IntroductionFrigate Limited is based in the country of Egdon. It imports electrical components from other countries and distributes them throughout the domestic market. The company was formed twenty years ago by Ron Frew, who now owns 80% of the shares. A further 10% of the company is owned by his wife and 5% each by his two daughters.Although he has never been in the navy, Ron is obsessed by ships, sailing and naval history. He is known to everyone as ‘The Commander’ and this is how he expects his employees to address him. He increasingly spends time on his own boat, an expensive motor cruiser, which is moored in the local harbour twenty minutes drive away. When he is not on holiday, Ron is always at work at 8.00 am in the morning to make sure that employees arrive on time and he is also there at 5.30 pm to ensure that they do not leave early. However, he spends large parts of the working day on his boat, although he can be contacted by mobile telephone. Employees who arrive late for work have to immediately explain the circumstances to Ron. If he feels that the explanation is unacceptable then he makes an appropriate deduction from their wages. Wages, like all costs in the company, are closely monitored by Ron.Employees, customers and suppliersFrigate currently has 25 employees primarily undertaking sales, warehousing, accounts and administration. Although employees are nominally allocated to one role, they are required to work anywhere in the company as required by Ron. They are also expected to help Ron in personal tasks, such as booking holidays for his family, fi lling in his personal tax returns and organising social events.Egdon has laws concerning minimum wages and holidays. All employees at Frigate Ltd are only given the minimum holiday allocation. They have to use this allocation not only for holidays but also for events such as visiting the doctor, attending funerals and dealing with domestic problems and emergencies. Ron is particularly infl exible about holidays and work hours. He has even turned down requests for unpaid leave. In contrast, Ron is often away from work for long periods, sailing in various parts of the world.Ron is increasingly critical of suppliers (‘trying to sell me inferior quality goods for higher prices’), customers (‘moaning about prices and paying later and later’) and society in general (‘a period working in the navy would do everyone good’). He has also been in dispute with the tax authority who he accused of squandering his ‘hard-earned’ money. An investigation by the tax authority led to him being fi ned for not disclosing the fact that signifi cant family expenditure (such as a holiday for his daughters overseas) had been declared as company expenditure.Company accountantIt was this action by the tax authority that prompted Ron to appoint Ann Li as company accountant. Ann had previously worked as an accountant in a number of public sector organisations, culminating in a role as a compliance offi cer in the tax authority itself. Ron felt that ‘recruiting someone like Ann should help keep the tax authorities happy. After all, she is one of them’.Ann was used to working in organisations which had formal organisational hierarchies, specialised roles and formal controls and systems. She tried to install such formal arrangements within Frigate. As she said to Ron ‘we cannot have everyone working as if they were just your personal assistants. We need structure, standardised processes and accountability’. Ron resisted her plans, at fi rst through delaying tactics and then through explicit opposition, tearing up her proposed organisational chart and budget in front of other employees. ‘I regret the day I ever made that appointment’, he said. After six months he terminated her contract. Ann returned to the tax authority as a tax inspector.Required:The cultural web allows the business analyst to explore ‘the way things are done around here’.
(b) Using appropriate organisation confi guration stereotypes identifi ed by Henry Mintzberg, explain how an understanding of organisation confi guration could have helped predict the failure of Ann Li’s proposed formalisation of structure, controls and processes at Frigate Ltd. (10 marks)
