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Advance Topics in Change Management. Lecture 8: The External Environment of Organizations. Objectives. To consider how environments vary and affect the internal structures and processes of organizations
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Advance Topics in Change Management Lecture 8: The External Environment of Organizations
Objectives • To consider how environments vary and affect the internal structures and processes of organizations • To develop a framework to help assess environments, how they are changing and how managers might need to respond to those changes
Managing inter-organisational relations: modes of co-ordination and influence • Ownership links • Contractual links: alliances, joint ventures etc. • Inter-locking directorates • Transfer and exchange of executives/senior managers • Profit pooling and federation of firms • Co-operative marketing • Advertising and public relations • Trade associations • Obligational contracting • Patent exchange and pooling
Ownership Links: Cross-ShareholdingDaimler, Nissan and Renault announce three-way tie-up • German carmaker Daimler is to give Renault and Nissan a 3.1% stake in its business as part of a global tie-up of the brands, it has been announced. • In exchange, Daimler will take a 3.1% stakes in both Renault and Nissan, who have been in an alliance since 1999. • The deal will see the companies remain separate, but allow them to share technology and development costs. • Daimler's Mercedes-Benz brand will benefit from shared technology • http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8606593.stm
Ownership Links: Other Examples • Japanese keiretsu that usually involve cross-shareholding (eg Mitsubishi keiretsu built around Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Mitsubishi Electric, and Kirin Brewery amongst others; Toyota group built around Tokai Bank, Toyota, and Ricoh amongst others) • Pyramid groups do not necessarily involve cross-shareholdings (VW which covers Porsche, MAN Trucks, Scania Trucks; FIAT, including FIAT, Iveco Trucks, and CNH)
Another Pyramid Group: The Arab Malaysian Group, controlled by Azman Hashim
Joint Ventures • An example of an equity-based joint venture: Li-Tec Battery • a Joint Venture between Evonik Industries AG (which holds 50.1% of the shares in the company) and Daimler AG (49.9%) • It develops, produces and markets large-scale lithium ion battery cells for automotive applications and battery systems for industrial and stationary applications. • Can also have non-equity joint ventures (co-operative agreements to co-develop a business using another company’s brand or to develop a technology, such as Nokia and Sony Ericsson)
Inter-Locking Directorates • This refers to the membership on the boards of directors of two or more firms by the same individual. • Examples: • Some Hong Kong companies • Deutsche Bank and Daimler (until early 2000s)
Inter-Locking Directorates: A Recent Example? • Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, used to have a seat on the board of Apple. (Not sure if any Apple board member sat on the board at Google.) • But did this lead to anti-competitive practices? • Silicon Valley groups face antitrust probe on recruiting • http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ff94ea24-509f-11de-9530-00144feabdc0.html • The US justice department has begun a civil antitrust inquiry into hiring behaviour at some of the largest technology companies in Silicon Valley, including Google, Yahoo, Apple and Genentech. • Officials have sent as many as a dozen companies civil investigative demands seeking documents that would shed light on whether some of them have an agreement not to poach talent from one another.
Back to the List! • Transfer and exchange of executives/senior managers – e.g. Toyota • Profit pooling and federation of firms • Co-operative marketing • Advertising and public relations • Trade associations • Obligational contracting • Patent exchange and pooling
The Environment for Universities • Complex: • Government (fees, numbers of students, types of awards) • Students (current and prospective ones) • Their parents! • Student union • Graduate employers (public and private sector) • Other universities/research organizations at home and abroad • Unions (support staff and academics) • Stable – usually, yes, but not currently!
Questions • Think of a large mobile-phone company. • What activities – in broad terms – does it engage in? • How would you describe its environment (in terms of stability and complexity)? • Does this vary for different parts of the organization? • If it does vary, how might the different parts of the organization be structured?
Other Ways to Deal with Environmental Uncertainty • Buffering • Boundary Spanning • Leading to differentiation within organizations
Questions • Think back to that mobile-phone company. • What are the priorities of those involved in its different activities (e.g. research and development) likely to be? • Will they adopt a short-term or a long-term perspective on those activities? • What level of formality would you associate with each activity and why?
Conclusion • The external environment is likely to influence the ways in which any company, as a whole, is designed as well as the ways in which individual departments/divisions within it are designed.