Structure & Strategy
Reflection
Analyzing APPLE INC
What do I want you to
do?
Review the Basic Building Blocks of Organizational Structure (Kennedy et
al., 2020) and explain which of them is the greatest strength of your selected
company and which is the weakest factor as a miniature case study. For the
weakest factor, explain a significant change that could help to better
implement strategies. Consider these options:
Division of
Labor: Could instituting a division of labor help to reduce employees’
workload and improve their focus? Alternatively, could removing an
existing division of labor help to broaden “workplace silos” and
streamline productivity?
Organizational
Chart: Could switching from a more centralized or hierarchical structure
to a decentralized or network structure improve strategic performance?
Consider whether your company ought to reorganize and four structure
types: functional, divisional, matrix, boundaryless.
Informal
Linkages: How could a mentorship program improve employee performance and
climbing the proverbial managerial ladder at your company? (Consider also
impacts on diversity.)
Vertical
Linkages: If you had to introduce a new supervisor to one specific facet of
the company, where would that be, and how would it improve strategic
performance?
Horizontal
Linkages: If you had to introduce a new committee or task force for one
specific facet or project of the company, what would that be, and how
would it improve strategic performance?
Unity of
Command: Should your company adopt a design demonstrating unity of command in
which each person reports to only one direct supervisor, or can you think
of specific facets of your company that ought to have multiple
perspectives of oversight? Why?
To express what is going wrong with your company that is motivating the
structural change you are suggesting, consider these identifiers:
Symptoms of an Ineffective Organizational Structure:
Too many levels
of management
Too many
meetings attended by too many people
Too much
attention being directed toward solving interdepartmental conflicts
Too large a
span of control
Too many
unachieved objectives
Declining
corporate or business performance
Losing ground
to rival firms
Revenue and/or
earnings divided by number of employees and/or number of managers is low
compared to rival firms
For your case, support your discussion with at least one credible news
source story related to the issue and at least one scholarly article.
Why do I want you to do
it?
Strategic managers do not always get the opportunity to make structural
changes to an organization, but when these cases arise, they are so momentous
due to the nature of significance that structure brings to decisionmaking,
behavior, and culture.
How do I want you to do
it?
What format(s)
should the assessment be in? A short, prose essay no more than three
pages. Properly cite references in APA 7 format.
What tools or
resources might be needed/useful? David and Kennedy et al. textbooks
What to include in your
submission
Your assignment submission should include:
Reflection
essay
