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Week 3 Discussion Thread
Farrington Medical Devices
School of Business, Liberty University
BUSI 735: Strategic Organization Design and Theory
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Introduction
As medical device companies, Caresource Cardiac and Quest both became leaders in
their industries at that time. Starting as a single business with their father, they initially
produced a line of smaller, more precise non-reusable cardiac catheters (Daft, 2021, p. 178).
However, after their father's tragic death, the sons, Benjamin and William Farrington, each took
full responsibility for a product and launched their respective companies, Caresource Cardiac
and Quest, around those products. The futures of both companies would soon depend on the
leadership styles of each brother and the management layers they put in place.
Management Processes
The two brothers took distinctly different approaches to running their companies. Quest,
run by William, employs a decentralized approach, where decision-making authority is
delegated to lower levels in the organization (Daft, 2021). Decentralized decision-making allows
organizations to assign tasks to subordinate managers, involve them in the process, and
motivate them to succeed in any endeavor (Cornito, 2021). This was clear in how William
applied his leadership style and incorporated his preferences into the organization.
Ironically, William’s leadership style is reminiscent of a holacracy, as it decentralizes
decision-making, empowers employees, and promotes self-management (Farkhondeh & Müller,
2021). A key determining factor was that William wanted to maintain a small-company culture
that minimized status differences among executives, managers, and employees while focusing
on employee happiness (Daft, 2021).
Benjamin’s leadership style was more direct, suggesting a centralized approach, where
decision authority is located near the top of the organization (Daft, 2021). Centralized
decisionmaking is concentrated in the upper echelons of the organization, where only one or
relatively few individuals make decisions (Altamimi et al., 2022). Benjamin’s key determining
factors, in addition to implementing a structure that allowed managers to closely monitor direct
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reports, included a top-down approach to changes in task performance and the implementation
of product innovations and process improvements (Daft, 2021).
The decentralized approach appears more effective, as it incorporates the voices of all
employees. Most notably, and to support the assertion that decentralization is the most
effective approach, are the characteristics exhibited by William, which include being open-
minded, willingness to ask for help, listen, share ideas, take responsibility for mistakes, and seek
consensus with the team. These collaborative efforts have a net positive impact on worker
attitudes throughout the entire organization.
Organizational Design
The Quest approach to Johnston Medical Care’s request for a prototype was more
appropriate for a competitive and changing technological environment. The way in which Quest
developed the device was collaborative, with an “all hands on deck” mentality instituted.
According to Andrews-Todd & Forsyth (2020), “among the top five skills considered 'very
important' for successful job performance are teamwork/collaboration, critical
thinking/problem solving, and oral communication” (p. 1). All these attributes were exhibited in
the meetings, the different teams working together, and the seeking out of defects that were
found, corrected, and sent out for approval from the inner team and the Johnston Medical
team. Lastly, the Quest team completed a total redesign of the original specifications,
showcasing their advanced technological skills that they already possess as a team. This
organizational design is suitable for this environment and can be replicated in any similar
setting.
Contract Award
Quest should be the company awarded the complete contract from Johnston Medical
Systems. The prototype created by Caresource was mainly the idea of Benjamin. He instructed
the engineering, product development, production, and purchasing departments to
independently develop the ventricular device design from their respective perspectives, with
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minimal communication between departments for several days, as they established their own
requirements at their own pace (Daft, 2021).
The product from Quest was developed in collaboration with the entire team, which
enabled the acquisition of a scarce product due to an abundance of information flow, making
one employee aware of the need for the product. This employee was able to utilize their
connections to acquire the product, ultimately meeting the deadline.
Quest will be chosen to produce the product due to its “zero” defects in its prototypes.
This is undoubtedly due to their goal of decreasing and mitigating failures within manufacturing
processes and ‘to do things right in the first time’ (Psarommatis et al., 2020). Although
Caresource produced the requested number by the deadline and at a lower cost, quality will
ultimately prevail, and Quest will be awarded the permanent contract to mass produce these
products.
Conclusion
This article examined the organizational and management styles of two companies that
offer similar products. It highlighted the contrast between their approaches and the effects on
their businesses, employees, and product quality. The top-down model, in which managers
withheld information from the teams performing the work, resulted in defects in mass-
produced products and had significant revenue implications. In contrast, equipping all personnel
with the necessary information resulted in a superior, defect-free product. From the standpoint
of employee satisfaction and product quality, William and his company, Quest, clearly emerged
as the leader.
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References
Altamimi, H., Liu, Q., & Jimenez, B. (2023). Not too much, not too little: Centralization,
decentralization, and organizational change. Journal of Public Administration Research
and Theory, 33(1), 170-185. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muac016.
Andrews-Todd, J., & Forsyth, C. M. (2020). Exploring social and cognitive dimensions of
collaborative problem solving in an open online simulation-based task. Computers in
human behavior, 104, 105759. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2018.10.025.
Cornito, C. M. (2021). Striking a Balance between centralized and decentralized decision making:
A school-based management practice for optimum performance. International
Journal on Social and Education Sciences, 3(4), 656-669.
https://doi.org/10.46328/ijonses.217.
Daft, R. L. (2021). Organization theory & design (Thirteenth ed.). Cengage.
Farkhondeh, M., & Müller, B. (2021). Holacracy. Management Revue, 32(4), 302-317.
https://www.jstor.org/stable/27283833.
Psarommatis, F., May, G., Dreyfus, P. A., & Kiritsis, D. (2020). Zero defect manufacturing:
state-of-the-art review, shortcomings and future directions in research. International
Journal of Production Research, 58(1), 1-17.
https://doi.org/10.1080/00207543.2019.1605228.
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