Terra Nova Consulting is part of the professional service firm industry, providing professional assistance and technical advice to its clients. Given its operating environment and the nature of its business, describe what type of organizational structure, strategy, culture, decision making style, and power relations would be best suited to this firm and why.
The Terra Nova consulting group was primarily founded upon certain values and core principles such as: elite firm, technical excellence, employee ownership. However, over time they drifted away from these values due to several problems such as probability of the firm, organization problems, lack of investments and a cultural divide between the partners and junior professionals. The following …show more content…
Indicates that partners have a high value rate for the cultural norms. In contrast to this perception, the non-partners tended to perceive an actual Aggressive/defensive culture highly based on power and critique. Terra Nova is suffering form a toxic power culture where the partners have all of the decision-making. Because of this, young professionals don’t have the same connection with the company as the partners, thus they are not willing to invest into it. Partners with a lot of experience need to school these young professionals and teach them the ropes of the business. If the young professionals proof they have the possible skill set and knowledge, they can start leading projects under the guidance of senior …show more content…
Below I stated some specific challenges and how these affect the company.
1. Too many of the junior professionals did not see a long term future with Terra Nova and avoid making any financial commitment of buying shares.
Although, young professionals love working at Terra Nova, they don’t want to commit to the company by investing in it. This because of several reasons as I already stated in question 1: organization structure problems, power decision making is to much partner oriented, company culture is to result focused etc. As stated at page 14 of the case: « Terra Nova has become a firm that is very dedicated to the partners, and not so much to the younger staff ». Junior professionals feel undervalued and unappreciated.
2. The company is to orient towards chargeability.
Meaning that they focus too much on the percentage of staff available to bill to projects. This discourages the younger employees because they feel like they have to dedicate every aspect of their life towards the company. Senior partners are willing to this and thus generate the most profit for the company. In order to convince young professionals to be more committed towards the company they need to feel involved more. Furthermore, they are demanding for a more balance work/life
The Terra Nova consulting group was primarily founded upon certain values and core principles such as: elite firm, technical excellence, employee ownership. However, over time they drifted away from these values due to several problems such as probability of the firm, organization problems, lack of investments and a cultural divide between the partners and junior professionals. The following …show more content…
Indicates that partners have a high value rate for the cultural norms. In contrast to this perception, the non-partners tended to perceive an actual Aggressive/defensive culture highly based on power and critique. Terra Nova is suffering form a toxic power culture where the partners have all of the decision-making. Because of this, young professionals don’t have the same connection with the company as the partners, thus they are not willing to invest into it. Partners with a lot of experience need to school these young professionals and teach them the ropes of the business. If the young professionals proof they have the possible skill set and knowledge, they can start leading projects under the guidance of senior …show more content…
Below I stated some specific challenges and how these affect the company.
1. Too many of the junior professionals did not see a long term future with Terra Nova and avoid making any financial commitment of buying shares.
Although, young professionals love working at Terra Nova, they don’t want to commit to the company by investing in it. This because of several reasons as I already stated in question 1: organization structure problems, power decision making is to much partner oriented, company culture is to result focused etc. As stated at page 14 of the case: « Terra Nova has become a firm that is very dedicated to the partners, and not so much to the younger staff ». Junior professionals feel undervalued and unappreciated.
2. The company is to orient towards chargeability.
Meaning that they focus too much on the percentage of staff available to bill to projects. This discourages the younger employees because they feel like they have to dedicate every aspect of their life towards the company. Senior partners are willing to this and thus generate the most profit for the company. In order to convince young professionals to be more committed towards the company they need to feel involved more. Furthermore, they are demanding for a more balance work/life