Oakland a's (B)

Abstract

The general manager of the Oakland A's professional baseball team must evaluate two salary and bonus plans proposed by the A's star pitcher (see the A case, UVA-QA-0282). The plans call for the pitcher to receive a bonus if the next season's home attendance exceeds a specified number. Historical data are provided on team performance (number of games won), attendance, and the general manager's preseason forecast number of wins. Global Paper is a major player in the worldwide office-products market. It has served Entertainment World, a West Coast business, for many years. Entertainment World has issued an RFP for a global supply of its office products, asking for a proposal with maximum mutual partnership benefits. How should Global Paper respond to this request? This case is part of a series of cases on value-based selling. The A case provides the background. The B case (UVA-M-0720) provides the value mapping and value proposition. A newly appointed vice president for Corporate Communication at the U.S. subsidiary of a Japanese multinational corporation must choose among different methods for aligning corporate philanthropy programs with long-term corporate philosophy and business strategy. This case illustrates the key strategic role of corporate communication in enacting social responsibility. This note introduces basic principles of organizational design and the advantages of several common organizational structures. The principles of design are fit, differentiation, integration, technology, size, span of control, staffing, unity of command, and line versus staff. The structures diagrammed and described are functional, product, customer, geographic, divisional or M-form, matrix, amorphous, and hybrids. The note also discusses the new emerging Information Age organizational forms, which the author calls infocracies.