Free Paper - Fostering Success: Interplay of Organizational Structure and Culture in Workplaces

Introduction

Management in contemporary organizations requires interfacing a well-thought-of organizational structure with leaders' organizational culture to influence adequate decision-making that enhances employees' performance. Information sharing is a crucial practice for new organizations to drive performance and attain a competitive edge in the market (Zheng, 2013). The organizational structure and the organizational culture form the basis of the knowledge and data-sharing process of the management and its employees established by the decision-making process. Improving the organization's performance efficacy remains an essential factor that drives the success and competitive capacity among affiliate entities in the market. The organizational structure and culture form the company's defining characteristics to interact with the external public for quality service delivery and internally between employees and the management (Zheng, 2013). The study examines how organizational structure can interface with organizational culture to create a smooth workflow and reap informative decision-making procedures to improve performance efficacy.

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Inter-twinning organizational structure and culture are essential in improving the corporation between the management and the employees. Organizational structure refers to the "configuration of tasks and activities," shared in common by all the organization's internal public (Zheng, 2013). The practice, such as channels of communication or chain of command in the organization, defines its identity and is determined by the management, employees, or combined. Therefore, there is a need for effective coordination of the routine practices in the organization's system to guarantee a smooth flow of activities to attain workforce performance. Interfacing the organizational structure with culture creates consistency in how duties and obligations should be attended to uniformly, resulting in improved efficiency in quality and timely delivery of services to clients by employees (Oyemomi, 2019). Besides, organizational culture and structure improve the smooth flow of work by creating a team mentality. Employees subscribe to a central managerial system, which gives them an identity element, inspiring them to work together as a unit.

The management structure is crucial in establishing the organization's decision-making process to become the norm when attending work activities. The primary leadership practices that define decision-making flow in an organization are centralization and decentralization (Zheng, 2013). Centralization refers to the concentration of the decision-making power to the organization's top leaders, while decentralization implies that the authority to solve problems is transferred to employees. Any decision-making system applied by an organization amongst its internal public forms its organizational structural and cultural identity. It affects such practices as communication, motivation, and employee satisfaction, which consequently affects the organization's performance. Therefore, the organization's decision-making process gives a unique relationship between its structure and culture, critically affecting its performance in the market.

The purpose of the organization is crucial in maintaining the business entity's viability in a competitive environment. The integration of organizational structure and culture incorporates the goals to be achieved at a specified duration by its management and employees. Culture and strategy form the essential tools of performance introduced to employees to help attain goals and purposes set by the organization (Oyemomi, 2019). The structure provides a formal explanation of an organization's goals to achieve the set targets or purpose. Subscribing to the set goals by all workers results in adapting to systematic norms and practices that will help improve the "viability and effectiveness" to compete favorably with other enterprises in the market (Zheng, 2013). Hence, organizational structure and culture form the basis of achieving the purpose or goals of the company.

The Organizational Structure and Culture of Organizations from the Best Place of Work

According to Montanez (2019), results established from approximately 200 CEOs of reputable multinational companies that shareholders are no longer the modern organization's success focus. Employees form an essential component of the organization, making organizational structure and culture important constituents to improving the organization's viability and effectiveness (Montanez, 2019). The analysis of Microsoft and HubSpot will effectively ascertain how organizational structure and culture play a central role in improving the new companies' performance.

Microsoft

Competition in the software industry necessitates an effective organizational structure and culture for Microsoft to outperform similar companies in the market. The corporation's structure and culture primarily address employee management as an essential managerial practice to thrive and survive in the diverse software industry (Dhillon, 2015). To survive the changing market diversity, Microsoft Corporation restructured its management system, inclusive of the employee, by establishing and involving cultural practices that improve the corporation's internal public to work as a cohesive unit. Microsoft restructured from divisional to functional organizational structures empowering employees to utilize their skills and knowledge to improve the company (Dhillon, 2015). Employees with similar skills are grouped as a unit, enabling them to share ideas and solve problems. Microsoft works towards enforcing collaboration between employees and management.

To fulfill the diversified market needs of emerging managerial issues, Microsoft Corporation invented an organizational design that creates a culture of accountability, collaboration, innovation, and creativity (Dhillon, 2015). Collaboration enables Microsoft to thrive globally since employees from different backgrounds identify with the company's norms and practices, which are technologically oriented, eliminating any cultural barrier that may hinder practical cooperation among workers. Given that software enterprises operate in a competitive environment, Microsoft operationalizes an organizational structure that promotes creativity and innovation to stay viable and competitive in the market. An employee from Microsoft admitted that the company is consistent in promoting a diverse work culture where people interact and share ideas to solve problems to better the quality of products and services available in the market (Montanez, 2019). Therefore, Microsoft Corporation's structure and culture promote efficient operations and an informed decision-making process among employees, helping them attain job satisfaction and improve performance.

HubSpot

HubSpot is another organization employee with the necessary skills and expertise to work in due to its effectively merged organizational structure culture. HubSpot's organizational structure is also functional but diversified, bringing management experts with different experiences tasked with empowering and developing employees. Experienced entrepreneurs and industry experts help cultivate a sustainable culture aligned with its mission and goals (HubSpot, 2020). Besides, the organization has a "Culture Code," which is part of the organizational structure that guides employees in getting acquainted with the company's norms and practices. The HubSpot Culture Code identifies its public as a unit, promoting employees' loyalty and citizenship to the company. They achieve employee performance by supporting them to become who they aspire to be through training and empowerment, which improves their decision-making capacity (HubSpot, 2020). It is essential to create flexibility in modern corporations whereby organizations help employees balance their work and personal lives. The Culture Code tool guides employees on the practical norms and practices they should engage in to improve personal and organizational performance. The company also emphasizes transparency and accountability as a routine practice to avoid modern business problems such as fraud. All the practices highlighted in the Culture Code act as a structure to guide employees on organizational cultural practices.

Companies with Underperforming Organizational Structures and Culture

Companies that lack an effective structure and culture are prone to creating a tense and challenging work environment for employees among other organizations' public. The primary identity of the worst place to work is a toxic culture that creates a relational rift between the management and workers (Parker, 2019). People get obsessed with roles and titles and would not attend to duties they are not designated to do by their supervisors. According to Parker (2019), Forever 21 and Charter Communications are among the worst-performing companies an employee will avoid in the modern employment environment.

Forever 21

A lack of collaboration between employees and management can be catastrophic to the effectiveness of an organization. The organizational structure of Forever 21 has created a toxic culture that undermines employee development and requires the ability to perform. "Unforgiving company policies" such as those that deny employees their break or lunchtime distort their morale negatively (Parker, 2019). The company has one of the unhappiest workforces that is not motivated to work and attract results. The lack of motivation engrained in the organization's culture of failing to reward employees for working extra hours creates a bad reputation among the public. Only 37% of its employees will recommend Forever 21 to someone close to them for an employment opportunity, indicating poor managerial conditions at the firm (Parker, 2019). the company's public image is low, having attracted several lawsuits from the public, including some former employees, an indication of ineffective management to create a reputable organizational system and culture.

Charter Communication

Charter Communication is another underperforming mass communication enterprise receiving disproval from its employees regarding incompetent organizational structure and a toxic culture. The overbearing leadership style that creates a stressful work environment for employees creates undesired organizational behaviors such as absenteeism, which is an element of a toxic culture (Parker, 2019). The company's reward system also demotivates employees from effectively working to be competitive in the market. Therefore, Charter Communication's ineffective organizational structure results in the development of a toxic culture that suppresses employee performance and job satisfaction.

Discussion for Best and Worst Places of Work

The primary element that enhances structure and culture integration is an effective collaboration between employees and management. Policies and goals create a conducive and flexible working environment that promotes essential elements of developing an employee, such as job satisfaction, to guarantee performance effectiveness. Performing companies in organizational structures and culture will empower employees to initiate an autonomous decision-making process to solve work-related problems. The structure and culture also drive creativity and innovation, whereby the management supports developmental ideas and rewards performance. It is not easy to differentiate a manager and an employee in a well-performing organization.