Case Study

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Case Study

1. Jones and Shephard Accountant

The rearrangement that Jones and Shephard (J&S) undertook in their Information Services Division (ISD) meant that there would be significant changes to the department’s organizational structure (Kerzner 170). The abolishment of the associate director position would match the decision to lower the level of the secretary pool and two supervisory divisions. The position of associate director can be replaced with a sixth managerial position at the same level as that of the manager of operations. The new position would be called manager of general operations with the status of manager of operations being narrowed down to manager of accounting operations. Under this new structure, the manager of accounting operations would handle the supervisors of accounting services, cost accounting and general ledger. The manager of general operations would deal with the supervisors of tech writing and procedures. While, the head of administrative services dealt with the secretary pool as well as the supervisor of internal audit. Through the new structure, none of the managers is more powerful than the other is and they all control a proportional amount of the entire workforce.The managers of projects X and Y would remain at the same level.

The division director should introduce the new structure some time after the company announces his or her appointment instead of doing so on the same day. This will ease the process of change and protect the workers from the impact of an abrupt modification to the firm’s structure. Additionally, announcing the new structure later will give the company time to monitor the employees and see how they are dealing with the appointment. This can help the company make a rough prediction of how the employees will react to the changes in the firm’s management structure.

The new division director should bring in external specialists to provide input on the restructuring process. Using external specialists would be a good way of helping to create the new structure because it would prevent politics between the existing managers in the event that they have influence over the process. This means that the external help would substantially reduce the power politics in J&S. The director should also provide internal seminars to train the workforce on the new structure. Using an internal seminar would give the company a chance to apply the knowledge from the previous structure when trying to explain the new arrangement to the employees. Additionally, an internal seminar would make it possible for there to be dialogue between all of the parties involved as a way of resolving the internal conflict that may arise because of the rearrangement.

2. White Manufacturing

White manufacturing underwent changes to its organizational structure that saw the abolishment of some positions along with the introduction of new ones. With the new structure, the company changed its chain of command with some workers having to follow new reporting procedures in the process of carrying out their work (Kerzner 185). The new department manager enforced the changes within the structure for two reasons. Firstly, the manager needed to go along with the decisions that the firm had made before appointing him. Even before it had appointed the manager, the company had already outlined changes to its structure. This implies that the decision was not fully dependent on the new department manager. Secondly, the manager was in a new position in a firm that he had just joined and in need of asserting his or her authority. By reorganization the firm’s structure, the manager was able to leave his or her mark on the company.

If I were one of the project managers, I would acclimatize myself to the new structure that the company introduced. This way it would take a short amount of time for me to get used to my new position at the firm. Conforming to the firm’s new structure would also mean that I would have a chance to construct a good working relationship with my new superior. This would be a better option than opposing him or her and affecting the way my subordinates and I do our work.

Work Cited

Kerzner, Harold R. Project Management: Case Studies. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013. Print.