Comparison of Contemporary and Traditional Structure

Task 1.1 - Comparing and contrasting the two types of structures and cultures, there are some main points that need defining in order to help understand this situation. Organizational structure is “the typically hierarchical arrangement of lines of authority, communications, rights and duties of an organization. Organizational structure determines how the roles, power and responsibilities are assigned, controlled and coordinated, and how information flows between the different levels of management.” (BusinessDictionary, 2013). In the organizational structure there are two types of other structures constructed to help attain specific goals, they are he Formal and Informal structure. What influences these structures are, “its size, as an organization gets larger, its structure gets more complex: specialization and subdivision are required, its task, the nature of its work, its staff, the skills and abilities of staff will determine how the work is structured and the degree of autonomy or supervision required, its legal, commercial, technical and social environment, its age, the time it has had to develop and grow, lastly, its culture and management style, how willing management is to delegate authority at all levels.” (BPP Learning Media 2010,pg 58)
Firstly I begin to talk about Contemporary, “A Contemporary structure empowers working level employees, reduces centralized control and holds all organizational levels responsible for their own decisions.” (azcentral, 2013). There are some ideas and trends that refer to the organizational structure, they are as follows, “flat structures are more responsive, because there is a more direct relationship between the organization’s strategic centre and the operational units serving the customer.” (BPP Learning Media, 2010, pg 77). Horizontal structures are “what Tom Peters (1992) (in Liberation Management) cells ‘going horizontal’ is a recognition that functional versatility (through multi- functional project teams and