ORGANIZATIONAL RESEARCH

Organizational Research

Organizational Research

Introduction

General Motors Company, also known as GM, is a United States-based automaker with headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. GM manufactures cars and trucks in 34 countries, recently employed 244,500 people around the world, and sells and services vehicles in some 140 countries. By sales, GM ranked as the largest US automaker and the world's second largest for 2008, having the third highest 2008 global revenues among automakers on the Fortune Global 500.

On April 21, 2010, GM CEO Ed Whitacre Jr. announced that the company had paid back the entire amount of the US and Canadian government loans, with interest, a total of $8.1 billion. The company expects to repurchase a sizable portion of the remaining equity stake with funds earned via a public stock offering. While no GM shares are currently available to the public, the company's plans as of 2009 were to initiate an initial public stock offering (IPO) in 2010.

GM plans to focus its business on its four core North American brands: Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, and Cadillac. In Europe, following a period of negotiation to sell a majority stake in its Opel and Vauxhall brands, the company decided to retain full ownership of these operations. However, on February 23, 2010, GM sold Saab Automobile to Spyker Cars NV and is winding down its Hummer, Pontiac, and Saturn brands, the latter two remaining under the old GM, now known as Motors Liquidation Company.

Since 1996, General Motors has been the exclusive source of funding for Safe Kids USA's "Safe Kids Buckle Up" program, a national initiative to ensure child automobile safety through education and inspection. Through 2002, the Pace Awards program led by GM, EDS, and SUN Microsystems, gave over $1.2 billion of in-kind contributions which includes computers to over 18 universities to support engineering education. In 2009, the GM led group has helped the Pace Awards program worldwide. General Motors is a leading contributor to charity. In 2004, GM gave $51,200,000 in cash contributions and $17,200,000 in-kind donations to charitable causes.

In the 2008 election cycle, General Motors contributed $802,414, with 52% of that amount going to the Democrats and 48% to the Republicans. GM's Saturn division put up a display at the 2009 Detroit Auto Show congratulating Barack Obama on his election as the first African-American president of the United States.

Corporate level examination of international logistics problems in formal fashion is a relatively recent occurrence at General Motors. International Logistics Operations (ILO) was created in June, 1977, and was made a part of Procurement, Production Control and Logistics Staff. The Director of International Logistics Operations reports to the Executive Director of Logistics and is charged with responsibility for the co-ordination of all international transportation activities. It should be noted at the outset that the term logistics, as currently used at General Motors, defines a group of activities having a narrower scope than some academic descriptions. For example, in one text, logistics is the generic term used to describe all transportation and inventory management functions as ...