Intel

Organizational Change of Intel

Throughout the years organizations have had to makes changes due to the ever changing world of business. With globalization taking place and the advancement of technology in order to stay competitive business have had to keep up with changes or get left behind. "Historically, our industrial wealth has been built on the exploitation and depletion of our natural resources".... However, with the recent technological advances and increases in global developments the very foundation of the economy is changing. "Rather than raw materials or physical assets, knowledge is now hailed as the new source of wealth and the basis for competitive advantage. But to leverage knowledge assets, we must fundamentally transform the way we organize and use this most human of resources" (Lancourt & Savage, 1995). Following, this paper will discuss the Intel Corporation, a company that has made this change in recent years.

For many years under the direction of founder and former CEO Andrew Grove the Intel Corporation has thrived. However, what worked for many years under Groves era may not work for the coming years and new CEO, Paul Otellini, knows this and decided to make a change in the Intel Corporation. In January 2006 Otellini made his announcement telling company execs and employees of Intel that change was coming. Not only change in product and marketing but change in the culture of Intel. According to an article in BusinessWeek, this change created angst among some employees and has lessened employee morale throughout many of the engineering teams. Under Grove's command Intel had a more traditional model where the company was considered a "rough-and-tumble" place. Grove's motto was "Only the paranoid survive," and managers frequently engaged in "constructive confrontation," which any outsider would call shouting and where engineers "ruled the roost" (Edwards, 2006). Otellini is also looking to create more diversity by bringing in new people who have new skill sets. In addition to the reorganization he is making big changes in the way products are developed. While in the past engineers worked on ever-faster chips and then let marketers try to sell them, there are now teams of people with a cross-section of skills. Chip engineers, software developers, marketers, and market specialists all work together to come up with compelling products (Edwards, 2006). He is hoping that this new collaboration will bring about breakthrough innovations.

In order for the workforce to accommodate the new changes that Otellini intends to bring about they must be open to change and have the same vision and goals that Otellini has for Intel. The new teams developed by Otellini must also educated in skills that their previous position may not have required, such as critical thinking, problem solving, conflict management, negotiating skills, meeting and time management, and interpersonal communication skills (Clemens, 2007). As a corporation Intel must be able to define any new roles that employees have under Intel's new model and make employee satisfaction an important part of this change. This can be done by making sure that new collaborators have the same view of the organizations culture and structure. If this is not taking place then there could be delays in decision making which in turn will delay the ability to reach project goals in the time allotted. According to an article by Robert Cross, Organizational Change and Network Analysis, states that network analysis is an important aspect of a company's change efforts. If those in management know there are problems with information flow, problem solving, and decision making that hinder innovation but have trouble determining exactly what was wrong and how to fix it then analysis may help. "Assessing informal structure with different lenses - through both formal structures such as hierarchy and job position as well as through cultural values - gives insights that typical diagnostic processes would miss" (2006). Also in place at Intel is something they call "Org Health" it is a survey given to employees to help identify strengths and areas for improvement in their business groups and geographies, and to provide data for planning and continuous improvement. According to Otellini the surveys do help and he says, "We are using the wealth of data from these employee surveys to help improve satisfaction and retention. One specific outcome of the Org Health process in 2004 is a new Managing for Excellence program, which helps to ensure that employees have clear goals and priorities, and holds managers accountable for their performance as managers" (Global Citizenship Report, 2004). With these and other support systems in place the transition from a traditional organization to a modern or "platform" organization, as Otellini calls it, will happen a little more smoothly.

With this restructuring Otellini not only thinks it will help the company grow but also broaden its customer base by putting an emphasis on marketing that customers will understand.