Introduction
This paper discusses the organizational structure that allows the firms to meet their goals. Organizational structure refers to the activities in which firm directs the coordination, allocation of tasks and supervision in order to achieve the organization’s objectives (Jones, 2010). Therefore, in order to analyze, Cisco System Inc. is selected. Cisco is an American-based multinational corporation that sells, manufactures and designs the equipments of networking.
Organizational Structure
According to Zheng, Yang & McLean, (2010), organizational structure determines the flow of information in the organization at different levels where the focus is on centralized and decentralized structure. The organizational structure of Cisco System consists of different cross-functional teams. However, the authority of decision making is somehow in the hand of boards, working groups and councils. But, in order to get synergy benefits, company also puts great emphasis on team and individual employee’s involvement in the decision making. Cisco focuses on transparent communication between the employees at each level. In addition the flexible cross-functional structure of the organization allows the firm to create fun loving environment where employees are provided with many incentives and recreational activities.
Culture Diversity
According to the study of Lewis, (2000), the success of any multinational organization largely depends upon its way of managing the diverse culture. It has been observed that diversity of workforce and organizational performance are directly related to each other. In support to this approach, Cisco promotes the inclusive organizational culture as it is the multinational corporation. It employs people of different culture in every nation it works. The company believes that in order to be more responsive and committed to the customers, it becomes essential to have the different styles of interaction and viewpoint of diversified workforce, who belongs to different backgrounds. Therefore, Cisco provides equal opportunities to each race, religion, age, color and nationality. The company has around 38056 employee worldwide, where 71 percent of people are from United States, 9 percent belongs to Asia Pacific, around 15 percent from Europe and rest five percent belongs to Japan and South America. However, in order to manage this diversity, the company has developed different network groups such as Cisco Black Employee Network (CBEN), Middle East Diversity and Inclusion (MEDI), Cisco Disability Awareness Network (CDAN) and so on. Therefore, this diversity of backgrounds, experiences and culture allows the firm to bring innovation and creativity in its system and products.
Masculinity vs. Femininity
In many countries, it is noticed that the men are given dominant and higher positions that creates the gender differences and discourages the women. However, it has been argued that giving more position to women creates less competitive environment in the organization (Dartey-Baah, 2013). Working with diversified culture, Cisco makes sure to balance this gap. It encourages and supports the role of women in high-tech by providing equal opportunities. For example, in the United States, 22 percent of Cisco’s employee consists of female employees where 16 percent are given top positions. In addition, the company has developed the Women’s Access Network that allows female employees to grow and improve professionally. As a result, engaging both men and women in the decision making process allows Cisco to satisfy the changing demands of customers efficiently.
Power distance and cross-functional teams
Traditionally, the structure of the organization was formal hierarchal with stated objectives which determined the flow of information in the organization and the decision power was in the hand of top management. However, this led to several drawbacks such as lack of communication, less innovation and creativity (Dartey-Baah, 2013). Cisco System used to have the traditional hierarchal system where decision power tended to be concentrated at higher authorities. But as the company has operation in different countries, this hierarchal structure caused the firm to face various difficulties especially in communication process due to which the company had to bear huge losses in the economic slowdown of 2001. In order to overcome these failures, company realized that this authoritative structure can further prevent the organization to pace the performance. As a result, the company introduced the cross-functional team-based organizational culture in the organization where collaborative approach of decision making was promoted to help the firm in the future growth. The collaborative leadership teams was designed that assists the employees to facilitate with executive decision making, guidance of business initiatives and create the cross functional alignment (Lichtenthaler & Lichtenthaler, 2009).
However, in the disagreement, Lewis, (2000), argued that this team-based structure sometimes leads to serious conflicts and disputes due to the differences in backgrounds, ideas and lack of available information. Thus, due to the structure of the company, Cisco also faces great challenges that leads to different chaos and many times slows the decision making process. According to Lichtenthaler & Lichtenthaler, (2009), in order to overcome the conflicts that arise due to the team-based structure of organization, the company has developed the Cisco Collaboration Framework. The purpose of this system is to improve the expertise and information sharing between the employees through providing strategic approach and a portfolio of structured models. In addition, in order to further support the transparency of the system, employees are sent with video of Chambers’ statement rather receiving formal text messages. This improves the employees’ trust and commitment toward the organization’s objectives.
Conclusion
Through the analysis of this study, it has been concluded the Cisco System has organizational structure which puts great emphasis on managing the diversity. In addition, the company has operations in different countries. Therefore, in order to overcome the conflicts that arise due to differences in background culture, the company has promoted the cross-functional organization culture. Thus, this team-based structure allows employees to support and collaboratively work with each other to improve the productivity and achieve organization’s goals.
References
Dartey-Baah, K. (2013). The Cultural Approach to the Management of the International Human Resource: An Analysis of Hofstede’s Cultural Dimensions. International Journal of Business Administration, 4(2), p39.
Jones, G. R. (2010). Organizational theory, design, and change. Pearson.
Lewis, R. D. (2000). When cultures collide: Managing successfully across cultures. Nicholas Brealey Publishing.
Lichtenthaler, U., & Lichtenthaler, E. (2009). A Capability‐Based Framework for Open Innovation: Complementing Absorptive Capacity. Journal of Management Studies, 46(8), 1315-1338.
Zheng, W., Yang, B., & McLean, G. N. (2010). Linking organizational culture, structure, strategy, and organizational effectiveness: Mediating role of knowledge management. Journal of Business Research, 63(7), 763-771.
