Assignment Revision

1.    An evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages of two different types of organisational structures – BMC’s structure and another of your choice. (AC 1.1) Short references should be added into your narrative below. Please remember to only list your long references in the Reference box provided at the end of this section.

Organizational strategy refers to a dynamic, lasting arrangement that gives direction and guidance toward realizing an organization's goals and long-term vision. Furthermore, it entails an ongoing plan that determines how an organization purports to utilize its resources and capabilities to carry on company activities. The organizational strategy directs how the business can attain its set purpose through tactical plans. Most profit-making businesses employ techniques to support them to meet in meeting their targets and establish tactical plans. The organizational strategy has several benefits to the company, including setting strategic direction, improved decision making, improved management skills, and sustainability of the business (Hambrick, D. 2017, 49). The paper entails a report on organizational tactics and their association between structure, strategy, and the wider company environment and the potential responsibility of people’s practice and support to the strategic amendments and the attainment of company goals.  An organizational structure refers to a system that describes how the tasks or responsibilities in a given organization are directed arranged, and formatted to attain the set goals. The functions or responsibilities include roles and the regulations that employees are subjected to in the organization. Organizational structures and strategies involve setting the roles of company employees in a team-based manner to handle minor parts of the company responsibilities that integrate to fulfill the whole (Andrade, 2016, 34). Also, the organizational structure resolves how information and directions flows between levels within the company to enable the day-to-day running of activities. Such as, in a centralized managerial system, data information and resolutions move from a top-down direction, whereas in a decentralized organizational arrangement, information and the resolution-making process authority is divided among the different levels of the organization (Andrade, M. 2016, 33). As observed with BMC, the top-down approach ensures that all the branch managers function similarly and the divisional executives have a scarce say in how they operate. In this type of management structure, information generally flows in one top-down direction, and it’s everyone’s role to implement the goal determined by the top management (Andrade, M. 2016, 35). Therefore, an analysis is needed to determine the pros and cons of various structures and strategies to define the best organizational structure.

A defined organizational structure in any business allows for operating efficiency and effectiveness. As a result, the executives and employees remain focused and informed of their roles and responsibilities in the organization. Many types of organizational structures that a company can adopt depend on various factors, such as the size of the company and its basis of operation (Andrade, M. 2016, 35). In this case, BMC uses a strict centralized policy, a traditional top-down management structure, where top management decides decisions and operations and is distributed across the organizations.

The top-down management structure used in our case company presents several advantages and disadvantages. The benefits include consistency and common policies across the business that leaves no room for ambiguity. The top-down approach also provides clear direction to the individuals in different operation branches which helps in preventing other parts of the business from becoming too independent. Moreover, activities and resolutions are strongly directed, and the chain of command and answerability are easily understandable, which makes vision communication more simple. In addition, the organization’s vision is clear and focused, the senior executive can communicate the organization’s vision to employees with clear guidance toward the achievement of the vision. Finally, the approach enables employees to focus entirely on their work since they do not have to make decisions. The disadvantages of a top-down management structure include; employees' demotivation since they do not feel part of the organization's values and goals. Secondly, the standardized method may not function in all business settings since different regions present unique environments and cultures. Finally, the top-down approach lowers the company's productivity as employees are discouraged from being creative, considering the head office makes all decisions with their role being to implement  Since the employees are less motivated, with limited communication from employees to management, their services quality is lowered, which causes further customer dissatisfaction due to employee limitation and lack of creativity (Andrade, M. 2016, 36).

Another type of organizational structure that recommended to be adopted for adoption, in this case, is a decentralized structure policy with a bottom-up approach. The approach enables significant resolutions to be determined by executives and employees (Andrade, 2016, 38). The actions and vision for the entire company are determined by the management and employees' input across the different levels of an organization. The major benefit of a decentralized organization structure is that it enables the executives employees to make quick decisions that can save the company’s time and money. The structure provides employees with more decision-making roles and responsibilities; hence they can determine the outcome of their operations. Employees save time in determining the best way to fulfill dynamic and changing customer expectations without involving executives. The bottom-up approach seems friendly but is characterized by several advantages and disadvantages. The approach's advantages include improved employee motivation since they are empowered to share their ideas and participate in the decision-making processes. Since the employees are engaged, their productivity increases, ensuring better product and service quality. The method allows for a quick decision-making process as the branch managers do not have to wait for communication from the head office. Furthermore, employees are more engaged, which leads to increased productivity. Moreover, a decentralized approach lightens the organization’s workload and frees the management up to develop strategic long-term plans and objectives. Finally, the approach ensures that the subordinates’ decisions align with the company's mission and vision. The disadvantages of the bottom-up approach are; inconsistency in the decisions that may result in disorganization and frustration. Also, ineffective decisions by the branch operation managers that are not aligned with the company's values and vision, and employees may be reluctant to share feedback. Furthermore, it will increase ambiguity in the chain of command. Giving authority to lower supervisors can blur the line of command. As a result, each feels they have the authority and capacity to make decisions. and it can be making it more confusing when new serious problems accrue. Finally, it will require attracting and recruiting trained and well-qualified personnel to be appointed in managerial levels, which will require a high operation budget. (Andrade, M. 2016, 38).