Organizational Behavior: A Case of Effective Management
“Organizational structure is the formal system of task and reporting relationships that controls, coordinates, and motivates employees so that they cooperate and work together to achieve the organization’s goals”. (George et al, 2002). The importance of structure can’t be stressed enough. Having an organizational structure ensures that each member of the organization has the correct goals of their particular department set. A good structure will give people the motivation needed to achieve those goals, and enhance their performance.
As discussed in our text, in order to encourage work, cooperation, and the drive needed from employees, an organization should have some sort of organizational structure. Whether a functional structure, a divisional structure, a network structure, or even a matrix structure, every corporation must have one type to achieve the directives set forth by their mission statement.
A strong structure essentially changes the way people work, and the results of their work ethics will produce quality work. If we look at the Aberdeen plant, we see what I believe to be, a functional structure. This structure, that Lancaster as developed, has proven to be quite a success. Each employee is a member of a group, and each group has a leader that has been chosen by the team members. If we try to put Aberdeen in an organizational chart, it will look something like this:
Then, from the team leaders, come the members of each group, and information is shared between everyone within the hierarchy. This is what forms the trust needed, and helps coordinate people, and encourages motivation. At Green River, this type of structure can be implemented, but not without doing away with the union. The union, in essence, has its own hierarchy within the union itself. Here, at Green river, I can see more of a divisional structure with a concentration on the product structure, or quite possibly a market structure. Green River is part of Alkali Chemicals, which is a division of FMC that supplied to many different areas of the market. Its goal was to produce sodium-based chemicals to the detergent industry, the glass industry, and large commercial chemical plants (Clawson et al, 2003).
This type of structure does not allow for much group interactivity as a formal structure ...
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...in the organizational goals. Having done this, the organization can build a strong culture, and increase the performance of its employees.
At Green River, the culture is built on an interactive management style from Dailey. He has built high levels of trust with his employees, and he is always willing to share information with them. This type of culture has proven to be successful in his plant. If he wants to improve the culture, then maybe he can try to do as Aberdeen and have employee picnics and such, and having them bring their families. Or, Dailey can incorporate a new code of ethics. Make the union members responsible for their own actions, and promote the fact that he will always be there to offer support if anyone has problems to deal with, professionally or personally. Promote the company as being a family unit. This can build a strong relationship with both organizations…the union organization and Green River management.
References
Clawson, J. (2003). Custom business resources. Custom ed.: Prentice Hall.
George, Jennifer M., & Jones, Gareth R. (). Organizational behavior. 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, New: Prentice Hall.
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
Organizational structure is the linking of departments and jobs within an organization. The idea of self managing teams was a significant insight gained into organizational structure. Bolman and Deal state that self-directed teams typically produce better results and
RL Wolfe decided to try the SHRM through self-driven teams. In the past, the company had highly unionized stru...
“Structure is the pattern of relationships among positions in the organisations and among members of the organisation. Structure makes possible the application of the process of management and creates a framework of order and command through which the activities of the organisation can be planned, organised, directed and controlled.” (Mullins)
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.
Teams are designed to manage virtually every aspect of the plant. They schedule work hours, purchased materials and tools, planned work schedules, coordinated with other teams, evaluated team members performances, recommended salary increases, generate reports, and deal with virtually every problem that arises (Clawson, 2005). This is where trust is displayed. These teams are comparable to a family. Each person depends on each other to get jobs done within the team. They openly communicate and have meetings when necessary to discuss and resolve issues as they arise. There is no communication gap betwee...
One model for understanding group development is the five-stage group development model which states that groups go through five stages of forming, storming, norming, performing and adjourning (Gibson, el at., 2009). In addition, the model suggests that groups can be in several stages at one time and do not have to move through the stages linearly (Gibson, el at., 2009). While this model has been widely used by individuals, in the study of group dynamics, there is no imperial evidence that this model accurately describes group development (Tuckman & Jensen, 2010). In addition, there is some concern that the model is to static and unrealistic in its explanation of group formation (Gibson, el at., 2009). Another model for group development is the punctuated equilibrium model that suggests that there are only three phases (Gibson, el a...
Within a given organization, structure is one of the key components that can lead a company to success or failure. The top echelon of the organization should ensure the right people are employed in their specific areas of expertise, that they are given proper job outlines, authority and goals to accomplish to ensure that organizational behavior matches the company values. The organization needs to be aligned with the individual goals of the employees, to ensure the individual feels they are working towards common goals. When a company conducts an organizational diagnosis it is primarily utilized to identify major strengths and weaknesses in the processes and hopefully strengthening the good ones and mitigating the unsuccessful ones.
...small, voluntary teams that come together over a commitment to a certain project, whereas Columbia designates functional departmentalization. These teams communicate quite differently, but both place high importance on ability to communicate. These differences, therefore, does not necessarily impact the effectiveness of communication and thus productivity. Gore and Columbia have each proved to be quite productive, and extremely innovative, indicating that the organizational structure employed is not indicative of whether or not a company will be successful. The structures employed allow for innovation, which facilitates their competitive advantages in the changing environment. We have found that while the organizational structure impacts productivity, neither structure proves to be “better” in the case of Gore and Columbia, as both remain innovative and productive.
Organizational structure is one of the three key organizational assets that could contribute to the effectiveness of operations of any organization (Zheng, Yan and Mclean 2009) It is joined together by different flows of information, decision processes, hierarchy of authority, specialization and working materials. (Enz 2009; Mintzberg 1980) Furthermore, it also determines the operating workflow, control of information, decision-making in the organization and the line authority (Mintzberg 1980). The facets of the organizational structure, the relationships that exist within it, and how the business processes (Bititci et al 2011) are controlled, determine the managerial style that should be utilized in addition to the strategies the organization could implement. Going further, a company’s organizational design and the parts that constitute it are seen as a contributing factor to superior performance, which ultimately provide an organization with competitive advantage over its competitors. (Enz 2009; Zheng, Yang, and Mclean 2009)
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.
... and incentives to implement strategy. The importance of structure persists even in the face of the growth of the internet, globalization, and changing demographics of the workforce.
Organizational structure within an organization is a critical component of the day to day operations of a business. An organization benefits from organizational structure as a result of all it encompasses. It is used to define how tasks are divided, grouped and coordinated. Six elements should be addressed during the design of the organization’s structure: work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, spans of control, centralization and decentralization. These components are a direct reflection of the organization’s culture, power and politics.
Organizational structure is the way that an organization arranges people and jobs so that work can be performed and goals can be achieved. Good organizational design helps communications, productivity, and innovation. Many organization structures have been created based on organizational strategy, size, technology, and environment. Robbins and Judge (2011, p. 504) listed three common structures: simple, bureaucracy, and matrix. In this post the author will describe the matrix structure, and discuss its advantages and disadvantages.
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.