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M: Hi, Professor Barker.
W: Hello, Sam. How are you?
M: OK, I guess. Um, did you get a chance to read the draft of my term paper yet?
W: Yes, I’ve looked at it. It’s is about organizational redesign, right?
M: Yeah, that’s right.
W: Let’s see ... here it is. All right. OK. You ... uh ... you start out by defining organizational redesign.
M: Right. It’s changing the goals, responsibilities, and relationships within an organization.
W: Right. That’s a good way to begin. All right, then ... let’s see ... you talk about how inappropriate organizational designs can create severe problems. The introduction is OK. Everything you say is clearly relevant. The body of your paper is where you start to stray a bit. Basically, you’re trying to do too much. You introduce a lot of threads ... and then don’t develop all your ideas.
M: Oh. Could you, uh, maybe be more specific?
W: Sure. Uh, for example, here you summarize Peterson’s four steps for managers to follow in organizational redesign. And then you list Roswell’s plan, and then you also describe Jordan and his six-point plan. What you end up with is lots of ideas, some of them overlapping and duplicating each other. What you need to do is narrow this down to the three or four ... or five steps that you believe are necessary for redesigning an organization. Do you see what I mean?
M: Uh, I think so.
W: It would also be good to illustrate your points with examples from a real organization, for example, a case study of a company that’s successfully redesigned itself. You need to make this real.
M: Mm-hmm. I see what you mean. I need to show how redesign actually works in the real world. I actually thought of an example, but I don’t know if it’s right for this paper. It’s a nursery business—you know, they grow plants and flowering shrubs and things. It’s a business 1 actually know. My uncle is the superintendent there.
W: And the nursery has a performance problem that needs attention’?
M: Sort of. My uncle was telling me about some changes he’d like to see in the business. I don’t know ... it’s just an idea ... maybe it would work here.
W: It sounds like it might be an idea worth pursuing.
M: OK.
W: So, to recap what we said. You need to focus on three or four essential steps for organizational redesign and then illustrate them with a real-world example of what a real business could do, or has done, along these lines. Does that make sense?
M: Yes, it does. This helps me a lot. Thanks for your time.
W: You’re welcome.