Organizational Theory Case Study Analysis: G Adventures Report

This report analyzes the G Adventures case study, focusing on the company's evolution from its inception to its current multinational status. It examines the business life cycle stages, control strategies, organizational culture, and ethical practices of G Adventures. The report provides recommendations for the company's future ventures, particularly regarding the introduction of new products, while considering the impact on the environment and its target demographics. Furthermore, the report addresses the dilemma organizations face in balancing change and stability, offering insights into strategies that can help manage these competing tensions and ensure long-term success in a dynamic business environment. The report also provides a detailed overview of the dilemma faced by organizations to balance between change and stability and the approach that could help the organizations succeed.

Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
ORGANIZATIONAL THEORY CASE STUDY ANALYSIS
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

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Executive summary
The chief purpose of the report was to analyze the case study involving G Adventures and
recommend ways for it to enter into new market and the dilemma organizations face between
change and stability. The report was completed in two parts – A and B. the report presented a
brief overview of the case study and then highlighted the evolution of the company including its
business life cycle. The report then provided a brief analysis its control strategies, organizational
culture and ethics to find whether it has changed with time or not. The Part B section of the
report provided discussion on the dilemma faced by organizations to balance between change
and stability and the approach that could help the organizations succeed.

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Table of Contents
PART A: 1500 words..................................................................................................................3
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of the case.......................................................................................................................3
Evolution of G Adventures..............................................................................................................4
Stages of life cycle.......................................................................................................................5
Control strategies.............................................................................................................................6
Organizational culture.....................................................................................................................7
Ethics...............................................................................................................................................8
Recommendations............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
PART B: 600 words.......................................................................................................................10
Dilemma faced by the organization...............................................................................................10
Detailing the best approach.......................................................................................................11
References:....................................................................................................................................14

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PART A: 1500 words
Introduction
The report aims to analyze the evolution of G Adventures Company, which was founded
by Bruce Poon Tip in 1990. The report also aims to examine the life cycle stages of the company
along with its control strategies, organizational culture and ethics. These examinations will be
used to provide recommendations to the company for improving its operations and including
new products.
While presenting an overview of the case, the report will focus mainly on its inception,
growth and the controversies it faced. The report will then highlight the evolution of the business
from a tourism company at the local level to a multinational company. The evolution also
includes the stages of life cycle of the business. In business, the life cycle stages refer to the
progression and phases of the business over time. The report will then focus on its organizational
culture and ethics to map a comprehensive recommendation for the CEO, Bruce Poon Tip.
Overview of the case
The analysis is to be done on G Adventures, a multinational tourism company with Bruce
Poon Tip. His company attracted major student population in Belize, on the small Caye Caulker
Island, who started skipping their classes to do the job at the company, especially the bicycle

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tours. After complaints from the local authorities, Tip came up with the plan to make a deal with
the students that involved a guaranteed job and loaned bike. This “Bike with Progress” program
soon resulted in the hike in attendance from 35% to 90% in 2008. The story demonstrated the
way the company turned a negative social and economical influenced situation into a profitable,
socially good venture.
However, it had its share of controversies when a ship carrying 154 of the company’s
travelers sank in 2007 off Antarctica. Although no travelers were injured, the incident caused
could have proved disastrous for the company had it not been for its immediate rescue response.
Evolution of G Adventures
The company began with “nothing more than two credit cards and a burning desire to
create an authentic, sustainable travel experience like nothing the world had ever seen”. It was
named Gap Adventures initially and the idea of starting it popped up in Tip’s mind when he was
on a backpack trip to Asia where he even was arrested in Burma. This trip made Tip realizes that
a segment of travelers is also there who want to explore the world from a different perspective.
Today, it boasts of more than 150,000 travelers a year across 100 countries that range from
gampling – glamorous camping – to roughing.
In 1990, Poon Tip was just 22 when he started the company. His main idea behind it was
to “balance the thrill of being arrested in Burma with the comfort of floating in a tin hotel on the

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ocean”. Initially, the company mainly attracted hard-core backpackers in search of adventure in
countries of South and Central America, Asia and Africa. Seventeen years into the business, G
Adventures was already a 100 million dollar company global company and in need of culture
revolution. Then, with the start of the third decade, Poon Tip’s company evolved gradually into a
company that associated itself with thirty-six programs that helped various communities have
education and business opportunities. Poon Tip wants that giants like Ritz Carlton and Four
Seasons adopt the ideals of his company to ensure a sustainable and transparent business.
Stages of life cycle
A business life cycle includes five phases of progression (Daft, Murphy & Willmott,
2010 pp. 356-358).
 Launch – In this phase, the company’s operations begin through the launch of the
new products or services. For G Adventures, it was the launch of its tourism
business with special attention to aestheticism, responsibility and sustainability.
 Growth – This phase is characterized by the rapid increase in sales. As the growth
in sales is registered, business begins to enjoy profit once they move beyond the
break-even point. In case of G Adventures, this break-even point came quite late,
in the 2007, 2008 periods to be precise.

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 Shakeout – In this phase, businesses begin to experience slower pace of growth in
terms of sales. This happens due to numerous reasons such as new entries or
market saturation. G Adventures has faced little competition over the years with
Intrepid Travel being one of its closest competitors. Although, t has faced a
decline in profits, the margin is negligible.
 Maturity – In this stage, markets mature and influence the pace of the sales as
well as the profit margins. When a business approaches maturity, large capital
expenditure is mostly behind the business and thus, cash generation is higher in
the income statement than the profit income. It is interesting to note that Poon Tip
extended his business cycle at this stage and focused on other areas thus allowing
the smooth flow of cash.
 Decline – This is the final stage of the life cycle and in this stage, businesses
experience decline in sales, profit and growth and accept failure. However, the
case is opposite with G Adventures as it begins to buy other tourism firms and
continues to grow.
Control strategies
The strategies that businesses apply to understand the vulnerability and standing in the
market refer to control strategies (Daft, Murphy & Willmott, 2010, pp. 370-372). These

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strategies mainly involve premise control, strategic surveillance control, special alert control and
implementation control. In G Adventures’ case, these strategies underwent some changes over
the years as it went from being a local company to a multinational corporation. Initially, the
company targeted the general demography of travelers who had interest in a different kind of
travel – the hard-core backpackers. Then, the company began to invest in developing a business
that contributed towards the society as well, the “Bike with Purpose” program being an example.
The interview process held in the later stages demonstrates the strategy to be creatively
ahead of others. G Adventures maintains persistently maintains a start-up pep by giving more
emphasis on freedom and happiness, which has not changed even after three decades in the
business. The company has seen rough patches in its long journey especially in 2007 due to the
events mentioned in the above section. However, it managed to demonstrate great special alert
control strategy by going all out on the rescue response.
In the current stage, the CEO plans to explore opportunities in other sectors like outdoor
clothing, vehicles and gear especially to apply the social enterprise model that has been so
successful with its core business.
Organizational culture
The culture boasted by the company is evident from its core values and the way
interviews are conducted. “Love, Lead, Embrace, Create and Do” are the five core values

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promoted by the company that is reflected in its organizational culture as well. At G Adventures,
employees are encouraged to be truthful about themselves and provide travelers with an
experience that is nothing but authentic and within range. The organizational culture encouraged
by Boon Tip is that of celebrating freedom, happiness and individuality.
As the company began going global, some of the organizational culture boasted by the
company began to diminish. Many travelers complained of travel disasters and last minute
altercations leading to chaos and confusion. However, the cases of such incidences are few and
as per majority of travelers associated with G Adventures, the organizational culture has
remained more or less the same – encouraging freedom, individuality and happiness.
Ethics
When it comes to ethics, Poon Tip’s company is at the top in the industry. Sustainable
tourism and community benefit has always been the top priority of G Adventures and Poon Tip
has always ensured that is stays the same. In fact, the company is the first and only company in
its industry that was invited to the inaugural UN World Tourism Organization Seminar on Ethics
in Tourism. The company has also been vocal about responsible tourism and encouraged the
belief, “travel is an exchange, not a commodity”. In view of this, the company founded Planterra,
a non-profit unit dedicated to making sure that communities benefitted from the opportunities

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presented by the company. Apart from that, the company also boasts contributions in other
welfare programs.
Recommendations
After an elaborate analysis of the case study, certain recommendations could be made for
the company to follow concerning its intentions to add other products.
 First, the company should develop and promote its online platform, as it is yet to
reach a global user base.
 Second, the social enterprise model than Poon Tip plans to apply to other sectors
should be tested duly prior to entering other sectors because times have changed
and technology has taken over.
 Third, exploring other products such as outdoor clothing, vehicles and gear would
mean that the company would have to take extra care for environmental impact.
 Fourth, the company should target a specific demography while keeping the core
demography intact for venturing into clothing or other business.
Conclusion
In the end, it can be stated that the tourism company has excelled in maintaining its
growth and keeping pace with the changing business scenario. As evident from the case study

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overview, the company evolved rapidly through the years. Starting as local backpacking travel
company to becoming one of the leading tourism companies in the world, G Adventures had an
exciting journey. The report presented an extensive study of the company and provided
recommendations for it follow as the CEO considers venturing into other products.
PART B: 600 words
Dilemma faced by the organization
Every organization faces the dilemma of whether to be stable or to incorporate change
and if both options are preferred, the dilemma to balance the tensions. The problem with the
changing business environment is that it makes the traditional businesses either merge with other
merging businesses or exit the market completely. Very few businesses are able to survive. In
such situations, it becomes important for organizations to strike a balance between stability and
change. “Organizational life consists of an ever-changing world of encounters, experiences, and
complex sociomaterial relations” state (Daft, Murphy & Willmott, 2010, p. 477). They further
add that while standard routines could solve certain problems like inefficiency associated
especially with stability images, these can cause problems in the complex organizational world
that is ever changing. Daft, Murphy and Willmott, (2010, p. 477), remark that the change and
stability dilemma has caused biased decisions when it comes to choosing leaders who could
manage change and restore stability. While the young aged are preferably seen as capable of

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managing change, the older ones are entrusted with maintaining stability. This biasness further
puts the organization in a dilemma whether to go with young aged leader or older leader.
The authors state that stability ensures the business that it would sustain for long years
but it must have to withstand the many changes as well. Examples in the real world are in
abundance that indicates the way major companies went bankrupt or vanished completely due to
failing to comply with the change. Companies like Blockbuster, Polaroid, Pan American
Airways and many more are organizations that stand as examples of organizations failing to
balance between stability and change. Change is an inevitable factor in today’s rapidly evolving
world and organizations have to adjust to these changes without compromising on the other
elements.
Detailing the best approach
To ensure that the organization survives and stays strong through the changes while
maintaining stability, organizations must engage in strategic management. The strategic
management in case of ensuring balance between stability and change must involve an
appropriate approach to change management. The Lewin’s Change Management Model is a
good way to bring about change within the organization and ensure that stability is also
maintained.
According to the model, every organization goes through three phases of change: