The Medtronic home page for employment opportunities provided detailed job descriptions for operational employees, as well as lower and middle management. Typical jobs at the operational level include: Engineering Technician, Polisher, Mailroom/Copy Center Clerk, and Office Services Assistant. Lower level management positions described include: Production Planner and Associate Accountant. Middle management positions described include: Senior Financial Analyst and Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager. A Senior Management position that was described was Information Technology Director. This job description appears in its entirety below:

"Medtronic's US Cardiovascular Information Systems Department seeks an exceptional Information Technology Director at our Minneapolis, MN location. This individual will direct the development and implementation of Information Technology plans for The Americas and ensure plans are aligned with area business objectives. Responsible to manage I/T personnel and resource planning. Influence I/T direction by working with the functional areas and positioning I/T standards in alliance with business requirements. Review, manage, and coordinate the development of business applications using current I/T technologies for The Americas, balancing the long-range plans and technology needs and strategies of both the area and Corporate I/S. Plan and implement measurements and benchmarks to measure cost effective technologies. Serve as consultant to all operations within The Americas, to develop solutions using information technologies. Manage the overall I/T Resources for The Americas. Maintain knowledge of I/T and the I/S discipline and keep abreast of emerging technologies.

Candidate qualifications
Bachelor's Degree in Business, Computer Science, etc. Master's Degree preferred. Ten year's experience in information systems. At least three years in a supervisory and/or management role. Business experience in relevant user areas and/or Medtronic experience is desirable."

Compliance with written standards

Latitude from written standards

Latitude from written standards

Non-managerial employees

Medtronic provides very detailed job descriptions for a wide variety of positions, managerial and non-managerial alike. It is very likely that a high percentage of non-managerial jobs, perhaps all of them, have written operating instructions or procedures as well.

Compliance with rules by managerial employees

Managerial employees

Rules, percentage in writing

Given the above, it is a safe assumption that at least half of the rules and procedures at Medtronic are in writing. While this could clearly vary across departments, functions and jobs, the strong concern that the firm has on regulatory compliance and quality, a concern that is reflected in a high degree of specialization, would necessitate that there be a high percentage of rules in writing.

It is not possible to tell, from either the posted job openings/descriptions or from the reviewed articles, how closely the position incumbents are supervised to ensure compliance with the standards set in the descriptions. Given Medtronic's preference for delegation, we would think that the supervision might be loose. However, with the high concern for quality, we would expect it to be a bit higher. As a compromise, the middle ground is chosen for each of the following four questions.