Relationship Between Structural And Contingent Aspects Of Organisations And Organisational Design

Research key aspects of structural and contingency factors in organisations and evaluate the relevance of organisational design in today’s increasingly complex environments. Refer to Dimensions of organisation design.

Your essay should address the following question:

What is the relationship between structural and contingent aspects of organisations, and how does this understanding guide organisational design?

Write your response using evidence from the research literature.

In addressing this question, you may wish to consider the following points:

Why does society need organisations? Why do organisations exist?

What are the distinctive features of an organisation?

How much control can organised activity exercise over its environment(s)?

What are the distinctive features of contemporary organisational environments?

What can organisations do to become and stay successful in such conditions?

Distinctive Features of an Organisation

At the present time, the society and the organization have a close bonding that is necessary in the growth of any kind of business. Company is a group of people that motive to accomplish the goals in an organized way. The society is considered to the community of people who living in a specific nation with different customs, associations and law (Morton and Hu, 2004). The role of the organization keeps huge importance in the society as society desires to have ethics to execute some solutions in living standard. It has been found that these type of resolution are executed when society get together in certain philosophy. Along with that, the organization can sustain on a long-term basis due to organization practice interaction. Apparently, there is a positive relationship between these two positions and the development of the shared value for organizations. It is vital for the organization to keep consider the value of the employees which is necessary for the success of the company (Morton and Hu, 2008). There are number of factors which impact the internal and external environments because no one can assume the potential threat and it is tough for the company to ready for unknown events which is beyond their control. It depicts that the managers are required to be aware and make realize that organizational structure is vital for making policies and implementing them in an effective manner.

There are a plenty of factors that impact the overall activity of the employees and this represents that the effective organizational design should be entertained by the managers of the organization for the purpose of sustaining the company for surviving in long-term. Planning is the major process that refers to a thinking process as it needs that one initially make specific assumptions regarding ongoing realities, potential possibilities and obtainable approach to bringing out and analyzing information regarding the two. Planning helps in making an effective strategy in order to attain the determined objective in an effective manner. The starting of the process is done by reviewing the current operation of the organization and endeavor to identify what should be amplified operationally in the coming years. By considering this point, the main motive of the planning is to include predicting the results of the organization that wants to accomplish within the time frame. Planning can eliminate the possibility of less productivity which helps in increasing

It has been analyzed that the contingent aspect is considered as the potential economic event which can happen in the coming times and outcomes is unknown or unpredictable. It has been found that there are some internal factors can influence the design of the organization (Zheng, Yang, and McLean,  2010). For instance, the characteristics of the employee put influence on the organizational design. The employee behaviour can be changed within the organization due to changes in the policies, lack of communication lack of training, improper involvement of the employee in the decision making process and many more. The productivity of the employee can be reduced due to the above mentioned factors and it is vital for the organization to take care of them as they can impact the whole process adversely. It has been found that there are certain dimensions of organizational design that covers the structural dimension and contextual dimensions. Structural dimensions refer the formalization, specialization, hierarchy of authority, centralization, personal ratios and professionalism. With respect to contextual dimensions, it has been found that it contains size, organizational technology, the environment, goals and strategy of the organization and the culture of the organization.

Contemporary Organisational Environments

Structural dimension includes the formalization which refers to documentation in the company that is related to the job description, regulations, procedures and policy manuals. Specialization is the extent in a structural dimension that is sub-divided into a number of jobs and these categorization impacts from technology innovation which is the part of the contextual dimension (Harper, 2015). However, centralization is referred to as the part of the structure dimension in which hierarchical level makes the decision for making changes within the organization. The decision of the organization that can be centralized at the head office or can be decentralized to the various departments that can involve the buying of specific kinds of equipment of specific grades of employees. It represents the relationship between the factors of structure and contextual because contextual factors are those in which the strategy and the goals of the organization are made which should be followed by the employees (ACCA, 2018). The culture of the organization keeps huge importance within the business and it is vital for the organization to keep consider all such factors that can impact the performance of the company. The set of beliefs, values and many more may pertain to ethical behaviour that provides the glue to hold the employees together.

The world has been changing rapidly due to technological advancement which put positive and negative impact over the performance of the organization as per the condition. There are some contingency factors such as strategy, environment, size of the organization, the age of the organization and the technology. It has been found that in the midlife stage, the company has made an enough larger space and it has inclusive sets of rules, regulations and polices systems to interact with employees (De Clercq, Thongpapanl and Dimov, 2011). The use of technology has taken place within the business to covert the resources into outputs in each step of the organization. There are various factors such as machinery, knowledge, work procedures and materials that turn the inputs into outputs. Lack of knowledge about the process can mislead the organization towards attaining desired goals (Chand, e.d).

In the favor of staying long in the competitive market, it is vital for the company to consider some aspects or factors by which the company can stay strong in such a situation. It has been discussed earlier that the company is made with an effective group which leads them in a great way of the process. Training and development program is an effective strategy to learn about new things that are implemented within the organization in order to bring a positive change (Orlikowski, 2009). An effective knowledge regarding changes in the organization can draw a big attention of the employees towards performing in a well-efficient manner. A trained employee can perform in a better way in comparison of fresher because it enhances the confidence of them. Along with that, it has been found that there are various ways to sustain employees for a long period within the organization. Communication and enforcement of integrity and ethical values are the way by which the company can attain competitive advantages (Herath and Rao, 2009). There are a number of companies that have huge values and seek to develop integrity and honesty among their employees. Apparently, if there is proof that this kind of values do exist and are communicated effectively to employees, this would have impacted the confidence of the employees.

Dimensions of Organisational Design

There is another way by which the company can competence because competence is the knowledge and skills that are necessary to have to complete the tasks. It elaborates the job of the individual in which it describes that employees are tasked with taking out responsibilities those is beyond their competence levels. The organizational structure is the major part of the decision and it has been described by ISA 315 that the organizational structure of the company as being “the framework within which activities of the company are planned, implemented, handled and reviewed. The structural aspect of the organization is made in order to maintain the internal environment of the organization to be perfect and it can be done systematically if management gives proper attention to the contingent aspect of the organization (Smith, Busi, Ball and Van der Meer, 2008). There should be the proper procedure of allocation of the tasks as per the capability of the employee’s so that they can perform in their expertise zone. This kind of activity would be helpful for the company to generate an effective outcome. Subsequently, there are various companies that need to deal not only with making due that an effective level of authority and liabilities are developed to suitably qualified and experienced individuals. Along with that, it is needed by the company to make sure that proper reporting bonding and agreement hierarchies are in place. Moreover, it is integral for the employees to be resources in a proper manner and made entirely aware of their tasks and of how their activities interrelate with the actions of another kind of the aims of the company (Kirkwood, 2009).

In the limelight of the above discussion, it can be concluded that there is an effective relationship between structural and contingent aspects of organisations. However, the dimensions of one aspect are entirely different from another but the activity of one aspect has a tremendous influence on another. This essay has done depth analysis of the relationship between structural and contingent aspects of organisations along with the distinctive features of contemporary organisational environments. There are several issues that can be faced by the company in order to make organizational design in a proper manner but the resolution of them has been discussed under this assignment in order to bring a potential solution.

References

ACCA, 2018. The control envirobment of the company.  Available [online]https://www.accaglobal.com/in/en/student/exam-support-resources/fundamentals-exams-study-resources/f8/technical-articles/the-control-environment-of-a-company.html Accessed on 6th December, 2018.

Chand, S. e.d. 5 Contingency Factors Affecting Organisational Design. Available [online] https://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/organization/5-contingency-factors-affecting-organisational-design/22114 Accessed on 6th December, 2018.

De Clercq, D., Thongpapanl, N. and Dimov, D., 2011. A closer look at cross?functional collaboration and product innovativeness: Contingency effects of structural and relational context. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 28(5), pp.680-697.

Harper, C., 2015. Organizations: Structures, processes and outcomes. Routledge.

Herath, T. and Rao, H.R., 2009. Protection motivation and deterrence: a framework for security policy compliance in organisations. European Journal of Information Systems, 18(2), pp.106-125.

Kirkwood, J., 2009. Motivational factors in a push-pull theory of entrepreneurship. Gender in Management: An International Journal, 24(5), pp.346-364.

Morton, N. and Hu, Q., 2004. The relationship between organizational structure and enterprise resource planning systems: a structural contingency theory approach. AMCIS 2004 Proceedings, p.498.

Morton, N.A. and Hu, Q., 2008. Implications of the fit between organizational structure and ERP: A structural contingency theory perspective. International Journal of Information Management, 28(5), pp.391-402.

Orlikowski, W.J., 2009. The sociomateriality of organisational life: considering technology in management research. Cambridge journal of economics, 34(1), pp.125-141.

Smith, M., Busi, M., Ball, P. and Van der Meer, R., 2008. Factors influencing an organisation's ability to manage innovation: a structured literature review and conceptual model. International Journal of innovation management, 12(04), pp.655-676.

Zheng, W., Yang, B. and McLean, G.N., 2010. Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management. Journal of Business research, 63(7), pp.763-771.