Middle Managers Need example essay topic

Problem Identification: CEO Bob Galvin ended his speech on April 24, 1983 with words that brought much confusion to Motorola. He stated that he "wanted to decrease the many layers of management and to bring management closer to the product and market". This was a revolutionary idea with great vision. However, the timing of the speech and lack of proper preparation for the following after effects were ill advised. Bob had not consulted with his two upper management partners, William Weisz and John Mitchell nor had he discussed it with Human Relations. The main purpose of Bob wanting to make these changes were the issues he was constantly hearing about employees stating there was too many issues with the management matrix and thusly projects were not being seen through by a single point of contact.

Motorola's rush to stay ahead of the curve as well as the leader in the marketplace had placed a huge minutia of middle managers into the picture with most of them managing less than 5 employees. This extremely low employee to manager ratio was putting anywhere from 9 to 12 people in line from middle to senior managers. This caused drastic confusion and frustration throughout the company. Bob knew as the company grew it would only get worse.

This was not a situation he wanted to leave Motorola in before he retired. Situation Analysis: Due to the fact that Bob had not consulted with pretty much anyone at the time of his speech, he had not taken any of the steps that would be necessary for it to be brought to fruition. He had not created an implementation plan nor lined up any sponsorship. Middle management certainly would not want to change their current day-to-day business plans. As well, the changes would mean a loss of power to their power base. The new plan would have a lot of middle managers cut out of the picture all together.

Weisz and Mitchell would be up to the challenge but being caught off guard did not help the situation at all. Human Relations VP Joe Mira glia worked with Galvin to set the wheels in motion but noted it would not be easy and needed to be handled with care to make it work. HR also questioned if this would truly fix the actual problem. They felt that just creating small business units would only correct the structural issue and not the root cause. Solution: The best call of action that Galvin and Motorola need to take is to first get his upper management as well as Human Relations on board with the vision. The plan of attack needs to be lined out and detailed as well as have contingency plans in place for when things go awry.

Time tables need to be set out so precise measures can be taken and charted for progress as the project develops. Middle managers need to be involved heavily and they have to have the authority to make true change. The new vision must be shown to everyone as a positive growth for the employees, management and the company. Last but not least there needs to be an over abundant amount of communication that takes place between all parties involved. Honesty has to be carried out at all costs. Some managers will more than likely lose their current managing position and there is a high probabibility of some job losses.

This need to be expressed as a necessity for the corporation to survive. This will convey the strong urgency of the tasks at hand.