Sunday, June 3, 2012

Week 3 Post by Phillip Cortez


I found the article on W.L. Gore & Associates, Inc. to be extremely interesting given the both the line of work the company is in as well as the autonomy that associates seem to enjoy so long as they are team players. The article explained in detail how the organization was structured, how groups worked on projects and how associates were encouraged to participate and get rewarded for their efforts through their Leaders through what was described as a Lattice Organization.

It was while reading Chapter 3 in Organization Theory and Design where I found a design element that quickly reminded me of the Gore & Associates model: Horizontal Linkage (Daft, 95).

Daft explains  "horizontal communication overcomes barriers between departments and provides opportunities for coordination among employees to achieve unity of effort and organizational objectives" (Daft, 95). Essentially, this is what Gore's groups or teams strived to achieve while working on projects for the organization. If the idea behind Gore's Lattice organization was to work freely by working at its own pace and fostering original ideas (Townsend & Harder, 4) then Horizontal linkage appears to be a key element.

I was a part of a cohort at the University of San Francisco when I first read about Henry Mintzberg's organizational design types or configurations as they related to sports organizations (Slack, 74). His Simple Structure came to mind because it "has little or no technostructure, few support staff, no real middle line (hence no lengthy managerial hierarchy), and a loose division of labor" (Slack, 74). The key for me was the "no real middle line" aspect of the Simple Structure in comparison to the autonomy that Gore's groups enjoy.


References:


Daft, R. (2007) "Fundamentals of Organizational Structure." Organization Theory and Design (9th ed.), pp. 88-125 (Chapter 3)


Slack, T. (1997) "Design Options in Sport Organizations." Understanding Sport Organizations: The Application of Organization Theory, p 74 (Chapter 4)


W.L. Gore & Associates, CMGT 500 Course Pack
Posted by at 10:44 PM

1 comment:

  1. UnknownJune 4, 2012 at 7:51 AM

    Phillip, I often think of horizontal linkages as similar to the gang plank idea mentioned by Fayol during week 1, and this was a way for managers to communicate with each other without going through a person located higher on the hierarchy. As our reading stated this week, these types of horizontal linkages can also take different forms, such as task forces and teams.

    I am not sure I agree that horizontal linkages are an important part of the Gore structure, however. In my view, these linkages are used to cut through and increase coordination between different units of an organization. Does Gore have these types of traditional divisional or functional departments? Is there even a hierarchy to "cut through"?

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