Karina Islanova,

Why would plastic manufacturing companies have org charts different from other manufacturers? Back in the day, business types like Henry Ford methodically fired anyone who drew an org chart.

Okay, your plastic manufacturing company has an org chart. Does this dictate how the people in the company interact with each other?

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JHG

Since this is for school, it should be deleted and posted in the Student forum: forum1630: Student Engineer General Discussion

Nevertheless, an org chart is an org chart is an org chart; what is different is the charter and roles/responsibilities assigned to each box, which are not on org charts, in general.

TTFN (ta ta for now)
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To answer your question:

If you are looking just the organizational chart (I mean the diagram), with some luck you might find some in the companies website. But I think is not the general case.

To know more about a company structure and the interaction between its departments, you will need to reach directly to the company or companies you are interested in. I see no other option.

The best way to do it should be sending a brief questionnaire, with an introductory letter stating that is for a thesis and what you hope to find. Maybe you can arrenge even a telephone/zoom meeting.

Probably the more details you ask, the less likely to get a reply.

Hope it helps.

drawoh: " Back in the day, business types like Henry Ford methodically fired anyone who drew an org chart."

Sounds like an interesting story. Where did you come across a tidbit like that? It sounds to me quite contrary to Ford's personality. The whole point of "Fordlandia" was a town built on strict social order.

www.sparweb.ca

SparWeb,

Read The Whiz Kids by John Byrne. It tells you a lot about how Ford Motor Company was run up into the later forties. Henry Ford was a mechanic, rather than an engineer. He was smart, with a good grasp of the Big Picture. He was closer to the customers than an engineer would have been. There was no concept of corporate organisation at Ford.

On page 106, Byrne tells us how Ford policy was to for automatically fire anyone who drew up an organization chart.

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JHG

Ah, I see. On the advice of the first management consultants, he did.
Management consultants have come a long way since then.

www.sparweb.ca

@Sparweb + @drawoh
I think the point about Henry Ford was that he was a strong founder with a clear vision. He was a control freak, so if there was any ever doubt about who was in charge there was a one name org chart on the front of the cars.

They say that Ford (the company) got stupid and rudderless after it started relying on org charts and management consultants. Look at the current delta in stock market valuation between Telsa and Ford, or even simply the vitality and dynamism between the two companies for proof of that concept.

glass99,

That is what John Byrne claims in his book. When Xerox developed the modern GUI computer interface, they were being run by old Ford executives.

Ford was in chaos in the forties. In the twenties, they continued manufacturing Model Ts way too long.

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JHG

JMO but the only conclusion that should be drawn from analysis of Tesla's stock value is that the markets do not reflect reality. The only worse value than their stock are their vehicles.

In addition to Byrne's book, another interesting one is Henry's other, lesser known book "Today and Tomorrow." It was written at what I believe was Henry's peak in the mid-20s and whereas "My Life and Work" focuses on his life and personal ideologies, "Today and Tomorrow" focuses more on his business philosophy. From an organizational standpoint there was no doubt that he ruled over a fiefdom, however in many ways it helped the business maintain long-term growth. He openly admitted that many of his business units didn't generate profit which went against common business philosophy even then, however he saw long-term value in owning the entire supply chain as it allowed him to control costs by operating independent of the markets. Unfortunately fiefdoms only last so long as a fief is competent and as history recalls, after several strokes Henry lost control of his empire.

CWB1,

A good, recent biography of Henry Ford is The People's Tycoon: Henry Ford and the American Century, by Stephen Watts. Growing a business from a tiny garage into a multi-national corporation is a challenge. Few people get it right.

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JHG

Early Ford and current Tesla have in common that they were/are more like cults than corporations.

My favourite thing to do with an org chart is to mark it up showing the real lines of reporting and power structures....