Case Study: Organizational Design and Change in VUCA World

This document provides solutions to two case studies related to organizational design and change management. The first case study focuses on Privar, a family-owned organization transitioning to a more formal structure, addressing conflicting values between the CEO's traditional approach and th...Read More

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CASE STUDY
Case Study 10
There are three questions in the case study. These questions can be discussed as:
Question 1. What conflicting values are evident in this case in regard to organisation design?
The case study suggests that Privar started as a family owned organization. Indira Pandit is the
HR director of Parivar and she is responsible to create an organization where attrition rate is
minimal. Indira wants the support of all the stakeholders in the organization so that she can
create a culture of productivity. For the same reason, Indira wants to have a formal and process-
oriented culture in the organization. However, this is in conflict with the existing value of the
organization where things are not process oriented as decisions are based on the viewpoint of
CEO, Sudhir Gupta. Vikram is the head of recruitment who believes that the attrition rate is high
due to the labor market conditions in India. This has created a conflict between Sudhir, Indira
and Vikram. The conflicting values is observed between the presence of existing organizational
design that is family based where Sudhir has a set of close people in the group and the need of a
formal organizational design where things are more process dependent as compared as compared
to the current structure.
Question 2. What advice would you give Sudhir Gupta about a way forward that resolves the
values conflict?
With time Parivar has grown from a small organization to a large organization. As the company
scale its business, he would need a formal and process-oriented structure in the company. My
advice to Sudhir would be to focus on organizational development through a process driven
structure. The company also has the plan of expansion outside India and this expansion plan
would be successful only when it has a process in place. It is important that employee should get

CASE STUDY
a feeling that there interest are taken care of in an unbiased manner (Mohrman & Lawler, 2014).
It is important that Sudhir should realize that there should not be any biasness and nepotism in
the system.
Question 3. Using the knowledge that you have gained from this topic and additional
background information that you can find about organisation design, propose one or more
structural forms that you believe would be suitable for Parivar.
There are various organizational structures that Parivar can use. It is recommended that Parivar
should use a matrix organizational structure. With the matrix organizational structure, the
objective of Parivar should be to have a flat structure in place. A number of Information
Technologies across the globe use this form of structure. In fact, the large companies like TCS
and Wipro also use matrix organizational structure (Bolden, 2016). With this structure, the
various units of the organization should be given the freedom to take their own decisions. It is
also important that Parivar should have a flexible organizational organizational culture so that
decision making is efficient.

CASE STUDY
Case Study 11
There are three questions in the case study. These questions can be discussed as:
Question 1. What conflicting values are evident in this case?
The case study shows a case of decision that has to be made between offshoring and on-site
development. The case study presents that Cheryl Hailstrom is the CEP of Lakeland Wonders.
The company is a manufacturing organization. In recent times, the organization has observed a
spike in the manufacturing cost and as a result its profitability has reduced. The management
realizes that it can tackle the increased cost of manufacturing by setting the factoriy in low cost
nation like China. However, the management also know that the control over the organization
would be less with this approach. This is the biggest conflict for management. Cheryl Hailstrom
has to take decision if she should open the factory in China or she should focus to improve the
production techniques in its existing facilities. The CEO of the company is worried about this
situation and she does not have a strategy to move forward.
Question 2. What advice would you give Cheryl Hailstrom about a way forward that resolves
the values conflict?
In this era of competition, profitability is the key for organizations. It is important that
organization must focus to improve their profitability. My advice to Cheryl Hailstrom would be
to work on the option of expansion in China. It is recommended that Cheryl Hailstrom should do
the cost-benefit analysis of both the options with a long-term perspective. With the expansion in
China, the company would be able to scale its operations. The cost savings would enable the
company to invest more in the business development. Therefore, it would make sense for Cheryl
Hailstrom to use offshoring. The issues of controlling in this approach can be handled by

CASE STUDY
positioning a senior leader in China office (De Waal, 2016). At the same time, it is recommended
that Cheryl Hailstrom should also join hands with some local player in China as the local player
would have a better understanding of culture. As an expansion strategy, the company would
expand its business in a logical manner.
Question 3. What management competencies do you believe this case highlights that are
important for the 21st century leader-manager in VUCA world?
In recent times, there has been a lot of changes in the leadership approach. Today, the
classical approach of controlling and directing does not work. It is recommended that leader of
the 21st century should be able to motivate others. The management competencies that are
important for the 21st century leader-manager in VUCA world would be motivation, negotiation
and conflict management (Schermerhorn, 2014). At the same time, the leader should be able to
work with the employees from different cultural backgrounds (Waddell, Creed, Cummings &
Worley, 2016). In the 21st century, leaders should have a transformational approach where they
can visualize the vision of the organization and contribute towards organizational goals and
objectives.

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References
Bolden, R. (2016). Leadership, management and organisational development. In Gower
handbook of leadership and management development (pp. 143-158). Routledge.
De Waal, A. (2016). Searching for effective change interventions for the transformation into a
high performance organization. Management Research Review, 39(9), 1080- 1104.
Mohrman, S., & Lawler, E. E. (2014). Designing organizations for sustainable effectiveness: A
new paradigm for organizations and academic researchers. Journal of Organizational
Effectiveness: People and Performance, 1(1), 14-34.
Schermerhorn, J. R. (2016). Organising as a management function. Management (6th Asia-
Pacific ed., p. 279) [Wiley]. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-
com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au/lib/CSUAU/detail.action?docID=4748100.
Waddell, D., Creed, A., Cummings, C., & Worley, C. (2016). Managing resistance and
organisational culture. Organisational change: Development and transformation (pp. 98-
116). Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.ezproxy.csu.edu.au