managing organisational structure

Question 1

What is organisational structures

Answer 1

the way in which things are done within a business and the way they expect things to be done. Its important to shape the expectations and attitude of staff and managers

Question 2

What can impact organisational structure

Answer 2

The ways in which employees are rewarded and recognised.

Question 3

Characteristics of a strong organisational culture

Answer 3

• employees need less supervision
• staff are more loyal and therefore less absenteeism/ lower staff turnover
• increased employee motivation

Question 4

Power culture- handys

Answer 4

• centralised structures
• small number of people have decision making authority
• struggle if the business grows and cannot be run from the centre
• high resistance to change because employees do not have enough faith in management as they are out of touch with the day-to-day runnings of the business

Question 5

Role culture- handys

Answer 5

• bureaucratic firms
• decisions come from senior managers so employees dont have the opportunity to get involved in decision making
• poor communication
• slow response to change
• avoid risk
• high resistance to change as employees are not used to doing things differently
• power is determined by positions in the business
• tall structure = long chains of command
• less innovation

Question 6

person culture- handys

Answer 6

• usually found in professional partnerships (solicitors, accounts, doctors)
• objectives are defined by personal objectives
• jointly made decisions
• comfort and lack of resistance to change
• change can however be difficult to make as employees priorities themselves rather than what is best for the business

Question 7

Task culture - handys

Answer 7

• small teams working together
• likelihood of conflict between teams in regards to finances and resources
• respond well to management by objectives - specific targets for each employee and department
• change is normal as they are used to changing teams and therefore
• low resistance to change

Question 8

how can organisational culture affect stakeholders

Answer 8

staff= affects motivation, power culture or role culture can demotivate creative staff who can see ways to improve things but do not have the power to 
customers= businesses with customer-focussed culture are more likely to have loyal customers
shareholders= low risk cultures may see shareholders getting a lower return on their investment whereas high-risk cultures gives shareholders the possibility of high returns

Question 9

Reasons for wanting to change organisational culture

Answer 9

• preferences of leaders
• improve competitiveness = power cultures can be slow to spot ways to save money or more efficient ways of working and so adopting an entrepreneurial culture can make the business more competitive

Question 10

Influences on culture

Answer 10

• business growth = need to take on new employees who may have differing expectations and aims thus influences culture
• business growth and success can lead to it becoming more corporate - rigid structure
• multinationals may be influenced by the country of which it is entering
• how strong is the culture are the values within the business reinforce? - this can largely influence how much organisational culture will be influenced

Question 11

Changing organisational culture

Answer 11

• employees may resist changes to culture - due to being so used to the ways in which they currently do things or merely disagreeing with the change
• can be complex to change employee ideas and attitudes
• can be very expensive, may involve changing office layouts, giving extra staff training, devising new processes or a change in company motto. meaning that it is not always within a businesses budget to change
• HR will have to take into account who they are recruiting and the induction procedures as well as changing their payment and reward system to help shift culture easier