Be sure to read “A Computer with a Rebel Heart” inOrganizing Genius and chapters 1-3 in our text. Thoroughly answer each of the questions attached and submit as a Word document.
Activity #3: A Computer with a Rebel Heart
Read A Computer with a Rebel Heart in Organizing Genius and chapters 1-3 in your text, if you havent done so, and thoroughlyanswer the following questions.
1. Organizational culture is the set of key values, beliefs, and attitudes shared by members of an organization. Describe the organizational culture at PARC. Be specific.
2. Chester Barnard maintained that managers must find ways to encourage workers to cooperate with each other and management willingly. This can occur through material incentives like rewards or nonmaterial incentives like recognition. Managers should also make clear what needs to be accomplished. Simply put, they must communicate with employees what the organizations goals and purposes are. Barnard writes that the acceptance of authority also depends on how workers perceive authority. Given this, how would Chester Barnard regard the level of cooperation between PARC and the rest of Xerox?
3. The text discusses a number of managerial theories that have relevance for balancing managerial authority with employee morale. One concept to consider is bureaucratic management, which is defined as the exercise of control on the basis of knowledge. The aim of bureaucracy is not to protect authority but to achieve goals in the most efficient way possible. This like hiring, promotion, and punishment is based completely on experience and achievement. How did Bob Taylor go about creating his Great Group? (Consider how he recruited, who he recruited, and how he retained his employees.)
4. Mary Parker Follett believed that managers could deal with conflict in three ways: domination, compromise, and integration. Mary Parker Follett believed that managers should pursue integrative conflict resolution.In this process, both parties in the conflict indicate their preferences and then work together to find an alternative that meets the needs of both.How did Bob Taylor deal with conflict in his Great Group? (Hint: go to page 122 in Organizing Genius and read paragraph 2.)
5. In your text, it states: Companies must embrace new technology and find effective ways to use it to improve their products and services or decrease costs. If they dont they will lose out to those companies that do. Why didnt Xerox commercially exploit the Alto?