Mattel's chief executive officer (CEO) and chairman, Robert Eckert, leads a team of 34 people (Cogmap) - including Directors of Media Relations, Public Relations, Corporate Communications, EVPs of Worldwide Operations, American Girl and more. The list of executive managements available show that Mattel divides their management staff into different departments/categories based on the department's need for management. For example, Hot Wheels has a VP and SVP of Marketing, whereas all other boys toys are managed by one General Manager, Tim Kiplin, under the title General Manager; Boys and Wheels Group and Games and Puzzles.
Though Mattel's governance system clearly shows they have a taller hierarchy, it is altogether very possible - though not certain - that they use a decentralized system during the decision making process. It is most likely that this is the case since Mattel Inc. has been in the business market for so long that their communications systems are fully established and easily convenient for all stakeholders involved.
It is evident that Mattel distinguishes between the senior management and middle management through the titles that are given to their employees. Such as CFO, President, Vice President, Senior Vice President and General Manager. CFO, Presidents are have connotations that infer they are apart of the senior management, whereas Vice President, Senior Vice President or Executive Vice President even, suggest a middle management and General Managers are above the working management, but not above the Vice Presidents.
In conclusion, Mattel's management team seems to be organized into a tall hierarchy structure but using a decentralized system in performing the tasks at hand. It does not at all seem to be a conflicting structure for them and since Mattel has been an active company in the business world for so long - and made such an excellent reputation as the world's highest revenue toy company, Mattel has made a suitable example of how the combination of a tall hierarchy in a decentralized system can be a successful organizational structure for profiting companies.
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- "Mattel Inc. News - Company Information - The New York Times." Times Topics. Web. 08 Nov. 2009. http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/mattel_inc/index.html.
