Need help with a Management Study

References:

1. 
Images
of Organization, by Gareth Morgan. 
(Executive Edition).  Copyright
1998, Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

2. 
The
Management Myth, by Matthew Stewart. 
Copyright 2009, W. W. Norton & Company, publishers.

Questions:

1. On Pages 54-55, Stewart uses Kant’s Critique of Pure
Reason to identify 4 “dogmas” that cripple scientific approaches to
management.  Which of these 4 do you
believe is most significant in organizations today and why?  (Limit your answer to 400 words or less.)

2. In the video, “Scientific Management Uncovered,”
(deconstructing scientific management), the lecturer notes that Taylorism was
introduced during the Progressive era, when science was viewed as the salvation
of society.  Many today suggest that the
U.S. is returning to a progressive era, when science (gathering data and
applying rigorous methods and processes) will lead to societal benefits.  Yet the video on Henry Ford and Taylorism
picks up on the theme that progressive scientific methods can have the negative
effects on people and organizations. 
Which viewpoint  (A.  Scientific methods will result in general
positive gains for society; or B. 
Scientific methods will lead to negative outcomes for society) do you
find most compelling and why?  (Limit your
answer to 400 words or less.)

3. Stewart seems to suggest that the flaws in Mayo’s studies
make the many management approaches that have been developed over the years
based on that initial research highly questionable.  Pick one of the management approaches that
derived from the humanistic or open systems perspective and explain why that
approach should be considered valid today as a principle for managing people at
work.  (Limit your answer to 400 words or
less.)

4.  In Russell Ackoff’s presentation on systems-based
improvement, he argues that managing systems independently does not increase
the performance of the system as a whole, and therefore management practices
continue to have limited success; managers need to learn to manage the
interaction among the systems.  How does
this view call into question the fundamental nature of the Organization as
Organisms metaphor?  That is, if Ackoff
is correct, what are the problems with the Organisms metaphor insofar as
managerial practice is concerned?  (Limit
your answer to 500 words or less.)

5.

Explain how the principles and practices of strategic
management (as Stewart outlines some of these) are linked to the images of the
organization as brain.  (Limit your
answer to 400 words or less.)

6.  Peter Senge suggests to his audience of CEOs that
organizational change cannot come from the top down.  This seems to argue against a central “brain”
in an organization, in favor of many diverse learning nodes.  Explain how Morgan’s observations on
organizations as a brain may in fact be consistent with Senge’s view of
organizational leadership.  (Limit your
answer to 400 words or less.)

7.  What are the most successful knowledge-management
challenges faced by Danone?  What does
the company need to do well to succeed?  (Limit
your answer to 400 words or less.)

8. Describe the new Access to Care strategy.  What has Dr. Seffrin done to manage those
risks and assure implementation of the new strategy?  (Limit your answer to
500 words or less.)

9. Morgan lays out
the view of Organizations as Cultures and the processes by which culture is
enacted in his chapter, and does a credible job of presenting the view that
cultures drive organizations and managers. In “The Science of Excellence,” one
of Stewart’s critiques of cultures is that too often managers confound correlation
and causation, and that the error is to assume that the “happy, people-centered
cultures the authors observed in their favourite companies were a consequence
of business success rather than a cause.” 
How much of an organizations’s culture is a result of success and basic
business and managerial practices, and how much of a culture is created by
managers to drive success?  What’s your
view – does culture drive management or does management determine culture?  (400 words or less)

10. What has made
Four Seasons successful over the last 30 years? 
Does corporate culture play a role in Four Seasons’ success?  If so, how and why?  (400 words or less)

11. What, in your opinion, were the tradeoffs and biggest
downsides of the reorganization at Cisco? 
Why did Chambers create business councils?  (Limit your answer to 500 words or less.)