netrashetty
Netra Shetty
The Babcock & Wilcox Company (B&W) is a U.S.-based company that provides design, engineering, manufacturing, construction and facilities management services to nuclear, renewable, fossil power, industrial and government customers worldwide. B&W's boilers supply more than 300,000 megawatts of installed capacity in over 90 countries around the world.[1]
During World War II, over half of the American US Navy fleet was powered by Babcock & Wilcox boilers.[2] The company has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina with operations in Lynchburg, VA; Barberton, Ohio; West Point, Mississippi; Cambridge, Ontario, Canada; Mount Vernon, Indiana; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Euclid, Ohio.'
Chairman of the Board
John Fees
2
Director
Richard Mies
Director
Brad McWilliams
3
Director
Stephen Hanks
7
Director
Robert Goldman
2
Director
Oliver Kingsley
2
CEO
Brandon Bethards
Nuclear Energy
CM
2
Nuclear Operations
Winfred Nash
2
Power Generation
Richard Killion
4
Technical Services
Robert Cochran
2
CFO
Michael Taff
COO
Mary Salomone
Business Development & Plann...
GD
Legal & Secretary
JC
Human Resources
VA
Compliance
BC
5
Accounting
David Black
3
Control
Keith Robinson
2
Investor Relations
Michael Dickerson
2
Treasurer
Jenny Apker
Operational Excellence
AN
Government Relations
JC
Organizational structure defines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated. The organization structure has a bearing on attitudes and behavior (2003) of the employees in the organization. In the case of the company in focus, its organizational structure is characterized by rigid policies, strict specialization, narrow span of control, and high degree of centralization and formalization, which resemble a functional bureaucratic structure.
The organization is characterized as having a tall structure, which is functional in nature. The Manager for Global Operations, who is based in Singapore, is leading the company. Under the Manager are the Vice Presidents for the three key functions of the organization, namely the Vice President for Strategic Management, the Vice President for Production and Human Resources, and the Vice President for Research and Development. Under the three Vice Presidents are the different Managers and immediate staffs. The structure of the organization is illustrated below (Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1: Current Structure of the Organization
From the illustration, it can be seen that the functional hierarchical management structure allows vertical transfer of knowledge through typical chain-of-command, but inhibit or prevent horizontal transfer of knowledge that must cross the organization’s functional boundaries. Such structure presents a variety of problems, thus, indicating the several weaknesses or disadvantages of the structure in terms of its use in the organization. It can also be observed that there is the lack of scope of inter-departmental coordination and teamwork, as the people down the line still have to wait for every single management decision before they get on with their work, thus, resulting to the bogging down of their projects ( 1998). This results to the lack of interest of other employees to the work domain and functions of other departments. In addition, the narrow span of control has created many levels of “permission leaders”, which contributes to the bogging down of individual freedom and flexibility. It has major disadvantages in the organization, namely, increase in costs, as it add levels of management, increase in the complexity of vertical communication, and discouraging employee autonomy due to overly tight supervision
Organizational culture can be defined as a set of assumptions, values and artifacts making members of a specific organization unique from others, and thus, described as the essence, character or personality of the organization (1997). It is a term, which should be understood as involving both the everyday understandings of members and the more general features of the sector, state, and society of which the organization is a part (2000).
The culture of the organization is found similar to that defined by (1986) as a role culture. A role culture is appropriate to bureaucracies and organizations with mechanistic rigid structures and narrow jobs, which stresses the importance of procedures and rules, hierarchical positions, authority, security and predictability. It has been emphasized that communication in the organization is not simply an event that takes place within a container where people transmit oral and written messages, but it is a continual process of creating and reaffirming interpretations through the interlocking behaviors of organizational members (1992). In this regard, the lack of communication among departments contributes to the inefficiency of the organization due to the lack of coordination. An actual example of this problem is the situation when one of the sales staff promised a customer to deliver hydroprocessing catalysts in 8 days time. Because the manager of the dispatching section was on leave, one of the dispatching department supervisors took initiative and sent the product to the Philippine company, only to get a memo the next day for not having a permission to do so.
During World War II, over half of the American US Navy fleet was powered by Babcock & Wilcox boilers.[2] The company has its headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina with operations in Lynchburg, VA; Barberton, Ohio; West Point, Mississippi; Cambridge, Ontario, Canada; Mount Vernon, Indiana; Oak Ridge, Tennessee; and Euclid, Ohio.'
Chairman of the Board
John Fees
2
Director
Richard Mies
Director
Brad McWilliams
3
Director
Stephen Hanks
7
Director
Robert Goldman
2
Director
Oliver Kingsley
2
CEO
Brandon Bethards
Nuclear Energy
CM
2
Nuclear Operations
Winfred Nash
2
Power Generation
Richard Killion
4
Technical Services
Robert Cochran
2
CFO
Michael Taff
COO
Mary Salomone
Business Development & Plann...
GD
Legal & Secretary
JC
Human Resources
VA
Compliance
BC
5
Accounting
David Black
3
Control
Keith Robinson
2
Investor Relations
Michael Dickerson
2
Treasurer
Jenny Apker
Operational Excellence
AN
Government Relations
JC
Organizational structure defines how job tasks are formally divided, grouped, and coordinated. The organization structure has a bearing on attitudes and behavior (2003) of the employees in the organization. In the case of the company in focus, its organizational structure is characterized by rigid policies, strict specialization, narrow span of control, and high degree of centralization and formalization, which resemble a functional bureaucratic structure.
The organization is characterized as having a tall structure, which is functional in nature. The Manager for Global Operations, who is based in Singapore, is leading the company. Under the Manager are the Vice Presidents for the three key functions of the organization, namely the Vice President for Strategic Management, the Vice President for Production and Human Resources, and the Vice President for Research and Development. Under the three Vice Presidents are the different Managers and immediate staffs. The structure of the organization is illustrated below (Exhibit 1).
Exhibit 1: Current Structure of the Organization
From the illustration, it can be seen that the functional hierarchical management structure allows vertical transfer of knowledge through typical chain-of-command, but inhibit or prevent horizontal transfer of knowledge that must cross the organization’s functional boundaries. Such structure presents a variety of problems, thus, indicating the several weaknesses or disadvantages of the structure in terms of its use in the organization. It can also be observed that there is the lack of scope of inter-departmental coordination and teamwork, as the people down the line still have to wait for every single management decision before they get on with their work, thus, resulting to the bogging down of their projects ( 1998). This results to the lack of interest of other employees to the work domain and functions of other departments. In addition, the narrow span of control has created many levels of “permission leaders”, which contributes to the bogging down of individual freedom and flexibility. It has major disadvantages in the organization, namely, increase in costs, as it add levels of management, increase in the complexity of vertical communication, and discouraging employee autonomy due to overly tight supervision
Organizational culture can be defined as a set of assumptions, values and artifacts making members of a specific organization unique from others, and thus, described as the essence, character or personality of the organization (1997). It is a term, which should be understood as involving both the everyday understandings of members and the more general features of the sector, state, and society of which the organization is a part (2000).
The culture of the organization is found similar to that defined by (1986) as a role culture. A role culture is appropriate to bureaucracies and organizations with mechanistic rigid structures and narrow jobs, which stresses the importance of procedures and rules, hierarchical positions, authority, security and predictability. It has been emphasized that communication in the organization is not simply an event that takes place within a container where people transmit oral and written messages, but it is a continual process of creating and reaffirming interpretations through the interlocking behaviors of organizational members (1992). In this regard, the lack of communication among departments contributes to the inefficiency of the organization due to the lack of coordination. An actual example of this problem is the situation when one of the sales staff promised a customer to deliver hydroprocessing catalysts in 8 days time. Because the manager of the dispatching section was on leave, one of the dispatching department supervisors took initiative and sent the product to the Philippine company, only to get a memo the next day for not having a permission to do so.
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