Caso Mount Cedar

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MOUNT CEDAR TECHNOLOGIES, INC.:
A CASE STUDY IN DESIGNING A HIGH
PERFORMANCE ORGANIZATION
Issam A. Ghazzawi, University of La Verne
CASE DESCRIPTION
In today’s global economy, organizations are faced with many challenges including
motivating and rewarding employees; communicating and making effective decisions; evaluating
group and team behavior; assessing their organizationalstructure and determining its effectiveness,
assessing its leadership and determining its effectiveness; and evaluating alternative methods to
managing change in the newly designed organization. Successful managers must learn the
importance of creating functional and effective structures, processes, and understanding and
managing the human side of the organization as this will enable people toeffectively work together
to achieve agreed upon goals. Therefore this term-long group case study, designed to cover multiple
aspects of Organizational Behavior and Theory and Organization Design, will give you an
opportunity to design an effective organization.
The author developed the case for class discussion rather than to illustrate either effective
or ineffective handling of the situation.The names including the organization have been disguised.
The case, instructor’s manual, and synopsis were anonymously peer reviewed and accepted by the
Western Casewriters’ Association for its annual meeting, March 27, 2008, Oakland, CA.
CASE SYNOPSIS
Mount Cedar Technologies, Inc. was founded in Los Angeles, California in 1995. It began
as an importer and distributor of computer accessories,but by 2000 had evolved into an IT
infrastructure integrator specializing in hardware and software products, storage and security
solutions, and technical services to Enterprise, Small and Medium Businesses, and to Government,
Educational, and Medical institutions. Its employees grew rapidly from 6 in 1995 to more than 170
employees in 2006.
The company lacked an organizational structure toimprove its operations’ effectiveness.
Additionally, there were complaints from employees who did not feel equitably treated, resulting in
the loss of talented employees. Department managers acknowledged that they were very busy
reacting to problems and customer issues, allowing them little time to coordinate and listen to their
employees.

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Decision making was highly decentralized. This resulted in the loss of possible gains to be
obtained from cooperation among other managers. The silo effect that resulted from this structure
meant that departments were making decisions based on what was best for them.
While John Curtis (CEO) had been instrumental in growing the organization, his presentleadership style had become increasingly problematic to many including upper management. He
liked to surprise people by showing up un-invited to meetings and all employees and managers were
expected to provide off the cuff answers to questions he would throw at them during these visits.
Managers were asked to focus mostly on financial measures. The culture was described by
many people as a taskoriented one that did not encourage risk taking or empowerment.
Additionally, the organization was lagging in the areas of training and the advancement of women
and minorities. Finally, upper management wanted to grow its business by adding new product
offerings.
INTRODUCTION
Sam Farris was hired as the new Vice President of Mount Cedar Technologies, Inc. in
December 1998 to work closely withthe company’s top executives to oversee daily operations,
support sales and technical logistics, to be part of the top management team, and to determine, along
with other executives, the future strategic direction of the company. During a coffee break, he shared
the following advice with his senior management team (John Curtis, President and CEO; Bob Holt,
Vice President of Finance and...