Organization structure

This week, we studied the chapter of organizational structure.

Organization structure is the key of a company. According to Mintzberg, he define organizational structure as the sum total of the ways in which it divides its labour into distinct tasks and then achieves coordination among them. And there are four general principals we need to consider when designing a structure, which are The division of work, Centralization and decentralization, Span of control and chain of command, Matrix structures.

Here I want to use the case of coca cola to explain these four principals. Centralization and decentralization refer to the power of control are retained by the core part of an organization or is delegated to the edges of company. The Coca Cola Company is a decentralized structure, since Coca Cola is an international business, it has chosen the region to decentralize in their decision-making. The decision-making determined by the managers located nearby to the company who can easily identify the products are the customer wants and needs.

In coca-cola company, they divide their company by region and then divide work by function. For example, some workers make bottles and cans, some worker made coca-cola.

In terms of span of control, in high level of management, they have a very wide span of control which gives sufficient autonomy and responsibilities to subordinates to be creative. In the middle and low level of management, they have a narrower span of control which means managers have a closed contact with subordinates and supervise them better.

In addition, coca-cola operate a matrix structure that means each product has a product manager who retains overall responsibility for the product but that manager can then draw upon resources form the different functions. For example, a marketing manager may also be in charge with production line. This practice making people from different departments to meet up and work together will bring about exchange of ideas, the task would be looked from people coming from different professions and hence different perceptions would be brought forward. As a result the goals of the business or organization will be achieved both efficiently and effectively.

The knowledge above makes me understand structure clearer, I’ll keep going research them and apply them in the future.

Thanks Rob and Vish.