Discuss Environment and Culture of Organizations

Written Response #1Questions on Chapter 3 Environment and Culture of Organizations, page 82Discussion Questions 1, 3, 4, and 6.  Read Management in Action case on “The NetApp Approach”, pages 58-59 and refer to You Makethe Call “The NetApp Approach to Net Satisfaction” page 85 answer questions  2, 3, and 4; mini-research task on “Best Companies to Work For.”Estimated length 3-5 pages.

Written responses must be typed, size 12 font, double spaced and written in proper English in complete sentences. For each question, answer approximately 3-5 sentences (one paragraph), sufficiently to demonstrate understanding. Apply the course concepts described in Chapter 3 to answering the questions below. Grading criteria: total possible points 20 (score represents 7% of total grade in the course)

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS (12 points in total; 3 points each question)

1)  Consider the three environments of a firm. Which of the environments has the most direct and immediate impact on the firm? Which of the environments has a more diffuse and delayed impact? Explain.

3) What are the major forces that affect organization-environment relationships? Describe those factors.

4) Describe the four approaches to organizational effectiveness. Give a specific example of something that a company should measure in order to evaluate its effectiveness under each approach.

6)  Which of the firm’s environments is most readily changed by the firm? Which of the firm’s environments is least amenable to change by the firm? How does this influence the actions that firms take?

MANAGEMENT IN ACTION:   “The NetApp Approach to Net Satisfaction” (Opening case for the chapter) (6 points) Questions “You Make the Call” on page 85.

Case question 2: In what ways does the culture at NetApp reflect the influence of the

sociocultural  dimensionof its general environment?

Case question 3:  In what ways does the presence of competitors  in its task environment

influence NetApp’s culture?  In what ways might the systems resource and internal process approaches explain NetApp’s organizational effectiveness?

Case question 4:  According to NetApp CFO Steve Como, a major question facing the

company’s managers is: “What is an effective way to manage people who have [the] freedom” that NetApp employees do? He also observes that “most of the jobs we do require a lot of social interaction.”  In what practical ways might the need to encourage “social interaction” affect the company’s policy to permit as much workplace freedom as possible?

 

MINI-RESEARCH: Best Companies to work for (2 points)Go to the website http://fortune.com/best-companies/google-1/ and review the list of companies to find a company for which you would like to work. Evaluate the profile of the company you have chosen to get a sense of the way the company is managed. Write a paragraph (minimum five sentences) identifying the characteristics of this company that are appealing to you and why you would be interested in working for this company. If you prefer to choose a company or organization not listed, choose another website to do research, write your paragraph, and cite your reference.

 

 

Due Date: Week 2, Thursday, January 15