Organisational Structure
According to Mintzberg, organisational structure is the sum total of the ways in which it divides its labour into distinct tasks and then achieves coordination among them (Mintzberg 1979). The differences in organisational cultures are often reflected in the way they are structured and managed. Organisational structure is a product of many elements, some of which are the type of business, products, customers, size and location.
Organisational structures can be broadly divided into two categories.
A hierarchical organization is an organizational structure where every person in the organization, except one, is a subordinate to another person and is answerable to him.
A flat organization (or horizontal organization or delayering) is an organization that has an organizational structure with few or no levels of middle management between staff and executives.
Good examples of hierarchical organisations are conglomerates in Japan (Toyota), South Korea (Samsung) and U.S.A (Apple computers) which are often owned by founders and their families. They tend to be authoritarian and often exhibit a culture with high power distance, and have bureaucratic control and centralised decision making with little worker empowerment. On the other hand, firms in the west are owned by public shareholders and are operated by a professional CEO.
It is common thought that companies that are known for the best products or companies that have a good market image would be good places to work like Apple Computer, Toyota, Facebook, etc. However, this is not always the case; none of these companies were ever features in the Fortune’s List of “100 Best companies to work for”. It proves that the bottom line and top of the line produc...
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... important reasons for a giant firm like Apple to adopt such policy (Finkle & Mallin 2010). Stock reward ensures that its best performing employees become more committed to the organisation and reduces their chances of them leaving the firm (Yian Ming 2011). Another reason being the motivation to perform better since every contribution affects the company’s share price and therefore affects his own stock asset value. These two elements drive employee engagement and help the company’s executives to provide an effective employee management environment (Yian Ming 2011).
The employees should be stimulated and motivated by training, health and other social benefits that will enhance their interest and commitment to the firm. Dedicated and satisfied employees perform better and contribute extensively towards their firm’s success and reputation (Jaksic & Jaksic 2013).
The Organisation structure of a company addresses the fact that every organisation has specific units that are responsible for different roles and actions in the organisation and that no department within the organisation stands alone, they are intertwined. The organisational chart or structure should be designed to divide up the work load, responsibilities and roles to be done
The structure of an organization can be characterized basically as "the whole of the routes in which it partitions its work into unmistakable assignments and after that accomplishes coordination between them" (Mintzberg, 1979, p.2). McLean, A. also, Marshall, J. (1993) characterizes culture as the "accumulation of customs, qualities, arrangements, convictions and states of mind that constitute a pervasive setting for all that we do and think in an association". Moreover, the predominant culture in associations relies on upon the earth in which the organization works the association's goals, the conviction arrangement of the representatives and the organization's administration style. Case in point, very bureaucratic and all around organized associations, for example, those in the saving money area commonly take after a society with broad controls. These representatives take after standard methods with a strict adherence to chain of command and all around characterized individual parts and obligations.
W.L. Gore & Associates. (2011, n.d.). A Team Based, Flat Lattice Organization. Retrieved from www.gore.com: http://www.gore.com/en_xx/aboutus/culture/index.html
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.
In their 2005 book, Understanding and Managing: Organizational Behavior, Jennifer George and Gareth Jones define organizational structure as "the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate and work together to achieve an organization's goals." A logical consequence to an organization's structure is the resulting culture, which George and Jones further define as "the set of shared values, beliefs, and norms that influences the way employees think, feel, and behave toward each other and toward people outside the organization." Finding the right structure for one's organization is vital to its strength and longevity. Appropriate structures are commonly found by trial and error; most continue to evolve as the organization enters different stages of its existence. Structures are defined and redefined in accordance with the organization's strengths and weaknesses, maximizing one while attempting to decrease the other. Over the course of change of structural eras', so too will the culture change.
According to the text, an organizations structure is the “sanctioned expectations and exchanges” among internal players like executives, managers, and employees and external constituents such as customers, competitors, and regulating agencies. Two issues arise when considering structural design: (1) How to allocate work and (2) How to coordinate...
Flat organizational structure is arguably best suited to respond to complex and turbulent environments facing organizations today (Burns & Stalker, 1994). This bold statement came from observation by these two researchers who in the 1950s spent time in a British manufacturing firm. This firm particularly adopted novel approaches to management and production, giving only title to managing director but entirely avoided defining roles and functions for its overall employees. Ongoing modification of goals and procedures through weekly team meetings are done to assess emergent situations and tackle problems that rise at the moment. Regular weekly meetings at this firm resulted in participative act by its employees to solve problems and collaborate at the discussion. Hence, problems are solved by collective effort instead of one’s authority. Burns and Stalker concluded that there are two ideal organizational types. First type is the traditional mechanistic bureaucracy and the second is the alternative types which are more responsive to environment and less hierarchical. They named this second types organic structure. They also added, mechanistic organization and organic organization is needed at different kind of environment. Mechanistic bureaucracy is more fit in stable environment but on the opposite site, organic organization is more suited to environments which are turbulent and full of changes.
and other resources needed to achieve goals. Organizing activities include attracting people to the organization, specifying job responsibilities, grouping job into work units, marshaling and allocating resources, and creating conditions so that people and things work together to achieve maximum success (Bateman & Snell, 2011). When a company is able to successfully organize each portion of their business, they will then be able to maintain a strong foundation. A company that has managed to be successful through its well use of organization is that of General Electric Company. They have what it is called a ‘flat’ structure in which everyone becomes equal (Clawson, 2012). General Electric used to have 29 levels, but today it has only a handful of layers (Bateman & Snell, 2011).
In today's complex business environment; traditional approaches like monetary incentives are not the only prime motivators. In addition to expecting financial incentives for their performance, employee's expectations are much more. Appreciation, recognition and opportunities for personal growth; must be catered for to harness maximum productivity. Furthermore in an era where change is imperative for the organisation's survival, highly motivated employees, represent flexibility and show willing to change; a vital component for the success of any organisation.
Traditional organizational Structure Is known as called a hierarchical structure is similar to a managerial pyamid where the hierarchy of decision making and authority goes from the strategic management at the top down to operational management and non-management employees. (Techrepublic, 2015) Challenges In spite the fulfilment of many Internet-based applications, health care company can look forward to face many problems as they try to apply these technologies to acquire their strategic visions. They will face obstruction to, and restrain on, organizational alter, as well as being unsure about the efficacy and effects of Internet-based applications. Opposition to alter can come from refusal of the need to alter, the lack to manage alter,
First of all, organizational structure determines the hierarchy, the levels of communication, and how job tasks are formally divided, grouped and coordinated within an organization (Langton, Robbins, & Judge, 2013). There are six key elements that managers need to address when they design their organization’s structure: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, centralization and decentralization, and formalization (Langton et al., 2013). The way in which an organizational structure is constructed and implemented can affect company productivity.
...s in the corporate world by setting new standards to promote and better satisfy their employees. We chose four leading companies in four different industries. The above analysis definitely reveals that perhaps one of the reasons why these companies are the leaders in their industry is because they are well aware of the importance of the work force. They mention in their mission statements as well that yes in deed customers are important but in order to make the customer happy they first need to motivate and satisfy the employee as well. According to Citibank, the general belief is that a happy worker is a motivated and loyal one. So keeping employees' spirits high is a sure-fire way of maintaining a productive workforce. A productive work force would ultimately lead to a healthy organization which would not only promote the society its working for but also itself.
There will be a manger who is in charge of the stores’ profitability and the overall cooperation of all functions within the region like making sure every stores sells the same collection of clothing. By using matrix, managements not only organize their work more flexible with lower costs, but also improving communication and coordination across the countries. However, the matrix structure violates the unity of command principle as each employee reports to at least two or more managers. Next, high degree of centralization is exercised in H&M. Centralization is the concentration of authority for making most decisions at the top levels of the organization. In this instance, the head office in Sweden are in charge of establishing the code of ethics, internal policies, and manuals. Important decisions that are strongly related to the company’s profits are also made by the top management. Nonetheless, H&M has a decentralized system. For example, there are 32 production teams that handle
Organizational structure indicates to how the work of employees and teams within an organization is coordinated. In order to obtain organizational goals, individual work needs to be coordinated and managed. Structure is an important instrument in obtaining coordination, as it appoints reporting relations (who reports to whom), designs formal communication channels, and portray how different actions of individuals are linked together.
Additionally, employee satisfaction are directly correlated to employee commitment and the loyalty which again directly related with the business and work productivity (Papazisi, Raidén, and Sheehan, 1995). Smart leaders knows that keeping their employee satisfied and motivated are essential for their organization (Sher, Bakhtiar, Muhammad &Ali, 2010).