Managing Organizational Structure Change
Managing Organizational Structure Change
LDR 531
Managing Organizational Structure Change
Smith & Falmouth (S&F), a mid-sized phone and mail order product company, has expanded into the online product market. S&F created S&;F Online as an independent business unit while it proves the strategic viability and value of online as a sales channel. S&F Online is made up of a small team that has been successful, and is now working to increase sales and diversify their online offerings to add health and beauty services. As S&F Online grows, it needs to determine the best organizational structure to support its business strategy and builds on its current organizational culture.
Current Organizational Structure
S&F Online is currently a small, nimble and relatively flat organization. The CEO created three functional departments to support the business – web development, logistics and marketing. This allows the heads of the three departments to work well together as a coordinated, cross-functional team with low formalization. This structure also allows the company to operate organically, with little bureaucracy because they are not far removed from the CEO. Being flexible allows for them to work through all the startup complexities and learnings quickly.
Additionally, being departmentalized functionally allows S&F Online to maximize their functional skills. “The major advantage to this type of grouping is obtaining efficiencies from putting like specialists together. Functional departmentalization seeks to achieve economies of scale by placing people with common skills and orientations into common units” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p.540). While S&F Online remains small and has limited product offerings, the current structure suits the needs of the company.
Current Organizational Culture
The current S&F Online culture is one that is high in innovation, outcome orientation and team orientation. The personnel are all young, talented and value hard
LDR 531
Managing Organizational Structure Change
Smith & Falmouth (S&F), a mid-sized phone and mail order product company, has expanded into the online product market. S&F created S&;F Online as an independent business unit while it proves the strategic viability and value of online as a sales channel. S&F Online is made up of a small team that has been successful, and is now working to increase sales and diversify their online offerings to add health and beauty services. As S&F Online grows, it needs to determine the best organizational structure to support its business strategy and builds on its current organizational culture.
Current Organizational Structure
S&F Online is currently a small, nimble and relatively flat organization. The CEO created three functional departments to support the business – web development, logistics and marketing. This allows the heads of the three departments to work well together as a coordinated, cross-functional team with low formalization. This structure also allows the company to operate organically, with little bureaucracy because they are not far removed from the CEO. Being flexible allows for them to work through all the startup complexities and learnings quickly.
Additionally, being departmentalized functionally allows S&F Online to maximize their functional skills. “The major advantage to this type of grouping is obtaining efficiencies from putting like specialists together. Functional departmentalization seeks to achieve economies of scale by placing people with common skills and orientations into common units” (Robbins & Judge, 2007, p.540). While S&F Online remains small and has limited product offerings, the current structure suits the needs of the company.
Current Organizational Culture
The current S&F Online culture is one that is high in innovation, outcome orientation and team orientation. The personnel are all young, talented and value hard
References: Galbraith, J. (2010). Designing Matrix Organizations That Actually Work. Business Book Review Library, 1-10. Retrieved from Business Book Summaries database. Robbins, S., & Judge, T. (2007). Organizational Behavior, 12e.