Microsoft Organizational Growth & Control Study
Microsoft Organizational Growth & Control Study
Microsoft Organizational Growth & Control Study
Microsoft has been a highly influential and instrumental organization of change during our lifetime. At times we praise these innovations, and at times we’ve cursed it. The Government has tried to control it. Organizations have tried to imitate it. By no means has this company had an easy time. Organizational growth goes through stages, each culminating in a crisis stage which must be overcome in order to continue growth. Let’s evaluate how Microsoft met these challenges.
1. Relate Microsoft’s problems with its control and evaluation systems to each of the stages of growth in Greiner’s model.
In stage 1 of Greiner’s model of organizational growth, ‘growth through creativity’, ‘the norms and values of the organizational culture, rather than the hierarchy and organizational structure, control people’s behavior’ (Jones, 2010, p. 315). For Microsoft, the control and evaluation systems were likely driven directly by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, where Bill reviewed continued programming as well as leadership during the first five years of the business. In stage 2 ‘Growth through direction’ Microsoft partnered with IBM to provide its PC-DOS operating system to the IBM PC ("Bill Gates," February 18, 2012, p. 1). Luckily Bill maintained the OS copyright, which created a differentiation between hardware and software in the marketplace and propelled Microsoft to one of the first corporations to market in the software space. At this point Bill moved from startup to established corporation and appointed his senior management team, and situated the corporation in Redmond, Washington.
In stage 3 ‘growth through delegation it’s likely that the small work groups described in this case for analysis story was forming and performing. Innovation was delegated to these teams and control functions of the performance reviews were tied to the team structure. Performance was
Microsoft Organizational Growth & Control Study
Microsoft has been a highly influential and instrumental organization of change during our lifetime. At times we praise these innovations, and at times we’ve cursed it. The Government has tried to control it. Organizations have tried to imitate it. By no means has this company had an easy time. Organizational growth goes through stages, each culminating in a crisis stage which must be overcome in order to continue growth. Let’s evaluate how Microsoft met these challenges.
1. Relate Microsoft’s problems with its control and evaluation systems to each of the stages of growth in Greiner’s model.
In stage 1 of Greiner’s model of organizational growth, ‘growth through creativity’, ‘the norms and values of the organizational culture, rather than the hierarchy and organizational structure, control people’s behavior’ (Jones, 2010, p. 315). For Microsoft, the control and evaluation systems were likely driven directly by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, where Bill reviewed continued programming as well as leadership during the first five years of the business. In stage 2 ‘Growth through direction’ Microsoft partnered with IBM to provide its PC-DOS operating system to the IBM PC ("Bill Gates," February 18, 2012, p. 1). Luckily Bill maintained the OS copyright, which created a differentiation between hardware and software in the marketplace and propelled Microsoft to one of the first corporations to market in the software space. At this point Bill moved from startup to established corporation and appointed his senior management team, and situated the corporation in Redmond, Washington.
In stage 3 ‘growth through delegation it’s likely that the small work groups described in this case for analysis story was forming and performing. Innovation was delegated to these teams and control functions of the performance reviews were tied to the team structure. Performance was
References: Bill Gates. (February 18, 2012). In Bill Gates. Retrieved February 18, 2012, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Gates Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational Theory, Design, and Change (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc.