Case: Kent Chemical

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“Kent chemical: Organizing for Internal Growth” The case “Kent chemical: Organizing for Internal Growth” by Barlett and Wining shows the development of Kent Chemical, a US-based company, from a local rubber producer into a multinational chemical firm which main product divisions are plastic additives, fire protection products and medical plastics. In order to become one of the leading chemical companies in the world, Luis Morales, the president of Kent Chemical, is struggling, after two unsuccessful tries to integrate the regional and the global business, with his decision what the best way to coordinate the company in terms of the organizational change, structure and strategy is. In theory, organizational change occurs if a company changes from a current non-wanted state into a future desired one. According to Wischnevsky, J. and Damanpour, D. (2006) the company has pass through three different stages during this process; first they have to accept that their present situation is not sufficient anymore, secondly the need to develop a future view for the company and thirdly implementing the necessary measures to succeed. To be able to implement those measure correctly an organizational structure is needed. As Jones, G. R. (2012) states, organizational structure is defined as rules and policies to provide a structure on company level where roles and responsibilities are delegated, controlled and coordinated. The three dimensions of organizational structure according to Hill, C. (2005) are vertical differentiation, horizontal differentiation and the establishment of integrating mechanisms. To Hill, C. (2005) vertical differentiation defines whether the companies should make their decisions on a centralized or decentralized level. Pluses for centralization are that it can alleviate communications and cooperation within a company, further it allows decisions to be
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