Critical Thinking Issue 1: Relate Microsoft’s problems with its control and evaluation systems to each of the stages of growth in the Greiner’s model. Organizational growth is similar to the life cycle of any living entity. The organization is birthed in an entrepreneur’s head and then goes through the growth cycles to create its own version of becoming a legitimate entity that the stakeholders find dependable, responsible, and having the ability to create value (Jones, 2010). As the organization grows it must develop skills and competences to create value that in turn make the organization attractive to investors thus allowing it to acquire additional resources to grow even more. Resulting growth generates more revenue it creates
Each individual was evaluated by their manager on a strict 1 to 5 scale. Microsoft implemented this system to increase fairness in their performance evaluations. The evaluation system caused employees pursued their own ideas and interests and not the teams. Employees became lost in favoritism and bureaucracy and team performance suffered (Jones, 2010, p. 315, 316, & 330). The situation even caused the employees to work against each other in attempts to get the best evaluations (Ricklies, 2001). During this crisis Microsoft lost many of its top engineers to competitors. Some left to start their own companies. All this happened because the organization created an evaluation system that no longer rewarded or motivated their employees (Jones, 2010, p. 330).
Critical Thinking Question 2: Microsoft today is most likely in the growth through collaboration stage. How do you recommend it changes its structure, culture, and control systems to solve its problems at this stage? Greiner’s Growth Through Collaboration stage should put the emphasis back on spontaneity in the management and teams. The Collaboration stage shifts control back to social control and self-discipline. The organizational structure should recreate an environment that will motivate the employees by