Pfizer is one of the largest global pharmaceutical companies in the world. Its researchers and scientists have innovated some of the most successful medicine in the world such as its cholesterol reducer Lipitor. However lately its new medicines were not successful and the bosses were worried. One manager, John Mackay believed that he knew how to make Pfizer successful again. Mackay created a detailed plan for changing Pfizer’s organizational structure and culture to change the way its managers made decisions and to make sure the company’s resources, its talents and money would be put to their best use. Mackay was soon promoted as the head of Research and Development. As a result of mergers with other pharmaceutical companies, Pfizer had grown over time. Its organizational structure grew taller and taller and the size of its headquarters staff grew. With more managers and levels in the hierarchy, there was a greater need for committees to integrate across their activities. During meetings managers fought to promote the development of medicine that they had the most interest in and to secure the resources they needed to develop them. Mackay felt that too many managers and too many committees resulted in too much conflict between managers who were actively lobbying other managers and the CEO to promote the interests of their own product groups and the company’s performance was suffering as a result. Although Pfizer’s success depended on innovation, this conflict had resulted in Pfzer developing a bureaucratic culture that slowed down decision making and made it more difficult to identify promising new medicine. Mackay’s plan to change this situation involved slashing the number of management layers between top managers and scientists from 14 to 7 that resulted in the layoff of thousands of Pfizer’s managers. He also abolished the product development committees which he believed were slowing down the dscision making process of transforming innovative ideas into successful medicines. After streamlining the hierarchy of authority, he focussed his efforts in reducing the number of bureaucratic rules scientists had to follow. Mackay eliminated every kind of report that were unnecessary and also those which slowed down the innovation process. Mackay’s efforts caused massive upheavals in the company as managers fought to keep their jobs and scientists fought to protect the medicines they were 3 developing. However, Mackay pushed his plans through with the support of the CEO who defended his efforts to create a new Research and Development product development process that empowered Pfizer’s scientists and resulted in a culture that emphasised innovation and entrepreneurship. The scientists were happy with the new structure and the development of medicines speeded up.

Examine the cause(s) of the political behavior of the managers and scientists in Pfizer.

We are all familiar with ‘office politics’ and Pfizer had its fair share of ‘office politics’.

Focus on the fourth paragraph of the case study passage, provide your answer to these questions:

What caused all the ‘politicking’ in Pfizer?

What did Mackay do with the number of management layers?

What did Mackay do with the number of bureaucratic rules scientists had to follow? Continue by focusing on the last paragraph, especially the first sentence.

What were the impact or effects of Mackay’s efforts to the company and how and why did the managers and scientists react to the situation?

Then, apart from the above, you need to provide more relevant and additional reasons from the relevant Internet or other sources for more explanations or examples, plus your opinion, logical reasoning or justification with sounded argument.to add value to your answer.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The political behavior of managers and scientists at Pfizer can be attributed to the organizational structure of the company With a tall structure and ... View the full answer