Preview

5555: Organizational Structures

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
39254 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
5555: Organizational Structures
c03.qxd

1/21/09

11:30 AM

Page 91

3

Organizational Structures

Management Case Studies,

Related Case Studies (from Kerzner/Project 3rd Edition)
• • • • • •

Quasar Communications, Inc. Jones and Shephard Accountants, Inc.* Fargo Foods Mohawk National Bank

Workbook and PMP ®/CAPM ® Exam Study Guide, 10th Edition) • The Struggle with • Implementation • Multiple Choice Exam

Related Workbook Exercises (from Kerzner/Project Management

PMBOK® Guide, 4th Edition, Reference Section for the PMP® Certification Exam
• Human Resource • Management

3.0 INTRODUCTION
PMBOK® Guide, 4th Edition 2.4.2 Organizational Structure Chapter 9 Human Resource Management

During the past thirty years there has been a so-called hidden revolution in the introduction and development of new organizational structures. Management has come to realize that organizations must be dynamic in nature; that is, they must be capable of rapid restructuring should environmental conditions so dictate. These environmental factors evolved

* Case Study also appears at end of chapter.

91

c03.qxd

1/21/09

11:30 AM

Page 92

92

ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURES

from the increasing competitiveness of the market, changes in technology, and a requirement for better control of resources for multiproduct firms. More than forty years ago, Wallace identified four major factors that caused the onset of the organizational revolution1:
G G G G

The technology revolution (complexity and variety of products, new materials and processes, and the effects of massive research) Competition and the profit squeeze (saturated markets, inflation of wage and material costs, and production efficiency) The high cost of marketing The unpredictability of consumer demands (due to high income, wide range of choices available, and shifting tastes)

Much has been written about how to identify and interpret those signs that indicate that a new organizational form may be necessary.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    The company that I chose to examine for their organizational structure is Google. Google is well-known for their unusual culture which helps and promotes employee creativity. This business is inventive and embraces change, growth, and advancements in all areas. Google has been able to create new innovations and consistently changes its business model. Google differs from other organizations that have not mastered the idea of embracing business and technology as a main focal point. The K-Mart/Sears merger is a prime example of still unable to make their business sustainable. Sears signature was offering their customers catalogs by mail. When the decision to stop mail catalogs was made, their company took a set back and Sears lost a lot of their sales. Making decisions that go against what the company is well-known for is not advancing the growth of the…

    • 1096 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organizational Structure

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages

    One key responsibility of working as a manager is to recognize the best way to organize and run an organization. A manager who can work with and put into motion the structure and plans of a company is very important to the life of the organization. Chief Executive Officer of Chick-fil-A Dan T. Cathy is an example of such a manager and business owner. Chick-fil-A began its journey in 1960 in Hapeville, Ga. Since then the second largest chicken restaurant chain has grown to more than 1,615 locations throughout 39 states (Chick-fil-A, 2011). Although the company refers to themselves as a family-owned business, the organizational structure changed to allow success in the growing food-chain restaurant throughout the years.…

    • 945 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organizational Structure

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Altogether, there are about eight organizational structure types. Each company has to find a way of putting these “pieces of the puzzle” into one well thought-out outline to represent the necessary relationships. In this case, we’ll be looking at the divisional structure. According to the text, “as organizations grow and become increasingly diversified, they find that functional departments have difficulty managing a wide variety of products, customers, and geographic regions. In this case, organizations may restructure to group all functions into a single division and duplicate each of the functions across all the divisions (Bateman and Snell 8th edition, 2009).”…

    • 1489 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organizational Structure

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The reporting structure is a very important tool in an organization. This structure is a chart that serves as a roadmap of management levels and positions. Every business has a chain of command and it is structured uniquely, depending on the organization. The structure of an organization, if not built correctly can destroy the organization just like a building with poor architecture. The blueprints clarify and build a strong foundation in which to grow or build an organization. Chipotle is a Mexican Grill Restaurant in the fast food industry that started out with one location in Colorado back in 1993. Today it has just more than 1,400 locations in the United States, Canada, England, and France. The structure of this organization has had to change and adapt to the growth of the business over time. Like a majority of businesses and organizations the vertical organizational structure is similar with multiple levels of hierarchy. At Chipotle, the top of the pyramid is fulfilled by the board of directors whom have the ultimate responsibility of making decisions for the entire company (Chipotle Mexican Grill, Inc., 2010). At the bottom of the pyramid there are the store managers, assistants, shift managers, and employees completing the everyday operational tasks that brings in the money. Between these two levels there are district and regional managers seeing over the many locations spread out across America and beyond.…

    • 1074 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd ed. (2003). Managing Organizational Change. Encyclopedia of Business, 2nd ed., 1-6.…

    • 1150 Words
    • 1 Page
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    organizational structure

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Read Hax and Majluf ' 's 1981 article, "Organizational Design: A Survey and an Approach."…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organizational Structures

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    The design of a company affects every aspect of the business such as the way its members communicate, how decisions are made, and how the work is delegated, etcetera (Dictionary.com, 2006). This layout is known as the organization structure formally defined by Wikipedia (2006) as, "the way in which the interrelated groups of an organization are constructed. From a managerial point of view the main concerns are ensuring effective communication and coordination." In respects to project management there are three primary organizational break downs they are functional structure, pure project structure, and matrix structure. We will take a look into each of these structures to better identify the similarities and differences between them.…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organizational Structure

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The United States Army is a hierarchical structure when it comes to chain of command. To fight a war the U.S. Army deploys a variety of specialized systems and soldiers to the battlefield. To do this the US Army has adopted the divisional organizational structure. The Army is divisional but is structured as a functional structure; Army, Corps, Division, Brigade, battalion, company, platoon, and squad (Powers, 2012).…

    • 1093 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Aldrich, H. E. Organizations and Environment, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1979. Ansoff, H. I. Implanting Strategic Management, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1984. Astley, W. G. and C. J. Fombrun. 'Collective strategy: social ecology of organizational environments ', Academy of Management Review, 8, 1983a, pp. 576-587. Astley, W. G. and C. J. Fombrun. 'Technological innovation and industrial structure: the case of telecommunications. In Lamb, R. (ed.), Advances in Strategic Management, vol. 1, JAI Press, Greenwich, CT, 1983b, pp. 205-229. Blau, P. M. and W. R. Scott. Formal Organizations, Chandler, San Francisco, 1962. Bresser, R. K. 'The captives of collective strategies ', Proceedings of the American Institute for Decision Sciences, Toronto, 1984, pp. 383-385. Bresser, R. K. and J. E. Harl. 'Collective strategy: vice or virtue?, Academ.y of Management Review, 11, 1986, pp. 408-427. Bunting, D. and J. Barbour. 'Interlocking directorates in large American corporations, 1896-1964 ', Business History Review, 45, 1971, pp. 317-335. Business Week. 'How Kennecott has mismanaged Carborundum ', 23 May, 1983, pp. 127-130. Emery, F. E. and E. L. Trist. 'The causal texture of organizational environments ', Human Relations, 18, 1965, pp. 21-32. Fombrun, C. J. and W. G. Astley. 'The telecommunian institutional cations community: overview ', Journal of Communication, 32(4), 1982, pp. 56-68. Fombrun, C. J. and W. G. Astley. 'Beyond corporate strategy ', Journal of Business Strategy, 4(1), 1983, pp. 47-54. Hawkins, R. G. and I. Walter. 'Planning multinational operations '. In Nystrom, P. C. and W. H. Starbuck (eds), Handbook of Organizational Design, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, New York, 1981, pp. 253-267. Khandwalla, P. N. 'Properties of competing organizations '. In Nystrom, P. C. and W. H. Starbuck (eds), Handbook of Organizational Design, vol. 1, Oxford University Press, New York, 1981, pp. 409-432. Litwak, E. and J. Rothman. 'Towards the theory and practice of coordination between formal organizations '. In Rosengren, W. R. and M. Lefton (eds), Organizations and Clients: Essays in the Sociology…

    • 6664 Words
    • 27 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In today’s society the need for organizational revolution has become a necessity. Through many factors, such as competition, the economy, changes in technology, etc. we see the need to develop new forms of an organization. Constant change in society creates the struggle for improvement and finding effective ways for dealing with change.…

    • 1212 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organizational Structure

    • 1361 Words
    • 6 Pages

    In this case study Roger Cahill has been acting as the head of mobile division for less than a year. Currently he is struggling as he faces great difficulties adapting BoldFlash to a changing marketplace. The problem really started a year ago when Mr. Jim Harrison appointed the young Roger Cahill to a VP position. Although Roger has led a research project in his previous work, he is only 24 years old and inexperienced to manage a company at VP level. Positions at those levels require years of strategic leadership and management skills. Nevertheless in the last 12 months, the company focused primarily on the redundant production of customized chips without further research or product development in new and upcoming areas like the storage device. This negligence from both product development and marketing is a huge loss to the company as they missed out on the opportunity to launch new product line; therefore missed the opportunity to penetrate the potential market. Now the company has old products not priced competitively and struggling to penetrate the marketshare. Also the four groups within the division, product development, marketing, sales and manufacturing are constantly in conflict and don’t have the reinforcement from the leadership to work as a team. Although Cahill has observed the dysfunctions, he has not implemented any processes or trainings to work as a cross functional team. The company’s profit margins are low and Cahill has to take initiatives to suggest number of changes. With the staff that has low morale and lacking motivation, Cahill has to develop action plan for improvement. He has to define roles and propose organization change design to deliver an outcome necessary to be successful and generate higher profits.…

    • 1361 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Week 6 Individual Project

    • 1617 Words
    • 7 Pages

    * Sangerah, P. (2010) PMP in Depth: Project Management Professional Study Guide for the PMP Exam: 2nd Edn. Boston:Course Technology…

    • 1617 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Abstract

    • 3860 Words
    • 16 Pages

    In the dynamic world of rapid technological development and intensifying global competition, it has been seen that organizational imperatives change from efficiency to adaptability, with major implications for how our corporations are organized and managed. Increasingly, today?s corporations see themselves as having to become more inventive in all aspects of their operations and management, if they are to survive and thrive in the new economy (Leavy, 2002).…

    • 3860 Words
    • 16 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Research on Od

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Organizational change directly affects all departments from the entry level employee to senior management. The entire company must learn how to handle changes to the organization.…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    * New technologies become established. These encourage new firms to enter the industry with better products and cheaper ways of doing things.…

    • 259 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays