Organization Theory at Chrysler Corporation

This research examines the application or organizational theory at the Chrysler Corporation. Organizational theory is considered within the general classification of organizational systems offered by W. Richard Scott (1987, pp. 2728) and the "Human Potential Model" suggested by David Carlson (1989, pp. 17).

The contemporary Chrysler Corporation is the descendant of the Maxwell Motor Car Company (Moskowitz, Katz, and Levering, 1986, p. 282). Walter Chrysler took over Maxwell as president in 1920, and in 1925 the name of the company was changed to the Chrysler Corporation.

The new "Chrysler" line of automobiles was so successful that by 1926 the company had moved from a ranking of 27 in the American automobile industry to fifth place. At that time, only Ford, General Motors, Dodge, and Nash ranked ahead of Chrysler. In 1928, Chrysler acquired Dodge Motor Company, and the company's structure was, essentially, established for the next 59 years, and Chrysler soon became the number three automobile manufacturer in the United States.

In 1946, there were ten passenger car manufacturers operating in the USChecker, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Hudson, Kaiser, Nash, Packard, Studebaker, and WillysOverland, which were all that remained of the more than 40 passenger car manufacturers in the country prior to the economic depression of

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Rational Systems Scott (1987, p. 29) stated that organizations are rational systems because they are designed to attain specified goals, wherein rational refers to a technical or functional process. Rational systems are largely defined by goal specificity and formalized organizational structure. Goal specificity continues to characterized the Chrysler Corporation in the 1990s (Sharf, 1993, p. 14). Thus, in this context, the company's organizational continues to share some of the characteristics of a rational system. The formalized organizational structure at Chrysler, however, has been largely replaced by a teambased organizational structure (Raia, 1993, pp. 4851). Two primary classifications of organizational structure are mechanistic and organic. The differences between mechanistic and organic organizational structures are expressed in the context of the level of formal structure and control embodied in the two organizational concepts (Daft, 1992, p. 140). The character of an organization's internal structure is often related to the external environment within which it functions. In this context, Warren Bennis (1976, pp. 2227) observed that organizations must strike a balance between openness to the external envi
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Corporation Scott, Katz Kahn, Krishnan Thompson, Mahler Nicholson, Chrysler Corporation, Warren Bennis, Salancik Pfeffer, Lee Iacocca, SMWTs Barton, Potential Model, boulding 1985, organizational structure, system boulding, chrysler corporation, system boulding 1985, federal government, daft 1992, human potential, potential model, human potential model, context system, external environment, katz kahn 1966, mahler nicholson 1989, context system complexity,
Approximate Word count = 6885
Approximate Pages = 28 (250 words per page)