Organization Structure & Processes: A Critical Overview - Essay Sample

Introduction

The structure and processes of every organization are critically important; they direct, guide, and shape almost everything the organization does, from strategy planning to business intelligence to hiring employees and taking care of customers. These structures and processes of organizations are not always easy to fix (Tolbert & Hall, 2015). This is because they cut across every aspect of the company, and to amend them it will require a search for consensus and a great effort. Considering a lack of understanding of how they drive business performance, there usually is little appetite for performance.

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Moving to the next generation would require the organization leaders to understand and do the right things. It begins with an understanding of how the company structure affects the organization's performance.

To understand the organizational structure, management may need to research much on critical areas of the organization. The administration needs to know if their span of control is efficient and effective in accomplishing its business model (Brettel et al, 2015). The management also needs to make sure the divisions and departments work for the best entity higher in the company, and they are having all the right expertise and capacity to their tasks and requirements.

Authorities and employees within each department and division should be appropriate to their duties and responsibilities, and the senior and intermediate leader should make sure communications reach customers quickly and unaltered (Allen et al, 2016). The organization should be informed of what the employees think and well aware of the structure that is responsive to customers.

Process and Culture

A process is everything an organization does every day, over some time, and everyone in the organization does it. These actions might be small or large, thoughts or words, but they all comprise the culture of the organization, and they are responsible for predicting and defining how the processes will perform over time (Brettel et al, 2015).

Process starts with understanding how organizations process affects performance. As the organizational structure, the management is responsible for finding out if the operations are efficient and effectively connect the organization and its parts. The process should be easy to understand, and they support the customers' needs and wants.

Management should understand why the process is needed, who it helps, and if it adds value to the organization (Tolbert & Hall, 2015). There should be useful business intelligence, strategy development, planning assessment, and planning processes that the management and employees are aware of. The organization also needs to allow employees to access assistance for initiatives through the company process and be mindful of what they think.

Over years, the structure and processes of an organization create culture. An organization's habits, attitude, and practices can be useful and can also be bad for the organization (Brettel et al, 2015). Good habits, beliefs, and practices indicate good culture, which results in high organizational performance. Bad habits attitudes and methods result in a lousy culture, which in turn equals not such excellent organizational performance. By changing what an organization does every day, culture is changed, the same way it is created.

The Link Between Culture and Structure

Organizational structure and culture must be very open, innovative, and creative in that employees can easily adjust and gain satisfaction from their corporate working environment. Every organization has a different structure and culture; this is because of their different sizes, nature, and scale of operations (Brettel et al, 2015).

Organizational culture and structure are interdependent. An organization's structure defines the attitude, policies, strategies, and moral values, which in turn creates culture. For instance, if an organization follows a strict hierarchy and the decision-making process is left for the top management, there will be a lack of freedom, and employee involvement and the culture will be rigid and less effective (Tolbert & Hall, 2015). However, if the structure is decentralized, decision-making power, authority, and responsibilities is shared with workers at different levels in all departments, the culture will be more exciting, accountable, and independent.

Organizational culture always revolves around the organizational structure, and culture change will require a difference in the organization's structure. However, an organization's structure can remain, but corporate culture can change if the administration changes how employees are assigned to roles in the same structure.

Organizational Situations

Many ways can lead to organizational problems. Often these problems are caused by the lack of open, flowing communications or by using the wrong organizational structure (Lee & Varon, 2020). These problems are at different potential levels, common types of issues affecting organizations are, board operations, strategic planning, business planning, management development, employee development, teamwork, or organization-wide issues.

Individual employee problems can be because of personality conflicts, supervisor issues, or company structure-oriented, while team problems may be because of organizational or management communication breakdown that confuses team personal common goals (Lee & Varon, 2020). Organization-wide problems mostly arise from a simple employee or team issue if there were no immediate corrective actions.

Problem-Based Learning (PBL) Scenario: Cameron Mechanical & Automation, Inc. (CMA)

The decision by the CEO to eliminate several management positions resulted in employee resistance to the change due to the many responsibilities laid to them. This problem can be solved by polling employees to identify all the weaknesses in the management communication structure. The feeling of many responsibilities may be because of management failure. Work delegated to the employees should be examined, and feedback solicited from employees on managers' performance and openness.

If managers do not adequately communicate information, expectations, priorities, or changes within the rest of the department in time or at all, it results in information hampering. Not disclosing the company's expectations in time may result in the feel in pressure like CMA R&D vice president Kevin Adams felt pressure to keep up with the competition.

Staffing problems arising from the mistrusts between employees and managers may be a result of a lack of employee appreciation from their managers. This problem can be solved by sourcing feedback from employees on their manager's performance and openness. In addition, by telling their managers to pay attention to their daily interactions with employees and to deliver small measures of encouragement to employees that merit raise office morale and employee self-worth can help solve the problem.

Even though both the leadership style has advantages, the departments are free to choose the type of leadership they want. Democratic leadership style adopted by the vice president of the marketing department Jim Stevens has many advantages over Melissa Simons' transitional style because it involves all employees in the department in operations and decision-making.

The CEO should adopt the democratic style of leadership to all departments. This way, the employees in all the departments will feel they are part of the organization, which will boost their morale and bring diversification in the workforce. In a democratic style of leadership, employees can share their views, ideas, and creativity. Their involvement will increase organizational activities and increase the company's efficiency. For instance, when I talked to Sonja Diaz, she admitted that if the production department she is working under had a different style of leadership, she would be allowed to contribute to the process, and her many ideas would help streamline the production process.

A regular examination of how work is delegated in the office is also required. Jerry McVie of the marketing department felt unchallenged because management is failing to charge jobs among employees appropriately. Failure to delegate work can create ill will among employees who believe they have the potential and adequate skills to perform tasks. When employees are underused, not trusted with important tasks, or they are not given opportunities to develop their skills, there is much possibility the management has failed in delegating jobs among them.

Lack of communication between the divisional leaders can be solved by seeking ways to connect across the departments, and cultivating collaborative opportunities among the leaders and departments. Sitting in routine departmental meetings to communicate organizational and departmental goals and plans will help solve leaders' indifferences in the departments.

Lack of clear and concrete goals can result to management staffing issues because employees are not aware of what is required of them by the organization and their departments. The separation between divisions that have led to negative middle management staffing issues can be solved by assessing both the organizational and the department's goals so that management and employees can work together on a common organizational goal.

Recommendations and Conclusion

Cameron Mechanical & Automation Inc. (CMA) problems are linked to its organizational culture. My recommendation will be the need for the company to change its culture. A company with an influential culture can effectively improve its culture because its employees are responsive to its organizational structure.

In a customer-driven model like Cameron Mechanical & Automation Inc. (CMA), changing its structure at every level of the organization can lead to culture change without so much effort. This change can be achieved by eliminating some layers of management and the changing roles of departmental managers at all levels. Also role assignments like reassigning technical specialists in existing departments can help change the company's culture.

Employee involvement through a grassroots approach is a key to culture change. Although it might be a multidisciplinary approach, employee involvement can only be achieved if the employees change their attitudes by collaborating with management.

References

Allen, R. W., Porter, L. W., & Angle, H. L. (2016). Organizational influence processes. Routledge. https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781315290614

Brettel, M., Chomik, C., & Flatten, T. C. (2015). How organizational culture influences innovativeness, proactiveness, and risktaking: Fostering entrepreneurial orientation in SMEs. Journal of small business management, 53(4), 868-885. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jsbm.12108

Lee, J., & Varon, A. L. (2020). Employee exit, voice, loyalty, and neglect in response to dissatisfying organizational situations: It depends on supervisory relationship quality. International Journal of Business Communication, 57(1), 30-51. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/2329488416675839

Tolbert, P. S., & Hall, R. H. (2015). Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes. Routledge. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl