Problem Identification
Ponsonby Pies has endeared to stay at the edge of competition. Even though gourmand pie was not common at its time of establishment, it ventured into this product regardless of the stock market crisis and decreased demand for pies. However, its organizational structure and culture may threaten its current achievements and expectations. The firm focuses so much on personal communication between the directors and workers as a move to engage employees. Although the engagement of employees has been proven to be very beneficial to the staff and the company at large, it is important to adopt effective strategies of upholding directors’ interaction with the workers. The directors of Ponsonby Pies seem to sacrifice the dual process of confiding with employees in the name of fostering personal communication, which poses a challenge to the stability of the company. If the organization is to maintain its reputation and secure its aim of being the leading pie manufacturing company, it should not heavily rely on personal conversations between the directors and workers.
The engagement of employees does not necessarily narrow down to everyday personal communication (Owen Nieberding, 2014). A standard organizational structure should not depend on such communicating channels, which is probably why the company is yet to expand to a “number one” pie company. As expected, a company should have a hierarchical chain of leadership. Directors are only the top executives. As such, constant personal engagement with them significantly undermines the leadership order. For example, supervisors may feel that their authority is overlooked with the directors participating even in unnecessary matters. The structure of an organization dictates the flow, division and coordination of forces. In this case, this form of director-employee communication will disrupt the structure in terms of responsibilities allocation for different processes and functions.
Situational Analysis
Communication is a major factor of organizational structure because it affects the culture and decision-making in a company. It helps in driving operations and performance across various entities and directors in organizations facilitate mechanisms of contacting employees. The aim is to create a surrounding within which the employees feel valued and motivated in both intrinsic and extrinsic aspects. However, this does not mean that directors should promote employee engagement at all cost. There is a limit beyond which the engagement, although high, may be inefficient. Research has it that executives should not spend too much or too little time with employees. Too little communication with workers qualifies as disengagement while too much promotes micro-managing (Plugge, Bouwman & Molina-Castillo, 2013). Important is to cultivate a moderate communication system that includes all the respective departments and members. Otherwise, it will just be a scenario of changing strategies, but retaining the old structure. Hence, the strategies that Ponsonby Pie may adopt in its endeavors to expand are bound to fail if its structure does not change as well. By the directors insisting on personal communication, they would even be paying attention to trivial details.
In other words, the situation will cause detrimental effects attached to micromanagement, which stand against the same results the executives aim to achieve. Micromanagement may devalue the morale and engagement of employees following the high rate of dependency and unease. For instance, an employee may be criticized regularly to an extent at which he or she stops trying to become better. In such a case, a potential worker loses the initiative and motivation of increasing his/her productivity. Even worse, the employee may look for another job in search of peace of mind, especially when the directors heighten their influence and maintenance. Given the quest for the firm to become a premier organization, pressures will mount thus increasing personal interaction and influence over others. Studies have shown that a good number of workers prefer changing their jobs in such occasions. Suffice is to say that micromanaging risks suppressing the morale of workers and interfering with job performance (Delgado, Strauss & Ortega, 2015). Mostly, micromanagement does not provide clear instructions and it tends to cause confusion since the managers expect workers to be greatly professional. In the end, the managers lose significant control of the environment and increase their possibility of being tyrannical. Thus, excessive personal communication is not ideal for the required professionalism in a firm.
More so, it is impractical for two directors to efficiently handle all the issues related to the staff. Healthy communication and interaction demand multiple team members failure to which the organization will be too flat. Productivity and prosperity cannot be equated to the flatness of a company. Organizational structure is a component of formalization, centralization, and departmentalization. A flat organization hardly balances these elements given that the manager has plenty of issues at hand, thus damaging delegation (Kanten, Kanten & Gurlek, 2015). The formulation and implementation of an organizational structure are not as easy as they may appear because it is more than just establishing a flat organization and a system held by extremely approachable directors. The structure involves multiple dimensions that cannot be met by just emphasizing on personal communication between directors and employees. The initiation of conversations with employees also has its difficulties, which increases with the level of initiation. That way, director-initiated communication is not a promising strategy to value workers and a company to realize its prospects.
Options Analysis
Such a structural model ensures a span of control; report of concerns in relations to the order of power in a company. The process is effective because employees highly trust the system. Although workers are expected to immediately report to the supervisors, they can also engage the HR or audit and risk committee necessarily. However, the implementation of such a process is very costly, especially for an upstart firm like Ponsonby Pie. It will be required to invest highly in information, personnel, and implementation. It is an extensive process which may consume plenty of time. Secondly, the directors can provide sufficient guideline information for employees rather than depend on constant communication with workers.
The option is not only affordable, but also effective. A company can readily and comfortably embrace it while workers easily adhere to it. It also requires less research as compared to the former. On the flip side, the employees have to master and stick with the guidelines for the accomplishment of concrete job performance, especially since workers are expected to govern themselves successfully.
Recommendation
Ponsonby Pie should come to terms with the second option. Apparently, the option is the most appropriate for this pie manufacturing firm. It is very affordable and leverages the company`s idea of implementing a flat organization. The difference is that upon the implementation of this strategy, the company will not be too flat. The directors only need to formulate comprehensive and clear guidance(Kanten, Kanten & Gurlek, 2015). The directions should be in line with the expectations of the firm. In addition, they should also ensure that workers take ample time to understand and internalize the offered instructions. Importantly, they can engage the employees through, for example, regular meetings to modify areas of concerns. The goal is to see that the directors exercise their authority and the employees abide by the guidelines. Katrina and Anthony will thus allow workers to perform their responsibilities mindful of the directions. Even better, the employees can ask questions regarding tasks to be performed.
Hence, workers admit their flaws and are subjects of continuous learning and development (Owen Nieberding, 2014). The more they follow the guidelines, the more they learn and become better. To that end, the employees are independent, confident and creative. The learning surrounding nurtures a high moral and leads to job satisfaction. The establishment of this structural framework benefits both managers and employees. Managers ensure there is high employee engagement without the creation of an extremely flat organization while workers develop the capacity and perform with minimal supervision. With such a model, the current strengths of the firm are safe and its prospects achievable. The organizational structure procreates a long-term success and with time, its effectiveness may catapult Ponsonby Pie to a multinational company.
Implementation
Ponsonby Pie should provide its employees with detailed reports in efforts to clarify roles and adequately prepare its workforce. The information should be specific sidelining assumptions from the very beginning. Workers will thrive on these details without feeling insecure or incompetent. Managers and employees should know their responsibilities in improving the sales, profits and social responsibility of the company.
Conclusion
Organizational structure and culture is the powerhouse of business. Managers should foster a balance of autonomy and control. This enhances that directors exercise control while safeguarding the organization from systematic harm. The idea is having the right people to conduct various functions within an effective design.
References
Delgado, O., Strauss, E. M., & Ortega, M. A. (2015). Micromanagement: when to avoid it and how to use it effectively. American Journal Of Health-System Pharmacy, (10), 772. doi:10.2146/ajhp140125
Kanten, P., Kanten, S., & Gurlek, M. (2015). The Effects of Organizational Structures and Learning Organization on Job Embeddedness and Individual Adaptive Performance. Procedia Economics And Finance, 23(2nd GLOBAL CONFERENCE on BUSINESS, ECONOMICS, MANAGEMENT and TOURISM), 1358-1366. doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(15)00523-7
Owen Nieberding, A. (2014). Employee engagement and other bonding forces in organizations. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice And Research, 66(4), 320-323. doi:10.1037/cpb0000022
Plugge, A., Bouwman, H., & Molina-Castillo, F. (2013). Outsourcing capabilities, organizational structure and performance quality monitoring: Toward a fit model. Information & Management, 50275-284. doi:10.1016/j.im.2013.04.006
