In the 21st century, the matters of teamwork and organizational structure have been in the spotlight of the experts’ and researchers’ attention. However, the concept on its own is not a recent invention, as the pioneers of business acknowledged the essential role of a well-organized team in the development of a corporate entity. The creation of a strong, functional team that works in a synchronized manner is not an easy endeavor. As Henry Ford once said, “coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success” (Di Feliceantonio, 2015). In this regard, the case of his company provides a vivid example of how a strong business team can create success in long-term development.
Henry Ford is known for having revolutionized the landscape of the automotive industry, but his impact extends beyond one sector of global economy. Ford’s contribution to the rules of business, in general, make him a legendary figure and an important source of inspiration for business-related research. As per Riopelle and Wang (2019), Ford favored teamwork and believed in the prospects of mutually beneficial collaboration as a driving force of business development. Within his own enterprise, he is considered to be the pioneer of efficient organizational structures that utilize the joint efforts of the team to make the production process quick, reliable, and cost-efficient (Link, 2018). The assembly line is one of Ford’s essential inventions that became possible through the precise team-building around a solid central structure. His anecdotal decision to pay his repair workers for the time they rest rather than the time work to ensure that the assembly line remains functional for as long as possible is a case in point. The key to success lay in charismatic leadership that relied on shared values and clear, motivating priorities that guided the structure.
Overall, the case of the early 20th-century Ford Motor Company is one of the most prominent examples of successful team-building at the dawn of corporate studies. Henry Ford was able to create a fully functional mechanism that relied on a solid structure that paved the way to efficient production and distribution patterns. Subsequently, all links of this supply chain saw strong benefits of the organizational efforts made by Ford and his team. While it was not perfect, Ford Motor Company provides an important lesson for today’s research into organizational structure.
References
Di Feliceantonio, S. (2015). The American Dream Is based on a team. Web.
Link, S. (2018). The charismatic corporation: Finance, administration, and shop floor management under Henry Ford.Business History Review, 92(1), 85–115. Web.
Riopelle, K., & Wang, X. (2019). Building a shared present and future: Learnings from Henry Ford and Albert Kahn’s Co-Wuity collaborative innovation network on the moving assembly line and mass production. In Y. Song et al. (Eds.). Collaborative Innovation Networks (pp. 3-41). Springer, Cham.