Find a company which
reflects Morning Star and St Luke’s image of a Complex Adaptive System (CAS)
and reflect in your blog what the implications are for you and your present
organization (or any organization you are familiar with). Identify what you
believe are appropriate actions to move your organization forward.
Morning Star is the world’s
largest tomato processor and is headquartered in Woodland, California. The
company was founded by Chris Rufer who believes that the employees of the
organization are what make his product the best in the business. Rufer believe
that empowering your employees to work together as a cohesive unit is the key
to making any business a success. His unique management model allows for
employees to self mange and coordinate themselves. Instead of pursuing a hierarchical
approach to his company Rufer instead made the mission of his organization the
boss. The means that every employee at Morning Star is responsible for creating
their own mission statement as to how they will contribute to the company’s
success.
Rufer approach to
empowerment offers his employees the opportunity to manage themselves and their
day to day work. The idea is that everyone has a responsibility to get their
job done without having to specifically report to anyone. Essentially you are
your own boss, with the idea that everyone around you has the potential to be
your boss. Rufer believes that as long as his employees have the necessary tools
and equipment to complete their job duties and responsibilities that they
should have the freedom to make certain decisions without approval from upper
level management. His idea of self management also extends to the staffing decision
of his company as well.
Rufers encouragement to
competition instead of promotion is unique in the sense that there is no hierarchy
and there are no titles. In retrospect this creates a very vertically defined
organization that where there is no ladder of success to climb. Employees and
their colleagues are recognized for their achievements and knowledge. In order
to move forward and gain compensation, employees of Morning Star must develop
and master their skills and find new ways to serve their colleagues. Promotions
at Morning Star don’t exist and therefore everyone has the opportunity to prove
themselves as an individual.
I think a company that
reflects Morning Star and St Luke’s image of a Complex Adaptive System would be
SAS. SAS is run very much like Morning Star in the sense that employees are
provided the freedom to work at their own pace and think for themselves. The
structure that SAS and Morning Star share is that the employees create an atmosphere
for the organization that allows it to be successful without having or needing
the guidelines and restrictions that many hierarchical organizations these days
have. The strategy behind SAS is to make it impossible for employees to not
want to work. SAS provides an environment of ease and control, enabling its
members to bridge the gaps between employee and management and instead have its
employees prove their accountable and responsible.
In my personal opinion
I would love for our organization to be able to adapt this type of structure
into our institution; however I do not believe that our company or the services
we provide are eligible for a structure such as this. As Embry-Riddle Worldwide
is an international institution, I believe that there needs to be some a more hierarchical
structure in order for us to be successful in assisting the vast amount of our
student population as well as the type of student that we assist. While I do
not believe that a Complex Adaptive System would work for our organization, I
do believe that in some ways our departmental policies and procedures could
offer us a bit more freedom in how we do our jobs and the decisions that we are
able to make on a daily basis. I feel that if a bit more freedom were provided
the ability of interdepartmental relationships would better blossom and there
would be more interaction and understanding amongst our organization.
Due to our organization’s
new restructure there may be some more flexibility for some departments to
spread their wings a bit however with the transition my specific department is
taking, I believe we may actually be reverting from a more flexible environment
to a more structured hierarchical department. While I can understand that the
transition will be taking place to be more streamlined in nature, it may be a
bit difficult to have to succumb to a more cut and dry process than having the flexible
environment that my team and I are used to. In time I hope that our new
transition can be become a blend of how both departments are used to working.
Cassandra R.
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