QUESTION 1 (25 MARKS)

Read the case study and answer the following questions.

Tony Stark had just finished his first week at Reece Enterprises and decided to drive upstate to

a small lakefront lodge for some fishing and relaxation. Tony had worked for the previous ten

years for the O'Grady Company, but O'Grady had been through some hard times of late and

had recently shut down several of its operating groups, including Tony's, to cut costs.

Fortunately, Tony's experience and recommendations had made finding another position fairly

easy. As he drove the interstate, he reflected on the past ten years and the apparent situation at

Reece.

At O'Grady, things had been great. Tony had been part of the team from day one. The job had

met his personal goals and expectations perfectly, and Tony believed he had grown greatly as

a person. His work was appreciated and recognized; he had received three promotions and

many more pay increases. Tony had also liked the company itself. The firm was decentralized,

allowing its managers considerable autonomy and freedom. The corporate Culture was easy

going. Communication was open. It seemed that everyone knew what was going on at all

times, and if you didn't know about something, it was easy to find out. The people had been

another plus. Tony and three other managers went to lunch often and played golf every

Saturday. They got along well both personally and professionally and truly worked together as

a team. Their boss had been very supportive, giving them help they needed but also staying

out of the way and letting them work. When word about the shutdown came down, Tony was

devastated. He was sure that nothing could replace O'Grady. After the final closing was

announced, he spent only a few weeks looking around before he found a comparable position

at Reece Enterprises.

As Tony drove, he reflected that "comparable" probably was the wrong word. Indeed, Reece

and O'Grady were about as different as you could get. Top managers at Reece apparently

didn't worry too much about who did a good job and who didn't. They seemed to promote and

reward people based on how long they had been there and how well they played the never

ending political games. Maybe this stemmed from the organization itself, Tony pondered.

Reece was a bigger organization than O'Grady and was structured much more

bureaucratically. It seemed that no one was allowed to make any sort of decision without

getting three signatures from higher up. Those signatures, though, were hard to get. All the top

managers usually were too busy to see anyone, and interoffice memos apparently had very low

priority.

According to the above case, describe which organizational behaviour models applied to

O'Grady and Reece Enterprise. Justify your answer.