Relationship Between Organisational Structure And Culture: A Study Of City College And Enterprise Rent-a-Car

Tall structure vs. flat structure

Organisation behaviour is the method of interacting with people within groups in an organisation. Every business organisations look forward to establish more efficient business functionalities that beneficial in achieving profitability. It has been observed that the business organisations follow the diverse organisational structure to meet the determined goals in future. According to Sing (2013), organisational behaviour is a scientific approach that is adopted to structure the entire functionalities. The efficient organisational behaviour depends on the skilled leadership process. The efficient leaders manage the functionalities to encourage the workers and extract the better performance outcomes.

The study will thus focus on the different organisational and cultures that drive towards growth opportunity. The study highlights the case scenario of two different organisations, such as City College and Enterprise Rent-a-Car. The contrast and comparison between the organisational culture and structure of these two organisations will be presented in this study. Furthermore, the study will also explore the factors that have the significant influence on the individual behaviour at the workplace. The effectiveness of the efficient leadership attribute will be discussed as well. In addition to this, the study will point out the effective motivational theories that will be effective enough in improving the behaviour in these two organisations.

 a) Comparison and Contrasting different organisational structure and cultures for City College and Enterprise Rent-a-Car

The organisational structure is the process of managing the functionalities that drive towards organisational success. The efficient organisational structure determines the process allocating, coordinating, and supervising the activities for accomplishing the fruitful objectives (Chakravartula and Sengupta 2014). It is necessary for the business organisations to adopt the relevant resources and functionalities to remain competitive in this current business world. The differentiation between the tall and flat organisational structure is presented further.

Usually, the organisations with the complex functionalities, adopt the tall organisational structure to involve a complex hierarchy. Gray et al. (2016) opined that tall structure requires the long chain of commands. The structure grows in keeping pace with the increasing number of the management level. On the other hand, flat structure involves fewer management levels. Appelbaum et al. (2015) pointed out that each level connected with a flat structure is controlling a broader area or group. The flat organisational structure is often focusing on employee empowerment. In City College, it is noticed that the institute has been maintaining a flat organisational structure with three major departments. Each of the departments is controlling a broader group or area. Moreover, these departments are focusing more on the empowerment of the associated people than adhering to the command chain.

Figure 1: Tall and Flat Organisational Structure

(Source: Aarons et al. 2015)

On the other hand, Enterprise Rent-a-Car maintains a complex organisational structure associated with 75,000 employees. The company has been using a range of leadership and management styles to create the path of opportunities for the employees. It is noticed that the tall organisational structure has the more clarity in business functions and controlling of the management (Donate and de Pablo 2015). On the contrary, the flat organisational structure allows in paying the closer supervision on the associated members. However, it has been observed that when the organisational structure becomes too tall, the communication process becomes quite complex. It takes much time to travel through all the levels in the organisation. The lack of communication efficiency creates hindrances in organisational decision-making process.

Long and Short Chain of Commands

According to Deichmann and Stam (2015), a chain of command in business considers the authority line through which the responsibilities and orders can be delegated. The long chain of command makes the organisational decision by depending on the clear focus on each of the specifications. For example, Enterprise Rent-a-Car maintains the long chain of command that divides the organisational functionalities into different departments and clarifies the needs. On the contrary, City College maintains the short chain of command, which helps in undertaking the decision by focusing closely on a particular need. It has been observed that the long chain of commands sometimes makes the decision-making process slow because the information flows through different layers (Holten and Brenner 2015). This slow decision-making can delay in preparing structured budget or sales figures. On the other hand, the short chain of command is based on instant decision-making process that is approved by a particular authority. Hence, the high possibilities of the limited decisions can be foreseen in such structure.

A single manager or supervisor keeps the focus on few subordinates that is considered as the narrow span of control. Similarly, wide span of control determines the manager controls a large number of subordinates. It is important to state that the narrow span of control gives rise to the tall organisational structure whereas wide span of control gives rise to the flat organisational structure. City College has few departments due to which the wide span of control is maintained. On the other side, it is just the opposite for Enterprise Rent-a-Car.

Organisational culture contributes more efficiency to the organisational functionalities in order to accomplish the goals. Charles Handy has introduced a theoretical model that describes four different types of organisational cultures that have the significant impacts on the associated functionalities (Manzoor 2012). The four cultures are as follows:

Figure 2: Charles Handy’s Four Culture Model

(Source: Shahzad et al. 2012)

Power Culture: The first component is the power culture, which signifies the power of few people in the organisations for undertaking any decision (West 2014). These people receive the special privileges and they delegate the responsibilities among other individuals.

Task Culture: The task culture is completely depends on the organisational functionalities that are allocated to different individuals for accomplishing the organisational goals. The individuals focus on achieving the common goals in such culture.

Person Culture: In some of the organisations, the employees receive the most priority than the organisation (Popli and Rizvi 2015). In such person culture, the individuals are more concerned about their own self and do not seek the help from the organisation.

Role Culture: Role culture in an organisation specifies that the employees are aware of the roles and responsibilities as per their expertise. In such cultural environment, the employees accept the challenges and perform their responsibilities by providing their best efforts.

The above types of organisational cultures are helpful enough in establishing an encouraging atmosphere for the associated members (Renko et al. 2015). Moreover, it directs towards the most effective methods to accomplish the organisational goals. City College has been maintaining the role culture for improving the quality of the education at the institute. On the other hand, Enterprise Rent-a-Car has been focusing on the person culture by prioritizing the employees and customers. Edgar Schein’s model is also providing the fundamentals of organisational culture. The description of the model is presented further.

Broad and Narrow breadths of control

Edgar Schein introduced a structured model of organisational culture by presenting three different levels (Mostafa, Gould?Williams and Bottomley 2015). According to him, the organisational culture is formed in a course of time after adopting some of the relatable changes. The levels of the organisational structure are discussed below:

The first level of the organisational culture is quite easier to view, hear, and feel. This level determines the dress code of the employees, facilities, office furniture, mission and vision, and employee behavior (L?z?roiu 2015). These artifacts help in deciding the organisational culture in a significant way.

The next level constitutes the values of the employees within an organisation. The values depend on the attitude of the employees towards the allocated tasks (Manzoor 2012). The identification of the individual values in performing organisational functionalities creates the positive impact.

The third level of the model specifies the assumed values of the employees that cannot be measured. However, these assumed values make a huge difference to the cultural traits of the organisation (Schein 2014). The nature of the employees is one of the applicable examples of the assumed values.

These values help in organizing the set of responsibilities for accomplishing business goals. The City College and Enterprise Rent-a-Car have been establishing the proper organisational culture accordingly.

According to Hogan and Coote (2014), every organisation requires a formal structure to accomplish the pre-determined goals. The distribution of the tasks among the different groups is needed to be in a structural form in order to derive the expected outcome. The organisations often tend to adopt some of the informal structures to retain the employees. Hence, this structure leads to different behaviour, perceptions, and attitudes. The organisational structure is somewhat defined by the organisational culture. Noruzy et al. (2013) opined that the organisational structure determines the process of implementing organisational culture.

Business performance depends on the flow of information and communication through the different level of hierarchy. When the organisational structure is huge, the flow of information becomes slower. Therefore, the decision-making process becomes slower as well. On the other hand, the flat organisational structure concentrates on a particular group activity (Goetsch and Davis 2014). The organisation structure helps in shaping up the attitudes and beliefs of the associated members to perform the organisational functionalities. Referring to the case study of City College highlights that City College has the flat and formal structure that leading the members towards the same values and beliefs. On the other hand, the case study of Enterprise Rent-a-Car reflects that the company maintains a hierarchy of organisation structure. The engagement of the employees is the major focus of this company. Hence, it directs towards the different beliefs and attitudes for performing the functionalities.

Some of the internal and external factors have been influencing the behaviour of the individual members at the workplace. These specific factors are discussed below:

• Effective Leadership: The leaders and the managers play the vital role in influencing the individual behaviour at the workplace. They perform their responsibilities to direct the members towards the right path of achieving determined objectives (Steg et al.2014). They pay the closer attention to the motivational process to encourage the employees and drive them towards success.
• Work Culture:Every employee seeks a comfortable environment at the workplace. The positive workplace culture helps them to stay happy and positive. Maintaining the proper rules and regulations would be helpful for making the employees more engaged.
• Job Responsibilities:The employees need to be informed about their roles and responsibilities at the work place. The employees feel reluctant to work if they feel overburdened.
• Family and Personal Life: The employees need to receive the proper opportunity of maintaining work-life balance. It will help them to stay focused and more engaged to their jobs when they will be able to give quality time to their personal interests.
• Relationship: Maintaining an effective relationship with the colleagues and associates is essential for making the employees more motivated towards their works.

The case scenario of City College reflects that the associated human resource management and other departments are much focused on developing the workforce in a significant way. City College is providing many learning opportunities to the associated workers that are motivating enough to drive towards success. On the other hand, Enterprise Rent-a-Car is focusing on the employee welfare process to extract the effective outcome. The efficient performance outcomes of the employees will create the positive impacts on customers that is important for organisational success.

Different types of Organisational Cultures (Charles Handy’s Four Model)

a) Different Leadership Styles and impact of these styles on two organisations

Leadership styles create the significant impacts on small and large business organisations. The leadership styles are classified into different divisions, such as autocratic, democratic, laissez-faire, transformational, and transactional. The autocratic leaders make the authoritarian decision for leading the organisational functionalities. Even though this leadership style can bring much creativity to the activities, it may sometimes de-motivate the employees, as they feel discouraged (McCleskey 2014). The Participative or democratic leadership style determines the participation of the employees in making the organisational decisions. This leadership style is quite effective in making the employees more motivated. The employees feel that their involvement is fruitful for the organisation that makes them more reliable and loyal. The Laissez-faire leadership style lacks the direct supervision of the associated workers. It does not provide the regular feedback, which is essential (Colbert, Barrick and Bradley 2014). Transformational leadership style helps in developing the professional skills of the employees. It provides the opportunity to explore the innovative ideas that can lead towards significant growth. Finally, the Transactional leadership style determines the rewards or the punishments provided to the employees based on their performance outcomes.

After reviewing the case scenario of City College, it can be specified that the institute has been utilizing the transformational leadership style. The major focus of the institute is to focus on people development process by providing the effective training sessions (Ifinedo 2014). Moreover, the employees receive proper motivations to develop their personal and professional skills. On the other hand, the case scenario of Enterprise Rent-a-Car highlights that the company has adopted the participative leadership style. It is quite prominent that the managers make the decisions in different departments. They usually convey the decisions to the associated workers and discuss the scope of the decisions. It makes the workers feel more motivated and engaged towards their responsibilities at the workplace. Hence, when the employees can perform better, it will determine the effective outcomes for satisfying the customer needs.

The organisational theory is the combination of the administrative theory and the administrative theory. According to Mostafa, Gould?Williams and Bottomley (2015), the organisational theory describes the development of the scientific management theory that creates the prominent lines between the authority and the controlling power. Similarly, it is observed that the bureaucratic theory is much focused on the hierarchal power structure.

On the other hand, the organisational theory has the recognizable linking with the management styles. The principles defined in the organisational theory are representing the autocratic leadership style in which the leaders take the authoritarian decisions. However, this type of leadership style would be appropriate in case of Enterprise Rent-a-Car where the employees need proper guidance for providing quality services to the customers. The lines of control are needed to be maintained in sequential way (Manzoor 2012). It would be helpful for the branch managers to control the activities at the regional branches. Hence, it would be useful for the employees to maintain the proper guidelines to improve the performance parameter.

Edgar Schein’s Model of Organisational Culture

On the other hand, the City College needs to adopt the organisational contingency theory for organizing the organisational functionalities to maintain a stabilize system. In this changing business market, it is essential to undertake the structured theoretical perspectives that will help in strengthening the position in the competitive market. The three different departments of City College need to receive the proper authority to make the proper decision. The utilization of the appropriate theoretical perspectives would be effective enough in developing the skills of the associated members.

The case study of City College indicates that the head of each department is particularly concentrating on people development through training and management process. Therefore, it can be stated that the use of the transformational leadership style would be much preferable for the college. In the transformational leadership style, the associated workforce can develop their professional skills (Colbert, Barrick and Bradley 2014). On the other hand, the case study of Enterprise Rent-a-Car reflects that the management team needs to undertake the autocratic leadership style. This leadership style helps in presenting the innovative ideas in performing the organisational functionalities. Therefore, it would beneficial to guide the employees in a better way that would increase the quality parameter of the services.

In the year of 1960, Douglas McGregor introduced the theory ‘x’ and theory ‘y’ to analyze the motivation level of the employees. As per the theory ‘x’, it is noted that the employees are not motivated properly. They usually present their dislikes in working and need proper control (Donate and de Pablo 2015). On the contrary, theory ‘y’ represents the motivated and highly encouraged workplace environment. The employees in theory ‘y’ environment take the responsibility to fulfill the determined goals (Deichmann and Stam 2015). Hence, it is essential for both the organisations, City College and Enterprise Rent-a-Car to adopt this theoretical approach to maintain the positive environment.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs is also exploring the needs of the employees that can motivate them to perform in a better way. The theory determines the individual needs that are effective enough to motivate the behaviour of the employees. The psychological state of mind of the employees is defined through this theory of needs. The companies need to concentrate on fulfilling the needs of the employees for motivating them towards performing significantly.

The case study based on the management style of City College determines ones of the fastest growing organisations that provide higher education to the students. There are only three different departments and one person is appointed as the head of each department. The major focus of the college is people development by providing the proper training and education. The autocratic leadership style cannot motivate the associated workers rather it may lead to disappointments. The use of the transformational leadership would be beneficial in facilitating the people development process.

In case of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, it is observed that the company has been maintaining the democratic leadership styles and prioritizing the involvement of the people. However, it is still essential for the company to improve their performance parameter in order to enhance the customer engagement. The autocratic leadership style helps in guiding the employees in a proper way based on the creative views of management leader. The employees will be able to gather the innovative ideas about the organisational functionalities. It can be even helpful enough in improving the performance parameter in a significant manner. Hence, the impact of the leadership styles is quite recognizable for these organisations.

Leadership Styles and the Impact on Organisational Performance

The two case scenarios determine different motivational theories that are adopted by City College and Enterprise. These theories depend on the varied degree that have the remarkable influence on workforces. Enterprise has adopted the three motives based theory of McClelland that specifies the achievement, power, and affiliation. In order to meet the organisational goals, it is essential for the company to focus on the employee welfare. The proper performance outcome of the employees can satisfy the needs of the customer that will bring the profitability for a sustainable future (Chakravartula and Sengupta 2014). Hence, the affiliation process is much helpful for the company to keep the strong relationship with the organisational members.

 In case of City College, it is noticed that the head of each department has been trying to motivate the associated workers by providing the proper training and education. Recognizing the needs of the workers and providing the proper solution are essential to keep the employees motivated. Hence, the college authority has been investing more money to improve the training and development process. Moreover, it has been paying attention towards the proper monetary facilities that can keep the employees much motivated towards their works.

The focus on these two case studies highlights that both City College and Enterprise have applied the captioned motivation theories for increasing motivation level at the workplace. Enterprise has paid the closer attention towards three major social motives before implementing the motivational theories. These three motives are affiliation, power, and achievement. On the other hand, City College is much focused on developing the skills of the associated members by providing proper training and development sessions. However, in presenting the contrast between the motivational theories implemented by these two organisations, it can be inferred that Enterprise has focused on the monetary component more specifically. It helps in making people more motivated that drive their performance in significant way. The employees are ensured that they would receive proper rewards and recognition if they can perform well. The effective outcome of their performance automatically leads towards the customer satisfaction that brings more profitability to the company (Chakravartula and Sengupta 2014). However, equal treatment of the employees would also be much helpful in creating a positive and motivated environment.

Apparently, it has been recognized that there are two major groups have been formulated. First is the formal group and another is the informal group. The informal group does not maintain any particular structure and more likely to have better relationships with other associates (Hogan and Coote 2014). On the contrary, formal group depend on a particular structure and maintained by performing sequential functionalities. City College has the individual groups that pay attention towards the individual development. On the other hand, the informal groups at Enterprise avoid disparity among the employees. However, there are higher level of conflicts are also visible in the informal groups.

The maintenance of the appropriate organisational structure would be beneficial in organizing the cohesiveness among the team. The responsibility of the branch manager is leading the workforce towards accomplishing the business goals. Moreover, the leadership efficiency is formulating the team strength for performing the organisational functionalities. The evaluation of the “open door” policy is quite effective as it helps the employees to become more loyal and committed to the organisation. The employees can avail the opportunity to grow their professional skills that is quite motivating for them to achieve the determined objectives.

Motivation Theories and their Impact on Behaviour of Employees

Team development is an integral part that leads towards organisational success. In case of City College and Enterprise, the teams have been developed accordingly. However, some of the recognizable factors create many influences on the team effectiveness. These factors are as follows:

• The lack of proper informational flow can decrease the performance level of the team.
• The effective conflict resolution process can improve the team productivity.
• Establishment of communicational transparency helps in building effective relationships among the team members (McCleskey 2014).
• Providing the proper motivational process would be beneficial in organizing team efforts.
• Positive work environment helps in building an effective team.
• The unequal power distribution may affect the team motivation (Goetsch and Davis 2014).
• Lack of proper knowledge regarding the team responsibilities can even create the negative impact more specifically.

It is necessary to point out that maintenance of the autocratic leadership style may affect the employees’ performance. In fact, the lack of proper rewards including the performance appraisal process would also decrease the motivation level of the employees. Hence, it is necessary to pay attention towards the employee motivational aspects for retaining them for long run.

City College and Enterprise have implemented a strengthened technological capacity. The development of proper technology can help the organisations in several ways, which are discussed further:

• The implementation of the advanced technology can help in spreading the information quickly and much effectively.
• The implementation of the latest technologies can decrease the invested capitals on the human resource setups.
• The technological implementation enhances the availability of the necessary information about the company through online sources (Ifinedo 2014).
• The effective technologies can develop the huge customer base.

It is necessary for the company to pay attention towards the proper technological implementations. For example, improvement of the information technologies can be beneficial for flowing information to all level of employees. On the other hand, improving the e-mailing process would also be much helpful in communicating with the internal associates.  Hence, it can be stated that the impact of the technological development is much significant in this volatile market. It is even noticed that Enterprise Rent-a-Car needs to improve the technologies for improving the inventory management system.

Conclusion

The study reflects the management styles and approaches undertaken by two different organisations. The first one is City College, which provides the higher education to the students. This college is based on three major departments. On the other hand, Enterprise Rent-a-Car is a service based organisation that maintains huge hierarchal organisation structure. The motif of the company is to prioritize the people and customers. Hence, these two organisations need to pay attention towards the proper leadership, motivation, and management process in order to gain success in this volatile and competitive scenario.

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