Week Three - Brian Bleau

Sit-down with Jennifer Piwonski, marketing representative, Genisys Credit Union

I will preface this post by saying that Jen is my fiancé. She works at Genisys Credit Union’s corporate headquarters in Auburn Hills, Mich. as a marketing representative. Since I’ve never worked on the corporate side of the communications and marketing industry, I thought that this would be a good opportunity to learn more about her company by asking questions that I never would have otherwise. 

Although Jen was quick to note that each department is fairly autonomous and does accept input from employees, the company certainly adheres to a functional form. Departments are broken up to perform specialized tasks and decisions are funneled from the CEO and vice presidents to managers; then to the rest of the staff (Note on Organization Structure). The company does, however, welcome and encourage ideas from all team members, making management more involved by giving it the opportunity to cultivate and improve upon these ideas by collaborating with the subordinates that submitted them (Managing in an Information Age).  

The complete opposite of my firm’s approach, which tends to develop “jacks of all trades” across accounts, Genisys differentiates departments based on the specialized tasks that they perform. Employees within those departments are then developed into experts in very specific areas, such as data marketing and social media, creating highly knowledgeable employees that specialize in job functions that are organization critical (Note on Organization Structure). I suppose the downside to this strategy is that if an employee in one of these highly specialized positions decides to leave suddenly, there is nobody left to pick up where they left off.

When new projects like the current Genisys Credit Union iPhone app redesign begin, the company assembles cross-functional teams, led by a project manager, to gather specialists from multiple departments (in this case, marketing, IT, sales and services, and electronics) to complete them. Despite our readings this week stating that dual managers can create confusion and disarray, Jen said that she has never seen this happen in her five years with the company. She told me that Genisys makes it a priority to engrain company values and mission within its employee base, leading to great cooperation and commitment to achieving company goals and ultimately, pleasing members. Although project managers technically outrank functional managers, conflict rarely arises due to a great mutual understanding and “team-first” attitude (Note on Organization Structure).

Outside of specialized project teams, the company follows a pattern of reciprocal integration. Since most projects and tasks, like launching new branches, website redesigns and market research to name a few, require ongoing changes and feedback and collaboration between departments, information flows back and forth freely via frequent meetings and electronic communication (Note on Organization Design).

I learned a lot through by reading this week’s materials and lots of the ideas were materialized and solidified after interviewing Jen. I think for me, the most significant piece of information that I got from this sit-down was her example of how participative management, strong corporate values and hiring/developing employees who buy into the company’s mission 100 percent can diffuse potential conflict before it arises (this is in reference to the segment on dual management of cross-functional team members).

References

Applegate, L. (1995). Managing in an informational age: Organizational challenges and opportunities. CMGT 500 course pack. 

Note on Organization Design. CMGT 500 course pack. 

Note on Organization Structure. CMGT 500 course pack.