The Chain of Command Concept Essay Example
The Chain of Command Concept Essay Example

The Chain of Command Concept Essay Example

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  • Pages: 6 (1629 words)
  • Published: May 25, 2017
  • Type: Essay
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Chapter Eight (Organizing Principles) Application Case: “Merlin Needs a Magician” 1)For each of the four situations noted, what organizational concepts apply? Identify the concept and explain the related problem. -Two welders, unable to get a decision from their supervisor, requested time off. One welder had a dentist appointment and the other needed to leave early to pick up an anniversary present.

The “Chain of Command” concept relates to this problem because the “Chain of Command” carries orderly progressions up and down the chain for both decision making and communication to occur, in this particular situation it is a concern and problem because the line is clearly broken (within the “Chain of Command”) (hierarchy) not allowing for the proper formal decision making process and communication to occur. A review of the previous day’s shipping log revealed that nothin

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g had been shipped. The reason: a customer had called about a bottom bracket --- the place where the bicycle pedals attach--- which made the customer’s $4,000. 00 bike useless. The customer service department had the authority to stop everything to solve the customer’s problem. In this case, it meant turning off the final threading machine for a day, which brought the shipments to a halt.

The “Line and Staff” concept would apply the most in this situation because it relates directly with the organizational process to the “staff” department communicating to the “line” (production) department (through advice, service, assistance) instead of the “staff” and “line” working as its own entity so to speak and causing an organization to fail their main objectives. -After little discussion, Korenblat made a decision to redesign the brakes on road bikes, assuming it would be

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less expensive. Shortly after the first production run began, the person in charge of purchasing insisted on rehashing the decision.

It turned out that the new design would lead to a series of new expenses--- adding up to more than the expected savings. The “Unity of Direction” concept would relate the most to this situation. The whole attempt to have “Unity of Direction” is so that everybody who has a designated task assigned will perform best at that task if coordinated properly, allowing others who have might have more expertise in a particular task to perform at the task’s peak, (such as planning, organizing, and budgeting). All tasks are under one authority designated for that task, so order for all the plans can be successfully accomplished. In an effort to have employees make decisions and be more independent, the machine department was developing the production schedule, determining the size of the production runs, and coordinating the 35 operations in any given production run--- some of which were linear, others of which proceeded simultaneously. All went until the company approached a six-month backlog in seasonal business. To respond, Korenblat kept increasing the size of the runs--- “I know you made 200 57-centimeter road bikes last week, but this week we need 250 58-centimeter bikes. The result: the machine shop came to stand still, waiting for the next command. The “Unity of Command” concept is the most important in this situation because it is directly related to why organizations use such concepts when organizing a companies’ structure. Each person should be taking orders and reporting solely to one person; in order to guide a company to attempt to

develop any operating relationships. Key problem here is that the operation has stopped because there is not proper delegation amongst people allowing no “Unity of Command” to occur thus resulting in a standstill to the production process.

With no one particular task at hand solved, the effort to allow employees to make decisions is not feasible when the task rapidly changes with no support to follow such change. 2)As an advisor to President Ashley Korenblat, how would you resolve each problem? -Two welders, unable to get a decision from their supervisor, requested time off. One welder had a dentist appointment and the other needed to leave early to pick up an anniversary present I personally would use some authority to make sure the person who was assigned and delegated to this task was held accountable for their actions or lack thereof.

If the problem was due to a weak chain of command than I would insist that President Ashley Korenblat re-evaluate who she delegated authority to and try to remedy the responsibility that person had by assigning them to a different task that I knew they could perform decision making and proper communication skills needed. Without proper chain of command the problems within an organization can get tossed off, and not fixed, leading the company into the blind without any communication and asking for repeat of bad decision making. -A review of the previous day’s shipping log revealed that nothing had been shipped.

The reason: a customer had called about a bottom bracket --- the place where the bicycle pedals attach--- which made the customer’s $4,000. 00 bike useless. The customer service department had the authority to stop

everything to solve the customer’s problem. In this case, it meant turning off the final threading machine for a day, which brought the shipments to a halt. I would advise President Korenblat to make sure she had the “line” and “staff” departments operating in the proper organization of “Line and Staff Departments”. I would make it clear to not let anyone within the staff department (like a customer service rep. stop production completely rather than to communicate with the “line” department through service, advice, and/or assistance by letting them know what mechanism on the customer’s bike that may cause the bike not to operate properly. Perhaps consider a bit of “staff authority” to better assist the staff and the decisions they make regarding production problems. -After little discussion, Korenblat made a decision to redesign the brakes on road bikes, believing it would be less expensive. Shortly after the first production run began, the person in charge of purchasing insisted on rehashing the decision.

It turned out that the new design would lead to a series of new expenses--- adding up to more than the expected savings. My advice to President Korenblat would be to learn how to manage the proper organizing and planning of any new product to be able to meet the reason of the redesign in the first place. She should have been more responsible with the way these plans were implemented. My advice would be for Korenblat to take responsibility for not properly assigning people with the right expertise to carry out the redesign phase.

Also, I would also include my advice for her to find a different job that might allow one person

to handle an entire product redesign with proper planning techniques! When properly applying the “Unity of Direction” concept it can lead to problems that would have been detected. Had the organizing of tasks were handled in such an order to prevent such simple errors from going undetected and addressed, the company would not have incurred the implementation process costing the company more money and wasted time and effort.

Bottom line! She had a fiduciary responsibility as CEO to plan out redesign as well as cost comparisons with the old design and the new design instead of trying to micro manage the organization. Let the appropriately trained people do their work on this and bring the results to her, so that she may make a decision on the best road to take for redesign of the brakes. Maybe this CEO would be best suited in inventing not management? In an effort to have employees make decisions and be more independent, the machine department was developing the production schedule, determining the size of the production runs, and coordinating the 35 operations in any given production run--- some of which were linear, others of which proceeded simultaneously. All went until the company approached a six-month backlog in seasonal business. To respond, Korenblat kept increasing the size of the runs--- “I know you made 200 57-centimeter road bikes last week, but this week we need 250 58-centimeter bikes. ” The result: the machine shop came to s stand still, waiting for the next command.

My advice on this issue would be to apply the “Unity of Command” concept and to leave the decisions not up to many people but to one

person who can take orders and report to. By doing this, each task needed for the production would be handled with the attempt to develop a guide to operating relationships. If that concept was used in this situation I feel the increase in production could be handled better and with a “proper coordination of plans and establishment of authority” approach, each person/department would be doing all the necessary tasks to allow the operating and production to run smoother.

Everyone would be working with each other in efforts to place the responsibility throughout, so everyone can focus on the coordination of all task(s) at hand to implemented and achieve success in such situations, and a sudden need for an increase in production would arise. If such concepts concerning major organizing and how they influence the decisions made are applied correctly than this should align the company for better communication and more teamwork (causing less problems with production and communication throughout the company) vs. ork overloads on certain departments, employees, and managers that aren’t feasible or well organized. (Which cause financial loss, wrong choices, and scattered responsibility to be made and ultimately effects the operation of the company’s infrastructure and the way it is able to operate accordingly). Responsibility requires one to ensure all the tasks needed to be accomplished are handled with the proper delegation and organization structures. Failure to do so should hold the person responsible accountable for any benefits or problems that occur.

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