Corning Glass Work Case Study Essay

CORNINGS GLASS WORKS CASE STUDY

1. Enumerate the conditions why Corning had to undergo the series of structural changes.

Following the international growth and expansion of Corning, the following problems were being faced in the organization’s structure and management processes:

i) With the international expansion of CGW, the company was becoming too big and complex to be managed by its current structure. Hence a need was felt to create the international arm as a separate legal entity and hence Corning International Corporation (CIC) was born.

ii) CIC was created as a subsidiary to CGW to emphasize the growing importance of Corning’s overseas business. The management felt that the creation of CIC as a …show more content…
The primary motive behind the appointment of these business managers was to supplement the organization with a global business perspective.

2. Identify the problems with the organization structure (until 1972; business manager concept) that led to the formation of World Boards.

i) Corning International Corporation (CIC) since its inception was not truly integrated with its parent organization Corning Glass Works (CGW). The creation of CIC as a separate company was insufficient from the onset. The relationship between senior managers in the parent company CGW and in CIC remained unchanged. The vice-presidents in CIC never really achieved the status and importance of vice presidents in CGW. As a result when the three international business managers were appointed by Behm with the status equivalent to Vice-Presidents, they faced difficulty liaising with vice-presidents and other senior managers in the domestic organization (CGW). They were simply viewed as lacking power, status and credibility to get things done. ii) There was some hostility prevalent between the domestic and foreign arm of the organization. The domestic division managers felt that if they had to provide the foreign operations with so much support, they might as well run the foreign operations themselves. This contributed towards making the

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