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case study I 105
The evaluation identified a number of improvements, but also revealed areas that required
further development.
Table 5.3 shows examples of how the newly designed organizational units were rated by
us according to some of the criteria outlined in Figure 5.2. The evaluation revealed that there
were increases in the independence of the organizational units, in the interconnectedness
of tasks, in the unity of product and organization, and in the possibilities for self-regulation
within the organizational units. The degree of polyvalence remained the same or was even
somewhat worse. This can be explained by the fact that the new design had also led to
a new composition of personnel in the organizational units. This tended to increase the
heterogeneity of qualifications in the organizational units. Moreover, the evaluation revealed
that the “on the job” qualification measures that had been agreed upon had not been realized,
or implemented, due to time constraints.

TABLE 5.3 Changes in the design of the organizational units

Criteria Change
Independence of the organizational units
Relatedness of tasks within the organizational units
Unity of product and organization within the organizational units
Polyvalence of the employees within the organizational units
Possibilities for self-regulation within the organizational units

Figure5.6showsemployees’perceptionsofvariousdimensionsofthenewworksituation.
On the whole, the employees rate their experience as positive. However, employees also
perceive an increase in the workload and in work demands.
In view of the way employees perceived the changes, it is not surprising that the great
majority of employees stated that they would not want to return to the old form of work and
organization.
As to economic aspects, the company’s situation also showed improvement towards
the goals connected with the change process. Some noteworthy examples of improvement
included:

improvement of accuracy of delivery time in the service business from 48% to 87% in

one year
considerable reduction of cycle time

increase of turnover by coping with an increased amount of orders—parallel to the change

process
higher productivity

higher transparency of the processes

continuous improvements in the quality of processes and results.

In relation to these effects, we should not neglect to take into account that, in addi-
tion to the work design measures outlined, a variable component in the salary system for
achievement of workgroup- and order-processing-related goals was also introduced. It has
to be assumed, that the measures of work design, which above all led to a more direct and
improved cooperation and collaboration, as well as to performance-based components of
the salary system, resulted in the outlined improvements of the overall performance of the
company.
One major problem still remaining is the behavior of some members of the enlarged
management. Strong claims to power are leading to forms of micropolitics that place diffi-
cult constraints on the employees in various work systems (see Buchanan & Badham, 1998).