Contents
Management in the Digital Age – Glide Mobility Pte Ltd Analysis
Glide Mobility Pte. Ltd. Company Background And History
Glide Mobility Pte. Ltd. (“Glide”) is a Singapore-based start-up founded five years ago by three former engineers, Ivan Koh, Meera Singh, and Daryl Yeo, who were passionate about solving last-mile transportation challenges in Southeast Asia. Their company focuses on offering short-distance electric mobility solutions, including e-scooters, dockless bikes, and micro-mobility subscription services. Glide’s mission is to create smart, green, and inclusive mobility options for urban commuters.
The company initially found success working with town councils and universities to provide mobility options within campuses and estates. Glide’s mobile app, which allows users to unlock and pay for devices, grew in popularity during the pandemic as people sought contactless and outdoor travel alternatives. However, post-pandemic changes in regulations and increased competition from foreign players have placed pressure on Glide to evolve quickly.
Management And Operational Challenges
Ivan, the CEO, focuses primarily on external partnerships and investor relations. He has a high tolerance for risk and prefers visionary, long-term planning. Meera, the COO, handles daily operations, staff management, and ensures that each deployment hub runs efficiently. She believes in data-driven control systems and accountability. Daryl, the CTO, leads the Product Development team, which recently launched a new e-scooter model embedded with AI-based safety monitoring.
Despite Glide’s early success, its rapid expansion across Singapore and Malaysia has led to operational inconsistencies. Local hub managers were given wide autonomy to run promotions, plan deployments, and manage maintenance. However, several incidents of poor service reliability, customer complaints, and asset mismanagement have emerged. The management team must now address these growing pains without sacrificing innovation or speed.
The Compliance Breach
Last month, a whistleblower in the Malaysian office reported that the hub manager in Johor Bahru had been falsifying usage data to meet monthly KPIs. When Meera investigated, she found discrepancies in both device usage logs and repair records. The manager admitted to inflating numbers, claiming pressure to “match” metrics set by other more successful hubs. He also stated that such reporting “was normal” and even implied that other hub managers might be doing the same.
The founders were divided in their response. Meera wanted to immediately audit all hub records and overhaul the control system. Ivan cautioned against reacting too strongly and jeopardising team morale. Daryl, while shocked, noted that no technical anomalies had been flagged by the app, raising questions about whether Glide’s internal systems were sufficient to detect such breaches.
Digitalisation And Structural Review
At the same time, Glide was preparing for its largest digital transformation to date, integrating its fleet management system with government transport infrastructure via a new public-private data sharing agreement. This would allow Glide’s platform to connect with city-wide traffic systems, but would require significant upgrades, standardisation of processes, and adherence to stricter compliance frameworks.
To lead this transformation, Ivan proposed creating a “Smart Systems Taskforce” that would draw staff from operations, engineering, and compliance to coordinate the project. Meera expressed concern about role duplication and reporting confusion, while Daryl insisted on flexible workflows. Glide now faces key questions about how to manage digital transformation, design controls to ensure compliance, and maintain trust without stifling innovation.
Question 1
Identify and illustrate the three (3) main managerial attitudes toward global business as described by Robbins and Coulter. Based on the case, explain which attitude best describes Glide’s current international mindset. Discuss two (2) strengths and two (2) limitations of this attitude for Glide’s regional expansion. Support your discussion with relevant examples.
Question 2
List and define three (3) factors that shape ethical or unethical behaviour. For each factor, demonstrate its relevance to the case by citing one (1) specific example from the case details. Based on these factors, apply relevant theory to analyse two (2) organisational conditions that likely contributed to Glide’s compliance breach. Propose two (2) recommendations to foster a more ethical organisational climate at Glide.
Question 3
Organisational design choices influence how work is coordinated, how responsive teams are, and how control is managed.
(a) Discuss the key features of mechanistic and organic organisational structures. Provide one real-world example (not from the case) for each structure.
(b) Which structure does Glide currently exhibit? Support your answer with examples from the case.
(c) Evaluate two (2) implications of Glide’s current structure on its ability to implement the digital transformation project described in the case.
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Experts Answer on Above Management Case Study
Three managerial attitudes
The three managerial attitudes are ethnocentric attitude, polycentric attitude and geocentric attitude. In case of ethnocentric attitudes, it is the home country practices that dominate and there is little adaptation of foreign culture. In a polycentric attitude, the local managers work independently, and decisions are adapted to each country. In a geocentric attitude, global integration along with local responsiveness is being considered, and the best practices are shared across regions.
Glide’s current attitude
The current attitude of Glide is polycentric because the hub managers are given higher autonomy in Singapore and Malaysia, and there is lack of centralized control which results in inconsistent quality of service and manipulation of data.
Strengths – the two major strengths are local responsiveness as identified from the ability to customize operations at Johor Bahru according to local demand, and second strength point is faster expansion, as Glide can quickly scale across Singapore and Malaysia and all because of delegation.
Limitations – the two major limitations are weak control systems, and inconsistent service quality.
Three factors shaping ethical Behavior
The three important factors shaping ethical behavior are moral development which indicates the ability of an individual to decide between right and wrong, such as managers justified the falsification as normal, organisational culture that shapes behaviour through the shared values such as implicit culture of matching KPIs across hubs, and issue intensity that describes the severity of the ethical issue such as data manipulation as evident in the given case.
Two organizational conditions causing the breach – the two organisational conditions are high performance pressure as explained by goal setting theory, and lack of formal control system as explained by agency theory.
Recommendations – it is recommended to implement a real time audit data verification system, and establish ethical accountability structures.
Mechanistic versus organic structures
The mechanistic structures are rigid hierarchy, have centralised control and standardise processes such as McDonald. Organic structure is flexible, decentralised and highly adaptive, such as the case of Google.
Glide’s Structure – the structure of the glide is organic, as there is the decentralized decision making process, flexible work flows, and limited formal controls.
Implication for Digital transformation
The digital transformation includes coordination challenges, as there is possibility of role confusion within the Smart Systems Taskforce, and standardisation difficulties, as the integration with government systems requires uniform processes.
| This model answer is reviewed by Lim Sher Tynn, a hospitality and business management expert. Disclaimer: This answer is a model for study and reference purposes only. Please do not submit it as your own work. |
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The analysis of managerial attitudes including the factors shaping the ethical behaviour and mechanistic versus organic structure analysis revealed significant findings in relation to the case study. If you need a detailed explanation, visit our organisational behaviour assignment help page to get professor support from experts, and if you need assistance with any type of assignment, get assignment help services from top Singaporean experts.
