Issue 1- Ethics and Legal Environment
The situation that Arnold the CEO of gun manufacturing company found himself in is very critical. There are two conflicting and touchy issues that Arnold needs to give attention. It is an ethical dilemma situation that needs him to carefully weigh the options. There is a public outcry from the shareholders that Arnold must remove Mac from the Board of director of the company. It is challenging because the shareholders are the backbone of the company and whatever they demand must be attended to. Likewise, Arnold has to consider the profile of Mac, especially how much he has tried to give back to the community for a couple of years despite having a disgusting youth life.
Recommendation to Arnold
According to the story by Badaracco(2002, p. 9), only those who are daring can make the best decision. Machiavelli avows that those who deserve leadership posts and those who make good leaders are those who are ready to take risks in a prudent way. In other words, Arnold must be ready to take the bull by its horns and not give up to the intimidation from the shareholders about the fate of Mac. Being the Company CEO, Arnold has the powers to stand for what is right.
The situation is a right versus right dilemma because the demands of the shareholders and the profile of Mac are both presenting right arguments. In reference to Badaracco(2002, p. 8), good leaders are people who walk their talk, they are able to put their creativity and imagination into action. In his view, the best decisions are not made by the faint-hearted; they are made by those who are audacious. In other words, Arnold needs not to be faint-hearted while making decision on the fate of Mac in the company board.
Arnold needs to allow Mac to continue serving in the company and provide a convincing statement to the shareholders about Mac’s life. He needs to understand that the past is history and what matters are the present and the future (Hosmer, 2011, p. 1). He should not decide Mac’s fate using the. There are a lot more that Arnold needs to consider before arriving at a decision. Precisely, Badaracco(2002, p. 7) asserts that a leader should not weaver in his decisions. Arnold must take a firm ground to defend Mac. He should let the records to speak for Mac.
Arnold needs to consider a number of factors before hastily making a decision to keep Mac in the company or let go of him. First, Arnold should look at the current situation in the organization and how Mac has consistently conducted his business since the time he left the prisons. The number of years Mac has taken faithfully to serve the community should be considered. Arnold needs not to use one instant event that occurred a long time in his youth to declare Mac a bad person.
Second, Arnold should examine the intent that Freddie has while disclosing about the past of Mac. Perhaps, it is done with the intent to settle some scores and differences. As depicted in the story, Freddie burns with anger and grudge knowing very well that Mac had been a model while in the prisons. It was on the grounds of good conduct that Mac was released before the end of his jail term while Freddie had to serve the full prison term sentence. Once the intention Freddie in examined, fallacies can be detected.The decision should not be arrived at to help settle some personal scores but rather to the benefit of the whole humanity.
According to the Nature of Moral Problems in Management, “Nature of moral problems in management has changed from the deliberate actions of senior executives for personal gains to the continual pressures on managers at all levels, (Hosmer, 2011, p. 8)” in this view, decisions should not be made for personal gains. According to Hosmer (2011, p. 20), decisions that are made in order to meet personal goals, personal norms, personal beliefs and personal values are subjective in nature and may not provide the best solutions to situations in management. Freddie published the past of Mac in the papers for personal goals. Therefore, sacking Mac from the Company Board will be erroneous and ill intended.
Arnold needs to consider the moral impacts of the decision. There are questions that Arnold needs to ask himself. Will the decision hurt or harm the majority? What will be the benefits of dismissing or retaining Mac in the company? Hosmer (2011, p. 53), asserts that the analysis of the situation should begin by first analyzing who will benefit from the action and who will lose form the decision. Besides, it is important to know who will be freely given the opportunity to exercise their rights through the decision and who will be barred from exercising their rights freely (Badaracco, 2002, p. 6).
If Mac is removed from the Company board, the community and the company will lose while Freddie, who has a grudge with Mac will have his scores settled. Furthermore, Mac will be denied the privilege to exercise his rights freely without intimidation. He will feel frustrated and made to live in the past. Also, removing Mac from his position as the board chairperson will pose economic implications on the company. Mac has already established good relationships with the community and the society and has a high command of customers’ loyalty. The fact that Mac has served significantly given back to the community puts him in a better position to have good relations with the company clients.
Precisely, Arnold needs to allow Mac to continue serving in the company boards because of a number of reasons. First, in the view of Badaracco(2002, p. 4), a good leader should not be faint hearted when making a decision. The economic benefits and the rights of all the affected parties need to be considered. Since Mac had been acquitted of his offences and got released earlier, he has the rights to engage in the civil activities without the fear of being accused of his past mistakes. Besides, Mac has been able to serve the community faithfully since his release and even after his retirements.
Issue 2: Organizational Environment
An organization according to Jones(2013, p. 1) is defined as a tool that is utilized by people in to achieve their goals. The type of organization created depends on what the founder of the organization values. Therefore, there are several types of organizations depending on the activities that people value in the society. Gigantec Corporation is an example of the organization. It is a technology manufacturing organization. Organizations usually vary in sizes. Some are large organizations; others are medium sized organizations while other may be small sized organization. There is no universally accepted criterion of grouping organizations into small, medium and large sized organizations. Nevertheless, the number of employees and capital investment are among the fundamental factors that have been used to categorize organizations. Notably, different organizations are designed in different ways depending on the intention of the founder and the way the owners or the founders wish to run the organization. When new technologies are discovered, new organizations are usually spawned. In view of Jones (2013, p. 3), organizations are usually established as a means to satisfying human needs and desires.
Organizational theory is defined by Jones (2013, p. 6) as the study of how organizations operate and how it is influenced or how it influences its environment. It is important to understand how organizations function and their relationship with their environment. Therefore, the way an organization is designed is a prerequisite for understanding its operation and management. Every manager or CEO of any organization needs to gain insight on the various deigns that are available for organizations and chose on the most suitable model or structure that may enable the organization to achieve its predetermined objectives. It is important for the CEO of Gigantec Corporation, Geoffrey Wellborn to know the available options of organizational design that will be suitable for Gigantec Corporation.
Before deciding to utilize the matrix model of organizational structure, the CEO needs fully to understand how matrix organizational structure operates and the underlying strengths and weaknesses associated with this model. Moreover, it is important to underscore the fact that Wellborn should beware of another matrix that may be considered suitable for Gigantec Corporation in the event that the matrix model is proven to be unsuitable.
First, Wellborn needs to know that organizational structure is very ideal in the achievement of the organizations objectives. It defines the formal system of tasks and authority relationship that controls how people coordinate their duties and utilize the available resources purposefully to achieve the set goals and objectives. According to Jones (2013, p.12), an appropriate structure is that which enhances proper responses to problems of coordination and motivation. In other words, a suitable model should allow the organization to be able to react effectively to emerging situations that may influence the day to day running of the organization. For instance, an organization must be able to realize the ongoing changes in the environment, technology and human factors.
In Matrix Organizational structure, the team members in the organization are employed on or assigned to projects or tasks either on a part-time or full-time basis while at the same time retaining their home functional discipline (Jones, 2013, p. 38). This structure is suitable when organization faces budgetary constraints and cannot permanently hire staff.
Assumptions in the Matrix Organizational structure
There are three main factors to be considered when constructing a matrix organizational structure. First, there are pressures for shared, flexible use of resources across the organizational geography. This assumption holds that in the matrix structure, the different departments will adopt a flexible sharing of the available resources (Jones, 2013, p. 122). The sharing is usually encouraged due to the limits of financial resources in the organization.
The second assumption is that the rate of sharing information across the organization is high due to the complexity in the needs that arise in the organization. Being a technology manufacturing company, information sharing within the organization is high, and there are uncertainties that are posed by the market changes.
Another assumption is that the matrix structure is most applicable where there is a high degree of interdependence between several different parts of the organization (Jones, 2013, p. 122). This postulate is applicable to Gigantec Corporation due to the need to maintain a high level of creativity necessary for conceiving and delivering innovatively technological products (Badaracco, 2002).
Advantages of Matrix Structure
- It provides a flexible structure for sharing the resources across the company.
- It helps in achieving a high level of coordination that is necessary in meeting the diverse needs of the operating environment and market
- This model is suitable for complex decision making in unstable environments that have high degree of information processing requirements
- When effectively employed, it provides opportunities for both function and product knowledge development
Disadvantages of Matrix
- Resource sharing may be stressful and frustrating at times
- Requires high level of interpersonal skills to share the resources effectively making it a bit complex to implement
- It requires frequent sessions for resolving conflicts that may arise in the sharing of the company resources
Gigantec CorporationCEO, Geoffrey Wellborn, should understand that matrix organizational structure is complex and involves a lot of interrelationship among or between the various departments of the organization. This structure requires that the leaders adopt a collegial relationship other than the hierarchical styles (Jones, 2013, p. 92). In other words, the CEO should know that if he adopts this structure, he must be ready to work in a collegial relationship with the other employees of the organization so as to effectively share the resources with the organization
Moreover, it is noteworthy that matrix organizational structure will require Gigantec Corporation to establish training programs that would enhance interpersonal relationship that is needed to facilitate the resource sharing among the various departments of the organizations. In other words, to effectively implement the matrix structure, Wellborn needs to understand that interpersonal skill is a prerequisite for sharing resources (Jones, 2013, p. 94). Furthermore, the organizations will have to set regular sessions for resolving conflicts that may arise among the members while sharing the resources (Jones, 2013, p. 94).
Issue 3: Critical Thinking
According to Browne & Keeley (2014, p. 23), it is important to identify the issue raised in a given situation before dong the analysis critically. In his argument, Browne & Keeley(2014, p. 26) asserts that the conclusion is a message that the writer or the speaker wants the readers to accept. Therefore, this step in situation analysis can be used to identify the issue raised in the paragraph about diet.
The issue is: Why do people fall for all the fad diets out there when the only nutrition plan that’s even close to sensible is the Ancestral Environment Hunter-Gatherer Diet?
The conclusion: “Ancestral Environment Hunter-Gatherer Diet is the greatest diet.”
Fallacies in the argument
Fallacies according to Browne & Keeley (2014, p. 76) are tricks that the writer may use in trying to make the conclusion valid for the issue when not qualify. To identify the fallacies, it is important to consider a few tricks. Some of the fallacies in the paragraph include:
• Straw person fallacy: Anyone who thinks another diet will do them any good is a complete cretin who knows nothing about the nutritional needs of the human body. According to Browne & Keeley(2014, p.80), this statement is fallacious because the writer disqualifies the opinions of other people without clearly stating the weaknesses in such reasoning.
• Appeal to questionable authority: My friend Yvonne, who has tried more diets than you can shake a Twizzler at, has lost a pound and a half on this diet, which is a record for her and proves how effective this breakthrough diet concept is. In reference to Browne & Keeley(2014, p.82), this statement is considered to be Appeal to questionable authority fallacy because the writer uses the name of an individual who has no expertise in nutrition and dietetics to qualify the statement as true.
• Emotion's fallacy: Anyway, people need to get onto this diet; if they don’t, the whole country is going to be couch potatoes before too long. The writer uses fear to convince the readers (Browne & Keeley, 2014, p. 87).
Value assumption
The disadvantages of the other diets qualify Ancestral Environment Hunter-Gatherer Diet as the best. This is a value assumption because the writer fails to link the conclusion with issue by ignoring the aspects of the other diets that may be considered to qualify his argument (Browne & Keeley, 2014, p. 53).
References
Badaracco, J. L. (2002). Lecture Text: Defining Moments . Havard Business School.
Browne, M. N., & Keeley, S. M. (2014). Asking the Right Questions: A Guide to Critical Thinking, Eleventh Edition. New Jersey: Longman.
Hosmer, L. R. (2011). The Ethics of Management, 7th Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Jones, G. R. (2013). Organizational Theory, Design, and Change, Seventh Edition. New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
