Motorola

1. Must include all critical elements for all three sections—profile, management plan recommendations, and conclusion—within a single document.
2. . It should reflect the incorporation of feedback gained
3. focused on management behaviors from planning, executing plans, management communications, employee perception of the management, management’s ability to increase employee performance and more.

ANSWER

The Fall of Motorola Company

Motorola, Inc. was founded in 1928 in Illinois, the United States, by Paul Galvin and Joseph Galvin as a multinational telecommunications organization. The company was the first to produce the first handheld cellular phone; they majored in producing wireless network devices like cellular transmission base stations and signal amplifiers. Motorola also established home and broadcasting networks such as digital video recorders and set-top boxes, HD televisions, and other network equipment to broadcast videos and telephony. The first handheld phone (Motorola DynaTAC) was produced in 1984 by the subject company; it became the first company to make a flip phone known as MicroTAC. The company enjoyed a period of success until the technology advanced and other companies started producing high-quality smartphones. The company suffered losses of up to around $4.3 Billion between 2007 and 2009, thereby splitting up into Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions. This paper focuses on how poor management and communication contributed to the fall of the legendary multinational telecommunication company.

Motorola’s fall was mostly blamed on the management; research shows that the administration had difficulties creating the recommended organizational culture. The culture enhanced the setting of goals for employees, thereby encouraging the employees’ morale; the management failed to involve the employees in decision-making. The administration also was unable to create a conducive working environment that encouraged sharing its values, mission, and vision. The company’s founding fathers had initially promoted a working environment that encouraged the employees to invent and fail and try until they got it right; the company became popular because of its risk-taking, training and development, and utmost respect for employees. The new management deleted all these good traits made it difficult for employees to perform; research shows a time when the senior managers would shout and scream (known as the Warring Tribes by the employees) at employees in the corporate halls showing disrespect and lacking leadership qualities.

The company faced challenges in meeting the customer’s demands due to their lack of company goals and objectives, lack of innovation, and too much reluctance; the management also failed to harness the employees’ capabilities and skills. The management failed tremendously in exercising their designated roles; all that was left was conflicts and delays from all corners thereby leading to the employees’ perception of the company. The company experienced pressure from its competitors due to its failure to prepare; they ended up the victims of worthy competitors like Nokia and Ericsson, which acquired up to 5% of Motorola’s phone market share in 1995. Motorola, a company that once had a total of 150,000 employees, ended up with around 68 000 employees in 2004 after Iridium’s bankruptcy. Employee perception and organizational culture were significantly affected by the poor management leadership; the company structure changed from a centralized to a decentralized corporate design (Sawhney 2017).

Downscaling of many management layers shocked employees since it was against the company’s mission and vision. The company’s decentralization was more of a short-sighted approach, thereby contributing to several challenges in meeting the required standards; various countries follow different ethics and principles. The subject act resulted in the then set Motorola’s code of ethics (Zambrano 2016). The employees failed to solve the conflicts traditionally, but instead, their attempts ended up creating more business-related problems. These drastic fundamental changes lead to the company’s fall; for instance, the adopted management corporate culture, poor decision-making, insufficient revenue, and significant layoffs significantly played critical roles in the fall. Communication, on the other also played a crucial role in the great downfall; any successful company or organization always utilizes the essential aspects that enhance better communication. Motorola management lacked the key elements and attributes of passing vital information to the employees, hence reducing the company goals, mission, and vision. The then employees realized the company was part of its early success with the Razr; this led to overconfidence, complacency, and arrogance amongst the employees (Rooney 2019).

The company came to know this when it was already late; its primary competitors like Apple, LG, and Samsung had already established themselves in the market with more advanced products and services than Motorola. Poor communication between the management and employees significantly contributed to this downfall; the problem mentioned above would have been solved if noted earlier through enhanced communication between the two parties. Effective communication could have instilled and ensured loyalty to the company; employee performance and morale would have also advanced, thereby barring the mass departure and layoff. Motorola’s massive communication barrier hindered the employees from sharing their ideas and opinions with the management; most of the managers were unreachable or just unapproachable. The employees instead watched the company fall as they applied for new jobs in other competitor companies.

In conclusion, the success of a company is usually contributed by both management and employees. Flexibility and the ability to adapt to the fast-changing technological advances are critical to an organization’s success; a company that bulldozes its employees and doesn’t show any respect to them will automatically get grounded financially. Communication, teamwork, and good relationships in an organization are critical factors to a company’s success. Employees need to be involved in decision-making and be allowed to give their ideas and opinions.

References

Rooney, J. J. (2019). How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In. The Journal for Quality and Participation, 42(3), 38-39.

Sawhney, M. (2017). Motorola Wireless Data Group: The Envoy. Kellogg School of Management Cases.

Zambrano, D. (2016). A Comity of Errors: The Rise, Fall, and Return of International Comity in Transnational Discovery. Berkeley J. Int’l L., 34, 157.