Week 6 Observation Journal

Class BA 352

Yu Sun

Week 5 Observation Journal 5/01/2019

Week 5 Observation Journal: Organizational

The organization of the organization is a computer maintenance and software

development organization in the United States. The organization’s income is unknown.

Observations include recorded content and observable content. The structure of the

organization is simple at a higher level and is also broad on the basis. The chain of command

can be clearly seen from the structure. The primary task of the organizational structure is the

CEO of the organization. Under the leadership of the CEO, there are other positions such as

Supply Chain President, Chief Financial Officer, President of Strategy, General Counsel,

Director of Human Resources and Director of Public Affairs and Public Relations. All of

these positions are lower than the CEO, which means they report directly to the CEO. The

CEO is also the company's leader and is responsible for the management of each department.

From the structural point of view, the maintenance department, the technical department, and

the service department. The regional chairperson reports directly to the manager. The

President of the President reports to the CEO and other key leaders of the decision-making

committee. In this way, the President can guide the regional president to guide the

organization of decision-making bodies' policies and directives. This is the simplest structure

of the organization. The structure of each organization varies from region to region.

An observation of this organization structure reveals that just like any other short

organizational structure, it enabled quick flow of communication from the CEO (Valaei 14).

That is a major strength for the company. The fact that he decisions-makers and strategists are

below the CEO means that the CEO’s communication to key leaders such as the CFO, the

president of the supply chain, and HRM is direct and quick. However, the structure is long,

meaning that decision-making can take long when consultation is being done (Valaei et al.,

573). That is particularly so because there would be many opinions forwarded in regards to

proposed strategy and related matters that require consultation.

My speculation when this organization decides to change structure from a short and wide

to a tall and narrow is that processes may take longer to accomplish. There would be a lot of

consultation in such a tall structure, meaning that decision-making would be rather slow. The

business environment may not change much because it is hardly affected by the structure.

However, changing the structure from short and wide to tall and narrow may affect job

performance of leaders on the top of the structure (Zakrzewska-Bielawska 604). The reason is

that a short structure keeps top managers close to the CEO where they report directly to

him/her. However, a tall structure would mean that some positions would have to report

through other offices on top of them before reaching the CEO. That could demotivate leaders

who were previously used to reporting directly to the CEO because a new structure may take

away that prestige.

Some the suggestion that I would make to reduce the negative effects of restructuring

efforts in this organization are as follows. Firstly, any restructuring at the top needs to be done

carefully to avoid more than 2 levels of reporting. Secondly, only related tasks should be

restructured. This would ensure that the restructuring improves service delivery.

Works Cited

Valaei, Naser. "Organizational Structure, Sense Making Activities and SMEs'

Competitiveness." VINE Journal of Information and Knowledge Management

Systems, vol. 47, no. 1, 2017, pp. 16-41.

Valaei, Naser, S. R. Nikhashemi, and Nariman Javan. "Organizational Factors and Process

Capabilities in a KM Strategy: Toward a Unified Theory." The Journal of

Management Development, vol. 36, no. 4, 2017, pp. 560-580.

Zakrzewska-Bielawska, Agnieszka. "Perceived Mutual Impact of Strategy and Organizational

Structure: Findings from the High-Technology Enterprises." Journal of Management

and Organization, vol. 22, no. 5, 2016, pp. 599-622.