Supervision Chapter 7 Case

Problem-Solving Case: Is Thor Industries Organized for Growth?

1. Does this description of Thor Industries sound more like a functional, product, geographic, or customer structure, or some combination of these? Explain. Is Thor Industries highly centralized or decentralized? Explain.

Thor Industries sounds more like a mixture of product division at top and within each product division, the functional teams exists. It is clear that it is also very decentralized. Each division is operated independetly and the CEO gets involved only when the division is slipping in performance.

2. Is Wade Thomson a good example of a manager delgating authority? Why or why not?

Wade Thomson is a good example of a manager delegating authority, allowing the divisions to operate independently, compete with each other, innovate, and excel in performance.

3. Imagine you are a production supervisor in one of Thor’s factories. Suggest how you would handle each of the following challenges within this comapny’s organizational structure:

a. You want to improve the quality of cabinet installation, and you would like to get ideas from supervisors at a division where the quality is very high.

It would require simply talking it out with the other division supervisor. If due to competition, the information is not shared then the division presidents or the CEO may have to be involed. The company thrives on decentralization and innovation.

b. You wan to cut the cost of electrical work by operating more efficiently--building the same number of RVs with fewer workers. You want the the electrical team to accept respnsibility for this challenge.

Communication with the team and incentives may work here.

c. You like to camp, and based on an idea you heard from some campers in a park you visited, you want to try building RVs with a new feature: computer workstations.

Before jumping into this new idea, at least some...