Organisational Managment - Essay Example

Does organization structure determine organizational performance or does performance shape structure? In your answer, refer to at least one organization that you are familiar with. The changing times have seen that the business world has evolved and so have the different methodologies and the ways and means through which it is carried day in day out. One needs to realize the fact that business is a consistently changing world and in this world only the people who are ready to change are successful. Thus to put it in the related context, change is the only constant in the world and in the business scheme of things, changing to suit the will and desire of the customers and/or the stakeholders as well as doing one last bit to bring in more revenues and profits for the company just plays the right trick for the business to succeed both in the short term as well as in the long run. (Lamb, 2005) Businesses which stagnate over a period of time and do not change because of one pressure or the other usually die out quickly. The ones that have existed thus far have relied a great deal on the phenomenon attached with change and consistent upgrading of the needs as put forward by the business and its norms. The changing market structure might call for changing strategies and lines of action that would all target the people for whom the product is actually designed as well as the competitors with whom the clutter is being broken in the environs of the marketplace. Thus competition brings in more and more quality at the end of the company with regards to its products as well as more sales in the form of its varied and changed stance on focusing towards the customers rather than the product itself. (Chandler, 1991) Apart from that, emphasis on need must be the order of the day rather than bringing out more and more varied stock key units just for the sake of it. The different products should satisfy each and every user rather than satisfy the people sitting in the innovation labs and those who invent just to take the company one step further. This trap should thus be avoided under all circumstances. Thus profits could come out in the middle when a company is the sole and dominant player in the whole market structure. It has to be kept in mind that the profits have to outnumber the losses in the longer scheme of the whole equation of carrying out a marketing activity. If this is not the case, then the business might not survive for long and the losses will lead it to simply nowhere at all. It is imperative to pinpoint the weak and grey areas and thus set out on a journey on the part of the marketer to tackle the very same and thus bring to light the positives out of the whole equation. Thus significance lies on the shoulders of the main person who has set the ball rolling as far as the business is concerned and it is up to him solely as to what he has in mind, with respect to the vision and mission of the business and the company for that matter. (Cyert & March, 1963) Every big business or multinational that is existent in present times credits itself on to the vision of an exemplary personality which started it all when the going was tough and when there was a huge competition in the related market. Thus to withstand pressure and competition is the hallmark of any successful and long lasting business, company or enterprise, whichever term we might quote it as. Organizational success is possible when there are dedicated efforts made in the field of marketing. This is done so as to trigger the sales of the organization and also to make people (the target audience and the potential one) aware of the products/services offered by the organization. Marketing can bring about positive word of mouth and appreciation from the people who hold importance for the organization. What this does is to make sure that the product goes down well with the target market and that it needs to maintain the very same image and rapport with these people. However this is one Herculean task and needs to be achieved on the part of the company so that its marketing activities outnumber the sales figures of its competitors and not only that but also claim positive vibes within the relevant industry and business circles. In the short run as well as in the long term, this could hold the key for the business’s ultimate success, be it in the form of triggering sales or bringing in more and more secondary audiences towards the primary cadre of the target market. Speaking from a moral perspective, it is duty bound for any business that exists to satisfy a customer through its products and/or services to be responsive towards their needs and defer the financial sides concerned with the company. It is important though not to ignore the monetary aspect but to remain in the business in the first place for the ones the business is being done, it is essential to situate the resources onto them and then move on forward expanding the market share and the like. There are a lot of companies that have continued to divest the consumers of their basic rights in the name of achieving certain financial ratios. However doing so does mean putting the business’s long term strategy at risk as the customers and the remaining stakeholders would not appreciate the fact that the enterprise does not value their concerns rather goes after the financial side. The need and thus the opportunity in the business world of present times is to get ourselves noticed and make the companies realize of their responsibilities that they owe to the customers. It is imperative on the part of the respective company’s leadership to understand that customers alone could shape up the future and visionary characteristics of the company and thus they have to be focused very precisely. Ignoring them even for a moment could be hazardous to the prospects of a business concern. The market dynamics suggest that the competitive advantage can only be achieved when the customer is given what he or she wants but then again is there any limit to his or her wants? (Neely, 2002) The answer would be in the negative. The customer expects value for money and thus the best possible product at the most effective rate, thus it would be correct to understand his point of view and then go about changing the product offerings, prices and the value thus provided. Marketing concept has taken its basis from the selling concept which is simply producing a product and then selling it for a nominal return. However marketing looks at defying the odds and aims at conquering the mind, heart and soul of the customers. The terms like share of heart and share of mind come into the equation and not to forget the share of trial which looks at the customer trying a product for the first time in order to seek purchase back and forth. Share of heart means that when a customer is asked about naming a certain brand out of the selected list of brands in the related category, the first one or two brand names that he comes up with are pretty close to his heart. Similar meaning lies with respect to the mind when we speak of the share of mind. Share of trial is the moment when he actually uses that product and thus it comes under his play and eventual judgment whether or not the product lived up to his or her expectations. Marketing aims to show the customers what they need and then telling them what is best for them. It is not only there to solve their problem. Rather its usage is much more varied. It pinpoints the exact places where the product might be justifiably used, executed or tried for. Marketing is thus a battle which is going on in the minds of the consumer and the seller rather than something else. It needs to be understood in the proper scheme of things. Organization structure impacts the manner in which work is basically carried out. More than anything else it adheres to the different purposes of the discrete services and the related achievements with the passage of time. This brings to light the notion of discussing the structural basis of the organizations themselves. For starters, these organizations might not be that easy to understand at the very beginning. These can encompass a variety of different aspects, features and traditional mindsets which make up their structures. To start with, we see that an organization can either be formally aligned in its ways and means of doing things and different processes or the same might just be in a way informal in quite a few of its activities and tasks. (Crampton, 1998) The manner in which it runs across this paradigm is something that needs to be studied in depth before we reach further consensus on their purposes and the kind of achievements that they have had. The communication within an organization can flow in one of three ways or in all the three directions. (Axley, 1996) This means that these three directions pave the way for the ease of communication and there are as such no barriers to arise from the whole equation. The first communication flow is from top to bottom, which means that the communication starts from the top management and goes down towards the middle and lower management. The second form could be the one that starts from the lower or middle management and goes up towards the top management. The third communication flow could be in the kind of peer to peer communication and interaction. This means that the employees and the workers at the same level communicate within their own capacities and as such there are no hindrances arising from the whole communication matrix. Apart from this, within an organization the communication also flows in a formal as well as an informal manner. Where the communication is more formal and sophisticated, the interaction is usually done through paper and written requests whereas the informal talk is also called ‘grapevine’ and is mostly done in a casual manner without any such paper work to document the very same. The barriers within the communication process should be removed as this is known as the “noise” factor in the whole communication matrix. We must focus on the manners in which the organizational structures actually bring about the work flow processes together rather than whining about the incorporation of a formal or an informal culture within the organizational lengths and breadths. The most important thing here is to understand the fact that it is significant to get things done in line with the organization’s core values, mission and vision statements rather than changing for one reason or the other and thus bringing with it a plethora of problems left, right and center. A firm needs to change its position with the changing times otherwise it will literally vanish away from its competitors and more so the customers, for which it actually exists. It must bring about certain efforts which are geared up to make it sound, look and eventually feel different from the rest of the lot and in the long run, have a selling proposition in it and in its products that help it in winning the customers time and time again. Similarly, it needs to make sure that its staff members and employees are amongst the best in the industry and that they can relate with the norms and routines of the top corporations working hand in hand with each other but competing on the business level. The managers need to look at several different angles which are related with the business itself. This means that there is a general sense of negativity attached with the way in which managers perform their tasks. (Bassett, 1993) It also gives air to the notion that managers know nothing about what the requirements of the stakeholders are in the whole equation but then again this assumption might just not be correct as well. The managers might just be thinking about the long term scenarios and therefore have to sacrifice the short term interests of the stakeholders for their long term ones. However this is all pretty confusing to understanding and more so within the business circles and the related processes in which managers perform their duties and tasks. (Llewellyn, 2002) In the present times, organizations are doing their utmost in order to know more and more about their valued customers and stakeholders. For this, they have devised certain strategies which are in line with the values that their business has set for itself. These values are thus deeply intrinsic within the mission and vision statements of the company. In order to gain further knowledge about the customers, research is being given proper emphasis which would eventually discern the exact basis for the customers to come and make that vital purchase. It is a fact that the business world of present times can have a lot of improvement within their ranks if they adopt the policy of working towards the establishment of a performance management system. This would guarantee them a lot of success as their employees and workers would dedicate their whole hearted efforts towards the well being of the company as well as towards their own individual capacities. The usage of sound planning on the part of the managers is very imperative as it ensures that the same is not only important to the whole well being and the actual basis of the business but also the manner in which it invites the short term gains and incentives that come along all this while. Managing change within an organization is one of the most significant aspects that come under its sound functioning regime. Only the companies which are able to come to terms with the new norms and practices are the ones that succeed not only in the short term but also in the longer scheme of things. This means that the company has to devise certain ways and means through which it can manage change, measure it and effectively counter the problems that come in its way all this while. The learning process, meanwhile on the part of the organization is immense since it finds out the exact mechanisms and procedures through which change is going to affect the employees’ and stakeholders’ relationship with the company’s central essence, which is the top management, making all the decisions that would eventually benefit the company in the long run. (Varey, 2001) Concluding the debate we find that it would be proper to state that sound organizational control and structural foundation paves the way for an organization to be run in a professional manner. Competitiveness has to remain the key for the organization and the top management at the helm of affairs cannot deny the very same fact. An organization to function in vacuum merely dependent on its revenues over a period of time is just not the order of the day anymore. Organizational structure should mingle itself with the policies that are coming in every now and then in the business world and try to play its part in accordance with the very same. The usefulness of its resources can only be harnessed when there is a decent enough endeavor to understand the dynamics of the market, the overall industry and more than anything else, the stakeholders who have invested huge sums of money within the realms of the organization and last but not the least the customers themselves for which the company strives to run a business in the first place and without whom the organization will not even be what it is in current state. With attention paid on getting things done in the textbook manner, the organizational gurus must ensure that learning is being used upon with case studies and recent examples to document their efforts. Also performance management systems as discussed earlier in the paper, are very significant to the actual basis under which an organization conducts itself. Thus the business is pretty much dependent on the way in which the organization’s different operating techniques are employed and the attempts must be in line with getting these operational tactics and strategies right every time there is a crisis or even when one is missing. Being proactive remains the key in such a changing global scenario within the organizational realms. All said and done, specific organizations must ensure that their workings are based on ethical and moral principles rather than minting money from left, right and center. It is the social responsibility aspect that makes an organization winner or otherwise at the end of the day. (Taylor, 1999) BIBLIOGRAPHY AXLEY, Stephen R. (1996). Communication at Work: Management and the Communication-Intensive Organization. Quorum Books BASSETT, Glenn. (1993). The Evolution and Future of High Performance Management Systems. Quorum Books CHANDLER, A.D. Jr. (1991). The Functions of the H Q Unit in the Multibusiness Firm. Strategic Management Journal, Vol. 12, pp 31-50 CRAMPTON, Suzanne M. (1998). The Informal Communication Network: Factors Influencing Grapevine Activity. Public Personnel Management CYERT, R.M. and J.G. March. (1963). A Behavioral Theory of the Firm. Prentice- Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ LAMB, Larry F. (2005). Applied Public Relations: Cases in Stakeholder Management. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates LLEWELLYN, Robert N. (2002). The Four Career Concepts: Managers can learn how to better develop their people by learning how they’re motivated – Management Tools: Supervisor Resources. HR Magazine NEELY, Andy. (2002). Business Performance Measurement: Theory and Practice. Cambridge University Press TAYLOR, Paul J. (1999). Effects of Introducing a Performance Management System on Employees Subsequent Attitudes and Effort. Public Personnel Management, Vol. 28 VAREY, Richard J. (2001). Marketing Communication: An Introduction to Contemporary Issues. Routledge Word Count: 2,842 Read More