Leading Change; Good Sport

Leading Change

Good Sport is a sporting goods company looking to increase revenue and expand its market value through various business initiatives. As the company changes and evolves, the members of the organization face several challenges. Throughout this paper, we will examine the organizational structure, organizational culture, and how these concepts are related. We will also determine if the structure and culture of Good Sport are compatible. Next, we are challenged with identifying power structures and politics within Good Sport. We will determine if these issues are a result of the structure and culture of Good Sport. We will use these concepts to determine why the manager chose to take various actions. In this paper, we must also determine what change initiative and leadership style would be most effective to inducing positive change. By examining these last two concepts, we hope to determine the best strategy for dealing with conflict management to enhance performance. Additionally, we will determine the best techniques for dealing with employee resistance to change and conflict management.

Organizational Structure

The structure of the Good Sport is hierarchical. At the bottom of the leadership pyramid are the team managers, followed by the senior managers. The third level of the pyramid is composed of vice presidents for the various departments in the company. The VPs report directly to the CEO. In the hierarchical structure, all employees know where they fit in the organization and who they report to. An employee's position on the on the pyramid also determines the level of legitimate power and responsibility that person has in the organization.

Furthermore, the company is divided into four departments that are assigned various tasks within the organization. The four departments are production, research and development, sales and finance. Each section has its own independent goals that support the overall organizational goals. Although the teams work independently, they rely on one another's skill and knowledge to complete larger objectives. For example, the production department cannot make a new product until the research and development department designs it. Additionally, tasks and responsibility are assigned to each department based on the specific skills required to perform those tasks. An example of this is that one would expect to find fitness experts, physiologists and scientists in the research and development department.

Organizational Culture

Good Sport has a strong culture of success. This fact is illustrated in the fact that

they are the leading the industry in sales and development. Culture refers to the shared meanings or interpretations that are tacit and unique to group or organizational members. These shared ideas influence the actions of the members of an organization. "Culture incorporates a set of assumptions, beliefs, and values that organizational members share and use to guide their functioning" (Gordon, 1999, p 343). At Good Sport, the CEO had set clearly defined goals and expectations for each of the departments. Another illustration of organizational culture comes from an issue that a middle manager faced in the company. A middle manager of Good Sport was tasked with getting support from various departments to bring a new product into the market. Before the manager could hope to expand in the market, the manager needed support from each of the departments within the company. In order to accomplish this task, it was important for the middle manager to understand the organizational culture of each department when approaching them with this new concept. For example, the Production department was impressed by facts and preferred to offer opinions at the prototype stage (UOPO, 2006). In dealing with them, the manager decided to first present them with the prototype and note that product could be made with existing technology. Additionally, the manager chose to invite inputs from the team regarding the various types of materials and the best production techniques to manufacture this product. In contrast, the sales department work culture was more informal. They preferred to meet outside of work and were inspired by corporate icons. This is why the manager decided to invite the department to dinner with the sales department vice president to discuss the new product. By inviting the department to discuss the new product outside of work, he built a rapport with the team. The manager also gained the department's trust and respect by sharing with them the special interest that the CEO had taken in this project. In both the production department and sales department, understanding their corporate cultures allowed the manager to know which tactics would work best to convince them that supporting the new product would be in the best interest of the company. Ultimately, both departments supported the production of the new product. In the case of Good Sport, the culture were related to the mission orientated structure of the company.

Organizational Structure and Culture

For Good Sport, the structure and culture of the organization are closely related. Since the culture of the organization is very task orientated, they are focused on increasing revenue to ensure their continued success and maintain their place in the industry. Each department wants to improve overall sales and support the expansion into other states. The culture is also very competitive. As we saw in the simulation, the junior manager was able to rise through the ranks to become CEO. The organizational culture of Good Sport is one that rewards hard work and success with promotions and pay raises. Part of the company's success comes from its strong culture. In real world businesses, an organization's mission statement can give a lot of information about an organization's beliefs. A great example comes from IBM. Their mission statement notes that "At our core, we are a technology company with an overriding commitment to quality" (Gordon, 1999, p 603). Even though the company has a large and vague mission statement, various departments within the company have their own more specific mission and culture. This is also true of the Good Sport company.

Power Structures and Politics

At Good Sport there are built-in power structures at each level of leadership in the organization. "Managers use power and politics to coordinate and support the work of organization members to meet organizational objectives" (UOPO, 2006). The VPs are given legitimate power based on their high rank and