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    Evaluate The Importance of Each of The Structural Changes Shikhar Ghosh Implemented. How Important Were They?

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    Divya Agarwal
    The key challenges Shikhar Ghosh faced at Appex were a lack of structure, control, planning and accountability. As the company grew, its informal structure no longer worked. Ghosh implemented several structural changes including a circular structure, functional structure and divisional structure. Each structure addressed different issues but also had disadvantages. An ideal solution would be to implement a matrix structure to balance functional specialization and cross-functional coordination. Given Appex was now acquired by EDS, Ghosh should focus on realigning Appex's structure and culture to integrate with EDS while retaining its strengths and innovation. This would require clarity of roles, coordination between companies and boosting employee morale during the transition.

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    Evaluate The Importance of Each of The Structural Changes Shikhar Ghosh Implemented. How Important Were They?

    Uploaded by

    Divya Agarwal
    359 views4 pages
    The key challenges Shikhar Ghosh faced at Appex were a lack of structure, control, planning and accountability. As the company grew, its informal structure no longer worked. Ghosh implemented several structural changes including a circular structure, functional structure and divisional structure. Each structure addressed different issues but also had disadvantages. An ideal solution would be to implement a matrix structure to balance functional specialization and cross-functional coordination. Given Appex was now acquired by EDS, Ghosh should focus on realigning Appex's structure and culture to integrate with EDS while retaining its strengths and innovation. This would require clarity of roles, coordination between companies and boosting employee morale during the transition.

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    Appex case solution

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    Appex

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    The key challenges Shikhar Ghosh faced at Appex were a lack of structure, control, planning and accountability. As the company grew, its informal structure no longer worked. Ghosh implemented several structural changes including a circular structure, functional structure and divisional structure. Each structure addressed different issues but also had disadvantages. An ideal solution would be to implement a matrix structure to balance functional specialization and cross-functional coordination. Given Appex was now acquired by EDS, Ghosh should focus on realigning Appex's structure and culture to integrate with EDS while retaining its strengths and innovation. This would require clarity of roles, coordination between companies and boosting employee morale during the transition.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    359 views4 pages

    Evaluate The Importance of Each of The Structural Changes Shikhar Ghosh Implemented. How Important Were They?

    Uploaded by

    Divya Agarwal
    The key challenges Shikhar Ghosh faced at Appex were a lack of structure, control, planning and accountability. As the company grew, its informal structure no longer worked. Ghosh implemented several structural changes including a circular structure, functional structure and divisional structure. Each structure addressed different issues but also had disadvantages. An ideal solution would be to implement a matrix structure to balance functional specialization and cross-functional coordination. Given Appex was now acquired by EDS, Ghosh should focus on realigning Appex's structure and culture to integrate with EDS while retaining its strengths and innovation. This would require clarity of roles, coordination between companies and boosting employee morale during the transition.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
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    The key takeaways are that Appex started out as a small entrepreneurial company but faced challenges as it grew such as lack of structure, accountability and planning. Shikhar Ghosh implemented various structural changes to address these issues as the company expanded.

    The major challenges Ghosh faced were that Appex was spending cash haphazardly without monitoring expenses, there was no development or future planning, customers were complaining of lack of support, and the organizational structure had become chaotic.

    Ghosh implemented a circular structure, horizontal structure, hierarchical/functional structure, and divisional structure to address the issues at Appex.

    1. What were the challenges Shikhar Ghosh faced when he joined Appex?

    Appex corporation was spending cash quickly and too haphazardly without
    monitoring its expenses. The atmosphere was changing from entrepreneurial to
    chaotic. The employees came when they felt like coming. For instance, the customer
    service people turned up at 10:00 am while they were supposed to be present by
    8:00 am. There was no development or future planning. There was only “fire-
    fighting” with employees reacting to only the crisis that happened on a day to day
    basis. Appex had started to fall behind schedule and to miss installation dates. The
    company also experienced failures in product development. There was no financial
    planning and all planning seemed useless. Many customers had complained of not
    receiving technical assistance. Now the major challenge was to create control and
    structure that would help resolve the above challenges. The key problem facing
    Ghosh upon arriving at Appex is the chaotic condition of the company’s current
    organizational structure. Appex started out with a tight knit group of employees that
    could easily adjust to changes and solve problems rapidly. As Appex grew and new
    employees were hired, the former business structure began to fail. New employees
    did not have clear cut job responsibilities and the overall company had no formal
    communication structure.

    2. Evaluate the importance of each of the structural changes Shikhar Ghosh


    implemented. How important were they?

    Structure Circular Horizontal Hierarchical, Divisional


    type Structure Structure Functional Structure
    Structure
    Importance A non- An A level of The previous
    of hierarchical organization control was structure
    structural organization which was needed to increased the
    change in which still flat but add bureaucratic
    information with a accountability costs without
    flowed freely structure and a sense increasing the
    and that of order. bottom line of
    continuously focused on the company
    with the planning for As the
    organization the future. company was
    and also in a growth
    between the phase a sense
    organization of hierarchy
    and is required.
    environment.
    Problems The issue of A non- The company Improved
    addressed information hierarchical focused on accountability,
    flow was team completing budgeting and
    addressed oriented tasks. planning.
    while structure
    allowing the with focus The Increased
    organisation on long company’s cooperation
    to retain its term basic within
    flexibility. planning. capabilities divisions.
    improved.

    3. What were the advantages and disadvantages of each new structure


    implemented by Shikhar Ghosh?

    1. CIRCULAR STRUCTURE
    ADVANTAGE - Fast and Free flow of information within the org and btw
    the org and its environment.
    DISADVANTAGES-
     Employees could not relate to this structure
     New hire was unfamiliar with this structure they did not know the
    power structure of the organisation
     Too customer centric
     Lack the guidelines regarding evaluating the performances and
    making plans for the task accomplishment.
    2. FUNCTIONAL STRUCTURE
    ADVANTAGE-
     Dividing the entire work of the organisation into different
    functions and teams
     Better co-ordination between the teams
     Proper distribution of work within the organization.

    DISADVANTAGE-

     By creating sub-functional team within a functional team, the


    team became polarized. for example- the distinction between
    engineering and operation, that is building a system and
    operating it did not exist. The operation team restricted the
    involvement of the engineering team in their functions which
    earlier was done jointly, thus more money was spend on
    development and operation than before.
     Ego clashes, standards were set according to individuals rather
    than the company policies.
     Lack of well-defined source of authority, & resource allocation.
     Difficulty in measuring the managerial competences.
     Lacked customer focus.

    DIVISONAL STRUCTURE-
    ADVANTAGES-
     Well defined structure of work within all the departments.
     Better communication between the divisions of the organisation.
     Fast and effective flow of information.

    DISADVANTAGE-

     Inappropriate decision regarding resource allocation.


     Lack of control over all the resources.
     Poor flow of information.
     Lack of standardization of work.

    4. What would you have done in Shikhar’s place? Were all the changes in structure
    necessary? How would you address the challenges Shikhar is facing towards the
    end of the case?

    The divisional structure has presented some advantages to Appex, for instance this structure
    improved accountability, budgeting, and planning. However, Shikhar should go for Matrix
    structure. Implement a matrix structure: Similar in some ways to the divisional structure, a
    matrix structure can benefit from the functional divisions formed in the divisional structure
    but also supplement these divisions with divisions based on products as well. Employees are
    grouped by both function and product in a matrix and frequently teams of employees will be
    assigned to a project to accomplish a specific goal. This form of a matrix structure is one in
    which a project manager is assigned to oversee projects and these project managers must
    share power with the functional managers who are the normal chain of command.
    Institutional environment should be implemented in the organization that govern the
    behaviour of the employees of organization.

    Since Ghosh had followed regular periodic changes in the structure of Appex Corporation
    (Greiner’s model as it passed through several stages of growth strategies) to suit the need of
    a growing entrepreneurial organization, but now once acquired by EDS, Appex must realign
    its structure. This is so because it was no longer an independent company but was rather a
    division of a huge hierarchical bureaucratic organization. So the challenges faced by Appex
    can be addressed by: Clarity of Direction and Delegation: Appex employees may clearly
    understand what is line of hierarchy and what are their roles and responsibilities under the
    new takeover. Coordination and Synergy Achievement: Appex needs time to reshuffle its
    vision and structure slowly and steadily in a way that it can adapt the best practices of EDS
    but retain its core competencies. Representation of EDS in divisions of Appex: Executive
    senior management of EDS should become a part of the divisional teams of Appex so that
    they can understand the working of Appex and accordingly mould Appex towards the
    practices of EDS. Morale Boosting by Increased Compensation: As so far, Appex employees
    have enjoyed independence in decision making (to certain extent). Hence to sustain
    innovation and product development capability of the employees of Appex, Ghosh must
    negotiate with EDS to increase compensation for Appex employees and organize regular
    interactive meetings to build an effective communication pathway between EDS and Appex.
    Subsidiary to Integration: Ghosh must consider every division’s operation once again to
    ensure that Appex as a whole continues its growth rate and does not just remain a
    subsidiary but becomes an integral part of EDS.

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