SurTran Inc

question 93

Multiple Choice

SurTran Inc. is an 80-year-old transportation company headquartered in St. Louis. SurTran ships goods via truck and train throughout the United States. Its general operations manager, Raul Sosa, has grown up in the business and knows that Surtran is a highly complex business with 100 facilities and 2,000 staff in dozens of U.S. cities. But Raul knows that, at its core, SurTran is also a stable (nondynamic) business. As Raul is fond of saying, "As long as there are people in one place and their desired goods in another, there will always be a need for shipping! And that makes for a stable business." Nonetheless, Raul, like any other manager, deals with uncertainty on a daily basis, as do his four regional vice presidents located in Los Angeles, Houston, Chicago, and New York City. Due to SurTran's high complexity and high stability, what management style should Raul adopt to be successful in allowing his vice presidents to operate "in the field"?

• A) "Address each problem or opportunity as a unique situation and make operational decisions in the field, through consultation with me or your managers as appropriate." (decentralized and organic approach, with mutual adjustment).
• B) "Hire good people with the right skills and train them to use our formal business work processes, and then make operational decisions in the field yourselves." (decentralized and bureaucratic approach, with standardized skills).
• C) "Our people will follow instructions as pre-defined by headquarters, and I will make operational decisions, including those in the field." (centralized and bureaucratic approach, with standardized work processes)
• D) "I will handle each problem or opportunity as a unique situation, and I will make operational decisions, including those in the field, based upon my personal supervision of those involved." (centralized and organic approach, with direct supervision)
• E) "I will address each problem or opportunity as a unique situation, and I will make operational decisions, including those in the field, after consulting with you and others as appropriate." (centralized and organic approach, with mutual adjustment)

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Definitions:

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