Managing People (7220) Fall 2021 - Class 1 Slides (1).pdf

Managing people in organisation

1. Asper MBA
Managing People
in Organizations
Lukas Neville, Ph.D.

Fall 2021

Class 1
Class will begin at 6:15pm - feel free to chat with each other until then!

2. Zoom Etiquette
‣Please keep your mics muted when you aren’t speaking
‣Turning on video is preferred if possible, especially when you are speaking or in
breakouts. However, some may have work/learning environments that don’t make live
video easy.
‣If you have video off (or plan to turn it off at times), please add a pro!le picture! It’s
helpful for your peers to be able to put a face to a name.
‣Feel free to interact in chat. I’ll check it from time to time, but won’t generally be
monitoring the chat. Remember that appropriate conduct is expected even in DMs.
‣If you have a question, please use the Raise Hand 

feature in Zoom.
‣Are there any other Zoom ‘ground rules’ or meeting 

etiquette that you’d like to see us adopt?

3. Suggestion
‣I encourage you to organize with one another to create
shared class notes. You can do this with a friend, in a small
team, or across the entire class.
‣The tools you use (Google Docs, Slack, Teams, something
else) are up to you.
‣I will leave it to you to organize (you can contact one
another on UM Learn).

4. Notes
‣Deck (as delivered) posted to UM Learn after class — don’t worry about
making notes from the slides
‣Recordings generally not shared except in cases of unavoidable
absences — take notes on the discussion!
‣I encourage you to keep three pages/lists in addition to your usual notes:
‣“A-ha” moments and insights
‣Techniques I’m going to try in my current/next role
‣Things I’m unsure about or want to learn more about

5. Agenda
‣Housekeeping

Some Zoom etiquette

Course notes
‣Opening conversation

Organizations at their best
‣The road ahead

Details about next week and the term ahead
‣Thinking about how we organize

Transaction costs, interdependence, and the “multitasking problem”
‣Case study: Valve

Should Valve get into hardware?

6. Organizations at their Best
‣Take a minute to
think about one
of the best
experiences
you’ve had at
work.
‣A great job?
‣A memorable team or project?
‣A speci!c interaction that made a
difference?
‣A high-performing group?
‣A contribution you made?
‣Something you accomplished?
‣An experience that changed you?
‣A particularly good day?

7. Breakout 1
‣I’ll assign you to breakout groups of
4-5 people.
‣You’ll have about 10 minutes together to
brie"y meet and share your experiences
of good jobs or good days at work.
‣Ask yourselves: What are the common
threads?
‣I’ll give you a 60-second countdown
when your time in the breakout is almost
up.

8. Debrief
‣Characteristics
of great work?

What ‘common
threads’ came out
of your shared
experiences?
‣Obstacles?

Why are these
experiences not as
common as they
could be in our
working lives?

9. Managing and Leading People in Organizations
‣Performing: 

Overcoming obstacles
to organization,
cooperation,
collaboration;
learning to effectively
manage people in
organizations.
‣Thriving: 

Creating work that is
meaningful and
ful#lling; learning to
lead in ways that
bring out the full
potential of people in
organizations.

10. !e Topics
‣Organizational design
‣Culture
‣Selection
‣Rewards
‣Learning
‣Engagement
‣Performance management
‣In"uence
‣Incivility and mistreatment
‣Decision-making
‣Ethics
‣NegotiationsProcess

(HR) People

(OB) Structure

(OT)

11. Key Experiences
‣In-class experiences:
‣Cases, exercises/games, simulations/role-plays, team-level
and classroom-level discussions
‣Individual work:
‣A leadership pro#le aimed at fostering your own growth
and development
‣Group work:
‣A group case presentation to practice your group
collaboration skills and improve your communication skills

12. Admin
‣Read the syllabus — it contains lots of details about the expectations and
the road ahead
‣Familiarize yourself with the academic integrity guidelines. The
consequences for dishonesty (even things like collaborating on a small
individual assignment) can include an F in the course and suspension from
the program.
‣Stay in touch about anything that might disrupt the term or interfere with
your ability to deliver. I’m here to work with you to help you succeed.
‣Be here and be prepared (unless you can’t—see above). The ‘hot seat’
model will have a small number of students who will be called on for a
higher level of (graded) engagement each class, starting next week.

13. Questions About the Course?

14. How Do We Organize Work?

15. !e Simplest Organization: Me
‣Craft production
‣Scott Urban’s glasses
“company” in The Org
‣Largely supplanted by
mechanization and
industrial production after
the Industrial Revolution,
except in niche markets

16. Making Work Happen
‣Taylorism (“scienti#c
management”)
‣1880s-1920s
‣Time studies, task subdivision
and allocation, standardization
‣Strong managerial control,
limited worker autonomy

17. 21st Century Taylorism
‣Taco Bell (from Business Week)

18. ‘Time and Motion’ at Taco Bell
•Employee roles: ‘steamers’,
‘stuffers’, and ‘expeditors’
•Workspace divided into hot-
holding, cold-holding, and
wrapping-expediting areas
•Standardized inputs and
measures: The ‘beef portioning
tool’; shots of sour cream from
caulking guns
•Average drive-through time:
164 seconds; 93% accuracy

19. How Work Is Organized
‣What does The Org tell us about
why many jobs aren’t boiled
down to their smallest parts,
done repeatedly and paid as
piecework?

20. Reason 1: Morale
E.g.:
‣1911 Watertown
Arsenal strike
‣Provoked by a
Taylorist with a
stopwatch doing
a time-and-
motion study

21. Reason 1: Morale
‣Dull, routinized, deskilled
‣Closely monitored
‣No autonomy or control
‣Rigid separation between
planning and execution
‣No creativity
‣Requires ‘repeatable’ work
‣Asocial
‣‘Alienation’
‣Disengagement
‣Other problems?

22. Reason 2: Interdependence
‣Police officers : “Policing an entire community… involves
teamwork across districts in a city and across divisions within a
department”
‣Manufacturing: “Team production makes it easier for
workers to help one another out if one member falls behind or
to shift manpower around when bottlenecks arise… “

23. Reason 2: Interdependence
Sony had media, computing, and
consumer electronics expertise — and
even a prototype e-book. But managers
in different departments fought each
other over how revenues would be split.



"Two whole years before Amazon launched
its e-reader, I had the same idea. I asked
our guys to do this, but we delayed and
delayed and nothing happened. So then
Amazon beat us to it.”

HOWARD STRINGER, CEO, SONY

24. Reason 3: Transaction Costs
‣The costs of search and information gathering, contracting,
and monitoring — frictions in free-market exchange
‣Will work be organized by the “invisible hand” of the market,
or the “visible hand” of the manager?
‣It depends in part on whether organizations add or subtract
transaction costs.

25. A Puzzle
‣Why would mask design be an in-house
activity, rather than being contracted out
to external suppliers?
‣What transaction costs would be
associated with markets? What
problems are solved by moving it in-
house?

26. Break
Networking breakout group open for anyone
who would like to meet / chat with their
classmates further

27. Valve’s Unusual Structure

28. Structure
‣Key question: 

How do you structure organizations to accomplish
work?
‣Two very different #rms:

29. Valve
‣Founded by a Microsoft vet, a very different kind of organization…

30. Microso" Vs. Valve
‣As you’ll read next
week, in the same
period (2000s to early
2010s) Microsoft is
also competing in the
games and game
console markets.

31. Microso" Vs. Valve
‣Microsoft was rigidly
hierarchical, and
decision-making was
highly centralized.
‣Why aren’t other
!rms like Microsoft
structured like
Valve?

32. Microso" Vs. Valve
‣The roots of Valve’s weird organizational
structure
‣An unusual industry

Low capital intensity, oriented toward innovation,
not efficiency
‣Unusually funded

Privately held, self-funded (owners capital and
retained earnings) no external investors.
‣Unusual employees

Highly selective, ‘DIY’ ethos, passionate about the
work, etc. — basically an labour market within a #rm

33. Valve and the Hardware
Decision

34. Problems Solved and Created By Structure
‣In your groups, discuss:
‣What problems in the software
industry are solved by Valve’s
unusual structure?
‣What problems in the hardware
industry will be created by
Valve’s unusual structure?

35. Multitasking Problems at Valve
‣Three challenges in the software industry:
‣You need ‘star’ developers that can swing for the fences; great ideas
often emerge rather than being planned and directed
‣The process for spotting ‘winning ideas’ is decentralized, and it’s hard to
measure and manage innovation processes
‣Roles and tasks are $uid, staff need to pursue many simultaneous
priorities, and projects are developed through iteration, with a strong
need for $exibility and adaptability
‣These may not be the same challenges faced in hardware!

36. What Could Valve Do Instead?
‣If Valve’s structure is misaligned with hardware
production, what other options are available?

37. !e Basic Decision
Firms Markets Networks
Organizing principle
Employment
relationships
Contracts and property
rights
Complementary
strengths
CommunicationManagerial directionPrices Joint planning
Actors’ choicesDependent Independent Interdependent
Conflict resolution
Supervision and
discipline
Haggling; legal
enforcement
Reputational systems
and reciprocity
Tools
Business units and
divisions
Procurement, RFPs
Joint ventures and
alliances
At Valve…In-house development
Contract
manufacturing
Partnership
Adapted from Powell (1990)

38. !e Outcome

39. Valve’s Struggle with Hardware
‣Jeri Ellsworth
‣Developer of a popular (70k units)
computer-on-a-joystick retro
gaming platform.
‣Hired by Valve for hardware…






40. From the Firm to Network/Market
‣AR helmet built in-house fell
through during Ellsworth’s tenure
‣Steam controller developed with
3D-printed prototyping for design;
production contracted out to
Flextronics
‣SteamVR helmet built in partnership
with HTC; further development
handed off to partner #rms (HTC, LG)

41. Takeaways

42. Some Key Takeaways
‣Organizations must structure work in ways that:
‣Aligns with strategy, process, position
‣Fits with scale and market position
‣Directs effort effectively
‣Balances between innovation/risk/viability and execution/
controls/predictability
‣Guiding question: 

What problems does our structure need to solve?

43. Structure and Strategy
MarketingDesignEngineering
Functional
Mkt
Design
Eng
HL
Portal
Steam
Network
Half LifePortal Steam
Divisional (Product)
NA AP EMEA
Geography
Gen XMillennialsGen Z
Market Segment
Matrix
A
B
C
E
F
DProject

44. Next Week

45. Next Week
‣Changing organizational culture
‣Pre-class work:
‣Read Cameron (A Process for Changing Org Culture)
‣Read Neville & Schneider (Why’s It So Hard…?)
‣Skim-read the Vanity Fair Microsoft article (UM Learn)
‣Prepare General Mills case
‣Ask yourself:
‣Where is Mills now on Cameron’s map? Where do they
need to be? What barriers will they face to change?

46. Preparing for the Hot Seat
‣You might be called on to be a ‘hot seat’ participant starting
next week.
‣If you don’t want to be (i.e., you think you might not be
prepared due to a personal or compassionate issue), please let
me know in advance
‣If something comes up and you need to decline ‘on the "y’, that’s
okay - we can shift you to a different week
‣Read the material with the idea that you might be called on #rst
to explain an idea, to describe the case decision or make a
recommendation, etc. Be ready to ask good questions, listen
intently to others, bridge ideas, etc.

47. !anks!

[email protected]