First Homework Task

You have just graduated from NJIT and have landed a job as a management and data analyst at Big Tech, Inc.  The company is located in Austin, Texas, employs 100,000 people worldwide and offers analysis and consulting services to Fortune 500 customers.  You work in corporate headquarters in the strategic planning and analysis group, whose function is to conduct strategic market analyses to help its customers increase their sales and profits.  Your unit specializes in digital marketing and advertising and your job is to build analytical models to maximize hits, clicks and sales for each dollar spent on online advertising. This job entails figuring out on which platforms to place ads (e.g., Facebook) and how much to spend on each platform.

You work mostly on your own and prepare reports for your manager who then sends them to her boss who reviewers them and sends them to customers.  Most of your time is spent collecting and analyzing marketing data and then making recommendations based on your analyses. You work on a few projects each week and the pace of work is moderate.  There are daily meetings with your manager that last about 30 minutes to discuss progress, customers and priorities.  You also required submit a status update every week using an approved form.

There are rarely surprises and work is relatively routine.  Other analysts do a job similar to yours, but you don’t meet with them often and communicate mostly with your manager.  You have no direct contact with customers and do not present the results of your work to them, although you do prepare presentations that are made by your manager.  You do not attend those presentations, and any questions that come up are referred to you through your manager.  You rarely interact with employees in other departments at Big Tech and you have little information about what employees of those departments do.  When you asked your manager about other units, she told you not to worry about them and to focus on your job.

Your workday is from 8:30am to 6:00pm and there are rarely instances where you have to stay later to complete projects.  Big Tech has good benefits and treats its employees well, but it does not have the  gyms, sushi bars, or other amenities that are seen at other tech companies like google or Microsoft.  Senior management does not see the need for them and is concerned about the cost, even though Big Tech is very profitable.  Senior managers do, however, have a separate dining room just for them, generous expense accounts, and company cars.

Question 1:  What organizational structure best describes Big Tech, Inc?  (25 points)

 To answer this question, it is important to rely on the material in the online lecture and in your text.  Choose a specific structure (e.g., matrix) and justify your choice by using concepts from the course (e.g., formalization, centralization, etc.).   Make sure that you explain what these concepts are and how they apply to the structure you have chosen.   It is very important to choose a specific structure and to justify your choice with course material.  Your answer should be about one page in length.  It is not possible to answer this question properly with one or two sentences.

Question 2: Based on your response to Question 1,  how should you behave to gain the trust of your manager and advance your career?  What does Big Tech’s structure tell you about what is expected of an early career Big Tech employee? (25 points)

 In answering this question, it is necessary to analyze the expectations for behavior that the structure you have chosen creates for employees.  In doing so, it is important to consider your position in Big Tech’s structure and how people in that position are expected to behave.  This analysis requires thought and application of course material.  It is possible to answer this question in about one page provided that the reasons for expectations are explained.

 Question 3: After one year at at Big Tech, you feel that you have proven yourself. 

As an enthusiastic employee with energy,  new ideas, and the desire to make an impact. 

you notice several areas for improvement and inefficiencies that can be remedied.  You set up a meeting with your manager to make a formal presentation to communicate your ideas and suggestions for improvement.  How is your manager likely to respond to your presentation? Was this a good idea om your part? (25 points)

It is not uncommon for early career employees to bring new ideas and new ways of doing things to their jobs.  At issue, is how these new ideas will be received.  Your answers to questions 1 & 2 will help you answer question 3.  Explain why these new ideas will or will not be well received and how the behavior of making these suggestion will be interpreted.  This analysis can be communicated in about one page.

Question 4: What is likely to happen to Big Tech if smaller competitors with new technologies based on artificial intelligence enter the market so that they can do what Big Tech does faster, cheaper and as accurately? How will Big Tech respond?  (25 points)

Structure not only affects how companies respond to employees.  Using your answer to question 1, analyze how Big Tech will respond to changes in technologies, in the market and to actions by competitors.  Be sure to use the characteristics of the structure that you have chosen and apply them to this question, which can also be answered in about  one page.