Appex Corporation - Organizational Behavior & Design

Problem Statement Appex Corporation (Appex) was a highly successful information service provider in the fast-paced cellular phone industry. It sustained impressive revenue growth of 1600% over three years between 1986 and 1989, while increasing employee count by 600%. In order to absorb these new employees efficiently, Appex restructured several times (see Appendix 1 for the chronology of restructuring events). Each restructuring, however, created new problems for the company as it sought to successfully integrate the new personnel and run the …

…focus Loss of customer focus Loss of P&L accountability Aug 90<Tab/>~ 150<Tab/><Tab/>Divisions Separation into three divisions, ICS, IS, and Operations<Tab/>Improved accountability, budgeting, and planning Extensive communications within divisions<Tab/>Resource allocations squabbles Cross-divisional antagonism Second guessing of Sr. Management No cross-divisional communication or cooperation Fractal structures Financial gamesmanship