Question

For AT& T
How has your organization responded to the design challenges?
a) Is it centralized or decentralized? How do you know?
b) Is it highly differentiated? Can you identify any integrating mechanisms used by your organization? What is the match between the complexity of differentiation and the complexity of the integrating mechanisms that are used?
C) Is behavior in the organization very standardized, or does mutual adjustment lay an important role in coordinating people and activities? What can you tell about the level of formalization by looking at the number and kinds of rules the organization uses? How important is socialization in your organization?

Answer 1

a)

I assume the organization of the business is authoritarian, based on the authority hierarchy and the USA tradition. The USA culture's interest is the USA system of authority is bureaucratic. An USA company, in this situation, should have a "celebrity," is the creator John Stankey, who has all the followers, staff. And John Stankey going to have massive power to control the big decisions. That's why John Stankey has resigned his position as CEO. However, AT&T group is relatively decentralized due to the need for versatility and contingency of such a complex organization, depending on the substance of the company. For instance, it is the IT department that needs to share responsibility for constantly developing and innovating to fit the rapidly evolving Internet technology. Also, the top managers all possess AT&T's highest divisional authority. In this situation, a lot of top managers share power and organize it. I believe the AT&T group has a centralized and decentralized design balance.

b)

AT&T is very diversified. As I said, though being highly integrated the whole business structure is highly differentiated. AT&T has all these service-supporting entities to work together to ensure that the whole network works properly. I assume that the organization is using the most complicated method to merge department for purposes of incorporation. I think the organization uses hierarchical separation and the convergence of departmental structures to create a good fit for grappling with all elements' complexities.

c)

I think the organization is using hierarchical as well as individual adaptation to organize people and activities. AT&T has over 7,500 branches and a workforce of 247,800. Company such as this size needs to have rules and policies to govern the business. Specific departments or divisions such as the IT department or R&D department, however, need mutual adjustment to create a flexible and innovative atmosphere for people to work as a team but to be highly specialized in certain roles in the mean time. The company as a whole I think is rather formal. Yet depending on the division 's positions the divisions can be informal. I think socialization is really necessary, because of the passive and indirect USA Western culture , particularly for USA companies.

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