Trojan Technology Inc. Case Analysis

Trojan Technology Inc Case Analysis

Crystal Willette

February 10, 2017

MGMT 4425 - Organizational Theory & Design

Northern Alberta Institute of Technology

Contents

Case Summary        2

Structural Dimensions        2

Specialization.        2

Hierarchy of authority.        3

Centralization.        3

Contextual Dimensions        4

Size.        4

Technology.        4

Culture.        4

Competitive strategy        5

Effectiveness of the Organization        5

Trojan’s Environment        6

Task Environment        6

Industry.        6

Market.        7

International.        7

General Environment        7

Financial Resources.        7

Technology.        8

Economic Conditions.        8

Government.        8

Environmental Uncertainty        8

Assessing Environmental Uncertainty Framework.        8

Mechanistic vs Organic.        9

Interorganizational Relationships        9

Organizational Design        9

International Strategy        10

Recommendations        10

References        12

Appendix 1        13

Appendix 2        14

Appendix 3        15

Case Summary

Trojan Technologies Inc. was faced with a tough issue on how they should structure their organization in a way that would benefit customer relationships as well as the substantial growth that they were dealing with. This company was founded in 1977, by three members who had a vision to develop UV technology to help with wastewater disinfection. This proved to be successful and by 1991, they had sales of more than $10 million. Each year the company continued to grow more and more, and by 1998, the company was faced with the issues of them developing too fast. Their key focus now needed to be on how they should structure in order to maintain a “…regional, team-based approach to customer interaction…[while] ensuring that the groups still operated as though they were one company, sharing knowledge and resources as appropriate” (Upton, 1999, p. 6).

Structural Dimensions

Using Exhibit 1.6 in the textbook, this section will help create a better understanding of the internal characteristics of the organization to determine the best structure they should consider implementing.

Formalization. Trojan appears to have no formal reporting methods, job descriptions, policies or procedures. This made it hard for the company to keep track of everything, and ensure that each task was being done appropriately and efficiently.

Specialization. Specialization of Trojan Technologies would be considered high since each section of the company is divided into specific aspects. Marketing, customer relations, engineering, etc., all had their specific department, and the employees that worked within it. In addition, as the company continued to grow they went from having only two employees into a department to at least 10, which made the departments more focused on their specialized task for each project. This meant that they were only able to finish their section of the project before they would have to turn it over to the next department so they could refocus their attention to the same section of a different project (Upton, 1999).  

However, one issue that Trojan was faced with was in terms of their “specialists” within the organization. There was no set way of knowing if they were actually specialized or not since anyone who had a bit of experience could become a ‘specialist’ at the company.

Hierarchy of authority. Trojan Technologies appears to have a wider range of control, and therefore a much flatter hierarchy of authority. This appears to be due to there being no distinguished levels of experience between new and veteran employees. This made it difficult to determine who had been in the company longer, and who had more authority over the other, since there was no recognition between the two.

Centralization. There is not much conclusive evidence to suggest what type of decision-making Trojan emphasizes. However, they are currently faced with an issue of “…determining what level of centralized support would be appropriate” (Upton, 1999, p. 6), which suggests that they currently have a more decentralized process right now. This will be a difficulty for them considering they will need to avoid duplication by head office of certain activities that should be handled by the regional managers instead (Upton, 1999). As mentioned previously, they wanted to have a regional team-based approach, while still ensuring that the decisions were made in unison as if only one person were making decisions.

Professionalism. Professionalism within Trojan Technologies had varying levels. Some departments such as service, would receive a formal training program to ensure that they could contribute with strong technical backgrounds and familiarity of the products. On the other hand, project engineers were not required to have any formal training or be apprenticed. The only thing they had to do was follow along and hope to pick up information as best as they could.

Contextual Dimensions

By looking at the contextual elements of Trojan Technologies we can gain an understanding of the elements that characterize the organization as a whole.

Size. As mentioned earlier, the organization started with only three people in 1977. By 1995, it had expanded substantially, and increased to 190 employees in the company. In 1998, they stated that they expected to quadruple to an estimated 1,000+ employees in 2003. (Upton, 1999)

Technology. Trojan Technologies started out as a metal toolbox fabricator, but eventually moved into the patenting and production of small UV treatment units to purify drinking water. Soon after, they also started developing commercially-viable UV disinfection systems for use at wastewater treatment plants in different municipalities. Though the case does not specifically state how they manufacture these products, it is more than likely safe to assume they use an assembly line, since they specified that “[p]roducts were typically assembled from component parts at Trojan head office” (Upton, 1999, p. 2).