“We’re a progressive company, always looking to be ahead of the power curve. We’ll give...

“We’re a progressive company, always looking to be ahead of the power curve. We’ll give anything a whirl if it’ll put us ahead of the competition, and that includes every one of us,” says I. B. Daring, an executive with Michigan Manufacturing (2M). You are interviewing him as a preliminary step in a systems project, one in which his subordinates have expressed interest. As you listen to I. B., you look around his office to see that most of the information he has stored on shelves can be classified as internal procedures manuals. In addition, you notice a PC on a back table of I. B.’s office. The display screen is covered with dust, and the manuals stacked beside the PC are still encased in their original shrink-wrap. Even though you know that 2M uses an intranet, no cables are visible going to or from I. B.’s PC. On the wall behind I. B.’s massive mahogany desk you see five framed oil portraits of 2M’s founders, all clustered around a gold plaque bearing the corporate slogan, which states, “Make sure you’re right, then go ahead.”

a. What is the organizational narrative or storyline as portrayed by I. B. Daring? Rephrase it in your own words.

b. List the elements of STROBE that you have observed during your interview with I. B.

c. Next to each element of STROBE that you have observed, write a sentence on how you would interpret it.

d. Construct a table with the organizational story line down the left-hand side of the page and the elements of STROBE across the top. Using the symbols from the “anecdotal list” application of STROBE, indicate the relationship between the organizational story line as portrayed by I. B. and each element you have observed (that is, indicate whether each element of STROBE confirms, reverses, causes you to look further, modifies, or supplements the narrative).

e. Based on your STROBE observations and your interview, state in a paragraph what problems you are able to anticipate in getting a new system approved by I. B. and others. In a sentence or two, discuss how your diagnosis might have been different if you had only talked to I. B. over the phone or had read his written comments on a systems proposal.