Management. Educational aid

Situation 4. The management of the large industrial holding “Agro”, represented by President S. Motiv, decided to introduce an organizational structure scheme in which the general director and the board of directors centrally plan the activities of the entire holding, and structural divisions independently carry out the assigned tasks. But sales director I. Ralov said that this system is not new and has been operating for many years.

What do you think the sales director meant?

Situation 5. The Micro company employs R. Sotov, who stands out from other employees with his high salary and extensive work experience, as well as free access to the company’s reports and direct subordination to the general director. To the question of a new employee: “What are the job responsibilities of R. Sotov?” They answered him: “He can solve any production problem!”

What kind of organizational scheme do you think operates at the enterprise?

Situation 6. At the Master company, management decided to undertake a bold experiment. In the context of the crisis in the construction industry, individual teams were asked to independently look for clients, distribute the profits, maintain production equipment, but at the same time remain employees of the company.

Do you think this is possible within a matrix structure?

Situation 7. In a small grocery store owned by individual entrepreneur I.V. Karabeev, which belongs to the matrix management structure, in the last six months difficulties began to arise in decisionmaking.

What do you think needs to be done in such a situation?

Situation 8. Based on the results of 2012, the head of the Mayak enterprise, V. Volkov, identified a situation where a significant increase in overhead costs was associated with the maintenance of a large number of

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deputy managers (800 people at the enterprise, the number of deputy directors increased by 4 people to 8). However, he cannot reduce their number, since they are highly competent in their matters [7].

What should the manager do in this situation: leave deputies or reduce costs in another way?

Situation 9. In the “Start” LLC, which operates on the principle of a matrix organization, recently there has been a tendency towards anarchy at different levels of management of the organization.

What do you think management should do in this situation?

Situation 10. At a meeting of the founders, a dispute broke out over which organizational management structure to choose for two organizations. One has 50 people, the other 1,200 people.

What do you think determines the choice of organizational management structure?

EXERCISES

Exercise 1. Justify the organizational structure and management scheme of an educational institution (using the example of a secondary school, university, etc.).

Exercise 2. Assess the organizational management structure of your organization, taking into account the following indicators: form of controllability, degree of complexity, number of management levels, type of organizational management structure.

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CASE

Case “By Carrot or Stick”

A well-known Russian company operating in the children's goods market is faced with the costs of rapid growth. The author of the problem, the company's organizational development manager Sergei Tretyak, is looking for ways to improve the manageability of departments and at the same time maintain the existing democratic atmosphere in the company.

Company. The company produces and sells a variety of children's products under its own brand, one of the most famous on the Russian market. Target audience: middle class. In the regions where the Company receives its main income, these are families with a monthly income of $300 or more. The assortment includes about 400 items and is divided into product groups: products for newborns, toys, children's clothing, cosmetics, strollers, etc. In terms of products for newborns (pacifiers, bibs, drinking cups, etc.) the company is a market leader.

Most of the assortment ordered by the Company is manufactured in China (as most market participants do), where the Company sends developments from its own design department. Sergey Tretyak: “We have our own sketches, developments, we have molds, we own the license and we have our own brand. But it’s more profitable to produce in China.”

The Company has different competitors in almost every product area, and sometimes also in assortment positions. These are not only Western and Russian companies, but also no name products manufactured in China.

Participants in this market receive income from high turnover — each individual product brings the Company only a small amount. The overhead level is very high. That is why any company that expects to become a leader in this market must have perfect logistics.

The Company's immediate goals are to improve the distribution network and build retail stores — its own stores or those operating on a franchise basis. After all, specialized children's retail in Russia is at the

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stage of formation: in each region there are only three or four small specialized stores. And for pharmacy chains and universal retail, children's products are just a related product, with an appropriate attitude towards it.

At some point, the Company decided that it was not worth limiting itself to production, and began to develop the idea of creating their own children's centers. They will be possible to relax with the whole family, as well as purchase Company products. What the relationship between trade and leisure will be in these centers has not yet been determined.

The Russian children's goods market is experiencing rapid growth, and the Company is growing along with it. Every year its turnover doubles, and its staff increases by one and a half times. All this leads to inconsistency in business processes and gives rise to organizational problems, which are largely due to the variety of tasks facing the Company.

Indeed, building a distribution network, creating retail, developing children's centers — all these are absolutely diverse tasks. In addition, even work on individual product groups varies significantly. Although the consumers are the same, the path to them for, say, goods for newborns and strollers is fundamentally different. In fact, these are different businesses, there are different wholesalers and different distribution channels. If pacifiers and other products for newborns are traditionally sold through the pharmacy chain (there are powerful players here like the Protek company), then in the stroller trade there are no strong distributors; most often their sales are carried out by individual entrepreneurs.

Problems. Rapid growth and increasing complexity of tasks led to problems within the Company. Initially, its organizational structure was linear-functional. But with the increase in assortment and turnover, the volume of tasks in each business area and the degree of their complexity increased. The commercial director no longer had time to make decisions alone. Product managers have appeared — “mini-directors” of product areas, responsible for a certain part of the assortment. In particular, they determine which new products to include in it and which items to remove from the list, and send orders to the logistics department. Sergei Tretyak:

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“Taylor’s theory in action: differentiation of work and increasing complexity of business lead to the emergence of narrow specialization.”

The problem is how to differentiate the tasks of product managers and functional departments. “A product manager is a manager with a lot of responsibilities and uncertain powers,” explains Sergey Tretyak. — Of course, its main function is to manage the assortment. And all tasks related to sales, quality control, and delivery are the responsibility of functional departments. If effective interaction is not established with them, the product manager becomes a hostage to his obligations.”

To solve these problems, the Company tried to build a matrix organizational structure. Functional departments had to carry out tasks assigned by product managers. Sergei Tretyak himself was involved in the implementation of such a system of relations, and invited an independent consultant.

However, the “matrix” did not take root — functional departments did not perceive these tasks as orders. And since they remained the holders of the budget, product managers had no financial leverage over the performers. They did not transfer the budget to product managers for the reason that the heads of functional departments were “heavyweights” in comparison with them — they had higher qualifications and experience. Therefore, decisions on each specific case had to be made by the general director, which discredited the very idea of the “matrix”.

It is also possible to establish intra-company interaction using other methods. The Company is currently implementing a corporate information system (CIS). True, so far only accounting procedures and relationships with suppliers and clients are being automated. Things have not yet come to more subtle things like interaction between departments, internal document flow, and monitoring of project implementation. Although such an information system is, in principle, capable of coping with such tasks.

Possible solutions. A radical solution could be a strict strengthening of control over execution based on the formalization of all business processes; this is already being carried out during the implementation of

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the CIS system. But on this path, Sergei Tretyak believes, there is one serious obstacle.

In most Russian companies, the management style is determined by the value system, culture, and habits of the first person. The Company's management style is democratic. There are internal values here — a ban on aggression and conflict, on behind-the-scenes games. Thanks to this, the atmosphere in the Company is almost family-like, and staff turnover is very low. According to Mr. Tretyak, these corporate traditions cannot be compromised: “There are companies that do business dryly. We are different and that makes us successful.” At the same time, for effective business development, strict control over the execution of tasks is necessary. But this contradicts the management style that has developed in the Company.

Sergei Tretyak himself, as an organization development manager, is trying to formalize relationships within the Company using a minimum of documents. This doesn't always work. Sergei Tretyak: “I would like to know how to build effective management if harsh authoritarian methods — for example, firing people or open conflicts of interest — are unacceptable. But business is becoming more complex, and there is a danger of letting it get out of control.”

The author of the problem so far sees only two solutions. First: create business units so that different product lines actually become separate companies. Movement in this direction has already begun. Thus, the children's clothing line has been allocated to a separate division. Product managers, design development and sales departments are subordinate to its director.

The second solution: leave only the development of a new product in the Company, and outsource everything else to third-party companies [12].

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CONTROL QUESTIONS

1.Describe the types of organizational management structures.

2.What is the organization of the relationship between linear and staff authorities?

3.How do you see the organizational structures of the enterprises of the future?

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4. MANAGEMENT DECISIONS

The enterprise management process is carried out on the basis of decisions made. At its core, the work of managers consists of constant study, analysis, evaluation and selection of ways to solve production and other problems. The state of the enterprise, its internal variables and external environment constantly create a lot of questions that require resolution.

The decision-making process is a cyclical sequence of actions of a management subject aimed at resolving the organization’s problems and consisting in analyzing the situation, identifying alternatives, making a decision and organizing its implementation.

In its most general form, a management decision should cover:

a)the goal (set of goals) of the functioning and development of the

system;

b)the means and resources used to achieve these goals;

c)the main ways and means of achieving goals;

d)deadlines for achieving goals;

e)the procedure for interaction between departments and performers;

f)organization of work at all stages of implementation of the solution.

It is important to develop goals for management influence. The determination of goals should be carried out with the direct participation of the decision maker. In the process of making management decisions, an adequate assessment of the situation and various factors influencing its development plays an important role.

SPECIFIC SITUATIONS

Situation 1. You are the owner and director of the Mayak grocery store, which is located in an active residential development area. Opening hours from 10.00 to 19.00. The assortment is quite extensive: alcoholic

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drinks, tobacco products, food and household chemicals. You need to increase sales volume, but without expanding the range and increasing the trade margin.

What is the best way for you to deal with this situation?

Situation 2. In a large company “Vostok”, a difficult situation has arisen in one of the structural divisions: the workshop for the production of frozen semi-finished products is very far behind the production schedule. When analyzing this problem, it was revealed that employees were working part-time due to a lack of raw materials. You have delivered the necessary raw materials, but are still five days behind the production schedule.

What to do in this situation?

Situation 3. The distribution company “MasteriK” does not have enough sales agents in some areas of the city. Instead of 12 sales agents, you have only 8 people on hand. You need to at least retain your existing customer base.

How to solve this problem?

Situation 4. On the eve of the New Year holidays, there is too much influx of buyers at the wholesale and retail food base. But due to the limited store opening hours (8–20 hours), not all visitors have time to make purchases. As a result, the company receives less profit. This does not suit either the employees (their wages are based on daily revenue) or the management of the base (they lose customers and profits).

What would you do if you were the head of a wholesale warehouse?

Situation 5. Due to the difficult economic situation (economic crisis), a critical situation has developed in the company: it is necessary to reduce 30% of the working staff (total number of 60 people). But due to the fact that the team consists of highly qualified employees who have been working together for a long time and successfully complement each

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other in their work, solving this problem was not so easy. The head of the company found himself in a dead end: how to reduce wage costs and at the same time maintain the integrity of the team?

How will you act in this situation?

Situation 6. You are the head of the “Project” company, which is engaged in the development and implementation of various economic projects. An important project was scheduled to be delivered at the end of the month, but the leading specialist became seriously ill, and the employee who could replace him is on vacation abroad. Failure to meet deadlines leads to huge losses.

What should a manager do in this situation?

Situation 7. You are the owner of a chain of perfume stores. On the eve of the summer season, one of your deputies suggests investing all available free funds in tanning products. Another deputy, citing the fact that according to weather forecasters, the summer will be cloudy, suggests spending the same money on everyday perfumes.

What would you do?

Situation 8. Throughout the year, your real estate company brought in a stable income. By the end of the year, net profit amounted to 25 million rubles. You are faced with a dilemma: to use this money to open additional offices in the city or to think about other investment options?

What decision would you make if you were in the manager's place?

Situation 9. You are the owner of a grocery store. Due to direct deliveries from manufacturers, your store always has low prices. Despite the current situation, the insufficient size of retail space and remoteness from busy highways do not contribute to the growth in the number of buyers [7].

Name possible ways to increase your store's profits.

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