1. Understanding Contemporary Organisations Week 3 Understanding contemporary organisational structures.
Lesley Kuhn

2. Topics to be covered in this seminar
Content, structure, processes and assessments; Learning Guide; Textbook; SGSM Skills Workshops.
Thematic overview of contemporary organisational structures
Thematic overview of contemporary understandings of organisational structure
Fractal themes apparent?
Relationships between organisational structure and: strategy, organisational dynamics, innovation, leadership, organisational development.
Student led discussion of set readings

3. Organisational structure
Relates to allocation of responsibilities for different functions and processes to fulfill the aims of the organisation.
Implicates the setting and policing of boundaries (between the organisation and it’s environment).
Implicates:
subordination of workers
who works with whom (as subordinates and as managers)
who oversees whom
who reports to whom

4. What are the major decisions needed to design an organizational structure?
Refer to page 170 Bovee and Thill
Risks of a poorly designed structure?
How does a flat structure change the responsibilities of individual managers?
What are your core competencies now? Would you function better in a highly centralized or decentralized organizational structure?

5. Thematic overview of contemporary organisational structures
Rationalization of work
Bureaucracy (defined roles; hierarchy)
Functional (group members perform specialized sets of tasks)
Divisional (divisions based on product , geography etc)
Matrix (groups employees by both function and product)
Network (organisations contract out business)
Virtual (the organization exists within a network of alliances, using software/ electronic means; merges with suppliers and customers)
Bureaucracy emerged 19th Century - emphasis on technical expertise and fixed division of labor. Written about by Weber.

6. Bureaucracy and functional, divisional, matrix network and virtual structures

7. Example of virtual organisation

8. Discussion
Discuss your experience with each of these structures. Which would you function best in?
What are the benefits and difficulties of each type of structure for the organization?
See summary p. 173 B&Th

9. Teams

10. Discussion: working in teams
Is ‘groupthink’ similar to peer pressure? Why? Why not?
Why would you support a group decisions that you do not agree with?
List three characteristics of your experiences in working in teams?
How would you bring what you have leant from your experiences in team work to working in a business organization?

11. Thematic overview of contemporary understandings of organisational structure
If:
Through conversations, organisations evolve as conscious processes of sense making
Organisations are constructed and sustained by individuals who are interrelating (self-organising and dynamic and emergent)
Then:
Organisations can be understood as complex responsive processes of relating (Stacey)

12. Organisational structures implicate:
Implications of contemporary understandings of organisational structure
Relationships matter
Organisational structures implicate:
strategy,
organisational dynamics,
innovation,
leadership,
organisational development.

13. What are the implications?
Implications of functional, divisional matrix, network and virtual structures on:
strategy,
organisational dynamics,
innovation,
leadership,
organisational development
As a group set out a matrix style chart to indicate your answer.

14. Fractality and organisational structure
Fractals describe phenomena that show similarities across different scales (dimensions).
Parts that have the same or similar form, structure or other characteristics as the whole, except at a different scale.
People and organizations depict fractal dimensions.
An employee can be viewed as a fractal of his/her organisation
Individual people, sections, departments individual geographic sites of the organization, industry sectors, international associations may depict fractal dimensions
identification of the fractal dimensions provides a powerful means of identification of patterns across the whole organization (and beyond).

15. Contemporary organisational structures and … How are these topics implicated?
Awareness of humanness of all involved
Concern with prejudice
Opportunities for women
Opportunities for people with disabilities
Expanding ecological, sustainable or environmental awareness
Need for greater transparency of organizational processes an practices
Refer back to your matrix diagram/chart to respond to each of these topics.

16. Dabbawala’s of Mumbai
About 5000 dabbawalas are employed on the streets of Mumbai daily, delivering about a quarter million lunches from homes to offices. The dabbawalas pick up the people’s lunches from the subscribers' houses. They then take them to a central processing area, where they are dispatched for delivery at lunchtime.
Despite most dabbawalas being almost illiterate, the clever color-coding scheme gives them a fantastically low incorrect delivery rate.
Utube: selection of documentaries on the dabbawalas of Mumbai

17. Discussion of readings
In small groups (2-3) discuss and list the 5 most interesting ideas for each reading:
Ali, Naqvi, Tabouk, Al-Jahwari ‘Development of inter-organizational …’.
Bovee and Thill, ‘Chapter 5’
Bovee and Thill, ‘Chapter 8’
Naqshbandi and Kaur ‘A study of organizational citizenship behaviours…’
Be prepared to share your list of points with the class.

18. Standards of legitimacy change.
Are these changes in standards implicated in contemporary organisational structures?
Standards of legitimacy change.
Standards of ethically acceptable practice change.
Standards of employee work conditions change.
Standards of environmental responsibility change.
What else??
These questions should be pondered as we study in some depth organizational structures, people management, marketing and financial practices.

19. Implications for understanding contemporary organisations?
Implications of awareness of range of contemporary organisation structures?
Implications of familiarity with contemporary ways of understanding organisation structure?
Other implications?
Writing our own inventory of theories and concepts

20. Assessment 1 submission information
Plagiarism and correct referencing.
‘Voice’: first or third person?
Turnitin.
Make sure you go to a SGSM workshop on academic referencing and assessment preparation.
Other topics?