Effect of size and culture on Project Management method selection Essay

Effect of size and culture on Project Management method selection - Essay Example Any organization with personnel numbering 30 or more is seen as a large organization even if it is confined within only one office building (Terrien, 1963, p 3). ‘A learned, shared, compelling, interrelated set of symbols whose meanings provide a set of orientations for members of a society. These orientations, taken together, provide solutions to problems that all societies must solve of they are to remain viable.’ In every organisation, a different management style and culture exists. Culture is a way of life and it is defined as a collective phenomenon, as it is partly shared with people who live or lived within the same social environment, where it was learned. Culture critically affects not only the way an organization performs but also its willingness to adapt to change. Many organizations are held hostage by previous success which makes it management believe that what happened in the past will always work even in future. This brings about a conservative culture leading to stagnation due progressive inertia. Popularly referred to as the â€Å"comfort zone†, this kind of inertia leads to organizations becoming totally outpaced by their more dynamic competitors, or even growing completely obsolete (Mills, 1984, pp 11-12). In a research carried out for the American Navy, Terrien (1963) set out to prove that the size of a social group affects the ordering and relationships within that group. His research proved that efficiency levels in carrying out a given task by the group tended to go down with the increase in size of the group. The research sampled 32 units of the Crocker-Anglo National Bank. The findings were that the Bank had several positions which sounded like supervisory ones but were not. For example, there were company vice-presidents and their deputies who in actual sense supervised no one unless such duties were occasionally delegated to them (Terrien, 1963, p 5). This resulted in a

Executive Summary Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Executive Summary - Case Study Example As a result the value of per-gallon price which was decided at that time was founded later to be much lower than anticipated. Moreover Novo was not ready to change the price. So, when the price in BRL was converted into US$ Baker found that there is significant lowering in profitability. Furthermore when Baker decided to borrow an amount in BRL from a Brazilian bank it discovered that the interest rate was 26% which was much higher than the rate (8.26%) in US. Most of the US companies started to shift their unit outside US with the purpose of focusing more on economies of scale and increase the market share. As a result most of the adhesive giants decided to focus on international sourcing and manufacturing capabilities. But unlike these companies Baker was not that involved in international sales and quite obviously company was about to see some significant decline in its sales. The problem of exchange rate was created because of its changing nature. As the exchange rate of US$ and BRL keep changing value of the price of any product would also keep changing. So the value of price per-gallon of Baker adhesives also changed when it was converted into dollar. Again the problem regarding the interest rate charged by the Brazilian bank was much higher than the rate by any US bank. This was because the inflation rate in Brazil was much higher. Higher interest rate was actually set by the government of Brazil in order to control the high inflat ion rate. In the adhesives market competition is intense and profit margin is slim. As a result most of the company has focused on the international sourcing and manufacturing capabilities. Baker adhesives also need to focus on the international market in order to stay ahead in the competition. Focusing on international business would enable the company to focus on scale economies. Furthermore flexible production system and good chemist are crucial in the adhesives business. So