Case for Analysis: Perdue Farms Inc. Responding to the 21st Century Challenges
1. Describe the change in management style at Perdue Farms.
By all accounts, Frank Perdue was a workaholic. He was a true entrepreneur. With little education, he started his own company, worked long hours, made many single handed decisions and grew the company. He was a traditional leader and used a centralized management style and kept decision making authority in his own hands. Initially, employees were expected to just do their jobs and it was not until later years that Frank encouraged employee participation in quality and operational decisions.
While Jim Perdue also has the entrepreneurial spirit, he is highly educated and has the temperament to move the company into a different type of management style. He believes in the importance of the work force and adopts a people first management style. He, like his father, believed the success of the business relies on providing quality products. But Jim believes the workers, or associates as they are called, play an integral role in that process. He believes the associates are the ones that strive to assure the quality of the product and therefore the satisfaction of the customers. Jim implemented many employee benefit programs in an effort increase associate satisfaction. His idea was to maximize company productivity by using the ideas and information provided by everyone in the organization.
The management style at Perdue gradually shifted from the centralized management style used by Frank for expanding a small family business to a type of management style that focuses more on the value of employees as an integral part of company success.
2. How would classify Perdue Farms according to Mintzberg’s five organization types?
According to Mintzberg's five organization types, Perdue Farms can be classified as a Machine