Read “The Wallace Group,”Case 2 in your text (pages2-1 through 2-10, Appendix 15a)
After review, write a 2 to 3 page response to the following question:
1.What is the most important problem facing the Wallace Group?
2.What recommendation(s) would you make to Mr. Wallace, and in what order of
priorities?
3.How do you educate a manager to manage an organization as it evolves over time from
an enterpreneurial structure to a more sophisticated and complex organizational structure?
1. What is the most important problem facing the Wallace Group?
There a several problems that the Wallace Group is facing but the biggest problem of all is
that all of the departments are understaffed.
The employees are upset because there is not enough personal in the departments. The
departments itself cannot perform one hundred percent, unless they receive more personal
that can take off some of the work load.
The Wallace Group needs to expand as soon as possible and it needs to recognize that
many things need to be changed in order to improve the work atmosphere and the
performance of employees.
The recent growth of the company caused a promotion of technical people to management
positions with no managerial experience. Actions like that can harm the department
atmosphere and productivity. The new manager doesnt know how to treat his team and
some managers take advantage of the power they received. They might start barking orders
or not be able to delegate the work load. Either way, those new managers need to learn
how to be a manager.
The Wallace Group is receiving r*ƒ¹sum*ƒ¹s for engineering positions from qualified
employees but they are being rejected by the Directors of the departments. Also, the
company doesnt offer good pay and the job specs are too high. With these two criteria and
directors who reject people, it is really hard to improve the company.
One important department that doesnt get any attention is the Marketing department. It
being neglected and employees from other departments have to help out and provide
supporting data for the Marketing Vice President in order for him to prepare a marketing
strategy. Team work is great but it is useless if the departments own work load cannot be
completed on time.
Another example of neglecting work is when six engineers were lend to the chemicals
group to help solve problemswith developing a new battery. Now the engineering
department is suffering because it doesnt have enough personal for it own department.
It seems like nothing is balanced right at the Wallace Group. If it continues to work just
