporates power as in influencing factor which creates a culture wherein employees respond either in favor or against the day to day workings within the organization.

“Power is the capacity of a person, team or organization to influence others”(McShane & Von Glinow, 2004, p.358). Power at GS is exists at different levels of management and department as opportunities become available due to performance. Being promoted form Senior Manager (R&D) to Vice President (VP) comes as a welcomed challenge but not without a new set of challenges form the CEO, Peers and Subordinates. The CEO exerts more power over the newly appointed manager influencing some of his decisions because she feels that he does not fully understand his responsibilities in his new position. This undermines his authority authority and presents a problem with a delicate feel. The next job up is the CEO seeing that she is his direct supervisor it would be wise for him to maintain