Relate Microsoft’s problems with its control and evaluation systems to each of the stages of growth in Greiner’s model.
Greiner’s model of organizational growth describes the five distinct phases that organizations go through (Jones, 2010). Each stage is composed of a period of relatively stable growth, followed by a crisis that must be overcome in order to move on to the next stage.
Stage 1: Growth Through Creativity
In the first stage of growth, the founders of an organization develop skills and create new products. Learning is a huge component of this phase of organizational growth. Entrepreneurs learn what works and what doesn’t. People’s behaviors are governed by organizational culture rather than by hierarchy (Jones, 2010).
As the organization grows in this stage, the entrepreneurs must learn how to manage the organization. It is at this point that a crisis of leadership emerges. In the beginning, the organizational is so busy getting started and developing new products and markets that they fail to understand the importance of managing the organizational resources. The crisis can be averted, and growth can continue to stage two, if the organization can learn the skills necessary to manage the organization.
For Microsoft, I would opine that this stage in Microsoft’s development was in the early years as Jones (2010) states, “from the beginning Microsoft organized its software engineers into small work groups and teams . . . (to) speed the development of innovative software.” Microsoft has been around since the 1970’s and if they had not learned how to manage the organization, Microsoft would have not grown into one of the largest software manufacturers in the world.
Stage 2: Growth Through Direction
The new m...
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...ctional manager which means they have divided loyalty and must keep balanced. Employees are shifted from team to team depending on where their talents are most needed at any given time. This makes the matrix structure organic rather than mechanistic in nature.
Another change I would recommend for Microsoft would be to lose their formalized structure and rely more upon self-control and discipline. This type of structure can be accomplished most effectively by changing the organizational culture and fostering the belief that each individual and their team is the most important component of the organization. By fostering a sense of responsibility and discipline, Microsoft can loosen some its more rigid control structures that currently exist.
Works Cited
Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational theory, design, and change. 6th Ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2013). Reframing Organizations (5th ed.). San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
Spector, B. (2013). Implementing organizational change: theory into practice. (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ
Tuckman maintains that during the forming stage individuals are compelled by a need for approval and avoiding conflict and controversy. They are discovering information about each other, the scope of the project, and the approach they will use. (University of Washington, 2013) For the most part I found this to be true. For us the forming stage lasted until December.
(2014) is “the way in which leaders interact, make decisions, and influence others in the organization” (p 237). The culture needs to foster cooperation from all areas of an organization, while providing the ability for adaptation and growth. Not all organizations culture will be the same, there is not a correct one that can blanket all organizations to cozy success. (3) Talent Systems. Human capital drives all organizations, the right people need to be in the right jobs with the correct opportunities for growth and advancement. There must be a constant search for strategic thinkers and leaders able to step up with called upon. The authors mention “Talent Sustainability” (p. 248), there must be enough qualified employees ready to move up so the organization will not stall while searching for others to replace others due to attrition, or other opportunists. (4) Organizational Design, must take a number of variables into account while providing structure to an organization. Hughes et al. (2014) state “the design of the organization is a trade-off between options, each with advantages and disadvantages” (p 253). The correct design can help clear the hierarchy of an organization and the proper channels for
Lorsch, J. W. (1987), “Organisation Design: A Situational Perspective”, Academy of Management Review, January Issue, pp. 117 – 132.
Microsoft’s mission of placing a “PC running Microsoft software on every desk and in every home” drove their overall strategy early on. Depending on the business segment within Microsoft, one would see in place very different business models as the strategy for each line of business could vary. In the operating system (OS) segment, Microsoft initially brought in an existing product and modified this (MS-DOS) to work with the Intel microprocessor, which were the “brains” of the IBM PC. Microsoft partnered with IBM to provide the operating system for the IBM PC. In addition to developing Windows, Microsoft during this period was working to write applications for the Apple OS.
Van de Ven, A.H. and Poole, M.S. (1995) ‘Explaining development and change in organizations’ Academy of Management Review, 20/3, 510-40
Bolman, L. G., & Deal, T. E. (2008). Reframing organizations. San Francisco: John Wiley & Sons.
Microsoft is currently the largest company in the computer industry. With a market capitalization of $291 billion, Microsoft has built an empire by dominating software sales for personal computers. Stock growth over the past 25 years has increased by more than 30,000%. However, Microsoft’s growth has substantially decreased since the market collapse of 2001(Niemond 25 April 2007).
COGHLAN, D (1994) ‘Managing organizational change through groups and teams,’ Leadership and Organization Development Journal 15(2): 18-23
Michael Cusumano writes an article titled, Technology Strategy and Management the Legacy of Bill Gates, focusing on Gates’ core reasons for developing Microsoft, how he managed his company and collaboration decisions with other companies. Cusumano begins by stating that because Gates is retired, it is safe to evaluate what makes him an ultimate legacy. He continues on by mentioning talents and, organized in steps, the visionary thoughts for Microsoft from Gates. So, from Gates being a pronounced hacker, work positions in the company today, to a short comparison with Apple; Cusumano points out how well Gates has built his company with little to no experience of running a huge technology company.
Matrix structure is first introduced in the aerospace industry in the 1960s and become one of the popular organizational design options in today’s business and industry (Derven & Alexandria, 2010). Burns and Wholey (1993) poinited out that matrix structure were used in advertising agencies, aerospace firms, research and development laboratories, hospitals, government agencies, and universities. Matrix structure is the combination of two or more different structures and take the advantages of the pure functional structure and the product organizational structure (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 497). The employees in the matrix may have two bosses: their functional department managers and their product managers. For example, all engineers may be in one engineering department and report to an engineering manager, but these same engineers may be assigned to different projects and report to a project manager while working on that project. In many organizations, a matrix structure is implemented to address the requirement to do more with less and become more agile. The matrix structure, which focuses on horizontal as well as vertical management, has become more widespread as a result of globalization and the...
Understanding the structure of an organization plays a vital role in laying the blueprint for how a company will be managed and organized. It provides a well-defined framework that outlines the roles and responsibilities of each employee in a particular company. It shows how each employee interacts and works one another in achieving the goals of a company. In other words, organizational structure is a reflection of the working relationships that govern the workflow of the company. It has a profound effect on a company’s structural dimensions, which includes formalization, specialization, hierarchy and centralization.
PRIMIS MNO 6202: Managing Organizations. 2007. The 'Secondary' of the ' Reprint of the book. McGraw-Hill Education, 2013.
Organizations must operate within structures that allow them to perform at their best within their given environments. According to theorists T. Burns and G.M Stalker (1961), organizations require structures that will allow them to adapt and react to changes in the environment (Mechanistic vs Organic Structures, 2009). Toyota Company’s corporate structure is spelt out as one where the management team and employees conduct operations and make decisions through a system of checks and balances.