General Electric Case Study

General Electric

1. Do you think that GE’s approach to succession management would work for all organizations? Why or why not? 

No, it wouldn’t work for all other organization because small companies are not like General electric where is well structured and promotion of employees is easy where predetermined positions are automatically filled by employees. The firm is very large as the employees can be moved from one stage to another stage of the organization. Finally, different firms have different cultures and the GE’s culture may be much more different from other type or size of organizations. As for the individuals who study and help official moves, following quite a while of disregard, it about time corporate leaders began concentrating on passing the baton.  A smooth and efficient CEO move, they said, can be the difference between effectively moving an organization into its next stage and any number of fiascos, including profitability misfortunes, the disintegration of shareholder confidence and representative withdrawal. GE is generally perceived and regarded for its initiative ability and its progress in administration framework.  One of the best cases of progress in the management is the way GE's previous CEO, Jack Welch molded the organization's rationality, practice, and notoriety for creating leaders.  In a 1991 talk, Welch expressed, "Starting now and into the foreseeable future, picking my successor is the most essential choice I'll make."  GE's dedication to creating leaders from inside has produced positive results for both the organization's workers and for GE.  The system has been successful to the point that it's been generally imitated by other worldwide associations.  The approach might work for some organizations but it will depend on the leadership and management structure of the respective organizations.

1. What are some possible disadvantages of moving people to new jobs every two to three years?

Limited exposure in the different levels due to limited period for employees to gain enough experiences in particular levels of operations. Some of the employees may not adapt to the new working environments quickly. This will reduce the productivity of individual employees. The employees may also not work hard in their current position because they know that after two or three he or she will be transferred into a higher position.  Change of the environment will also affect the performance of the companies as the employees will not be able to work on their new developed skills and experience.  The experience and knowledge of the employees is likely to be tampered with during the shifting from one department to the other or from one job to the other. With job rotation in place, employees can move around and avoid falling into a rut in one position. Over time, employees develop more skills in a wider array of positions. This provides job stability and equips them for better opportunities to earn promotions. All of these advantages, and better overall development, makes employees more valuable to their employers. This is considered as an effective tool for successful implementation of HR strategy. It is about settling employees at the right place where they can deliver the maximum results. In today’s highly competitive world, this can be proved as the best strategy to find the immediate replacement of a high-worth employee from within the organization. Finding the most suitable people and shifting them to take on the responsibilities of a higher level is a tough task. This method which is used by GE helps HR managers determine who can be replaced by whom and create a suitable and beneficial fit. The second advantage of job rotation is increased employee satisfaction. Business owners know that when employees are not satisfied with professional endeavors, they feel demotivated, unhappy, and irritated, which are detrimental to productivity. However, by allowing employees to engage in job rotation, employees are likely to experience greater satisfaction by identifying strengths and weaknesses. Furthermore, employees are able to test many positions and subsequently focus on rotating between positions that enhance performance capacity, which increases their sense of worth and importance within the company.