Strategic Management: Management, Organizational Structure, and Corporate Essay

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Strategic Management: Management, Organizational Structure, And Corporate Strategies

Manager, management, and organization

The significance of managers .

Size and strategy of a company

Mission, vision, and corporate strategy

Organizational culture.

In an organizational setting, strategy has always been more of a high stakes game where the management team identifies the company's mission and makes important decisions that focus all the company's capital, resources, and energy towards its attainment. With the dynamic nature of the current business environment, managers need to constantly analyze their internal and external environments to avoid losing their customers to the competition and losing grip of their market share. This text evaluates the importance of managers to an organization, the importance of organizational structure and culture, and the formulation of corporate strategies.

Manager, management, and an organization

To understand the operations in any business environment, it is important define a manager, management, and an organization. An organization can be defined as a group of people that work together in a coordinated and structured manner to achieve a set of goals, which may range from profits, knowledge, social satisfaction, or even national defense. According to Griffin (2013), most people in the United States are born in an organization - a hospital, gain knowledge in an organization - a school, and depend on organizations for an income and sustainability for the rest of their lives.

A manager is the individual is in charge of a particular department or business, whose main function is to oversee the work of others and to make the necessary decisions to ensure that the organization runs smoothly. On the other hand, management is the function that is tasked with the responsibility of coordinating the efforts of all the managers and employees in the organization, with the aim of accomplishing the set objectives and goals. Some of the management's activities include planning, leading, organizing, motivating, staffing, coordinating, controlling, and delegating duties to managers and employees accordingly (Montana and Charnov, 2008).

The significance of managers in achieving organizational success

Managers are an indispensable part of any organization because they greatly contribute towards maximizing efficiency and achievement of the organizations goals. Take the company Google, Inc. For example. Google believes that its managers have the greatest impact on the performance of employees and how satisfied they are with their work. The company even went ahead to start a project dubbed project oxygen in an attempt to establish something that would have a greater impact on their future; not a new app or algorithm, but building better bosses. Some of the ways managers contribute to organizational success are:

They formulate strategies and initiate action

Managers are able to get work done by communicating what needs to be done and guiding the employees in doing it. They are able to identify new opportunities and putting the necessary plans in place for their implementation. At Google, managers are expected to have a clear vision and strategy for their teams. They play a big part in keeping them focused on the main goals and helping them progress towards their attainment

They solve problems

Problems are bound to occur in the day-to-day activities of any organization, and employees need people who will help them get through certain roadblocks. Managers are often equipped with the required problem solving skills and they reduce time wastage which might otherwise affect the productivity of the organization. Google requires their managers to have the necessary skills to help their teams when they need them and they are also required to use their seniority to remove certain barriers that may come up.

They motivate employees and provide guidance

When employees are motivated by the managers, they are more satisfied with their jobs, which increases their performance and productivity, and ultimately leads to better organizational performance. Managers at Google get to know their employees out of work and often strive to make them feel appreciated. They also have regular one-on-one sessions with the teams and they offer tailor made solutions to their problems, which also highlights each employee's strengths. This is why Google is known as one of the best in terms of employee satisfaction, a factor that has contributed greatly to its success.

They coordinate the employees' efforts

Every manager at Google is responsible for their team. They are expected to be results oriented and productive at all times in order to channel the employees' efforts towards achievement of organizations goals. When managers reconcile the organization's interest with the personal interests of the employees, there is bound to be more productivity and better performance.

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How the size and strategy of a company affect its organizational structure

A companies' organization structure identifies the levels of hierarchy in the organization, and the systems that have been put in place - which ensure there is effective task allocation, supervision, and coordination, and also identifies the formal reporting relationships (Daft, 2013). It is often represented in the organizational chart and it is essential because it groups people into departments and establishes a chain of command.

Size

The size of a company has a great effect on its organizational structure. Small companies, such as sole proprietorships, do not have complex organizational structures because the owners often make most of the decisions and there are fewer employees, who are easy to manage. A larger organization needs a better defined structure to allow all the components to communicate effectively and work in a coordinated manner. For example, due to its large size, Walmart employs a formal bureaucratic structure with three operating divisions: store operations, real estate, and logistics. The unified team of leaders that oversees the three divisions is divided in terms of the geographic location of the business units: north, west, and south. It utilizes both functional and geographic departmentalization and the chain of command is clear because it starts from the top to the bottom.

Strategy

The strategies an organization applies in an effort to outdo competition in the market and attain its goals also have an effect on the organizational structure. A good example is BP, a key player in the oil industry. For a long time, BP's growth strategy had involved aggressive efforts such as drilling the deepest wells and exploring the toughest territories (Daft, 2013). However, after some time, these strategies failed to work. When the new CEO, Robert Dudely, took over in 2010, he first made structural changes in order to rebuild investor's trust in the company and change how the company operated. He split production and exploration into three divisions that would be more effective. To correct the corrupted chain of command, he then came up with a global safety division, which had the ability to challenge risky decisions made by management. These changes are responsible for the great success of BP today. Strategy and structure, therefore, are dependent on one another, and an organization needs to integrate its strategies with its structure in order to achieve its goals, objectives, and mission.

Tesco's current mission, vision, and corporate strategy

Founded in 1919 by Jack Cohen, Tesco Corporation is one of the largest retailers in the world. Its main business is retailing with its two main food brands being Everyday Value and Finest. It currently operates in 12 countries and has employed more than 530,000 employees (Tesco, 2015).

According to Hill and Jones (2008), a company's mission statement is an important element of its strategic management process because it explains its existence and what it does. Tesco's mission is brief: "We make what matters better, together" (Tesco 2015). Its vision is to be the most highly valued business by its shareholders, its colleagues, its customers, and every community in which it operates. Its vision contains five specific elements that explain its intentions. These are to be (Tesco, 2015):

Innovative, modern, and full of ideas.

Needed and wanted around the entire globe.

An expanding business that is full of opportunities.

Winners in the local arena as they apply their skills worldwide.

To inspire and earn trust and loyalty from the community, the customers, and colleagues.

Corporate strategies provide the means through which the entire organization can be able to achieve its mission and objectives (Dransfield, 2001). Tesco's main corporate strategies include: continuing to invest in business in the UK, establishing multichannel leadership, and pursuing further opportunities for expansion with disciplined international growth (Tesco, 2015). It aims to create shareholder value with the use of innovative customer focused strategies. The company is also keen on giving back to the community, which is evidenced by its element of social responsibility.

The process that can help Tesco formulate its corporate strategy for the year 2015

Tesco needs to use the strategic planning process to define its objectives, assess the external and internal environment, put in place efficient strategies, ensure they are implemented, and evaluate the progress. The process is as follows (Hill and Jones, 2008):

1) Defining the objectives

Since the company's vision and mission remain constant, it is the objectives that need to be changed. Currently, the main objectives.....

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