Business Development Chapter 4 Homework Beck Has Hired People Who Are Comfortable With Ambiguity And Who Have

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Beck Consulting Corporation

Teaching Note

By Professor Cynthia Ingols

& Researcher Lisa Brem

School of Business, Simmons University

Boston, MA, USA

Case synopsis

Marilyn Beck, founder and CEO of Beck Consulting Corporation, successfully grew her Boston-based

business from a 1 to a 40-person corporation in a 11-year time frame. Her excellent customer service and

attention to clients’ needs propelled forward her relocation consulting business. Beck’s timing and

location also supported the expansion of her business: she was offering a service, relocating

organizations, which was in high demand in the Boston area due to numerous organizational changes such

as growth, mergers, acquisitions, relocations, and downsizing.

Beck’s business model was unusual and fit her personal style. From the beginning, she built the

organization organically, adding employees as work was contracted. Employees worked for an hourly

wage, even though these women (all of Beck’s employees were women in the early years of the firm)

considered themselves professionals. Beck disliked hierarchical, structured organizations and kept the

lines of responsibility and authority ambiguous between herself and Susan Smith, her first employee, her

right-hand person, and eventually her Vice President. Beck used titles sparingly and the titles which she

did confer, such as project manager, rotated as the work demanded, rather than reflecting permanent

organizational positions.

Approximately 10 years into its existence, Beck’s deliberate experimentation with organizing principles

and compensation approaches came under pressure. By late 2014, the Company employed 40 people and

expected to grow quickly to 60 or 70 people, since major clients, such as global banks which were

headquartered in Boston, had merged and would, most likely, request additional services from Beck. As

Beck Consulting Corporation prepared to expand, organizational tensions became apparent and decisions

Learning objectives for the case discussion:

The learning objectives for a Beck case discussion are three fold:

1) to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the design of Beck Consulting Corporation.

This assessment process should amplify Bolman & Deal’s argument that all

organizational designs have strengths and weaknesses and that designs can bring

competitive advantages to organizations (see Chapter 5);

2) to evaluate how Beck’s organizational structure impacts its employees. This should

illustrate the argument that an organization’s design affects employees’ behavior; and

Linkage to Concepts and Theories:

While the organization behavior literature that could be used in conjunction with the Beck Consulting

Corporation case is extensive, the authors focus on what Bolman and Deal refer to as the “structural frame

or perspective.” They argue that two design issues lie at the heart of structuring organizations: the

allocation of work and then the coordination of these dispersed activities. Galbraith (2002) identifies five

types of departmental structures used by organizational leaders to arrange work and people: a function or

specialty; a product line; a customer segment; a geographical area; and a workflow process. Each

structure, according to Galbraith, has inherent advantages and disadvantages. Bolman and Deal argue that

creating roles and relationships is an ongoing struggle and speak of structural dilemmas that require trade-

offs. The overarching goal, according to Galbraith (2002), is to create “Organization designs that facilitate

variety, change, speed, and integration (and that) are sources of competitive advantage” (p. 6).

Helgesen (1995) offers an additional perspective for examining the Beck Consulting Corporation case. In

The Web of Inclusion: A New Architecture for Building Great Organizations, the author postulates that

women leaders may be prone to create new organizational forms (1995, p. 10). Contrary to management

experts such as Frederick Taylor who handed down a mechanistic, controlling approach to assignment of

work and its management, some modern day leaders, according to Helgesen, deal with these issues more

organically. Rather than creating organizations with specialized alienating roles, formal relationships and

accentuated hierarchies with sharp power and status differentials, these new leaders encourage the free

flow of information, open communications, rotation of roles, and flat structures. Helgesen labeled these

organizations “webs of inclusion” (Helgesen, The Web of Inclusion, 1995). Helgesen explained that she

first experienced a web of inclusion working under a male leader at the Village Voice in the 1970s.

Regardless of gender, Helgesen believes that dealing with paradox is an integral part of leading webs of

inclusion:

In architectural terms, the most obvious characteristics of the web are that it builds from

the center out, and that this building is a never-ending process. The architect of the web

works as the spider does, by ceaselessly spinning new tendrils of connection, while also

continually strengthening those that already exist. The architect’s tools are not force, not

the ability to issue commands, but rather providing access and engaging in constant

dialogue (p. 13).

Helgesen argues that these webs create “more satisfactory places for people to work” (p. 12). Webs

encourage employees to be innovative and committed and “mirror the structure of our primary

technology, the integrated network” (p. 14). Galbraith (2002) and Helgesen (1995), then, are the key

organizational designers that inform the classroom discussion of the Beck case.

In 1998, the Harvard Business Review reprinted Larry Greiner’s classic article, “Evolution and

Revolution as Organizations Grow (see Chapter 5).” He argued that management practices that work well

in one phase of an organization’s life cycle may bring on a crisis in another; “management problems and

principles are rooted in time” (Greiner, p. 4), Greiner argued. For example, increasing size of an

organization changes markedly and predicatively the problems of coordination and communication and

need for new functions. Managers and employees who stayed mired in past practices may make change

more difficult or irrelevant as their organizations sink. Greiner’s concepts seem particularly relevant for

the Beck Consulting Corporation as it stands on the precipice of doubling in size as the case ends.

Research Methodology:

The authors used two methods to gather information to write this teaching case. First, journal articles and

newspaper stories related to relocation consultancies were gathered and read. Second, the authors

interviewed Marilyn Beck and six other employees of the firm. The one-hour-plus interviews were tape-

recorded. Once the first draft of the case was written, interviewees gave approval to use their quotes.

Marilyn Beck gave approval for the publication of the case and its use for classroom discussions. The

names of all of the people and the name of the firm were disguised when the case was updated in 2019.

3. Can Beck maintain the culture and structure of Beck Consulting Corporation as she grows the firm? Or

should she expect to make changes in its structure and culture? If yes, why? How might she structure the

organization?

Discussion Questions and Answers

It is impossible to predict exactly how a conversation will go in a classroom setting: a question that elicits

a savvy response in one class falls dead in the next. Or, one student gives a short answer requiring the

faculty to ask more questions, while the next student gives a long, multidimensional response. The

authors of this case were trained to go into discussions with a pocket-full of questions, encouraging both

leading and following of students’ responses. The following questions have been divided into categories

which should allow other faculty to pick and choose questions by category.

Strategy

1. In his star model of organizations, Galbraith begins with a company’s strategy. What is the

strategy for Beck?

Students often label Beck’s strategy as “opportunistic.” She seems to take advantage of whatever

opportunities come her way. These students note: As Beck responded to increasing demands from new

Structure

2. How would one draw an organizational picture for Beck Consulting Corporation? What would

be a visual representation of the roles and connections of people within the organization?

To answer this question, exceptional students say that the usual boxes and lines will not adequately depict

what happens within Beck Consulting. These students note that in a conventional drawing of the

organizational chart, Marilyn Beck’s “box” would be on top and Susan Smith would be in a box on the

next level down, with a straight line reporting into Beck. Instead, titles are not used since they are not

Follow-up question: in Designing Organization, Galbraith argues that all organizational designs

have positives and negatives associated with them. What are the strengths of organizing Beck in a

web-like manner?

Since Beck has hired people who are comfortable with ambiguity and who have been socialized into this

system, employees see the advantages of a firm that is non-bureaucratic, non-hierarchical and has a

family atmosphere. Everyone is connected to everyone else and problematic issues such as not liking

one’s boss, not talking to one’s boss’ boss does not exist at Beck. Going a step further, one employee

declared: “We don’t have politics at Beck.” This comment reflects a lack of fighting for positions and

other marks of status which might develop if consistent differences in status existed and were supported

by Beck. Beck employees speak of focusing on their customers and supporting one another when needed.

The lack of titles and competition “really make a difference in how people see their roles.”

Follow-up question: what might be the weaknesses of this approach in organizing a firm?

While the current organizing approach encourages flexibility, taking responsibility by employees and a

web of connections, the system may also support inefficiencies. If an employee does not know if she

Follow-up question: what role, if any, does gender play in the design of this organization?

By personal preference and without direction from theorists or books, Beck built an architectural form

that was more circular than hierarchical. Helgesen (1995) called this design a “web of inclusion,” like “a

Follow-up questions: how does Beck allocate the work that needs to be accomplished for clients?

How do employees know what work they are to do? How do employees know who their boss is?

How do employees know how to relate to others in the organization?

In the beginning of Beck Consulting Corporation, people were hired to perform work for specific clients.

These early employees often worked side-by-side with Marilyn Beck. Team membership and leadership

roles were assigned on a need-to-perform basis. Teams of two or more people were created to meet the

work demands of a particular client. Employees often worked on multiple teams and a person who was a

team leader in one group would be a follower on another. Rotation of leadership roles minimized the

Rewards and People

3. In addition to creating roles and reporting relationships in organization, leaders also make a

series of decisions about how they will manage people. Galbraith refers to these as “rewards” and

“people” on his Star Model of Organizations. These decisions involve: who is to be hired and who

selects these new members; how will people be rewarded for their work; and how will they be

trained in the ways of the organization. In a service industry such as Beck Consulting, the goal is to

create a sustainable competitive advantage.

How does Marilyn Beck scan the environment to hire potential employees? What is the process for

getting hired at Beck? What impact do you imagine this approach has on employees and the Beck

organization?

All potential employees arrived at Beck though personal connections and word-of-mouth. This approach

Follow-up question: how did Beck compensate her employees? What impact do you think that this

compensation system had on her employees? In other words, how did the reward system motivate

employees to support the work of Beck, a critical function of the reward system?

In her early career, Beck had worked at large professional service firms, saw first hand how demanding

those firms could be and resolved to give her employees more flexibility. Beck knew that salaried

employees at professional service firms often worked long hours without corresponding increases in pay.

Consequently, Beck developed a system whereby employees were paid for the hours that they worked.

The future

4. What are Beck’s options for growing her firm?

At the end of the case, Beck returns to the questions of how she is going to grow her business: expand

geographically; acquire other companies; or go public. Some students argue that moving from an

opportunistic to a strategic approach would be a significant change for Beck. However, Beck decides to

grow her firm, she needs to examine which management practices of the past need to change and which

ones remain the same. For example, she will probably need to define more clearly structures to implement

a new strategy and growth.

Follow-up questions: as the firm continues to grow, most likely to 50 or 60 people in the coming

year, what tensions are likely to intensify? Why do you say that? What data in the case supports

your answer?

Amorphous structures and ambiguous roles might escalate tensions in the firm. When the company grew

from approximately 20 to 40 people, there was a period of discomfort. As a result of the problems,

training of new people became more explicit and standardized. Since social control and norms are the

primary control mechanisms at Beck, there could be increased tensions within Beck. Employees with

long-standing tenure at Beck were taught by Marilyn Beck and have adsorbed The BECK Way. If the

company grows too fast, this socialization process could be compromised.

Follow-up questions: would you advise Beck to re-structure her firm, and if yes, what should she

do? Why do you make that suggestion? What is the likely impact of your organizational design on

individuals and the organization?

Traditional organizing practices for small organizations suggest functional divisions of labor. It is

Follow-up questions: what aspects of the organization and practices should be kept and what

should be changed?

Beck should work to bring greater clarity to roles, authority, and responsibilities. Greiner (1999) argues

that management practices of an organization at one stage need to be changed for an organization to reach

What organizational changes did Beck make at Beck Consulting? (This is somewhat an Epilogue.)

While Beck switched from a dual compensation system of hourly wages and salaries to salaries for

everyone and she created a layer of management, the culture of Beck remained much the same. Beck

maintained her assumptions about the kind of people to hire—“adults,” as a student once said in a

classroom discussion of this case—and her trust and respect of employees remained an ingrained part of

Conclusion of the Class

The following points should be reinforced at the conclusion of the case discussion:

1. Organizational design can be a competitive advantage. All structural arrangements have strengths and

weaknesses. Beck Consulting, like all companies, has its strengths, weaknesses, and management

challenges. With her structural arrangements and human resource policies, Marilyn Beck, however,

at Beck and would most likely, according to Helgesen, encourage Beck employees to be innovative and

committed to the organization.

3. Management practices at one stage of development are often not appropriate at the next stage. The

ambiguity in reporting relationship at Beck, for instance, worked when the firm was small and everyone

knew each other and felt personally connected. As the organization grew, however, roles needed

clarification and new managerial roles were created. Organizational theorists such as Greiner argue that

such evolution in structures is natural and to be expected.

References

Barrett A. & J. Beeson. Developing business leaders for 2001. New York: The Conference Board, 2002.

Bolman, L.G. & T. E. Deal. Reframing organizations: Artistry, choice, and leadership. San Francisco:

Jossey-Bass Publishers, 2017.

Cawsey, T.F., G. Deszca, & C. Ingols. Organizational change: An action-oriented toolkit. Los Angeles:

Sage Publications, Inc., 2016.

Greiner, L.E. Evolution and revolution as organizations grow. Harvard Business Review, May–June,

1998.