Organizational structure has been widely used as a business strategy to cope in the current competitive world. In the past two years, Microsoft decided to transform their company by having four separate divisions, representing operating system, apps, cloud, devices instead of having competing divisions. Microsoft decided to transform their organization in order to make them compete successfully with their competitors in the technology industry such as Apple. This is in line with other technology companies that are trying to look more alike in their organizational structure to get thousands of their employees to collaborate more closely.
The organizational transformation would facilitate the ability of staff to move freely between teams, leading to greater satisfaction as issues will be addressed competently (Sims 78). The transformation at Microsoft enabled the organization to develop a flat, fluid, and employee empowering organizational structure that enables the company to maximize their output. From their understanding of the workflow analysis, the changes made at Microsoft were the results of workflow analysis, work analysis, and systems implementation. The major benefit that Microsoft stands to benefit of the new organization change is to facilitate the free flow of ideas and information through their line of products. Over the years, there have been cases of product duplication that makes the company ineffective and inefficient. In addition, this will result into collective idea generation, increased acceptance of new ideas, improved decision making, precise communication among the departments, and more effective decision making (Sims 134). Microsoft stands to benefit from this structuring in that the previous warring departments will find harmony in working in their line of operations. In addition, the company will benefit in by creating a lean management structure since the divisions have been reduced by half. As a result of this transformation, Microsoft is better placed to compete with its competitors such as Apple and Google.
Reference
Sims, Ronald Reforming (transforming?) a Public Human Resource Management Agency: The Case of the Personnel Board of Jefferson County, Alabama (Contemporary Human. Issues, Challenges, and Opportunities). Information Age Publishing, 2010
