Headquartered in Round Rock, Texas, Dell is a premier provider of products and services required for customers worldwide to build their information-technology and Internet infrastructures. Dell was founded in 1984 by Michael Dell on a simple concept: selling computer systems directly to customers. The direct model allows the company to build every system to order and offer customers powerful, richly-configured systems at competitive prices.

In 2003, Dell dropped the "Computer" from its name, signifying the company's desires to expand towards supplying consumers with technologies not limited to PCs. Since then, the company has been aggressively pursuing the printer industry. Dell has consistently been cited by Fortune magazine as one of the top ten Most Admired Companies.

Explore the site in detail to prepare a two page report indicating your responses to the following questions. How does the direct business model affect customer service and pricing for Dell products? Which management viewpoint described in Chapter Two fits best with the Dell philosophy?

Over the 20^th century, managers and theorists were trying to find the 'one best way' to organize work and workers from Frederick Taylor who took unskilled and unorganized labor and turned many of them into efficient machines to the learning organization, an evolving concept that argues that organizations and their members must be committed to continuous learning to remain competitive and viable in our turbulent and changing globalized economy.

One approach to building a learning organization is what has been termed "Open Book Management." It is built on three principles, all of which must be followed if the approach is to work. Outlined by John Case in his Open Book Experience (Perseus Books, 1998, pages 2-3), they are in order: 1) you have to create a transparent company, a company in which everyone, not just those at the top, sees and understands the real numbers; 2) you need a system of joint accountability, a system that holds everybody responsible for his or her part in the company's performance; and 3) you give people a stake in success as well as pay them for their time.

To learn more about Open Book Management, go to http://www.nceo.org/library/obm_games.html and read the information given on "Open-Book Management Games." Then answer the follow questions and be prepared to present your answers to the class:

1. How is this approach different from the Scientific Management Approach?
2. How would you describe motivation in this type of organization?
3. Why might some people not like this type of organization?
4. Would you like to work in this type of organization? Why or why not?
5. Could this type of model be adapted to your college?
6. Is this a type of learning organization? Why or why not?

For more information on employee-owned companies, click on the home page at the top of this site and it will take you to NCEO (The National Center for Employee Ownership.)