While product coordination is Eaton's main concern in Europe, some of the European staff functions also hold coordinative meetings. Eaton has two employee relations/management resources directors for Europe, who report respectively to the vice-presidents of personnel and management resources in Cleveland. The personnel coordinators and immediate staff meet about four times a year to review developments in legislation, pensions, salaries, hiring and firing policies, etc. In addition to these, two other types of personnel coordinative meetings are held. About five sessions per year involve the country personnel managers and cover very specific personnel issues in some depth (e.g., policies, legislation and trends in the area of benefits). Also, there is an annual conference to which personnel managers from all plants are invited. Guest speakers from corporate headquarters also participate.
As a second functional example, the European finance director brings together various country financial managers. The meetings are not scheduled as formally as their personnel counterparts but are held as needed.
ISSUES FOR DISCUSSION
- When this case was written, Eaton's global, or worldwide, product format was found to be serving the company very well. Since the inception of this format in the 1970s, the world had changed quite a lot, and so had Eaton's products. How had Eaton's organization structure been adapted to accommodate these changes?
- Obtain a copy of Eaton's latest annual report. Does it still reflect a product-oriented organizational design?
- Why do you suppose the operating divisions might have found the European coordinating committee "not useful"?
- Where are most of Eaton's product centers located? Are they in "appropriate" places? If not, where should they be? Where will they be five or ten years from now?
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