BTEC Higher National Diploma in Business
Organisations and Behaviour
Submission Date-
Word Count- including references
LO1 Understand the relationship between organisational structure and culture
1.1 Compare and contrast different organisational structures and culture of two companies from the UK energy industry
Every organisation has its own structure and culture. It may vary depending on it is mission and vision etc. In my own understanding organisation structure is based on number of people working in the organisation and their priority of work it has been designed. According greet hofsted organisation culture is “the collative programming of the mind that distinguishes the member of one organisation from other”
United kingdom has lot of energy supplying companies. Which has its own culture and structures. Types of structures are tall, flat and hierarchy structure etc. I have choose british gas and power gen as an example to explain this topic. British gas is a well-established company with lots of staff and customers.
British Gas has tall structure overhead structures at different levels of employees all reports and take instructions from a person of rank, team and operational management leader. This structure has a large chain of command with narrow span of control and chain of command reflects the number of levels within an organization. The time control is the number of employees who are directly supervised by one person. In this structure it takes time to have a decision making. PowerGen have a flat organisational structure because it has less people working in the organisation. This means lower level employees can communicate with upper level managers more easily and quickly. The decision can be mad...
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...e are more opportunity to have a effective teamwork. Also the time management has to be followed by every one in the group. Time management is a import part in the team work where it shows the unity among the people, and also reduce the stress. Further the organisation should follow up on the task submit to the team. Initiating task and seeking information and opinion from the team members of the work submitted and clarify their doubts, providing required details of the project and clearly explain the organisation expectation of the given task and periodic reviews of the performance and forecast make the team members active on the project .
At times cultural diversity and large groups find it difficult to accomplish task submitted where as smaller teams work well. A team should be formed stormed and continuously normed about the goals for the team to be effective
The Relationship between the Structure, Culture, and Management Styles in Tescos There is a clear relationship between the structure, culture and management styles in Tescos here are some examples showing this: Tescos uses power culture which has a top down (tall structure) whereby objectives are determined by the individual or individuals. This structure is also linked in with an autocratic management style as this structure tends to have a ‘them and us attitude’ which depends on where individuals stand in the hierarchy. Tescos has also adopted role culture which is structured in a hierarchal way and is divided into a number of functions which ties in with a democratic style because of the multidirectional flows of communication between organisational members means there is more likely to be a team approach. This also inter relates with the ‘flat structure’ Tescos has adopted which refers to the number of levels within the hierarchy of an organisation whereby everyone’s role, position and responsibility is made clear so that there is a clear chain of command. These cultures help Tescos to meet a range of objectives from being market leader to maximising sales and profits.
Organizations are initially structured around tasks, and as the organization continues to grow, the structure within the organization takes on many characteristics. Not all structures are advantageous, especially if they are lacking in some areas. There is a relationship between structure and size of the organization that affect the centralization of the organization. At the highest levels, the personality of the chief executive may amend the organizations' structure. The structure within an organization helps define the roles and responsibilities among the members from each department and work group. The four general types of organization structure are functional, divisional, matrix, and project based. “Organizational structure is the skeleton of an organization” (Feigenbaum, 2013) and how these individuals relate to each another. Structure is a statement of the current affairs, not the ideas, intentions or improvement within an organization. When business leaders develop their initial plans for an organization, he or she looks at how to design a company and takes inventory of all the tasks, functions and goals of the business. The leader then develops groupings and ordering of job positions, departments, and human resources to effectively and efficiently perform these tasks. Technology, size, environment, strategy and goals affect an organizational structure and effects, whether they are categorized as mechanistic or organic.
Organizational culture is a reflective view of the inner workings of an organization. This culture reflects hierarchical arrangements as it pertains to the lines of authority, rights and obligations, duties, and communication processes. Organizational structure establishes the manner in which power and roles are coordinated and controlled amongst the varying levels of management. The structure of an organization is dependent upon their goals, objectives, and strategy. Determining organizational structure best suited for an organization is generally found within the six key elements of organizational structure and choosing those to implement those best suited for the organization. The six key elements include:
BBC was the third largest company in Switzerland, and it has been very successful in the electric industry. Its past successes mainly owe to the focus strategy and geographic organization. BBC emphasized technology and quality, which enabled it build up its competitive advantage and achieved long-term success. In order to meet the market environment at the time, together with the deep-rooted culture, it built up the geographic organization. This organization stresses local autonomy because it is believed the local management is the best place to negotiate with the public utilities and this structure can meet the strictly local competition. Moreover, it resulted from the foreign exchange restrictions during the definite historical time. The strategy and the organizational structure brought about continuous successes because of the booming demand. However, it increased risks at the same time. When the economy collapsed and demand declined in the 1980s, the company faced with a stagnating situation. The organization structure made decision-making much slower than the changing market required. In 1987, the company once tried to shift its structure to divisional organization, but it’s not implemented into reality.
Organizational cultural is the system of shared beliefs and values that develops within an organization and guides the behavior of its members, while organizational structure is an expression of social and economic principles of hierarchy and specialization (Kinicki, 2015). Both the culture and the structure of an organization are important things for management to understand in order to successfully set and achieve an organization’s goals. Companies who excel in highly competitive fields can attribute their successful economic performance to a cohesive corporate culture that increases competiveness and profitability. This culture is best utilized in an organization that has the necessary structure to allow its employees to coordinate their
Looking at IKEA’s organisational structure, the chain of command shows a clear line for messages within functional departments, so therefore; it leads to good communication. For example, looking at the organisational structure of IKEA, there is a clear communication within a human resources department. However, the chain of command is very long from the top to the bottom of the organisation because, there are too many levels of management. This will lead to poor communication. For example, it takes decisions a long time to reach the workers at the bottom of the organisation structure.
Organizational structure can be defined as the “formal arrangement of jobs within an organization” (Robbins & Coulter, 2009, p. 185). Having a defined and unified structure helps employees work more efficiently. Jacques Kemp, former CEO of ING Insurance Asia/Pacific, realized this need early on in his role. The company had been performing well and recently acquired another insurance company to become “one of the largest life insurance companies in Asia-Pacific” (Schotter, 2006, p. 4). However, Kemp’s proactive personality led him to seek out ways to achieve more efficient coordination between the regional office and business units (Robbins & Coulter, 2009). Kemp noticed that “most business unit managers did not even know the current corporate standards” and he began searching for a way to manage the managers (Schotter, 2006, p. 5). ING Insurance Asia/Pacific’s organizational structure was mechanistic and fairly well structured, but for a company that had recently been involved in a major acquisition and was divided across 12 geographically dispersed markets there was a great need to tweak this structure to unify the company (Schotter, 2006). If I had been in Kemp’s position as CEO, I would have made modifications to the organizational chain of command, formalized business processes, and used technology to stimulate collaboration amongst the region to help this company overcome organizational design challenges.
This kind of structure permits an organisations workplaces to work separately while abiding to company’s policies and procedures. For example: International companies like Marks and Spencers have their stores based in different countries all around the world.
Working in teams provides an opportunity for individuals to come together and establish a rapport towards others within a group. Teamwork is classified as people with different strengths and skills who work together to achieve a common goal. When a team works well, specific objectives are fulfilled and satisfied. Teamwork plays a crucial role in implementing and fulfilling a common goal in a team project. Each member plays a role and takes on different responsibilities combined together. In different stages of teamwork, conflicts and arguments may occur for as members have different standpoints which need to be harmonized within the team. The key to having an effective teamwork is to explore each member's unique abilities to motivate them.
In order for one to evaluate and identify with the diverse business structures, he/she must be aware of the meaning and standards that makes that structure. Various businesses functions in different ways as the world is full of technology and new structures, company cultures and new ways in which companies are run. In order to fully grasp the concepts of Organizational structure and culture in the movies, I will use the Movie Up in the Air and The Devil Wear Prada movies to analyze a business scenario from them.
The concept of organizational culture is one of the most debated topics for researchers and theorists. There is no one accepted definition of culture. People even said that it is hard to define culture and even more change it. It is considered a complex part of an organization although many have believed that culture influences employee behavior and organizational effectiveness (Kilmann, Saxton, & Serpa 1985; Marcoulides & Heck, 1993; Schein, 1985a, 1990).
Culture can be defined as the beliefs, values and the pattern of behavior of an individual within designated areas. The culture of organizations defines shared values and behavioral expectations. Cultural issues are especially basic issues all around the globe. These issues can happen in various routes relying upon the size, area and the custom culture of that institution. Social issues happen even because of the states of mind and how each individual comprehend in diverse business environment. Today, the corporate administrations and rising business firms have chosen to give the essential attention on trainings and classes at the multicultural working environment that will help them to understand and create
Organisational culture is one of the most valuable assets of an organization. Many studies states that the culture is one of the key elements that benefits the performance and affects the success of the company (Kerr & Slocum 2005). This can be measured by income of the company, and market share. Also, an appropriate culture within the society can bring advantages to the company which helps to perform with the de...
A business organisation also has its own culture. Since employees of business organisations spend a considerable amount of their time at workplace their personal lives are also affected accordingly. An organisational culture refers to beliefs, values, customs, traditions and principles of the individuals of an organisation share. This organisational culture is a determining factor in the success of a business organisation. The culture of a workplace mainly controls the way individuals behave amongst themselves as well as people outside
Organizations must operate within structures that allow them to perform at their best within their given environments. According to theorists T. Burns and G.M Stalker (1961), organizations require structures that will allow them to adapt and react to changes in the environment (Mechanistic vs Organic Structures, 2009). Toyota Company’s corporate structure is spelt out as one where the management team and employees conduct operations and make decisions through a system of checks and balances.