Week 7

During week 7 we discussed different aspects of an organizations's structure. Aspects such as culture, characteristics, design and effectiveness.

Oraganizations need to be understood and intelligently managed because they are na ever-present feature of modern life. Whatever their purpose, all organizations exhibit four characterisitics: 1) COORDINATION OF EFFORT; 2) COMMON GOAL AND PURPOSE; 3)DIVISION OF LABOR, AND 4) HIERARCHY OF AUTHORITY. If even one of these characterisitscs is absent, na organization does not exist.

Line managers are in the formal chain of command and have decision making authority, whereas staff personnel provide advice and support.

Many factors, with global competition leading the way, are forcing management to reshapethe traditional pryramid bureaucracy. These new organizations are characterized by fewer layers, extrensive use of teams, manageably small subunits. Three emerging organizational configurations are the hourglass orgzanization, the cluster organization, and the virtual.

We also discussed a case about Toyota.

The case started with Toyota’s first exports to the U.S. which was two tiny sedans that left the port of Yokohama in August 1957. Then in 1960, Toyota realized it had made a mistake and pulled the Toyopet Crown off the market. However, Toyota came back a few years later with a better car and gone from strength to strength ever since. Today it is the world’s most profitable car automaker. It has a 15% market share in the U.S. Toyota has managed to survive discriminatory taxes, imports restraints, and the occasional xenophobic actions. Toyota has never been a style leader, but it discerned want people really needed. Toyota today employs 34,600 Americans directly and 400,000 more indirectly at suppliers and dealers. Every year they buy $28.5 billion in parts and materials from the U.S. suppliers. In a sense Toyota can look as American as apple pie, but when it comes down to the way it is managed they are a little different. Everything that is done here in the U.S. is closely watched by Japanese coordinators that reports to the headquarters in Japan.

The case was interesting, my knowledge about Toyota wasn’t great, but from the word of mouth I only hear good things about them. It was nice to have the opportunity to learn a little about their history and the steps they took to become one of the top car auto makers. I found it very effective the way they handle their business by having Japanese coordinators watching everything that goes on here and reporting it to headquarters. It’s a way to control the business better and make the necessary moves to change anything.