The following questions are based on The Wall Street Journal article “Chiefs at Big Firms Often Last to Know” that was posted earlier on Blackboard.
http://search.proquest.com.ezproxy1.lib.asu.edu/docview/1512171903/A2CBD75FA7A64227PQ/73?accountid=4485
Your answers should be based on the article, supported by class concepts, and use course terminology from the text sections identified in the questions. There is no word/page limit on your answers.
Question 1 of 2
Culture, Organizational Change
Using the lens of Organizational Culture describe the culture at General Motors (GM) over the past several years. Your answer should address: which kind of culture GM has; why/how did this culture evolve in the way that it did; and what are the functional and dysfunctional parts of GM’s culture (Chapter 8 Learning Objectives 1 & 2)?
Put your answer here
Focusing on the dysfunctional parts of GM’s culture that you identified above, how would you recommend changing the dysfunctional parts of GM’s culture, while at the same time preserving the functional parts of GM’s culture (Chapter 10 Learning Objectives 1, 2 & 3)? How difficult will this be?
Put your answer here
Question 2 of 2
Communication, Leadership
Part of the culture problem from Question 1 is expressed in GM’s patterns of communication. Using the communication models from the text (chapter 15) describe GM’s communication process that lead to the persistence of the key defects in the GM vehicles.
Put your answer here
Using one of the models of leadership from the text book (chapter 14) describe how a top-level leader might approach changing the communication process to reduce the likelihood of the problems in the article. Likewise, describe how a lower-level leader (i.e., the leader of the engineering design team that created the faulty ignition switch) would change his/her communication process to reduce the likelihood of the problems in the article. You may wish to include the section on the five sources of power (chapter 14 Learning Objective 1) in your answer.
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