Business Enterprise:

Internal Organisation
Grouping of activities

‘An organisation is the rational co-ordination of the activities of a number of people for
the achievement of some common explicit purpose or goal, through the division of labour
and a hierarchy of authority.’

Edgar Schein

Whilst Schein gives us a general definition of an organisation, he does not tell us how
that organisation is structured – what activities are grouped together and why. In fact
there are many different types of business organisation and many different ways that
organisations can be structured.

Functional grouping

This was a very common organisational structure, widely used by British companies up to
the 1960s. In recent years it has largely been replaced by divisional grouping based on
product or service (as described below). This is where the activities in an organisation
are grouped into departments based on similar skills, expertise and resource used. The
functional departments most commonly found in modern organisations include:

• Marketing

• Human Resource Management

• Finance
 • Operations

• Research and Development

• Administration.

Such organisations usually have a centralised decision-making structure that provides a

unified direction for the organisation originating from the top. Each functional
department may be large with a great many employees.

Product/service grouping

Here the grouping of activities is based around a particular product or service and is usually described as
a division. Each division is a self-contained unit. The functional activities – marketing, finance, operations,
administration, research and development, and human resources – needed to produce the single product or
service will be grouped together and assigned to that product. They are likely to be smaller in size than in
a functionally based structure.

In most cases, organisations using this type of structure are very large, producing a variety of products
for different markets. They are also often highly decentralised. Time Warner Inc. has divisions that
include Time magazine, Warner Brothers record company, HBO (Home Box Office, a leading pay cable
television channel), and a book publisher called Little, Brown.
Customer grouping

O rganisations structured
around customers or groups of clients are more likely to be found in the service sector.
They may exist in a private medical practice for example, but may also be used as the
structural basis for sales teams where each representative has his/her own customer
group. Organisations like this offer a high degree of personalised service to their
customers. They are highly responsive to immediate customer needs and to the
anticipation and provision of future customer wants due to the close links they have with
their customers.

Place/territory grouping

An alternative structure can be designed around a geographical or territorial base. The

grouping of activities is organised by geographical region. For example, an organisation
might have both a North-East Scotland group and a Midlands group. Many organisations
selling to a broad customer base spread over a large area are structured in this way.
Multinational organisations, such as Shell Exploration and Production, have a
geographical base.

O rganisations structured
along these lines can meet the needs of customer groups in different countries who may
have language and cultural differences. This allows specialist knowledge and specific
marketing techniques to be applied. In Britain we had the ‘Marathon’ bar, whilst
everywhere else had the ‘Snickers’ bar. This was because the bar was launched in the UK
around the time that running became the nation’s favourite sport. Everyone wanted to
complete a marathon, and the bar was named to associate an image of fitness and fun
with a type of chocolate bar.

There may be significant cost advantages in hiring a local workforce, especially for
unskilled and semi-skilled work. This can be seen in the oil industry, for example, where
Shell recruit large numbers of local workers in Nigeria and the Middle East.

Technology grouping

Organisations may group their activities along technological lines. This is often because
they produce diverse products that require different technological processes. It is
really only appropriate when there are obvious stages of production, and where these
stages flow naturally on from one to the next. There are many manufacturing firms set
up along these lines, but, although it is possible, such a structure is seldom seen in the
service industries.

Organisations can achieve many benefits from grouping activities in this way. There is
scope for increased specialisation within the workforce because training is simplified
and concentrated on only one technological system. When problems in the production
process occur it is easy to pinpoint where they have arisen.

Line/staff grouping

Line departments perform tasks that reflect the organisation’s goals or objectives. They undertake the
core operations (those that directly return revenue to the organisation). Line authority describes the
relationship between superior and subordinate in the organisation. At the top of the line in the typical
large organisation there will be the Board of Directors. Below them will come the management team in
charge of the day-to-day running of the organisation. Below them there will be various functional
departments, such as marketing, finance, production and human resources. There is also likely to be a line
structure within each of these departments. Starting with the department manager the line will progress
down to the most junior worker.

Staff departments are seen as having the role of providing specialised skills to support line departments.
Staff departments do not return revenue direct to the organisation, and will include activities such as
strategic planning, human resources, finance, and research and development. Staff authority is largely
advisory, and is often very specialised. The staff department works for the whole organisation, not just
for one department or division within it.

In recent years some organisations have out-sourced their staff activities to allow a
more concentrated approach to their own core activities. For example, BP have out-
sourced their accounting activities, and these are now carried out for BP by Andersen
Accounting.

Summary

Whilst it may seem easy to structure organisations by grouping their activities into one or other of the
examples given above, a great many organisations have their activities arranged in a combination of ways.
For example, a manufacturing organisation may be very largely structured along a product basis, but may
have a functional arrangement for its financial activities. A structure based on customer grouping may
have a human resources department that serves the entire organisation – a staff relationship.

Each type of activity grouping has both advantages and disadvantages for the
organisation. Product, geographical or customer-based organisations may be faster to
respond to changes in the market place, but there may be a lot of duplication of
activities and services within the organisation. Functionally based organisations are led
from the top and may be highly structured with long and complex decision-making
processes. They may also suffer from rivalry between functional departments. However,
there is little duplication of services and many benefits to be gained from departmental
specialisation.

Functional activities of organisations

Functional relationships within organisations exist when people, who perform similar tasks, and use similar
skills or resources, are grouped into sections or departments. These functional activities are all essential
to the organisation, each section or department contributing to the overall performance of the
organisation. Each may have its own manager or section head. Departments can be large or small, with few
or many employees. For example, in a retail organisation such as Tesco there will be far more sales staff
than administration staff in each store, yet both are essential to the efficient running of the store.

Grouping employees together in departments based on skills or use of similar resources,

or similarity of work has a number of advantages for the organisation.

There is efficient use of resources;

• Individuals develop in-depth skills in one area of work;

• Individuals have specific expertise or training in one area of work;

• Career progress is often based on functional expertise – therefore employees are

motivated to develop their skills in one particular field (think of teachers who most
 often get promotion firstly to assistant principal teacher then to head of department
in their own subject);

• This structure provides a way of centralising decision-making because there are only
a few managers who between them may be responsible for a large number of
employees;

• Communication and co-ordination between members of a department are excellent;

• The idea of working as a member of a team often motivates individuals to work

harder;

• Individuals will be working with others who are also ‘experts’ in one particular area
of work – problem sharing and problem solving is greatly improved.

However, having a number of functional departments within an organisation can also lead
to problems.

• There are often barriers and rivalries between departments;

• Communication between departments can be slow, resulting in poor

coordination of the organisation’s activities;

• This can also lead to a slow response time to external factors, such as changes in
customer demand;

• Decision-making can be a long and slow process as each department is consulted and
responds with information or suggestions which then have to be passed onto other
departments for consideration;

• Work in individual departments can be so specialised that it becomes routine and

meaningless. Being such a small part of the whole operation, employees may only see
departmental goals and lose sight of the organisation’s goals;

• It may be difficult to pinpoint responsibility for problems within departments.

In modern organisations it is likely that some or all of the following functional

departments will be found:

• Marketing

• Human Resource Management

 • Finance

• Operations

• Research and Development.

Marketing

The Institute of Marketing defines ‘Marketing’ in the following way:

‘Marketing is the management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and

satisfying customer requirements profitably.’

This means that the Marketing department will put the customer first.

• It will find out what the customer wants by conducting market research.

• It will develop and design a product that will satisfy the needs it has identified in its customers.

• It will make sure that the product is produced in the right quantities and at the
right quality.

• It will provide advice about the best price for the product so that it is affordable to the target
customers, but also at a level that will return satisfactory profits to the organisation.

• It will make sure that all customers, existing or potential, know about the product through promotion
and advertising.

• It will make sure that the product is available to buy in a place that is convenient for the customer,
whether this is a shop, a discount warehouse or by mail order.

• It will ensure that the customer continues to be satisfied with the product after it
has been purchased.

Human Resource Management

People are the most important resource in any organisation. They are the only unique
resource, and therefore the only one that can give an organisation a truly competitive
edge in the long term. Because of this, the Human Resource function of an organisation
is a very important one.

The Institute of Personnel Management defines HRM in the following way:

‘HRM is that part of management which is concerned with people at work and with their
relationships within an enterprise. It applies not only to industry and commerce but to all
fields of employment.’

Its main responsibilities include:

• Manpower planning and control,

• Recruitment,

• Selection,

• Training and development,

• Appraisal,

• Pay administration,

• Job and organisation design,

• Collective bargaining,

• Grievance and disputes procedures,

• Employment legislation,

• Employee communications and counselling,

• Personnel information and records.

Finance

Accountants form the largest professional group in Britain. Their number is far higher in
the UK than in any of our leading competitor countries. Many of those who qualify in
accountancy work in business organisations, either as financial specialists or as general
managers. Professional accountancy is often viewed as the best training ground for
senior management.

The financial function of an organisation is concerned with the management of the

financial activities of the organisation.

It covers three main areas:

• Financial accounting

• Management accounting

• Financial reporting.

Financial accounting is concerned with the management of an organisation’s capital or funds. It will source
and raise funds to finance operations. It is responsible for ensuring that the organisation can generate
enough money to cover the cost of these funds – whether this is in the form of loan and interest
repayments payable to lenders, or in the form of dividends payable to shareholders.

Management accounting is concerned with applying accounting techniques that will provide the
organisation’s management with sufficient financial information to assist them in the process of decision-
making. It is concerned both with the actual use of funds within the operations of the organisation and
with predictions about their use. This part of the finance department’s

activities will be responsible for providing budgets, both as a control tool and as a means
of selecting the best alternative from various predicted outcomes.

Financial reporting is concerned with the collection and presentation of data for use in both financial
accounting and management accounting. The main statements it produces are the Trading Profit and Loss
Account and the Balance Sheet. This information is of great value to the management of the organisation.
Public limited companies are legally bound to provide these statements, along with accompanying notes and
a Directors’ Report, to Companies House each year.

Operations

This is the function within the organisation that transforms inputs through a process
into outputs.

INPUTS PROCESS OUTPUTS

Raw Materials Using different amounts The actual goods

+ of different resources or services for

Labour in order to produce a sale

Different end product

In some instances Operations describes a production process that takes some

combination of raw materials, labour and capital equipment and processes them into
goods for sale to customers. Levi Strauss, Peugeot and Heinz are examples of
organisations that use this type of process.
In other cases the term describes the provision of an obvious service, such as
hairdressing, or a less obvious one such as the administration of local government. In
fact, the service sector has grown three times as fast as the manufacturing sector in
the North American economy, and the UK economy is similar. Today, more than half of
all organisations are service providers. Examples include British Airways, McDonald’s and
Vidal Sassoon.

Research and Development

Not all organisations have a Research and Development function. It involves technical
research, for example into a new medicine, a new car or a new variety of breakfast
cereal. In some industries, such as computers, pharmaceuticals and motor
manufacturing, Research and Development is a vital part of any successful organisation.
Modern success stories involving Research and Development include Hewlett Packard,
where innovation is part of the culture of the organisation. Glaxo owes its current
success and growth

to the commitment it has made to R & D. The Microsoft Corporation was born from the
research, development and vision of its founder, Bill Gates, who initially developed the
software for IBM. In 1994 the organisation spending the largest amount on research
and development in Britain was ICI – but they only ranked 35th in the world.

Such work can be very expensive, and therefore many organisations will adapt products
originally developed by other organisations, rather than undertake new work themselves.

Forms of organisational structure

Hierarchical structure

This is the traditional structure for many medium and large organisations. It is also sometimes called a
pyramid structure because of its shape – like a pyramid. Decisions and instructions are passed down from
the senior staff of the organisation to the workforce, and information passes back up the pyramid.
Position in the pyramid indicates the level of responsibility the individual has – the higher up the pyramid
the greater the responsibility. Members of the organisation have clearly defined roles and procedures –
often laid down to define their behaviour at work. Specialisation of tasks is very common, and this is often
combined with a breaking up of the organisation into functional departments. This specialisation allows the
organisation to benefit from economies of scale in its operations.

In recent years this type of organisation has been criticised for its inability to respond
quickly to changes in market and consumer demands. It is also often felt that such
structures suffer from time delays, both in communications passing up and down the
structure and in the decision-making process, when many individuals on different levels
are required to provide input. Some large organisations – the Civil Service, the Armed
Services, the Police, and the National Health Service – may have a very large number of
layers in the pyramid – 20 to 30 layers is not uncommon.

Example: A school’s hierarchical structure (Christon Academy)

Rector

Classroom Teachers

Principal Teachers

Assistant Head Teachers

R
 M

D
E
C
I
S
I
O
N
S

S
T
R
U
C
T
I
O
N
S

It is important to remember that many individual schools belong to a much larger

organisation. They are part of a local authority and the local authority itself is part of a
larger organisation. All local authorities in Scotland come under the control of the
Scottish Parliament.

Communications and operational decisions within the school are made relatively quickly. These might
include telephoning a teacher on the supply list to come in and provide cover for an absent colleague,
closing the school because of bad weather, or deciding the date for Sports Day. The individual school
would make these decisions itself. Tactical decisions, including the setting of local holidays, or the start
date of the new academic year, or the total number of teachers each school is entitled to, will be made by
the local authority. The Scottish Parliament will make strategic decisions, such as the content of the
curriculum and the form examinations will take.

Flat structure

The flat structure is just what it says – flat. There are very few levels in the hierarchy.
This has a number of significant benefits for the organisation. The main one is that
communications are passed quickly from one level to another. This speeds up the
processing of information and any decision-

making. Many small organisations, such as professional partnerships of doctors, dentists

or lawyers, use this type of structure.

Example: A doctor’s practice

Dr McCoy Dr Crusher Dr Bashir

Nurse Nurse Nurse

3 secretary/receptionists

Increasingly, large organisations are moving towards a flater structure, largely in an

attempt to overcome the problems of a hierarchical structure. This often involves
cutting out some of the layers of the hierarchy (see later notes on ‘delayering’).

Matrix structure

This structure emphasises getting people together who have particular specialist skills
and placing them in project teams to complete specific tasks. Individuals have their own
areas of functional responsibility within the overall remit of the project. Many people
argue that this is the best way to organise individuals, as it is based on the expertise
and skills of the people involved.

In its favour, the matrix structure gives scope for ALL individuals to use their talents
effectively. There is no hierarchy – everyone in the project team has the same level of
responsibility and authority. It is also likely that all individuals will get the opportunity
to work in a variety of project teams over a period of time. This variety of work
promotes personal staff development, and increases job satisfaction and motivation.

Against its use lie the arguments that it is costly in terms of support staff (for
example, secretaries and administration staff) as each project team may need its own
dedicated back-up. There are also problems with coordinating a team made up of
individuals from different functional departments.

Example: Shell UK Exploration and Construction

Production Engineering Maintenance Finance

Project 1

M anager

Brent Alpha

Project 2

M anager

Brent Bravo

Project 3

Manager
 B
rent Charlie

Entrepreneurial structure

This is a common structure in many small businesses and in those organisations where
decisions have to be made quickly, such as in the production of daily newspapers.
Decisions are made centrally with very little input from staff, and are based on the
expertise of only one or two individuals. There is a great reliance on a few key workers.

There can be problems with this structure as the organisation grows. Too heavy a
workload is placed on too few individuals who have responsibility for decision-making.
This can lead to inefficiency.

Centralised structures
Here all of the control and decision-making lies with the most senior directors or
managers or the owners of the organisation. Subordinates have little or no authority at
all. This type of structure is often associated with a hierarchical structure and has
several key advantages:

• Organisations may benefit from strong leadership from the top;

• Senior management have control of all aspects of finance and budgeting;

• Procedures, such as ordering, purchasing and storage can be standardised – this can
lead to the organisation benefiting from economies of scale;

• Decisions are made from the point of view of the business as a whole, not for the
particular benefit of one department or another;

• Managers are likely to be more experienced and skilled in the role of management
and the decisions they make will be of better quality;

• It is easier to promote a corporate image if the organisation adopts a centralised

approach, as all external communications can be done in a standardised format.

Decentralised structures

In these organisations decision-making and control are delegated to and carried out by
subordinates. This relieves senior management of having to make many of the routine
operational decisions required by the organisation. This structure is often associated
with a flat structure and also has several key advantages:

• The delegation of authority is felt by many to be a key motivator for subordinates

and allows them to be groomed for senior positions when they become available;

• Subordinates often have better first-hand knowledge of the requirements of their

departments or customers, and can therefore make better quality decisions based on
this knowledge;

• Delegation allows a more proactive approach and much greater flexibility of roles;

• Decision-making is quicker and more responsive to external changes.

There is no ‘right’ form of organisational structure. For each organisation the structure
it adopts must reflect its aims and objectives and be the best – at that moment in time –
to fulfil these. It may well be the case that an organisation will change its structure as
it grows and responds to changes in its external environment.

Aspects of organisational structure

Organisational charts

These show the structure of the organisation in diagrammatic form. Individuals are
identified in specific positions within the organisation, clearly showing their links to
others along lines of authority and responsibility.

Advantages of organisational charts:

• Each individual can be named in the position he or she holds, providing clear
identification;

• They identify appropriate lines of communication or where bottlenecks occur;

• They identify the span of control or number of subordinates each individual has (see below);

• New members of staff can learn who they are responsible to and for;

• They may identify areas where it would be appropriate to call in a specialist staff
member, for example a design engineer in the production department;

• The links between individual departments can be identified;

 • Functional levels in the organisation can be easily identified.

Disadvantages of organisational charts:

• They do not show how much authority each position in the chart carries;

• They do not identify any informal relationships (see below) that occur.

The span of control

This refers to the number of workers or subordinates under a supervisor or manager.

There is no perfect size for a span of control. Henri Fayol, a writer on management,
suggested that the optimum size should be between 3 and 6 subordinates because this
gives the manager a lot of control over his subordinates. He also argued that 3–6
subordinates was all that a manager could cope with.

In this diagram the Area Manager has a span of control of 5 sales staff.

Area Manager

5 x sales staff

There are, however, four important factors that should be considered when deciding on
the span of control of any manager or supervisor:

• The calibre and ability of the manager or supervisor must be considered. Some
people are better at managing and leading than others and can therefore cope with a
larger number of subordinates.

• The calibre and ability of the subordinates must be considered. Intelligent,

motivated and able subordinates will need little in the way of control, and therefore a
superior can manage a relatively large number of people. The same will not be true if
subordinates are lazy, demotivated or less able.

• The third factor that should be considered is the actual task itself. A task of great
importance to the organisation, or of a difficult nature, will be more likely to be
 closely controlled by the manager, and therefore a small number of subordinates
would be more appropriate.

• Fourthly, the practices and customs of the organisation must be taken into account.
In some organisations there may be clear indicators and guidelines as to the number
of subordinates in each span of control. If this is stuck to rigidly, some managers may
struggle to cope with the number of subordinates they have, whilst others may find
that they are not given enough to do.

Line relationships

This describes the relationship between superior and subordinate and can be clearly identified on an
organisation chart as a vertical line between individuals.

In the diagram below the line relationship is between the Area Manager and the five sales staff.

Area Manager

5 x sales staff

Functional relationships

These exist between individuals at the same level in the hierarchy. These individuals have the same level
of authority and responsibility, although they may be in different departments, or even in different
locations. This relationship can be clearly identified on an organisation chart as a horizontal line between
individuals.

In the diagram below, each person on this level of the organisational chart has a functional relationship
with everyone else at this level.

Functional
Clerk Clerk Assistant Assistant Foreman Foreman Area Area

Rep Rep

Staff relationships

This is a relationship between the organisation and someone in it who acts in an advisory capacity for the
benefit of the organisation as a whole, not just for one department. People who might be in a staff
relationship include company lawyers, taxation specialists, company secretary or company receptionist.

The staff relationship seen in this organisation chart is the company lawyer.

MANAGING

DIRECTOR

Company Lawyer

Staff

ACCOUNTANT MARKETING PRODUCTION SALES

MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER MANAGER

Formal and informal structures

The formal structures within an organisation have been described above and consist of
the relationships between individuals within an organisation in terms of the superior, the
subordinate, level of authority and degree of responsibility. However, there may also
exist very important informal relationships – an internal network or grapevine – that
consists of communication passed between individuals in ways that are not set down in
the formal structures.

Many people obtain a sense of security and belonging, as well as achieving social status,
by contributing to the grapevine. Information passed on in this way is often of a
confidential nature and is not usually available to members of the group – unless they
hear it ‘on-the-grapevine’.

The need for such structures may arise because the organisation’s formal communication
processes are inefficient or at least are felt to be inefficient by some of the staff.
Whilst information passed along the grapevine is likely to be news to members of the
informal group, it is not necessarily always accurate. Because of this, managers must be
aware of the informal structures within their organisation and may even purposely feed
the grapevine with information they DO want communicated quickly to the staff.

Informal structures can be destructive to the smooth running of the organisation.

Information that is passed on incorrectly can, in some instances, result in bad feeling,
resentment or even hostility among the staff. Members of staff may be excluded from
the grapevine and may feel isolated, or confused and unsure of their position. In
extreme cases, the informal structure may be opposed to the decisions taken by the
formal structure (the management team) and can sabotage management aims and
objectives.

Awareness of organisational culture

The culture of an organisation has been defined as:

‘a set of behavioural and attitudinal norms, to which most or all members of an

organisation subscribe, either consciously or subconsciously, and which exert a strong
influence on the way people resolve problems, make decisions and carry out their
everyday tasks.’

D Clutterbuck and S Crainer, Makers of Management

The culture of any organisation influences the attitudes of its staff towards each other and towards
individuals from outside the organisation who come into contact with it. The wearing of a uniform or the
type of dress adopted is one of the most obvious ‘corporate images’. However, attitudes towards others
and business motives and philosophies can also suggest a ‘corporate culture’ within an organisation.

For example McDonald’s Restaurant franchise has very strict rules about:

• shop layout and colour schemes,

 • staff dress,

• staff attitudes towards customers,

• available food and portion size,

• quality of food.

In fact, you can walk into a McDonald’s anywhere in Britain and expect to find everything
exactly the same as you would find in your local McDonald’s.

Edgar Schein believes that this ‘corporate culture’ is made up of three main elements, all
of which go some way to instilling the sense of ‘identity’ in individuals within the
organisation.

Artefacts: Physical layout of shop/office/factory, dress

code/uniform;

Values: Principles upon which people base their behaviour;

Underlying The source from which all the values and behaviour
assumptions: spring (such as the original or existing owners or
managers).

If the culture is centralistic and bureaucratic, the likely result is a very highly
structured organisation with clearly defined roles for all individuals and a hierarchical
system of communications (for example, the Health Service). In such a system, job
descriptions, appraisal forms, succession charts and the like are vital in helping to
analyse the needs of the organisation and in deciding how these needs are to be met.

Where top management believe in delegation and devolution, the emphasis is more likely
to be on self-development, team working and management support. Two-way
communication links are fostered. Worker initiative and participation in decision-making
are likely to be encouraged, as, for example, in most Japanese manufacturing firms.

Where management see themselves as an ‘elite’ group, features such as accelerated

promotion and graduate training programmes tend to predominate. This system provides
selective managerial support for the ‘right’ individuals (those from well known schools
and universities, for example) and concentrates on ‘high fliers’ – those with outstanding
potential. This corporate culture is to be found in the Police, the Army and the Civil
Service.
Anyone in an organisation who does not adopt the culture of that organisation is likely to
feel isolated. Individuals are more likely to conform than to rebel.

However, Schein suggests that there has to be a great deal of consensus or agreement
among individuals in the organisation before there can be an identifiable corporate
culture.

He sees the five main areas of consensus as:

1. Consensus about the core mission – what business are we in and why?

2. Consensus about goals – what, specifically is everyone meant to do?

3. Consensus about the way to accomplish the goals – how should tasks be divided
up? What reward system or incentive scheme will be used? How will the separate
activities be integrated?

4. Consensus about how to measure progress – the nature of the reporting and
feedback systems.

5. Consensus about remedial or repair strategies – when and how to intervene when
things go wrong.

More and more in today’s business world corporate culture is recognised as a positive force. It can
motivate staff and lead to an organisation where everyone understands their individual roles and
obligations. It is also seen as a major influence in external recognition – especially from consumers.

CULTURE ACTIVITY

Divide into groups

1. Define culture

Give 3 examples of different cultures (local, global, religious)

What evidence do we have to prove they exist?

2. Think of the school

What is its culture?

a) Name 7 things that are visible that the school does relating to culture

b) How does this compare with other schools?

3. What elements make up an organisation? – McKinsey 7s Framework

Strategy (planning/vision)
Structure (ways of grouping and organising activities)
Systems (procedures and routines ie appraisals, promotion, ICT)
Staff (people of the firm)
Skills (abilities of people and firm as a whole)
Style (managerial style, ie authoritarian, democratic, laissez-faire)
Shared Values (Culture)

Peters & Waterman (1982) found that US companies compared favourably with Japan on things like
Strategy, Structure and Systems; but not on things like staff, style and culture.

Organisational Culture (or Corporate Culture)

4. Think of organisations you know. What kind of culture do you think the have?

Japanese firms = dedicated to quality & continuous improvement

3M = innovation
Exxon = greed

Hewlett Packard = The HP Way

respect for others

sense of community
plain hard work

Southwest Airlines (only major US airline made a profit last 5 years)

Hiring = look for positive people who like working in teams

Demeanor = way you act, treat and communicate with staff (people are individuals)

Changes in structure

Reference has already been made to the fact that organisations can change their
structure. Ideally, the structure should reflect the purpose of the organisation. Over
the last decade or so, many UK-based organisations have undergone structural change in
an attempt to ensure that they can cope with changing circumstances. These changes
have affected all types of organisations in all industries but have had a particular
influence in manufacturing organisations.
For more than twenty years the UK’s manufacturing industries have been in decline.
Much of this has been seen as a natural development for a mature economy as it goes
through the process of de-industrialisation.

UK industries have been subjected to fierce competition from emerging economies such
as the ‘Tiger Economies’ of South East Asia. This has led to many of our products being
too costly and of inferior quality, to compete in international markets.

The accepted explanation has been that the cost of labour in developing countries has
been much lower than in the UK, and if we are to compete then our wage rates need to
be forced down. To an extent this has happened. In May 1996 a CBI report stated that
the average manufacturing wage in the UK was lower than that of an equivalent worker in
Korea. Yet the trend of decline in our manufacturing industries has continued.

Large, successful multinational companies who are based in these tiger economies have
now opened manufacturing facilities in the UK, leaving our home-grown firms even
further behind. In addition, we have been through a recession which has forced many
changes on almost every organisation in the UK.

Recognising the problems, particularly within the traditional approaches to management

in the UK, was perhaps the hardest task facing our industries.

The traditional approach involved:

• direct lines of responsibility,

• employees doing what they are told,

• paying people for the position they hold,

• management alone making decisions,

• management having the right to manage,

• different levels of management having different levels of decision-making power.

This approach is not necessarily wrong in itself. However, the development of the
economies of the East is a genuine threat to the structure and methods of management
and production processes in most Western economies.

The challenge that faces modern management is that they must change in order to
survive and compete in the next century. Our production needs to be revolutionised; just
becoming more efficient will not be enough. To gain a truly competitive advantage we
must be innovative and imaginative in our approach to management.

De-layering

This involves the cutting out of levels of management within the organisation in order to
‘flatten out’ the structure and is one of the strategies used by companies in recent
years to overcome the effects of aggressive competition in the market place.

One of the steps that businesses have been forced to take in order to become more
competitive and to survive the worst of a recession is to look at the organisational
structure and see where savings could be made.

Organisations found that some of the levels of management were not only unnecessary,
but were also hampering the lines of communication. This, in turn delayed the process of
change as information passed through too many layers of authority, created unnecessary
work and slowed down the decision-making process.

All levels of management are dependent upon those below them to supply the information
that is required and often consult them before decisions are made.

It became obvious that the best people to make decisions were the staff who were
directly involved, and so levels of management, especially middle management, were
removed. Staff were empowered to make their own decisions.

Where successful, organisations became much flatter, with far fewer layers in the
hierarchy, communications improved and decisions were made more quickly.
Organisations became more responsive to changes in the market and

could adapt more quickly. One such organisation was General Accident, the insurance
giant, which carried out a process of de-layering in the late 1980s.

However, in some instances, too many layers were removed and the remaining staff,
managers and subordinates alike, found that the extra work that they had to take on
was too much. A number of companies, such as Vetco Grey, an engineering and
fabrication production organisation, have now begun to re-employ staff at middle
management levels.

Down-sizing

This involves the removal of certain areas of the organisation’s activities that are not directly linked to
the core activities, thereby reducing the scale of production to meet the actual demand for the firm’s
products.
The term is used by organisations when they attempt to reduce costs by:

• reducing the scale of their operations to meet actual market demand,

• stripping out excess capacity within the organisation (at all levels and within all
functions),

• consolidating complementary operations under one function,

• reducing the resources of the organisation following increases in productivity.

Recessions in Western economies force companies to look very closely at ways of

reducing costs in order to survive. Many find that their productive capacity exceeds the
actual or predicted demand for their product. Even after a recession, the demand for
their products may continue to be less than it had been before.

For some organisations down-sizing meant the closure of factories or production units.
For others it meant the merging of two or more separate operations under separate
management functions, and bringing them together under one management umbrella. And
for some it meant the scaling down of their production capacity.

Duplication occurs not only in production and management, but also in areas such as sales,
research and development and administration. For example, having two separate sales
forces for different product ranges is an expensive luxury. This may be sustainable, and
even necessary, during an economic boom, such as in the mid 1980s. However, with ever
increasing competition and the lingering effects of a recession, many organisations find
that the additional cost of supporting such duplication make them uncompetitive.

A recent example of down-sizing has been seen in one of the world’s giant oil
corporations, Shell Exploration and Production. At a time when the dollar price of oil was
very low, the organisation found it had to justify and sustain the position of four
administration staff for every off-shore production worker. Cost cutting had to take
place. Shell decided to close their large prestigious offices in London and base their
European Operations headquarters in Aberdeen. This move meant considerable numbers
of job losses but resulted in significant savings for Shell.

The role and responsibilities of management

Overall, the role of management is to ensure that they choose a structure for the
organisation which enables it to meet its purposes in the most effective and efficient
way. They have the responsibility to ensure that all members of the organisation are
aware of the structure and how it should operate. In choosing a structure and making it
work, management need to recognise the existence of an informal structure and of
organisational culture. If at all possible, they should try to ensure that the formal
structure is consistent with these.

Management also need to be prepared to change a structure where it has ceased to be

effective. However, this may not be easy to do, especially if the structure has been in
existence for some time as some staff may be reluctant to move to a new and unfamiliar
system. Also, constant tinkering with the structure of an organisation may lead to
confusion and resentment among the workforce and may be counter-productive.

PAST PAPER QUESTIONS

1 A major high street retailer (Marks and Spencer) may decide to de-layer. What does this mean and
what effects on the organisation does de-layering have?

(8 marks)

2 An organisation may choose to organise its activities by function. Describe other organisational
forms which may be used, making references to the type of organisation for which each may be
appropriate. (9 marks)

3 The larger burger chains have branches in most of our large towns. They operate within a centralised
organisational structure. Describe the features of:

(i) a centralised structure

(ii) a de-centralised structure (10 marks)