Organizational Behaviour: Reflection Part 3

This chapter introduced the concept of an engineering nightmare with the case of Boeing. This was an idea by a company with the intention of increasing services offered and the revenues generated. Read more about the challenges faced by Boeing due to outsourcing and how they can be solved.

ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR
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Title: REFLECTION PART 3: THE ORGANIZATIONAL
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REFLECTION PART 1: THE INDIVIDUAL
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Summary This chapter introduced the concept of an engineering nightmare with the
case of Boeing. This was an idea by a company with the intention of
increasing services offered and the revenues generated. This aircraft is
made up of composite materials that reduce fuel costs and maintaining a
huge passenger load. Many airlines are likely to make decisions when
selecting the kind of aircraft to purchase based on several factors. These
include the engineering design, the complexity, cost effectiveness, as well
as revenue generation potential. Thus, the company’s problems started
when the company had decided to for a luxuries Boeing.
Emotional State Boeing outsources much of its functions which help the company in
running its daily operations. However, some of these functions have ended
up frustrating the company by leading to outcomes that affect the
credibility of the company (Davis and Lawrence, 1978, 131). The company
does its assembly functions in Everett and the manufacturing in different
parts of the world. However, there have been some serious challenges faced
by the company due to its decision to outsource some of the major
functions. Many employees were struggling to relate with each other and
also to understand the assembly functions which were written in different
languages. As a result, some of the decisions were hard to make as some
fixtures could not completely fit each other. Thus, the company’s efforts
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were frustrated that it could not many delivery any time soon (Chesbrough
and Teece, 1996, 69).
Evaluation
The aircraft industry is undergoing several developments. When Boeing
made the first order, the troubles unfolded. The company had experienced
major manufacturing and assembly delays. Also, the company engineers
encountered several challenges, some of which they could not understand.
The advance of the plane technology helped the company to adopt some
ideas from Japan and the ANA airlines (Burns and Wholey, 1993, 76).
Analysis
The CEO was aware of the root causes and thus, promised a permanent
solution within the shortest time possible. Even though it was hard for him
to believe that the challenge could be solved, they applied several
alternatives to find a permanent solution. Some of the options need to be
eliminated in the engineering process to help cope up with the existing
challenges (Gino & Staats, 2015, 110). The standardization of some of the
processes will also help some of the mechanical challenges.
Conclusions &
Recommendations
Thus, the McNerney faces an organizational challenge. From the
introduction of the 767, the company has faced several challenges both in
the mechanical and engineering sections. Thus, the management and the
technical team need to come up with the actual trail of the challenges facing
the company and potential solutions. One of the solutions is by bringing the
manufacturing and other manufacturing options close to the company.
Centralization approach will help Boeing solve some of its challenges.
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Also, the management should account for its functions. Through this
process, there will be consistency to serve the passengers in different parts
of the world.
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References
Burns LR and Wholey, DR 1993 ‘Adoption and abandonment of matrix management programs:
effects of organisational characteristics and interorganisational networks’, Academy of
Management Journal, vol. 36, no.1, pp. 106 - 38; viewed 2 January 2018, EBSCOhost
Business Source Complete database.
Chesbrough, HW & Teece DJ 1996, ‘When is virtual virtuous? organizing for innovation’, Harvard
Business Review, vol. 74, no. 1, pp. 65-72, viewed 2 January 2018, ProQuest Central
database.
Davis, SM & Lawrence, PR 1978, ‘Problems of matrix organizations’, Harvard Business Review,
vol. 56, no. 3, p. 131, viewed 2 January 2018, ProQuest Central database.
Gino, F & Staats, B 2015, ‘Why organizations don't learn’, Harvard Business Review, vol. 93, no.
11, pp. 110-8 viewed 2 January 2018, ProQuest Central database.
Transforming Boeing: the knowledge to take flight: enterprise project management in action,’
Human Resource Management International Digest, vol.11, no.6, pp. 29-31, viewed 2
January 2018, ProQuest datadase.
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