Question

Think of organizations as any team that you worked with that had a goal or mission and respond to the following:

• What is the relationship between organizational structure and culture? Provide examples and/or resources to defend your position.
• Based on your experience and observations, how would you describe the organizational structure and culture at your current, former, or potential future employer? How does this structure support the organizational strategies or inhibit them?
• What types of organizational structures and cultures would you prefer to work in and why? How have you personally integrated into your organization's culture? What makes the culture effective and ineffective? What is leadership's responsibility in both cases?

Answer 1

a) Structure of an organisation helps to determine the roles of employees and how they are allocated to each one of them. In today's business environment, organisation generally follows two types of structure. One is the horizontal structure and the other one is the vertical structure. On the other hand, culture of an organisation helps to identify the norms and beliefs that are followed by a particular organisation. There is a relationship between the structure and culture of an organisation. Culture of an organisation helps to dictate the exact structure of an organisation. The structure of an organisation is considered to be an integrated part of the culture of the organisation. The management of an organisation behaves as per the culture of an organisation. For example, I have worked as a customer support associate in a renowned organisation named Amazon. Customer satisfaction is one of the major mission of the team that I have worked in. Amazon follows a decentralized structure where each and every personnel are given opportunity to make decisions. Thus, when a customer arrived with any kind of query i had the ability to give a quick response to the customer. This is how structure and culture have a positive relation among themselves in Amazon.

b) If i have to describe the current structure of Amazon on the basis of my experience and observation to a future employee I would say that team leaders and managers give proper training to the employees so that they can handle any situation and take decisions alone. The culture of Amazon is very democratic in nature and each and every managers within the organisation motivates the employee to come up with new ideas. Though the organisation follows a decentralized structure but the employees need to report each and every details of their performance to their team leader. Apart from this, the performance of an employee is also being reviewed by senior managers.

The structure of Amazon helps supports the strategy of the organisation in an effective manner. Amazon operates in several parts of the world and each area has a business manager. This helps the organisation to focus on the strategy of diversification. Geographic division is one of the main feature of the structure of Amazon. This has helped the organisation to adopt several foreign entry strategies in order to expand its business.

c) I would prefer to work in an organisation which follows decentralized structure. The culture of the organisation should also promote integrity and diversity. A decentralized structure can help me to come up with new ideas. Taking part in decision making within the organisation can help me to gain lots of skill and knowledge.

Yes, i have personally integrated in the culture of the organisation. I have always focused on coming up with new and innovative ideas which can help the organisation to improve their operation.

The culture of an organisation becomes effective with consistent communication. Each and every member within the organisation should communicate among each other in order to avoid any conflict. Celebrating success of an individual or a team or a department by the entire organisation makes the culture effective. On the other hand, less of transparency within an organisation can make the culture ineffective.

The leaders within an organisation should appreciate good work in front of the entire organisation. Leaders should make sure to mail the achievement of any individual or team or department to each and every one within the organisation. This also motivates other employees. On the other hand, in order to create a transparent environment within the organisation the leaders should focus on enhancing the communication process of the organisation through seminars, workshops and frequent meetings.