Field stability |
Indifference over any positive movement of other fields. “[…] our plant is unique. I do not believe it could be feasible to share anything with another unit. They have their way of working, which I do not trust at all. I do prefer to run the shop floor as we have been doing for a long time.”*
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We are continually looking for benchmarking other fields’ best practices. Evidence of mimetic behavior. “I realize that we have several weaknesses here, and I’ve been pushing my team to be closer to other sites, try to grasp how they solve common issues. I am sure that we could learn a lot from others’ experiences, even considering that the Brazilian environment is quite different anyway”*
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Higher common principle |
Be public, recognition and self-love “Partnership with a university would be nice for the company image.” “[…] we are recognized as the first choice of our customers in the sweets and snacks market. Even considering that some customers start enquiring about China as a new supplier, we do not believe there would be a gap shortly.”* |
Best in class, look for process improvement continuously, things under control, efficiency “[...] Things are very homogeneous among the factories, as what you see here you will see in anyone. The organization you see here, you will see outside in any unit. It's the same picture, the same way of doing things everywhere.”*
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System Dependence Level |
Resistant to any threat the field may suffer, they do not verbalize criticism of their field, but that of the others. On the contrary, they have a self-image as a reliable organization. The defensibility of the status quo is limited. “The management of unit X is trying to copy the way we are doing things here. It shows how weak they are. Top management realized it as well. I think it is a bad thing, as they do not have the same expertise as we do.”
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Actors rely on the organization for the trajectory, origin, and previous successes. They respect the rules. Nevertheless, they realize that they have low individual control over the system, and even though on some occasions, the actors disagree with the decisions taken, they follow them. “[…] Germany (the Headquarter) does not accept any change without its previous approval. We cannot do anything by ourselves. And that’s OK.”* |
State of field |
Crisis/Uncertainty
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Emergent
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All decisions are taken at the unit level. There is no clear operations strategy for the entire organization. Internal misalignment – managers do not recognize competition (managers do not perceive, e.g., Chinese entry into local market impacting status quo). Plant rivalry, each unit was protecting its knowledge and resources from the others. “Each plant has its way to manage the operations. It brings flexibility and self-sufficiency to the plant manager to solve problems. It doesn’t make any sense to standardize the process. We will lose all the efforts we made in the past if we do it. It does not make sense.” “[…] we heard some customers have been buying from Chinese factories. It seems to be a fashion, in my opinion. China has similar good products, but I don’t think they would impact strongly on our market. Our customers will perceive that it is not worth transporting candies from China to Brazil. They know our brand is well established”*
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All decisions are made in HQ (Germany). HQ has control over all the unit/ plant network resources, and it influences the market as a whole. |
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State of worthiness |
Singular reputation, recognition, visibility |
Reliability, standardization of process, and behavior. “[...] Things are very homogeneous among the factories, as what you see here, you will see in anyone. The organization you see here, you will see outside in any unit. It's the same picture, the same way of doing things everywhere.”* |
Relation of worth, power and control mechanisms |
Identification, strength |
Hierarchical control |
Relationship between fields |
Indifference, there is a rare exploration of knowledge-sharing by actors. There is a critical team in charge of continuous improvement. However, plant managers are not motivated enough to share experiences. |
Openness, the organization encourages teams to talk, creation of forums and global meetings for discussing best practices and moving forward. |