Dissertation Interim Report: Management Structure Enhancement In Contemporary Organizations

Concept of Enterprise Management Structure

Discuss about the Dissertation Interim Report for the Case Study of Contour Global Company.

Management structure refers to the process of authority distribution within an organization. According to Ashkenas et al. (2015), management of an organization determines the structure according to the business process. An appropriate organizational structure helps an organization to communicate with the internal and external stakeholders effectively. Here, a literature review has been conducted in order to evaluate the process of management structure enhancement in contemporary organizations. In case of large-scale organizations, it is highly important to maintain communication flow within the company. It ensures high productivity and good communication with the external environment of the company. As opined by Rosenberg and Keller (2016), there are different organizational structures such as entrepreneurial, bureaucratic, professional, divisional and innovative. All these structures have different purpose and the selection of organizational structure depends on the process that the company follows. In order to improve or change the organizational structure, there is a range of strategies that could be implemented. On the other hand, Joseph, Klingebiel and Wilson (2016) argued that the process of structure enhancement is delicate and it can affect people within the organization. In case of restructuring, an organization needs to delegate responsibilities and change job role of the higher and lower level staffs according to the requirements. The process of restructuring is time-consuming and involves many risk factors.

Lee, Kozlenkova and Palmatier (2015) stated that the process of restructuring is none other than a change management process. In order to bring organizational change, management needs to follow a systematic process. The first step of this process would be creating urgency for a change. Proper communication with the employees needs to be established before implementing the change. From the evaluation of previous researchers, it has been noted that employees must agree with the proposed change before initiating the process. Otherwise, an organization may face a diverse situation of high employee attrition. While on the other hand, Kopp (2016) mentioned that organizational structure depends on the business process. In this changing market environment, consumer’s needs and expectation are changing rapidly. Therefore, companies need to hire staffs for satisfying the same. It has a wide impact on job responsibility of the existing staffs in an organization. Therefore, restructuring the structure is becoming the globally-acknowledge strategy among the global organizations.

According to Hashemi (2016), enterprise management structure is known as the authority hierarchy within the organization. The flow of authority determines the roles and responsibility of both higher and lower level employees of an organization. Additionally, Morris Tod and Oliver (2015) said that an effective management structure helps to outline the roles and responsibilities of top management and lower level employees as well. In a hierarchical management structure, employees need to report to their higher authority in order to ensure communication flow. In case of large-scale organizations, the management structure determines by its regions. For example, Procter & Gamble has a wide range of products and operating markets. Therefore, the company has its unique managerial structure for different regions and products line.

Concept of restructuring tool

There are several organization structures such as Functional structure and divisional structure, which define an organization according to their operational processes. Ashkenas, Ulrich, Jick and Kerr (2015) pointed out while describing a functional structure that in top management, CEO or the managing director takes the responsibility of decision-making. The second level managers are responsible for monitoring performance of allocated regions, and the line managers are responsible for monitoring the performance of the employees. The process defines have been adopted by a range of organizations in the global market. However, Ocasio and Radoynovska (2016) argued that there are certain factors that infffluence an organization to change the structural format of the organization. This could be changing needs and demands of the customers, which may influence an organization to bring change in organizational structure. Moreover, Ashkenas et al. (2015) stated that internal factors could also tend an organization to change the organizational structure. Organizational management refers to the structure that an organization creates. It illustrates different departments within the organization along with position and responsibilities of both higher and lower level employees. It also describes the position that employees hold. Additionally, the organizational structure represents the communication approach between the departments. Da Fonseca, Silva and Menezes (2015) mentioned that the Human Resource team of an organization is responsible for maintaining the structure of the entire organization. However, Rosenberg and Keller (2016) argued that the management delegates the responsibilities to the Human Resource team. Therefore, it can be said that the management has to be responsible for setting structural behavior. When it comes to the organizational culture, it defines how an organization behaves while managing people. Apart from that, it also describes how the people within an organization deal with conflicts and other internal factors (Joseph, Klingebiel & Wilson, 2016). Depending on the cultural factors, management needs to understand the most appropriate structure. A structural change should be identified as globally acknowledged before the final implementation.

In order to achieve organizational goals and objectives, it is highly important to implement a team-working environment. Here, it is highly important to improve the management structure in order to delegate responsibilities among the employees. Varpio et al. (2016) have stated that the managers of an organization should have a proper understanding of what they are responsible. The proper understanding would help the managers to lead the subordinates in an efficient manner. The structure should be well designed, and it is required to be maintained in order to improve performance quality. According to Islam, Jasimuddin and Hasan (2015), in the contemporary business environment, organizations may require changing the structure as per requirements. Therefore, it can be said that change management is one of the major aspects that contemporary organizations should consider for gaining success. In change management, the organizations need to promote the need for the change in the first step. Furthermore, Wu (2015) mentioned that the management should create urgency for the proposed change in order to increase its importance. The managers and other employees should have adequate knowledge about the reason behind this decision on change. In management structure, the board of directors has the full control over organizational decision-making. Apart from that, the board of directors has the authority to create strategies for achieving the goals and objectives.

Importance of organizational structure

Restructuring tool refers to the process of changing organizational structure. It helps to enhance the management structure of an organization. As stated by Fisher, Campbell and Svendsen (2012), this process helps to rebuild the responsibilities of different level of employees within an organization. In restructuring process, management of an organization introduces new job role and responsibilities for both higher and lower level employees. The overall process defines the way in which the personnel of an organization should behave (Cosh, Fu & Hughes, 2012). The overall organizational behavior and culture deepen of the structural framework of an organization. Organizational structure refers to the flow of authority within an organization. On the other hand, restructuring is a process through which the flow of authority can be change. There is two impacts of restructuring tool in an organization such as leadership change and cultural change. The leaders within an organization should have a clear understanding of the organizational structure. They should examine the structure continuously in order to respond to certain change. On the other hand, the employees should be ready to accept continuous change in order to improve organizational function. Restructuring helps to empower performance quality of the employees in an efficient manner. In this strategy, leaders can appraise an employee by increasing post. Increasing responsibility of an employee is known as a motivational tool. On the other hand, restructuring can also change the entire responsibility of an employee. It might hamper motivation of an employee, or it can reduce overall organizational productivity. There are different tools for improving organizational structure. An organization can introduce training and development process for increasing performance of the workforce (Cavusgil et al., 2014). Here, the company would be able to increase communication within the organization. However, it would be difficult for the organization to respond to the external environment. The external environment is changing rapidly, and therefore, it has become important to improve the structure in order to gain superiority in the market.                                          

In this competitive age, it is highly important to ensure healthy communication with both internal and external stakeholders. Joseph, Klingebiel and Wilson (2016) mentioned that management of an organization defines its structure in order to ensure that each level of employee is well aware of their responsibilities. Apart from that, a well-designed structure helps the employees to understand how and to whom information needs to be delivered. The existing literature shows that today’s business environment is diversified and influenced by different external and internal factors. For example, competition is one of the major external factors that may influence an organization to bring change in its structural format. Alvesson and Sveningsson (2015) opined that in case of small organizations, the workforce strength is weak in contrast to the large organizations. Now, considering the employee strength of mall scale organizations, it is highly important to define roles and responsibilities of every employee (Strese et al., 2016). The process of structuring organizational authority is less challenging for the small-scale organizations. On the other hand, Ohlsson, Han and Hultin (2016) have stated that in case of large-scale organizations, management needs to pay close attention to the employees’ skills and abilities before defining responsibility. Understanding the business operations and employees’ skills would help an organization to reduce the excessive workload of the employees. In this manner, it is possible to increase the motivation of the workforce as well overall organizational performance.

In order to ensure high performance, management of an organization needs to monitor the performance of the workforce efficiently. In that case, a strong management is required. It would help to address every possible issue of the workforce. In case of contemporary organizations, management is paying close attention to the organizational structure rather than skill management, technology, economic and natural resources. According to Zhang, Chen and Liu (2016), the major reason of business failure has been identified from the literature review is poor management structure. Nowadays, organizations are restructuring their structure in order to delegate responsibilities among the workforce. Apart from that, the aim of restructuring management structure is to build a coordinative working culture, which can help to address probable challenges faced by the employees.

In case of large-scale organizations, it is highly important to improve organizational structure. The structure of the organization defines the way in which an organization should respond to market changes. The structure should be flexible enough in order to respond to the market changes. It helps to perform accordingly with the environmental changes. Moreover, structure defines the responsibilities of the workforce in every stages and phases. When it comes to the restructuring process, it changes the responsibilities of the employees at every level. In case, if the organization has changed the business process or has expanded the business processes, it is highly important to make changes in the current structure. The company could also recruit employees in order to initiate the changes process. However, in case of changing the current process, it would be beneficial to change responsibilities of the existing employees. Recruiting new employees for a new process would increase organizational cost, which will directly affect organizational profitability negatively. Therefore, it can be said that organizational structure is the major factor that management of an organization should consider as the key success factor. In this competitive market, contemporary businesses are facing diverse situation due to changing external environment. In this changing external environment, people within the organization should communicate with the higher authority in order to gain a positive outcome. In order to delegate responsibilities among the workforce, it is highly important to have an appropriate management structure. The management should have good command on the organization in order to achieve objectives. Therefore, it can be said that the structure of an organization has a wide impact on organizational profitability and development.  In case of Greenfield method, an organization needs to understand the external environment of the targeted country. The organizational structure needs to be defined as per the environmental factors that would affect business sustainability.   

As stated by Morris, Tod and Oliver (2015), there are both internal and external factors that affect organizational structures. The major factor is market competition, which influences the organizations to implement efficient strategies. Apart from that, changing needs and expectation of the consumers is another reason, which tends the companies to change organizational structure. Additionally, the external market forces or the business environment has a wide impact on the organizational structure. In case of small organizations, the need of strong structural format is lesser than large-scale organizations. In small businesses, there is low employee strength, and therefore, management of such organizations needs to focus on task delegation. On the other hand, Strese et al. (2016) have mentioned that large-scale organizations need to manage their workforce along with task delegation. Apart from that, communication is the vital factor for the large-scale organizations. Therefore, management of such organizations needs to implement efficient organizational structure. Following are the factors that affect the structure of an organization.

Organizational Size: According to Bellini, Pereira and Becker (2016), organizational size refers to the employee strength and operation area of an organization. Small organizations do not have large employee strength, as the company is operating in the small geographical area. Therefore, the management of such organizations needs to focus on short-term benefits rather than management structure. On the other hand, Ashkenas et al. (2015) mentioned that a large-scale organization has wide operating area and strong employee strength. In such organizations, it is highly important to determine the management structure along with the employees’ roles and responsibilities. Apart from that, this kind of organizations needs more managers and supervisors in order to ensure high performance. Now, the factor influence to change organizational structure is globalization. In order to expand business in the international market, a small-scale organization needs to change its current organizational structure. International expansion, on the other hand, depends on the external market forces. In order expand business in the international market; an organization should understand the cultural background of the targeted country. The company should further recruit new workforce and delegate the responsibilities according to the requirements. Moreover, the company can increase responsibilities of the existing managers for monitoring both the domestic and international business. Here, the managers’ authority increases, which means restructuring responsibilities of the workforce is another form of restructuring organizational.

Business Strategy: Rosenberg and Keller (2016) have stated that in this competitive market, organizations need to response to the competitors’ strategy quickly. Therefore, large organizations have smaller structures, which help the organizations to accept change in environmental change. Therefore, it can be said that business strategies are the major factor, which influences the organizations to change the organizational structure. In order to gain superiority in a competitive market, it is highly important to adopt an innovative strategy (Joseph, Klingebiel & Wilson, 2016). Implementing new business strategy may affect roles and responsibilities of the workforce. In such situation, organizations improve the structure with efficient management structuring tools. Restructuring tool helps to change or modify responsibilities of all level employees within an organization. Apart from that, this process also helps to improve the ability of management for monitoring performance of the workforce. Implementing a new business strategy refers to the process of introducing innovative ideas for business improvement. The strategy implementation depends on the employees’ performance and managerial capabilities. Therefore, restructuring process could help the managers to increase responsibilities of the managers so that they can get a good grip among the workforce. Additionally, it would help to increase responsibilities of the workforce, so that they can achieve objectives within the preferred deadline.  

Business environment: The external business environment is rapidly changing. Large-scale businesses need to consider the external factors such as market competition, government’s policies or social changes among the target market (Lee, Kozlenkova and Palmatier, 2015). Therefore, it is highly important to change organizational processes according to the changing external environment. It influences the organizations to restructure the organizational culture by changing roles and responsibilities of the workforce and managers as well. In this changing environment, internalization is one of the most important strategies. Therefore, restructuring process can be used for improving organizational structure. In internationalization, organizations can modify the structure according to the requirements of the external environment. In case of merging with other organization, both the organizations need to bring change in the workforce. For example, the companies might need to increase or decrease the employee strength after merging. It helps both the companies to increase financial efficiency. Business environment depends on the financial, political environmental and social factors. In case of changing political stability of a country or in changing the economy of a country, an organization would require changing the organizational structure through the restructuring process. This process would help to improve the overall performance of the company without increasing investment. Apart from that, business environment may change due to increasing or decreasing product demand among the target market. In such situations, an organization can restructure the management structure for increasing organizational productivity.

Technology: In order to gain superiority in a competitive market, organizations are adopting innovative technologies. Therefore, it is becoming highly important for the organizations to improve performance quality of the workforce (Rosenberg & Keller, 2016). In this scenario, responsibilities of the employee's increases and create importance of organizational structure. The introduction of technological innovation influences the organizations to make changes in organizational structure. In such situations, organizations need to increase responsibilities of the higher-level managers. The managers are solely responsible for leading the change towards success (Strese et al., 2016). Apart from that, the management needs to implement training and development sessions for increasing performance quality of the workforce. Moreover, the employees should understand the urgency of the change in an appropriate manner. Therefore, organizations need to employ managers for increasing the urgency of the change. Communication pattern needs to be changed in order to achieve the change process (Wilensky, 2015). Here, organizations tend to change the organizational structure by increasing responsibilities of human resource department.                                                         

Restructuring process as a tool of Enterprise Management Structure Optimization

According to Kopp (2016), the contemporary organizations have adopted restructuring as the tool of management structure improvement. In this process, organizations are initiating change management process for changing the current organizational structure. The purpose of changing the organizational structure is to gain superiority in a competitive market. Additionally, changing the organizational structure helps an organization to change the entire operational process in an effective manner. There are different strategies for improving organizational structure. For example, an organization can build a management team for monitoring the performance of the organization, or an organization can recruit new employees for a new job position. However, Hashemi (2016) argued that the most efficient and globally acknowledged strategy is restructuring.

This strategy helps an organization to conduct internal recruitment while changing the organizational structure (Morris, Tod & Oliver, 2015). For example, an organization can change responsibilities of the employees while restructuring the structure. This process helps an organization to empower motivation of the workforce in an effective manner. Employees may not accept the changed responsibility, or they may not be able to fulfill requirements of the new responsibility. Therefore, large-scale organizations should invest for implementing training and development process. It could help the employees to increase their knowledge and skill for the newly appointed responsibility.

In case of other strategies of structure improvement, employees may face motivational issues. Small organizations conduct external recruitment for a new position. On the other hand, Varpio et al., (2016) mentioned that large-scale organizations change responsibilities of the existing employees and ensure that employees have accepted the change. In order to conduct an efficient change management, the organizations should communicate with the workforce before taking any final decision. In this competitive era, employee retention is the major concern for the organizations. Therefore, it is highly important to ensure the acceptance rate for the planned change. Apart from that, Ashkenas et al. (2015) opined that organizations measures skills of the workforce before changing their responsibilities. Task delegation is the major concern while restructuring organizational management. This process further helps to provide an increment to the existing employees. Increasing responsibilities of the employees help an organization to increase motivation level of the workforce. It ensures that the workforce would be able to grow their professional career in an effective manner.

The purpose behind restructuring the organizational structure is to reduce the organizational cost. Research shows that the restructuring process can be used in order to adopt lean management. Changing responsibilities of the workforce can minimize organizational lose and therefore, cost cutting can be a purpose of implementing this strategy. Apart from that, this strategy would help while merging with another organization. Here, the company needs to understand the cultural background of the targeted company and restructure the management according to the requirements. According to the previous studies, restructuring is the process through which an organization can fight external environmental issues again in the global market. For example, merger strategy has been recognized as the most profitable strategy for the global organizations. Therefore, the primary activity for those organizations implemented the strategy for merging with another company. On the other hand, the acquisition is another strategy for business internationalization. In this strategy, an organization needs to understand the cultural background of the targeted country. The labor market law and employment legislations are the external factors that influence the organizations to implement restructuring process. The employment law depends on the governmental policies and procedures. Therefore, an organization should adopt the organizational structure of the targeted country in order to increase employee retention. In order to conduct sustainable business, it is highly important to comply with the policies and procedures of government. Therefore, restructuring is the most relevant strategy for enhancing organizational or management structure as well as for complying with governmental legislations.

Restructuring tool can be used while merging with another company. In that case, an organization can cut down their employee strength in order to fit within the targeted organization. When two organizations decide to merge up, it is highly important to cut down employee strength for the betterment of the company. Here, the company may decide to change job role of the workforce according to the requirements. Therefore, it can be said that the overall process is flexible enough for mitigating the probable issues within the organizations. In this process, it is possible to improve the performance of the overall organization. Employees with high wages and low responsibility can be identified in this process. Management of an organization can reduce or increase responsibilities of employees in order to reduce organizational cost.

In traditional process of organizational structure, the overall process was very fragile. The performance monitoring ability of such structures was low in contrast with the contemporary practice of organizational structure. Therefore, organizations have adopted restructuring approach while improving management structure. Apart from that, the structural framework of an organization defines its functionality (Varpio et al., 2016). The more an organization strengthens its structural framework, the more it would be easy for the company to respond in a diverse situation. Nowadays, organizations have developed a flexible structural framework, which can be changed based on environmental requirements. Restructuring tool helps the companies to change the organizational culture continuously. However, changing the organizational culture continuously can be harmful to organizations. It might harm employee retention of an organization negatively.                                

When it comes to business sustainability, it has been noted that majority of the organizations are implementing random strategies in order to survive in the competitive market. Now, the internal management structure is the major factor, which influences business success. The organizational structure of large-scale organizations has a wide impact on its business sustainability and development (Ocasio & Radoynovska, 2016). In order to response to the changing business environment, it is highly important to change the business strategies. Now, bringing changes in business strategies require a changed organizational structure. The organizational structure influences internal and external communication of an organization. An effective organizational culture helps to maintain information flow of an organization. Therefore, it can be said that an effective organizational structure helps a company to achieve overall goals and objectives. The need for changing organizational structure occurs when the organizational performance deteriorates.

Organizational structure refers to the authority distribution among the organization. In order to improve the organizational processes, it is highly important to modify responsibilities of the workforce accordingly. Apart from that, the company needs to understand the need to restructuring before implementing any strategies. Restructuring the structure would have a negative impact on the business sustainability of an organization (Islam, Jasimuddin & Hasan, 2015). The organizational structure defines the way in which an organization communicates within the organization. Changing the structure would affect the communication flow of an organization. For example, changing responsibilities and authority of the workforce have a wide impact on the communication structure as well as the communication flow within the organization. The reporting authority of the lower level employees can be change or remain same, but the overall process and need of information flow would change massively. Now, organizational communication has a direct impact on external communication. In order to conduct sustainable business, an organization should communicate with the external stakeholders in an appropriate manner (Wu, 2015). Therefore, it is highly important for an organization to ensure that external employees are getting appropriate information in an accurate flow.  

Kotter's 8-Step Change Model

In order to improve the organizational structure, it is highly important to implement an efficient change management plan. The Kotter's 8-Step Change Model is a management framework, which helps to implement a change management within the organization. This model has an eight-step chronological process, which helps to implement and maintain change within the organization. Following are the evaluation of the in this model.

Create urgency: In order to change organizational structure, management of an organization should create urgency for the proposed change. It helps the management to convey the importance of the change among the workforce. In order to gain successful outcome, it is highly important to encourage the workforce to accept the change. In that case, communication is the key factor, which an organization should maintain before implementing the change (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). Here, the management should communicate with the employees in order to explain the need for the change. The management should not just discuss individuals’ performance. Instead, the management should explain the way the organization could exploit opportunities after implementing the change in organizational structure.

Formation of the coalition: After building the urgency for a change, management of the organization should convince the people that the change in necessary. Here, strong leadership would be the key factor, which may help the management to take support from the key people within the organization (Bellini et al., 2016). In this step, an organization needs to communicate with the employees for emotional commitments. Bringing change in organizational structure is not an easy process. Here, an organization should build cohesive team effort in order to gain a successful outcome.

Creating Vision: In order to lead the change successfully, leaders should build a strong vision. It would help the employees to understand the aim of the organization. The employees are responsible for implementation of the strategies (Hashemi, 2016). Therefore, clear vision is important for increasing awareness about the proposed change.

Communication: In order to change the structure successfully, an organization should communicate with all level of employees in an appropriate manner. It would help the organization to convey the overall vision for the proposed change.

Remove obstacles: In change management, obstacles could appear at any stage. Therefore, the leaders should monitor the overall process while leading the change (Joseph, Klingebiel & Wilson, 2016). The management should monitor the performance of the workforce in order to ensure that the workforce is successfully achieving their objectives.

Short-term wins: Motivation is the major factor that would help to enhance organizational performance. Therefore, the leaders should celebrate for short-term benefits in order to empower performance quality of the workforce. Apart from that, managers should empower motivation of the workforce for achieving short-term objectives.

Build the change: This is the final step of Kotter's 8-Step Change Model, which ensures that the changed process is effective for the organization. Here, the organization should not celebrate short-term achievement (Kopp, 2016). The change in organizational structure needs to be examined for long-term basis in order to examine its effectiveness.  

As stated by Joseph, Klingebiel and Wilson (2016), there are different types of organizational structures such as the traditional hierarchy, flatter organizations and flat organizational structure. In traditional hierarchical structure, management of an organization undertakes top-down approach. In this kind of organizations, the board of directors defines organizational strategies. The second level authorities of these organizations are CEO and first line managers. The managers in this authority monitor activities of the regional managers. The regional managers of this kind of organizations supervise the workforce. These managers are responsible for communicating with both the regional managers and employees within the organization (Alvesson & Sveningsson, 2015). In traditional hierarchical structure, employees can communicate with the top management and the top management can communicate with the lower level employees. Therefore, it can be said that this kind of organizational structure helps to build strong communication flow within the organization.

In flat organizational structure, people with high experience play the role of supervisor. In this kind of organizations, the employees are responsible for reporting to the supervisors directly. As per the viewpoint of Ohlsson, Han and Hultin (2016), the top management of this kind of organization can communicate with the lower level employees as per requirements. The top-down approach of this kind of organization helps to maintain good information flow within the organization. Moreover, this kind of organizations encourages teamwork, where a group of people is responsible for achieving a set of objectives. In flat organizations, the structure tends to be weak at times, but it would help the organizations to react to certain environmental changes. Companies with flat structure would be able to change their structure easily. However, Zhang, Chen and Liu (2016) mentioned that there are certain challenges that would affect the business sustainability of flat organizations. A sudden change in external environment would influence an organization to improve the organizational structure. It would be difficult for a flat organization to restructure the current structure within a short time.

In today’s competitive business world, every organization follows a particular set of objectives or goals in order to achieve the established targets and organizational structure helps to hinder the progress of accomplishing the goals. Both large and small organization can gain a higher level of sales revenue with employing appropriate organizational structure. There are basic organizational structures, such as divisional, matrix and functional, which determine the ultimate success of the organizations in the specific marketplace (Fisher et al. 2012). The functional structure of an organization involves each portion of the concerned company, which grouped in order to fulfill its fundamental purpose of continuing business operations. A functional organizational structure includes marketing department, production department, and sales department and this type of organizational structure perform well in small organizations. In small organizations, there are few departments and this particular organizational structure helps to maintain integration among the existing departments for undertaking suitable decisions for the success of the organization. The functional organizational structure also supports the talent, knowledge, and skill of every associated employee of the organization (Cosh et al. 2012). However, there are also drawbacks and flaws of the functional organizational structure as it limits the communication and coordination in between various departments of the organization.

Divisional structure is employed within the larger organizations, which is capable enough to operate its business operations in a vast range of geographic area or a small company, which operates its functions under a group in order to cover several types of offered products in the marketplace. As the scope, possibility and size of the divisional organizational structure are huge. Therefore, it is costly. However, even the small companies also can employ divisional organizational structure on the basis of smaller scale, which has different offices. Matrix organizational structure suggests a hybrid of functional and divisional organizational structure (Cavusgil et al. 2014). Mainly the large multinational companies incorporate matrix organizational structures as it allows the facilities of functional and divisional organizational structure for continuing the business operation in a particular industry. For instance, Woolworths, a famous supermarket retail chain in Australia follows matrix organizational structure in order to maintain its business activities for holding the best position in the retail industry of Australia and expanding its business in a global manner. As a matrix, organizational structure has the potentiality to generate the struggles of power, as it possesses dual management. Similarly, Woolworths engages various managers for every department such as for function department, production department, division department and marketing department.

Hao et al. (2012) have mentioned that there are some formal organizational structures, which involves line organizational structure, committee organizational structure, project organizational structure. Line organizational structure suggests a vertical relationship in between various level of the organization. In this type of organizational structure, only the line department of an organization is the responsible to attain the targeted goal of the organization. Coles, a retail supermarket chain in Australia depends on its line organizational structure, which involves the entire marketing and production department of the company and the higher authority follows the basic chain of command.            

After reviewing the existing literature, it has been noted that different types of organizations have adopted different structures in order to achieve organizational objectives. The need of restructuring has been identifying through the literature review. Apart from that, a range of strategies has been evaluated for improving the traditional structure of contemporary organizations. However, the study would be more effective with an extensive study on industry specific research. The need of organizational structure depends on the type of organization and its operation. Therefore, it would be beneficial to conduct a study on industry specific literature. Moreover, the external market forces have been evaluated, which may affect the organizational structure. In order to understand the effectiveness of restructuring, it would be better to evaluate other strategies for improving enterprise management structure.

Organizational structure refers to the process through which an organization defines authority and flow of communication. In current business environment, organizations are paying close attention to the change in external environment. It helps the organizations to response in competitors’ activities. In order to gain superiority in a competitive market, it is highly important to improve organizational structure according to the requirements. From the literature review, it has been noted that there are certain factors that tend the organizations to change or improve structure. For example, market competition is a factor that may influence the organization to adopt product or service diversity. Here, the company needs to change or improve the structure in order to ensure success. Restructuring is a tool for management structure enhancement. This tool helps organizations to conduct change thin the organization. Successful implantation of restructuring would help an organization to empower skills and the ability of the employees. Apart from that, changing responsibilities of the workforce would help to motivate the employees in an efficient manner. The overall analysis shows that restructuring is a globally-acknowledged process, which improves organizational efficiency and profitability in an effective manner.

Introduction

In order to conduct this study, a primary research method has been chosen. Qualitative approach has been chosen in order to gather authentic information from the target population. In order to gather data, interviews has been conducted with different level managers of Contour Global Company. In this chapter, justifications for the selected research methods have been provided. The process of data analysis has been discussed and justified in this section.       

The purpose of choosing research philosophy is to gather authentic data for the study. The selection of philosophy depends on the study topic. There are three types of philosophies such as “positivism”, “realism” and “interpretivism” (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). In business research, it is highly important to gather factual data. Positivism philosophy helps to identify the factual data based on the study topic. Interpretivism philosophy assists to gather socially constructed information behind the study topic. On the other hand, realism is a mixed approach of these two philosophies. In this study, positivism has been selected in order to gather factual data for identifying effectiveness of restructuring for improving management structure.

Justification for chosen philosophy (Positivism)

Positivism research philosophy helps to rely on specific data about the study topic. Here, the research topic is to evaluate effectiveness of restructuring process in organizational structure improvement. In order to understand the effectiveness of restructuring process, it is highly important to know how managers of the selected company deal with organizational culture and behavior. Positivism philosophy would help to gather factual data from existing literature. In this manner, it would be possible to understand the strategies adopted by contemporary organizations for improving management structure. Therefore, it can be said that the selection of research philosophy is justified. 

In order to obtain accurate and error free research outcome, it is highly important to evaluate the research variables with appropriate models and theories. Selection of research approach helps to identify the appropriate process of evaluation. Inductive and deductive are the two kinds of research purpose through which the topic can be evaluated (Smith, 2015). In case of inductive approach, it is possible to frame new models and theories based on the research topic. On the other hand, deductive approach helps to evaluate the existing models and theories based on the study topic (Bryman, 2015). In this study, the deductive approach has been selected for evaluating the effectiveness of restructuring tool of management structure enhancement.

Justification for chosen approach (Deductive)

The reason behind selecting deductive approach is to mitigate time constraint. With this approach, it would be easy to identify the most relevant models and theories within the proposed deadline. On the other hand, with inductive approach it would be difficult to derive new models and theories within the deadline. It will further increase the overall research budget as well. Moreover, the inductive approach process is time consuming and it takes cohesive research from secondary sources. Therefore, deductive approach has been selected in order to mitigate budget and time constraint of the study. Additionally, existing models and theories would help to evaluate the variables in an appropriate manner.

Identifying the appropriate research purpose helps to understand the research topic in an effective manner. In order to conduct vast literature review, it is important to gain knowledge about the contemporary practice of management structure improvement. There are three kinds of purposes such as “explanatory”, “exploratory” and “descriptive” (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015). Explanatory purpose can be selected in order to establish link between the study variables. Here, the study variables are management structure enhancement and restructuring strategy. Exploratory purpose helps to access the background of the study topic. On the other hand, descriptive purpose helps to elaborate the study topic. It further helps to explain the topic with use of extensive literature (Smith, 2015). In this study, the descriptive purpose has been selected. It has helped to understand the study topic and its background effectively.

Justification for chosen purpose (Descriptive)

Selection of research purpose depends on the type of study that has been conducted. In this study, there are two research variables such as management structure enhancement and restructuring strategy. Therefore, it is highly important to elaborate both the variables in order to gain adequate knowledge about the study topic. Descriptive purpose helps to investigate each variable closely and therefore, it has helped to understand the research topic efficiently. On the other hand, explanatory purpose helps to build relation between the research variables. However, through explanatory, it would not be possible to describe the variables properly. Apart from that, exploratory purpose only evaluates the background of the study.  Descriptive purpose would help to discuss both the variables in literature review. It would further help to represent an argumentative viewpoint of the previous authors. Therefore, the selection of the descriptive research purpose is justified for this study.     

Research strategy helps to implement the appropriate data collection process from the selected sample. “Focus group”, “case study”, “interview” and “survey” are the research strategies that would help to conduct the study. Focus group and case study strategies are appropriate for secondary data collection process (Silverman, 2016). On the other hand, survey and interview process would be conducted for primary research. In this study, interview strategy has been selected, which has helped to conduct qualitative research. This process has helped to conduct a face-to-face interview session with the selected population. It helps to gather accurate and authentic information regarding the research topic.

Justification for chosen strategy (Interview)

In order to gather data for this study topic, primary research has been taken into consideration. In primary study, a qualitative approach has been chosen for this study. Interview strategy has been selected for conducting the primary qualitative study. Here, a group of respondents has been selected as the sample population. Interview questions have been created as per the research objectives. This process has helped to communicate with the respondents individually. On the other hand, in survey process, it is not possible to communicate with the respondents individually. This process allows creating survey questionnaire for the respondents and encouraging the respondents for responding. The low response rate is the major constraint of this process. Apart from that, respondents in this process may provide arbitrary responses, which may harm the quality of the research outcome. On the other hand, case study and focus group strategies are appropriate for secondary research method. Therefore, it can be said that interview strategy is justified for this research.  

In order to obtain error-free research outcome, it is highly important to select appropriate data collection process. Several data collection processes would be adopted for gathering research data. Primary and secondary are two types of data collection process through which data can be gathered. In secondary data collection process, authentic resources such as journal, articles, and websites can be accessed (Lewis, 2015). On the other hand, primary data can be gathered through two data collection techniques such as qualitative and quantitative. In the quantitative technique, the survey can be conducted with the selected group of the population. On the other hand, the interview can be conducted in order to initiate the qualitative technique. In this study, interview process has been taken into consideration for gathering authentic information. This process of data collection has helped to gather valid information regarding the “management structure enhancement” strategy (Merriam & Tisdell, 2015). Following are two types of data collection processes and their advantages.

In primary data collection process, a group of respondents has been selected for conducting data collection. This process helps to investigate the research issue by taking feedbacks from the targeted respondents. In this case, data collection can be done by targeting managers from the selected company. In this process, there are two types of data collection techniques such as qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. Following is the descriptions of both data collection techniques along with their advantages.

Qualitative technique

In the qualitative technique, the interview can be conducted with a set of respondents. Here, interview questions can be created according to the research objectives. In this process, it is possible to gather appropriate viewpoint of the respected authority. The data gathered in this process is authentic and therefore, it can be said that selection of qualitative technique is justified in this study.

Quantitative technique

Quantitative technique refers to the process in which a survey can be conducted. In this process, survey process can be conducted with a group of the respondent. The quantitative process allows in selecting a group of respondents for conducting the survey. The survey questions are made according to the research aim and objective. However, the data quality of quantitative data is lower than the quality of qualitative data. In this process, respondents may provide fabricated feedbacks, which may harm the quality of the research outcome negatively.

Secondary data collection process

In this type of data collection process, data can be gathered from authentic sources such as journals, websites and press releases. In this process, the viewpoint of previous researchers and authors have been gathered (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2015). It has helped to conduct a cohesive literature review in order to understand the research variables such as organizational structure enhancement and structuring process. Through this process, it is possible to gather relevant and authentic information about the research topic.

In this study, three level managers of Contour Global Company have been selected as sample. From an executive level, six managers have been selected from three operations such as “finance and administration”, “planning and budgeting”, “development and tax”. From middle management, 12 managers have been selected from four operations such as “finance and administration”, “planning and budgeting”, “IT”, “legal and development” Apart from that, 12 managers have been selected from specialist operations of “finance and administration”, “planning and budgeting”, “IT”, “legal and development”. Therefore, total 30 managers from Contour Global Company have been selected for conducting an interview session with every individual. Some of the selected respondents are ex-employee of the study company. The duration of every interview would be 30 minutes to 1.5 hours. Here, the interview has been conducted on the phone and Skype.  

In this study, qualitative data collection process has been taken into consideration. Therefore, the interview has been conducted with the selected group of the population. Here, content analysis has been adopted in order to analyze the gathered data from the selected population. This process has helped to observe the data closely for more interpretative analysis (Eriksson & Kovalainen, 2015). Through this data analysis process, it is possible to evaluate comments of the respondents accurately. Here, summarization, classification, and tabulation have been done in order to get a better outcome from the gathered data. The purpose of this data analysis process is to covert the general data to specific information (Bryman & Bell, 2015). This process highlights the important comments of the respondents and summarizing them into a tabular format.  

The methodology selected in this study has many ethical constraints. In order to conduct ethical research, researchers should comply with the research ethics policies. According to the research ethics, researchers should not force the participant to take part in the data collection process. It affects the response rate of the data collection process negatively (Smith, 2015). Apart from that, the researcher should protect the gathered data in order to comply with data protection act. However, it is important to share the respondents’ comments while recording the data for the study. In interview session, the researchers should not be biased while communicating with the respondents. It would help to improve the data analysis and research outcome as well.

Limitation of chosen methodology

The methodology chosen for this study is primary qualitative. In this process, it is possible to collect authentic data from the authorized respondents. Interview process helps to communicate with each respondent individually. However, there are certain limitations of this particular method. For example, respondents of the interview may refuse to share organizational information. However, the quality of the research depends on the gathered data. Apart from that, respondents may manipulate the data due to confidentiality of organizational information. The low response rate is another limitation of this study. Respondents may not take part in the interview session. However, it is important to communicate with each selected respondent in order to provide accurate research result.

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