Unit 3 Organisations and Behaviour Solution

Task 1

Write a 2000 word essay that describes the structure and culture of the organisation you have been involved with this semester. Analyse how these factors contribute to the organisations performance. Your essay should refer to relevant theories and models of organisational design and culture.

Organisation structure refers to the type in which the activities of the organisation are allocated, coordinated or supervised, so that the ultimate objectives of the organisation can be achieved. There are different types of organisational structures like Functional organisational structures, Divisional organisational structures and Matrix organisational structures.Organisation culture, on the other hand, is the system of which represents the assumptions, values or beliefs of the people in the organisation which governs their behaviour at the workplace. It is a unique environment within the organisation which helps the companies to manage their work (Sallee, 2012).

It is evident that the success of the business firm depends on its structure and culture which together constitute its management. Here, in this assignment the structure and culture of an American organization, Facebook will be discussed which helps in earning the profits and in accomplishing the ultimate objectives of the organization. The company is founded by Mark Zuckerburg and within few years, the company is among the top earning companies of the world. This is because of the unique structure and culture followed by Facebook for its operations. Its main mission is to link maximum no. of people on this platform and to empower users to be more open and connected with each other (Zheng, et. al., 2010).

Facebook is operating all over the world and has around thousands of employees working in the organization. The company has developed a matrix structure in the organization where the combination of two or more structures is followed. Here, the employees are set in a hierarchy and they have dual reporting relationships which mean that they have to report to both the functional manager and the product manager (Islam, et. al., 2015). Matrix structure shows the balance between the different organizational structures. With this type of structure, Facebook achieves more efficiency and it becomes quick in adapting to the market requirements and changing customer demands (Islam, et. al., 2015). This type of structure is most suitable for those organisations which functions in the dynamic environment and matrix structure is not suitable for the organisations which are stagnant and does not function according to the changing environment and produce or provide standard products and services. Facebook adopts this structure to encourage a good flow of information within the organization and so that it can achieve higher growth rates by the improved performance of the employees (Islam, et. al., 2015).

There is no structure which is perfect for all the situations in the organisations and the structure depends on the goals of the organisation. There are formal and informal structure followed in the organisations. Where formal structures relate to the documentation and communication between the higher authority channels and departments, informal structure, on the other hand informal structure depicts how the individuals can communicate with each other (Suppiah & Sandhu, 2011). Facebook uses the combination of both the formal and informal structures to bring effectiveness in the flow of information within the organisation and to enhance performance of the organisation. The matrix structure followed in Facebook has the advantage of both the unitary form and multi-dimensional form. Every organisational unit of Facebook has to report to many leaders so that the work of every team can be completed on time and with efficiency (Stare, 2011). For e.g. the content developer is engaged in the marketing team of Facebook and meanwhile the organisation gets some other project which needs a helping hand from the content developer. In this case, the employee will be temporarily assigned for the new project and at time, the employee has to report to two leaders at a time. Here, every team is responsible for their actions and performance considering the timelycompletion of the project and within the budgets decided for the functions. It is challenging to work under this structure and a proper direction is needed so as to avoid confusion (Stare, 2011).

Matrix structure which is followed in Facebook requires the power and authority to be shared among different managers in the company for the teams.  It benefits the organisation as the highly skilled and talented resources can be utilised by different teams or projects in the company (Eppinger & Browning, 2012). It helps in the sharing of information and knowledge in the organisation. It is dynamic and helps in establishing open and communicative environment which integrates different functions of the organisation. It brings enhancement in the skills and knowledge of the employees which can be utilised whenever and wherever possible or needed in the organisation (Eppinger & Browning, 2012).

Organisation culture of Facebook is open and very cooperative. It provides an opportunity to the employees to present their views and opinions so that their creative ideas can be proved as beneficial for the company. Here, small teams work for different projects which lead to faster achievement of goals and it also provides flexibility to its employees in terms of working hours and working methods so that they can work free from any pressure from the management. Like this, their innovative mind get develop and are applied in the processes which caters unique and different products for the customers/ users. This also helps them in maintaining the competitiveness in the industry and facilitates innovation in their activities (Wood, 2010).

Facebook uses strong culture theory, according to which the managers and the employees in the organisation are strongly committed to their work, values and beliefs of the organisations. It results in the effective performance of the company ultimately. This theory also shows that there is a positive relationship between strong corporate culture and the profits of the organisation (Ramachandran, et. al., 2011).  If the same culture s followed in the whole organisation then it makes easy for different teams to share their goals and objectives and they can adopt similar processes to achieve these goals. This culture also motivates the employees in the organisation to perform their best for their organisation which is providing them with enough of independence and opportunities to prove themselves. Common culture in the organisation provides a sense of belongingness to the employees and they are able to share responsibilities of the organisation which provides success to the company (Wood, 2010).

It is very important to understand the culture and structure of the organisation which helps in understanding the environment of the market and also helps in achieving the organisational objectives and better performance of the organisation. The organisation can implement a desired structure and culture in the workplace once it decides on the expectations from the employees, their work, behaviour, involvement in the organisation. Organisational structures not only increase the capabilities of the organisations but it also utilises the processes and resources available which result in the increased performance of the organisation (Wood, 2010).

The organisation which is poorly structured cannot bring motivation in employees and ultimately performance from the employees. A poorly structured organisation cannot have proper control on the employee’s performance, procedures of organisation and on the policies. Effective culture of the organisation increases the positive mentality of the employees which increase their productivity and ultimately the performance of the organisation. Human resources are developed in the organisational culture of Facebook. This is done through training and other methods which increases the skills and talents of the employees which enhances the creativity in business and innovation which is the major need of the social media business. Some features which constitute the culture in Facebook are openness, speed, continuous improvement in performance, creative approach in decision making, prompt problem solving (Wood, 2010).

It is clear from the above discussion that the structure and culture of the organisation are the major elements which determines its success. If an organisation has suitable culture and structure, it becomes easy for it to achieve the objectives. It also helps in meeting the competition in the industry and attracts maximum no of customers. The structure of the organisation depends on its size and effectiveness. It is also dependent on the culture which is followed in the organisation, and that is how both are related (Zheng, et. al., 2010).

The culture and structure of the organisation are interrelated. Where the structure depicts that how the tasks are allocated and divided and what role and authorities are given to people, culture allows this framework to flourish by developing suitable environment and it also motivates the employees to move in the direction of achieving the goals of the organisation. That is how they impact the performance of the business. The culture and structures of Facebook are like its backbone which helps in creating new designs and strategies to achieve its objectives. This also determines the policies and procedures of business environment which has to be followed by the employees and determines the type and flow of communication within the organisation (Zheng, et. al., 2010).

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Theories of organisational design and culture

There are different theories of organisation’s design and culture which shows how the organisation plans its approach for increasing the productivityand the performance of the same. Some of the models are like classical theory, neoclassical theories and modern theories given by different people (Tierney, 2011).

Scientific management approach

It is the theory which manages the workflow of the organisation and improves its efficiency and productivity of the employees. It promotes the idea that there is a standard way of doing things right for the organisation. The theory was propounded by Frederick Winslow Taylor and he gave some principles of management which according to him can bring the effectiveness in the workflow of the organisation. These principles are:

• Science, Not a rule of thumb: according to this, the organisation should not be stucked with the same old techniques and the organisation should keep on experimenting with new approaches which can bring effectiveness in the organisation.
• Harmony, Not discord: it means that harmony should be established in the organisation and it will beneficialfor the companies.
• Cooperation, not Individualism: it means that people in the organisation should work in the cooperation with each other.
• Development of everyone: It means that every person or employee should get opportunity to develop and training should be provided for the same (Tierney, 2011).

This theory suggests that the organisations should work in accordance with these principles so that the strong culture will be build up establishing harmony among all and all could contribute their efforts for bringing effectiveness in the activities of the organisation. This theory studied different ways of bringing workplace efficiency and sand idea to set up systematic organisational design (Tierney, 2011).

Neoclassical theory

This theory deals with the humans and given by Elton Mayo which provided the ideas that to improve the performance of the organisation, human relations should be improved so that the increased productivity and satisfaction of employees could bring efficiency in the performance of the organisation (Sallee, 2012).

Contingency or situational approach

Contingency or situational theory suggests that there is no single way of leading or managing the organisation and so different styles should be used matching the requirements of the organisation. It is given by Fiedler and he suggests that the combination of different styles can be adopted to handle the different situations in the dynamic global business environment (Sallee, 2012). The situational favourableness is dependent on three factors which are:

• Leader member relationships
• Structure of tasks
• The position power of leader

Different political, Economic, social and technological factors are concerned to adopt any structure or culture in the organisation which is the most suitable in the organisation.

It can be concluded that the organisational structures can be complex for employees and for the organisations. The structures should be established by considering all the related factors and situations because it determines the success or failure of the business. The performance of the business is closely related with it functions, structures, culture and people management in the organisation. The theories of organisation and management brought improvement in the performance of the companies. Culture of the organisation can lead to the performance of the employees which was desired and expected from them by Facebook. This is the main reason behind the success of the company worldwide (Sallee, 2012).

References

Devi Ramachandran, S., Choy Chong, S. & Ismail, H. 2011, "Organisational culture", International Journal of Educational Management, vol. 25, no. 6, pp. 615-634.
Eppinger, S.D. & Browning, T.R. 2012, Design Structure Matrix Methods and Applications,1st edn, Mit Press, US.
Islam, M.Z., Jasimuddin, S.M. & Hasan, I. 2015, "Organizational culture, structure, technology infrastructure and knowledge sharing: Empirical evidence from MNCs based in Malaysia", VINE, vol. 45, no. 1, pp. 67-88.
Sallee, M.W. 2012, "The Ideal Worker or the Ideal Father: Organizational Structures and Culture in the Gendered University", Research in Higher Education, vol. 53, no. 7, pp. 782-802.
Suppiah, V. & Singh Sandhu, M. 2011, "Organisational culture's influence on tacit knowledge-sharing behaviour", Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 15, no. 3, pp. 462-477.
Tierney, W.G. 2011, The Impact of Culture on Organizational Decision-Making: Theory and Practice in Higher Education, Stylus Publishing.
Wood, J.M. 2010, Organisational behaviour: core concepts and applications, 2nd Australasian edn, John Wiley & Sons Australia, Milton, Qld.
Zheng, W., Yang, B. & McLean, G.N. 2010, "Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management", Journal of Business Research, vol. 63, no. 7, pp. 763-771.