Reference no: EM132714857

Chrysler struggled to adapt to the changing environment of the 1970s. When consumer tastes shifled(10) to smaller cars in the early 1970s, particularly after the 1973 oil crisis, Chrysler could not meet the demand. Additional burdens came from increased US import competition and tougher government regulations of car safety, fuel economy, and emissions. In 1978, when Lee iacocca was brought in to turn the company around, his comments were "What I found at Chrysler were 35 Vice Presidents, cach with his own turf. I couldn't believe, for example, that the guy running the engineering department wasn't in constant touch with his counterpart in manufacturing. But that's how it was. Everybody worked independently. I took one look at that system and I almost threw up. That's when I knew I was in really deep trouble. I'd call in a guy from engineering, and he'd stand there dumbfounded when i'd explain to him that we had a design problem or some other hitch in the engineering-manufacturing relationship. He might have the ability to invent a brilliant piece of engineering that would save us a lot of money. He might come up with a terrifie new design. There wal only one problem: he didn't know that the manufacturing people couldn't build it. Why? Because he had never talked to them about it. Nobody at Chrysler seemed to understand that interaction among the different functions in a company is absolutely critical."

Questions

a.Explain the various types of departmentation in the above case, which type of departmentation is evident?

b. What other type of departmentation do you propose for Chrysler? Give reasons for your answer.