A Case Study: Acme Use The Mechanistic Style Of Management

1. We can see that Acme uses the mechanistic style of management and Omega uses the organic style of management. In Acme they have a very rigid structure and the hierarchy is clearly defined. All employees have their individual specializations and they have clearly defined tasks. All authority is very centralized and most of the decisions are taken by higher authority, or in this case the President. There is always a written form of memos and communication passed around so that no confusion occurs. Acme also has a very predictable and inflexible management style which make it difficult to operate unless it is in a stable environment. In contrast Omega uses a very organic style of management. They don't believe in hierarchies and other forms …show more content…
The roles of their employees are also not clearly defined as shown in the case study that one member was working with mechanical department one day and with the shipping the next. This makes employees gain many specializations and work as cross functional teams. This style makes the workplace a little unpredictable and is useful in situations where the environment is not stable

2. Acme and Omega varied in many ways when they coordinated the production of their memory units. Acme's mechanistic style was kind of the right approach to begin with as they had all their work underway very quickly as the various roles and responsibilities were assigned and communication was quick. Omega took a lot more time in communicating it to the heads of all departments and spent more time trying to make sure that they all understood the task at hand even after the blueprints arrived. Acme did not take in all the inputs from all its production teams and the President kept overruling his engineers on the premise that it had to be done early. He made them build the …show more content…
There are actually a couple of ways in which Acme and Omega can use to survive in the future in this increasingly competitive industry. One way would be to change few systems in each company so that they can perform more efficiently and can face future competition. First Acme should decentralize its decision making process and empower a few of its key Vice Presidents. Next Acme should take a few steps to ensure that they have effective communication in the hierarchy as some of the concerns were not properly addressed by the President. They should also not suddenly jump crucial steps that they usually follow in order to meet deadlines as this can prove costly for them as it did in this contract. The last step that they can implement is to add few more plant managers to divide the work and work effectively and