Sherman Computer Repair New Direction
Kevin O'Brien
MMPBL/550
October 29, 2011
Lois Whittaker

Sherman Computer Repair New Direction

When it comes to making changes to a business there are risks that need to be taken. Some of those risks will affect the stakeholders. More and more companies are going through changes to help move them in the right direction. As companies are going through these types of changes to help move the organization forward they are trying to be proactive to ensure they are staying ahead of the competitions. Companies that are not participating in change are slower to react and could leave the business setup for failure. As for the organization, Sherman Computer Repair, there is a need to plan for a new direction. When planning for the new direction there should be steps to ensure the plan is working the way it has been set out to do. When an organization is going through an organizational design change there will be some barriers. During that process there will need to be an evaluation of the organizations external environment of their strengths and their weaknesses. This evaluation will help the company get an assessment of Sherman Computer Repair current skills sets and talent level that will need to be changed to help the company move forward.

Sherman Computer Repair Organizational Design The current state of Sherman Computer Repair is that the company has three locations in where their customer can bring their computer hardware in for repairs, inside the three locations they are staffed with three computer technicians and a receptionist (University of Phoenix, 2011). The company has 12 mobile technicians that are available to go the customers’ homes to repair their equipment. Looking at the organizations current structure it is found to be a functional structure. In order to have an organizational structure that is primarily functional there will be a functional design which is a subunit that is made up of departments or groups that are working together but are working independently of one another, while each of them will have the same like skills and will also use the same knowledge, tools or techniques to perform their job functions (Jones, 2004) Functional Structure is also found to have a hierarchy concept on subordination and departments that are acting independently of each other but are functioning toward a similar objective. As talked about before there are several barriers that are out there that will have an adverse effect on the functional structure within Sherman Computer Repair. Having these barriers will hurt the company in their effort to move in the right direction. There are many companies that struggle with communication and coordination. Having this type of roadblock is a problem because it will bring a slower progress and give the inability to do anything that is not planned out. To ensure that this potential roadblock is not a problem Sherman Computer Repair will need to incorporate the process of promoting cooperation, communication and coordination to all of the subunits (Jones, 2004). With Sherman Computer Repair being a small company there are some barriers that will be in place and some roadblocks on the road to greatness would be differentiations problems. At the current state there are not very many problems but as the company grows there will be more of a potential for problems. The main problem will be a division of labor. When differentiation is talked about is has found to be the process in which a company will allocates their people and resources to the organizational task and establishes the task and authority to the relationships that will allow the company to achieve their goals (Jones, 2004). At the rate that Sherman Computer Repair is growing there will need to be a need to have the manager make appropriate business decisions that are both vertical and horizontal to the overall success to the business. It has been seen for companies to have problems with balancing centralization and decentralization within an organization. Sherman Computer Repair will be faced with this type of problem. The managers have centralized power but as the company grows they will become overwhelmed with work. To prevent this from happening there will be a need to have the day to day operations to the employees mapped out because the manager will be busy working on the business not in the business. As these changes take place it could be a problem because employees are not always receptive in taking on more responsibility. It has been proven that when nobody is willing to take on more responsibility, decision making will become slow and the company will become inflexible (Jones, 2004). To help with this change Sherman Computer Repair could decentralize the authority and power and this will allow the employees at multiple levels to make decisions and keep them accountable for their actions. As Sherman Computer Repair is expanding and trying to incorporate computer assembly into their organization plan the company needs to have an awareness of problems that could and will come up. Change and growth are not easy for a company to handle and a plan is in order to help keep the business on the right track. As the company goes through these problems it could find them in a world of trouble if they do not address it.

Sherman Computer Repair External Environment Companies have to deal with external factors on a daily basis. Some of the external factors are suppliers, customers as well as any other outside influences that do not function as a part of the organization. Therefore; it is key for Sherman Computer Repair to keep their eyes and ears open and recognize what the external environments might bring to the company. Sherman Computer Repair is no different than any other company in that it has many suppliers. Having suppliers can and will create barriers between firms as well as the outside world (Ashkenas, Ulrich, Jick & Kerr, 2002). It is important to look at the barriers and boundaries to see what is needed to do in order to react to them. Some of the barriers could be psychological or cultural and somewhat on the legal side. A situation that could come up is when a supplier and a customer could be used against each other for the gain of the company. The stakeholders that make up Sherman Computer Repair have the concept that they want the company to do well and have great success. This success plays a role for the organizational design and direction. How this all can happen is the customer can play a part in the success by word a mouth and talking about the service that was performed which the company can come back and reward the customer by always being around and have cheaper prices based on the volume. The suppliers would more than likely want their customer, Sherman Computer Repair, to do well because it means that the company would buy more products from them to help keep their income coming in. There is an old saying location location location. This holds true in the world of business and Sherman Computer Repair could be faced with geographic boundaries. Having an industry share with Synergetic Solution Inc. there is a need to develop a relationship geographically in order to help them succeed. There are times where cultural differences, national pride, market peculiarities and or world-wide logistics may create a barrier so the come may not do as well as it shall. There are strengths and weaknesses that play a role in the external environment and these should be considered before Sherman Computer Repair makes an important choice in what changes should be made for the current organizational structure. Understanding the needs of the customer is a must and with that the company can address the concern that may be plaguing the customer. Just like the customer the company will need to be evaluating the needs and wants of their vendors to help gather information out of industry trends.

Sherman Computer Repair Talent Recognition The culture of an organization is the foundation that is needed for a company to be successful. The first step in building a solid foundation to a great culture is through innovation and creativity. As for innovation they will need to have a support team to help move the process along. Through the process of innovation and creativity, Sherman Computer Repair will need to create an internal marketplace. Having an internal market place would be vital because it is where ideas and functions of innovation can blossom in a supply-and-demand situation (Davila, Epstein & Shelton, 2006). Sherman Computer Repair is missing something that is truly needed. The need is talent that has the skillset to take Synergetic, Inc. and place it in the computer assembly market and help it grow. Before Sherman Computer Repairs moves on to the step of bringing people on board they will need to do an assessment of their current staff. Once the company knows what they have inside they can see where they have strengths and weaknesses at and hire toward those weakness. Like in the book Good to Great by Jim Collins it is important for a company to have the Right Person in the Right Seat. As the company hires people not only do they need to hire for the skill set they need to hire for the culture, this strategy is important for the overall success to the organization. Other companies have found that performance management has worked to help motivate employees. Currently the Sherman Computer Repair company lacks an incentive or a reward program for their employees, as the company moves into the direction of being innovative and creative this will be needed. The goal of this will be that the organization will have a productive and innovative system which would hold team members accountable to the work environment. In order for an incentive or reward program to work there are goals that need to be set both as a team and individual basis. Having these goals in place will give the company a performance matrix so the company can see where they are at. As for the manager they want to have something to measure by because what is not measured will not get improved. . As the company brings new people on board they will need to do a good evaluation process to make sure they fit both with their skill set and culturally. If the company does not hire for their culture it will be hard for Sherman Computer Repair to change the culture it is aiming to be.

Sherman Computer Repair Barriers to Change Knocking down the barriers are important but in order to do that a company must know them and within Sherman Computer Repair it is important for them to start with how management responds to new ideas, the lack of support for innovations by the management team, and being open about allowing ideas to be expressed without being scared of criticism. Having a culture where ideas can flow freely and be supported across the board is another barrier that is needed to be knocked down. This can be done with the different levels of management. Looking to the external resources to help with the innovation process will help bring in a person or a team to help change and develop that part of the process within the organization. As talked about before decentralization of the management will be an area of opportunity to help create innovation to the thought process. Having platforms that promotes innovation will cut across all business units to provide an honest perspective on the innovation value more so than one that is limited by a single business unit (Davila, Epstein & Shelton, 2006, p. 98). When this is in play companies are not asking all of their business units to do the same thing but to help to work in sync toward the same goal. The help in this step would come from the management team to help bring these projects together.

Conclusion

It has been said there is one thing that is for sure and that is change. Change is something that is needed for business. However, there are cases where a company does not change and we have watched that company fail. As for the company the change they are always looking for is the next big thing. It is hard for a company to admit they need change but in the case of Sherman Computer Repair they realized it and are willing to make the commitment to change for the better. The changes that are in place for Sherman Computer Repair will help the company for years to come and will build a culture that will always keep their head on a swivel.
References

Davila, Tony., Epstein, Marc., and Shelton, Robert. (2006). Making innovation work: How to Manage it, measure it, and profit from it. , New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc.
Jones, G. (2004). Organizational Theory, Design, and Change. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall. University of Phoenix. (2011). Human Relations and Organizational Behavior:
Organization Structure, Synergetic Solutions Scenario. Retrieved October 29, 2011 from University of Phoenix, MMPBL550- Creativity, Innovation and Organizational Design.