Streamlined business operations
In the flat organisations, like various other companies, there are particularly no executives, managers, and seniority level and job titles. But there are specific planning and organizing activities. Nike is a matrix or a flat organisation. In the organizational activities, the employees report to the various product teams which are managed by the project managers. In Nike, all the brands hold a separate department and all the departments have independent decision making power. There are various project teams or the sub departments in each of the department at Nike which take care of the various mini-tasks within all the departments (Chestnut, 2017). There are product managers or product teams which make decision s in respect with the production and product specifications. And the department managers have their major focus upon the issues which are policy related.
The organisational structure plays a vital role in the improved business performance as well as in achieving higher level of customer satisfaction. Following are the aspects of the organisational structure which helps in attaining customer satisfaction as well as effective performance of the business.
Streamlined business operations
The structure of the organisation support the business organisations in streamline their business operations. The entrepreneurs, managers and the other executives are accountable for effective management and organizing the business functions into various departments which can effectively accomplish the business processes. The organisation of the business functions in various departments results in effective completion of the business operations in a potential way. The companies can save the expenditure and capital by decreasing the number of the identical business functions accomplished by various other multiple departments. These streamlining of the business operations ultimately improves the efficiency of the business (Bakker and Schaufeli, 2008).
The organisational structure also helps in improving the decision making of the businesses. The decisions are related to the information possessed by the managers, directors and the business owners. The organisational structure is designed for promoting the information flow from the frontline operations to the organisational managers who all are accountable for the business decision making. The improved decision making helps in enhancing the business performances (Zheng, Yang and McLean, 2010).
Easier Communication
The structure of the organisation clearly states the hierarchy level where it is demonstrated that who reports to whom. The subordinates are not authorized to directly report to the managers without passing information to the immediate supervisors. It helps in simplification of the work of the employees. There is effective control of the information and thus employee cannot take undue advantage of the insider information. Thus, it helps in achieving competitive benefit and improving efficiency of the business (Dosi, Faillo and Marengo, 2008).
Improved Decision Making
Improved employee performance
The organisational structure helps in outlining of the tasks of the employees and the managers. The employees undergo effective training programs where there is effective learning of the organisational structure and the way the customers are handled. This kind of processes informs the employees about the decisions and information. The organisational structure also develops flexibility in adding departments for managing the work so that there can faster delivery of services to the customers. Thus, all such benefits help in improving the customer satisfaction (Bakker and Schaufeli, 2008).
There are several communication issues or challenges which are faced by the business organisations. Following are some of the key challenges faced by the managers while managing the team:
Failure to listen and manage issues
The first and the foremost communication issue is there is flat organisational structure where large number of people report to a single manager or supervisor. And thus, it results in ineffective listening to the issues of the people and thus the managers are not able to solve the issues of the employees (Daim, Reutiman, Hughes, Pathak, Bynum and Bhatla, 2012).
No one-to-one communication
In the flat structured organisations, another major issues or communication challenge is that when a team is big and the managing person is less, then there develops the issues of absence of one-to-one communication with the employees. In present time, it is essential that the employees must have a direct communication and the supervisor and thus not able to convey the message in an adequate manner. This results in communication gaps among the team members and the manager (Guffey and Loewy, 2012).
Unspoken hierarchy
The flat organisational structure also results in a number of communication issue which have been raised because of the unspoken hierarchy which actually slows down the execution ability of the team members and the managers. The decision making process also get weakened when the decisions are not communicated effectively. The managers are unable to keep a check upon all the employees that whether the decisions have been followed or not. And thus, the communication challenges rose (Downs, C.W. and Adrian, 2012).
There are several ways to overcome the various communication challenges or issues. Such as:
Reduce the size of the teams
One of the biggest solution or possible way to overcome the communication challenge is to reduce the size of the teams. When the teams are large in size, it is difficult to have effective communication with the team members. Thus, it is essential that the teams must be small in size such as there must be only few people under a single department. Thus, it will improve the communication.
Easier Communication
Open forum discussions
The next important aspect which can resolve the communication issues are that there must be conducted an open forum discussion. These discussions are performed within the manager and the team members where all the issues and problems can be effectively listen and mange in the open discussions (Guffey and Loewy, 2012).
Evaluation and check
Another key suggestion for overcoming the communication challenges is to have a regular check and evaluation under which there can be passing of information directly to the employees and there can be checked whether the decisions are followed in an adequate manner or not. The evaluation and check helps in understanding the issues of the employees and also to monitor the progress of the team members which ultimately improves the communication (Boies, Fiset and Gill, 2015).
The organisational culture can be demonstrated as the aspect that includes values, beliefs and assumption which mange the employees’ behaviour. The internal management is highly controlled through the organisational culture. Organisational culture plays a major role in the attainment of the business goals. The companies attain huge level of success and faster attainment of the goals when adequate organisational culture is followed. If the organisations are highly customer-centric which means that the focus of the company or the business organisation is upon the satisfaction of the customers and their needs, then it results in extended customer base and reliable customers (Hogan and Coote, 2014). Therefore, the goals are attained with a rapid rate. If the culture of an organisation is employee-centric, then it is considered as the most effective in the present scenario. The organisations which are employee-focused pay a huge attention to the satisfaction of the employees. There are continuous initiatives taken for the employee development and employee growth. Thus, the morale of the employees increases and so the productivity and efficiency of eth employees. This directly results in attainment of organisational goals (Wei, Samiee and Lee, 2014).
Following is the theoretical framework which will help in understanding the organisational culture and its significance in the success of the organisation.
The organisational culture have a direct link with three key factors i.e. leadership development, strategic planning and team dynamics. The sound organisational culture helps in achieving effective leadership as if there are high shared values in the organisation. The leaders are required to follow the cultural norms and the values which help in the development of the leadership. The second aspect of organisational culture is strategic planning as when there is a strong and adequate culture follows in the organisations, there takes place strategic planning which improves decision making of the managers enhances the organisational performance and also upsurge the morale of the employees. The third key aspect is the team dynamics as when there is significant and effective organisational culture then it results in effective teamwork. The employees work in teams with improved and shared responsibilities (Real, Roldán and Leal, 2014).
When the organisational culture links with the above three aspects, there results in facilitating change in the organisation, growing awareness and cultivating awareness. The success of the organisation highly depends upon the organisational culture as the culture plays a vital role in facilitating change in the organisations (Carlos Pinho, Paula Rodrigues and Dibb, 2014). With the dynamic market conditions, there is a need to change the cultural values so that increased trust of the customers can be gained. Ultimately, the organisational culture improves the performance of the organisation, performance of the employees and awareness. Thus, it can be stated that the organisational culture is a significant factor in the success of the organisations.
References
Bakker, A.B. and Schaufeli, W.B., 2008. Positive organizational behavior: Engaged employees in flourishing organizations. Journal of organizational behavior, 29(2), pp.147-154.
Boies, K., Fiset, J. and Gill, H., 2015. Communication and trust are key: Unlocking the relationship between leadership and team performance and creativity. The Leadership Quarterly, 26(6), pp.1080-1094.
Carlos Pinho, J., Paula Rodrigues, A. and Dibb, S., 2014. The role of corporate culture, market orientation and organisational commitment in organisational performance: the case of non-profit organisations. Journal of Management Development, 33(4), pp.374-398.
Chestnut, D., 2017. Nike’s Flat Organizational Structure. Accessed on: 15th March, 2018. Accessed from: https://bizfluent.com/facts-6887850-nike-s-flat-organizational-structure.html
Daim, T.U., Ha, A., Reutiman, S., Hughes, B., Pathak, U., Bynum, W. and Bhatla, A., 2012. Exploring the communication breakdown in global virtual teams. International Journal of Project Management, 30(2), pp.199-212.
Dosi, G., Faillo, M. and Marengo, L., 2008. Organizational capabilities, patterns of knowledge accumulation and governance structures in business firms: an introduction.
Downs, C.W. and Adrian, A.D., 2012. Assessing organizational communication: Strategic communication audits. Guilford Press.
Guffey, M.E. and Loewy, D., 2012. Essentials of business communication. Cengage Learning.
Hogan, S.J. and Coote, L.V., 2014. Organizational culture, innovation, and performance: A test of Schein’s model. Journal of Business Research, 67(8), pp.1609-1621.
Real, J.C., Roldán, J.L. and Leal, A., 2014. From entrepreneurial orientation and learning orientation to business performance: analysing the mediating role of organizational learning and the moderating effects of organizational size. British Journal of Management, 25(2), pp.186-208.
Wei, Y.S., Samiee, S. and Lee, R.P., 2014. The influence of organic organizational cultures, market responsiveness, and product strategy on firm performance in an emerging market. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 42(1), pp.49-70.
Zheng, W., Yang, B. and McLean, G.N., 2010. Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management. Journal of Business research, 63(7), pp.763-771.
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