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通用汽车公司简称为GM，是美国的汽车制造商。公司总部在Detroit, Michigan。通用汽车(General Motors)于1908在Flint, Michigan成立，那时仅仅是别克汽车的控股公司，由威廉杜兰特管理。之后的一年内拿下了奥兹莫比尔牌汽车的额外股份。第二年威廉杜兰特引进了爱尔摩、凯迪拉克、奥克兰和许多其他品牌的汽车。在同一年，通用汽车(General Motors)收购信实载货汽车公司和机动车公司，这些都是GMC卡车公司的前身。在1910年，杜兰特失去了在通用汽车公司的职位，由于收购成立新公司的原因，欠了银行一笔巨额，然而却在新汽车市场上市后新成立的公司又倒闭了。多年之后，杜兰特开始发展雪佛兰汽车业务。通过该企业，他私下购买了GM公司的控股股份。因此，又重新恢复了杜兰特对通用汽车的控制权。之后重组公司并更名为通用汽车企业。(通用汽车公司，1916年)。此后不久，他永远失去了对企业股份的控制，新汽车市场紧接着也完全崩溃。阿尔弗雷德·斯隆随后被选为掌控公司的领导人。 General Motors Company, commonly referred to as GM, is an American based automaker. The firm has its headquarters in Detroit, Michigan. Originally, General Motors was established in 1908, in Flint, Michigan. Then it was a mere holding firm for Buick, which was under management by William Durant. Later that very year it acquired Oldsmobile additional segment. The following year William Durant brought in Elmore, Cadillac, Oakland and many others. Simultaneously, General Motors did acquire Reliance Motor Truck Company and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company which were the predecessors of GMC Truck. Durant lost man of GM in 1910. A bankers' trust did take over due to huge sum of money owed taken on in its acquisitions compounded by a fall down in new automobile sales. Years later, Durant initiated the Chevrolet car business. Through this enterprise, he clandestinely bought a controlling share in GM. Consequently, Durant regained control of the GM. He then restructured and renamed General Motors Company to General Motors Corporation. (General Motors Company, 1916). He lost control shortly thereafter for good, following the collapse of new vehicle market. Alfred Sloan was selected subsequently to control the corporation. He effectively led GM to its post conflict universal supremacy. This record expansion of GM would end in the early 1980s once it hired 349,000 staff and managed 150 assembly machines. Previously, GM led in international sales for 76 uninterrupted years (1931 to 2007), far longer than several other automakers (Strott & Elizabeth, 2009). 正文—Main Body: 跨国公司—Multinational Company: GM is a multinational company. Multinational companies are companies which operate businesses in more than one country. GM has a tremendous global spread. The spread of GM covers 34 countries. This strategy is largely adopted by the GM due to global economy, commonly known as globalization. Globalization is the process whereby culture, societies, economies and values are universally shared across nations among different people with different background and values. It is mainly fueled by the current technological, communication and economic advancement of states. Multinational enterprises are normally controlled centrally. The case at hand, GM, has its headquarters in Detroit. 通用汽车公司的组织结构—General Motor's Organisational Structure: Organization structure is synonymous to organization model or organization design. Organization structure is defined as a mold of associations between the roles in a business and its diverse parts. Structure of an organization is an integral part of an organization in relation to the size, environment, technology, strategy as well as the culture of the organization. For a maximum achievement of an organisation's performance, truly its structure must match or fit the pace of transformation in its environments. Organization structure permit organization to share up the duty efficiently and give coordination means for ensuring particular job errands hit planned goals. Various structures of organization are in the offing for adoption by companies and they include: linear, hierarchical (traditional organization model), reductionist, controlling, inflexible, uniform and centralized. Among these organization models, General Motors embraced the hierarchical structure (traditional organization design) of organization to manage, control and oversee the welfare of its entire diverse workforce, consumer base, and neighboring communities that encircled the General Motors's factories (Powers, 2009). In this arrangement there is a leader leading leaders. In the case of GM, the hierarchical structure adopted was such that the president or chief executive was at the top. Immediately below the president are the vice presidents, also referred to as senior managers. Then there are additional management layers below, and subsequent majority of the human resources on the bottom. It is often associated with bureaucracy and largely considered to be extremely rigid in matters of responsibility. In traditional organization design, the very model early adopted by GM, jobs are categorised by function into varied departments (Jex, 2002). General Motor Company was subdivided into various autonomous automakers which included: Pontiac, Cadillac, Buick, Chevrolet, and Oldsmobile and every self-sufficient automaker were operated differently as well as competing with each other. The competition amongst its individual self-regulating automakers along with deficiency of centralization proved quite costly hence called for change! (Taylor, 2004). GM therefore transformed its organizational structure. The duly transformed and adopted organizational model which presently is in operation is centralized and cohesive. It is a model of a team against numerous folks functioning towards achieving common goals. Through an altered organizational model, corporations usually are managed in a more efficient way. In fact, a centralized organization structure is a very cost effective mode of running a conglomerate. A changed organizational form does not contain several departments with varied duties (Jex, 2002). The structural change was brought by Jack Smith, the General Motors's CEO, who duly noticed a prospect for change. According to Taylor (2004) Smith said "I had the opportunity to really structure the business in the way I thought it should run -- Frankly, at the time we weren't like any other auto company in the world". 通用汽车公司的文化Organizational Culture of GM: The stages of cultural development are twofold: the stable and unstable. A stable organizational culture is one in which a business organization has consistently maintained both policies and procedures (Mohan, 1993). According to Mohan (1993) a stable culture is usually characterized by some degree of and mission which are coupled further by great levels of devotion and cohesion. This is the culture adopted by the GM in its operations. On the other hand, an unstable organizational culture is perceived to be an organization that has undergone thorough restructuring of administrative ranks and has instituted many new guidelines and procedures. Stable organizational cultures do exhibit quite often collective agreement on core cultural dimensions with little or no fragmentations throughout the levels or ranks. This shows the strength of GM in the market amid stiff competition from companies such as Ford, Chrysler, and Toyota. GM has enduring mission shown in strategic planning which has created a consistent cadre of administrative personnel. Majority of its policies and procedures have prevailed and actually become institutionalized all these owed to its strong centralized culture. Furthermore, the employees are conscious of the goals of stabilized cultures and know what is expected of them. 外界环境对通用汽车公司的影响—Effects of External business Environment on GM: Competition is one of the major challenges the GM Company is facing in the market among other problems such as economic factors, social influence, political factors, technological issues, legislations and ethical issues. Some of the companies in motor industries which compete with GM are Ford, Chrysler and Toyota. Butman, et al (2004) states that not only is Ford giving GM stiff competition but also Toyota particularly in the light track industries. The Japan based Toyota Company develop low cost light vehicles which further they modify to suite American tastes (Butman et al, 2004). According to Butman the Japanese are playing hard-long-balls among the automakers. They have the consistent strategy of providing higher-quality motors at price lower than GM and other American competitors. The GM has once retaliated, though they denied to have reacted against Japanese when they made a car which was compliant to US corporate average fuel economy (CAFE). They claimed that it was an ordinary invention and since it met the consumer demand, it was preferred than other light trucks. GM is one of the firms involved in international production. Such companies taking active part in global production face enormous challenges particularly when they pursue growth via rendezvous in the international economy (Rothstein, 2005). GM is a historical nemesis and arch rival of Ford Motor Company. Comparatively, the Ford Company is fairing a little better. Their joint tribulation, however, is competition from Chrysler, huge debt, as well as overcapacity and a of course a hyper-competitive market from Asian giants, Japan. Ford for instance did falter especially during the infamous Firestone tire mess. Rebates and even low pricing have greatly attenuated fords margin small levels. Its profit their brand of Saturn is not competent and they feel it is not worth their millions of dollars (Keller, 2000). GM is felt not to be doing enough by stakeholders. It falls short in exploiting competitive advantage thus fails to earn average returns (Hoskinsson et al, 2007). Average returns are those returns equal to investor expectations of earnings from other investments by same amount of peril for the past five years has been declining from $21.3 billion in 1998 to$ 284 million last year. Equally, GM is also struggling, though its profit never dropped so much in the immediate past five years. Both GM and Ford bought European and Asian automakers. The two companies' many earnings came from their financial arms rather than from their automotive activities in the immediate past quarter (Ford Motors vs. GM, 2003). The other factors that affect the General motors are; social factor- how the consumer and communities at large behave with reference to the company's products. Legal influence- the way in which the laws of the nation shapes the organization for instance, when laws are altered with regard to employees hour of work. Economic is the other external factor which affects an organization. This relates to such issues as taxation, interest rates, government spending, global economical factors and general demand. The other external factor that affects the business is the technology. For instance, the General Motors have to change promptly and be trendy to processes and produce modern innovative motors that satisfy consumers' needs. The other is ethics - the morality characteristic of running a business (Bordenave, 2003).Economical influence. The other external factor that affects the business is the technology. For example, the General Motors need to be innovative and develop cars that necessarily never uses fuel, the electric car. That is currently where the technology is heading. With due effort made to conserve environment, there is an urgent need for the company to come up some systems that is environment friendly and respectful (Bordenave, 2003). 通用汽车公司与其他合作伙伴之间的关系—Relationship of GM with other Partners: GM has had strained relationship with suppliers and other dealers. For instance, its relationship with UAW its worker's unions are dysfunctional and yet these are the companies that contribute to its widely celebrated success. It had led to workers striking over failed negotiation on medical cover. The management aught to listen to workers and attend to their grievances. The managers of would have employed diplomacy to negotiate and compromise with the workers. Dealers are equally dissatisfied since the GM product of Saturn has not met their needs and satisfaction. They feel to have thrown millions of dollars away by buying the new brand Saturn. It has not met consumer expectation and this make clients hold the company in bad state and even withdraw their loyalty. The relationship of GM with other related motor companies like the Ford or Chrysler is not smooth. According to Pfeffer and Salancik (2003) absence in the exchange of relationship creates void in possession of power advantage. Such situation leads to unhealthy dominance of the market by another organization. With asymmetry of relationship existing, it counterbraces the two organizations due to corresponding asymmetry for other resources. Another crucial example with GM is that it absorbs more outputs of little suppliers whereas each supplier gives only a fraction of the input to it. It can hence take the merit of its suppliers produce by using its enormous influence to control the price at which it purchases materials. In its position, GM wields a lot of market power and subsequently influence. 获得利益相关者的途径—The Stakeholder Approach: The GM should implement to the full end the stakeholders' approach. This will permit its stakeholders to acknowledge how generally business is run. Stakeholders are the individuals that have a keen interest in an organization and include workers, managers, locals as well as investors. They have invested in the company and follow the companies' operation keenly. They are affected by the decision made by the management. The managers should decide based on stakeholders' opinion. The General Motors Corporation is presently undergoing via momentous change as it struggles to be effective and efficient. In an aim of maintaining its competitive status, it is important to enquire from some of its more insightful people who may be experts in the industry about the things that should be done by the GM management so as to make the organization healthier, stronger and a more competitive one. To achieve this, the managers can take on stakeholder's approach which stresses that the managers in an organization need to incorporate the opinions of the company's stakeholders and not depending on views made unilaterally. This in sequence allows the players to contribute to the business' progress. the due stakeholder approach as well the latent profit that is achievable by business include presenting to the clientele outstanding after sale services and qualitative products in order to build much needed consumer loyalty, social corporate tasks such as well as giving the locals recreational facilities with an aim creating good rapport with them which inturn boost sales. In addition, a company need to offer the workforce with good salaries and wages so that the employees can feel motivated and execute their duty earnestly and effectively (Rothstein, 2005). 总结—Conclusion: The market is no doubt hypercompetitive. The GMC management needs to devise operational strategies that look into issues like technological challenges and ethical factors. Fro the company to remain relevant and favorably compete well it should review its relation with key stakeholders and give them regard. Strategies devised should competently withstand intermittent factors such as political stabilities, legislation and ethical factors. 参考文献—References Bobelian, M. (2003). Ford motors vs. general motors.Forbes.com Inc. Bordenave, M. (2003). Towards a newmap of automobile manufacturing in Europe? New production concepts and special restructuring. Springs. Brian R. Copeland; M. Scott Taylor, M.S. (Mar., 2004). Trade, Growth, and the Environment. Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. 42, No. 1. pp. 7-7 Mar., 20041. Butman, J et al. (2004). Hardball: are you playing to play or playing to win? USA. Harvard Business Review. "General Motors Company 1916 (Pre Bankruptcy) - New Jersey". Scripophily.net. Retrieved 2010-01-24. Hoskisson, R.E. et al (2007). Strategic management: competitiveness and globalization. USA. Thomson. Jex, S. M. (2002). Organizational psychology: A scientist-practitioner approach. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Keller, M. (2000). GM is lousy at relationships-General Motors Corp. personnel management, commercial deals- Column. Gale Group. Michelle Powers. (March 17, 2009). GM Organizational Change. Mohan, M.L. (1993). Organizational communication and cultural vision: approaches for analysis. USA. SUNY Press. Pfeffer, J and SalancikG.R. (2003). the external control of organizations: a resource dependence perspective. USA. Stanford University Press. Rothstein, J.S. (2005). Economic Development Policymaking down the Global Commodity Chain: Attracting an Auto Industry to Silao, Mexico.University of Wisconsin-Madison. Strott, Elizabeth (2009-01-21). "Toyota takes sales crown from GM". MSN Money (Microsoft Money). Retrieved 2010-01-24. |
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