W.L Gore’s Organization And Management Style: Unique Features And Lessons Learned

The Distinctive Features of W.L Gore’s Organization and Management

The following report will analyse the distinctive feature of W.L Gore’s organization and management style. The report will also address the different other theories and principles of management while comparing and contrasting with Gore’s organization system. Following the discussion, the report will also provide the lessons learned from the Gore case of organization management from the perspective of the current business environment.

As a scientist at DuPont W.L Gore had a strong industrial experience contributing 17 years of his life as a research scientist. The experience Gore gathered while researching led to the discovery of a niche market gap that need to be fulfilled in the late 70s. The firm of Gore started to expand its production by manifesting its ideas after the big breakthrough in 1976. Gore and his colleagues started to realize that to increase the productivity of the organization hierarchy elements have to be implemented based on ranks that the associates have to adapt with their skills and aptitudes. Gore also represents the business units of separate products with wide functions of human resource management and information technology (Cannon et al., 2019).

At that time the initial Pyramid system was used for the organization hampering the productivity organization instead Gore represents the Lattice system to increase performance and ingenuity. Comparing the Gore model of management to other typical models, the new approach from Gore has improved the communication between associates, team-working metabolism has increased, the collaboration between intra-firm and joint decision-making has been improved (Grønning, T., 2016). The new approach from Gore has also created a path for approaching and hiring new talents and has also increased each associate's capacity of bringing efficiency and productivity to the organization through collective efforts and contribution. Gore's organization and management rather emphasized the human beings working in his organization and according to him through skills and attributes building and healthy personal relationships, productivity can be increased. Gore also emphasized building trust between the employees as interpersonal trust can help in bringing commitment, competence, and reliability between employees. Gore also believed in working in small groups in each department rather than larger groups to remove the complexity of working order and provide a better working experience to the employees based on their skills and to highlight people's perspectives in influencing organization management (Romppanen, J.M., 2021).

Gore was regarded as one of the best organizational leaders because of his idea of strategy implementation, style, and various methods of organization management. Gore's core motive was to create innovative management and ideas to provide employees with better opportunities at the same time increasing their efforts to bring productivity. From the perspective of employee relationship building, Gore had a unique approach of joint decision-making between firm and associates to increase the relationship between management and employees and provide employees to take part in organization decision processes and procedures (Romppanen, J.M., 2021). The implementation of this decision also provides fairness and transparent organization procedures by resembling employee importance for the organization and at the same time motivating employees to be dedicated to the organization through collective efforts. By distributing the employees in small units for each department, it has been easier for the management to manage the departments which were based upon the idea of a new lattice system rather than a traditional hierarchy system. The ranks and positions codified by the Gore management to the employees to perform special tasks based on individual talent and skills help both the employees and management in getting the perfect set of abilities required for tasks increasing organization efficiency in performing tasks (France, 2020).

Analyzing of Relevant Theories

Talking about other elements of Gore organization management is the leadership style followed by Gore. Gore believed in natural leadership style which stated that all employees are the owners and the decision-makers of their tasks and should perform activities through lattice medium. All the employees working in the organization can be considered leaders as long as their service and contributions were beneficial and optimal for the organization. The Gore management principles other elements include focusing on friendship and cordial relationships. Employees working in Gore organization used to follow each other related to work and has a vision of particular goal set by the company and enhanced each other abilities to reach the particular goal by meeting targets (Coughlan, T., 2016).

There was also one element known as flexibility where the employees were provided with the open working condition to increase the productivity and efficiency of workers and the workers were paid based on their level. The major setback of the particular element was staff don’t always have unique abilities to perform better decisions which can result in lacking optimization in the performance of the organization (Cannon et al., 2019).

Henry Fayol is also known as the father of management and administration. His main core mission was to increase the productivity of the organization by bringing efficiency in business administration. He also introduced the 14 principles of management to increase the workplace efficiency of management which significantly include authority, division of work, discipline, subordination of personal or individual interest, unity of command, unity of direction, Stability of tenure, order, Equity, Remuneration, Scalar chain, Initiative, Centralization, and team spirit (Ionescu, 2016).

Authority: For the successful running of the organization, every organization should represent an authority that resembles the functioning of the organization in terms of managing employees through proper implementation of orders.

Division of work: The tasks within the organization should be divided among the employees through checking the abilities, skills, and knowledge of the employees to increase speed and accuracy at the workplace yielding positive results in the performance of the organization. (Ionescu, 2016).

Discipline: this is an important tool as this states that every employee working for an organization should follow the strict guidelines and standards of the organization and should abide by its rules and adhere to policies for making the organization a better place to work (Taylor, Fayol and Drucker, 2015).

Subordination of interest: this principle indicates that all interests in an organization should be observed properly regardless of positions an individual or group holds for resembling the success of the organization.

Unity of Direction: every employee and organization should have a vision and mission to which they must adhere to bring sustainability (Uzuegbu and Nnadozie, 2015).

Centralization: the standard procedures should be followed by the organization to bring productivity within the organization.

Team Spirit: The team spirit denotes that every employee within the organization should maintain relationships and should work hand-in-hand and should also support and encourage each other to bring motivation among teams. The management should also focus on appraising teams to increase productivity through healthy working conditions (Ionescu, 2016).

Order: at any organization or workplace the employees should follow orders of the management which enables hard work and punctuality to follow tasks and mission by accomplishing targets.

Equity: this principle resembles that every employee working for an organization should be treated equally with humility and proper respect. This will help the organization in providing secure work culture for employees (Uzuegbu and Nnadozie, 2015).

Stability of tenure: the employees working for an organization should be fully aware of their salaries, incentives, rewards, benefits, packages, and compensation.

Unity of Command: the command provided by the leaders to employees should adhere properly and instructions should be responded and corrections should be made to bring collective efforts in an organization (Taylor, Fayol and Drucker, 2015).

Remuneration: employees should be motivated for their hard work and achievements through appraisals, bonuses, and incentives.

Scalar Chain: employees should always focus on better ranks and the next level of promotion while working for an organization through their continuous gaining experience level.

Initiative: The employees should use their abilities, skills, experience, and knowledge to bring productivity to the organization in a unique way making it possible for the organization to achieve great heights (Taylor, Fayol and Drucker, 2015).

Adam Smith was also known as the father of economics and capitalism and he was the first philosopher of that time. He declared that wealth can only be generated through productive labour, and self-interest also motivates people to put their resources to their best use. He also argued that profits flowed through capital investments and that profits can be used to the resources where more profits can be obtained. Adam Smith was the first person who identified specialization and the division of labour and indicated these drivers are the main drivers of productivity (Adam, 2016).

Adam also believed that salaries should be provided to workers based on the performance and hard work of the employees. If this method gets implemented then the authority will have more power in controlling labour increasing fatigue and mental pressure of employees.

Max Weber has followed the theory of bureaucracy and also stated that continuous repetition of a particular thing or work provides improvement and perfection. The theory of Max Weber adhered to certain policies and rules that the workers have to follow and decisions of the workers should be based upon facts, not a biased one. The theory also addresses that worker are having the freedom of choosing whatever they want and the workers should be providing jobs based on their qualifications and abilities to perform (Weber, 2015).

Fedrick Taylor was the father of identifying work performance through scientific management. He stated that scientific methods should be used to perform tasks within the workplace. He recommended that simplifying tasks can increase the productivity of the organization. He also suggested that team members should lead the team matching their abilities and supervise them to make them efficient for their role. This method emphasizes an optimal solution to bring productivity but also at the same time ignored the humanity of pressure building on workers through a top management approach (Ferdous, J., 2016).

Linking the Gore Theory of organization and management to other above theories some certain factors and considerations are needed to be considered. First Henry Fayol’s principle of management states that employees should be motivated through bonuses and performance and at the same time employees should follow guidelines of authority and should follow orders of management to bring productivity. Linking this with Gore Theory, W.L gore emphasized team collaboration and every employee is a leader if they adhere to rules and regulations. Joint Efforts and intra-firm collaboration will bring efficiency and productivity (Karthikeyan, 2022).

Adam Smith believed in Wealth management through productive labour and division of labour should be brought through employee performance and skills and linking the Gore model of management, he stated that productivity can be increased through collective team efforts and teams should be divided into smaller units for each department to increase the amount of workflow of the organization (Ucak, A., 2015).

Max Weber's theory reveals the bureaucracy approach in the workplace and productivity in the workplace could only be brought through strict rules and regulation and repetition of the same work which exclude diversification (Bennis, W.G., 2017). From this perspective, Gore has adopted their pyramid style to perform tasks through leadership, organizational structure, and reward system and also focusing on following each other work to bring more experience in the workplace (Shafritz, Ott and Jang, 2015).

Fedrick Taylor's scientific theory reveals that the scientific method should be used to optimize tasks and team leaders should train and guide the team to get better productivity whereas the Gore Model of theory reveals focusing on Cordial relationships and friendships within the organization as this can motivate employees in giving their best efforts at the same time enhancing knowledge through learning new thing through small division of teams for different departments. (Ferdous, J., 2016).

Conclusion

The above report has considered that Gore organization and management has a unique culture of team building and relationship collaborating with leadership to optimize the performance of the organization. The management style used by W.L Gore has also brought productivity within the organization and in the marketplace and has also gained them a competitor advantage. Adhering to the style of W.L Gore's organization can enhance employee retention and satisfaction and also provide better decision-making and team efforts. Gore Model of management has helped the modern industries in dividing the workforce into smaller units based on the abilities of the employees to maximize performance for bringing productivity for the companies.  

References

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