U10472 Contemporary Issues in Business, Management and Marketing Assignment Sample

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Introduction to Contemporary Issues in Business, Management and Marketing Assignment

An organizational structure is a system that outlines how certain activities are directed to achieve organisational goals. These activities involve defined responsibilities, roles, and rules that guide employees and management. There are several types of organisational structures that a firm can adopt, such as functional, divisional, matrix, tall, flat, and hybrid structures. This report, prepared with insights commonly supported by Online Assignment Help UK, sheds light on two important structural types—tall and flat—while discussing their key benefits and drawbacks in the context of effective organisational management.

U10472 Contemporary Issues in Business, Management and Marketing Assignment Sample

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Emma Johnson 5 Years | PhD

Overview of why managers need to pay careful attention to the structure of the organisation

The organisational structure carries a major role in assessing the decision-making processes, communication flow and effectiveness of organisation. The organisational structure mainly defines how the different activities, like supervision, coordination and task allocation are focussed toward gaining the objectives of organisation (Clegg et al, 2019). The managers need to design the structures of organisation to manage the flexibility, effectiveness and control that highly aligned with the organizational objectives. Organisational structure and culture which is poorly designed might lead to employee dissatisfaction, slow decision making and inefficiencies.

For example, within the large corporations such as McDonald’s function in the hierarchical framework (The McDonald’s Organizational Structure, 2023). This is making sure about the standardisation within the international operations. On the other hand, the tech start-ups such as Spotify might effectively promote adaptability, innovation through the means of flat structure.

Discussing two different structural types

The tall structure focuses on the different levels of hierarchy with the effective command chain, mainly found within the government organisations and large corporations (Tall Organisational Structure, 2023). This provides the well-defined responsibilities and roles which make sure about the effective oversight and control (Lee, 2022). For instance, GE (General Electric) particularly has the multilayered and structured hierarchy for the effective decision making. On the other hand, the Flat structure reduces hierarchical layers, developing employee autonomy and decentralised decision making (Flat Organizational Structure, 2023). This is effectively seen within creative industries and start-ups where quick responses and innovation are important. For instance, Netflix manages the flat structure which can develop the rapid problem-solving and open communication.

The flat structure has fewer levels of management, which is leading to the control in the wider span (Vijayan et al., 2019). The setup promotes speeding up the decision-making and transparency because there are fewer layers to pass the approvals. This is greater for the empowering the workers and their agility. However, the roles overlapping can lead to confusion and occur as well.

The tall organisational structure has a clear hierarchy; this is mainly featuring the various management layers. It permits for the established authority lines, well defined job responsibilities and detailed supervision. It might boost the organization and its control as well. This tends to boost the administrative prices and slows down the overall decision-making.

Discussing the benefits and drawbacks of tall structures with the example

Benefits

• Better control and supervision: The senior and middle managers decrease risks and offer the oversight.
• Specialisation: The different tasks are effectively divided, making sure about the expertise within the various roles.
• Clear chain of command: The workers understand the reporting lines, decreasing the confusion within the effective decision making.
• Scalability: This is mainly appropriate for the different large corporations which managing the various complex operations like as IBM.
• Easier performance evaluation: The tall structure carries the well-defined hierarchy which makes the assessment of individual performance more straight forward.
• Clearly defined career paths: The workers can see the effective and clear progression path which might boost the job satisfaction and motivation.
• Reduced confusion: A clear command chain reduces the misunderstandings and boosts the decision making.

Drawbacks

• Higher administrative costs: The roles of managerial level affecting the profitability by increasing the salary expenses.
• Communication barriers: The messages can be deformed because they can pass via the different levels (Tall Organizational Structure benefits and drawbacks, 2023).
• Limited employee autonomy: The employees can decrease the creativity and also feel restricted as well.
• Slow decision making: The different approval levels might delay the responses related to the market changes.
• Decreased employee autonomy: The lower levels can have the less freedom related to make the decisions. This is stifling the innovation and creativity of workers.
• Bureaucracy: The structure might lead to the excessive bureaucracy which might delay the actions and also frustrate workers.
• Limited flexibility: The tall structure is mainly rigid; this creates it less flexible at the time of changes adoption.
• Developed costs: More management levels mean more salaries and employees to pay.

For instance, the global automotive leader, Toyota functions in the tall structure which makes sure about the effectiveness but also faces different issues within responding to the quick changes in market.

Discussing benefits and drawbacks of flat structures with the example

Benefits

• Lower costs: Less layers of management decrease the expenses of the operational because their experiences levels and salaries are high.
• Developed communication: Concerned structure facilitates effective and direct interaction among the leadership and workers boosts the collaboration.
• Greater employee autonomy: The employees are mainly empowered which fosters creativity and motivation.
• Faster decision making: Along with the less levels of hierarchical, organisations might react swiftly.
• Easy collaboration and clear communication: The information reaches the destinations immediately and promptly as this requires passing via the fewer layers (Whetsell, et al, 2021).
• Increased motivation and responsibility: With the middle management, the worker has the effective responsibilities than the structure of traditional organisation with the different hierarchies. Consequently, the workers feel involved, cherished and encouraged within the organisation which in turn leads higher productivity.

Drawbacks

• Risk of managerial overload: The fewer managers managing the major responsibilities might lead to conflicts and burnout (Flat Organizational Structure benefits and drawbacks, 2023).
• Limited career progression: The roles of fewer managers can decrease the promotional opportunities. This creates hard for the workers to picture the progression and growth within the organisation.
• Challenges within the large organisations: Challenging to apply within the large organisation requiring the tight control.
• Role ambiguity: The workers can face issues with the unclearity about the roles of job; this is leading to the difficulties and inefficiencies.
• Lack of work life balance: The workers usually have the access to the direct report to C-suite. The workers cant’s avoided the urgent tasks and emails from the higher ups, this is attacking the workers. This affects the work life balance of workers.

For example, the video game organisation, Valve Corporation works with the flat structure. This is permitting creativity but can be facing the issues in coordination within the big projects.

Conclusion

Conclusively, it states that the flat and tall both structures have the challenges and unique advantages as well. The tall structure makes sure about the specialisation and control, this can slow down the overall decision making. The flat structure boosts the innovation and flexibility but might make the ambiguity roles. The businesses need to align strategic goals with the organisation design. The workforce needs and industry requirement demand to makes sure about the success in the long term.

References

Books and journals

• Clegg, S.R., Pitsis, T.S. and Kornberger, M., 2019. Managing and organizations: An introduction to theory and practice.
• Lee, S., 2022. The myth of the flat start‐up: Reconsidering the organizational structure of start‐ups. Strategic Management Journal, 43(1), pp.58-92.
• Vijayan, D.S., Arvindan, S., Kumar, K.N. and Javed, S.M., 2019. Seismic Performance of Flat Slab in Tall Buildings with and without a Shear wall. International Journal of Engineering and Advanced Technology (IJEAT), 9(1), pp.2672-2675.
• Whetsell, T.A., Kroll, A. and DeHart-Davis, L., 2021. Formal hierarchies and informal networks: How organizational structure shapes information search in local government. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 31(4), pp.653-669.

Online

• Flat Organizational Structure benefits and drawbacks, 2023. Online. Available through https://www.usemotion.com/blog/flat-organizational-structure
• Flat Organizational Structure, 2023. Online. Available through https://study.com/learn/lesson/flat-organizational-structure-hierarchy-examples.html#:~:text=A%20flat%20organizational%20structure%20is%20a%20company%20with%20few%20or,communication%20and%20collaboration%20between%20employees.
• Tall Organizational Structure benefits and drawbacks, 2023. Online. Available through <https://www.organimi.com/what-is-a-tall-organizational-structure/>
• Tall Organizational Structure, 2023. Online. Available through https://www.organimi.com/what-is-a-tall-organizational-structure/
• The McDonald’s Organizational Structure, 2023. Online. Available through https://wire.insiderfinance.io/a-deep-dive-into-the-mcdonalds-organizational-structure-how-it-works-and-why-it-matters-5b4095fc45e4