Question

Organizational Behavior Case: The Outdated Structure

Jake Harvey has a position on the corporate planning staff of a large company in a high-technology industry. Although he has spent most of his time on long-range, strategic planning for the company, he has been appointed to a task force to reorganize the company. The president and board of directors are concerned that they are losing their competitive position in the industry because of an outdated organization structure.

Being a planning expert, Jake convinced the task force that they should proceed by first determining exactly what type of structure they have now, then determining what type of environment the company faces now and in the future, and then designing the organization structure accordingly. In the first phase they discovered that the organization is currently along classic bureaucratic lines. In the second phase they found that they are competing in a highly dynamic, rapidly growing, and uncertain environment that requires a great deal of flexibility and response to change.

Questions:

What type or types of organization design do you feel this task force should recommend in the third and final phase of the approach to their assignment? Justify your answer. (25 points)

Do you think Jake was correct in his suggestion of how the task force should proceed? What types of problems might develop as by-products of the recommendation you made in question 1. (25 points)

Answer 1

To find solution to this question first we have to understand what is bureaucratic lines organisational structure.bureaucratic structure is a structure which is very organized with a high degree of formal communication from top layer of management to bottom layer. Hierarchy charts generally exist for every department, and decisions are made at the top level of management and which is followed by the subordinates. Drawback for this structure is that it has long communiction chain , less scope for out of the box ideas, less innovation and time taking approval process for any decision.

Answer1. As it is suggested in the question that the given organisation has a dynamic rapidly growing, and uncertain environment that requires a great deal of flexibility and response to change, thus the need of this organisation would be small communication lines , authority to quick deceision making and specialization of the departments. hence the suggestion for this organisation would be a Matrix organisational structure.

A matrix organizational structure is a structure in which it has horizontal set of divisional reporting ,a reporting relationships that is set up as a matrix, rather than in the traditional Beauracratic hierarchy.In a matrix there are usually two chains of command, one along functional lines and the other along project, product lines.

• The first reason for adopting the matrix in this organization can be pointed in the fact that functions and skills are fragmented throughout the organizational structure. Individual functional departments have great difficulty in solving very large problems because of a failure to view the total system The matrix is thus a multi-dimensional structure
• There is a huge amount of flexibility in this form of organisational structure because the skill set, experience and talent can be shared and imparted across the departments and projects
• Enhancing communication between the disciplines and departments by emphasizing both top-down and horizontal communicatons across functional lines, and supporting a better teamwork and collaboration.

Answer2

Jake was absolutely correct in suggesting a structural change as he could identify the drawbacks of the previous system. But as non of the solutions are flawless so does the suggested Matrix stucture also has its own challenges such as

• This could create Communication confusion between and across departments and functions.
• This system may create Lack of clarity on who has responsiblity and authority to take decisions and command leading to missed opportunity and loss of crucial time to take decisions