S&f Online This Paper Examines Issues of Essay

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S&F Online

This paper examines issues of organizational culture, structure and control for Smith and Falmouth. As part of its growth strategy, Smith and Falmouth started an online division, S&F Online, which consisted of a web development team, a logistics team, and a marketing manager to coordinate the two teams with the parent company.

The Project Manager, along with his six-member web development team, was responsible for the website and online payment gateway which made up the Online Sales Channel. The Logistics Manager and his three-member team was responsible for order handling, customer support and delivery operations. The logistics team then reported order fulfillment status to the Marketing Manager, who coordinated product lines, marketing budgets, and promotional activities.

The two teams worked in close coordination, and had the first version of the website operational within three months. The S&F Online CEO then brought in a new COO, who was tasked with streamlining operations, expanding the Online Sales Channel, and making S&F Online profitable within nine months. The change in leaders had significant implications for S&F Online, according to Nix, Dressel, and Bates (1977).

Current Methods of Control

S&F Online used a system of feedback controls to manage its organizational structure. The feedback controls process consisted of reviewing information to ascertain whether an organization's performance met organizational standards. The Marketing Manager used status reports from the Logistics Manager to make decisions about the performance of S&F Online. Because the newly created teams functioned with a minimum of management and established rules, they would be considered self-controlled.

Current Departmentalization

S&F Online was organized according to the six basic parts described by Mintzberg (2003). The CEO occupied the strategic apex, and as the organization grew, additional managers were required. The CEO brought in the COO, to whom the Project Manager, Marketing Manager and Logistics manager reported.

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The operating core consisted of the logistics and the web development teams, and the middle line distinguished the operating core and strategic apex. Smith and Falmouth provided the technostructure and support staff, as well as the ideology to this newly formed department.

Because S&F Online was so new, its division of labor was primarily achieved by mutual adjustment and direct supervision. As the organization matured, it would move toward standardization of work processes, outputs, skills and norms to varying degrees. Again, because the department was recently formed, S&F Online was still evolving the parameters of its design. There was some amount of job specialization, but little or no behavior formalization, training, or indoctrination. Unit grouping and unit size were limited, while planning and control systems were developing. Liaison devices were fairly well established between the two teams and the marketing manager. S&F Online enjoyed limited vertical decentralization, with managers controlling many of the decisions concerning their line units (Mintzberg, 2003).

Given that'd&F Online was both new and small, its behavior was less formalized and its structure less elaborate. Technical systems were also less developed. The environment was fairly dynamic, so S&F Online's structure was organic. With respect to power, S&F Online was externally controlled by the parent company, which held the S&F Online CEO responsible for the department's success (Mintzberg, 2003).

The configuration that best described S&F Online was innovative. As Mintzberg described, certain organizations "need above all to innovate in very complex….....

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