Ebay Bids for Structured Change
EBay Bids for Structured Change. Case Study Answers
EBay started out with a U form, or functional, design. What changes in that design have already occurred as a result of the company’s growth? What kind of changes seem likely for the future?
• One of the first things we need to look at is what the u-form design is. The U-form organization (U stands for unity), also called functional design, relies almost exclusively on the functional approach to departmentalization . The U-form design is used to implement a single-product strategy. Because of the emphasis on functional activities, coordination is extremely important (edugov). Advantages: The costs of staffing each department with experts is lower than in organizations with other configurations. U-form design facilitates wide spans of management and allows the CEO to centralize authority. Drawbacks: U-form design slows decision making. Unit employees may lose sight of overall organizational goals, and it is difficult for the organization to monitor the performance of individual managers in the functional areas (edugov). The addition of more buyout companies (PayPal, Skype) created an evolution in management design for eBay. The CEO and stockholders still needed to micro manage the company, so the new sub divisions were brought in and this created a change in the U form style was implemented. This new style then evolved into a better structure for faster decision making and somewhat eliminated the loss of sight of the overall goals of the organization. Some of the possible changes in the structure of eBay will include a more goal oriented outlook in the line areas of management. This is to say the smaller mangers will have more responsibility to guide and make changes that will affect the organizations overall goals. With great power comes great responsibility and the line managers will have to report much more, and be held accountable for their increased responsibilities.
Currently, it’s marketplace unit, one
EBay started out with a U form, or functional, design. What changes in that design have already occurred as a result of the company’s growth? What kind of changes seem likely for the future?
• One of the first things we need to look at is what the u-form design is. The U-form organization (U stands for unity), also called functional design, relies almost exclusively on the functional approach to departmentalization . The U-form design is used to implement a single-product strategy. Because of the emphasis on functional activities, coordination is extremely important (edugov). Advantages: The costs of staffing each department with experts is lower than in organizations with other configurations. U-form design facilitates wide spans of management and allows the CEO to centralize authority. Drawbacks: U-form design slows decision making. Unit employees may lose sight of overall organizational goals, and it is difficult for the organization to monitor the performance of individual managers in the functional areas (edugov). The addition of more buyout companies (PayPal, Skype) created an evolution in management design for eBay. The CEO and stockholders still needed to micro manage the company, so the new sub divisions were brought in and this created a change in the U form style was implemented. This new style then evolved into a better structure for faster decision making and somewhat eliminated the loss of sight of the overall goals of the organization. Some of the possible changes in the structure of eBay will include a more goal oriented outlook in the line areas of management. This is to say the smaller mangers will have more responsibility to guide and make changes that will affect the organizations overall goals. With great power comes great responsibility and the line managers will have to report much more, and be held accountable for their increased responsibilities.
Currently, it’s marketplace unit, one