Oefencase

Self-design at Mega Glass Company

In the mid-1980s, Mega Glass Company was one of the fastest-growing and most
successful firms in the United States. Started only a few years earlier by a group on
entrepreneurs and experienced glassmakers, Mega had grown rapidly into the nation’s
fourth-largest glass company through selected acquisitions, innovative products and
production methods, and skillful financial management. In the face of this success, two
key problems were emerging. First, senior executives were uncertain about how to
maintain this entrepreneurial spirit as Mega grew older and larger. They feared that the
company would become bureaucratized. Second, managers believed that they had already
reaped most of the benefits that could be obtained from cost cutting and reducing slack
resources, and they sought other means of achieving performance gains.

A company task force was formed to recommend solutions to these emerging problems.
After reading relevant material, visiting other firms, and consulting with experts, the task
force recommended to senior management the need to move toward a corporate culture
promoting involvement and innovation at all levels of the firm. It argued that Mega’s
rapid growth had been managed primarily from the top of the company and that middle
managers and employees had been left out of the decision-making and growth process.
They would need to be more involved in the future if Mega hoped to continue to improve
and innovate in the competitive glassmaking industry. After extensive discussion and
debate, senior management decided to initiate a companywide change process aimed at
enhancing involvement, innovation, and performance and at keeping the entrepreneurial
spirit alive as the company continued to expand and grow.

As a first step toward change, senior executives met for several days to discuss Mega’s
strategic direction and to clarify the kinds of values and norms that would be needed to
implement it. The outcome of this meeting was the first draft of a vision statement for
Mega. It laid out the firm’s dynamic, flexible approach to business and identified a
number of corporate values, including participative decision making, management by
continuous dialogue, employee growth and learning, attractive rewards, customer service,
and ethical and legal behaviors. The key issue now was to translate these abstractions into
concrete structures, processes and behaviors throughout the firm.

Senior executives decided to get professional help to manage the change process and
contacted an experienced consultant.
Vraag 1
1a Welke veranderingsstrategie is tot nu toe door het management van Mega Glass Company
toegepast? (invalshoek, type veranderingsstrategie)
1b Hoe had het gekund?

Vraag 2
2a Hoe beoordeel je de rol van het management in het veranderingsproces tot nu toe?
2b Welk onderwerp wil je in het eerste gesprek met de directie aan de orde stellen met
betrekking tot de rol van het management tot nu toe? (1 onderwerp; kies het in jouw ogen
belangrijkste; onderbouw)

Vraag 3
3a. Noem twee concrete OD interventies die je hier – gezien de problematiek en de aanpak van
het management tot nu toe – zinvol zou kunnen toepassen.
3b. Welke OD interventie heeft je voorkeur? (Onderbouw je antwoord, geef aan waarom dit
daadwerkelijk een OD benadering is)
3c. Werk de in b gekozen interventie zo concreet mogelijk uit. Welke stappen gaan gezet
worden?