Lateral Coordination
According to Galbraith (2002) lateral processes are in place to assist organizations in coordinating activities that happen between many different units and attempt to decentralize management’s decisions. As the continuous change because the norm for many organizations, lateral processes becomes the main way of coordinating activities. With the new structure in place at Jones Lang LaSalle, the three autonomous business units are not reporting to one known as the Corporate Solutions Group. In addition to these reporting changes, account managers would be representing separate clients and working across the business to offer more help one on one to customers that have requested it. The idea is to change the focus completely to what the customer wants and needs and make that the number one priority (Gulati, 2009).
The change in this organizational structure will require a large amount of interaction and commitment across JLL’s business units that were used to working independently. Peter Barge seems to be looking forward to these upcoming changes to better the organization and he really hopes that the new structure will reduce the amount of time spent to respond to customers requests. This goes back to making sure the customer is number one. According to Galbraith (2002) the need for lateral coordination has increased due to the demands for cycle time reduction. The five types of lateral processes include voluntary and informal group, E-Coordination, formal group, integrator and matrix organization, but when discussing the changes at JLL, they should focus on the voluntary and formal group processes along with the e-coordination for the teams.
Voluntary Processes
Voluntary processes are those that are informal and occur naturally within an organization (Galbraith, 2002). Barge can use some of these tools to help the growth within the CSG. Under the previous structure at JLL, people were only working in one business unit and therefore it limited a lot of the knowledge that one may have regarding the entire organization. The rotation program between departments within the same organization promotes lateral processes by developing everyone involved in the business and recognizing those that are better working within the different departments or teams. Once the organization is re designed, it will give the employees an opportunity to work in different business units along with the account manager. Two more additional aspects of creating the voluntary lateral processes with JLL are interdepartmental events, such as training and locating different departments within the same space (Galbraith, 2002). Barge needs to look at making these opportunities available for all employees at JLL.
According to Galbraith (2002) the reward system that is established within the organization must work together with the employees to reach the same goals. In the case study of JLL, Barge must be able to work with the employees to align the business unit goals of CSG and the desires of the clients. The case study discusses how the bonus/ reward system may need to be revamped based on the goals of CSG versus the individual business units. The use of a consisted rewards system will help break the competition between the different units and conform everyone to one.
Formal Groups
E – Coordination
Barge must develop a team which will help the company coordinate thus achieve set goals and objectives. The type of the team that will be developed by Barge will ensure that despite being responsible for the duties assigned, they are able to provide services that other people need. Peter Barge has a mandate of ensuring that the coordination time does work accordingly so that all the challenges are dealt with and strategies that have been pointed out are implemented accordingly. Some of the things that coordination team require include valid information, place where they will conduct meetings, individuals with great skills and facilities that are necessary. With the help of Barge the CSG coordination team must execute their mandates and use different skills in order to implement all the required strategies thus encounter all the challenges.
The pointed team must be able to know what the firm requires for its survival and growth in their industry. In order to ensure that all things are in the right direction, Barge has to ensure that there are certain skills of coordination that have been followed accordingly. Certain techniques of coordination must be applied so that the firm must run accordingly. Make the linkages is one of the coordination techniques that the firm should employ in order to be effective accordingly. The entire coordination team should be transparency so as to ensure all things have been followed accordingly. Peter Barge should point out the required activities and roles of the coordination team so that they can know their line of working. Applying the coordination techniques accordingly, Barge will enable the firm achieve their goals.
References
Galbraith, J.R. (2002). Designing Organizations. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA.
Gulati, R. & Marshall, R. G. (2009). Corporate Solutions at Jones Lang LaSalle. Harvard Business Review, pp. 1-15.
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