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Acme and Omega Case
Acme and Omega Case
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workplace satisfaction. According to the Labour Department of Hong Kong, some
benefits of workplace cooperation include improvement in decision-making process, in
employees performance and commitment and increase job satisfaction (Hong Kong).
Especially in this case, the organic structure was proven to be a better choice as Omegas
employees worked together, and proposed ideas to help one another every step of the
way while keeping everyone on board with the progress of the project. Acmes
employees, on the other hand, worked separately at their own speeds and lost a chunk of
precious time in figuring out their own problems and the overall problem. The sense of
organizational unity is also stronger in Omega since the employees were encouraged to
cooperate closely, not only did they found an error in the design at the early stage, but
they also combined forces to find the optimal solutions that would work best for
everyone, instead of not finding a common ground on how to fix the error at Acme.
Ultimately, Omegas structure helped the company achieve higher performance
efficiency, in comparison to Acme. I do believe their level of performance was due to the
goals chosen by top management. The organic structure was implemented early on in
Omega when the president stressed the importance of free-flow knowledge and
information, encouraged employees to cooperate cross-departments and reduced and
artificial barriers between specialists who should be working together (Daft, p.177).
After four years of grooming such culture in the company, employees were better at
cooperation; departments heads were working together, helping each other on big
projects, which helped the company reduced unnecessary lost in time if each department
was working on its own and solving its problems without unexpected but helpful
knowledge from others.
Anh Pham 3
BUSI 522 Case Analysis 2
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(Daft, p. 179). The level of effectiveness can be credited to the goals chosen by Omegas
top management by implementing and encouraging the knowledge, information free-flow
throughout the organization while pressing cooperation cross-departments to cut
unnecessary waste, as explained in questions above.
5. Predict which organization will get the final contract. Why?
I predicted Omega would get the final contract. Even when there were problems with the
initial designs and the lack of some important parts, they were very efficient in fixing the
problems and still delivered the prototypes on time with no defects.
6. How can Acmes success be explained? Did Acmes goals seem more appropriate?
Did stakeholder satisfaction play a role?
Acmes success can be explained by two reasons. Firstly, when the photocopier firm
divided the contract to both companies, Acme got their portion even when the firm was
disappointed with its performance. In my opinion, this was largely due to the stronger
relationship Acmes president had built with the firms head designer during the project
by calling twice a week. Establishing a strong relationship with a key person in the
clients firm can help improve an organizations chance of getting the contract over
competitors. Also, as stated at the beginning of the case, Acme regularly achieved
greater net profit, compare to Omega (Daft, p.177). Potential clients may take that as a
sign of more efficiency when looking for a supplier. Secondly, after getting half of the
contract, Acme was able to reduced its unit cost by 20 percent (Daft, p. 197). This was
definitely a clear sign for Acme to claim the whole contract as the 20 percent decrease in
unit cost can help the photocopier firm either increase its profits (if it keeps the same
price for each unit) or increase market share and competitive edge (if it introduces lower
prices than competitors). Either way the photocopier firm chooses to do with this new
development, its stakeholder will be more satisfied. However, it was unclear to how
Acme reduced the unit costs, which made it hard to credit the success to its mechanistic
system.
Daft, Richard. "The Paradoxical Twins: Acme and Omega Electronics." Organizational
Theory and Design. 11th ed. N.p.: Thompson Southwesterm, 2013. 177-79. Print.
Hong Kong. Department of Labour. Guide to Workplace Cooperation. N.p.: n.p., n.d.
Labour Department. Web. 11 Apr. 2014.
<http://www.labour.gov.hk/eng/public/wcp/guide_wc.pdf>.