Preview

Organisational Behaviour - Organisational Structure and Culture

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1162 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Organisational Behaviour - Organisational Structure and Culture
Organizational Structure and Culture Introduction In order to understand and evaluate different business structures one must be aware of the exact meaning and standards, which make that structure. Different business function in different ways. The World today is full of innovative and new structures, company cultures and ways in which companies base their work. Globalization has emphasized the meaning of company culture in ways that have led to completely new ideas, while technology has changed the face of the industry (The Age of Globalization: Impact of Information Technology on Global Business Strategies, 2007). In order to fully grasp the concepts of business structures and cultures the movies “The Devil Wears Prada” (by David Frankel, 2006) and “Up in the air”(by Jason Reitman, 2009) will be used for detailed explanation and examples of different business structures and culture and how they affect the business itself and the people who work in it. , while an exact comparison will be made during the explanation.

Company One The Devil Wears Prada portrays a typical example of a company named Runway, which functions on the basis of an Adhocracy. This type of business structure portrays a company, which functions through a support staff and practice selective decentralization (wwwpraguecollege.cz, 2012; full link in References). This in the sense of company culture can be linked to Hofstede’s cultural dimension theory where the company “Runway” is very high distance power (http://www.andrews.edu, no date; full link in References). In definition this means that there is a large power distance between the employer and the employees. Miranda Priestly, who is the head

of the company is treated with much respect and uses her power to control and lead the company, which can be seen in the movie during the scene where panic is laid out through the company due to her arrival (moviemomentsAUS, 2012). This is a clear example of how the



References:  :  20.10.2012)  20.10.2012)    on:  20.10.2012)  (2012)  The  on:  20.10.2012)  (2011)  You  20.10.2012)     The Devil Wears Prada (2006) by David Frankel Distributed by: 20th Century FOX Up In The Air (2009) by Jason Reitman Released by: Paramount Pictures

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Better Essays

    Organisational Culture

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages

    An organisation’s culture refers to ‘the way we do things around here’ and is determined by the values, attitudes and beliefs of the people who work within it. As such, culture will undoubtedly influence the success of a business. In particular, it can be argued that an innovative culture can lead to business success because it enables companies to share ideas more freely and thus innovate and develop their business strategy. Furthermore, in light of Handy’s view of “discontinuous change” being ever more present in the business world, an innovative culture is likely to enable business to be flexible enough to cope with challenges that the future holds. However, it is important to bear in mind that when a business possesses over 75% market share that it benefits from economies of scale which can be an important determinant of success, regardless of culture. Perhaps more importantly, not every success international business possesses an innovative culture. A successful business strategy can be underpinned by other business cultures and thus the type of industry a business is in, and the different challenges it faces may determine what is the most suitable culture for them.…

    • 1349 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organisational Behaviour

    • 6305 Words
    • 26 Pages

    The aim of this report is to analyse two companies who have significantly different organisational structures. It will analyse the relationship between an organisations structure and culture and the effects on the business performance. Also the factors which influence an individual’s behaviour at work will be looked into.…

    • 6305 Words
    • 26 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The corporate community has blazed a trail of leadership in the business world. The pervasive influence of the corporate principles has resulted in the emergence of a corporate culture. This culture defines the businesses contained within it. Even though each business unit expresses its own personality on the economic environment, the corporate culture always describes the general financial climate. Nevertheless, the businesses within a given industry have a say as to how the industry realigns. Therefore, businesses endeavor to develop their own policies and mission statements so at to maintain their individuality. Many businesses ensure that they achieve their goals and arrive at whatever destination they intend. This differentiates them from other businesses even those that exist within the same line of business.…

    • 947 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organizational structure is the division of labor and the patterns of coordination, communication, workflow, and formal power that guide organizational activities. An organization’s structure reflects the company’s culture and power relationships and can establish new communication patterns and align employee behavior with the company’s mission, vision and goals. The organizational structure enables effective communication and smooth workflow, but organizational culture is its underpinning. Organizational culture is the basic pattern of shared assumptions, values and beliefs that govern behavior within a particular organization. Organizational culture is a deeply embedded form of social control. It is the social glue that bonds people together and makes them feel part of the organizational experience. The culture of an organization should be compatible with its structure to ensure organizational success. Many teams fail because the organizational structure does not support them. Teams work better when there are few layers of management and teams are given autonomy and responsibility for their work (McShane & Von Glinow, 2004). Understanding and addressing the need for alignment of organizational structure and culture with a company’s mission, vision and goals will help business leaders to craft effective strategies for successful change management, enabling them to deal with resistance to change effectively thus increasing the productivity of their organizations. This paper will explore several structures in organization design and organization design choices with emphasis on those that will best suit Synergetic Solutions, the company in the Organization Structure simulation.…

    • 2263 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organisational Behaviour

    • 2005 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Cognitive Intelligence (CI) and Emotional Intelligence (EI) are considered to be important individual differences in the field of organisational behaviour and there is a lot of research to support this statement. This essay will critically evaluate both concepts and discuss how cognitive ability and EI are applied in modern organisations. It is clear that CI and EI both have very different roles in the modern organisation and they assist in the prediction of success in both personal and professional sectors of ones life. It is important to understand the main difference being that CI implements the individuals mental function for understanding and developing a systematic prospective in thinking whilst EI is considered as the ability for one to make decisions through their emotional and social skills and their understanding and belief system. In modern day organisations there has been a clear shift towards operating in an emotionally intelligent way as this is proving to hold a key to a successful organisation.…

    • 2005 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE, STRUCTURE & DESIGN Abstract Organizational structure defines the attitude, values and core competencies of an organization. The structure in a way forms the culture for that organization which invisibly exists. The culture plays an important role for the healthy functioning of an organization since the employees correlate themselves based on the values and beliefs of that organization. The operation functions such as finance, human resources and marketing impact the structure of an organization and depicts the kind of structure the organization has adopted. The design forms the blueprint for the organizational structure. In this paper we have enlightened the organizational culture, structure and design of Sears Canada Inc.……

    • 2134 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Gain Richard Powers

    • 1753 Words
    • 8 Pages

    In Richard Powers’ novel, Gain, he intertwines two fictional stories to analyze the growth of large corporation in America and the deterioration of the individual as a potential result. He tells the story of the rise of a family soap making business, J. Clare and Sons, into a large-scale corporation over a span of 150 years. As a second story line, he incorporates the end of the life of Laura Bodey, a divorced real estate agent with ovarian cancer living in Lacewood, a town centered around the corporation’s headquarters. He makes a unique statement about the increasingly detrimental nature of business as it grows in scale. He never condemns Clare International nor does he overly-victimize any individual character that the corporation effects. He does not tell the story of J. Clare and Sons nor that of Laura Bodey perfectly objectively, but his opinions are subtly placed so that he leaves the reader with the ability to decide for themself whether or not current American businesses do more harm than good. He uses the characters of the two founding members of Clare International as tools to analyze the different elements and theories of capitalism and different motives for gain. He also uses the death of many characters in the novel to analyze the effect that the swelling growth of corporations has on individuals in its path.…

    • 1753 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Organisational Behaviour

    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages

    “Political Activity is alive and well in organisations. Critically discuss this statement. What factors result in Organisational Politics and what is the role of such behaviour on other people at work?”…

    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In general terms culture can be defined as the physical aspects of society eg. art, music. Culture also means the values the citizens of that society share.…

    • 2618 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Organisational Behaviour

    • 4218 Words
    • 17 Pages

    Tall hierarchies are essential to large businesses due to the extent of employees they employ each varying in specialist areas or tasks throughout the business. However, communication is slow as there are many different levels of management that have to be informed before any decisions can be made.…

    • 4218 Words
    • 17 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    develop to take advantage of new opportunities. To do this effectively means more than knowing…

    • 12558 Words
    • 51 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Organisational Culture

    • 8259 Words
    • 34 Pages

    The topic canvasses the effects of organizational culture on the M&A. This annotated bibliography is composed of research based, case study and literature reviewed articles, that all of them are recently published papers. Although in the aspect of mergers and acquisitions, organisational culture has various definition and encirclement (Riad, 2007), from recently introduced emotional intelligence (Harrison-Walker, 2008) to theoretical definitions (Schraeder & Self, 2003), and also there are some debates about the direction of its effects on M&A (Stahl & Voigt, 2008), but its influences on M&A are undeniable. (Stinchcomb & Ordaz, 2007) The most important effects of organisational culture on M&A could be summarised as goal and mission defining in mergers (Baughn & Finzel, 2009), being a source of power for organisations (Riad, 2005), affecting the performance of M&A (Teerikangas & Very, 2006), determining compatibility and merger fit (Yusuff, Busu, Rashid, & Zulkifli, 2009), affecting the economic value added (Horwitz, et al., 2002), and successfulness of mergers (Bijlsma-Frankema, 2001). It also has figured out that not only the existence and direction of the impacts of organizational culture, but how it affects the mergers is important (Teerikangas & Very, 2006). On the other hand, some articles focused more on mergers and acquisitions and how they influenced by organisational factors (DiGeorgio, 2002, 2003). Although the main issue in studying this topic is how the effects of organisational culture on M&A could be measured empirically (Viega, Lubatkin, Calori, & Very, 2000), it represented that most of the studied organisations have set the financial benefits and economics of scale as their main objectives for mergers (Horwitz, et al., 2002) and because of neglecting the cultural aspects in merger, they struggled culture clash after mergers (Badrtalei & Bates, 2007). It seems that organisational culture has broad consequences on operational aspects of the…

    • 8259 Words
    • 34 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    | 2013 | | | Germany Business Analysis | | Business communication MGT 101 June Harper Research Report Germany Business Culture Analysis Presented By Mudassar Ejaz TABLE OF CONTENT 1.0 Executive Summery............................................................................. 4 2.0 Introduction........................................................................................... 5 3.0 PEST Analysis...................................................................................... 6 4.1 Political....................................................................................... 6 4.2 Economy..................................................................................... 6 4.3 Social.......................................................................................... 6 4.4 Technology................................................................................. 6 4.0 Hofsted Analysis.................................................................................... 7 5.5 Individualism/ collectivism........................................................ 7 5.6 Power Distance........................................................................... 7 5.7 Uncertainty Avoidance............................................................... 7 5.8 Achievement/ Nurturing............................................................. 7 5.9 Long Term Orientation or Short term Orientation..................... 7 5.0 Business.................................................................................................. 8 6.0 Business Culture..................................................................................... 8 7.10 Value of Structure and…

    • 2982 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Way

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In this case study, Cheryl Hailstrom, fictional new CEO of toy manufacturer Lakeland Wonders, is having problems getting her staff to buy into her vision for the company. For example, her senior VP of operations, Mark Dawson, doesn't seem to understand her vision, nor does he show any interest in moving quickly to implement strategies to make Hailstrom's vision reality. Hailstrom feels most of her managers are agreeable to her face, but are deliberately moving slowly behind her back.…

    • 357 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Bakan, J. (2004). The corporation: The pathological pursuit of profit and power. New York: Free Press.…

    • 2320 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays