Management and Organizations in Global Structure

Question: Discuss about the Management and Organizations in Global Structure. Answer: Introduction: The organizational culture and the organizational structure play a key role in the overall management of any organization. If one of these systems is not managed in a proper way, then it can create a chaos in the whole organization and results in negated impact for not only the organization, but for all its stakeholders too. In the following parts, a discussion is carried on regarding the various aspects of the organizational culture, as well as, of the organizational structure. Organization culture is such a system which is comprised of shared beliefs, assumptions, and values, which govern the behavior of the people in any sort of organization. Such shared beliefs and values create a significant impact over the individuals who are associated with the organization, and helps in dictating the performance of their jobs, along with the manner in which they act or dress up (Alvesson, 2012). There are a variety of factors which affect the organizational culture. The most influential factor is the individuals who work in the organization. When an individual joins the organization, they not only bring the professional knowledge with them, but also bring their beliefs, traditions, assumptions, priorities, values, customs, behaviors and norms. For instance, when individuals are hired from defense background, they tend to bring discipline and strictness with them. Such discipline then forms a part of the culture of such organization. The gender of the employees is also a crucial factor. Along with the nature of the business, the objectives and goals of the organization, the associated external parties and clients, and the managements style of handling the employees also formulates the culture of an organization. To elucidate this further, the example of Walmart has been taken. The business activity of the company designs the organizational structure of Walmart and also imposes the limits over its business, in addition to determining the manner in which the problems are addressed by it. The organizational culture of Walmart has 4 key components, i.e., action with integrity, strive for excellence, service to customers, and respect for the individual. These components have been identified in the beliefs of Walmart and act as a guide for the behavior of its employees. (Walmart, 2016) The company has prioritized its customers in all of its operations (Walmart, 2016). Walmart has successfully recognized the contributions which have been made by its employees, which has contributed in its success. Walmart strives for the excellence in performance through the organization. Walmart also maintain its integrity by promoting honesty, impartiality and fairness while making the decisions. Even after all this, Walmart has, at numerous instances, been criticized for the failure to deal with the issues regarding the low pay of its employees and a bias for gender (Lichtenstein, 2011). This highlights the difference between the beliefs of Walmart, in the organizational culture, from the actual way in which the employees are treated. Hence, it is recommended to Walmart that it should implement such measures which are more effective and more successful in fulfilling the respect that each of its employees deserves, and also to each of the element of the organizational culture. An organization structure explains the manner in which the activities of supervision, work allocation and coordination are directed for the accomplishment of the goals of the organization. It consists of the hierarchical arrangement of the rights and duties, authorities, and communications of any organization. A proper organizational structure helps in knowing the chain of command, which could help in fixing the final responsibility. So, it acts as a guide for all the employees for the official reporting (Ingram, 2016). Further, information can be passed if a proper organizational structure is established and also enables the distribution of authority (Suttle, 2016). An organizational structure has six key elements and this includes work specialization, departmentalization, chain of command, span of control, formalization, and centralization decentralization. In Walmart, each of the individuals has a separate job and the division of labor is done is a proper manner. The jobs are broken into steps and each step is done by a different person. Walmart has different departments, which deal with a specific department, for instance human resource department, operations departments, and marketing and sales department (Lombardo, 2015). Each manager has a specified number of employees under them in Walmart so that they can be controlled and a span of control is maintained. In Walmart, the managers lay down the responsibilities of each of the employee, in a written manner, so that the employees can know what has to be done, and hence, a formalization of structure is done. Walmart has a centralized system, where the mandates, as well as, directives come from the top levels and are implemented by the middle management, down each ranks and by the end employees (Lombardo, 2015). The organizational structure of Walmart has two key features, i.e., divisional or hierarchy and the functional based. The hierarchy based system relates to the vertical line of authority, as well as, command across the structure of the organization (Dudovskiy, 2016). Here, each of the employees has a superior, save for the CEO, and the orders come from the top level, which are then to be followed by the juniors. The function based organizational structure consists of the employees, divided in groups, which fulfill specific functions. In Walmart, the functions related to hiring, training, etc are carried on by the human resource management (Walmart, 2016). There are separate departments for the function of marketing and information technology. In short Walmart has a range of function based departments in its organization structure. Having a hierarchical functional organization structure, Walmart is easily able to influence its employees, and new policies or strategies can be easily passed down. Though, this brings with it the problem of flexibility and often, the lower levels are unable to adjust the business practices due to length communications, along with the approval process (Lombardo, 2015). So, it is recommended to Walmart to introduce some form of flexibility in its organizational structure so that the business practices can be adjusted in a quick manner. References Alvesson, M. 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