Organizational Theory and Design - Assignment Example

? Managing organizations al affiliation: Question one: internal and external conditions freedom for action granted to organization members could bring maximum performance for an organization? Organizational design and management practices have been changing since the era of the industrial revolution in reaction to changes in the wider society. The contemporary management theories started with the classical perspectives advanced in the 19th and 20th century, which focused on how to design and manage work, in a bid to help organizations accomplish maximum efficiency. Internal and external conditions are requisite in bringing maximum performance for organizations. Employees’ needs are an essential internal element in bringing effectiveness, and high performance in an organization, whereas organizational technology, size, political/ regulatory changes, ethics and environmental changes are the external conditions that could influence performance (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). Talents and skills of the workforce are indispensable if a firm is to become a high performing. Organizational performance is bound to suffer when organizational members are insufficiently trained or skilled. Managers have to change the nature of workers tasks from being routine jobs to empowered roles. Traditionally, employees were assigned tasks from the top management, where information and control of tasks were centered. Nevertheless, the modern context requires workers to perform roles that are part of the dynamic social system. A role has discretion and responsibility, permitting an individual to utilize his or her ability, talent, skills and judgment to accomplish an organizational outcome or goal. Employees and their knowledge are weighty than the means of production or the means of service delivery in relation to organizational prosperity (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). Organizational technology, which transfers inputs to output affects organizational performance by influencing on how organizations actually produce products and services. Technology may either be two edged; it may reduce performance when misused whilst it enhances performance when properly used. In addition to organizational technology, the aspect of a digital workplace is another aspect affecting performance. The contemporary workplace contains numerous employees who execute most of their work through computers, and may also work in virtual teams that are electronically linked around the globe. Diversity is another aspect that modern organizations cannot afford to overlook. As globalization continues to be part of organizations’ playing field, the human resource and customers’ base change dramatically. Managing diversity effectively results in increased organizational performance. An example of a corporation that registered organizational success and performance by embracing diversity is the Avon Corporation and the McKinsey & Co. (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). An organization’s culture that forms the key values, beliefs and comprehensions and norms shared by workers may influence organizational performance. Values and beliefs are essential in helping an organization execute its corporate strategy and attain its mission. Well established values are the deep drivers of worker behavior and are well understood by employees. Thus, beliefs and values that are embedded in the organization and are congruent with the company’s approach to leadership enhance organizational performance. An organization’s processes and structure determine how an organization arranges its work policies, processes and procedures to sustain and execute corporate strategy. Processes and structure of an organization influences the level of organizational performance. Organizations that experience high performance put processes that reinforce strategy and tasks to most effectively allow human (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). The influence of ethics in the contemporary world of business is a development in organizations that constrains the freedom of organizational members. Members of an organization must take actions that are seen to be morally and socially accountable. The reason is that organizations are currently under pressure to act as ethical beings in the eyes of the wider society. Environmental changes are other external factor whose impact on business performance remains an elusive subject. Organizational members have to ensure that the organization is not only economically and socially sustainable but environmentally accountable, as well. Environmental sustainability paradigm is a new phenomenon in business, and experts hold that the long term performance of organizations will be founded on the continual health of societies and the natural environment. Other aspects of non-natural environment external to an organization, and have an impact on the freedom of organizational members include the government, customers, the industry, customers, suppliers and the financial community. These are the stakeholders in any business, and their decision limits the freedom of a firm to act, and have an impact on the organization’s performance. Globalization is another external influence that results in growing interdependence, making the environments for corporations to be competitive and complex. As such, organization members have to learn on aspects of time, culture and natural features in order to be competitive globally and to enhance their organizational performance (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). Queuing Question 2: Recommendations on innovation on meeting cost projections and getting products to the market Many organizations consider themselves as being innovative, but many of them grapple with the aspect of cost to meet and sustain innovation needs. Many corporation managers comprehend that noteworthy, sustainable growth results from creating new products and new markets, though few of them make such investments (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). The reason could be that undertaking new ventures for growth when the core business is growing robustly may seem unnecessary. On the other hand, investments to generate new growth businesses may not result in adequate profit when an organization’s mature/core businesses are under attack. In addition to the cost constraints for sustaining new products, most organizations are usually a couple of months late in getting the product to the market. This is coupled by poor planning in areas of product development, where the new product/innovation does not match with a company’s corporate strategy, capabilities and distribution strength. Therefore, several measures need to be undertaken to overcome these obstacles. An organization needs to have a committed development team and the willingness and capacity to partner and outsource. The use of multi-functional teams fosters communication across functions and promotes speed to market. Interaction involving team members who are co-located and share a common set of goals eases the realization of innovation projects. An organization with a horizontal structure should use cross functional teams in order that individuals may contribute from their own perspective, and then cross over and contribute from the perspective of other teams (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). For instance, in a team approach innovation, engineers can help come up with the best machinery, finance team to establish the amount to pay for the machinery while the marketing team will come up volume projections to be met. Cross functional teams make it easier to line up necessary assets from the numerous distinct functions needed to effectively launch a new product. In addition to having multi-domestic teams, the product development activities have to begin with and flow from business unit strategy. Strategy entails decisions on products and markets, as well as how product-marketplace groupings will be utilized for the purpose of attaining corporate goals. Innovation cannot be isolated from the entire business unit strategy; it is vital that innovation efforts come from a well expressed set of goals and stratagem for business growth. The strategy has to also incorporate the marketing synergies, which are the fits involving the need for innovation and an organization’s marketing capabilities and resources. These synergies brands, research and market intelligence capacities, channels of distribution and advertising resources. When an organization launches a new product and wishes to take into its existing market, it can use its existing channel of distribution to ensure that the product gets to the market at the appropriate time (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). Finally, it is indispensable for the firm to recognize the external environment and make out market opportunities in order to innovate products that are attractive to the market. A new product arises when firms leverage their technology, human, economic and marketing resources against marketplace gaps. This is achievable through market research, which identifies gaps that an organization can use as the basis of innovation. Marketing research helps in identifying consumer drivers and wants. The reason is that unmet consumer needs represent potential new product/innovation opportunities. Question 3: How to design the organizational structure to reach balances In order to successfully manage organizations in the contemporary world, there is the need to strike a balance between various opposing balances. These balances are such as the opposition between current and the future, free floating creativity and disciplined execution, and efficiency of the existing processes and long term effectiveness. In order to build these balances, the organization structure needs to be structured in a way that these opposing forces are incorporated together without destabilizing the organization. The structure can be changed from vertical to horizontal. Conventionally, most organizational structures were derived by grouping common tasks together from bottom to the top of an entity. In a vertical structure, minimal collaboration happens across functional departments while coordination, control and decision making authority flow across vertical hierarchy. The main problem associated with vertical structure is that the top management is unable to respond to opportunities fast enough, especially when the environment is rapidly changing. A horizontal workflow helps to reach the above balances by flattening the vertical hierarchy, with a few senior executives in conventional support functions. A horizontal structure also reduces the span of control for managers, unlike in vertical structure, where span of control is spread over a large number of people. An organization operating on a horizontal culture uses self directed teams that draw members from various functional areas (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). In changing the organization structure, a horizontal structure should help in organizational learning and changing workers’ roles from routine to empowerment. Learning organizations helps continually in redefining and adjusting roles among individuals and team towards improved performance. Workers should be encouraged to take care of problems in the organization by working with one another and with customers. A healthy and engaged workplace requires workers to adopt the response ability and the power to please in order to give workers responsibility and authority to handle workplace issues. The reason is that workers are part of the planning groups for enhancing organizational processes. Engaging employees in organizational processes results in a loyal customer base; loyal customer base results in increased share value (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). Building an organization entails more than concern for the structure and technical efficiency. Successful business organizations also give attention to the human element, to the development of a culture that aids in creating a feeling of belonging, as well as commitment and satisfaction. Therefore, an organization structure has to be designed to sustain the balance of the socio-technical structure, and the success of the firm as a whole. Consideration ought to be given to the interactions involving the technological and structural requirements of the firm, and the needs and demands of the human aspect of the organization. In addition, the structure should move from being a control system into shared information system. The nature of management has to shift from emphasis on getting results by use of control on employees to an environment of coaching, support and devolution of power to the workforce. In the learning organization, information sharing between organizational members keeps the organization functioning at an optimum level. Moreover, information and ideas are shared throughout the organization, rather than using information as a control tool in the learning organization. The organization structure may also be designed to shift from being competitive to collaborative. Traditional structures are designed to deal with efficient performance through strategies prepared by the top managers and enforced on the entire organization. However, the learning organization with a horizontal structure results in an informed and empowered human resources that play a significant role in corporate strategy development (Daft, & Armstrong, 2009). Collaborating with other organization partners like customers and suppliers offer the best collaborative strategies for an organization to adapt and compete globally. References Daft, R. L. & Armstrong, A. (2009). Organizational Theory and Design. Connecticut: Cengage Learning Press. Read More