Structural Contingency Factors Influencing Organizational Structure

The relationship between an organization’s strategy and structure are extremely important because it “directly impacts a firm’s performance” (Rothaermel, 2013, p. 309). Also, as an organization grows, it should reevaluate the current strategy and structure to ensure that it remains the optimal choice for the organization (Rothaermel, 2013). The four types of organizational structures, listed in order of least to most complex according to Rothaermel (2013), are: (1) simple, (2)

Organizational structure indicates the company's formal reporting relationships, procedures, controls and authority, & decisions making process. An organisation's strategy is its plan for the whole business that sets out how the organisation will use its major resources. An organisation's structure is the way the pieces of the business fit together internally. It also covers the links with external factors such as partners and other parties. For the company to deliver its plans, the component of the structure must cooperate with each other

What are the five structural configurations, who uses these configuration methods and why do you think they (the company or organization fits into this type of configuration rather than that of the other types); as well as what type of structural configuration does my workplace currently use. So, what is the five structural configurations are as follows: “Simple Edifice, Machine Administration, Professional Government, and Adhocracy” (Nelson & Quick, 2017, pg. 244). Basically, these configurations consist of “Differentiation, integration, and the basic design dimensions combine to yield various structural configurations” (Nelson & Quick, 2017, pg. 244). These logistic edifices are usually founded on artefact and purpose in the early stages of the structural process, and formed using the matrix organization format introduced by Mintzberg. “The five rudimentary fragments of the organization, for Mintzberg, are the upper echelon, or strategic apex; the middle level, or middle line; the operating core, where work is accomplished; the technical staff, or technostructure; and the support staff” (Nelson & Quick, 2017, pg. 244). However, these five basic configurations work differently among the organizations due to the support it gives regarding the organization’s tactical purpose.

in the reaction to different environmental conditions, the organizational structure is governed by decisions related to the internal

The challenges faced by strategic leaders in implementing complex and long-range consequential decisions demand that they be sophisticated with respect to issues of leadership, power and influence. The changes that are shaping the nature of work in today's complex organizations require that we develop the political will, expertise and personal skills to become more flexible, innovative and adaptive. Without political awareness and skill, we face the inevitable prospect of becoming immersed in bureaucratic infighting, parochial politics and destructive power struggles, which greatly retard organizational initiative, innovation, morale and performance

For traditional organization structures, departmentalization means that “how to group work positions into formal teams or departments that are linked together in a coordinated way” (Victoria management school, 2010, p. 272). These decisions have three types of organizational structure: functional, divisional, matrix and hybrid structures.

Manager’s of an organization has to use structure to help the company run efficiently. “The five types of organizational structures are functional, divisional, matrix, team-based, and virtual network” (Draft, 2013, p.316). Functional structure in an organization that is developed by grouping departments by the skills, level of knowledge, activities done daily, and the resource used. “This structure places specific departments from the bottom to the top” (Draft, 2013, p.318). For example, specific departments such as: human resources, accounting, engineering, and manufacturing are placed at the top, while there are mostly seen at the bottom in other organizations. While common functions such as; people, facilities, and other resources are combined together as a single department instead of being divided into multiple departments.

To be strategically aligned with the market and an organization needs to be customer driven, not organizationally driven. All functions of an organization need to be aligned internally and with each other. Because “structure plays a powerful role in creating a market driven organization” (Day 1999, p.208) it has become imperative for it to be a major focus of the business model. The organization structure effects relational outcomes (customer satisfaction and loyalty) and brand equity (Lee, Kozlenkova, & Palmatier, 2015, p. 95). Forbes.com writer Joseph George said it best, “perfect alignment on a sub-optimal strategy will likely be more successful than sub-optimal alignment on a perfect strategy. Alignment is the key ingredient to success, because without it, the most perfect strategy in the world will never come to fruition (2014). Wooden (2005) describes one of the building blocks of success and leadership is cooperation, being interested in finding the best way, not having your own way (Wooden & Jamison, 2005, p. 29).

The main focus of this approach is one the structure of formal organisation in which the interplay of individual personality, intra-organisational conflicts, and social groups are neglected. The classical theory also known as Theory X considers organisation as the structure in which concentration is on the work instead of people. Moreover, this approach believes on the autocratic and authoritarian style of management in relation to the organisational design (Watson, 2013). However, within the classical approach to organisational design, bureaucracy is praised by some of the experts because it creates set of rules for decision-making. In addition to this, it also possesses clear chain of command and the people are promoted based on their experience and ability instead of favouritism and whim. Furthermore, the responsibility and authority are the clear specification of bureaucracy, which are also admired by the people because it made the process of evaluation easier (Adler,

Organizations have become important social institutions that affect nearly everyone's life in one way or another. However, there are many different perspectives that can be used in understanding these organizations. Theorists have produced many different ideas about the best vantage point in which to try to understand how an organization functions. Furthermore, it is important for leaders in the organization to understand these theories so that they can tailor their own concepts and theories and the organizations in which they are members of. This translates in the need for multiple perspectives to be used in the pursuit of understanding an organization and how it functions.

Contingency theory has been one of the main strands of thinking about firms and their structures of thinking about firms and their stratigic structures (Galbraith 1973). Drazin and Van de Ven(1985) note two fundamental strands or contingency thoery. The first is the “fit-as-mediation” veiw (Venkatraman 1989), whivh posits that managers select organisational structures, processes and straegies that reflect the particular senerio of organisations (Galbirth1973, p.2) in particular because the organisation is essantially an “information-processing network” the objective of organisational design is to achieve an efficient agreement between the information-processing requirments of its stratigic contingancies and the information processing capibilities of its integeration mechanisms (Gilberth 1973 p.3).

Before an organization starts carrying out its activities, it has to come up with a strategic plan. This will help it in effectively and efficiently carrying out its activities. Before coming up with the plan, the management should carry out both an internal and external analysis. This will assist it in identifying the organization’s strong and weak points. (Jackson, 2006).

When it comes to what level of management apply contingency theory to the organization in which they are involved, that is when the waters become a little murky. Top level executive in many organizations would like to have a very structured system in place, by which, they make decisions for the organization at the corporate level. This approach may not work in all settings as middle and lower level managers are faced with a number of variables the shape the way that they run the day to day operations of the organization. Arrow (as cited in Fisher, 1998) points out that “Although many corporate executives may desire to make all decisions centrally, it may not be possible (desirable) to do so because managers often have access to more decision-relevant information than executive levels” (P. 47). It is this statement that leads to an understanding that middle and lower level managers often use contingency theory more often in making decisions within an organization. This scenario will explain how contingency theory is used in organizations. Consider a business is in its infancy and has one local operation. This business would be able to manage all of the managerial tasks centrally because of the limited number of variables within the business. As the business begins to grow, however, the number of variables

This essay argues that contingency theory is a useful guide to the design of contemporary organizations. In particular, the essay claims that contemporary managers can draw upon the contingency theory research literature relating to relationship between organizational structure and technology, size, the environment, and strategy to design an organization that is well suited to its situation and circumstances and hence more likely to survive and prosper in the long term. This essay’s structure is as follows. The following section introduces contingency theory to explain its nature and implications for the management of contemporary organizations.

The structure of an organisation is built in order to achieve the distinct tasks by the labour and coordination between teams to provide goods and services. Organisational structure is selected in order to have a basic work and consistency according to the situation. The most foremost factors in an organisation are skilled labours, mutual understanding among the fellows and direct control to frame a good result. A good structured organisation results in quality production, which can be taken into peoples consider through marketing. When an organisation tracks in a solid structure, management plans and tasks can be easily constructed and executed. In this essay, I have been explained about the concept of Mintzberg five