Syngenta: Developing an Effective Organizational Structure - Case Study Example

 Syngenta: Developing an Effective Organizational Structure Question 1 Benefits and Appropriateness of Matrix Structure for Syngenta A matrix organizational structure is one set up in the form of a grid to put employees in a dual reporting relationship to both the functional and divisional departments. To Syngenta, there are various benefits of using this kind of organizational structure (Woods, 2013). One such benefit is specialization. Matrix organizational structure puts employees in various functional areas. As we can see from the case study, theirs is a lot of specialization where people like Melanie specialize in these of their scientific knowledge to help market the company's products while Kathryn as a molecular biology specialist also socializes in heading a functional team that develops the products of the company. Syngenta has a tendency of hiring employees into their fields of focus that is a good thing to make them excel in what they are doing. Matrix organizational structure helps them achieve this since the structure places employees at their functional units where they will focus on their main areas of specialization. Secondly, using matrix organizational structure is also beneficial to Syngenta by making resource coordination easy in the organization. In this way, supervisors are given the opportunity to focus on their areas of expertise (Johnson, 2014). For instance, it is clear that functional supervisors at Syngenta will focus on various tasks such as training, hiring and managing employees while the divisional supervisors will be responsible for research and development, marketing, and product development among others. This way, matrix structure makes the work of the supervisors easy and clearly specified as they will know exactly which areas they need to focus on. As there are various teams of employees at Syngenta, some of whom are only formed for shorter periods and then disbanded when the project is done, and some who are deployed to work on some other projects newly stated, managing such teams is easily done with the matrix organizational structure a there's a special unit meant to deal with just that as this structure encourages specialization. The third benefit of matrix organizational structure to Syngenta is that it allows ease of communication and sharing of ideas. This is necessitated by the fact that employees from a particular functional unit usually has a constant contact with the others from the other different functional areas. For this reason, this kind of structure permits both information and resources to be shared smoothly between the employees of these functional areas. For instance, those from the sales and product development department can easily interact and share information with those at the research and development department. This is very helpful for the company for the facilitation of better performance of the company at various units. It also enables a team working on a given project to handle better the complex challenges of objectives they are faced with. Matrix organizational structure is most appropriate for Syngenta as it enable collaboration among different teams with diverse skills and knowledge into better management of the company's projects. Such a structure has been proved to function better than if a tall hierarchical structure could be put in place with its many layers. Matrix structure also makes training and development easy as the team leaders for various projects are trained appropriately and given the support needed to assist their teams excel in their performance at various levels. When the matrix structure is adopted in any organization, it is suitable as it offers cheap and easy training to the team members. One doesn't have to train all the employees together as hey will be trained at the departmental level by their respective team leaders or supervisors. Question 2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Adopting Hierarchical Structure In a where Syngenta decides to use a more hierarchical structure to manage its projects, there are possible advantages and disadvantages of this course. Some of the advantages of the hierarchical structure include authority. This is to say, hierarchical structures are best designed to show clear authority and departments. This structure puts managers in authority considering their management levels. As such, at Syngenta, the managers may have the power to assign duties, allocate resources, hire and fire and even punish and reward behaviors accordingly. It is clear in such structures that subordinates receive orders from one boss. The structure does not also create any room for confusion about boundaries between the jobs and departments. It is also easy to understand the chain of command. Such a structure can be useful to Syngenta during a crisis where decision making by committees or cases where subordinates may decide to hesitate, may be disastrous. The boss can give an order and expect compliance by the subordinates. Secondly, there's better results realized by a hierarchical structure. This is to say, when employees are organized according to a hierarchy, they are usually organized according to their job categories. As such, employees that find themselves doing a similar task can share resources that are allocated by their supervisors hence it gives supervisors easy task to coordinate such tasks for greater effects and results. On the other hand, the hierarchical structure also has various disadvantages including the fact that there's a possibility of centralizing power, and this comes with its disadvantages. When power is centralized at the highest level possible, it create decision-making problems. For instance, a manager who is at the top of the hierarchy will have to be involved in decision making even at the bottom level of the organization. The manager is supposed to be held up in making decisions in a bigger picture for the organization, planning and providing leadership, but instead, his work will also include the day-to-day operations of the organization that can be left for those employees who are closer to those situations. Similarly, as hierarchies grow, the bureaucracy levels also grows. As it is known to all, bureaucracy makes things happen at a slower rate. This makes the company delay its operations hence developing into a lumbering instead of being a spry entity. Hierarchies slow down processes because requests and communications must move up and down the chain seeking approval. At Syngenta, if there's a decision that requires quick action, the hierarchical structure can be destructive in achieving such. Alternative to Hierarchical Structure An alternative to the hierarchical organizational structure could be the use of a flat organizational structure. Such as organizational structure is one that has few or absolutely no levels of management between the staff level and the management level (Meehan, 2014). This is the kind of organization structure that Syngenta can decide to employ as an alternative to the hierarchical structure as it lessens the supervision level, hence enabling decision making be done faster. Another main reason for choosing this structure is the fact that the employees need less supervision for them to make proper decisions and deliver. Flat structure lessens this supervision level that then promotes increased involvement of the staff in the decision-making process. Question 3 Need for Employee Empowerment at Syngenta One main reason Syngenta requires employee empowerment is so that it can deal with the ever-changing business environment and the turbulence in it. We realize that the modern business environment keeps changing on daily basis. This requires a company to keep on scanning both its internal and external environment on a continuous basis to realize the new changes in time (Chand, 2012). Syngenta is not an exception, and for it to go about its environmental scanning effectively and implement the changes in its organization, its employees must be well empowered to do so. As such, there will be a need for training and development for its staff as well as the provision of important equipment and materials that can aid them their duties, especially at the research and development section. At the same time, the organizations themselves are changing. This is a case where the organizations are abandoning their old ways of coordination, planning, carrying out research and achieving control to various systems, and picking up how to accomplish that using the modern way. As such, Syngenta needs to up its game by empowering its employees so that they can upgrade their organization and be able to compete fairly with other similar organizations in the industry. Empowerment is also necessary at Syngenta to reveal the various managerial talents of their employees, which could not have been realized at various levels if not for empowerment. Effects of Constant Restructuring and Change Constant restructuring and change have been adversely mentioned in various studies to affect negatively the motivation and work behavior of most employees (Birgit & Götz, 2014). Restructuring gives the employees the feeling of being under- and over- challenged since there is a continuous interference with their already existing competencies. There is usually a sense of insecurity, fear, and frustration developed by the employees due to adverse restructuring and change in the organizational structure. Restructuring can also lead to less attachment of the employees to their jobs and the organization. Sometimes, the employees experience the intentions to resign at high levels. Given that most employees are put in a situation where they have to work on duties they have fewer competencies about, at times they feel not confident to identify with particular activities. Another main impact of restructuring is its tendency to reduce job satisfaction levels among employees. At the same time, some employees develop negative perception and questions the organization's honesty and trustworthiness. All these happen because an employee needs time to acclimatize and love the job they do. When there's restructuring, they are sometimes displaced and even replaced, a phenomenon that they do not take kindly as it interferes with their morale at work. Conclusion In a nutshell, Syngenta is at a better place to apply and implement matrix structure in its organization. The organization is multilevel and has a lot of employees. The only easy way to go about its functional duties in a special way is by adopting the matrix structure. Other structures like the hierarchical and flat structure can be adopted with the flat structure being a better alternative. Given the many changes in the business environment, Syngenta will require employee empowerment to deal with such. However, it is better for the company to stick to the matrix structure after selecting it to avoid adverse restructuring and changing the organization so as to avoid the many negative impacts that this has on the employees' motivation and work behaviors. References Read More