Reflection Organizational structure Management Case Study

One page long and double space. The content is define organizational structural in your own words and explain how it can affect an organization's success. Second part is summarize the case- Google in one paragraph. There is the discussion question in the last page about case.

SESSION 3: Structure & Governance
Learning Goals: The aim of this session is to examine some of the approaches that organizations have adopted with regard to structure and design, including restructuring, reengineering, downsizing, and going virtual. We will consider more generally the question, “What determines how an organization is designed?”. In addition, we consider the fundamentally different forms of business as well as the notion of governance.
• Readings: Captus Chapter 2
• Discussion Case: Captus e-Course Kit - GoogleReflection-#!
Due by 8:00am, Morning of Session 3
1. In your own words, define organisational structure and explain how it can affect an organization’s success (Captus Chapter 2)
2. Summarize the Assigned Discussion case (Google, e-Course Kit) in one paragraph.

REFLECTIONS (16% of the course grade)
These reflections are mini-assignments that are due 8 (eight) times during the course. Each reflection
is due no later than 8:00am on the designated day, as listed by your course director on your section’s course website. Each reflection is worth 2% of the course grade to a total of 16% of the final course grade for all 8 reflections. Note that reflections not submitted by the due date/time will receive a grade of zero.
• Reflections questions and deadlines:
See pages 6-8 of this outline (weekly outline), the course website and information shared in class.
• Reflection requirements: You will write a 1-page double-spaced response to an opinion/reflection question. No late submissions of mini-assignments will be accepted for any reason, as the assigned questions and content are available well in advance (no deferrals or make up opportunities for any excuse, including illness, absence, internet failure, etc. Note that reflections can be submitted in advance of the deadline to avoid any unexpected last-minute issues. You must submit an electronic copy via moodle turnitin by the assigned deadline.

WHAT IS SO IMPORTANT ABOUT ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE?Organizations in just about every industrialized nation have been undergoing change for many years. Some companies reduced the number of levels in their hierarchy or laid off employees at all levels, others have undergone a concurrent change in their whole business process, while others have simply closed down. Fundamentally, what we have seen is a major rethinking of how organizations should be designed. Many observers have suggested that what we are witnessing is nothing less than a revolution in the corporate world!
In order to understand what is happening and, more important, why it is happening, we need to understand more about the design or structure of organizations. The aim of this chapter is to offer an insight into the anatomy of organizations and ultimately to explain why organizations are being redesigned: in other words, what is behind the corporate revolutions we have experienced.
It is an obvious fact that we are a society of organizations—from our hospitals, to our schools to our multinational organizations, it is hard to imagine life without organizations. And, for better or worse, those very institutions and organizations that we have grown up with are continuing to undergo dramatic change.
To understand what is going on out there, we need to first consider several things:
• What exactly are organizations?
• What constitutes the structure or anatomy of an organization?
• Why do different organizations have different structures?
Those are among the key questions to be addressed.

TRENDS AND CHANGES IN STRUCTUREThe traditional, bureaucratic organizational structure emphasizes factors such as job specialization, a formal hierarchy of authority, a clear system of control, and rules and regulations to guide behaviour. Therefore, it achieves the fundamental goals of organizations: predictability and reliability—rules and standardized jobs ensure workers are doing what the boss wants; and control—the formal hierarchy ensures that how the work is conducted is clearly controlled.
The traditional or classical approach to organizational structure was still relatively firmly entrenched up until the 1980s. Believe it or not, this old philosophy that arose in the time of the Industrial Revolution dominated our thinking about the nature of organizational design right up until the 1980s. It was not until then that organizations began to realize that the bureaucratic structure needed to be replaced with new designs.
The traditional strengths of the bureaucratic structure (i.e., focus on reliability and control), can become weaknesses when the environment changes. For example, increasing competition, demands for better products and services, improved customer service, and more sophisticated processes of generating the product all suggest that the stability of bureaucracies impedes any chance for innovation. The philosophy of organizational structure that emphasized job specialization, the narrow division of labour, standardization, rules and the like is simply not suitable to a changing environment.
Among the important trends in the redesign of organizations, are summarized in Exhibit 2-4.Exhibit 2-4 Old versus New Focus of Organizational StructureTraditional Bureaucracy Modern OrganizationTall/Hierarchical FlatterBuffered from environment Integrated/EmbeddedNarrow market Global