Analysis of the Case Oticon Using the Brain Metaphor Essay Sample free essay sample

1. IntroductionThe inexplicit images or metaphors of organisations and direction have been discussed by Gareth Morgan in his book â€Å"Images of Organizations† ( Morgan. 1997 ) . Morgan exposed eight metaphorical images of organisations including machine. being. encephalon. civilization. political system. psychic prison. flux and transmutation. and instrument of domination. Each one of these metaphors creates insight. but besides obscures some corners. They have both pros and cons. They enable seeing. but besides non seeing. No 1 of them is said to be right and right. 2. BackgroundOticon is a Danish company. located in Copenhagen. They used to be one of the best in market for planetary hearing assistance industry. The development and promotion of the other rivals. such as Siemens Audiologische Technik and Starkey. set Oticon in a critical slippery place in the market. particularly the planetary 1. where Oticon export the bulk of its merchandises to. To rectify the state of affairs. the board brought in Lars Kolind. who had great history of science-oriented solutions despite his youngness ( 30 old ages old ) . Kolind analyzed the strengths and failings of Oticon and compared it with the rivals. He found out that no strengths Oticon had to vie with. On the other manus. Kolind found out that the rigidness. inflexibleness and low reactivity the rivals had could be a killing drawback in comparing with Oticon. Therefore. he decided to put a new program to turn the organisation into larning antiphonal organisation. He sought bettering this advantage to capture larger market portion. particularly globally. and derive higher net income borders. In this study. the instance is analyzed utilizing the encephalon metaphor. In other words. it discusses what we could see and reflect when projecting the plane Kolind set and applied on the other rules and attacks of the encephalon metaphor. 3. TheoryBrain metaphor organisation works with the same logic as the encephalon of human being. The top direction in organisations plays the function of encephalon for doing determinations. There are three theories of the encephalon metaphor including information processing systems. cybernetics. and manuscript. The first theory describes organisations as information systems. communicating systems. and determinations doing systems. This this theory is known as â€Å"decision doing approach† ( March A ; Simon. 1958 ) . Cybernetics is relevant to analyze of systems. Cybernetics stresses four key rules. Systems must hold the capacity to sense. proctor and scan important facets of their environment. They must be able to associate this information to the operating norms that guide system behaviour. They must be able to observe important divergences from these norms. Finally. they must be able to originate disciplinary actions when disagreements ( Wiener. 1967 ) . Another theory co nsidered in this study is remembering the image of organisations as holographic encephalons. The metaphor of a hologram invokes systems where qualities of the whole are built into all the parts so that the system has an ability to self-organize and renew itself on uninterrupted footing ( Bentov. 1977 ) . This theory compasses five major rules. ( Morgan A ; Ramirez. 1984 ) . The first rule represents the indispensable 1. which constructing the whole in all the parts is its chief concern. Harmonizing to the rule. concentrating on four key patterns. including corporate civilization. information system. construction and functions. facilitates integrating it. The 2nd rule remainders in the importance of redundancy. particularly in information system and maps ( Emery. 1969. 1976 ) . The 3rd rule could be seen as auxiliary to redundancy. It compasses needed assortment. since the world of environmental challenges imposes puting complexnesss someplace within the organisation to last ( Ashby. 1952. 1960 ) . Minimizing eyeglasses is the 4th rule. where squads are encouraged to acquire free of designs and managerial manuals and bring forth their ain signifiers ( Herbst. 1974 ) . The last considered rule remainders in larning to larn. which involves doubleloop larning manner and scan of environmental alteration ( Argyris A ; Schon. 1978 ) . The five rules could pull concrete guidelines of how to turn into holographic organisation. 4. Analysis4. 1. Oticon as Information Processing Brains ( Decision Making Theory ) As Oticon experienced serious fiscal state of affairs. Kolind reaction was speedy. First. after carry oning a thorough survey of Oticon. Kolind found out many concerns in the organisation construction. There was besides a high degree of non-value adding activities. where R A ; D applied scientists used merely one one-fourth of their clip making existent work. while blowing the other 75 % in something else. Theoretically. the company has integrated merchandise development section. while Kolind realized that they are non integrated at all. To work out this job. based on â€Å"decision doing approach† . Kolind introduced a new manner of believing about the map of organisations. This theory is built on the thought that organisations can neer be absolutely rational. because its members have limited information processing abilities. That was represented by the frequent holds of merchandise development. Undertaking E36 is relevant illustration since it took a decennary without accomplishing promising consequences. The chief ground is that each member from different section. involved in such undertakings. relied on other members for determination devising. To work out this job. Kolind thought that nil could decide this but blowing the company’s construction up and reconstruct it once more with new rules. It rests in acquiring all employees involved in more than one map at the clip. For illustration. beside applied scientists responsibilities in the research filed. they should make selling every bit good. It is clear that. for Kolind. sections would be an obstruction in the development procedure. Therefore. he turned the construction of the company into undertakings alternatively. 4. 2. Oticon as a Learning Organization ( Cybernetics )Projecting cybernetics rules on the instance. Kolind employed the first rule to detect the surrounding environment. by analysing competitors’ potencies. and seeking to happen their strengths and failings. He found out that no strengths Oticon had to vie with. On the other manus. Kolind found out that the rigidness. inflexibleness and low reactivity the rivals had could be a killing drawback in comparing with Oticon. Therefore. he decided to work this advantage by increasing the ability of Oticon to self-organize. develop itself. and adapt outer alterations. Kolind obliged the direction squad to accept the world of the new leading manner bit by bit. When the company lost money in the first three one-fourth due the transmutation. board members brought in Neils Jacobsen. who had a strong fiscal background. to work side-by-side with Kolind for fiscal affairs. That reflects the ability to originate disciplinary actions when dis agreements show up. 4. 3. Oticon as a Holographic OrganizationThe instance reflects some basic facets of holographic organisation that comprises five chief rules. These rules represent besides matching encephalon mechanisms and techniques. The first rule of holographic organisation is constructing the whole in all parts. It is the kernel of holographic organisations. Constructing the whole into all parts could be realized by concentrating on corporate civilization. information system. construction. and functions. The four patterns are projectable on the instance. The corporate civilization harmonizing to the encephalon metaphor should be unfastened and in line with its rules and patterns. That could be opposite to the blue corporate civilization Oticon characterized by before come ining Kolind. The shareholders’ chief concern was recovering Oticon’s place in the marker. but along with continuing its corporate values and civilization. A piece after measuring the existent state of affairs of the company. Kolind found no manner to continue without extremist alterations. The board showed him powerful support for his new proposal. which reflects a gradual alteration in corporate civilization. Kolind would hold neer stepped frontward without such support that kept even the direction off from kicking him. despite their steady reluctance for the new proposal. Furthermore. what could be seen as a important alteration in corporate civilization is the manner Kolind resorted to for financing the new program. He asked the bank to get 17 % of the company. and some of his co-workers to get 3-4 % . He besides offered the employees portions at a good monetary value under standard that they had worked to the company at least one twelvemonth. 20 hours hebdomadally. That reflects a important alteration in corporate civilization from blue manner to public manner. The 2nd pattern is networked intelligence. Kolind conducted computing machine preparations for the employees. He sought minimising usage of paper communicating. and increasing dependence on e-mail and unwritten communicating alternatively. He enhanced employee engagement by offering them their ain computing machines at really lo w monetary values before Christmas. The holographic construction is another relevant concern. It rests in specifying optimal sizes of units or squads in which they afterwards spawn bunchs horizontally alternatively of spread outing vertically. For Oticon. Kolind blew up the departmental construction and reconstruct a new construction. There were 100 undertakings. every undertaking was owned by person on the direction squad. But ownership at that place was like being president of the board. The occupation of undertaking proprietor was to back up and unfastened doors. while the undertaking director ran the show. That reflects the alteration Oticon undertook from compartmentalisation toward a new construction of undertakings. The diverseness of functions assigned to employees is besides a pattern. Kolind gave us a great illustration in how to bring forth such diverseness so that to add advantages without side effects. He suggested spaghetti organisation. where employees are multi-skilled and involved in many different undertakings. executing different functions. That contributed strongly in acquiring free from departmentalization. and improved the flexibleness and learnability of the organisation. Kolind conducted diverse preparations. and reformed the governments of squad direction so that all employees are more free and unfastened to larn and introduce. The 2nd rule of holographic organisation is the redundancy of both information processing and accomplishments. This could be found in the instance implicitly when Kolind asked everybody to happen their tickets on their new desks and computing machines. He asked them to alter their topographic points in instance they do non like them. as there were many extra empty topographic points. Another illustration is when Kolind specified suites with simple equipment for those who need to hold impermanent privateness betweenwhiles. The redundancy of map doctrine was besides built on single profiles. since every employee had been trained to hold a clump of accomplishments that would hold been to the full utilised afterwards. The demand for assortment needed rule is indirect with redundancy. This is really clear in the instance if undert aking E36 is to be focused on. The undertaking had been launched before 1979. It was a BTE. Behind the Ear. expensive to bring forth. but with really powerful advantage. It had been ever looked at as a load. But Kolind found out that this merchandise could be a market victor because of its automatic accommodation characteristic. He gave it much more attending than other undertakings to win the challenge. Furthermore. the board brought in Jacobson to work side-by-side with Kolind when the profitableness endured problems at the beginning. The assortment necessity is hence built on the company every bit needed to react environmental challenges. Minimizing eyeglasses is another holographic rule. Oticon’s new manner of leading reflects a important alteration in the direction function. They monitored the public presentation. but were non straight responsible for it. Therefore. the answerability was horizontally distributed. and project members became much freer for finding their work frames. Generally. the narrative of Oticon reflects the inclination of the company toward larning organisations. The adoptive double-loop acquisition manner allowed the company to accept extremist alteratio ns. such as going a public corporation. Such alterations indicate the sense of doubleloop larning philosophy the company turned to follow. That entire alteration could be presented as patterns. tactics and rules required to turn Oticon into a holographic organisation. 5. CONCLUSIONSOticon had been working as a programmed machine. It has experienced extremist alterations after conveying in Lars Kolind as a CEO. Kolind invoked the theories of the encephalon metaphor to turn Oticon into larning organisation. There are set of rules and attacks associated with the encephalon metaphor. and have been adopted by Oticon to successfully continue toward larning organisation manner. They brought strengths and few restrictions. The strengths remainder in using everybody’s encephalon to face the challenges. The company could place its demands to germinate and larn in comprehensive manner. Kolind identified the demands and pathologies of Oticon. and set the needed schemes and rules to carry through each demand and decide relevant quandary. He has utilized the advantage of new information engineering in behalf of internal communicating. which facilitated smooth flow and accelerated the development and learning procedure. Kolind showed how diffused leading could be more efficient than centralised 1. He undermined the departmental mentality and blueprint-thinking that Oticon used to follow in order that assorted persons and units are able to reflect their work signifiers within unfastened civilizations. On the other manus. the chief concern Kolind experienced is managers’ uninterrupted reluctance to the alteration along the undertaking period. since they would lose much of their control spheres and privileges they enjoyed when the classical ( mechanical ) manner was on. 6. Reference Argyris. C. and Schon. D. A. ( 1996 ) . Organizational Learning II: Theory. Method and Practice. Reading. MA: Addison Wesley. Ashby. W. R. ( 1952 ) . Design for a Brain. New York: John Wiley. Ashby. W. R. ( 1960 ) . An Introduction to Cybernetics. London: Chapman A ; Hall. Bentov. I. ( 1977 ) . Stalking the Wild Pendulum. New York: Dutton. Emery. F. E. ( 1969 ) Systems Thinking. Harmondsworth: Penguin. Emery. F. E. ( 1976 ) . Future We Are In. Leiden: Martinus Nijhoff. Herbst. P. G. ( 1974 ) . 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