1. What is the organizational purpose of Teleflex Canada? Refer to Exhibit 1.3
According to the case it is very evident that the organization purpose is very clear. They want to
act with integrity in all their business dealings. The organizational environment is such that it has
a common sense of purpose. Referring to exhibit 1.3, they are cultivating an entrepreneurial
spirit of creativity and innovation. It shows us that at different levels of hierarchy and with the
appropriate level of corporate support and control necessary to succeed and innovate. They focus
on product and market development that solve customer problems and create new markets.
2. Apply Exhibit 1.6 to describe Teleflex’s organization design by applying the
contextual structural dimensions.
Culture: Teleflex’s culture has a set of underlying set of key values, beliefs, understandings, and
norms shared by employees. Companies values connect to their ethical behavior, commitment to
employees, efficiency, or customer service, thus hold the whole organization together.
Environment: “The environment includes all elements outside the boundary of the organization.
Key elements include the industry, government, customers, suppliers and financial community”
(Daft & Armstrong, 2015, p. 43). Applying that to Teleflex, they want to grow their business by
building on their market leading positions. Hence focusing on product quality and product
innovation, thus by taking care of all their stakeholders.
Goals and strategy: “The organization’s goal and strategy define the purpose and competitive
techniques that set it apart from other organizations” (Daft & Armstrong, 2015, p. 21). Teleflex
focuses on growing market share and still stay competitive and better utilize capacity to increase
profits.
Size: Teleflex focus was to start with the smaller unit to expand the potential market, lower the
cost and perform better. “Size is the organizations magnitude as reflected in the number of
people in the organization” (Daft & Armstrong, 2015, p. 21). They focus on keeping an eye on
the fact that how big an organization be and still be competitive and innovative, as there are
several other factors attached to it.
Technology: Teleflex uses flexible manufacturing, advanced information system and the internet.
They use technology to target the audiences in the market. Teleflex believe that if they want to
capture the bigger share of the market, they have to simplify the technology, so that they are user
friendly.
3. Apply Exhibit 1.6 to describe Teleflex’s organization design by applying the
structural dimensions.
Formalization: It pertains to the written documentation in the organization. The case does not
state as to how formalized is the company. But based on the volume of business and operations,
the company will be more formalized such as maintaining procedures, job descriptions,
regulations and policy manuals.
Specialization: It refers to as the division of labor. Teleflex seems to be more extensive on the
diversification of the tasks assigned to their employees. The organization have specific people
having specific duties, which goes parallel with the company’s goal to innovate.
Hierarchy of authority: As the company’s vision is to continuously innovate, so the company has
a strong span of control. The managers are working closely with the employees and customer
comfort is their priority. So, the span of control is narrow, which means that the hierarchy tends
to be tall.
Centralization: As per the case, Teleflex Canada seems to be decentralized. The decisions are
delegated to the lower organizational levels. There is no corporate influence, if people are
working towards reaching their goal of being successful.
Professionalism: Formal education and training are the important aspects of the organization.
Continuous training is required to be on top of the game and beat the competition. Organizations
such as Teleflex, for sure will have strong formal education and training made available to the
employees to innovate and bring change to the processes with time.
Personnel ratios: Personnel ratios means deployment of people to various functions and
departments. As per the case, “The corporation pushed us to use more advanced machine tools
and be more analytical” (Daft & Armstrong, 2015, p. 31). Product development, marketing and
manufacturing processes were done at the floor level.
4. Apply Exhibit 1.8 to identify the major stakeholders of Teleflex Canada.
Consumers, employees, Management, Suppliers, shareholders, Harold Copping,
Government, creditors and the local communities.
5. Discuss whether Teleflex Canada’s organization is designed for Efficient
Performance or as a Learning Organization; identifying the pros and cons for each
approach for Teleflex.
According to me, Teleflex started as being efficient performers, but over the time they have
become learning organization. Every department such as management, production and
operations, human resources, R&D, Finance, Marketing and info systems need to innovate to
cope up with the change. To build the competitive edge, company need to innovate
continuously. As per the case the company had to engage a university professor to work
privately on steering-by-wire. This shows that they focus on training and development of the
employees.
Pros of learning Objective is that it helps employees in being trained constantly and keeps on
upgrading and adapting.
Cons of learning Objective is the resistance amongst the employees to accept the new change.
What specific challenges do you see for Teleflex?
Considering chapter 1, identify and explain what changes you recommend for Teleflex?
From a strategic point of view, the biggest challenge will be that how the company will be able
to capitalize on its culture of innovation to maintain its growth rate of 20% and continuously
improve its technologies over the coming years. As per the case, “the company is trying to
develop new products” (Daft & Armstrong, 2015, p. 45). The company has a biggest challenge
of diversification in the products offered to the customer. The company needs to work with their
customers and make their life easier. The company need to continuously grow , innovate and
develop new products.
References
Daft, R., & Armstrong, A. (2015). Organization Theory and Design (Third Cana). Nelson.