CASE STUDY

Case Study

Case Study

Answer 2

The weaknesses of the approach are as follows:

The Apparent Culture at W.L. Gore & Associates

The definition of apparent seems to be; or understood. With W.L. Gore & Associates, the culture seems to be more of a gourmet and upscale culture. The store wants everyone to fill as though the customers have been all over the world.

Organizational charts help summarize the line of authority in an organization (Gomez-Mejia, L. & Balkin, D. 2002). W.L. Gore & Associates states their charts as databases. With this database, it explains each line from the customer's special dates to remember, all the way down to the exact detail tender.

The culture of the organization changed because the growth of the company expanded. With the expanding of the company, W.L. Gore & Associates came up with more creative ways to draw the customer's attention. Therefore, Gore W.L. Gore & Associates added parties to the store and having local celebrities to come in the store. W.L. Gore & Associates as well added other upscale chefs and experts to come in the store. With this happening, the culture of the business changed, because of the more complex things that were going to be going on. Kay W.L. Gore & Associates needed more managers, clerks, department managers and the list continues, as it's had to increase everything. This will insure that they will bring more guests out to the locations (W.L. Gore & Associates, Marketing Overview 2007).

Organizational Structure

Organizational structure as defined by Gomez-Mejia-Balkin (2002) is “a formal system of relationships that determines lines of authority (who reports to whom) and the tasks assigned to individuals and units (who does what task and with which department).” Three main types of organizational structure are: functional structure, divisional structure and matrix structure.

Answer 3

W.L. Gore & Associates is an opportunist and has a vision for its business that is easily communicated to its subordinates. Its has build trust with her management team by allowing them to carry out her vision in an extraordinary fashion. Its uses a 'hands-on' approach that keeps an open line of communication with her management team. This enables her team to understand the direction its wants them go and where its wants the company to be. Its allows for her management team to run the day-to-day operations and communicate with the customers while its continues to do the strategic planning for the company. This transformational leadership style ...