ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN PAPER

Organizational Design Paper

Organizational Design Paper

American Axle & Manufacturing (AAM) was formed in 1994. AAM is one of North Americas' leading providers of drive train components for the SUV market. AAM is the largest provider of Driveline systems in the United States. AAM has five manufacturing plants in the United States as well as other plants located in Mexico, Brazil, and Scotland. AAM also has offices in Europe, Asia, and the Pacific.

As a company of this size, corporate planning is a vital function to deal with external and internal factors, in which, the company's goals or objectives are achieved. In addition, a well-defined strategic planning implemented will be the guidelines in dealing with each factor, such as, globalization, innovation, and ethics. We will break down each factor as how AAM's business plans set their objectives in being the leader of driveline systems.

External factors also have an effect on AAM called the external environment. The external environment would be all relevant forces outside a firm's boundaries, such as competitors, customers, the government, and the economy (Bateman, Snell, 2004, p. 42). According to Peter Drucker one of the great "business gurus", the essence of a business is outside itself (n.d. P. Drucker).

The internal factors that influence any organization are those of the organizations strengths and weaknesses. These factors require a constant monitoring, and are central for consideration when decisions are being made regarding a company's strategy and inventory of the skills of the company's human resources. The internal strengths of a company basically begin at the financial level. Balance sheets and financial statements need to be constantly updated to maintain a continued view of the company's options and responsibilities. The management's abilities pertaining to the talents and skills of the management and the motivation of the employees are also an area that needs constant attention. The selection of employees and the abilities/talents that they bring to the organization is a topic that is vital and needs to be addressed in the best interest of the company.

"Most of today's organizations operate through decentralized business units and teams that are much closer to the customer than large corporate staffs. These organizations recognize that competitive advantages are derived from the intangible knowledge, capabilities, and relationships created by employees than from investments in physical assets and access to capital. Strategy implementation therefore requires that all business units, support units, and employees be aligned and linked to the strategy . . . changes in technology, competition, and regulations, the formulation and implementation of strategy must become a continual and participative process. Organizations today need a language for communicating strategy as well as processes and systems that help them to implement strategy and gain feedback about their strategy. Success comes from having strategy become everyone's everyday job" (Kaplan, Norton, 2000).

Not only are the skills of each employee something that a company needs to pay attention to, but also that of the marketing activity, advertising, research and product development. "To distinguish between advertising and marketing is to ...