Alignment Between Organizational Strategy and Structure - Paper Example

Organizational strategy and structure are two essential components of an organization which have to be properly aligned, since they play a crucial role in the ultimate improvement and success of the organization (Erickson, 2017). There are various importance associated with this alignment. Unlike in the normal decision making processes, a proper alignment between an organizational strategy and structure is that the decision making process runs down to the employees who are given a chance to freely provide their views and opinions (Cassidy, 2016). Through this, all members of such an organization, the staff and the subordinate stuff become committed to their roles, the employees on the other hand are able to provide unique and out of the books opinions which prove to be of great relevance to the success of the organization.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Order now

Alignment between an organizational strategy and its structure also increases the extent to which decisions made will impact the organization. For instance, when employees are involved in making decisions pertaining to the general success of an organizations, they may tend to come up with opinions which will not only favor their personal goals and objectives but the organizations in general. In cases of organizational change, the structure of the organization is usually affected more (Erickson, 2017). This is because the members or the employees of the organizations understand the existing strategy or the organization which means it could be easier for them to understand and make the respective changes to enable them meet the new strategy being implemented.

Question 11.2

Culture plays a role in the successful implementation of strategy. Consider an employment experience of your own or of someone you have observed closely (e.g., a family member). Describe to the best of your ability the values, norms, and artifacts of the organization. What was the socialization process of embedding the culture? Do you consider this to be an example of an effective culture for contributing to the organizations competitive advantage? Why or why not?

A company may have more than three objective, but its ultimate goal is to become successful in such a way that it possess a greater advantage against its competitors. The exiting culture of any given organization, mainly consist of the norms, and values being share by the management and its shareholders (Alexander & Miller, 2016). In order for any organizational strategy to develop, the set values must be in line with the organizational culture. For this reason, any changes being made must be constructed in such a way that they are in line with the culture of the organization, which in turn reflect on the success of the strategies being implemented (Erickson, 2017). The values and norms of such an organization include: its ability to stabilize, adapt to the changes in to external environment and flexible to changes encountered. When a company or an organization carefully aligns its culture to its strategy, there is a better chance for it to be successful and operate on the global market, outperforming all its competitors.

Question 12.1

How can a top management team lower the chances that key managers will pursue their own self-interests at the expense of stockholders? At the expense of the employees? At the expense of other key stakeholders?

Conflict between the key managers and their respective stock holders amongst the factors can make the key managers pursue self-interests. For such instances to be lowered, a firm has to reduce the chances for existences of conflict between the involved parties. For instance, a firm can come up with effective ways to control the existing organizational strategies, referred to us strategic control systems (Hudson et al., 2016). Through this systems, a firm may be able to control or prevent department to department associated problems. The main function of such systems is to come up with targets and limits, which an organization can use to measure its success. In addition, a firm can be able to lower the chances that key managers pursuing own self-interests at the expense of their stockholders through thorough evaluation of the results achieved with respect to the expected results (Erickson, 2017). This can enable the top managers determine the causes and take necessary precautions from future instances or take action in cases where damage has already been caused.

To prevent such instances at the expense of the employees, a firm should come up with several employee motivation programs, which tend to not only strengthen the general relationship between the employee and the manager, but also motivate the employees towards putting extra effort in working towards achieving the ultimate goal and objectives of the firm, and not personal goals (Hudson et al., 2016).

Question 12.3

The shared value creation framework provides help in making connections between economic needs and social needs in a way that transforms into a business opportunity. Taking the role of consultant to Nike Inc., Discuss how Nike might move beyond selling high-quality footwear and apparel and utilize its expertise to serve a social need. Give Nike some advice on actions the company could take in different geographic markets that would connect economic and social needs.

It is without a doubt that as time passes, whatever people viewed as being unique and fabulous tend to become outdated. It is for this reason that companies find themselves in a continuous push towards shifting their initial way of thinking, as they have become outdated, into fitting in the existing changes (Hudson et al., 2016). Through this an organization will be able to generate success by combining the changes in the social need of its customers to its economic and financial needs. Nike Company majored in the production of shoes until 1995 when it also ventured in the production of balls, golf apparels among other sport equipment (Alexander & Miller, 2016). It also introduced a clothing line, where it mainly tailored clothes being worn by several worlds top sport personalities. However, in order to meet the existing social needs of its customers, and attract new customers into liking their products, Nike Company may consider the following recommendations:

Opening branches globally, makes it easier and faster for their clients to have their products as soon as possible depending on their needs. Moreover, other than coming up with new products serving the same purpose, the company could also consider making specific modifications to the existing products (Hudson et al., 2016). Economically this will save the company a big deal on the cost of manufacturing a new products, and in the end the end, needs of their clients will be catered for too making their products socially acceptable.

References

Alexander, A. T., & Miller, K. (2016, March). University knowledge transfer: Exploring organisational structures to create strategic alignment. In ISPIM Innovation Symposium (p. 1). The International Society for Professional Innovation Management (ISPIM).

Cassidy, A. (2016). A practical guide to information systems strategic planning. CRC press.

Erickson, D. (2017). The Underutilized Resource: Factors Affecting Efficient Use of the Internal Audit Department (Doctoral dissertation, Baker College (Michigan)).

Hudson, S., Huang, L., Roth, M. S., & Madden, T. J. (2016). The influence of social media interactions on consumerbrand relationships: A three-country study of brand perceptions and marketing behaviors. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 33(1), 27-41.