Woolworths - Essay Example

Running Head: Woolworths Woolworths [Institute’s Woolworths According to the online Oxford dictionary, organizing simply meansto arrange systematically or make appropriate arrangements and adjustments. In even simpler terms, organizing involves putting specific elements in an order. But in business terms, organizing itself is a responsibility of the management which comes after planning. This particular responsibility involves the adequate synchronization of human (labor), physical and financial resources along with the assignment of tasks, responsibilities and authority in order to achieve the organizational goals and objectives. Organizing is a crucial component towards the success of any organization as it helps the business to coupe up with changing market trends, technologies, improve and maintain competitiveness, etc. The applications with respect to companies/businesses involves forming the hierarchy, centralized/decentralized structures, tall vs. flat structures, work specialization, chain of command, authority, accountability, span of management, communication networks, etc. The applications of organizing focused on this paper include: 1. Hierarchy 2. Communication Networks. An organizational hierarchy is a descriptive arrangement of the human resources which represents the structure and positions of individuals relevant to others in the organization. It illustrates through whom the orders flow from and who are liable to act upon it (Jacobides, 2007). It can also be taken as a viewing glass through which individuals see their organization and its environment. Similarly, an organizational hierarchy helps employees identify their tasks and responsibilities with clear identification of their accountability. A typical organizational hierarchy consists of one or very few individuals with power located at the top with subsequent lower levels of power and authority beneath them. An example would be a CEO and Board of Directors on the top most hierarchal level followed by the Head of Departments. Managers follow next and finally other employees and subordinates. For over a century, American companies have used Frederick Taylor’s scientific management theory, (Frederick, 1911) which calls for efficient, precise and bureaucratic organizations. Frederick’s theory gained popularity during the Industrial Revolution when strong leaders emphasized top down control, standard rules, and clearly defined authority and responsibility. (Galbraith, 2002) The traditional organization hierarchical structure – with its dysfunctional effects – continues to face harsher and harsher critique and criticism. An appropriate and functional trend exists away from the traditional authoritarian management styles, the separatist titles and privileges of a multi level hierarchy. Analysts believe that healthy hierarchies in the twenty-first century must encompass around the new success factors of efficiency, speed, flexibility, innovation, and integration resulting from the fast paced, turbulent and ever-changing global economy. Organizational hierarchal structure can be used as a competitive tool allowing the organization with the adequate flexibility to react to continuously changing customer needs while boosting up organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The structure also allows for personal growth by creating opportunities for individuals to take on unlikely and ambitious roles within the same organization. Hierarchal structures also indicate the span of control which is the number of people who report to one superior, usually a manager, in a hierarchy. The more people under the supervision of one manager, the wider the span of control and lesser mean a narrower span of control. To sum it all up, an organizations hierarchal structure illustrates “who does what” and “who reports to whom”. Communication is concerned with the transfer or messages from one spot to another or from one individual(s) to other individual(s). Any communication would be useless unless it is effective meaning that the individual at the receiving end of the communication channel comprehends and understands the message in the exact same way as the sender wanted to. Communication within an organization refers to the transmission of messages/tasks/orders between individuals and in between levels of hierarchy within an organization. It can be in the form of verbal, non-verbal, written and electronic communication. Organizations usually involve some line of command or adopt a certain channel of communication to transfer messages between employees who are located at various positions. Broadly speaking, communication network/channel can be divided into two categories, namely Centralized and Decentralized. Centralized communication involves holding the critical information within the top level of the management only. It also means that the communication is one way, meaning that the flow of information only goes from the top to the bottom of the hierarchy. It is helpful for businesses facing a crisis and requires just one source of decision-making to guide them but such a communication network is losing popularity as employees become smarter while the organizations grow larger. On the other hand, organizations with a decentralized communication network are becoming more popular because of their ability to take advantage of nearly all of their human resources. With decentralized communication, information flows not only vertically but horizontally as well meaning from top to down and with other departments as well. This allows organizations to involve labor into the decision-making process and allows employers to improve performance by attaining information directly from the employees who have first-hand information, knowledge and experience utilizing it to improve the slacking areas. Decentralized communication networks improve employee motivation as it gives them a sense of “trust” for their input laid upon them by the top management. Woolworths Woolworths is a New Zealand based supermarket chain and is a unit of Woolworths Limited. It was founded in 1929 and separated from its parent company Woolworths Limited in Australia and came to be known as Woolworths New Zealand. It is one of the largest employers in Australia with more than 191,000 members. Currently Woolworths has above 20 brands under its belt operating in Australia and New Zealand with expansion projects underway in India, Ghana and Hong Kong. Similarly, Woolworths has more than 800 fully functional stores dealing in various renowned goods and services. In order to organize its vast physical, human and financial resources distributed in numerous geographic locations, Woolworths operates on a tall hierarchal structure meaning that every manager has a limited and manageable number of sub-ordinates reporting directly under him. The core purpose of this structure is to limit the span of control allowing a manager to provide his complete attention and supervision which would have been difficult to carry out if the hierarchal structure was rather flat. Based on the traditional perspective, given the huge amount of members and operating outlets, a centralized and autocratic leadership style would seem feasible. But Woolworths follows Frederick Taylor’s scientific management theory for efficient and precise organizations. In order to attain this, Woolworths consistently communicates with its members through influential individuals within the organization acquiring feedback, suggestions, complaints and critiques which helps the organization achieve consistent growth and development not just in monetary terms. Woolworth’s top level of hierarchal structure comprises of the CEO, Chairman of the board and six other Directors. The subsequent level comprises of the Departmental heads namely; Information & Logistics, Food, Liquor & Petrol, Marketing & Corporate Affairs, Finance, Big W, Customer Engagement, Legal and finally Progressive Enterprises. Several managers fall under each of the department heads with a certain number of sub-ordinates under their strict supervision thus ensuring consistency and the utmost fulfillment of Woolworth’s goals and objectives. References Taylor, Frederick Winslow. (1911) The principles of scientific management. Forgotten Books John, Galbraith .(2002). Designing organizations: (An executive guide to strategy, structure, and process.) Jossey-Bass Business & Management Jacobides, Michael. G. (2007). The inherent limits of organizational structure and the unfulfilled role of hierarchy: Lessons from a near-war. Organization Science. Read More